I wrote this over the summer because I work at a toy store myself during the summer and got inspired, but I wanted to wait to publish it until Heirs of Light and Darkness was all wrapped up. Hopefully you'll enjoy this return to my regular fluffy modern AUs! Despite the title (which is so cheesy and I'm sorry) I'm actually picturing a small local business toy store with only 1 or 2 employees working at a time because that's the kind of store I work at. Most of the incidents in this fic are inspired by things that have happened to me in real life (and then exaggerated for comic effect). Though unfortunately no hot single parent customer has yet fallen in love with me...YET
Anakin hastily stowed his phone back in his pocket as he heard the door opening. "Hi, how are you?" he said automatically, turning his head towards the door.
What he saw—or rather whom he saw—standing there nearly made his heart stop. Anakin had been working at this toy store for several years and by now had seen hundreds, maybe even thousands of people come in and out, but the woman who had just entered was without a doubt the most beautiful person he had ever seen in his life. She looked like a goddess out of a Renaissance painting, not a real human person.
She looked up and smiled at him, and Anakin was so dazzled it was a miracle he didn't pass out. "Good, how are you?" she said.
Rather than tossing the question out carelessly and continuing on her way into the store like most customers did, she kept looking at him and waited for him to answer. It took Anakin an embarrassingly long moment to realize she'd asked him something. Something he now could not for the life of him remember. "Um…hi," he said faintly.
She bit her lip, clearly trying not to laugh at him. "Hi," she repeated, her eyes twinkling in amusement.
Anakin felt his cheeks burning and he quickly started clicking around on the computer to look busy. "All right, go and play while I pick out Pooja's birthday present," he heard the woman say. Despite himself he glanced over again and saw that there were two little toddlers with her, one clutching each hand. Anakin hadn't even noticed them at first, partly because the counter had obscured them from his vision but mostly because he had been much too flustered.
Anakin felt a stab of disappointment as he watched the toddlers, a blond boy and brunette girl, scamper off towards the train table while the woman started browsing the shelves. It was possible she was babysitting them or something, but in all likelihood they were her own children and in all likelihood she wasn't single like Anakin had been hoping.
He gave himself a mental kick for being so stupid. It was a toy store. Aside from the occasional clueless young adult shopping for a birthday present for their friend or sibling's kid, the only people his age who came into this store were parents. Married parents, most of the time. A toy store was probably one of the worst places to pick somebody up, Anakin thought grumpily as he grabbed a pair of scissors and busied himself curling some ribbons, definitely not watching the woman out of the corner of his eye as he did so.
She came up to the counter fifteen or twenty minutes later with a box containing a plastic tea party set. "Just this, please," she said, giving Anakin another quick smile and making his knees threaten to give out again.
Pull yourself together, he told himself sternly. "Are you part of our rewards program?" he asked, his fingers hovering above the keyboard.
She frowned thoughtfully. "I don't think so," she said. "I've shopped here once or twice before, though."
"I can check if you'd like. Your last name please?" These questions were completely normal and routine and Anakin asked them to dozens of customers every day. The fact that he'd get this beautiful woman's name out of it was just an added bonus.
"Amidala," she said, and spelled it for him.
Anakin typed it into the customer search bar and hit enter, but nothing came up. "It doesn't look like it. But I could check your spouse's name or something?" he blurted out before he could stop himself. Okay, that was definitely crossing a line.
"Oh, I'm not—um, there isn't anyone else who'd have signed up for me," she said, and Anakin could swear her face looked a little pink. "Single parent."
Yes! "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean—I shouldn't have assumed," Anakin stammered, also turning red. "Sorry, it's just, you know, people are always in here like, 'oh, if my name's not in there, maybe you should check for my wife, she has a different name,' or something like that."
She gave a polite chuckle. "Yeah, I would imagine."
Anakin cleared his throat and tried to gather what little remained of his dignity. "Anyway, um, would you like to sign up? For the rewards program."
"Sure." She jerked her thumb behind her, where the toddlers were still playing with the trains. "I'm sure those two will be dragging me back here pretty soon."
