As you can see, there is a slight timeskip here from the previous chapter because nothing of note happened during that time so I figured it would be better to get right to the next thing instead of adding a filler chapter or two :) hope you enjoy!

5 Months Later

"Padmé?" Anakin murmured in her ear one night in February as they were snuggling in bed. "Can I ask you something?"

"Mm-hmm."

There was a long pause, and then he said carefully, "What are your thoughts on marriage?"

Padmé's heart stopped, and then her eyes were snapping open and she was sitting bolt upright and twisting around to glare down at him. "Anakin Skywalker, if you're proposing to me five minutes after sex while we're both naked, I swear to God—"

"I'm not proposing, did you hear a 'will you marry me' anywhere in there?" Anakin interrupted with a laugh. He sat up too and took her hand, expression turning serious again. "I just wanted to discuss the idea with you and see what you thought. So…what do you think?"

"What do you think? You're the one bringing it up now, so you must've been thinking about it for a while," Padmé countered. Her heart was racing and she knew in her gut what her answer was, but she wanted to hear what Anakin thought first. And she needed some time to gather her thoughts before speaking, given that he'd just sprung the conversation on her like this.

"Well…" Anakin started rubbing his left thumb across the back of her hand, looking nervous. He took a deep breath. "I love you more than anything, Padmé. I'm so sure that you're the one I want to spend the rest of my life with, and…I-I want to marry you," he confessed, his expression utterly open and vulnerable. "And if we were two normal people and this was a normal relationship, I would be proposing to you right now. Well, maybe not right now, but you know what I mean. Anyway, the thing is, I figured what with your every move being under constant scrutiny from the entire country and our relationship always being in the spotlight and being such a popular topic of public gossip—well, I figured getting married wouldn't be as straightforward for us as it would be for most couples. I know you have a lot more things to take into account than the average person when it comes to marriage, so that's why I wanted to sit down and have an honest conversation together instead of proposing to you without any warning and putting you on the spot."

Padmé felt a lump form in her throat. He was always so considerate, so thoughtful and understanding. So good to her. "Thank you, Ani, I really appreciate that," she said, giving him a small smile which he returned. Then she was quiet for a while as she mulled everything over. They'd been together for a year and eight months, which maybe wasn't that long; hell, she'd dated Clovis for three years without marriage being on table. And yet, after one year and eight months with Anakin, Padmé already felt so much more certain of their relationship than she had after almost twice as long with Clovis.

Whenever she imagined her future, Anakin was always there by her side. She couldn't even fathom the thought of their relationship coming to an end. And she had always dreamed of finding the right partner and getting married. Her younger self had naively thought it would be Palo, but they just weren't compatible enough to last for a long time. Her more mature self had never really thought it would be Clovis; she'd dated him more for a life experience than because she thought they were soulmates. But now with Anakin, Padmé felt in her bones that he was it. He was the right partner, the one she wanted to be with forever. She'd all but given up hope of longterm relationships and marriage when she'd decided to throw her hat in for the presidential race, but fate had ended up surprising her by bringing Anakin into her life. She loved him more than she'd ever thought it was possible to love someone. Before, Padmé had sometimes wondered how married couples didn't get bored of each other after decades and decades together, but now? Now, the idea of spending the rest of her life with Anakin, of never being with anyone else but him as long as she lived…that would be a privilege, not a bore.

He was right, their marriage would cause a media circus. Then again, their relationship had been causing media circuses from the moment they'd announced it to the public. What was one more? Besides, when push came to shove Padmé just didn't care. She didn't care how anyone else would feel about their marriage, only how she and Anakin felt. She knew how Anakin felt.

And Padmé knew how she felt too.

"I want to marry you too," she said, smiling even wider and feeling a few tears well up in her eyes and spill over onto her cheeks. "I don't care what anyone else will say. I love you, Anakin, and I want to be with you forever, and nothing else matters."

Anakin's breath caught and he looked at her in amazement for a moment, but then he was beaming too and leaning in and kissing her square on the lips. "You're sure?" he said breathlessly after he drew away again. "People will talk—"

"I know, and I told you, I don't care," Padmé said, feeling giddy. "Actually, if anything this will put a stop to the gossip. Maybe after we've been married for a while people will start to lose interest. Married couples are boring gossip topics."

