#butjustyouwait

“I’m fine,” he said. “I want to…want to seethe baby. Please?” He tried to smile, as reassuringly as he could, and thoughthe managed to pull it off.

She quirked a smile of her own, but he could still feel worrybleeding after her. He did his best to look fully alert and awake and not asbreathless and pathetic as he felt. “All right. Don’t move.” She slipped off,out of view, returning a few seconds later with a squirmy little pile ofblankets. “This is Leia,” she said, very carefully setting the baby on his lap.

Leia.

She was so tiny.

“Hi,” he breathed, barely noticing when Padme slipped off again.“Hi, Leia. I’m…uh, I’m your dad.”

Leia made a faint noise, batting around with her tiny, tiny fists,narrowly missing hitting him.

“And this,” Padme said, carefully perching on the edge of the bedholding–

Wait, what…?

“This is Luke.”

??????!!!!!!

“Luke…?”

“Mmhmm.” She shifted her hold on the baby–the other baby, there were two babies how werethere two entire babies–so hecould see his son’s face a little clearer.

Luke was asleep, or at least he had his eyes closed and he wasn’twriggling like Leia. But he had the cutest little nose Anakin had ever seen–isthat a weird thing to notice?–and then he sighed faintly and burrowed deeper into Padme’s arms.

“Oh,” Anakin breathed, realizing he’d been silent for way toolong, staring. “Oh, wow.”

Padme grinned at him. “They’re pretty perfect, aren’t they?”

Starbursts, he realized. These–the twins–they’re mystarbursts.

So, this was always going to be a Big Important scene–this is the first time Anakin actually meets his kids, right? Well, I mean, they’ve been there, but he’s been kept sedated for the last week, so he hasn’t been really aware.

Anyway, he notices them pretty much as soon as he wakes up–only he doesn’t know it’s them; he senses these two entities that are full of Light, but sort of unfinished, and he doesn’t quite know what to make of them. Especially since he and Padme hadn’t figured out they were having twins.

(My personal theory on why not, incidentally, is that the Force is sort of hedging its bets; prepping for the Worst Case Scenario in which it would be very bad for Anakin to know that there are two babies.)

Which brings me to what is one of my favorite funny lines I have ever written: how were there two entire babies.

Ehhhhh, maybe I’m easily amused, but it makes me giggle every time I reread it. ^_^

Right. Yes. Tangent aside, Anakin’s first meeting with the twins. So, he sensed these two presences, but he’s a) got no frame of reference to figure out they’re his babies, and b) still coming out of sedation, so all he really knows is that they’re good and comforting and the three of them all gravitate towards one another, which is why he starts thinking of them as starbursts. They absolutely light up his life. And there’s this moment of…just pure joy. I mean, slightly confused joy, because Anakin’s still pretty heavily medicated and also in a fair amount of pain, but…

Which brings me to–so, part of where I was going for with Anakin, at least in this particular moment, was…you know that one Buzzfeed video, with the drunk girls and the puppies, and that one who’s all “I can’t protect them!!!!!”?

Basically, this gif:

Yeah. That definitely informed how I wrote Anakin in this moment XD

And Padme–Padme’s just so relieved that Anakin is conscious, and that they’re all alive and together and she knows she’s going to have to break this moment and get to the serious questions in a minute but, dammit, they’ve earned this.

Let’s see, what else…oh, the way/order she introduces the twins is important here. I’d decided from the beginning of planning out this fic, that Anakin was going to raise Leia and Padme was going to raise Luke. And, unlike in canon, there’s really no logical way to decide which twin goes where, once the decision is made to split them up.

(In canon, of course, Bail and Breha have specifically discussed adopting a daughter, which is why Leia goes to them and Luke goes to Owen and Beru.)

So, Padme hands Leia to Anakin, then goes back and brings Luke over. And this wasn’t that Anakin bonds first/more with Leia, so much as how they make the decision later is–Anakin is holding Leia, and Padme is holding Luke.

Also, going back to how this was such an Important Moment–I wanted it to be a fairly quiet one, all things considered? Just like when Anakin and Obi-Wan meet, it’s a Huge Deal because of the larger context we already know going in and all, but in the moment, for the two of them, it’s pretty much barely a blip on the radar. I like that–when The Most Important moments of a character’s life and/or a particular relationship are small ones.

…I think that’s pretty much what I have to say on this bit. It’s happy, and quiet, and it’s important that it’s happy and quiet because of everything else that happens in this chapter, and everything that’s happened leading up to it. This little island of (slightly confused) joy. And a funny moment, and a sweet moment, and…yeah.