Whassup! Responding reviews: There's another, my man!

Good! Good...

Alderaan? Too many clones would be a risk.

Hope ya'll have a fine read!

With Obi-wan on his mission in Utapau and Yoda in Kashyk, Anakin could not go straight from Coruscant to either planet. The fuel, oxygen, and water in the green Starfighter would only last a few more light-years, and soon they would have to make a stop. Their choice was made right at the entrance to hyperspace after leaving Coruscant. They were going somewhere nearby, within three days of travel. A place with little influence from the Republic or the clones—remembering the last check he made as a Jedi General, Anakin believed that the clone troops would move to the extremes of the two borders and, gradually, shut down all the planets with Jedi presence, imprisoning the Jedi remaining and having a kind of siege around them.

An empty planet, full of criminals, at the entrance to the Outer Rim... They were going to Tatooine.

At first, Anakin wanted to go to Dantooine, but they wouldn't have enough oxygen for the trip. Second, he intended to go to one of the planets in the Inner Rim, but his wife convinced him otherwise since one of the only planets that could harbor them would be Naboo, although that would be Palpatine's first guess when he found out that his traitorous apprentice left Coruscant with his wife. On Tatooine, they had the Lars to help them, and even if the blond Jedi knight didn't want to involve them, they were their brightest hope. Tatooine is their best chance of setting since Palpatine knows how much Anakin hates that cursed, god-forgotten place.

Now, they were only two hours in hyperspace, Anakin controlling the wheel with a face still writhing from having to go to Tatooine. Padmé was resting with three other children, reading them a holo-book. One of the children had already slept and the other two listened attentively but clearly sleepy. On the other side of the control room, four children talked very quietly and one meditated.

The silence was overwhelming, just the whispering of Padmé's voice with the holo-book in her hand, tired eyes and her chest going up and down softly giving an air of life in contrast to the vastness of darkness outside the spaceship. The senator had noticed one thing during the whole trip; everyone always seemed to have lapses of emotion together, especially lapses of sadness... Anakin did not answer about this when she asked, so she thought it had to do with Order 66 and the death of the Jedi at the hands of the clones. Her knowledge of the situation was vague, but she presumed it was about that.

"And...?" the little girl asked, looking at Padmé in confusion because she had stopped reading. The other boy, lying next to her, just waited quietly, watching his friend sleep a little away.

"Oh, sorry. Hum... Oh, here I was; 'And the man lit his lightsaber, turned it masterfully and elegant, his saber guided by fate, and with a single blow he pierced through the beast's heart, lighting his black coat on fire and charring its skin—'

"That's not how a lightsaber works." the little girl said and, vaguely remembering the battle on Geonosis, Padmé reflected.

"I know very well how they work; I've seen several of them being used during a great fight." she commented, passing the hand that didn't hold the holo-book in the light brown hair of the little female Jedi apprentice.

"A protosaber burns things and lit them on fire..." the boy next to her right tight said.

"Well, how about we take a break from the story, then?" the senator asked and, glancing at each other, the two children didn't contest it. The story was boring and unrealistic, they were only listening because of Padmé's soothing voice. As no one said anything else, Padmé accepted it as a yes. However, before she could start a topic she had in mind, the boy next to her went a little faster.

"How did you and Master Skywalker meet?" he asked, and in fact, as everything was silent, one of the children who was talking on the other side of the room heard. Stopping listening to the discussion about Master Kenobi's defensive fighting style, this dark-haired child looked at the woman on the sofa and then at Anakin, who was flying the ship with a headset in his ears... And the question came immediately.

"Hey, why did that woman kissed Master Skywalker?"

And eventually, the whole room was silent. Padmé kept a surprising hard glow and looked in the direction of the boy on the other side of the room, his question coming out a little loud. All the other children also stopped what they were doing to think—even the one who was meditating—looking between Padmé and Anakin. With shivers on his back, feeling a disturbance in the Force, Anakin took off his headset, staring at the group of nine people there. Padmé gave him a frightened look, mouth a little open and radiating uncertainty. Literally, with no idea what was happening, Anakin asked.

"I have a terrible feeling about this... So, what happened?"

"Master Skywalker, why did you kissed that lady?!" one of the children shouted, rising from the ground and running towards the pilot's seat.

