Anakin woke up to feel his son squirming slightly in his arms. He looked down to find that the child was desperately trying to hide against his chest.
"Luke, wake up." Anakin moved his arms to shake the boy gently.
"Huh? Daddy?" Luke blinked awake.
"Is something wrong? Did you have a nightmare?" Anakin sat up.
"Uh huh," Luke nodded seriously and resumed trying to crawl into his father's tunic.
Anakin pulled his son back out, grabbed his wrists and twirled him into a hug that prevented him from moving almost completely. "It's okay, Luke. I'm sure it was just a bad dream. You don't need to hide."
Luke stopped struggling and relaxed against his father's chest, mumbling, "Right. Just a bad dream."
Anakin released his son's wrists and picked him up. Luke slipped his arms around his father's neck and Anakin carried the boy down to the kitchen.
"Good morning, Anakin. Is Luke awake?" Padme turned from her list of senators to look up at her husband.
Anakin realized that Luke had gone completely limp and to his mother it would appear that he wasn't awake. "I think so. Please tell me that you did actually get some sleep last night."
Padme laughed, "Of course I did. Did Luke let you sleep?"
"Mostly," Anakin put his son down and Luke ran to his mother.
Padme scooped him up and put him on her lap. Luke immediately reached for the data pad on the table and Padme shoved it out of his reach.
"Are you hungry?" Anakin headed into the kitchen in his normal morning routine.
"Not really. I made myself caff. I think there's some left." Padme moved her son to the chair beside her and picked up her data pad.
Anakin glanced at the caff maker. The display said that the caff had been made about four hours ago. "Padme, I thought you said that you got some sleep."
"I did. I didn't say anything about how much." Padme took a sip of the caff that was sitting on the table in front of her and made a face, "If you want any of that I'd suggest warming it up."
Anakin rolled his eyes and turned to his son, "Are you hungry, Luke?"
Luke nodded.
Anakin got cereal for himself and his son and carried it over.
"I want caff." Luke declared.
"No, Luke." Padme didn't even look up.
"Daddy, can I have some caff?" Luke looked up at his father hopefully.
"Luke. That would be potentially dangerous for the entire planet. If you're anything like me, anyway." Anakin said.
Padme smiled, "I always kind of wondered why you don't drink caff."
"Well there's that and the fact that I don't like the flavour." Anakin smiled and continued eating.
"Please, Daddy?" Luke tried to reach for his mother's caff, but Anakin pulled it out of reach.
"No, Luke. You wouldn't like it either. It's really bitter."
"Fine," Luke crossed his arms.
"Really, it's not very good." Anakin said, trying to soothe his son.
"I won't know that until I've tried it." Luke countered.
"Fine, you want caff?" Anakin stood up and scooped a spoonful of caff out of the pot. He offered it to Luke who took it eagerly. Anakin grabbed the dishtowel as his son drank the caff. As he had expected, Luke spat it right back out. Anakin carefully wiped the caff away and hugged his crying son (he hadn't expected tears), glad that the caff had been cold.
"It's okay, Luke, it's okay." Anakin carefully picked him up.
Luke pressed his face against his father's chest and sniffled. He could hear his father trying to make him feel better. After a few moments of awkward hug that required Anakin to be sitting on his heels, Anakin stood up with his son in his arms.
Padme took her son from Anakin and rocked him carefully. "Luke, it's all right. It was just a bit of caff. Why don't you run upstairs and put on a clean shirt."
Luke hiccupped and nodded. Padme put him down and his parents watched as he ran upstairs to put on a dry shirt.
"Sorry, Padme, I didn't think it'd upset him that much."
"I know you didn't. He'll be okay. I'm pretty sure he won't ask for caff any time in the near future. Can you help me get in touch with someone about the new senate?"
"Sure." Anakin started to work on contacting one of the old senate members. After a few minutes, Luke came running down the stairs and threw himself into his mother's arms. Padme hugged him and put him down on the floor, encouraging him to go play in the playroom.
After a while, Anakin succeeded in contacting another senator and arranged for them to come over. As soon as they arrived, he headed up to play with his son.
"Daddy!" Luke ran into his father's arms and Anakin scooped him up.
"Mommy has a senator friend over, Luke. Would you like to come down to the garage and play there?"
