Anakin looked online for any potential gifts he could get for Carmine.
"This is ridiculous!" Anakin groaned. "What do gift a guy who has everything handed right to him whenever he wants?"
Under the guise of Count Crescendo, people treated him like a god. Anakin never asked Carmine about his net worth, and he didn't have to. The holo-net already told him that his brother was literally a multibillionaire. That had to be a new record!
Carmine had a real rags to riches story that none of the tabloids knew about, and he preferred it that way.
Most would imagine that a big star like Count Crescendo would be like any other celebrity and go around spending his money on designer clothes or expensive dates with hot models and stuff.
But despite being fabulously wealthy, Carmine held on to his humble and playful attitude that he'd had since he was a little boy. And he used his fortune a little differently than some might've guessed. When he got famous, the first thing he did was get a new family vehicle for him and his wife to be able to take Lamenta around. And after he started going on tours and selling out enormous stadiums across the galaxy, he used the extra money to travel with his wife and daughter.
They'd gone to so many great places that were not only fun, but also educational for Lamenta as well as her parents. All the times they weren't working, they were attending shows at the theatre, going to the carnival, visiting monuments and museums, and enjoying some luxuries at some of the fine hotels they stayed at from pools to arcades, spas, and great buffets with lots of great new foods to try from all over the galaxy. And when they weren't vacationing or working on shows, Carmine and Caroline were doing their most important job of all: being Lamenta's parents.
And whatever money he didn't use for family vacations or the bare necessities, he donated to and created non-profit organizations that helped improve orphanages, hospitals, schools, and helped save endangered species and feed the homeless.
Anakin couldn't begin to describe how happy he was knowing his brother inherited their mother's desire to help other people. He wanted to be able to do the same, except he didn't have nearly as much money as his twin. Most of what money his family had was from his wife Padme. And though Padme was happy to provide for her family, Anakin was less than willing to ask her to loan him anything.
Nevertheless, he was determined to get Carmine the best birthday gift ever. But...
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?
For Carmine, money was definitely no object, especially when it came to getting a perfect present for his loved ones. But this was one gifting situation he was definitely struggling with for an entirely different reason than most might experience.
It wasn't the cost of the present that concerned him. Above all else, it was what he would give Anakin that he could use. Something that would be a memorable gift for him.
This was their first birthday together, and Carmine wanted to give his twin something extra special. He didn't want to just give him a gift card, gift certificate or cash.
While giving someone something to let them pick their own present was nice, giving someone money instead of an actual item could mean three things:
One, you thought they'd like to pick out their gift or set the money aside for something they wanted to buy.
Two, you don't know the person well enough to even pick out an item that fits their interests and keep a gift receipt just in case.
Or three, you didn't want to take the time to actually look for something.
And Carmine didn't want Anakin to think either if those last two things about him.
He might not have known his brother for that long, but he already loved him so much and felt like he knew him his whole life, and he wanted to make sure he knew that.
"Daddy and Uncle Carmine are gonna love this!" Gabby said as she glued a glittering paper star to a page in a book.
Gabby and the other kids were all contributing to the twins' birthday celebration.
Padme and Caroline searched and found recipes for dishes the twins both liked, Boba drew a couple of birthday cards, and Gabby and Lamenta were working together on a scrapbook of all the fun things and great memories they'd made since the twins found each other again.
"The twins are both so lucky to have three children who care so much." Caroline chuckled.
"Yes. And we're all very fortunate to have them in our lives." Padme said. "And since the Jedi code was changed, Ani and I don't have to be secretive of celebrations anymore, or anything else."
"Sounds like you must've had a romantic story." Caroline said. "Tales of forbidden love are usually the most romantic."
"You should see the challenge it is when you're the one living it."
"Oh, you should've seen when Carmine met my parents for the first time."
Caroline thought back to the day she'd first introduced her then boyfriend Carmine to her parents, and how her father, Nicholas Mitchell, gave the poor boy such a hard time. Carmine wanted to run off and go home, but then it was revealed that he'd had magic, and that his father was the late Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn.
So, in other words, the twins' first birthday together was going to be a big deal for the entire family.
Anakin stood in his room at the penthouse with his droid companion R2-D2 and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano.
In order to figure out the best gift for Carmine, Anakin knew he couldn't do it alone. So, he told Carmine he and Ahsoka had to help Padme with some errands, but he was actually using it as a cover, and Ahsoka was his assistant.
"For someone who acts so tough," smiled Ahsoka. "This is actually very sweet what you're doing."
Anakin didn't show it, but he was slightly embarrassed. He didn't mind doing nice things for people, but he didn't want his Padawan to take him less seriously because he had a soft spot for his family.