"It's against the Jedi code to have this kind of affection for others!" Another and, with his face hardening, he remembered that he had actually kissed his wife in front of several children... It was three years of hiding it. 3 years passing under the noses of Jedi Masters with years and years of experience, even going unnoticed by Yoda! 3 years of meticulously hiding a relationship that would destroy both their careers. And in the one moment that Anakin didn't expect and had his guard down, the whole secret went down the drain. Swallowing dry, he opened his mouth to speak, but the words didn't come and, like an idiot, he kept staring at the five children who went to the side of the pilot's seat to try to get answers from their icon of hope.

The mind of his worked like a whirlwind and, looking from Padmé and then the children's confused and expectant faces, Anakin responded with the first thing that came to his mind.

"It's a usual... family custom."

"Are you family?..."

It wasn't a lie that Anakin Skywalker was a celebrity. A magazine cover personality, a renowned general and the most powerful Jedi among knights. Palpatine liked to expose him as an example of how to be, as well as a walking anti-separatist propaganda. His fame has grown immensely since he became a Jedi knight at the beginning of the clone wars. With fame followed doubts; origins, ideas, opinions... and orientation and sexual life, the last one he was saturated with answering 'is against the Jedi code'. Still, many were aware of his origin. A slave in Tatooine, rescued by Qui-gon Jinn on a mission during an escort mission of the Queen of Naboo.

Either he invented something very quickly, or the moment these children discovered that Padmé is actually the Senator of Naboo and one of the most respected in the Senate, they could ruin his and her entire life with just a few words. Taking a deep breath and receiving a cracked-toothed look from his wife, Anakin was instigated to elaborate on this lie.

"Yes, family." Stopping for a second and looking at the stars at white lines on the outside, as well as alternating to the autopilot, Anakin spoke again. "I never told it since it was too personal, but I am the bastard son of a queen... My real mother wanted a woman to rule over the planet, so she gave me to some slave woman and threw me into Tatooine, separating me from my twin sister." He hated to lie about Shmi, his mother he loves so much, but he couldn't ruin his status as a Jedi and that of his wife as a senator. His eyes also saw the children's great interest in a story, the boredom of not being able to do anything for days on end beating them for the first time. "I grew up in slavery and my sister as a princess and destined to the throne of our home planet. The day Qui-gon Jinn came to me, he was protecting my twin sister, Queen Amidala. The moment I saw her, I realized there was something special about her. Something that attracted me. Something that brought us together... as if the fate that had moved all the pieces for us to be together." he stopped there, seeing the shock who rose in the children's eyes. Eyes ran from the Jedi to the Senator, who, as an actress, let out a sweet laugh.

"So she's…" the girl looked from Padmé to Anakin, wide-open mouth.

"My twin sister? Yes, she is." Anakin smiled a bit silly when he said that, eyes on Padmé. She genuinely laughed, seeing the girl and the boy who were next to her run out closer and thus hear more. Leaving the book closed, she brought the little boy who was sleeping to her lap, serving as a softer pillow, her eyes amused by the children's eyes and the story Anakin told, even though she was still worried about the consequences of such a wasted lie.
"Did you really feel her in the Force?!" asked one of the girls, eyes full of brightness. The story looked magical and exciting, somewhat romanticized.

"Yes, instantly. It was as if a noose caught us instantly."

"Doesn't that make you the King of Naboo?" Anakin laughed when he heard that from the same girl.

"No, at least I don't think I can claim that title." His eyebrow rose towards Padmé and, waving her hand, she denied it.

"But what about the kiss? Is it a custom for everyone in Naboo to kiss when they meet their family?"

"Only twins, but it also depends on the relationship. She and I have a very strong relationship since we grew up helping each other during these 13 years together. It's usually a kiss on the cheek for ordinary twins." Stumbling and being careful with his words not to bite his own ass, Anakin relieved himself on the Force by seeing the boy agree to it. "But! Absolutely, you can't tell that to anyone. Our kiss is not a form of affection, much less an attachment. The masters may misunderstand that, so don't tell them. I've already done that and almost got kicked out of the Council, believe me?" Anakin expected them to believe it, because it was a lie.

Suddenly, a boy got up, running out towards the bathroom.

"But Master Skywalker! Tell other stories!" At that point, all six children were already sitting on a wheel next to the pilot's seat, their legs crossed, and the boredom gone. Comfort began to rise in him when his question was ignored, and the children generally seemed to have forgotten the whole matter of kissing pro in order to escape the total tediousness of their first hyperspace trip.

