A/N: This takes place during the infamous meadow scene of AOTC. It was written for my best friend, who is a hopeless sap when it comes to Anakin and Padmé and is the only person I know who can watch the meadow scene and not want to die.

Eyes Don't Smolder

Anakin Skywalker was smirking.

Padmé was a politician and she knew a real smile. Anakin was smirking and he was looking at her like he knew her. She frowned, annoyed. Anakin didn't know her. They hadn't seen each other in a decade and- by all that she held sacred, his eyes were an interesting shade of blue.

A very interesting shade. She hadn't noticed before...

Back to questions. First crush. Good job, Padmé. You can ignore that look, especially since you just found out he was in love with a Hutt once.

But his eyes changed color when he looked at her. The blue darkened. It smoldered.

Smoldered? Anakin's eyes did not smolder! Smoldering was romantic. His eyes burned. No... Burning was like smoldering. Shone. There. Anakin's eyes shone. A lot. And it just so happened that they shone extra brightly when they fell on her. Because she reminded him of...of Naboo. Anakin liked Naboo, of course. And so he wasn't seeing her, he was seeing Naboo.

Naboo was around him, though. And his eyes didn't light when he looked at the waterfalls. Yes, they did. Of course they did. Right? Yes.

Her first crush. Funny, that boy was kind of blurry at the moment... No. Stop. Platonic. Stop looking at Anakin's eyes. Was he learning hypnosis? Ignore it. Apprentice legislator. Curly hair... she thought. Maybe it had been straight, actually...

"I get the picture."

Anakin was jealous! His eyes were burning, but it was- Stop. This was not something to be pleased about or encourage. Maybe he wasn't jealous. Maybe he was... Padmé didn't know. Something other than jealous, though.

Bored.

There.

Anakin was bored. And she was damned if that didn't sting.

Embarrassed smile. Nervous giggle. How old was she, anyway? Older than him. She was mature. She was a senator, by the gods. She was used to keeping calm. She was used to people. She was- staring at him. And not only his eyes. Anakin was grown up...

Look away. Isn't the grass interesting?

Anakin hopped onto one of the animals, a harmless thing that did not appreciate his weight and tried to throw him off. He was laughing. Padmé was laughing.

She couldn't remember the last time something had struck her as truly funny, and the moment faded as Anakin fell to the ground in a heap.

"Anakin!"

She didn't like him, she thought as she ran through the field. She just cared. Platonically. She'd known him for years. Of course she'd be upset if he was hurt. That cold, piercing ache coiling in her stomach meant nothing.

The fact that it instantly went away when he looked at her, eyes smoldering- no, burning- no, shining- shining, meant nothing. Neither did the fact that, like every time he was with her, he seemed happy.

Padmé Naberrie made Anakin Skywalker happy. So far as she could see, no one else really did. And she felt... not the same way. Not strangely flattered and protective of that.

Really.

Well, a little... euphoric, maybe, but not- gods, his eyes were so blue...

Perhaps it was best to stop thinking.

Because as Padmé Naberrie went into her room to change for dinner, she caught sight of herself in a mirror.

And it just turned out that her eyes were shining too.