Twins are three years old
Set between chapters 3 and 4 of the main storyline

Obi-Wan was getting flustered, a feeling he wasn't accustomed to. Firstly, Padmé had gone to get emergency roof repair supplies and without her presence, the twins were being more rambunctious than usual. Full of energy, they had been chasing each other around the house and leaving their toys scattered on the floor under his feet, despite his Force suggestion that they sit and draw at the kitchen table quietly.

Secondly, the roof had sprung several leaks after a torrential downpour of rain during the night that had not let up. All the pots, pans, buckets and containers in the house were being utilised to catch the rainwater that cascaded down from holes in the ceiling. Thirdly, their power had gone out from the force of the storm. The back-up generator was on the fritz and overall, it was just turning into a nightmare of a day for the usually calm and composed Obi-Wan.

It was times like this that he missed the artificial, well-controlled weather of Coruscant and its reliable energy supply.

Stepping into the twin's room to survey the biggest leak, he picked up the pot that was catching the rain water and carried it to the fresher to pour down the bathtub. He was tempted to use the Force to help his day along, it would certainly be useful - but if the twins saw him, they would copy his example, putting them all in danger. They were already levitating objects and Force pushing each other, he didn't want to add fuel to that fire.

The stormy sky outside and the absence of power made the interior of the house dark and gloomy. Because of the lack of light, on his way to the fresher, Obi-Wan stepped on one of the twin's spiky droid toys with his bare foot, one of the many toys he had been telling them to tidy up only a few minutes prior. The Jedi had to bite his lip from swearing all the profanities he knew as he nearly dropped the pot on his other foot.

"Who left this toy here?" he thundered.

The twins, who had been laughing and playing away in the living room, suddenly went silent. Muttering under his breath for the Force to grant him patience, he pushed the toy away with his foot and hobbled into the fresher, pouring the water away.

Marching back into the living room, which had turned into a bomb site worthy of the clone wars after the chaos of the day, he saw two lumpy shapes hidden under a blanket on the sofa. "What did I tell you? Tidy up your toys now."

Leia peeked out from under the blanket with a petulant expression on her small round face. "But we still playing."

"Play in the living room or the kitchen, but not all over the house at the same time," he commanded firmly, knowing he had to lay down the law.

With exaggerated sadness, the two of them slid off the sofa and began tidying, crawling along the floor and collecting various space ships, dolls and droids as they went, but they were still so young, he doubted they would obey him for very long.

Shaking his head, he went into the main bedroom to check the pot in there. After draining it, he checked the floorboards for any water damage. He didn't know how long Padmé was going to be, but he hoped she returned soon so they could get things back in order. Once the roof was fixed, they could figure out what to do about the power. They had some dry firewood to use for emergency cooking and heating, but he didn't know how long that supply would last. They usually had the fire going in winter, but never this early, and all the forest wood would be wet right now from the rain. If he had to chop more, it would need time to dry out before they could use it.

A squabble broke out in the living room and very soon after a loud wail pierced his ears.

"What now?" he sighed, placing his hands on his thighs as he stood up and retraced his steps. Leia was sprawled on the floor in floods of tears, her face scrunched up in pain.

"Leia, what happened?" he went over to her instantly.

She was pointing to Luke as she cried, too beside herself to get any coherent words out. The accused boy looked as guilty as anyone could be, looking at them both with his face down and his arms crossed over his small chest.

"Luke, what happened?" he questioned him sternly as he helped Leia shakily to her feet.

To his concern he saw she had landed on the edge of the step where the room raised up to go into the kitchen. The fall had grazed the skin enough for it to bleed slightly and she had banged her forehead too. Soft brown hair pressed against his cheek and warm hands grasped the clipped hair at the back of his neck as he picked her up. Wailing into his ear, she wrapped her arms around his head.

"Luke? What do you have to say for yourself?" he asked again, his eyes boring into his, demanding an answer.

It was the same tone he had used on Anakin when he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't. His adopted son's silent resolve broke and he quickly ran to the sofa and stood up on it, as if to make it easier for him to denounce his crime.

"It wasn't me!" he shook his head and crossed his small arms in denial.

"Then who was it?"

"Leia did it!"

Fixing him a look, he adjusted Leia in his arms and turned to head towards the kitchen. He would deal with the boy's reprimand once he saw to Leia's knee. Thunder rolled overhead and she cried even louder, afraid of the noises now that the distraction of playing with Luke had ended. As the twins were still so small, he and Padmé had been giving them baths in the kitchen sink as the basin was old-fashioned and big enough for both of them to sit side by side for practicality. Running some warm water from the tap he sat Leia down on the edge of the counter so her feet and calves were in the sink.

