The three walked through an outside corridor that led to a starfreighter headed for the royal planet. Anakin walked behind with R2 beside him, mumbles coming from the Jedi and beeps replied from the droid. Sol and Padme walked together in front, appearing as sisters or cousins with their servant two paces behind them.

'Could you take a bag, please, Solaris?' Anakin called from the back, and she glanced over her shoulder.

'I think you have it, don't you, Ani?' she grinned, and he glared, saying something to R2 that Sol didn't hear. Padme laughed, now able to express some emotion as a low-status refuge. She didn't have to be as serious as a senator in the main city of the galaxy. She could now be Padme, the young woman who had more to offer and enjoy than just politics.

'Is that actually your full name?' Padme questioned and Sol turned back to her, a smile lingering on her lips.

'I don't know. I never knew anything more than 'Sol', not even my last name,' she admitted with her eyes flickering to the floor in some embarrassment. Padme noticed and put a hand on her shoulder, leaning in so that Anakin wouldn't hear her reassurance.

'Well, I like it.'

Sol smiled.

---

The starfreighter entered lightspeed a while after the three refugees and their droid entered its interior. It wasn't glamourous in any sense and resembled a hold to transport storage from planet to planet. But to immigrants who were escaping from debts or bounty hunters, it was low profile, and that's all they wanted.

While R2 was given the job of getting portions from the cantina, Anakin took the time to sleep for the long journey. He was in a crowded room of bunkbeds while Sol sat with Padme on a table together in a next-door section of the freighter. They heard the chaos R2 caused from the stealing of extra food and kept their heads low as the droid came passed. He threw out some bowls of unappetising mush and bread, before shooting off.

'Anakin's having some sort of nightmare,' Sol said aloud, and Padme looked up from her bowl of mush.

'Can you sense him?' she questioned; her eyebrows pinched in worry.

'Yes... but he's soon to wake up.'

Padme nodded and tried not to be too concerned. She cared for Anakin ever since he was a little boy, but she knew he was a Jedi now. She didn't have to worry about him, but she couldn't help it. The way Sol acted about it was how Padme knew she should do the same. It was a Jedi thing to be aware of fellow Jedi's presence, but not attached or concerned for them. They were co-workers and tied to the Force. It was their only guide and love.

'I've never been off of Coruscant before,' Sol decided to change the subject, leaving most of her mush in her bowl. 'Besides making my lightsaber, of course. I've been to the ice planet Ilum, but that doesn't count, at least to me. So, this is my first time on a different planet.'

'How exciting!' Padme exclaimed. 'You'll love Naboo. It has beautiful lakes and the most gorgeous meadows in the galaxy.'

'I can't wait. Anything other than skyscrapers and speeders will be a dream to me.'

'May I ask how come you've never been off Coruscant? I thought Jedi went across the galaxy to keep the peace and such.'

'I never knew,' Sol shrugged and put her folded arms on the table. 'I was on the lower levels when I was young, making a living for myself as a petty thief. And when I became a youngling, I was confined to the temple. Then I was a Padawan, and Master Yoda still never took me on missions. It wasn't until Master Kenobi suggested I come on this one that I'm finally able to leave.'

'Master Kenobi is a very kind man,' Padme agreed. She felt sorry to hear that Sol had such a rough childhood. She was always aware of the less fortunate than her and tried to advocate for them in meetings and conferences regarding economics and class. But she was against wealthy tradesmen and greedy company owners that loved the idea of a capitalist galaxy. Her treaties and policies never went anywhere, but she never stopped trying.

'Am I interrupting a lady talk?'

Sol and Padme turned to see Anakin in his lower-class attire. If they didn't know any better, they would believe the façade that he put on. He took a bowl of mush and bread from R2, who was making another round at the convenient time, and slid into the seat beside Sol. He tucked into it, his gaze on the mush, and his hairline of light blonde glistening with sweat. Padme and Sol looked at each other, silently communicating that he was not as fine as he came off. But they saved him the pain of explaining where he didn't want to and resumed their topic from before with Anakin's recent input.

'No, we're talking about how Sol's never been off Coruscant,' Padme said, and Sol groaned, forgetting that part of the conversation. Anakin looked up and turned to Sol with raised eyebrows, a joke on his tongue.

'Really? But when we made our lightsabers, we went to Ilum-'

'Yeah, besides that,' Sol cut him off and pushed around her mush. 'I've always... been on Coruscant.'

'That's crazy,' Anakin laughed. Padme glared at him, and he halted his laugh, turning to see Sol looking embarrassed.