Anakin laughed. "Good point." Then he made a face. "Hey, will this mean I'll officially become First Gentleman and have to spend all my time, like, planning parties and stuff? Because I've been doing an okay job of avoiding that so far since I'm only your boyfriend."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be a great trophy husband," Padmé said cheerfully, giggling when he rolled his eyes. "Seriously, there's a lot more to it than that. You can do a lot of work on social reform projects, pick something you're really passionate about. You've always wanted to be able to make a difference in the lives of people in need, right? This is your chance."

Anakin's eyes lit up. "That's true. Maybe I can do something to help kids from low-income families…or maybe something to improve schools in poorer areas? Or I could work on some kind of anti-bullying program? Or a scholarship fund for poor kids to go to college?"

"Those all sound like amazing ideas," Padmé said, thrilled to see him already taking so much initiative. "See? Being First Gentleman won't be so bad."

"Maybe not. Plus, it'll mean I'm married to the most incredible woman in the entire world," Anakin said fondly. "I'd put up with anything to have that."

Padmé smiled broadly and kissed him again. "You're still going to propose properly, though, right?" she said when they broke apart. "You'd better."

"Oh, I will. Down on one knee and everything," he assured her. "I'll wait until you're not expecting it for maximum effect."

"But now I'm always going to be expecting it."

"No, I'm going to manage to catch you off guard. Even if I have to wait ten years for it."

"If you wait ten years to propose to me I will kill you."

And so the waiting game began. Padmé was constantly on edge, half-expecting Anakin to burst out of the shower while she was brushing her teeth or barge into the middle of a very important meeting and get down on one knee (fortunately, neither happened). She knew he wouldn't propose on Valentine's Day if he was trying to catch her off guard, but then she started wondering if he'd think she'd think it was cliché and therefore wouldn't be expecting it, so she spent the entire day on high alert regardless (no proposal occurred, though Anakin did laugh himself sick at her extreme paranoia all day).

Afterwards, Padmé would be astonished that he did manage to surprise her in the end. It was two o'clock on a Thursday afternoon, she'd skipped lunch and could hardly focus on anything but her growling stomach, she'd been in meetings or on the phone nonstop all day, she was currently slogging through a headache-inducing stack of paperwork, and all things considered it was one of those days that felt like an entire week crammed into one. And it was only halfway over.

A light on Padmé's phone started flashing, and she pressed a button to talk. "Yes?"

"Vice President Organa is here to see you, ma'am," said Sabé.

"Could you ask him if he'd mind coming back another time? I'm totally swamped right now."

Slight pause. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but he says it's urgent."

Padmé sighed. "Fine, send him in."

A moment later, Bail poked his head in the door. "I'm so sorry to bother you, Padmé, but we're having an emergency cabinet meeting in the East Room and we need you there right away."

Padmé narrowed her eyes, remembering when she'd spun a similar story for him. "Are you trying to get me to a surprise party? Because my birthday's not for four more months."

Bail chuckled. "No, there really is a meeting, I promise."

"Then why is it in the East Room?"

He shrugged. "There's already lots of tables and chairs set up for the event tonight, and Satine said she felt like a change of scenery and made us meet there instead and the rest of us were too scared to argue."

"That does sound like Satine," Padmé conceded after a second, so she obligingly got up and followed Bail out of the room, only mildly suspicious. He held the door for her upon their arrival, and Padmé walked in and stifled a shriek.

The room was practically bursting with flowers, the furniture for that evening's event barely even visible through the impromptu greenhouse. And standing in the middle of it all was Anakin, grinning at her and looking extremely pleased with himself. "Told you I'd get you when you weren't expecting it," he said triumphantly.

Padmé burst out laughing and hurried over to him, feeling tears spring to her eyes. "Oh my God, Ani, I can't believe you!"

He laughed too and got down on one knee, bringing his prosthetic arm out from behind his back as he did so. There was a small box clutched in his hand, and he opened it with his left hand to reveal a diamond ring. Then he reached out with his left hand and took her own, beaming up at her with tears shining in his eyes as well.

"Padmé Amidala Naberrie," he began, and Padmé started crying in earnest as she remembered the day, so long ago, when they'd discussed her real name and then shared their first kiss. "The stars had to do some pretty crazy aligning for us to end up meeting each other, but I have spent every single second of the past two years being beyond grateful that they did. I decided to propose to you in this room because this is where we danced together for the first time and that was the moment I truly became aware of my feelings for you, but honestly, I think I fell in love with you a little bit the moment I met you. And I've only been falling more and more every day since then. We've already been through lots of ups and downs together, and I want you to be by my side for all the ups and downs for the rest of my life. You make the bad times easier to handle and the good times even better. I love you so, so much, Padmé. Will you marry me?"