Anakin laughed and started filling out the computer form to add her to the rewards program, thereby discovering that her first name was Padmé. He also found out her phone number, street address, and email, not that any of that mattered, because Anakin may have been a lovestruck idiot but he wasn't a stalker.
He scanned the tea set and told her the total. "Would you like this giftwrapped?" he asked as she stuck her credit card in the machine.
"Does that cost extra?" Padmé asked, looking surprised.
"Nope, totally free."
She beamed at him as if he'd just offered to pay her children's college tuitions. "That would be amazing, thank you, that would save me so much time," she said. "And I'd hate for you to have curled all those ribbons for nothing."
Anakin smiled sheepishly and grabbed the tea set, reluctantly turning his back on her so that he could wrap it on the counter behind the register.
"Leia, where are you going?" he heard Padmé ask behind him.
"Toys!" one of the toddlers announced; Anakin glanced over his shoulder and saw the little girl running away from the train table with surprising speed considering her tiny legs, her attention apparently caught by something on the shelves.
"No, sweetie, we're only here to get something for Pooja today," Padmé said, chasing after her. Anakin turned back to his wrapping, unable to wipe a small smile off his face. "We'll come back another time to pick out something for you and Luke."
"I want toys!"
"Mommy!" the boy suddenly cried, sounding distressed.
"What, Luke?" There was a slight pause, and then: "Luke!" Hurried footsteps. "I asked you three times if you needed to go potty before we left the grocery store and you said no!"
Oh no. Anakin whipped around and saw the toddler standing in a puddle, sniffling, as Padmé swiftly crouched down beside him. "Sorry," Luke sobbed.
Padmé rummaged around in her bag for a minute, then heaved a loud and defeated sigh as she came up empty-handed. She looked up and saw Anakin watching her. "I am so, so sorry," she said. "Potty training's been an uphill battle. I shouldn't have even brought them, but I couldn't find anyone to watch them and I didn't think I'd end up taking this long to run errands—"
"Don't worry about it," Anakin said, and to his surprise he meant it. "It happens—well, not all the time, but a lot more often than you'd expect."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. This is the second time this week, actually."
Padmé gave him a grateful smile. "Still, I'm really sorry," she said. "Do you have any paper towels?"
Anakin grabbed some from under the counter and she hurried over to take them from him. "Thank you so much," she said. Then she spotted a bottle of cleaning spray under the counter as well. "Oh, is that cleaning spray too?"
"Oh. Yeah," Anakin said. "But that's okay, I'll just go over after you're gone and spray some—"
"No, no, I can't make you do that," Padmé said, and she ducked under him and grabbed the cleaning spray. "I'm sure cleaning up accidents was definitely not in your job description."
"I can't say that it was, but even so I've gotten pretty good at it." They both laughed.
Anakin finished wrapping the present and taped one of his curly ribbons on top, then put it on the counter and waited for Padmé to finish cleaning up Luke and the floor. Once she let him go, Luke appeared to forget all about the incident and happily resumed playing with the trains, while Leia was down at the other end of the store grabbing a bunch of toys off the shelves. For once, Anakin found the pair of them too adorable to be annoyed by all the chaos they were causing. After all, there weren't any other customers there at the moment for them to be bothering, and weeknights were always slow, so Anakin wouldn't have anything better to do than go around tidying up after they left.
"How old are they?" he asked Padmé.
"Two and a half."
"Are they twins?"
"Yep. And you know what they say, twins are three times as much work."
Anakin didn't, in fact, know that they said that, given that he had less than zero experience with childcare, but he laughed along with her nevertheless. "Well, it must be worth it. They're adorable," he said.
Padmé glanced up at him with a smile. "You think so? Even after all the havoc they've wreaked on your store?"
"I've been working here five years and I can tell you with complete honestly that this is far from the worst that's happened during a shift of mine."
"I'm pretty sure you're lying to make me feel better, but thank you anyway."
Anakin brought the trash can out from behind the counter so Padmé could throw out all the used paper towels (and made a mental note to take the trash out back to the dumpster as soon as she left). He glanced over and saw appreciatively that she'd done an even more thorough cleaning job than he would've himself. "Your gift's all set," he said, pushing it towards her.
