I watched Four Weddings and a Funeral last night, so ofc I had to whip out an Anidala version! The title is obviously a play on the movie's title and Ahsoka's speech in Wedding Four is taken pretty directly from the movie, but other than that all the dialogue is my own. Also, I personally was not 100% satisfied with the way the couples worked out in the movie, hence I took the story in a slightly different direction for this fic :)

Wedding One

"Always the bridesmaid, never the bride," Padmé said glumly, heaving a sigh.

"You were the maid of honor, not the bridesmaid," Anakin said.

"Yes, this time. But I was a bridesmaid for Sabé, Breha, Dormé, Rabé—"

"All right, we get the picture," Ahsoka said, rolling her eyes. "What's so bad about not being married? It's more fun being single."

"For you maybe," said Padmé. "But I've spent my whole entire life dreaming about putting on a fancy white dress and walking down the aisle—"

"Well, technically, you can do that any time you want," Obi-Wan pointed out, making Anakin and Ahsoka laugh.

Padmé sniffed. "It's not the same."

"Come on, cheer up," Anakin said, bumping her lightly with his shoulder. "You're only thirty, you're still young. You've got plenty of time."

"Easy for you to say, you're still twenty-nine. Things look much different once you hit thirty. I'm going to die alone." Padmé had been having a bit of an existential crisis ever since her birthday a couple months previously.

"Hey, your sister didn't get married until she was thirty-four."

Padmé looked over towards where Sola and Darred were dancing together, looking utterly oblivious to anything else going on in the world. "Yeah, but they first met, like, six years ago," she said. "So according to that logic I should've met my future husband two years ago."

"Maybe you've already met him and don't know it yet," Anakin suggested.

"Or maybe you'll meet him this year and get married when you're thirty-six," added Obi-Wan.

"Or maybe," Ahsoka said, "you should forget about the fact that you're single, take advantage of the free alcohol, and just have a good time. We're all single too and you don't see any of us moping around at our own sisters' weddings."

"None of you have sisters."

"But if we did we wouldn't be moping at their weddings."

Padmé glanced back at Sola and Darred and couldn't help but smile a little. Though seeing them together was like a perpetual reminder of the fact that she'd never been able to make a relationship last more than a year, they were awfully adorable.

Then her gaze wandered further and she spotted an attractive man chatting with someone at the edge of the room. "Oh," she breathed. She lifted her chin and nodded subtly in his direction. "Hot guy. Don't stare."

Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka immediately swiveled around to stare directly at him, to Padmé's exasperation, though luckily he was absorbed in his conversation and didn't seem to notice. "I guess he's not bad if you're into guys," Ahsoka said doubtfully.

Anakin pursed his lips. "You could do better, Padmé."

"Oh, come on," she said. "Obi-Wan?"

Obi-Wan shrugged. "He's fine. I don't know."

"You guys suck."

"If we suck so much, why don't you go over and talk to Hot Guy, then?" Anakin said rather sulkily.

"Maybe I will," Padmé said. "After a couple drinks."

Two drinks later, she was feeling pleasantly buzzed and confident enough to go up to the guy. "Hey," she said with a smile. "Have we met?"

"I don't think so," he said, returning her smile.

"That's what I thought too, but I figured I'd ask because it's my sister's wedding and it seems like I know almost everyone here," Padmé said, chuckling. "I'm Padmé Naberrie."

"Oh, yeah, maid of honor, I recognize you," he said. "I'm Rush Clovis, my parents are friends of Darred's parents."

"Nice to meet you," said Padmé.

"Can I get you a drink?" Rush asked. "Normally I'd offer to buy you one, but it's an open bar, so…"

Padmé laughed. "That would be great, thank you."

They chatted for a couple hours. Rush was charming and funny and very good-looking, and Padmé found herself falling harder and harder the longer they talked. She'd always secretly believed in love at first sight no matter how much she told herself it was ridiculous and unrealistic—but here, now, with Rush, she started to think maybe it wasn't so crazy after all. They clicked so readily and so easily, Padmé had never felt anything like it before.

It was with surprise that she registered they were among the last people there; time had flown by while she was talking to him. "Well, it's getting late, I should head back to my hotel," she said, trailing off a little and biting her lip with just a hint of suggestiveness.

A hint which Rush picked right up on. "Or you could come back to mine?" he offered, the look in his eyes confirming the implication of his words.

Padmé gave him a smile that was ever so slightly sly. "I'd like that."