"Yes!" Padmé said practically before he'd finished speaking. "Yes, Ani, I love you, I love you!"

Anakin slid the ring on her finger and stood back up, his smile brighter than the stars. Padmé threw her arms around him and kissed him deeply, and it took several moments before she realized there were people applauding. She drew back and looked around to see that they had a small audience: Bail, of course, as well as the majority of both her and Anakin's security teams. She blushed and hid her face in Anakin's shirt, though she was still grinning. "You didn't tell me you were going to invite so many people to come watch."

Anakin's chest rumbled with his answering laugh. "Well, I knew you were going to say yes so it seemed safe," he reasoned. "Plus, as soon as I told them all I was going to propose and asked for help getting you here, they begged me to let them stay and watch."

"And now you have photos and videos preserving the occasion forever, thanks to us," Ahsoka added.

"I'm not sure I want them, I probably look like a mess," Padmé said, lifting her head again and looking up at Anakin.

He smiled and reached out to wipe a tear from her cheek. "You have never looked more beautiful," he said softly, and then he was kissing her again.

The moment was ruined by Padmé's stomach growling loudly. "Sorry," she said sheepishly as Anakin snickered.

"Did you skip lunch again today? I keep telling you not to do that."

"I was too busy!"

"You should never be too busy for food," Anakin scolded her. "Come on, let's go eat something, and you can cancel whatever's next on your schedule and tell them you're…otherwise engaged."

Padmé groaned. "We've been engaged for two minutes and you're already making terrible puns. What have I gotten myself into?"

"Welcome to the rest of your life," Anakin said, grinning.

She laughed and they headed towards the door, hand in hand. "How'd you get all these flowers?" she asked.

"Eirtaé helped me out. She said a preemptive congratulations, by the way."

"So your ex helps you propose to your girlfriend and mine tries to assassinate me? Clearly one of us has better taste."

"Hmm, clearly." Anakin paused as he registered the insult. "Hey, wait a second!"

"I'm just kidding," Padmé said, laughing. "I obviously have excellent taste since I picked you."

"Very true," Anakin said smugly. "And I have excellent taste since I picked you."

Padmé did end up cancelling a non-essential phonecall she was supposed to make that afternoon in favor of having a leisurely lunch with Anakin and calling their families to share the news. "So, wedding plans," Padmé said after they'd been heartily congratulated over the phone by the overjoyed Naberries followed by the overjoyed Skywalker-Larses. "What do you think?"

"Whatever you want to do. You're the bride."

"That is an extremely outdated and sexist viewpoint, Anakin," she said sternly. "It's just as much your day as it is mine."

"As long as we're legally married by the end of the day, I'm good with anything else that happens," Anakin replied, and she laughed. "Also, I'd prefer to interact with as few politicians as possible."

"Oh, definitely," Padmé said, nodding. "I know everyone will expect us to make it a big thing, but…I don't know, I think something more low-key would be nice, with just us and family and a few close friends. We could even get married here at the White House if we really wanted to keep things private and avoid paparazzi."

Anakin smiled. "That sounds perfect. I don't want a big fuss either. This is a personal event, not a political one."

"My thoughts exactly. I want to celebrate our love surrounded by people we care about, not just a bunch of politicians I had to invite for show."

Anakin nodded in agreement. Then Padmé leaned over to try and kiss him, but he held up his hand to stop her. "Nope. None of that until you finish eating that sandwich," he said firmly. "I don't want you to pass out from hunger while we're in the middle of making out, that would suck for both of us."

Padmé sighed loudly, picked the sandwich back up, and took a bite. "There. Happy?" she asked through a mouthful of sandwich, doing her best to chew obnoxiously.

"Very happy. And even happier that I'm the only one who gets the privilege of seeing the oh-so-poised President Amidala chew with her mouth open. If only the papers could see what you're like behind closed doors."

Padmé swallowed and stuck her tongue out at him.

That evening, Padmé and Anakin donned formal attire and returned to the East Room for the gala to garner support for Padmé's proposed increased spending on welfare for the upcoming fiscal year. She'd unfortunately had to invite the Senate Finance Committee since they were the people she most needed to sway, but she'd also invited several other Congressmembers with whom she got along better in hopes of easing the discomfort (and having more people to debate the issue from her side). After all, they would be the ones voting on the Finance Committee's revised budget in a few months.

