"Padmé?" Anakin whispered, so quietly it was almost inaudible. "Are you awake yet?" Being thirty-seven weeks pregnant with twins meant that Padmé got little to no sleep due to all the discomfort, so he didn't want to wake her if she had actually managed to drift off.

"Yes. I've been waiting half an hour for you to wake up." With some difficulty, she rolled over to face him, and Anakin saw that the perpetually miserable expression she'd been wearing for the past several weeks had been replaced by a smile. "Happy birthday, Ani," she said, reaching for his hand and twining their fingers together.

Anakin smiled back. "Thanks," he said. Then he scooched as close to her as he could without squishing the twins and gave her a soft, lingering kiss. "I love you so much."

"I love you too. Even if it's your fault that I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in weeks," Padmé joked.

He laughed and rubbed her belly. "Just think, this is nothing compared to what it'll be like with two newborns waking up every couple hours."

"Speak for yourself. You're going to be the one on night duty."

"Since when? I never agreed to that."

"I had to put up with nine months of this—" She gestured to her huge baby bump "—so I think it's only fair that you have to get out of bed when they cry."

Rather than arguing the point further, Anakin decided it was time to offer an olive branch. "Back massage?" he suggested, grinning.

"Yes," Padmé said immediately, and she rolled over again. Anakin began kneading her shoulders, gradually moving down and paying special attention to her lower back; he'd gotten quite good at back massages over the last few months and was seriously considering quitting his job as a mechanic to become a full-time masseuse.

Padmé sighed in contentment as he worked, and he planted a kiss behind her ear, then another one on her cheek when she turned her head a little towards him. "So, you're twenty-eight now," she mused. "I can't believe it's been eight years since we met."

"Me neither," said Anakin. "The best eight years of my life."

She smiled and twisted around even further so she could kiss him on the lips. "Mine too. Have I told you how much I love you?"

"You might've mentioned it once or twice," he teased. "You know, sometimes it still blows my mind that you're, like, my wife."

Padmé laughed. "I'm not like your wife, I am your wife," she said through her giggles.

"Okay, you know what I mean," Anakin said, also laughing. "I can't believe someone as amazing as you would actually agree to put up with me for the rest of our lives."

"Right back at you," she said, smiling fondly at him. "Are you sure you never had any regrets?"

"Not a single one.

"Not even when I got weird cravings in the middle of the night and made you go out and buy me food?"

"Nope, I was usually in the mood for a midnight snack myself. Just maybe not pickles."

"Or when I bawled my eyes out over that car commercial?"

"To be fair, there was a baby and a puppy in it. Even I teared up a little."

"Or when I screamed at you for moving one of the cribs half an inch too far?"

"Not even then," Anakin said. "Although I did come close to having a regret when you threatened to divorce me over nursery paint colors. But that was on me, really, you're an HGTV freak and a control freak even on a good day, I should've known better than to cross you about interior decorating." Padmé rolled her eyes as he snickered, although she also looked like she was trying not to laugh.

They lounged around in bed for a few more minutes before Anakin stretched and said, "What do you think? Time for breakfast?"

"Please. I'm starving." Padmé struggled to sit up, and Anakin helped her before jumping out of bed and going to grab her slippers. "I'm so incapable," she moaned as he put the slippers on for her. "I hate this."

Anakin pressed a tender kiss to her cheek. "It's almost over. The twins'll be here any day now."

"They better be."

He helped her to her feet and walked with her out to the kitchen, then steered her to sit down at the table. Padmé tried to say she should make breakfast since it was his birthday, but Anakin insisted that she stay put while he cooked, so she gave up. He crouched down so that her belly was at eye level and placed his hands on it. "Hey, guys. It's Daddy again," he told the twins. "What do you and Mommy want for breakfast? Eggs?" He paused slightly. "Waffles?" Another pause. "Pancakes?"

A kick followed these words, and Anakin and Padmé burst out laughing. "Pancakes it is," he declared, kissing her belly before straightening up again and looking at her. "Plain, chocolate chip, or blueberry?"

Padmé grinned. "Do you even have to ask?"

Anakin chuckled and went to grab the chocolate chips along with the rest of the ingredients. "Remember when everyone said you were cradle-robbing when we got together?" he asked as he stirred the batter; Padmé's earlier mention of the day they'd met had sent him down memory lane.

"Yes, very clearly," she said, laughing. She'd been twenty-five and Anakin twenty when they'd met, and she'd resisted his flirting for a year (Anakin remembered her protesting that she couldn't date someone who couldn't even legally drink yet) but when they'd gotten together at twenty-one and twenty-six they'd still gotten many raised eyebrows from friends and family. The age gap became less and less weird as they grew older, though, and now no one ever really remarked on it. That is, less weird to other people—neither Anakin nor Padmé had ever found it weird, and all things considered, those two opinions were the only ones that mattered.