The next morning, she woke to sunlight streaming into the room and Rush fully dressed and packing his suitcase. "Where are you going?" she asked, sitting up.

"Home. My flight's at three," he said apologetically.

"Oh. You weren't going to wake me up?" she said, hurt.

He shrugged, looking a tiny bit uncomfortable. "I didn't want to disturb you."

Padmé slowly got out of bed and started putting her clothes back on, disappointed and feeling like an idiot. He'd probably just been looking for a meaningless post-wedding hookup, and here she was, half in love with him.

"Last night was amazing," Rush said after a minute, interrupting her thoughts.

Padmé's heart lifted. "Yeah, it was," she agreed, feeling some hope again. "I-I'd love to see you again sometime."

"Definitely," he said, smiling at her. "I'm kind of in a hurry, so why don't you write down your number and I'll call you when I get home?"

"Okay."

Padmé wrote her number down and gave it to him without bothering to ask for his in return, thinking surely he'd call since he'd promised he would.

He never called.

Wedding Two

Padmé was alone this time—it was Darred's brother's wedding, and none of her friends knew either the bride or the groom, so they hadn't been invited. Still, she was having a pretty good time hanging out with her family at the reception (it was always entertaining to see her mother get drunk after two glasses of wine).

But once Sola and Darred hit the dance floor with Ruwee and a tipsy Jobal close behind, Padmé found herself actually alone and wishing she'd brought a date after all. Obi-Wan and Ahsoka didn't care much for weddings but Anakin usually liked them, she should've thought to ask him to come with her.

She was just about to wander over to the buffet table for more dessert out of a sheer lack of anything else to do when she spotted a familiar-looking back of someone's head. He turned around a little so that his face was visible, and Padmé's heart leapt when she saw that it was indeed Rush Clovis.

All resentment towards him for not having called her once over the past six months was immediately forgotten as she stood and hurried over towards him. He'd probably just lost her number and hadn't been able to get in touch with her even though he'd wanted to, and now this was fate bringing them back together for a second chance because they were meant to be and—

Padmé stopped short when she saw that there was a woman she didn't recognize hanging on his arm, but by then it was too late and he'd spotted her and was coming over to greet her. "Padmé, nice to see you again," he said, smiling as if he hadn't slept with her six months ago, never called her, and then shown up to a wedding with some other woman.

"You too," she said, managing a polite smile of her own.

Seeing the pointed look she gave the woman accompanying him, Rush said, "Oh, Padmé, I'd like to introduce you to my fiancée."

"Fiancée," Padmé echoed, her ears buzzing so loudly she didn't even catch the fiancée's name or the greeting she gave her.

But she did come back to reality just in time to hear Rush saying, "You should come to the wedding, Darred's family's all going to be there and I'm sure your sister would love to have you there to talk to instead of having to spend the whole time with in-laws. I know I'd be stressed out if I was her."

"Sola gets along very well with her in-laws," Padmé said rather coolly. "But it's thoughtful of you to invite me for her sake."

Rush's smile slipped a little at her obvious displeasure, but a second later it was back in full force and he said, "Still. We'd love to have you there."

And for some reason Padmé said, "I'd love to come."

Wedding Three

"Why did you even want to come to this?" Anakin said under his breath. "Hell, why did he invite you?"

"Some convoluted excuse about keeping my sister company," Padmé replied, also in a low voice. "But as for why I wanted to come, I wanted to see what kind of woman he was marrying."

"I thought you already met her."

"Yes, but I was too shocked to really notice anything about her and they left right afterwards."

"All right, well, you came, you saw her, can we leave now?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Just in case."

"Just in—?" Anakin could've screamed, he was so frustrated with her. "Padmé, do you seriously think—?"

"Keep your voice down," she hissed.

They were currently standing in the middle of the reception, so Anakin grabbed her arm and tugged her into the empty coatroom so they could talk privately. "Do you seriously think he's going to, what, abandon his wife three hours after marrying her and run off with you?" he said.

Padmé threw up her hands in exasperation. "I don't know! Sue me for being an optimist!" she said.

"An optimist? Padmé, you're being an idiot!"

"Some friend you are!"

"I'm just being honest with you!"

"I'm telling you, there was something special between us!" she insisted. "I-I've never felt that way with anyone else, it was like—it was like love at first sight, it was like we were meant to be together—"

Anakin snorted loudly. "That stuff is all bullshit and you know it."

"Why are you being like this?" Padmé demanded, looking angry and hurt. "The man I love just married someone else and you're supposed to be my friend, you're supposed to support me!"