"Oh, I almost forgot about that." She looked at it and smiled. "Thank you, it looks so cute."
"No problem. Giftwrapping is probably my favorite part of the job."
By some miracle, Padmé managed to fit the present in her already overstuffed bag, and then she went over and picked Luke up. "Mommy! My trains!" he exclaimed, pointing down at them.
"We need to go home and change your clothes, Luke. We'll come back and play with the trains again another time." Padmé looked around the store. "Now, where did your sister get to?" she muttered under her breath, walking towards the far end of the room.
Luke started to cry as it became clear that he was being permanently taken away from the trains. Thirty seconds later, the store was also filled with screaming. "Mommy, no! I wantthat!"
"Leia, I told you on the way over that we're not getting toys for ourselves today."
"I want it!"
"I understand that. We can come back another time to buy it, but we're not getting it today."
"Moooo-mmyyy!"
"Whining won't get you anywhere. We're not buying this today, and that's final. Put it back."
"No!"
"Put it back right now, Leia."
"No! You're mean!"
Anakin craned his neck to look over the shelves and saw Padmé, still holding Luke, use her free hand to pry the toy out of Leia's grasp and put it on a shelf out of her reach, which made Leia move from intelligible words into plain shrieking. Without further ado, Padmé picked her up too and carried both twins back down the main aisle.
Anakin watched in awe as Padmé marched out of the store with her nearly overflowing purse over her shoulder, Luke sobbing under one arm, and Leia kicking and screaming under the other. "Have a good night," he called over the racket.
She turned to give him a quick smile. "Thanks, you too," she said. "I'm really sorry about all this."
"It's totally fine, don't worry about it."
An unnatural silence fell on the store after the door shut behind them. Shaking his head slightly, Anakin went out from behind the counter to work on reorganizing the toys Leia (and Padmé) had stuck pell-mell onto the wrong shelves.
"Let me get this straight," Ahsoka said. "One of her kids had an accident in the middle of the store and the other threw a tantrum, and you're still into her?"
"That pretty much sums it up, yeah," Anakin said.
Ahsoka whistled. "Damn. How hot was she, exactly?"
"She wasn't hot, she was beautiful. I mean, she was hot, but—"
"Okay, Shakespeare."
The arrival of a customer put their conversation on hold, but they resumed it ten minutes later after the customer had left again without buying anything. Usually there was only one employee covering each weekday shift, but the store tended to be busier on weekends so two people would be scheduled at the same time. But it was the Saturday dinnertime lull, so Anakin was taking the opportunity to fill his coworker Ahsoka in on Padmé's trip to the store the previous Tuesday evening.
"So she's single," Ahsoka said.
"Yeah."
"Did you get her number or anything?"
"I did."
"Wait, seriously?"
"For the rewards program."
Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "That doesn't count, dumbass."
"Duh. I was kidding."
Just then the door opened again, and Anakin looked over to greet the customer. "Padmé!" he blurted out.
Ahsoka turned her head to look so fast it was a miracle she didn't break her neck. Padmé looked surprised for a second, but then she smiled. "Hi, Anakin," she said as she approached the counter.
"You know my name?" Anakin said in amazement.
"Well, it's on your nametag."
"Oh." Anakin looked sheepishly down at his nametag. "Yeah."
"I'm surprised you remembered my name," Padmé said.
Was that code for hey, you're a stalker and a creep? "Oh, well, you know, it's kind of an unusual name, so it just stuck with me, I guess," Anakin rambled. "And it was only a few days ago you were here…"
"That's true," Padmé said. She held up her phone. "I got an email coupon thanking me for joining the rewards program, so I figured I'd stop by to use it since I was at the mall running errands anyway."
"Great," said Anakin. "Is there anything specific I can help you find?" He usually went out of his way to pawn recommendations off on Ahsoka—just because he worked at a toy store didn't mean he knew anything about what somebody's six-year-old granddaughter might like for her birthday—but suddenly he found himself praying Padmé would need his help for at least an hour.