"And then they were all fussed about us getting married after only a year of dating," Anakin recalled. "My mom told me getting married right after college was a terrible idea, and your parents thought I was way too young and irresponsible for you." Both of them had had more than a few arguments with their parents over their engagement, though thankfully they'd managed to talk their families around in the end and now both sides were completely supportive.

Padmé nodded. "Everyone said we were young and impulsive and blinded by infatuation and that we'd be filing for divorce within six months—"

"—and we've spent six years proving them wrong," Anakin finished, turning away from the stove to give her a fond smile.

She beamed back at him, and fear of burning the pancakes was the only thing that kept Anakin from crossing the kitchen and kissing her senseless.

He ended up having three pancakes, and Padmé inhaled most of the rest of the stack. ("What? I'm eating for three.") "Can we move to the couch?" she asked once they'd finished and Anakin had cleaned up all the dishes. "I want to put my feet up."

"Sure." He came over and hoisted her to her feet. "Cuddle or no cuddle?" Generally Padmé was just as enthusiastic a cuddler as Anakin was, but sometimes pregnancy-induced soreness or sensitivity made her not want to be touched at all for periods of time.

"Cuddle," she said, and Anakin happily settled himself on the couch, lying lengthwise and stretching his legs out, before helping her lie against his chest. He slid his arms around her, hands meeting just above her baby bump, and she tilted her head back so she could kiss him.

They snuggled in contented silence for several minutes before Padmé suddenly cried, "Oh no!"

"What is it?" Anakin asked at once, looking anxiously at her.

"I—I forgot to get you a present. For your birthday." She looked like she was on the verge of tears. "I'm so sorry, Ani, I'm a terrible wife—"

"Don't be ridiculous," he interrupted, relieved that that was the extent of the problem. And he wasn't surprised she'd forgotten either; she'd developed a case of pregnancy-brain over the past month or so and had grown very forgetful and distracted. "You have so much on your mind right now, I don't blame you at all for forgetting something as small and unimportant as that. Besides, I don't need any presents when I already have the best present of all."

Padmé sniffled slightly. "And what's that?"

Anakin kissed away the tear that had slipped down onto her cheek. "You."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, though she was smiling. "You're such a dork."

"That's why you love me."

"True." Padmé sighed. "But I still feel awful. I'll make it up to you somehow, I promise."

"Is that so?" Anakin said mischievously. "Now that you mention it…is this a sex or no sex kind of day, do you think?"

"Hmmm. You know, I think you might be in luck because—" Padmé suddenly broke off, a funny expression on her face.

"You okay?"

"On second thoughts, it's probably a no sex kind of day seeing as I'm pretty sure my water just broke."

"What?"

"I'm sorry you didn't get any birthday sex," Padmé said many hours later, though she was currently beaming down at Luke in her arms and looked far from sorry.

"Hmm?" Anakin tore his awestruck gaze away from Leia to blink at his wife in surprise. "Oh. To be honest, sex has never been further from my mind."

"Really? That's impressive. It's always on your mind." Anakin rolled his eyes as she laughed. "And I do still feel bad for not getting you anything," she added more seriously. "I'll give you a make-up present as soon as I have the chance to go shopping, I promise."

He shook his head and bent down to kiss Leia's tiny little nose, gently so as not to wake her. "You still think you didn't get me anything? Padmé, you gave me two children today. You're going to have a pretty tough time trying to top that when you're picking out my present next year."

"I can't believe you and the twins all have the same birthday," she muttered next; Anakin was briefly amused as he remembered her yelling at the doctors a couple hours ago to not let the babies out until midnight so they wouldn't have the same birthday as him. "I'm going to be running ragged buying three sets of birthday presents this time every year for the rest of my life."

Anakin laughed. "Well, on the plus side, you'll get extra spoiled on your birthday by the three of us," he said.

"That's true," Padmé said, looking pleased.

He scooched his chair closer to the bed and leaned against her. Leia made a little snuffling noise but continued to sleep. Luke woke up with a tiny yawn a minute later, and Anakin's smile widened as he looked down at his son's face and saw his own blue eyes blinking up at him. He turned his head slightly to kiss Padmé on the cheek. "This was the best birthday of all time."

If we're being real, Padmé Amidala, the most on-top-of-things person in the history of all time, would never forget to buy her husband a birthday present even while full-term with twins, but please suspend disbelief for the sake of fluff haha