Four coronations, four great parties over the last few months. And now, another one was in the works.

Another coronation, another party. But... this one was a little different than the others. And not just because the last three were for princesses. This time, it was a prince coronation, but not for just one prince, but two. In the year since they found each other, this was the second birthday Anakin and Carmine would get to celebrate together, but the first they would have with a big celebration.

On their first birthday together, it was a crazy hunt for the twins to find each other the perfect present. Both Anakin and Carmine had similar thoughts about what to get each other.

Anakin thought...What kind of present do you get for a multi-billionaire pop star who can buy himself literally anything he wants, or have it handed to him just by asking for it?

Carmine, on the other hand thought... What would be the perfect present for a brave hero whose been treated like royalty before he even knew he was royalty?

But in the end, both of them learned it wasn't the cost, the value, or the popularity of a present that mattered. What mattered most was the thought, the heart, the love put into the present. An item could be handmade out of simple materials, even recycled items, and it would still be considered special by the receiver if a lot of thought was put into it, and the giver showed to have worked hard to make it as special as could possibly be.

Now, the twins were excited for their upcoming coronation celebration. Except, they did not account for the hard part: planning the event.

"What's wrong with orange?" Carmine asked Anakin.

"You always want to put orange everywhere." Anakin said.

"It's my favorite color."

Anakin held up some blue ribbon he found in a box.

"I think the decorations should be blue. And green too."

"You know it's my coronation day too, right?"

"I know. But I like other colors than orange."

"Alright, you two." Caroline said. "Listen. We can have both of your favorite colors on the decorations. We can have blue violets and hydrangeas for Anakin and orange and yellow snapdragons for Carmine. Sound good?"

The twins thought about it.

"Sounds like a good color combo to me." Carmine said.

"Works okay for me," shrugged Anakin.

Then came the choosing of the cake. But the twins couldn't seem to agree on a flavor.

Anakin liked the chocolate cake with strawberries and cream, but Carmine wanted lemon cake with vanilla cream.

"No way," said Anakin. "Chocolate is much better."

"Nuh uh. Lemon." Carmine said.

Unlike Anakin, whose face was covered in chocolate and frosting, Carmine was a neat cake eater. At most, he got a few crumbs around his mouth.

"Anakin..." groaned Qui-Gon, wiping his son's face with a napkin. "You are about to be twenty-two years old, and you still get cake everywhere except in your mouth."

"Maybe try a few more before making a decision." said Peppermint. "Surely there's cake and ice cream you both like."

So, the twins did try a few more. Anakin liked the raspberry cheesecake, but Carmine liked the cherry cake.

Anakin liked chocolate ice cream, but Carmine liked maple syrup ice scream.

Carmine also liked vanilla cake with blackberry jam, but Anakin preferred dark chocolate cake with mousse and nuts in it.

Anakin liked chocolate hazelnut ice cream, but Carmine liked mint chocolate chip.

Carmine liked strawberry ice cream, but Anakin liked rich vanilla.

"Seriously!" Carmine said. "How can we not agree on anything?"

"We may have the same face, but we're not alike where taste is concerned." said Anakin.

Carmine chuckled when he saw Anakin's face.

"At least mine isn't covered in chocolate." she the former.

Sapphire licked the chocolate off her rider's face, much to his disgust.

"Eww! Sapphire!" Anakin said.

"Aww, you really are sweet, Ani." Sapphire joked.

Anakin wiped the horse spit off his face and felt his stomach.

"If I eat any more cake, I'm gonna explode." Anakin groaned.

"Same." groaned Carmine.

"Why don't you just let Strawberry combine your tastes?" Gabby said. "She's the one who did Mommy and Daddy's wedding cake after all."

Strawberry held a pencil in her mouth and was writing in a notepad.

"I've made observations throughout the tasting." said Strawberry. "Don't worry. I once made a cake for a birthday party for quadruplets and made a cake that helped a very shy friend of mine impress the mare of his dreams. I'll create the perfect cake for the twins."

A couple days later, Roya measured the twins for their outfits. Despite them looking identical, she had to take every measurement just in case.

"You're both gonna look great." Roya said.

"You're not gonna put us in matching outfits, are you?" Anakin said. "That'd be pretty cliche."

"Or a contest of who wears it better." said Carmine.

"You think you could wear something better than me?"

"I'm just saying, bright colors are more my thing. You're better at pulling off the darker stuff."

"I could pull off brighter colors if I tried."

Anakin went to look at some of the outfits already made. He picked up a lavender jacket and tried it on. He posed in it for a bit.

"How do I look?"

Carmine looked at his twin for a bit.

"It looks okay. But I think you gotta work on posing."

Carmine put on a cool jacket and struck some poses like a professional supermodel. Back in music school, posing was one of the things he'd learned in some of his hip-hop dance classes, and while practicing on the school's cheer squad.

"Pfft, easy peasy." Anakin scoffed, and tried posing himself, only to trip on a scarf.

"Not as easy as it looks, huh?" Carmine said. "It took me a while to get the hang of dancing on stage without tripping when I started out with concerts."

"I don't know how you do it. My hair gets in my face, I become a klutz."

"It takes practice." shrugged Carmine.

Anakin tried something else on and tried posing again. Carmine tried on a hat he found and posed with it. Having played fashion show with their daughters so many times, the two of them knew a thing or two about modeling.