"Tell us how you destroyed the Separatist ship when you were only 9!"

"No! Tell how Master Obi-wan killed a Sith..." another suggested, raising his hand and smiling.

"What about Master Yoda's fight against Count Dookan? If Yoda couldn't beat him and you did, that makes you stronger than Master Yoda, no?"

"True..." one of the children agreed with the other.

"Let's take it slow, children! One at a time." asked, checking the controls and the travel report again, to see if everything was right. "Is it all right if I start by telling you about the time I traveled to the most beautiful planet in the galaxy?" that caught the children's attention. Since none of them had left the temple until then, hearing it from an idol who is Anakin gave them curiosities. Seeing that the situation had a turn out for the safe side, for the time being, Padmé returned to her reading, still listening in the background and, occasionally, sending her gaze to her 'twin brother', smiling as she saw him interacting so well with little children, that book she read in one hand and the other on the hair of the child who was silently asleep.

Still, shit happens... Literally.

"MASTER SKYWALKER!" that child who had previously run to the bathroom came back, now with paper stuck in his foot and his pants barely lifted, strangely soaked. Taken by a sudden spike of danger, Anakin jumped on the chair and ran toward the child, the saber in his hand. He had some bomb in the plumbing that had been sneakily attached—that was a possibility because he and Obi-wan had done it before.

"What happened?!" he shouted in concern, suddenly waking up the child who was sleeping in Padmé's lap. The latter, in turn, stared anxiously at her husband, disconnected from the mutual feeling of concern that had arisen for all the other children to take their lightsabers, the one on her lap having already rolled out, the hand on the energy sword.

"I was... I was doing... Number 2... And the discharge clogged up, so... So." with tears in his eyes, the child was shuffling his words. Even without them, however, the eldest saw the water that was beginning to flow under the bathroom door in the hall. "I used the Force to send the poop down the pipe... But the pipe burst and a lot of water is leaking out!... Sorry..." he finished, crying with worry and fear. Sighing tense, Anakin wet his lips, turning to the other children still with their lightsabers in hand, and then he spoke.

"Look for brooms and buckets, I'll try to fix the pipe!" he shouted, running towards the bathroom and swallowing dry. Not only was there a lot of water, but there were all 'number two' of the boy in that water... He's been in bad situations before, but this one will hold a special place in his heart. Still standing and not understanding much, all the children, beating themselves like silly cockroaches before they could get organized, started looking for the cleaning utensils as the master had asked.

"BY THE FORCE!" shouted the blond in the hall as he opened the door, holding the water while using the Force. Padmé bit her lower lip trying not to start laughing, her hand going and muffling her mouth. She couldn't help, since she'd been banished from any physical effort for the sake of the children in her belly, so all that was left was to watch the children hunting for useful utensils, one trying to hold back his tears, and listen to her husband grumbling as he used the Force both to repair the broken pipe and to keep the water inside the bathroom... Having to do this with it at the level of his knees and with certain brown sediments all over the place. "IS EVERYWHERE! MY GOD!" His screams made the child cry more and more frantically "I'm sorry...". And on top of that, all the children were getting in the way of things. Raised as warriors, Padmé understood it was difficult for them to use mops and buckets. And when one of them tripped and spilled a bucket full of water that was going to be taken for filtering on one of his classmates, that's when it started to fall apart.

"I hit my knee! It hurts, Master Skywalker!" shouted the little girl, her hand on her knee shaved red.

"MY GOSH, THERE'S POOP WATER ON ME!" the child that had been wet, grossed out and inches from puking.

"MY BAD, SORRY!" the one who broke the pipe, crying with the suffering of the other children.

And all the others, in the middle of this mess, were trying to keep things going.

"DON'T WORRY! GET IN THE SHOWER... AND YOU!" Anakin shouted, extending a dry mop to one of the other kids, picking up the bucket she was carrying and, using the Force, picking up three more of them. Meanwhile, the water was still rising a lot, even if the pipe had been repaired. Anakin couldn't concentrate properly with all the smell and screaming. "CLEAN UP THE MESS IN THE HALL!" he finished, taking the buckets to the filtration. All this continued for hours until, finally, the whole toilet mechanism had been fixed; the toilet and corridors disinfected and smelled like lemon and bleach; Fannia, the girl who hurt her knee, had a bandage and a healing kiss from Padmé; Barr, the boy who had a dirty water bath had now a normal bath; Clo-ud, who caused all the mess, was excused by the other children and Anakin.

