More blush! And she takes Elesse's arm, stepping closer to her. "Lead the way, Master."

They can go rent a room for their stay here.

The port doesn't really have any upscale parts of town, but they can still look for a place that's a little classier.

There's some places (mostly also underground) with nicer interiors in the parts the wealthier gangs tend to have their 'businessmen' stay, though, near the local attractions like the arena - which is another chance to incidentally mingle, if they're trying to move up. 

Getting more names and faces and tying those to specific incidents will be worth it.

It will.

There's thicker walls here, too. More attention towards privacy. A lounge just for hotel guests, with private booths of its own - and the way the hotel has decorated to give even the public areas a sense of discretion means there's plenty of places for someone like Ani to lurk and overhear things. 

Ensures that their room is more private as well, as long as they screen thoroughly for bugs.

Something Ani is good at. 

"Any concerns since last we spoke?" she asks once they're secure.

"...Not - about the mission, exactly."

Anakin nudges her thoughts forward to Elesse's attention even as she tries to sort them. 

She has a mild concern about after. If she'll miss this. She's really enjoying - serving Elesse. She... Has never really thought of herself before as someone who might like being a slave, even as a pretense. It's not bad, but... It's a challenge to her self image. 

And she's concerned if it's - wrong for her to enjoy herself this much. It's probably a pretty similar concern to Elesse's worry about enjoying hurting her; Anakin doesn't want to become the sort of person who looks away from others' suffering, from others' enslavement, just to pursue her own pleasure. 

She thinks it'd be very, very easy for her to slip that way. Abstract morals have never felt real, after all. She... Still doesn't fully understand Elesse's concern about hurting Anakin, she doesn't think Elesse putting aside Anakin's welfare is a notable risk, but she understands that concern is really unpleasant to weigh in your decisions. That it's an unpleasant thing to think might be possible for you to do. 

"It is difficult. But- the desire is not wrong of itself. The concern is in actions, in effects."

Slow nod, and she steps into Elesse's space, leans against her. "I love you," she says, to anchor her thoughts, which can't decide if they're more concerned with her self image, or her relationship with Elesse, or the risk of her - slipping. Spiraling. 

Both of them slipping, maybe. Anakin can see how - they're good for each other, and Elesse builds her up, is a really good influence, but if they both started slipping, if they both forgot about the others' welfare and concerns, they'd just - encourage each other. 

...Though perhaps in weird ways. Anakin's... Kinda? Sure that if Elesse starts setting aside Anakin's happiness and welfare but doesn't - let Anakin go - or lies to Anakin about this, and Anakin isn't in a good mental place to deal with that, the concern will not be that Anakin's selfhood would break, at least not long term. Anakin's ultimate failure mode feels like it'd be more 'disproportionate vengeance' shaped. Though if someone betrays you for their own desires, then the stubborn vicious part of Anakin's brain is pretty sure that destroying everything they thought they'd get, everything they want, everything they value more than loyalty to you, is a perfectly reasonable response optimized for making sure no one else thinks that's a good idea, and also for being very emotionally cathartic.

...She in no way endorses that last thought. But it's something to meditate on or really discuss in depth later; it's complicated and hard and tied up in a lot of stuff. 

Anyways. 

"So - I - do agree that what matters is - what I actually do? Thoughts and desires are morally neutral. But..." This is helping focus her brain from weird tangents, but it's still hard to articulate. "I'm not good at doing things I don't want to do? Or not doing things I do want to do. And - it's a skill I'm working on, but it always feels like an easy skill to lose? And - I think the problem would happen if I get out of practice at that? And if I'm - fighting myself on that, it's easy to make mistakes or not do enough? And it's in a lot of ways - easier to just want to help people, and to not want to put short term pleasure above everything else."

"And I'm... I don't know. I - I hadn't thought I was - submissive? It feels... Weird to think of myself that way, even knowing how much I'm enjoying this?" Lots of these thoughts have been bubbling around half formed the last few days. Her words are still layered with those bubbling thoughts, though now they're focused on the why's of each thing, the observations and memories that contradict or support what she's saying. 

Hug.

"We can work on developing and refining and practicing the mental skills we need here together."

"It's a hard thing to do, I think."

Hugs! "It is."

"And - "

"Is - it something you need help with, too?" There's an uncertainty in her, but she's not really sure what she's uncertain about. 

"What helps me most are these talks with you, with Anakin rather than Ani. It helps me to be sure- that my baseline isn't slipping."

Grin! "I can do that."

"And whatever we do after I become a Knight - that'll be as me."

"It will, Anakin Skywalker."

Her chest is so warm, it feels impossible for her body to contain how happy she is right now - she wiggles a bit, giggling, but that still doesn't really reduce the glow much. 

"You burn with joy."

Giggle. "Yeah." She leans into Elesse a bit more. 

(Usually she kisses her friends when she gets like this around them, and often escalates past kissing, but - she's very much not going to be pushy at Elesse about that, and anyways physical interaction in general helps - Anakin wishes they had more room for a spar, though.)

Pat pat.

"I love you too, Anakin."

Oh no that's making the glow worse. Anakin wiggles. 

Maybe they have enough room to do hand to hand? Anakin wants to move. 

If they flip the bed up against the wall.

Sounds perfect. 

A few thumping sounds here and there won't even be out of the ordinary.

- She blushes and then starts laughing.