'I mean, not crazy but... where did you live when the Jedi Order found you?' he tried. He wasn't intending to embarrass her, despite it being his way of communicating with her as of recent, but she still seemed to push around her mush absently. She didn't mind telling Padme, and it wasn't the senator's fault for telling Anakin, but Sol wanted to avoid telling Anakin.

Maybe it had been better if she had asked about Anakin's nightmare instead.

'I was on the lower levels,' she forced out.

'With your parents?'

'No... on my own.'

'You're an orphan?'

'No!' Sol snapped at Anakin, and he went quiet. She faltered at the first sight of empathy she had seen in his bright blue eyes and felt a familiar pain in her chest. Padme's guilt-filled eyes burnt through Sol, and she had to push down all the feelings that were building up inside her.

'I'm a person...'

Anakin was thrown back into his memories back on Tatooine. When he first met Padme in Watto's workshop, he had said the same thing. She had realised that he was a slave to Watto and Anakin was ashamed of it, making him bite back at Padme with the same phrase.

'I'm a person, and my name is Anakin!'

'I'm sorry...'

'Don't be ashamed, Sol,' Padme spoke up, reaching over to hold Sol's hand. 'You have come very far and have worked hard to be where you are. It takes courage and character to go from child to Jedi.'

Sol's deep frown remained when she looked up to the senator across from her. In the brown eyes of her's, Sol saw sincerity. Her kind face soothed Sol and her presence in the Force was something to meditate to. Not only her's, but Anakin's too. He was an orange glow in the entity that ran through everything and everyone. She had seen him in the Force on one of the first days she arrived at the Jedi Temple with Master Yoda and Master Secura. But it was only now that she took the time to see it through the Force.

'Besides, you can count this as a vacation away from the city. I'm sure that its difficult having to be so close to your childhood home while swearing your life to the Jedi,' Padme said, her voice filled with sympathy. 'Not being able to visit places that you may have liked during those tough times, or do the things you like...'

'I suppose...'

Padme could see that Sol's mood wasn't to be lifted. She glanced at Anakin who had gone uncharacteristically quiet. Through the guilt that she could see settling over the Skywalker, she saw something else as he looked at the young woman next to him. The senator caught the way his eyelashes moved downwards in unison with his eyes, before up again at Sol's side profile. Padme wasn't Force-sensitive in the slightest, but she didn't need to sense the feelings that Anakin held deep down.

But Sol did her best not to look at Anakin. Padme knew attachment was forbidden, but she wasn't so sure about love. Regardless, something was in Anakin's eyes that Padme feared the Jedi Order wouldn't like.

---

The starfreighter arrived in the port city of Theed on Naboo. It had been tense between the refugee-disguised trio, but when they smelt the fresh air of the most luxurious planet in the galaxy, it fell off them like shredded skin. The sky was a warm blue and the buildings were like ancient castles. A waterfall fell off the edge of the main city and wove into a river that was surrounded by lush trees and forestland.

Sol was in awe, having to catch up to Padme, Anakin and R2 to not be left behind. She turned in circles to take in the scenes, eyes wide and filled with wonder. She had never seen such beautiful architecture and people who walked with such grace. It was like watching Padme walk past in different outfits and with extravagant makeup time and time again. She thought that the senator was just particularly fashionable, but it seemed to be the normal standard here on Naboo.

'If I grew up here, I don't think I'd ever leave,' Anakin said as they climbed the stairs leading to the Naboo Palace.

'I doubt that,' Padme laughed. R2 was slowier than them when climbing stairs, allowing Sol to catch up and listen in on the conversation.

'No, really,' Anakin was aware she was listening and made his voice purposefully louder. 'When I started my training, I was very homesick and very lonely. This city and my mother were the only pleasant things I had to think about. The problem was, the more I thought about my mother, the worse I felt. But I would feel better if I thought about the palace; the way it shimmers in the sunlight, the way the air always smells of flowers...'

Padme described how she grew up on the planet and how she dreamed to be in the palace, but Sol wasn't listening. She pondered over what Anakin had said. She knew he had come from Tatooine and that he was slightly older than younglings were when they were indoctrinated into the Jedi Order. Much like herself, he was an exception and was trained like normal despite his older age. They had been told that it was because they could be the prophesized Chosen One.

But at the mention of Anakin's mother, Sol thought about what had been in Anakin's past. Maybe that's what his nightmare was about. He avoided talking about it and had been quiet since he worked out that Sol was an orphan. Maybe Anakin's past was just as sad as her own, if not sadder because he had left someone behind.

While Sol was in her thoughts, she didn't notice the gaze Anakin threw over his shoulder as they climbed the stairs to the palace.