"Yeah!" Luke nodded eagerly and Anakin carried him to the garage.
Setting Luke on the workbench, Anakin retrieved a small project he had been working on in his spare time.
Luke poked at it curiously, "What is it?"
"It's like a droid caller, except that I'll be able to call my ship with it."
"Oh," Luke picked it up and turned it over in his hands, staring at it like he expected it to start to transform into something else. "Can I build something?"
Anakin turned and pulled out some old droid pieces that would be danger free for his son. Upon giving them to Luke he was somewhat surprised to see the boy hand them back.
"They won't make anything. I want to make something."
Anakin stared at his son's pout for a moment before retrieving some more parts that were potentially a little more dangerous, but he would be right there if anything went wrong. He passed Luke the new pieces.
"Better?"
Luke smiled, "Yeah!"
Anakin watched his son working with the pieces for a few moments before returning to his own project.
After a few hours, Anakin had finished several small projects and his son was still captivated by the pieces in his hands. Anakin had thought at first that his son might have been as skilled with machines as he had been at that age, but as time passed on he was beginning to think otherwise. The pieces he had given Luke would snap together in just a few moments.
Finally, Luke pushed his father a creation completely unlike what the kit had been made to make with a satisfied smile, "Done."
Anakin picked up his son's completed project, "You are done, aren't you?"
"Yep. All done. It's a droid."
Anakin turned the object over again, "It's a very good droid. What do you want it to do?"
"I dunno. Maybe it can keep Artoo company. He must get bored of talking to Threepio."
"Why didn't you just make a droid caller like that kit was supposed to?"
Luke shrugged and took his little droid back, "I didn't want to. It was too easy."
"Would you like to paint your droid, Luke?"
"Yeah!"
Anakin rummaged around until he found some non-toxic paint and a few small paint brushes. He passed them to Luke and watched as the boy started painting on everything and anything he could think of. Soon after, Luke had painted the droid with more than all the colours of the most extravagant rainbow.
"Now it's done. D'you like it?" Luke held the droid back out to his father and Anakin took it, careful not to smudge the paint.
"I'm going to put it up here so it doesn't get messed up, okay?" Anakin put the droid on a shelf high over his son's head.
"Okay. Can I build something else?" Luke looked hopefully in the direction of Anakin's little junk yard.
"Go ahead." Anakin picked his son up and put him on the floor.
Luke immediately ran into the junk yard and Anakin could hear him searching through the rubble for something to work on. After a few moments he was back with a broken MSE droid. He held it up to his father for inspection and Anakin put it on the workbench, and then boosted his son up too.
Luke began working on his new project, but after just a few moments he perked up suddenly and stared in the direction of the door. Anakin reached out in the Force for whatever Luke had felt and sensed Padme coming down the stairs with her friend.
A couple of moments later he could hear his wife too. She was happily talking about Luke and when she entered the room Luke slipped off the workbench and ran to greet her.
"Mommy!"
Padme swept him up and continued over to Anakin.
"Hello, Ani. We decided to take a break and see what you and Luke are doing."
"How's Mission Protect-The-Senate-From-Power-Hungry-Jerks coming?" Anakin helped his son scramble back on to the workbench and Luke happily picked up his project again.
"As I expected."
"Is that a good thing?"
Padme smiled, "It's not a bad thing."
Anakin gave up trying to get an answer that was not forthcoming and took his son's creation off the shelf, "Look what Luke built, Padme. This is incredible. I gave him a kit to make a droid caller."
Luke looked up from his new project when he heard his name. Seeing the little droid, he stood up on the workbench and turned it on for his parents.
"It's wonderful, Luke. What does it do?" Padme took the activated droid and turned it over in her hands.
"Not much. It can talk." He shrugged, and then brightened. As Padme put the droid back on the shelf, Luke sat back down and returned to his MSE droid.
Padme gazed at her son and whispered in her husband's ear. "Ani, I raised him. I know that he got your skills with mechanics."
Anakin nodded and returned to watching his son happily poking at his droid. After a few moments, the senators returned to their work.
When Luke finished his new project a few hours later, Anakin decided that it was time to rejoin his wife for dinner and they left the garage, Luke dragging his MSE droid by a string he had tied to it. The droid's new programing hadn't really been completed enough for it to avoid running into things on its own. Anyway, Luke liked leading it.