With a tenderness he didn't know he possessed until Luke and Leia had entered his life, he placed a kiss on the top of her head and hummed a little as he cleaned the wound. She held onto his tunic with one hand and gradually, her cries turned to whimpers and she calmed enough to regain her voice.

"Daddy, it hurt," Leia said with a still wobbling lip. "It hurt big lot…" she mumbled over her words, still getting used to constructing longer sentences.

When the twins had begun to speak, he and Padmé had tried to get the children to call him something else, to see him as an uncle or a friend of their mother, but it was impossible for them to see him as anything other than their father-figure. They just couldn't understand that he wasn't their father. As much as it hurt Padmé, Obi-Wan knew she was coming to terms with the fact. For that reason, they'd decided to tell the children the truth when they came of age, when they could understand the story of Anakin properly.

"I know," he looked down at her with a reassuring smile. "Almost over now."

"Is waining lots, lots and lots," she pointed out the window to her right at the dark clouds as hundreds of droplets beat against the window with increasing severity.

"Yes, but we're nice and safe in here, aren't we?"

She nodded, still looking out the window and holding his shirt. Whilst she was distracted, he was able to clean her small leg in the sink and dry it without her fussing too much. Luke, he noticed, had been silent the entire time, lurking in the living room behind them. Through their Force bond he could tell the child was deeply sorry for pushing his sister, but he was also afraid of being scolded. It was almost amusing that he had gone from being the council's favourite negotiator of interplanetary disputes, to settling the daily squabbles of two three-year-olds.

As he was about to lift Leia up, he felt a tug on his tunic and looked down to see Luke at his side, his large eyes filled to the brim with tears and his lower lip wobbling in anguish.

"I'm sorry daddy!" he admitted, hugging his leg and crying.

Taking it all in his stride as he had done for the past three years, he scooped up the two of them and held one on each hip. "Luke are you sorry for pushing your sister?"

He nodded, pressing his face into his shoulder.

"And Leia, do you accept this apology?"

She frowned at Luke, clearly still annoyed, but after a moment she nodded.

"Good. Now go finish your tidying," he tried to put them down but they both clung onto him like glue.

"Daddy I'm scared, of the wain, the loud loud…" Leia pointed upwards, not finding the right word for thunder. Her cheeks were red and her eyelashes were pointed from her recent crying. Obi-Wan's heart softened.

"Don't be afraid. You're safe and I'm in the house with you."

The two of them refused to leave his side and so Obi-Wan carried them both around the house with him whilst he checked the pots and pans. He tried again to turn the power back on, but it was still out. He wished that he had his former apprentice's skills with mechanics. Anakin would know what to do. Sighing mentally at the thought, he let his sorrow drift away into the Force. The wound was still in the long process of healing, but it had lost its previous rawness. With his new life keeping him busy and the twins growing so quickly, some days, life as a Jedi seemed like a dream that hadn't been real.

Once he had done everything he could, the three of them sat on the sofa under the blankets catching up with the twin's favourite children's show on the Holonet which, thankfully, had a backup battery. Though it was rather mind-numbing watching a multi-coloured Rodian explain shapes and sing about fruit, Luke and Leia were warm and peaceful next to him, absorbed in their show, and he allowed himself a brief few minutes of respite before the chaos would inevitably return.

Eventually, Padmé returned home with some supplies from town to fix the holes in the roof. She dropped the heavy bags onto the kitchen floor. The poor woman was completely soaked through as if she'd been in the shower. The three of them cosied up beneath the blankets looked like they'd got the better end of the deal.

Getting to work, the two of them started to fix the roof of their little cottage whilst the twins played.

By the time the house was waterproofed, the sun was getting lower and there was no promise of the local mechanic coming over until the morning. He and Padmé sat by the fireplace in the living room, attempting to cook beans over the open flames in a pot, whilst the rest of the house had been plunged into blackness. Luke and Leia had tired themselves out and were napping on the sofa, the blanket draped over their small sleeping forms and their bare feet sticking out.

"I can't believe it's come to this," Padmé said as she checked their meal wasn't burning, drawing a blanket closer around her shoulders. She'd been soaked in the rain earlier and he'd been insistent she got warm right next to the fire.

Obi-Wan watched her small hand stirring the pot, noticing how delicate it looked in the firelight. He observed for the briefest of moments the way the warmth from the flames brought out the warmth in her cheeks and lips, and the way her long messy curls framed her face in just the right way. She was so beautiful.