Before they knew it, they were trying on one outfit after another and competing to see who could model best, and then they were laughing together at how much fun they were starting to have. They even tried on each other's clothes.

"You know, if we changed our hair and you got contact lenses," said Anakin. "We could definitely pull a switcheroo."

Carmine laughed and said, "How funny would that be?"

"Really funny." Anakin then looked down a little bit and he picked something out from a little box he had kept since he was a kid.

Out from it, he pulled out something very special to him. It was a simple rope and some little wires braided into a bracelet.

"What's that?" Carmine asked.

"This bracelet was the one birthday gift I had from Mom." Anakin said. "A slaves, shopping for things we wanted wasn't a luxury we had. Much less really celebrating birthdays. I never even tried cake until sometime after I became a Jedi. I still remember when Obi-Wan introduced me to it for the first time."

Thirteen years ago...

It was just after Qui-Gon's funeral. Anakin climbed into his new bed in the Temple and sobbed.

He'd only known Qui-Gon for such a short time, but he missed him so much. Qui-Gon was so kind and gentle, and when he'd held Anakin up after he won the pod race, there was something about his touch that felt special. Important.

Growing up, Anakin never had a father. Whenever he asked his mother about why his father wasn't around, she would always change the subject or tell him, "You'll understand it better when you're older, Ani."

During his days as a slave, sometimes Anakin did see fathers with their sons or daughters. He would also sometimes hear people talking about how when they were younger, their fathers always taught them all these great things, like how to pilot a star cruiser, how to build things, ride a wild animal, survive harsh environments, and sometimes raising his kids as a single father and managing to be a success at his career.

Anakin wanted a father so bad. And then Qui-Gon came along. Something about him seemed oddly familiar. When he, Padme, and Jar Jar joined the Skywalkers for dinner, Anakin noticed Qui-Gon had this twinkle in his eye when he looked at the little boy before him, like he was a long-lost friend he'd been searching for, for a long time.

But now, he was gone. Killed at the hands of Darth Maul, and Anakin never had the chance to say goodbye. The last time he'd seen Qui-Gon, he told him firmly to stay in the cockpit of a Naboo ship he was hiding in. And he obeyed. But Anakin wished he'd hugged him then and there.

Anakin cried all night that night, wishing his mother was there to hug him, kiss him, and comfort him like she always did whenever he cried. He tried remembering the words to his mother's lullaby.

Stop your crying, it'll be alright.

He clutched part of his blanket and held it tight with a sniff.

Just take my hand, hold it tight

I will protect you
From all around you
I will be here
Don't you cry

'Cause you'll be in my heart
Yes, you'll be in my heart
From this day on
Now and forever more

You'll be in my heart
No matter what they say
You'll be here in my heart
Always

Days went by, and Obi-Wan needed to get used to being a teacher. But it wasn't an easy path, in particular because he was not just Anakin's teacher now. He was also his guardian, and he knew almost nothing about being a parent. He wasn't much more than a kid himself at the time, and Anakin still seemed upset about Qui-Gon.

So, in an effort to calm Anakin down, Obi-Wan decided to give Anakin something he thought children liked. He got him a cupcake.

"What's this?" Anakin asked, looking at the chocolate confection before him.

"It's a cupcake." Obi-Wan said. "It's a sweet treat. Have you never had one?"

"I've never tried anything like this before. I don't think."

Anakin licked a little bit of the frosting off the cupcake. And as if by magic, he was under a spell the moment the chocolate tickled his taste buds. Before he knew it, he was downing the treat, and getting more cake on his face than in his mouth.

Obi-Wan chuckled and said, "I'll take a guess you like it."

"Love it." Anakin said, licking the chocolate off his face and fingers until Obi-Wan cleaned him up.

"Come, Padawan. Training will begin shortly." said Obi-Wan, guiding the child to get to lessons.

Present Day...

"I guess Obi-Wan never got around to helping you not eat cake so messily." Carmine chuckled.

"No. It's just in my blood. After that, eventually I got to try other sweet stuff. But Master Windu wasn't too happy when I helped myself to his secret stash of chocolate covered nuts." Anakin laughed.

Carmine laughed too. "I wonder if that had anything to do with why he was such a grump when you were growing up at the Temple."

"Maybe. You should've seen Boba's first sugar rush. I wasn't nearly as bad as that when I had too much sugar for the first time. You're lucky you got to be with Grandma."

Carmine looked down and felt bad. He might not have had much as a child, but he wasn't a slave like Anakin was. Miranda was able to tuck him in every night, they always had enough to eat, Carmine had the freedom to read books and just play with his friends like children should be able to, and his grandmother always saved up just enough to give him a little cake and one gift on his birthday every year.

Anakin on the other hand, never got a proper celebration until last year when the rest of the family put together a special dinner for the twins. So, this year, everything had to be absolutely perfect for both of them, and their family and friends wanted to make sure of that.

"I guess when I was freed, that was my first piece of real proof that miracles do happen." Anakin said. "Too bad the other slaves couldn't be so lucky. I always had this big wish when I was a kid that I could free them."

"Well, I don't know everything about the Outer Rim, but if the Republic could come so far, maybe they can too." said Carmine. "Or some brave hero will free all the slaves so their kids can lead better, happier lives."

"Prince Anakin. Prince Carmine." said a servant, entering the scene. "Dinner is being served as we speak."

And perfect timing too, as Anakin's stomach suddenly growled pretty loudly.