"Yes, actually," she said. "Hanukkah's coming up and I want to pick out a few little things for Luke and Leia, now that I have the opportunity to go shopping without them. Nothing too big or expensive, though, I don't want them growing up thinking Hanukkah's all about getting presents. You saw what they were like the other day, they're already dangerously close to being spoiled."
Anakin laughed. "I'm pretty sure all toddlers are like that, at least from what I've seen," he replied. "They're two and half, you said?"
"Yes."
"Well, over in this aisle there's some knickknacks they might like…"
After half an hour, Padmé had picked out a simple toddler puzzle for each twin, some picture books, a stuffed dog for Leia, and a toy airplane for Luke. "They're going to love these," she said happily as Anakin rang her up at the counter. "Thanks so much for your help."
"No problem," said Anakin.
"Could you giftwrap these too?"
"Of course. We have these…two wrapping papers…" Anakin trailed off as he pointed at their two available papers: one was birthday paper with balloons and cake all over it, and the other was red and green Christmas trees. Anakin silently cursed his boss; he'd suggested they also get some sort of generic wintery paper for the upcoming holiday season, but Yoda had insisted two wrapping paper options was plenty and he didn't want to waste money on a third.
Padmé's face fell. "On second thoughts, I might just wrap them at home," she said. "I do always like wrapping presents…"
Suddenly Anakin had an idea. "I'll go check in the back, we might have another roll or two of different papers," he said.
Ahsoka had been pretty much silent the whole time, staying up at the counter to ring up other customers while Anakin was helping Padmé pick things out, but she chose this moment to pipe up with, "Actually, I'm pretty sure this is all the paper we have—"
"I'm just going to double check," Anakin said, giving her a look.
He hurried to the back room, and rather than looking around for the wrapping paper he knew didn't exist, he ducked out the store's back exit and raced over to a store a few down from theirs that he knew sold wrapping paper.
"Hi there," a salesperson said when he entered. "Can I help you find anything?"
"Hi, do you have any Hanukkah wrapping paper?" Anakin said breathlessly.
"We do, right this way."
Ten minutes later, Anakin returned to the counter "from the back room" carrying a roll of blue wrapping paper adorned with little menorahs. To his relief, Padmé hadn't left yet. "Sorry for the wait," he said. "But I found this hiding way in the back."
Padmé looked thrilled. "Oh my gosh, that's perfect! Thank you so much!"
"No problem," Anakin said as he and Ahsoka each took a couple items and started wrapping them.
"You found this in the back?" Ahsoka said skeptically.
"Uh-huh."
"Funny. I don't think I've ever seen this paper before."
"Yeah, well, it was way back there," Anakin said, praying Ahsoka had enough common sense not to blow his cover in front of Padmé. "I almost didn't notice it myself."
Fortunately, Ahsoka just made a doubtful hmm and didn't press him further.
"Thanks again for all your help," Padmé said as she gathered up all the wrapped gifts. "I really appreciate it."
"It was my pleasure," Anakin said, and he was still smiling like an idiot even after the door had shut behind her.
"Oh, Padmé, it was my pleasure," Ahsoka mimicked him in a high-pitched voice. "I wanna marry you and become Anakin Amidala—"
"Shut up!" Anakin glanced nervously around the store, but fortunately there were no customers there at the moment.
"Did you seriously go buy her wrapping paper out of your own pocket?"
Anakin felt himself flushing. "It was only, like, ten dollars," he mumbled. "And I felt bad that our wrapping papers weren't inclusive."
"So did I, but you could've just apologized and let her go home and wrap them herself."
"Whatever."
Ahsoka shook her head at him. "You are so whipped."
Anakin threw a curly ribbon clump at her.
Padmé always got all her holiday shopping done in November and as a rule tried to avoid the mall (and particularly toy stores) as much as possible during December. So, even though a subconscious part of her kept begging her to duck inside Anakin's toy store every time she was even remotely in the area, Padmé didn't actually end up there again until February, this time to get a present for her other niece's birthday.
