#rexdala

She stood there by the counter for a moment longer, going through her bag, making sure she now had everything.

"Will you tell Anakin that Senator Milee has invited him at the dinner as well?" She asked. "They only now realised that they need to invite him separately."

"I will", Rex promised. "Your ship leaves in fifteen minutes."

Padmé grimaced again, and snapped her bag shut.

"I swear I didn't use to be this scatterbrained before", she said.

"I'm sure having two small children does that to you", Rex said. Padmé gave him a look.

"Hasn't done it to you", she pointed out. "Just as diligent as ever."

She finally fastened up her boots, and touched her hair quickly.

"Hopefully I will be done by the weekend", she said. "I would have the time to come visit then, when Anakin is here as well. We could all go out."

Rex tried not to feel dread about the idea. Things were better now. He needed to remember that.

"Could be fun", he said. "You're getting a call."

Padmé snatched her commlink, and glanced back at Rex.

"Give the twins kisses from me too", she said. She stepped closer to him, leaned over and gave him a very quick and light peck on the cheek, and was then out of the door, the call open as she hurried down the front steps of the house.

Rex blinked. He rubbed his cheek, that felt like it was tingling slightly, and got a smudge of lipstick on the back of his hand. He sighed.

"Will do", he said to the now empty house. Well, not empty, as the twins were upstairs, having their first nap of the day, but still. The sentiment was there.

He turned back towards the stove, and the mixed the vegetables simmering in the pan. The twins needed to be introduced to new flavours. Hopefully they would like brekka beets. Rex didn't need a repetition of what had happened last week with rootleafs.

The house was quiet. The sun was shining through the windows. There was a gentle wind outside. The water bubbled softly in the pan.

Rex leaned against the counter and closed his eyes.

There was a noise coming from the baby monitor on the kitchen table. Rex tensed and listened. A sniff, a grunt...silence.

He had just relaxed again when the noises happened again, and following them came a demanding cry. First from one baby, then from another, and then from both of them.

Rex opened his eyes, turned the stove off, and made his way upstairs.

At least Anakin would be coming over in the evening. Rex was going to make him watch the twins while he cleaned and took a nap. An uninterrupted one.

---

"You're invited to the dinner by Senator Milee", Rex said.

Anakin turned to look up at him from where he was sitting on the floor.

"Okay?" He raised his brow.

"Padmé told me to tell you", Rex said. "It's next week, on Primeday. Do you have something then?"

"I don't think so", Anakin said, and then went back to opening up the toy. It had stopped working in the morning, which Luke had not taken well, and after Rex had deduced that it wasn't because the battery had ran out, he had decided to make Anakin take a look at it once he came over. "I just don't understand why I'm invited."

"Because you're both working on the same campaing", Rex said. Because they thought that you two were still married since you have children together and officially live in the same house, he did not say.

"Right." Anakin popped the back of the toy open, and started to fiddle with something inside of it. He didn't ask why Padmé had not told him herself, which Rex was happy about. Maybe he just hadn't realised, or maybe he knew exactly why.

Rex needed to bite the bullet, in case it was the latter option.

"She'll try to come over during the weekend", he said. "She wants us all to go out."

Anakin stopped the fiddling for a moment.

"Okay", he said, and then went right back to it. "Could be fun. More eyes on the twins."

Rex looked down at the oven door. Why was this the second time today that he was standing in the kitchen, and having slightly uncomfortable conversations with the people who lived in the house on paper, but in real life slept their nights elsewhere?

He heard Anakin get up behind him, and he heard him walk closer to him, until he entered his field of view on his right.

Anakin leaned his elbow to the kitchen counter, and looked at Rex, then at the floor, and then back at Rex.

"I can watch the food", he said. "If you want to...sit down for a moment or something?"

He sounded unsure when speaking. That was one of the things Rex had not quite gotten used to yet. While Anakin had been his General, Rex had never heard him sound unsure about anything.

Well, anyway, Rex could take a moment to sit down.

"Sure", he said. Anakin nodded, and then reached his hand towards Rex. His thumb landed on the side of Rex's jaw just as Rex turned his head to see what he was doing.

He looked at Anakin, who was staring back.

"What?" Rex asked.

"You have something on your face", Anakin answered. "Something blue."

"Oh, yeah, we were doing crafts earlier", Rex said. "The twins got little excited about their new markers."

A small smile spread on Anakin's face as Rex said that. It was nice to see. Anakin smiled a lot less these days than what Rex was used to.

"Good to know you were having a fun time", he said, and wiped his thumb up along Rex's skin. "Go sit down."