"I hate to break it to you, but the man you love is just some random dude you had a one-night stand with after you'd both had a few drinks and then he never called you again," Anakin said impatiently. "This isn't a movie, okay? There's no such thing as love at first sight, there's no such thing as meant to be, there's no such thing as soulmates. Fuck it, for all I know there's no such thing as true love either, it's probably all a hoax Hollywood made up—"

"What is wrong with you? You were the one who always forced me to watch rom-coms with you in college, you were always so into that stuff—"

"Yeah, and then I grew up!" he half-shouted. "I grew up and I realized that those are movies and there's never gonna be that magical moment where the person you've been in love with for years suddenly realizes that they've loved you all along too and then you—you get married and have two kids and buy a house with a white picket fence and live happily ever after, instead you're just stuck helping them chase down some other guy and pretending that it's not killing you inside!"

"What are you talking about?" said Padmé, but now she looked less angry and more bewildered. "The person you've—? Who have you been in love with for years? You've never said a word to me about anything like that."

Anakin bit his lip so hard he almost drew blood, horrified that he'd accidentally let it slip in the heat of the moment, after so many years of hiding it. "Nothing, I—I was just being hypothetical, it doesn't matter—"

"Tell me, Anakin," she ordered. "Tell me now. Who is it?"

He let out a breath, and then he met her eyes and finally, finally let his true feelings show on his face. "You, Padmé," he said softly.

Padmé stared at him, looking absolutely flabbergasted. "What?" she said at last.

Anakin stuffed his hands in his pockets and stared at the floor, blinking back tears.

It was a very awkward car ride home.

Funeral

"So…goodbye, Mom," Anakin said. "I—" His voice broke and he took a shuddering breath, reaching up to wipe the tears from his eyes. "I love you, and I miss you so much."

He returned to his seat amongst sniffles and some sobs from all the other funeral attendees. Heart aching, Padmé scooched a little closer and put her arm around him, allowing him to rest his head on her shoulder as tears silently slid down his cheeks and dripped onto her dress.

Once the ceremony was over, they headed to the cemetery for the burial. It all passed in a haze, feeling unreal. Padmé had known Shmi had been sick for a long time, but she'd always assumed she'd recover because the alternative was too painful to contemplate. But now…she was gone. The woman Padmé had known since college and always considered a second mother, gone. She couldn't even imagine how Anakin must be feeling.

She stood by his side for the whole thing as a quiet offer of support and comfort. Once everything was over, people kept coming up to give Anakin their condolences before heading off to the funeral reception, until at last only he, Padmé, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka remained.

Obi-Wan and Ahsoka both gave him a long hug. "I'm so sorry, Anakin," Obi-Wan murmured. "Let us know if there's any way we can help, anything we can do."

"Anything at all. Seriously," said Ahsoka. "We're here for you."

Anakin nodded and gave them a watery smile. "Thanks."

Then they departed, leaving Padmé alone with him. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close; his breathing was harsh and unsteady, though he wasn't crying anymore. They were quiet for a long time and then Anakin said, "I'm sorry."

"What for?" Padmé asked, puzzled. "It's okay to cry, Ani, I don't mind at all—"

"No, not that. I meant, for what I said at Rush Clovis's wedding a few months ago."

Oh. Things had been awkward ever since; Padmé had been avoiding him because she just didn't know how to feel about his confession, and he'd been avoiding her likely out of embarrassment. But when she'd first heard the news of Shmi's death, Padmé had dropped everything and gone straight to find Anakin like nothing had ever happened between them.

She shook her head and hugged him tighter. "Don't worry about it," she said.

"But I made you uncomfortable," he mumbled into her shoulder.

"You just surprised me, that's all. I'm not uncomfortable. Ani, you're my best friend. You could never make me uncomfortable."

Anakin sniffled and was quiet for a while. At last they let go of each other. "Let's just forget it happened," he said eventually. "I-I've missed you these past months. I miss being friends. Can we be friends again?"

Padmé smiled. "Of course. Please."

Nevertheless, she had a funny feeling in her chest as she watched him walk back to his car, a feeling she couldn't quite describe.

Wedding Four

"I can't believe you're getting married," Obi-Wan said, shaking his head. "I never thought this day would come."

"Reassuring words from my best man," Anakin muttered, straightening his bowtie.

"Well, I just meant, you always swore it would be Padmé or no one. So, I figured it would end up being no one."

"That was ages ago, I've moved on," Anakin said.