Obi-Wan looked away immediately, willing himself not to notice such things.

"It was only a matter of time before the generator gave up the ghost, I only wish I were better at fixing things," he smiled back at her, betraying nothing of his wandering thoughts. He glanced behind them at the twins. "I bet they're going to be happy when they see what's for dinner."

"Burnt beans still beats what you used to cook," she grinned and her dark eyes glittered.

Obi-Wan loved it when Padmé was in a playful mood. Too many times he had seen her downcast and heartbroken. When the youthful girl who lived inside her showed herself, it made him feel lucky to be in her presence.

"You ate all of my terrible meals, if I recall."

She shrugged. "It was that or starvation. I had no choice. "

"You have no choice tonight either," he quipped.

"Some things never change," she smiled, pausing for a few moments. "Like you."

"Like me?"

She handed him the spoon and drew her knees up to her chest, becoming engulfed in her blanket. Obi-Wan started to stir the beans, intrigued by what she was about to say.

"You still remind me so much of the Padawan I met during the blockade crisis."

"I certainly don't feel like him anymore," he replied, remembering his younger self. That twenty-five-year-old seemed like a different person. That young man had existed before Qui-Gon's death. Before Anakin. Before the Clone Wars.

"Even if you don't see it, I do. You still have that same warmth about you," she cast her eyes downward for a moment before looking back up to him with a coy smile. "You know, all my handmaidens were fawning over you when you travelled with us."

"They were?" Obi-Wan felt heat rise to his cheeks despite the innocence of the conversation and the fact that the event was over two decades ago. Perhaps it was because Padmé herself was bringing it up.

"None of them had ever met a Jedi before, and they were all teenage girls…it was bound to happen."

He chuckled at this revelation. At the time he had certainly been oblivious to any flirtatious glances. Boldly, he asked a further question that he now suddenly needed to know, making the most of her playful mood. "And you, were you fawning milady?"

Something seemed to flicker in her eyes just then, but he wasn't sure if he imagined it. "I recall I had a lot going on in my mind at the time, Master Jedi."

"Ah, ever the politician, even with all the hormones of a teenager."

"Of course," she smiled. "Though I still managed to do a few rebellious things, even under Panaka's tight watch."

He raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

She thought for a moment, pressing a finger to her plush lips. Obi-Wan had to drag his eyes away.

"In my early days of being a queen, I snuck out of the palace to go to a Neurotransmitter Affection concert with Sabé, Yané, Rabé and Eirtaé in disguise as a palace page."

"I recall the name, weren't they that boy band?"

Padmé stopped stirring and gave him an incredulous look. "You've heard of them?"

Obi-Wan's head scrambled for excuses. "I was young once as well."

She grinned, revelling in uncovering a secret of his. "I didn't think they were popular outside of Naboo."

"On long hyperspace journeys I sometimes um… put the Holonet music station on. Think they were on there a few times."

"Obi-Wan, I never would've suspected," she shook her head and gave him a coy smile that told him she was enjoying teasing him. "Anyway, the concert had the pretence of deepening ties with Jafan's planetary director's daughter, who had invited us out. But deep down, I knew I just wanted to have a normal evening with my friends and be a regular teenage girl. Panaka almost put the palace in lockdown when he found me gone."

Obi-Wan grinned, unable to picture the stoic queen Amidala getting up to such antics. "Did you have a good time though? Was it worth it?"

She looked at him, a twinkle in her eye. "Yes. Though I did get covered in bioluminescent glitter that night that would not wash off. I had to attend important summit talks the next day, and so Sabé had to swap places with me."

"I wish I had a decoy to use to get out of sticky situations like that," he said, taking the spoon back from her to stir their dinner.

"Did you ever figure it out?"

Obi-Wan smiled, remembering how he'd been oblivious to Amidala and her handmaidens' deception. It was his Master's insight and experience that had figured it out.

"My Master hinted at it, but I was never sure myself. When you revealed your identity to the Gungans, he gave me the biggest I told you so smile."

Their shared laughter woke the twins, and their conversation ended there. Coaxing Luke to eat some beans for his supper, Obi-Wan kept glancing at Padmé as she tried to entice Leia to another mouthful. Learning more about her everyday was an endless fasciation for him. He felt like he'd never get enough of her. There was always something to talk about, always something to uncover, always some new facet of her he didn't expect to find. No, he knew for certain, he would never tire of Padmé Amidala.