Pretty Dresses

, , , 1 Comment

wanderingthroughwickford:

sarah531:

Hey, you know what I love? Fics where ladies who never had conversations in canon get to have conversations! Here is one of that genre.

Title: Pretty Dresses
Fandom: Star Wars
Characters: Padme Amidala, Beru Whitesun
Rating: PG13 (there’s nothing in here worse than in any Star Wars movie)
Summary: Padmé has never really had a conversation with a woman who doesn’t change her clothes even once a day.

(or, some missing moments from Attack of the Clones.)

*

*

Padmé
had slept the night on the one spare bed at the Lars homestead, and
when she had woken up she discovered there was nowhere to wash. Because
there was, of course, no water.

She felt stupid for not having
realised that earlier. She had been to the planet before, after all, and
she should have remembered that it was the most unbelievably
uncomfortable place. If you didn’t need to wash, you weren’t going to get to.

So
she changed into her most Tatooine-appropriate dress, which also by a
stroke of luck was the very last clean one she had, and went to find her
hosts. She was worried about Anakin and didn’t much feel like being
sociable, but she figured she should at least show her face.

Beru
was in the kitchen cooking, and she was wearing the exact same clothes
she had worn yesterday. There was a jug of water on the side, and Padmé
badly wanted some to drink, but she thought she had better wait til it
was offered. Beru looked up at her, and then did a double take. Padmé
realised with some discomfort that this one dress of hers was probably
worth more than the Larses’ entire farm.

Keep reading

I’m so, so happy to have found this fic! Let me start off by saying that Beru and Padme are two of my all-time favorite characters in Star Wars (strange choices, I know) and you’re right, there absolutely isn’t enough fic about Beru (or Owen, for that matter) so I love it when people write about her. This was so beautiful and adorable; I loved the awkward interactions between Padme and Beru, how Padme felt uncomfortable because of her wealth and the opulent Naboo lifestyle in comparison to the Larses’ poverty and simple lifestyle, but how Beru wasn’t a bitter person and never once held it against Padme or treated her as strange. I love how Padme tried to help out on the farm and couldn’t do much, but eventually found a small but kind way to be helpful. I loved seeing your interpretations of Naboo culture and Tatooine culture; that was wonderful. I loved the little bits of Owen’s and Beru’s relationship, and especially how you said there wasn’t much touching between them because I actually headcanon that theirs wasn’t a very physical relationship (not that it wasn’t loving, mind you, just not very physical or sexual).

My favorite thing, of course, was Padme leaving behind the dresses for Beru. Just imagine her coming back into the house, worn-out and upset after the funeral, and seeing these beautiful things lying on her bed. I can imagine her at first being all “oh no” because she thinks Padme’s forgotten them, and then she realizes they’ve been left for her and feels both awkward but also grateful. It would be so nice for her to have something beautiful in such an ugly, harsh world as Tatooine.

And another thought popped into my head – what if she still has them when Luke’s around? Would she put two and two together that Padme was his mother? Would she tell him the dresses were hers? Would Luke feel the soft fabric and wonder what his beautiful, generous mother was like? These things give me such feels, dammit.

The one thing I was a bit surprised about was Owen’s and Beru’s nonchalant, even approving, reaction to the Tusken slaughter, because I actually have the opposite headcanon about how they perceived it, but you know, your way really does make sense. Why should they be expected to have pity for people who constantly slaughter their friends and neighbours for no reason whatsoever? Plus, yeah, they’re not bound by the Jedi Code, so there’s no reason why they’d feel any obligation to “love all creatures” or “fear the path to the dark side” or whatever.

OH, and the best thing about it all was the dark irony in the dresses representing a long life, because we know that, unfortunately, that’s not what Beru’s going to have. :C

Anyway, wonderful Fanfiction! I’m so happy I decided to go into the Beru Lars tag and happened to stumble across it!!! :D

OMG how did I not see this earlier!?!?!?! I’m so sorry I missed it until now, I LOVE it when people leave these things for me. <3

I’m glad you liked the Naboo culture bit, because I LOVED thinking all that up.

Oh no, Luke and the dresses. :(((( I also wonder if Beru still had them. Tatooine’s a highly dangerous place so there’s a chance they were stolen, I suppose. But I like to think she got to keep at least one. I’m not sure if she’d have shown it to Luke, though, she might have worried he’d start asking too many questions about his mother. Maybe she lied and said it was Shmi’s.

You know…I thought so long and hard about Beru and Owen’s response to the slaughter, and I thought as awful as it sounds they probably would be approving, for revenge’s sake if for nothing else. They probably never knew the exact details, I bet Anakin never told them, but…I always wondered the Larses filled Padme’s head with stories about the other atrocities Tuskens Raiders had committed whilst she stayed with them, and if that managed to scratch away even slightly at her sense of justice. I suspect it would have done, she’s only human after all….

It has also occurred to me that Beru did at least live longer than Padme herself did and now I’m sad.

Anyway, thanks again, so much, for this great response. :D