#also leia is trying so hard not to just stab anakin in the kidneys lmao

[varpusvaras]

They are both breathing hard when they finally get back to the Senate.

Fox leads her through a smaller door, one that Leia, even with all her time spent in the Senate Dome has never even seen before, and pushes her into an elevator that currently has only three maintenance droids in it. They all beep at them, but quiet down when Fox shushes them. He takes the coat from Leia, while Leia starts to comb her hair open. They need to work fast, so Leia unceremoniously puts a part of her hair in her mouth, while she starts braiding another part of it.

Fox watches for a moment, before he reaches for her head.

"Same part from this side too?" He asks. Leia raises her brows at him through their reflections on the elevator's shining wall, but nods. Fox pulls his gloves off, and takes a part of her hair into his fingers, and starts to braid with surprising speed and skill, managing to match the tightness of the braid to hers closely enough when in the moving elevator. He holds the braid in place until Leia gets to tie it up, and pulls both the braids behind her head as she starts to braid the last braid on the front.

"You seem to know what you're doing", she comments, as her mouth is now free from hair.

"I braid Thorn's hair a lot", Fox answers. "And I've seen this same hairdo on your mother. The last one goes through the middle, right?"

Leia swallows, but gathers herself quickly.

"Yes", she answers, and throws the last braid over her head as well. He pulls it through and tightens it up. He's much gentler than Leia's or Mama's ladies-in-waiting, who would pull the braid so tight that Leia could feel the pull in her teeth. "Mother used to wear this when she was younger."

It was one of the braids that were easy to do, even for someone who wasn't too experienced in tying up the Royal ladie's hair, so it was many times chosen when there was, for some reason, not too much time for doing the hair to any of the more complicated upstyles. Mother had liked it when Leia had been small, especially on the days she had had more time to spend time with just Leia and father. Leia had learned to do it pretty young as well, so she could match up with mother on their days out.

Something turns and tightens inside her chest for the thought that Fox had spent enough time just looking at her mother, and paying attention to every little detail, that he knows how to do the braid without instructions. It's bittersweet, because it also makes her feel warm amidst all the turmoil. He has paid enough attention to her mother to know how to braid hair.

Fox backs away a bit, and hums.

"Looks neat enough", he says, and starts to pull his gloves back on. "Deep breaths. We're there in just a moment."

Leia has just enough time to touch her hair and turn around, when the elevator stops and beeps, and the doors open. Fox holds the coat for one of the droids.

"Put this into trash", he tells it. The droid beeps, opens its compartment and stuffs the coat in, and then wheels out after the two other droids. Fox steps out first and glances around, and then waves for Leia to follow.

"I'm going to take the maintenance door, and go up to the next floor", he tells her as they walk down the corridor. "Go straight from here, and take the elevator on the right side of the hall. I'll be there."

Leia nods. She brushes her fingers against his, and he curls his fingers around them briefly before they part ways.

Leia holds her head high and walks without looking around, to the end of the corridor and through the next door, and she crosses the hall on the other side without anyone stopping to even look at her. She steps into the elevator, and puts herself into the corner in the back, behind a few other Senators and aides. She recognises a couple of them. It's strange, every time, to see people she has known all her life, but who now have no idea who she is.

The doors start to beep, but before they can close, Padmé Amidala steps in, and behind her is Anakin Skywalker.

Leia's heart slams to a stop, before she can control herself.

Deep breaths, Fox had just said to her. Deep breaths.

She breathes, and stares at the spot on the wall, trying to keep any unsavory thoughts out of her head. She had done it before, while being in the same room with him, while he was watching her cry in pain he was inflicting upon her.

He is just standing there now, not looking at her. She is safe. She is safe.

The elevator starts to move. Leia breathes in, and thinks about anything else than her birth parents standing right there in front of her.