Padmé had had a busy few weeks and felt like she'd barely been spending time with her own children, so she'd taken a half day off work and picked Luke and Leia up early from daycare. They'd been excited to spend the whole afternoon with her—and even more excited when she'd mentioned going to the toy store. They raced over to the train table the second they walked in the door and Padmé smiled fondly after them, thinking she might let them each pick out a toy if they behaved themselves.
Then she looked hopefully over towards the counter. A girl she vaguely recognized from her last visit was there, but to her utter disappointment, Anakin was not.
"Hi, how are you?" said the girl—Ahsoka, according to her nametag.
"Hi. Anakin's not working today?" Padmé found herself asking.
She immediately felt her face grow warm, and she prayed it wasn't visible. Ahsoka looked like she was barely suppressing a grin. "No, he has class today," she replied.
"Class," Padmé repeated. "Is he…in college?"
"Yeah," Ahsoka said. She was definitely grinning now.
"Oh." Oh God. She'd been flirting with a college student all this time? Padmé made a mental note to never set foot in this store again, and possibly change her name and move across the country.
Ahsoka let her squirm for a moment before adding, "He's twenty-five, though. He only started college this year 'cause he wanted to work for a few years after high school to save up money."
"Oh," Padmé said again, just barely holding in a sigh of relief. Still younger than her own thirty years, but definitely not in creep territory. Thank God. "Um, good for him."
"Yeah. Is there anything I can help you with today?"
"No thanks, I'm just browsing." And she hurried off towards the craft section before she could embarrass herself any further.
Luke and Leia were perfect angels during this trip to the store; of course they'd had to pull out all the stops the time Anakin was there, Padmé thought crossly. Even if he might've been interested in her on her own, there was no way he'd want to date the single mother of twin toddlers after what absolute terrors they'd been the only time he'd seen them. She really should've emphasized to Anakin that day that Luke and Leia were actually very well-behaved most of the time.
Around three o'clock, Padmé decided she'd better pick something and get going home, so she grabbed the paint-your-own piggy bank she'd had her eye on for Ryoo and headed up to the counter. She was waiting in line behind an elderly couple getting something giftwrapped for their grandson when the door opened and Anakin walked in. Padmé's heart leapt, and they made eye contact and smiled at each other.
The elderly couple left and Padmé moved up to the counter. Ahsoka rang her up and started wrapping while Anakin took off his coat and scarf. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Anakin was coming in at three for the evening shift," Ahsoka said.
"What?" Anakin said.
"Padmé here was asking if you were working today when she came in a little while ago," Ahsoka said mischievously, causing Padmé to flush scarlet. "And I said no 'cause I forgot you were covering Obi-Wan's shift tonight."
"Oh," Anakin said, looking very pleased, which lessened Padmé's embarrassment. Slightly. "Well, I'm here now."
Padmé cleared her throat and changed the subject. "How was class? Ahsoka was mentioning to me that you started college this year."
"It was good." He smiled at her. "Thanks for asking."
"How are you liking college so far?"
"It's been pretty great," Anakin said. "I mean, it's not exactly an Ivy League school, and I'm commuting from home to save money on room and board, and I feel like kind of an idiot in intro-level classes with a bunch of eighteen-year-olds, but—"
"Hey, I think it's really great that you decided to go back to school," Padmé said. "Don't let the eighteen-year-olds get you down."
Anakin beamed at her, and Ahsoka was just turning to give her the wrapped present when Padmé felt someone tugging on her pants. "Mommy?"
She looked down and saw Leia standing there holding a pair of dress-up shoes. She held them out to Padmé. "I want this."
"What's the magic word?"
"Please?" Leia said hopefully.
Padmé smiled and knelt down to be at her eyelevel. "Tell you what," she said. "You and Luke can each pick out one thing to get, as long as it's under twenty dollars." Padmé glanced at the price tag. "This is less than twenty dollars, so you can get this if you want, or you can look around more to see if there's something else that you'd rather get instead."
"Okay!" Leia said, and she promptly dashed off to keep browsing.