"People will probably notice the ring," she mused to Anakin on the way over, holding her hand out to admire the ring herself. It was beautiful, a plain silver band with a small diamond set into it; Padmé predicted the tabloids would tut disapprovingly about how it wasn't nearly elaborate or expensive enough for the president of the United States, but she thought it was absolutely perfect. Classy and elegant without being ostentatious or a blatant flaunting of wealth. "Should we just announce our engagement at the beginning to avoid all the questions?"

"Won't that draw attention away from the stuff you wanted to talk about?" he asked.

"Yes, but hopefully only briefly. I think getting it out of the way right off the bat would be better than people continually coming up to me all night and asking about the ring."

Anakin conceded the point, and once they'd arrived and Padmé had finished making her speech to welcome the guests, she beckoned him forward. "Now, on an irrelevant and more lighthearted note, Anakin and I are very excited to announce our recent engagement," she said, unable to hide a smile while the guests gasped and applauded. "I don't want to detract focus from the budget, of course, but I thought it would be more efficient to say something to everyone right now instead of having you all come up to me individually to ask if I'm wearing an engagement ring."

Laughter rang through the room at that, and Anakin slid his arm around her waist and kissed her on the cheek as the guests began making congratulatory exclamations.

To Padmé's relief, while nearly everyone she spoke to opened with some form of congratulations, they all quickly moved on to talk about actual politics, which was, after all, the entire purpose of the gala. Anakin glued himself to her side all evening and didn't say much—even after several months he was still a fish out of water at these sorts of events.

"Congratulations on your engagement, Madam President."

Padmé turned and plastered on a smile as she came face-to-face with Palpatine. "Thank you, Senator Palpatine," she said politely. She felt Anakin tense up beside her, and she moved imperceptibly closer to him and took his hand.

Then Palpatine turned to Anakin. "And congratulations to you too, Mr. Skywalker. I look forward to seeing much more of you over the next few years." He still refused to address Anakin by his first name even though Anakin had asked him to more than once; Padmé suspected it was a deliberate attempt to make Anakin uncomfortable.

"Thank you, Senator. I do too," Anakin replied, lying through his teeth.

"It will certainly be a change to have the office of First Gentleman filled by someone who is so…untested in the ways of politics," Palpatine said.

Anakin flushed, and Padmé did her best to hide a scowl as she said calmly, "A refreshing change, I think. We politicians have gotten far too caught up in party squabbles instead of focusing on serving the people. Anakin's non-political perspective is exactly what the White House needs."

"Oh, quite," said Palpatine, though the accompanying smile didn't reach his eyes.

Padmé spent fifteen painful minutes discussing the budget with him (unsurprisingly, he was decidedly against increased spending on welfare) before Anakin tugged her away for a dance. "Ani, I was nowhere near done convincing him," Padmé protested once they were out of earshot.

"We both know there's a better chance of me getting elected president than there is of you convincing Palpatine to do something that would help poor people," Anakin replied.

Padmé gave a snort of laughter. "That's probably true. I'd vote for you, for the record."

"Aww, thanks."

A slow song came on after a while, and Padmé contentedly rested her head against his chest and smiled as he wrapped his arms more tightly around her. "It's so nice to be able to dance with you as my boyfriend instead of trying to pretend you're just my bodyguard who I totally don't have feelings for," she said.

Anakin pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I think you mean your fiancé," he murmured into her hair.

A thrill went through Padmé at hearing the words out loud, and she looked up at him with a smile. "You're right. I'm going to have to get used to calling you that."

"And then once you've finally gotten used to it, you'll have to start calling me your husband instead," Anakin said, grinning.

Padmé laughed. "My husband," she echoed, her smile widening as she practiced saying it. "Just think, one of the next times we dance together will be at our wedding."

Anakin smiled broadly back at her and leaned down to kiss her on the lips this time. "I can't wait."

Also a note for those asking about what Anakin's new job will be now that he's left the Secret Service: his new job will be First Gentleman. To my knowledge, no First Lady has ever really had a day job, so I don't see why it would be different for a First Gentleman. Sure, maybe it's not the kind of "job" Anakin would really enjoy but as he says in this chapter, it's a sacrifice he's willing to make because he loves Padmé. And I'm sure he'll be very busy as it is without adding a whole extra side job on top!