disclaimer: I do not own Star wars, or any of the related characters. The Star Wars series is created by George Lucas and owned by Disney. This fanfiction is intended for entertainment only. I am not making any profit from this story. All rights of the original Star Wars story belong to DISNEY.
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CHAPTER 5

As he read the words "Certified Abstract of marriage" memories of last night began to flood him, they were drunk really drunk and when they were all in the club a girl was having her bachelorette party, Padme had been triggered by that and she left the club to get some air, he followed and tried to console her, he blurted out "we should get married" and she laughed in between tears "No I mean it" he said, "you are kidding" she replied.
"No, we should totally get married, that way you will stay, it's Las Vegas, and people get married all the time" "Oh my God, we should totally get married"

They left the club and took a cab to the nearest chapel where they were told they needed a marriage license, you'd think that would've stopped them, but they took a cab to they Clark county around 10 pm and got a license within 20 minutes, maybe it was because he was wearing a suit and she was wearing a white dress that the Clark county office didn't seem to think it was an impulsive idea or maybe they were used to drunk idiots like them going to get a marriage license, but no one cared to stop them, they went back to the chapel and they got married by Elvis himself, as if this whole thing was not cliché enough.

"It's fine, it's ok" Padmé said as she tried to calm herself down "We'll just get an annulment before I leave" she said as she was trying to control her breathing. Anakin was still trying to gather himself up, he still felt dizzy and dehydrated and his stomach was burning from all the alcohol he had ingested last night. Padme laid face down on the bed and lifted her face towards him "Do you think anyone knows?" she asked worriedly

"I don't think so" he checked his phone for any text messages but only found he texted Obi-wan that he was staying the night with Padme. "They might just think we slept together"

"Urgh, I will never hear the end of this" she said

"Better them thinking we had a one-night stand that knowing we got drunkenly married"

"We should not tell anyone, at least not until we get it annulled"

"Agreed"

"I just don't know how we thought this was a good idea" "If my parents find out about this they will die"

"My mom would be happy, she loves you" he said, and she smiled, she had met Shmi only a few times. Shmi lives in Alaska with her husband (Anakin's stepfather), she visits Anakin once or twice a year, so she has only seen her a few times but their interactions are always lovely.

After chatting for a while, she went back to her room, she was dreading the interrogations she was going to face once she got back but much to her luck they were all still asleep when she got there, she had a chance to take a shower and apply some skincare to try to bring life back into her face. Once they were up, they bombarded her with questions, the fact that they were all hungover didn't stop them in the least, she explained that nothing had happened, but they couldn't believe that they had paid for a room just to fall asleep together. "Look we were really drunk, and I can barely remember the details, perhaps we got a separate room with the intention of having sex but believe me when I say nothing happened. We were both too drunk for something to happen, we just fell asleep, we didn't even kiss" That last part she wasn't so sure of, they must have kissed when they got married but she still wasn't sure. At least she wasn't lying to them, she was just omitting certain parts she herself wanted to forget.
They visited a few more places before they left, their flight was a 5 pm. Once on they were on plane she couldn't get any sleep, her thoughts were haunting her. She couldn't stop thinking about the fact that she was currently legally married and if she stayed married, she wouldn't have to leave the country, her husband (literally) was sitting just a few seats away with Ashoka and Obi-wan reading a book, he seemed so relaxed unlike her, that's one of the things she liked about him, he could keep his cool and he didn't let the anxiety overcome him, at least one of us is calm, memories about last night would pop to her head out of nowhere, she remembered now that he had proposed to her after she got triggered by a bride that was on her bachelorette party in the club. She felt awful, he must have felt so bad for her that out of guilt and with a lot of alcohol in his system he proposed they should get married. Still, she kept asking herself, could there be more to that proposal? Did he have feelings for her? And why did she say yes? Are Satine and Sabe right? Does she like Anakin? Am I too stubborn to admit it? no, she immediately stopped that train of thought.

Would it be the worst idea to stay married to him? After all they were good friends and if they stayed married for at least 2 years she could apply for the green card, it really would solve all her problems. Out of all the people she could have gotten drunkenly married to, she was glad it was him; she wouldn't mind staying married to someone like Anakin, he was nice, funny, handsome and sweet, and a great FRIEND, she reminded herself. But she could never ask that of him, even if he agreed to that idea, it would be too much to ask for and it would turn his life around completely. He could not date as freely as he wanted, they would have to live together and lie to their friends and families, they would have to lie to the government and if they got caught, they could both go to jail and even if everything worked out on their favor, she could never own him that much. She had to get rid of that idea that was haunting her, it just wouldn't be fair to him. Her thoughts were interrupted by the Pilot's announcement saying they would arrive shortly, she shut her mind off for a while and decided to focus on getting back home.