Padmé repeated the instructions to Luke. "This?" he asked, pointing at the train table. "Please?"
"The entire trainset? No, I'm sure that costs hundreds of dollars," Padmé said, suppressing a laugh. "Why don't you pick out something smaller?"
Luke sighed. "Oo-kay."
Ahsoka headed home since her shift was over, and Padmé chatted with Anakin while she waited for Luke and Leia to make their final decisions. "You'll be glad to know that they're on much better behavior than they were last time," she said.
Anakin laughed. "Honestly, I didn't mind," he said. "They're sweet."
"Thank you," Padmé said, a warm bubbly feeling in her chest.
Luke came back carrying a box with a small dollhouse inside. "This!" he said. "I want this, Mommy!"
"How much is it?" Padmé asked. Luke didn't answer, so she knelt down to examine it, but couldn't find a price sticker anywhere. "Luke, why don't you ask the nice man how much this costs?"
Luke obligingly turned to Anakin and held the box out to him. "How many?"
"How much," Padmé corrected.
"How much?"
Anakin crouched down slightly. "Can I take it from you for a second so I can scan it?"
He held out his hand, but Luke clutched the box against his chest protectively. "Come on, sweetie, he'll give it right back," Padmé said, prying it out of his hands and passing it to Anakin.
Anakin scanned it and said, "Thirty-nine ninety-nine."
"Hmm," said Padmé. "That's too much money, Luke. Pick something else."
He looked crestfallen. "Pleeeaase?"
Padmé considered it for a moment. She would rather go home with a good-quality dollhouse than some of the cheaper junk in the store. "Let's ask Leia if she wants this too. Maybe instead of getting two toys that are twenty dollars, we can get one toy that's forty dollars."
Padmé and Luke tracked down Leia, who was still holding the shoes. "Leia, do you want this dollhouse?" Padmé asked her.
Leia looked curiously at the box, and immediately she dropped the shoes and grabbed it from Luke. "Yeah!"
"Okay," Padmé said. "If we get this, it'll be for both of you to share. Can you do that?" Both toddlers nodded vigorously. "Great. Come on, let's go pay for it."
They headed back up to the front, and Padmé picked Leia up so that she could set the box down on the counter. "We'll take this," Padmé said, putting Leia back down on the floor.
"Good choice," Anakin told them, and he scanned it and put it in the bag with Ryoo's birthday present.
"I better not hear that one of you is refusing to share this dollhouse with the other after we get home," Padmé warned, but Luke was busy showing Leia a plastic horse he'd grabbed out of a nearby bin.
Anakin laughed. "I hope they have fun with it."
"So do I." Padmé took the bag from him and turned to the twins. "Luke, put that back, please. It's time to go home." To her relief, Luke did so without a fuss. "Now, I just bought you both a fun present. What do you say?"
"Thank you!" they chorused.
"And say thank you to the nice man for helping us."
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome," Anakin told them with a smile. "You all have a great day."
"Thanks, you too." Padmé gave him another smile. "I'm sure I'll be back here soon enough," she said.
"I hope so," Anakin said, then immediately turned red. "You know, for the store's sake. You're becoming one of our best customers."
Padmé laughed, also blushing a little, and bid him goodbye before heading out the door.
Several weeks later, Anakin was working a Saturday morning shift with Ahsoka when Padmé came in again, this time accompanied not by Luke and Leia but by another woman who looked remarkably like her.
"Hi," Padmé said, smiling at him.
Anakin smiled back at her. "Hey," he said, trying not to sound too excited. "Back again?"
"Yep. But not for myself this time." Padmé indicated the other woman. "My childless friend needs a gift for her newborn nephew and I told her I'd help her pick something out. But maybe you have some suggestions?"
"Between you and me, you'd probably be better at picking out a baby present than I would, but I can show you guys what's popular in our baby section right now," Anakin said, and he led them over to the back corner of the store, where he pointed out a few items to Padmé's friend.
"How are classes going?" Padmé asked him as they hung back slightly while her friend browsed.
"Good, thanks."
"That's good. What are you studying?"