"Okay, R2." Anakin said. "What do we know so far?"
R2 beeped and projected a list of data they had about Carmine's likes and dislikes, and all potential clues of what Anakin could give him for their birthday.
They already knew Carmine loved music more than anything else. Well, except for his girls. He loved to sing and dance and make music on all kinds of instruments. He also liked to dress up in bright colors, jackets being his favorite accessory. But, he never wore anything that was made with real leather or fur out of compassion for animals. Carmine didn't even like a lot of meat, as it turned out, and he hated bacon most of all.
"Hmm. And I thought Obi-Wan was picky sometimes." said Anakin, shaking his head.
"You're pretty picky too." Ahsoka shook her head.
Anakin did a little more looking at the list, but decided he needed to look into another source for Carmine's interest.
In the living room...
Caroline was putting the finishing touches on a record player she was fixing up. Carmine was spending the day at the Temple
"Caroline, I was wondering if- what is that?" said Anakin.
"A record player for Carmine." Caroline said, using a magnifying glass.
"That's the first one I've ever seen in person." said Ahsoka. "Need any help with it?"
"They're really hard to find these days, especially in good condition. And yes. Pass me those tweezers, would you please?"
Ahsoka gave Caroline the tweezers she asked for, and she used them to adjust some wires.
"Where'd you find this thing, anyway?" Ahsoka asked.
Caroline explained to her brother-in-law and his Padawan that back in her days at music school, she took classes on musical history, which included lessons on how music was first recorded in their world and played on the first types of disks, one of which was the big black circles known as vinyl. And when Carmine was younger, he'd wished he could have one of his own in memory of his grandmother Miranda.
According to Carmine, his grandmother had one special thing left of her late husband, and that was a beautiful record player they would play music on and dance to sometimes. Sadly, when Carmine was put in foster care, a lot of his grandmother's stuff got lost. And one of his worse foster families took his grandmother's record player to sell for a fortune. Carmine tried to stop them, but they only ended up damaging the record player in the process, and the abusive foster parents smacked the poor boy with a belt like a slave being whipped. It devastated Carmine to have lost something of his beloved grandmother.
Anakin still felt shocked the more he learned of all the terrible things his twin had been through growing up. He might not have had a transmitter inside his body that could blow him up, but he was still a slave in many ways. A slave to bullying in grade school, a slave to his grief after losing his father Qui-Gon Jinn, and then a slave to abusive foster families who saw him as an ATM machine. The main difference was that Carmine was able to run away from his last one and find a loving home in a teacher at the school that taught him everything he knew about music and helped him meet his future wife.
"It took me weeks, but I happened to stumble upon this once broken record player in an antique shop, which I got a great deal on. And now, I'm fixing it up for Carmine."
"I didn't know you knew how to fix things." Ahsoka said.
"There's more to me than being a ballerina." Caroline said. "And assembling things like this was another class we had to take. You never know when you may need to repair an instrument and you can't get to a music store or a repairman as soon as needed."
"That is a good point." said Anakin. And then he got an idea. "Do you have any records to go with it?"
"Not yet. I do know one he'd really like though." Caroline said. "Carmine told me one of his favorite records from when he was a child was titled The Four Seasons. The only problem is I haven't been able to find one."
(The Four Seasons a real classical piece by Antonio Vivaldi. Pleasing to the ear too)
"Then I'll find one for him." Anakin said. "It can be a gift from both of us, restoring old memories."
"I guess that could be nice." Caroline said.
"Where exactly do you plan to find a century old record, Sky Guy?" Ahsoka asked.
A few minutes later...
"There are a lot of shopping sites online." said Anakin, typing into the computer. "There's gotta be a record somewhere."
So, Anakin checked all different sites he could think of. Galaxy-Bay, Spacebook shopping, Insta-Star Cart, and Storeco. None of them seemed to have the record he was looking for. And then Ahsoka took over and did a Wahoo search for 'The Four Seasons vinyl record for sale'. And then she managed to find one on a music shopping site called Key-Bay.
"Like you say, Master. Experience outranks everything." Ahsoka said. "And in my experience, a more direct approach is usually the best way to go."
"Thanks." Anakin said, looking at the price of the item. "Oh! What do you know? It's actually reasonably priced."
So, Anakin clicked the link to add it to his cart and then put in the correct payment information, and confirmed the order.
"Well, that was easy." said Anakin, leaning back into his chair confidently.
"Because you had my help." Ahsoka pointed out.
"Don't worry, Snips. I'll let you write something on the card too."