Hearts Racing

                                    

                                          
Featured song:
1. "If I Could Tell Her" from Dear Evan Hansen
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When Anakin woke up the next morning, he heard the sound of whinnying.
Anakin climbed out of bed and quickly slipped on his boots to go outside. And he heard the sound of whinnying again until he followed it to some familiar rose bushes. Anakin gasped when he saw what poor soul was there. It was a horse!
A beautiful pegasus mare of cerulean with sparkling wings and what looked like a little jewel on her forehead was trapped by her front legs in the rose bushes, and she looked scared. She was whinnying in pain and possibly for help.
No one else was awake yet, so Anakin immediately knew he had to help her, but he had to do it without scaring her more. So, he used what he learned about approaching horses, and first calmed himself down. Then, he approached her slowly from the side with his hand reached out. The blue mare whinnied and snorted as she saw Anakin approached.
"Shh! It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to help you." Anakin continued to slowly approach her. He looked at the state of her condition. "Ooh, that looks painful. I should know. Don't worry, Beautiful. I'll have you out there momentarily."
Anakin assessed the situation and carefully started to push the branches apart so the mare could get her legs out, but it was hard to do without getting poked himself. Now he really wished he'd brought some gloves before he went out there. Before long, the mare was free, but she was still in pain. Anakin knew where he had to take her.
To the best of his ability, Anakin helped the mare over to the clinic and banged on Obi-Wan's door until he came out and saw the state of the poor mare.
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"She's very lucky you found her when you did, Anakin." Obi-Wan said, wrapping some bandages around the mare's legs after cleaning her off and sterilizing her wounds.
"Maybe there should be a fence around those bushes or something." Anakin said, his backside hurting as he recalled falling into that same bush himself. "That one is particularly thorny. And very painful."
Anakin pet the mare's muzzle, and she snorted on him.
"I think she likes you, Anakin." Obi-Wan chuckled.
"Well, I like her too." Anakin said, petting the mare's muzzle. "And she's a real beauty. Can you talk, girl?"
"Yes, and my name is Sapphire." said the mare.
"How'd you end up in those bushes?"
"I got separated from the herd, and then I was moving too quickly, and then I got stuck in the bushes."
"It's going to be a while before you can go back out into the field." Obi-Wan said. "You'll need to stay in the stables for the next week or two so we can oversee your progress."
Obi-Wan grabbed some reins and approached Sapphire, who snorted when she saw him come with the strange thing.
"It's okay. This is only temporary." Obi-Wan said.
Sapphire, however, didn't want to cooperate and started to bite in Obi-Wan's direction. Anakin could see that Sapphire needed some calming down. So, he gently pet her muzzle and spoke to her, telling her that they only needed to put the rein on for a little bit to take her to a safe place, where they would then take it off.
To Obi-Wan's surprise, when Anakin put the rein on Sapphire, she didn't make that big a fuss.
"Good girl." Anakin said, petting her muzzle again. "Let's get you to the stables."
Anakin carefully helped Sapphire get up and walked her to the stables where he found one more empty stall that had some soft hay in it.
"Everyone, this is Sapphire." Anakin introduced once all the horses were awake. "She's gonna be staying with us for a while. In the meantime, I'm getting everyone their breakfast."
So, Anakin went and got the horses their breakfast, and some for Sapphire too, of course, then got to work on the rest of his chores.
Once Anakin got the horses into the corral, he then went to have breakfast with his family.
Over the last few days, everyone was beginning to take notice that Anakin was slowly getting better and better at taking care of the horses, and riding them too. That was shown clearly as Anakin took care of Sapphire over the next few days.
Anakin made sure Sapphire had plenty of food and water, and took her outside to get fresh air and bask in the warm sunshine. He also brushed her, washed her, and changed her bandages and reapplied the ointment Obi-Wan prescribed as she healed.
And, in that time, Sapphire began to notice things about Anakin too. Every time he walked by the Cozy Corral Motel, where Padme worked, Anakin would glance at her and get this look on his face. He couldn't help smiling sweetly, and having a bit if a dreamy look in his eyes, and he turned pink every time he looked at her. Sapphire wasn't the only one to notice either.
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Soon, Anakin was finally finished rebuilding the wall in the stable, and he got to move the Fetts' horses back to their own home. Sapphire now had the stable to herself. At least, until Orpheus and Harmony returned. And miraculously, when Anakin took the bandages off her legs for the fifth time... she was all better.
Anakin started brushing Sapphire before it was time for him to go have breakfast that morning.
"How long have you been crushing on Padme?" Sapphire asked Anakin out of the blue.
Anakin accidentally yanked Sapphire's hair in the next brush stroke.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry," said Anakin sheepishly. He went back to brushing and attempted to dismiss the question. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Sapphire gave him a look though.
"You forget, Anakin, horses know when you're feeling a certain way, even if you're a great actor who can fake it with your face and body language."
Anakin said nothing. He didn't say anything, but in his head and his heart, he knew Sapphire was right. There was no denying Anakin had feelings for Padme.
So, when he went to have breakfast and Padme wasn't present, the others had some questions for Anakin when they saw him staring dreamily outside as Padme was grooming Lavendera.
"When's the wedding?" Carmine joked.
"Huh?! What?" Anakin jumped, frightened. "Is she here?!"
"Carmine!" Harmony said. "Remember?"
"Oh..." Carmine felt silly now, only then recalling Anakin was still scared of being found and forced into an arranged marriage.
"I think what Carmine meant is that you've been looking at Padme in a... special way." Ahsoka said.
"When did you notice that?" Anakin asked.
"We all noticed it." Comedia said. "Horse and rider."
Everyone nodded to confirm they knew.
"I don't know why I'm looking at her this way," said Anakin, unable to look away from Padme. "I feel like something's wrong with me for some reason."
"How so?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Well, my palms get sweaty, I forget how to talk, and I've been getting what I think are hot flashes, mostly every time I'm around Padme, then I get dizzy and this weird feeling in my stomach."
Obi-Wan chuckled and said, "I know that feeling very well. It seems you're in love."
Anakin couldn't believe it. Everyone else knew he was in love before even he did. But how this was possible, he had no clue.
"I can't believe this." Anakin said. "Why does it feel so... strange? It's like, when I'm around her, I feel happy, yet really scared at the same time. Almost like my heart is racing, but the rest of me is frozen... I don't know how to describe it, really."
"That's what falling in love will do to you, many times." Caroline said, giving Carmine a kiss, her boyfriend turning a bit red.
"Have you ever been in love before?" Shaak asked, her husband wrapping his arms around her affectionately.
Anakin shook his head.
"I've been surrounded by women a lot. But, none of them really caught my eye. Well, I've met some pretty ones, and even been put up as a prize where girls could win a date with me... but they pretty much made me believe finding love would be nothing more than a dream for me."
"Why?" Omega asked. "Bad dates?"
"The dates themselves were fine. It was the women who were the problem. None of them saw... well, me. They only saw a chance to gain followers on social media, or the potential to marry someone rich and famous. I didn't need to tell them the truth that I was famous but broke to see their true colors. In other words, being famous is a bittersweet thing. On the covers of magazines and on a screen, I'm smiling, but inside I feel like crying so much of the time."