Anakin felt tired, he was still recovering from all the drinking from the weekend, he thought that he would fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow however, he struggled to do so when he got home. The same thoughts that haunted him last night were hunting him at this very moment while he was supposed to be working. He knew Padme had the HR meeting in one hour and he wanted to talk to her, but he didn't even know how to start the conversation, hey Padme I've been thinking we should stay married, that would certainly make her think he has officially lost it, as soon as she found out they were married her first thought was to get an annulment, she didn't even think of the possibility of staying married just for the sake of not getting deported; the thing she wanted the most, an opportunity to stay had presented itself to her and she wasn't taking it. She must really dislike the idea of being married to him for her to not even consider it as a solution to her problem.

So telling her they should stay married just for the sake of her staying didn't seem like a good idea, a part of him thought she would never go for it so why even bring it up and another part of him thought that she would never ask such thing, she probably thinks is too much to ask and doesn't want to put him through something like this. In all honesty it is too much, this wasn't something he was taking lightly, he knew staying married meant that he would be very limited in certain areas of his life, especially his dating life, how would it even work? He had no idea; it was something they would have to discuss. There was also the legal part, he had done some research at found out you could go to jail and pay a significant amount of money if your marriage is fraudulent, and although that scared him, he knew it wouldn't come to that, he knew people who didn't even know each other and got married just for the green card and never got caught so the chances of them getting caught were pretty slim, not only were they friends and knew a lot about each other that they could easily pass for a real couple, everyone around them would totally buy that they are an item, co-workers already suspected there's something going on between them and his friends already teased him about still having feelings for her, which is not true, and he knew if it ever got too suspicious or dangerous they could just "break up" and say things didn't work out without any legal implications.
Also Padme was a lawyer, so she had to know a thing or two about immigration law, even though that wasn't her field. Still, he did not know how to tell her, this is what kept him from getting a good sleep last night and was now keeping him from focusing on his job. Maybe it's too much, it's too crazy, probably shouldn't do it, he thought but then again, the idea of her having to leave the country and lose everything she had worked for seemed so unfair, he wanted to help her and he could, Afterall she was legally his wife, what kind of husband wouldn't help his wife? What kind of person wouldn't help a friend in need? it was only for 2 years, they'll go by so fast he won't even notice it, by the time they are done he'll be 27 which is still young and eligible to date, besides they were already married, they got that out of the way, they just had to stay married, how difficult could that be?

It was decided, he was going to tell Padmé, he quickly got up and walk towards her office, once he got there he noticed there was no one in the office which could only mean she was already at the HR meeting, fuck, he looked at the time, the meeting was probably just starting, he could still catch her, he quickly walked towards Mr. Organa's office where he assumed the meeting would be (he was right), his assistant tried to stopped him but he didn't listen and just barged into the meeting, apparently she had just gotten there minutes before he got there.

"Mr. Skywalker, we are about to have an important meeting" Mr. Organa said a bit confused about why he had walked into his office suddenly.

"I know" "And I'm sorry to interrupt I know it's an important meeting, but can I please have a word with Padme"

"Anakin, what are you doing?" she muttered

"I'm afraid it will have to wait until after the meeting, since this was previously scheduled, and we have the time measured" said Lora from HR

"Ok" "Fine" unsure of what to do next, thinking about his limited options and following his impulse for the second time in the last two days he said "I was hoping I could speak with Padme first to go over the details, but I believe it's important for me to be in this meeting" he said improvising, Padme was looking at him confused and with unease. "Because Padme and I, we … got married"

Everyone in the room widened their eyes to what Anakin had just said, Padme felt like her soul left her body, she was too stunned to speak. "Is this true Ms. Amidala?" asked Mr. Organa

"It is … its true" "But we ..." she was going to say that she was planning on getting an annulment but before she could continue, she was interrupted

"I had no idea that you guys were dating" Lora said, letting her professionalism aside as she was more interested in the gossip, everyone knew the staff in HR were all nosy.