"Obviously, seeing as you're about to marry Eirtaé," Obi-Wan said with a chuckle. "I think Padmé was a little hurt she didn't get to be in the wedding, though."

"Really? She complains about always being the bridesmaid, never the bride, I figured she'd be happy being neither for my wedding. And I did suggest it to Eirtaé, but she had too many other friends she wanted as bridesmaids." Anakin gave his reflection one last check and turned to Obi-Wan. "What do you think?"

"You look great." Obi-Wan hesitated for a moment, then ventured, "But…I hate to ask this, don't take it the wrong way, but are you sure you're ready for this? You're sure you're not rushing things?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Anakin asked defensively.

"Nothing," Obi-Wan said hastily. "Just, well, you and Eirtaé broke up years ago and you've been hung up on Padmé for so long and then your mother died and then it seemed like all of a sudden you were over Padmé and back with Eirtaé and then suddenly you were marrying her. That's all."

"Obi-Wan, these are really not the kinds of things I want to be hearing from my best man two hours before my wedding!"

"I'm sorry! But I just feel that my duty as your best man is to make sure you're absolutely, one hundred percent sure of this. Tell me I'm wrong and we'll head over to that church and get you married."

What was he supposed to say? That Rush Clovis's wedding had made him realize there was no point waiting around for someone who was never going to love him back? That his mother's death had made him realize he now didn't have a single living family member and he didn't want it to stay that way, didn't want to spend the rest of his life alone? That Eirtaé dropping by his apartment a few weeks later to offer condolences and one thing leading to another that night had made him realize that maybe perfect was impossible, maybe good was good enough?

"You're wrong," Anakin said. "I'm sure this is what I want."

"Well, that's great," Obi-Wan said, looking relieved. "Come on, we'd better get going."

When Anakin was standing at the altar, he glanced out at the guests and immediately spotted Padmé sitting with Ahsoka right in the front row. They made eye contact and she smiled encouragingly at him, though Anakin thought he also detected some other indecipherable emotion in her eyes, something almost like heartbreak.

And at that moment, he knew he'd made a terrible mistake. "Oh God," he whispered, suddenly feeling light-headed and short of breath. "Oh God, oh God."

"Are you all right?" Obi-Wan asked, leaning forward to speak quietly in his ear.

Anakin shook his head frantically.

"What is it?"

"I just—" But the music was starting up and the bridesmaids were coming down the aisle, and Anakin realized it was too late. He'd committed to this wedding, and there was no way he could back out without hurting lots of people, especially Eirtaé. She didn't deserve to be treated that way. Besides, Anakin was over Padmé. He was. Ever since he'd confessed his feelings and she'd just stared at him in dismayed shock, ever since they'd decided to just be friends at Shmi's funeral. This was probably just wedding day nerves, totally normal stuff.

So he shook his head again and whispered to Obi-Wan, "It's nothing, I'm fine."

The ceremony proceeded, and Anakin did his best to smile as Eirtaé walked down the aisle towards him, though he felt ill and on the verge of a panic attack. He could feel Padmé's gaze burning into him but he did everything in his power not to look at her.

Then the priest got to the part about "speak now or forever hold your peace." There was a beat of silence, as Anakin had expected, but then he heard people gasping.

He turned to look and his heart stopped as he saw that Ahsoka had gotten to her feet. Their eyes met, and in hers Anakin could see a question: Do you want me to say something? She'd always known how he felt about Padmé and now, it seemed, like Obi-Wan, she knew his feelings better than he himself did. He took a deep breath and gave her a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.

And so Ahsoka spoke. "I think the groom is having doubts," she said, her steady voice echoing through the room and causing even more gasps. "I think the groom would like to delay. And…I think the groom loves someone else." She looked him square in the eye once more. "Anakin, this is for the rest of your life. You've got to marry the person you love with your whole heart."

The gasps had ended, and now the entire church was dead silent as they waited for Anakin to say something. But Eirtaé was the first to speak. "Do you?" she demanded. "Do you love someone else?"

"I—" Anakin broke off, instinctively glancing back over at Padmé. She was staring at him, her face pale. In her expression he saw astonishment and worry and…hope.

He looked back at Eirtaé. "Yes," he said quietly, and he was absolutely unsurprised when her fist collided with his face a split second later. He had never deserved anything more.

That afternoon found Anakin back at his apartment nursing a black eye and feeling a strong mix of self-loathing and relief. For the first time since her death, he wryly thought that he was glad his mother wasn't there; she would've killed him for doing such a horrible thing and humiliating Eirtaé in front of all those people. Though, really, if Shmi had been there, she probably would've talked sense into him much sooner and stopped him from proposing in the first place.