"I haven't declared a major officially, but I'm thinking mechanical engineering."
"Wow," Padmé said, looking impressed. "That sounds hard."
"It's not, really," Anakin said modestly. "I've always been into that sort of thing. Even as a kid I was always tinkering around with our kitchen appliances. And breaking things more often than fixing them. Drove my mom crazy."
Padmé laughed. "So you don't want to work at this store forever?"
Anakin shuddered. "Definitely not. Wait, I'm probably not supposed to say that to a customer—"
"I won't tell if you don't."
"Thanks," Anakin said, grinning. "But yeah, this has been a good job for a high school graduate, but I'd like something bigger once I finish college."
"Makes sense."
"What about you, what do you do?"
"I work in my local city hall," Padmé said. "Just a normal desk job for now, but I'm thinking of running for mayor once Luke and Leia are older and don't need me at home so much."
"Mayor!" Now it was Anakin's turn to be impressed. "That's awesome. I'm sure you'd be great at it."
Padmé blushed. "Thank you."
Just then, her friend wandered over to them with a cute stuffed elephant in hand. "All right, Padmé, if you're done flirting, I'm ready to go," she said.
Both Anakin and Padmé turned a violent shade of red, and Anakin scurried back up to the register to ring her up. But he was intercepted in front of the counter by a middle-aged woman holding a doll that Anakin recognized immediately as the current toy fad for elementary school kids. "Excuse me, how much does this cost?"
"That's sixteen ninety-nine," Anakin said; they'd sold so many of those that it was one of the few things in the store where he knew the price off the top of his head.
"Seventeen dollars?" the woman squawked. "For this thing? Look how cheap the material is."
Anakin gritted his teeth. He hated when customers yelled at him about prices, seeing as it was all Yoda's decision and Anakin had literally no say in how much they should sell products for. "Uh, I'm sorry about that."
"Do you realize how much of a rip-off this is?" she demanded. "I can't believe you would charge that much for this, it's just ridiculous!"
"Yes, well, this is a small local business," Anakin said, doing his best to keep his tone polite. "We have to charge higher prices than big corporations so we can break even—"
"Seventeen dollars! Do you know how much this costs at Target? Ten dollars."
"Go buy it at Target, then," Padmé said suddenly.
Anakin and the customer both turned to look at her. "Excuse me?" the woman spluttered.
"If you're not willing to pay a few extra dollars to support a local business, go buy it at Target," Padmé said calmly. "Does this very patient employee look like he owns the store and decides how to price all the items? Stop harassing him for something he has no control over and take your business elsewhere if you're that upset about it."
With an angry huff and a glare at Padmé, the customer tossed the doll aside. "Well, I never!" she declared, and she stormed out of the store.
"Whoa," Anakin said in awe as Padmé's friend burst out laughing.
"Padmé, you're my hero," Ahsoka said from behind the counter, also snickering.
"Uh, thanks." Padmé looked sheepishly at Anakin. "I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have lost my temper with her like that. I'd hate if she called your boss later to complain—"
"Definitely do not apologize. That was one of the best things anyone's ever done for me. You said everything I was dying to yell at her," Anakin said. "You're, like, my knight in shining armor right now."
Padmé turned a little pink and grinned at him as Ahsoka rang up her friend.
"So," Ahsoka asked after the door had shut behind them, "are you just gonna let her leave again?"
Anakin gave her a puzzled frown. "What do you mean?"
"My God, Skyguy, it's obvious she likes you, and more than obvious that you like her."
"Wait, what? You think she likes me?"
"No shit, Sherlock!" Ahsoka exclaimed. "She just yelled at a total stranger to defend you! Not to mention she's always asking you to help her pick out toys even though she obviously knows more about toys and children than you, and the two of you are constantly blushing and smiling and batting your eyes at each other—"
"We are not!"
"Trust me, you are, and it's sickening for the rest of us," Ahsoka informed him. "Please, for the love of God, go chase her down and ask her out, or I'll do it for you."
