lumy12 | Imperfect Circle

Title: Imperfect Circle
Fandom: Star Wars
Characters: Anakin/Palpatine
Prompt: Inspired by

jedi_em's responses to the drabble music meme thinger that she did (twice!), I decided to try it out -- the idea is to put your iPod on shuffle and write what springs to your mind while each song plays. I chose to do it with five songs instead of the meme's suggested ten (only I accidentally did six, whoops -- I wasn't numbering them as I went and I obviously fail at counting as I write. But I'm glad cuz I like the sixth one), and with the caveat that I could hit the "back" button on my iPod once or twice before moving on to the next song. Yes, I suppose that is cheating... but once I moved on I didn't go back to edit, which is in the spirit of the meme.
Word Count: 844
Rating: PG-13 for mild slash
Summary: If that paragraph above was tl;dr... these are 6 unrelated drabbles glomped together haphazardly.

I've listed the songs at the end. Raise your hand if you happen to know any of them!

One.
Anakin turned to the Chancellor as they left yet another opera. "Do you ever get the urge to..."

Palpatine's eyebrows raised. "Hmmm?"

Anakin gestured to the throng of beings bustling about. "Like that group there... I bet they're going to the lower levels. Probably to go dancing in some sleazy club. Do you ever wish we could do something like that?"

The Chancellor chuckled. "You want to wear tight clothes and bounce about to some hideous loud noise that passes for music?"

Anakin blushed. "Maybe. But only if you'd go with me."

"If that's what you want, consider it done." Palpatine stepped into the shuttle and waited for Anakin to get in after him. "Just don't expect me to wear tight leather pants."

Two.
Palpatine withdrew from him in surprise. "Anakin, you taste like..."

Anakin smirked. "Deathsticks. Yes. Just one, actually. I had a bad day, what can I say." He reached out to pull the Chancellor back into his arms for another kiss. But the older man resisted.

"Don't you know what that shit does to your insides? How easy it is to become addicted? How often do you indulge in this disgusting habit?"

Anakin blinked. "Uh... not often. But I'm a Jedi -- I won't get addicted. I'm stronger than that."

"Don't count on it."

Three.
The media praised Anakin for his valiant war efforts. Hailed him a hero. And for what? For killing. For killing more than the other side. It was all a contest in blood.

They didn't care about the horrible sights he'd witnessed, or how the things he'd done gnawed at his heart, kept him awake at night. He tried to tell himself it was all a bad dream that he'd wake up from when a war-free day finally dawned.

Even Palpatine didn't truly understand all of it...but at least he listened. And he gave Anakin the means to forget, if only for a little while.

Four.
Palpatine listened to the slow, steady breathing of his young lover. He admired the way the silky red sheets outlined his lithe form. Ever so softly, he reached over to caress his tousled blond hair. Anakin rolled over to face him but did not wake up. Palpatine took the opportunity to wrap his arms around him, holding him snugly.

The boy looked so peaceful, so content. He had no idea that the very Sith he sought to destroy was holding him... that Sidious could kill him in an instant should he choose to. But killing this precious boy was the last thing the Sith Lord desired -- and not for the right reasons. At moments like this, Palpatine forgot his scheming and gave in to that most foreign of emotions... love.

Five.
It was late, but that wasn't unusual; Palpatine had told him he could call on him at any hour. Anakin fully expected to be rousing the man from sleep. Instead, he found him in his favorite armchair, an empty bottle of brandy on the table and another one on its way to emptiness.

"Anakin! Care to drink with the old man?" He waved the bottle at him.

Anakin frowned. "Are you drunk, sir? I've never seen you so..."

Palpatine sloshed more brandy into his glass, chuckling. "I think I might be, yes. Was just thinking."

Anakin pulled up a chair to sit close to him. Had Palpatine been crying? His eyes were puffy... and had a glazed-over look to them. "Thinking? About what?"

"Everything," Palpatine breathed. "Love. Disappointment. Sorrow. Failure. Losing one's way. Ending up in a place you never, ever expected. ...Remorse."

Anakin furrowed his brow. "I don't understand."

Palpatine's eyes suddenly cleared of their drunken haze. "And hopefully you never will."

Six.
Anakin turned the Chancellor's hand over in his own, examining every soft wrinkle, every freckle, every "age spot."

Palpatine smiled. "You look like you're deep in thought. What is it about my ugly old hand that's made you so pensive?"

"It's not ugly!" Anakin snapped. "It's beautiful. You have really soft hands, you know that? Mine are all rough and calloused."

"You've done a lot more manual labor than I have," Palpatine said logically.

Anakin didn't seem to hear him. He traced lines on Palpatine's palm. "No one else knows how soft you are, how fragile. You don't have to be the strong leader of the Republic with me. You can just be yourself."

Palpatine tilted the boy's chin up to meet his gaze. "You're protective of me. That's very sweet. But I'm not as fragile as you think I am."

Anakin smiled. Of course the older man didn't want to feel helpless or weak. He was a proud man. "All right, then, you're just as strong as I am," he teased. He leaned forward to brush his full lips across Palpatine's small mouth.

Palpatine's eyes twinkled mischievously for a moment before he swiftly pinned Anakin to the ground with surprising strength, much to Anakin's delight. "Don't underestimate me, boy," Palpatine grumbled affectionately as he began to remove the young Jedi's clothes with remarkable dexterity.

~

1. "Saturday Night" ~Kaiser Chiefs
2. "Blame it on the Obvious Ways" ~Idlewild
3. "Anybody Listening?" ~Queensryche
4. "Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed" ~Mew
5. "The Sad Professor" ~R.E.M.
6. "Side" ~Travis

Current Mood: tired

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From:

emavalexis.livejournal.com

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Okay, Wends, you need to know that I loved ALL of these. Seriously, omg, they were all great.

The first one had me giggling out loud. I imagined Palpatine wearing leather pants and probably just standing out in general in a club. Made me think of when Emmett brings George to Babylon to meet the boys. :p It's especially funny imagery when you imagine the Tartakovsky cartoon version of Palps in leather pants. Bwahahaha.

The second one was totally compelling, Palps' views on drugs and Anakin's denial that he'd ever get addicted. Very in character, I think, for Anakin to think he would 'be above' something like addiction.

The third? Probably my favorite of the bunch, because you pack so much into so few words. As I know we've both discussed with Cathy before, we don't often enough get to see fic in which the war's direct effects on Anakin are even mentioned (I'm just as guilty of skirting around this as anyone). We see his aftermath, if you will, in how it relates to Palpatine, Padme, and Obi-Wan, plus the rest of the Jedi, and his own darkness, but not specifically related to how much trauma he's suffered because of what war itself has done to him. Really well done. 'It was all a contest in blood' indeed.

Mmmm. Four is a nice 'calm before the storm' interlude, the way I see it. Just a quiet and contemplative moment for Palpatine before he corrupted Anakin entirely.

I lovvvvvvve the drunk!Palpatine you give us in the fifth one. He's very believably introspective while drunk, musing about normal human emotions that he probably doesn't normally give into, being a Sith and all.

And yayyyy! for there being a sixth! I love how Palps turns the tables on Anakin. But you just know that Anakin still doesn't even know the half of it. Because Palpatine, being a Sith, actually has more power than he would ever imagine and could definitely give Anakin a run for his money (sith lightning, anyone?).

Awesome fic-ly-ness! :D

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