"I'm sorry," Ahsoka said for the thousandth time as Obi-Wan went to fetch him a fresh icepack. "I'm sorry, this is all my fault—"

"No, it's not, it's mine," Anakin said. "And…I actually wanted to thank you. I feel horrible, but I do think you stopped me from making a mistake."

"Besides, as much as it hurts Eirtaé now, it would've hurt her so much more in the long run to be married to you if you were still in love with someone else," Obi-Wan said, bustling back out of the kitchen and handing him the icepack. "That's why I tried to talk to you before the wedding to avoid causing a scene."

"I know, I should've listened to you," Anakin said shamefacedly. "I guess I just didn't quite realize it until I was actually standing up there about to get married."

Before anyone could say another word, the doorbell rang. They all exchanged a glance, but Anakin got up to answer it. If it was Eirtaé coming to give him a second black eye, he had every intention to let her.

But it wasn't. It was Padmé.

"Oh," Anakin said when he opened the door, feeling breathless. The aftermath had been so chaotic that he hadn't known where she'd gone and had assumed she must've gone back home since she wasn't with them. "Hi."

"Hi." She gestured to his black eye. "You deserved that."

"I know."

Padmé bit her lip and shuffled her feet. "So," she said at last. "You love someone else."

"Yes," Anakin said simply.

"I think—hearing you say that, I think it might've been the happiest moment of my life," she said, so softly it was almost inaudible.

Anakin stared at her, hardly daring to believe it. "Do you…?"

"Yes," said Padmé, smiling shyly at him.

And before he could fully register what she'd said, she was leaning up and kissing him and Anakin stopped thinking and just kissed her back.

Wedding Five

"How do I look?" Anakin asked.

Padmé kissed him on the cheek. "Very handsome. Me?"

"Stunning as always. Do you have the gift?"

"Mm-hmm. Already in the car."

"Great."

"I still cannot believe we got invited," Padmé said once they were in the car, chuckling a little.

Anakin laughed too. "Tell me about it. I'm praying that it's a sign she's let bygones be bygones and also that it's not some elaborate revenge plot to humiliate me."

"If it is a plot to humiliate you, would it be all right if I laughed when the humiliation happens?"

"Sure, if you want this to be the last wedding you go to anytime soon," Anakin said with a pointed look at her engagement ring, making her laugh again.

They dropped off their gift when they arrived—they had purposely gotten the most expensive thing on the registry in a meek attempt to make up for Wedding Four. The ceremony was lovely and not a sound was made after "speak now or forever hold your peace," to everybody's relief (at least half the guests had also been in attendance at Wedding Four).

"Congratulations," Anakin said at the reception, trying not to sound nervous.

And thankfully, Eirtaé smiled and hugged him. "Thank you. And it was so nice of you to come, I wasn't sure you would."

"It was nice of you to invite me, I thought for sure you wouldn't."

"No, it's all good," she said warmly. "Sure, I wanted to kill you for a couple months, but now I realize you did me a favor. If I'd married you, we never would've met."

She beamed at her new husband, who beamed back and gave her a peck on the lips. "True," said Anakin. "Fate works in funny ways, I guess."

"Sure does," Padmé chimed in, slipping her fingers through his.

As they were walking back to their car much later that night, she remarked, "I have to say, this is by far the least eventful wedding I've been to lately. Which is surprising, considering it was the wedding of your ex-fiancée whom you abandoned at the altar for me."

"I know," Anakin agreed. "I really thought something dramatic was going to happen."

"Yeah, me too. But honestly, I'm done with dramatic weddings. Ours had better not be dramatic at all."

Anakin smiled and kissed her. "It'll be boring as hell. I promise."

"Good. So your abandoning people at the altar days are over?"

"God, that was one time."

"Still more times than most people do it."

"Are you ever going to let me live this down?"

"Nope. Fifty years from now I'm going to be telling all our grandchildren about how they almost had a different grandma."

As they laughed and continued walking hand-and-hand, Anakin thought to himself that he'd been right in the first place, back when he was a young and naïve hopeless romantic. Good wasn't good enough. Because if he'd settled for good, he would've missed out on his chance at perfect.

Idk why Eirtaé is my go-to when I need Anakin to have an ex...probably bc she's the handmaiden who looks least like Padmé (she's the blonde one) so then he's not awkwardly dating someone who looks exactly like her lmfao