"Well, we..." before Padme could finish, she was cut off again

"We've been dating for a while now, but we just wanted to keep it low key, you know to avoid any gossip and we just want to keep everything as professional as possible" "Also she wanted to make sure we were serious before she told anyone... which obviously it's pretty serious since we just tied the knot" Anakin tried to sound cheerful to ease the tension in the room, this time Padme turned her head to look at him still confused as to what the hell was going on.

"In that case... congratulations to the both of you" said Mr. Organa who looked just as confused as Padme did "So this means the situation we had at hand and the reason of this meeting is being handled right?" he asked directly to Padme

"Yes, that's right, we are taking care of it" she responded trying to gather herself

"Well in that case, there is no need to sign any of these, I'm glad to have you stay in the company and in the country Ms. Amidala … I mean Ms. Skywalker" Padme flinched at that last part. "We'll just have to get in contact with you immigration attorney to sort out paperwork on our behalf, Lora is there anything else you'd like to add?"

Lora still in shock at the news took a second to respond "No, I guess there is no point on these anymore" she said gathering the papers she had brought for Padme to sign "But if you guys can come back to my office later today, around 2 pm just to sign some standard paperwork about relationship guidelines"

"Sure, no problem," said Anakin

"Ok then in that case, let us all go back to work, meeting dismissed" They left the office and while Padme was still trying to process what had just happened, she grabbed Anakin's shirt and dragged him all the way to her office, closing the door behind.

"What the hell was that?" she asked trying to contain her nervousness "Why did you tell them we got married?"

"Because we did"

"I know we did, that's not what I mean" "We are getting an annulment! Are we not?"

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about" "What if we don't get an annulment?" he said calmly

"What?" "Anakin had you lost your mind?"

In all honesty, he had been wondering the same thing "I know it sounds crazy, but is it really that crazy?"

"Yes! Not only is it crazy but it's illegal to get married just for the purpose of getting a green card and can result in jail time and a big debt for both of us"

"You think I don't know that? I googled about it yesterday!"

"Oh! OH! YOU GOOGLED IT! So now you know everything about law Mr. Erin Brockovich" she responded sarcastically

He gave her a fake smile "Very funny Padme, frankly I'm surprised you found time to add your little punchline after yelling at me for literally just saving your ass from getting fired and kicked out of the country"

She took a deep breath trying not to blow this out of proportion. "Anakin, I know you are trying to help but I don't think you understand what this actually means" she said as calmly as possible "In order for this to work we would've to lie to our family, friends, co-workers and the immigration office" he was about to reply but she kept going "We would have to live together for at least two years in order to make this believable, neither one of us would be able to freely date someone for 2 years" "We would've to have joint bank accounts, pictures, texts, trips, proof of us actually being a real couple"

"Look I just want to help you, I don't want you to leave the country or this job, I hate seeing you so sad about getting deported and leaving everything you love and worked so hard to get"

"I know Ani, and that's a lovely thought and if I'm being honest, I thought about the possibility of us staying married too but... it's too much I could never ask that of you, I would forever be in your debt and I don't what that kind of weight on my shoulders"

"You are not asking me to do it, I'm offering" "And you would owe me nothing, we are friends" she took a moment to look at him, at his kind blue eyes, how could he be so nice? She didn't feel deserving of something so big.

"What if you start to resent me for this? And then eventually end up hating me? What if we stop being friends?"

"I could never hate you Padme" she smiled shyly in response; her gaze lowered.

"And what if you want to date someone? How will you explain that you can't have a public relationship because you are married to your friend?"

"Just like that" "we'll figure it out"

"What about your mom?"

"she'll be happy to know I'm married"

"And when we file for divorced?"

"She might get a little upset, but she'll get over it"

She looked at him in the eyes for a moment "Are we really doing this?"

"I mean we already got married, we just have to stay married, how hard can that be?" She giggled and then hugged him tightly.

"Are you sure?" she asked one more time while she was still in his embrace

"Only if you are" "And if we feel like it's getting too complicated, we can put an end to it at any time and just say we didn't work out" that's true, Padme thought, worst case scenario they can just "break up" and she will be back to getting deported, she had nothing to lose, well except for her freedom if they got caught, but the statistics for people actually going to jail for that were pretty low and she believe they could make a very convincing couple, they already knew a lot about each other and people around the suspected they liked each other anyways, so she wasn't even worried about the legal aspects in all honesty. She still wasn't sure how this was going to go for them but was excited to find out.