Sabé knows the other as well as she knows her own face. in some respects, she might even know the other better given she had spent so many years being the other in all the ways that mattered to keep them, their hopes, their dreams alive & moving forward. sometimes she found herself wondering if the price she paid for knowing the other so intimately was that her grasp on herself felt tenuous at best - other times, she felt like she could look down into the well of her own soul & see clear through to the bottom with deep understanding. playing second best to a woman like Padmé meant she still outshone so many other stars in the galaxy - she just needed to center herself & remember that sometimes.
self doubt would get them killed, no matter what front it decided to attack her on, after all.
Anakin's devotion - if that was perhaps the right word to use - to the senator was no less fierce than her own & she had to respect him for that. she only hoped that he would carry the same respect she did when Padmé ultimately decided her path forward. they walked in two different worlds, following two vastly different lanes through the stars, & the reality of that - unfortunate as it may be in some ways - was that a Jedi knight & a senator could never have the sort of relationship that the two of them needed to stay grounded in the face of the onslaught of the war unfolding around them.
a Jedi was denied attachments - something that had never felt quite fair to Sabé, especially knowing the background Anakin himself came from. it felt like a recipe for disaster, really, if mishandled. Sabé had to think that Obi-Wan & the others around Skywalker knew what they were doing & that would ultimately be avoided, but she didn't know. all she could know was that Padmé needed someone steady that couldn't put other duties & obligations before her, even knowing that she would never be able to afford them the same prioritization. many would swear they were at peace with that truth in theory, but in practice very few could actually hold space for the reality of it day in & day out.
back on Naboo. Sabé missed her homeworld like she missed many things lately - abstract, with a hint of nostalgia. it would be nice to go back, but she's sure that most of the fondness she carries is because of the memories tied to that space. Naboo before Padmé & her life as handmaiden to Amidala represented a plot of soil Sabé had outgrown before she had even left it. second string in a music academy, second best in her own family. neither of those carried significance. at least here with the other she felt useful, maybe even important in her interpersonal translucence.
all of that being said, it would be good to see Obi-Wan again. she'd never forget the sacrifice they had all shared in, standing around the pyre at his Master's funeral. there was a bond there between them that perhaps no one else quite understood & if anyone could handle this balancing act of a situation between the Jedi & her senator, Sabé was confident Obi-Wan was that perfect person for the task.
having Padmé make it abundantly clear she had been missed pulls a smile from the other & she dips her head in acknowledgement. ' no, that couldn't possibly be an important reason at all, Senator, ' she offers teasingly even as she moves to scoop up her datapad from where she had discarded it earlier & moving a handful of other things out of her way to make space for the other. they'd have to share a bed, but that was something they had done so many times it felt more natural than sleeping alone. ... that that had been a hard adjustment wasn't something Sabé ever allowed herself to think too deeply on. ' do you need anything? '