it was a lie, of course, he knew. yet even so, he… appreciated it. his head had dipped, he realized, as though he were almost afraid of her answer. but now, as she reached for him, pulling at his clothes, the familiarity of her drew him in. and he looked up, half-frowning.
jedi knight. he wasn’t; not yet, anyway. and a part of him wondered if he would ever be.
the silence that came between them, then, was brief but unusually, powerfully strong. and he felt something in it, something sharp, that pressed on him like a weight, thick and hanging in the air. perhaps there was some merit to his training. she was glad to see him, of course… but there was sadness clinging to her, too. and he felt it. immediately, instinctively, he took the blame.
he was relieved ( immensely so ) when the tension faded as she spoke. and he blinked, almost surprised by her words, having been pulled from his creeping thoughts. he offered her a quick nod, huffing a breath ( a laugh ) at her comment; he agreed. and then, he turned to follow after her, far more grateful to leave that room than he guessed she knew.
“ you won’t be missed? ” it was, in truth, a foolish question; still, it felt right to ask it, anyway. he knew enough about her work to know he hated it. but, she could come and go as she pleased. she had a team to take care of anything while she was out. a good one, he knew.
maybe he’d ask about it, what she seemed to like about politics… one of these days.
Leia glanced back at her desk for a moment- but only a moment, because she really didn’t want to read all those reports anyway- and waved her hand dismissively.
“Not for a while,” Leia said, beckoning for Ben to follow her out of the office. It wasn’t the right place for a reunion, even if it was where she spent most of her time. Leia could sense a slight tension between them- perhaps it was the distance, or the time they had spent apart- but she rather instinctively knew that surrounded by work was not the place to have a proper conversation with her son.
Leia led Ben outside, away from the senate building and down to the grounds beneath it. it was quieter out here, though the rumble of the city was never far away. Speeders zoomed overhead, the long, interconnected highways a constant hum above and below them. Hosnian Prime had always reminded her just a little of Coruscant, though with fewer bad memories to go along with it.
“What brings you back here?” Leia asked when they were relatively alone. Not that it would be especially strange to see a senator with a member of her family- Ben was hardly as secret, and neither was his training. Sometimes she still had to remind herself that the war was over- her secrets weren’t necessarily a matter of life and death anymore.
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