Anakin looked out the window, hesitating. Padmé and her friend were looking in the window of the store across from theirs. They'd stopped walking and seemed to be having an animated conversation, but surely they'd be heading back to the parking lot any minute now… "You really think I should?" Anakin asked. "You're not just setting me up to humiliate myself?"
Ahsoka gave him a look that clearly said he was an idiot. "Dude, I'm your friend. As much as I like seeing you embarrass yourself, I'd rather it be about something stupid like tripping up the stairs in public, not about something like this that actually matters. I wouldn't send you out there to get your heart broken on purpose."
Anakin took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. "Okay. I'm going out there."
Ahsoka gave him a mock salute as he strode purposefully out the door—
—and almost crashed right into Padmé. "Oh! Did you forget something?" he asked just as she said, "Did I forget something in there?"
Anakin recovered first. "Um, no," he said. "I actually…I wanted to ask you—"
"Do you want to have dinner sometime?" Padmé blurted out.
Anakin's words stumbled to a halt and he stared at her. "What?"
"I…um, I just thought I'd ask," she mumbled, looking mortified. "Never mind, it was stupid—"
"Yes," Anakin said, heart racing. "Yes, I'd love to have dinner."
Padmé blinked at him. "Wait, really?"
"Yeah. That's what I came out here to ask you."
"I'll be out at the car," Padmé's friend interrupted, giving them both a wink before hurrying off.
Padmé laughed, the red starting to fade from her cheeks. "Sabé was the one who convinced me to go back in the store and ask you out," she admitted. "Said it was obvious after watching us for ten minutes that we liked each other.
Anakin grinned. "Ahsoka did the same thing for me," he said. "So…you like me?"
"What is this, middle school?"
"Just answer the question."
"Fine, yes, I like you. Do you like me back?" she said sarcastically.
"I do. In fact, I've been working up my courage to ask you to the eighth grade dance."
They both dissolved in a fit of giggles. Then Padmé's smile faded a little. "What about the twins?"
"Oh." Anakin's heart sank. "Um, I get it if—if you're not looking for a serious relationship right now, what with two toddlers at home—"
"No, that's not what I meant," she said. "I meant, are you really interested in a serious relationship with someone with two toddlers at home?"
"Yes," Anakin said bluntly. "I know you and I barely know each other yet, but I've never felt this way about anyone before. And out of all the small children I've ever seen in my five years working at a toy store, Luke and Leia are undoubtedly the cutest. I'd like spending more time with them too. Honestly."
"Are you sure?" Padmé asked, but she was looking hopeful. "Because if you're in a relationship with me, you're in a relationship with my children too. It's important that you know that."
"I know," Anakin said. "And I wouldn't want it any other way."
He wanted to say more, wanted to say that he'd always dreamed of being part of a big family, that even in his brief encounters with Luke and Leia he'd felt a bond with them, as if somehow he was meant to be a part of their lives, but he didn't. There would be plenty of time to tell her all that later, once their relationship was more serious.
For now, Anakin settled for reaching out and shyly tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear, then leaving his hand on her cheek as he leaned down to kiss her. Padmé kissed him back eagerly, and he could feel her smiling against his lips.
At last they drew apart for breath. "So…next weekend for dinner?" Padmé asked.
"Sounds perfect," Anakin said.
"Oh, but don't you work on the weekends?"
"I'll get someone to cover my shift. All my coworkers owe me, seeing as I've been covering shifts left and right for the past few months because I wanted to increase my chances of seeing you."
Padmé laughed. "All right. It's a date."
Smiling, Anakin pulled her close for another kiss. It was with reluctance that they stepped away from each other a few minutes later. "I should go," Padmé said. "My sister's watching Luke and Leia, and I told her I'd only be an hour."
"Yeah, me too. I'd probably get fired if my boss found out I was making out with customers during my shift."
They both laughed, and then Padmé gave him one last quick kiss before hurrying off and Anakin went back into the store.
"So it looks like things went well," Ahsoka said, grinning broadly.
"Yeah," Anakin said. "Thanks. I owe you big time."
"Yeah, you do. I better be your best woman at you and Padmé's wedding."
"Okay, I don't know about that."
(Three years later, she was).