At the standard time in the galaxy, when it was all over, it was 10 pm. Anakin had to cook for eight children and one pregnant him-who counts 20 people-, so then wash all the dishes alone and finally get to the private room next to Padmé after explaining that, as they were brothers, they could do this. The children were sleeping in the main control room, enough mattresses and comforters for them.

And, to be honest, he felt half-dead.

No battle was as tiring as this. None of those 30 hours walking in Jabiim's mud was as horrible as eight stressed out children. Hanging on to Padmé during the time when her pregnancy hormones were at their peak had already been hell... This was being worse. Right now, the blond man was lying face down on his pillow, his wife caressing his shore in circles with a pity face.

"If you think on the bright side, it's training for the future." tried to cheer him up, but Anakin's tiredness was killing him.

"I doubt it... We're having one, not eight."

"You're right about that, bro." She joked, listening to him grinning in shame.

"Stop calling me that, it's too bizarre." He spoke, turning on the bed and staring at the ceiling, Padmé's hand moving into his hair, the other elbow against the pillow, taking due care to keep her belly from bearing the weight of his body. "I've made estimates... Until we get to Tatooine, it will be two more days. In Tatooine, if all goes well, it will be five more days before I can contact Obi-wan or Yoda. Depending on everything, we may have to take care of nine children for months, Padmé!" Shocked, he saw her laughing excitedly. "Months!" gave emphasis and just made her laugh even more.

"Oh, Ani... things will get better, don't worry."

"I'd love to believe it... but thanks for being with me, Padmé." He whispered, tucking on her pillow and approaching her, stealing a little peak on her mouth. And another, and another, and another... And then a kiss in its entirety, which stopped when he remembered exactly what his wife's body was going through at the time, so certain aspects of their relationship were out of the question. With the end of the kiss, Anakin let out a tired sigh, craving a look into her boobs for a moment.

"Why are you still awake, hum?" she asked sweetly, watching his face soften.

"I wanted to talk to you, have a nice time... It's been a while since we slept together, don't you think?" he asked with a little smile, watching her roll her eyes.

"We'll have plenty of time like you said. Sleep, for now, tomorrow you'll have to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 20 people!" she joked, hearing the painful groan of her husband who pressed one of the pillows to his face. Laughing calmly, Padmé turned off the lampshade light, settling down on the bed and feeling him catching her from behind, his hands on his wife's tummy, Padmé let her body relax, welcoming the heat of her husband's body. Smiling and together, they both started sleeping.

Everything seemed fine for a great night's sleep... But they are in a spaceship full of children. Nothing is just fine.

"Master Skywalker, space is scaring me..." a little voice came out of nowhere, along with the door suddenly opening in a metallic noise. If they had been continued from the kiss before, the situation would have been horrible to explain and he doubts very much that 'family custom' would work. At the door, standing still and scared, Fannia stared at him in bed. He could understand her; he was also very startled when he first tried to sleep in hyperspace, watching the lights forming lines outside the spacecraft... They don't move and still look extremely close. It's scary for a child. Biting his teeth and looking at Padmé next to him as he lifted his upper body, he saw the girl approaching, the pillow in hands. "Can... May I sleep with you and Miss Padmé, please?" she asked, genuinely uncomfortable with the sight of space out there.

Quietly, Anakin deviates away from Padmé, nodding a 'yes' with his head, trying to not look into the girl's eyes. In a simple smile of relief, Fannia crawled under the comforter, taking a good amount of space between the two adults.

The day at standard galaxy time dawned with Anakin, Padmé and 5 scared children with the dark void of the space in a single bed. Getting up and looking at everything with a tired yawn, Anakin felt that it would only get more and more tiring as time went by... Yet, looking at his wife there, sleeping with her beauty so angelic, surrounded by several children that he could notice in the Force... it didn't seem like it would always be so bad. 99.9% of the time? Yes... But that 0.1 percent. He can shine a smile when that 0.1 percent occurs.

In a hurry! But always remember; there's a scene in Attack of the Clones where Padmé eats a half CGI space pear with fork and knife.