Chapter Text
“Mummy! Daddy! Look!”
Padme’s heart nearly stopped. The twins were focused for the most part, lifting their dirty plates in the air and guiding them, wobbling, to the kitchen. Obi-Wan was with them and had his eyes partially closed. With the knowledge that he was keeping her children safe, she relaxed.
“Oh, that's wonderful! Look what you can do!”
Thrawn came up to her side and was nodding approvingly when she looked up at him. “You are doing excellently. You have learned much, and learned it well.”
“Mister Keegan helps us!”
“Do you know who they’re talking about?” Padme asked Obi-Wan.
He shrugged after a moment of thought. “I’m afraid not. They haven't mentioned him to me. Is it not their imaginations?”
Luke patted his arm. “No, he’s in the before place.”
Obi-Wan frowned. “What is the ‘before place,’ then?”
Dishes in the sink and their concentration broken, Luke and Leia shrugged. “We don’t know.” They yawned and headed to the ‘fresher to clean up for bed as Obi-Wan looked at Padme and Thrawn.
Padme shrugged. “Luke used to be insistent that ‘Mister Keegan’ was real and taught them to do things with their brains, but every time I bring it up now, it seems like they’ve both forgotten.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, then. I’ll check when they’re asleep, but I don’t think this is anything to be concerned about. Do they go down to sleep easily? I remember never wanting to sleep.”
Thrawn watched his children continue to get ready for bed. “They know when not to argue. However, unless you have objections, Padme, I believe that they may stay up later than usual tonight.”
“An hour will be fine, if they want to.” She caught Leia by the backwards pajama top. “You and Luke can stay up an extra hour tonight, since Si’buh is here.”
“Yay! Thank you!” They each took one of Obi-Wan’s hands and led him to their room to play for a while.
Padme held up a spray bottle and comb, and had the pleasure of Thrawn immediately sinking to his knees in front of her with a relaxed smile.
“Sit on the couch,” she laughed. She shooed him in that direction and he caught her hand, kissing the inside of her wrist.
It made her laugh again. They got situated at the couch and he took his tunic off, then leaned forward without being asked, letting her soak his hair with the detangling solution. She started combing through in very small sections as soon as his curls were dripping wet, humming to herself as she worked. Once his hair was detangled, she gently squeezed the excess solution out with a towel, then sectioned his hair into four even sections. Those she braided further, until he had eight rows of braids. She twisted the ends of each one to seal them, then tucked them up underneath the braids to hide them.
“What are you thinking?” she asked as she pressed her lips to the top of his head and rubbed his shoulders.
He hesitated only a moment, then took a breath and let it out slowly. “Been thinkin’ it would’ve been nice t’have time w’ya before the twins were born. Gettin’ t’know you before all y’all.” He looked up at her, the copper of his eyes beautiful. “But that’s f’another life.”
“Children don’t belong on a warship, and we have multiple family members we can send them to for a year of schooling,” Padme murmured.
“Y’d allow that?”
“No more than a year, but it would do them good - it would do all of us good, I think. You’ve been holding back, out here.”
Thrawn huffed a little and rested his forehead against her bare abdomen. “Have not.” Then he kissed her stomach. “Well. Maybe. Y’really ok with them goin’ away f’that long?”
“If we were intelligent,” and he laughed a soft laugh against her skin, “we wouldn’t have had them on the ship at all.”
“We been selfish.”
Padme settled into his lap, and he spread his hands over her stomach and pulled her tightly against him. “Yes, but keeping them with us also makes sense. Shall we see who they want to stay with first?”
Thrawn looked up from rubbing their cheeks together languidly. “First?”
“Of course. We certainly can’t show favorites. There’s my parents, your parents, Suki and Hammerly’s horde, Bail, Mon … We have any number of safe family for them to stay with, and they can come back to us for a year or so between them.” She kissed him on the forehead. “I doubt it will ultimately go that smoothly, but does that sound like a good idea to you?”
He nodded. “Want all y’all w’me all the time. But yeah, sounds good.” There was the sound of a door opening and the twins came out of their room with Obi-Wan between them, rubbing tired eyes. Thrawn held an arm out and they immediately veered to him, cuddling up next to him. “Y’all wanna spend a year w’y’grandparents? Just a year.”
“Which ones?” was Leia’s tiny question as Luke yawned.
“Whichever ones you want. Then y’could spend a year back home, then go to the other grandparents’ home. Y’d learn lots, an’ make lotsa friends.”
“Mummy, we’re tired,” was Luke’s complaint. “Ask us tomorrow.”
Thrawn chuckled and pulled Luke close for a kiss on the forehead. “As y’please.”
“Can it be bedtime early?”
“‘Course. Warmth pile’s all made up.”
The two took Obi-Wan’s hands again and made sure he was laying down and tucked in, then curled up on either side of him with goodnight’s to everyone.
***
Later that night, Obi-Wan had extracted himself from the children and the adults were sitting in the dining area. They had discussed waking Eli up, but decided he didn’t need to know about Obi-Wan any more than what he probably already suspected. If the twins were amenable to staying with family, there would be plenty of time in the arranging of it for him to get used to the idea of them being gone.
“You’re sure you can survive without them?”
“We have to. High Command threw ranks at Thrawn far faster than they really should have, and I know there have been a lot of grumblings in the Fleet about it.”
“Not that you haven’t more than earned it ---”
Padme turned around with a tray full of various beverages. “Drink with us, Kolmind.”
“--- but I do understand needing to prove yourself to others. You shouldn’t have to, but I understand. Oh, thank you. Forvish?” Obi-Wan took his glass and sniffed it.
“I’m invited?”
“Of course you’re invited,” Padme told her with a kiss on the dark cheek. To Obi-Wan, “Thrawn’s favorite.” Obi-Wan took a drink to match Thrawn’s, and Padme and Kolmind laughed at the way he reacted. He gagged and made a face, then coughed a bit and shuddered. “It’s the only thing that will get Thrawn even remotely tipsy that we have on board. My husband is a bit of a lush.”
Said husband looked a little affronted, but finished his glass, poured another one, and gave it to her. She drank it in one gulp and handed the empty glass back to him with a challenge in her eye.
“Two more of these, my lady, and you will be barking on the floor.”
“You will be,” Kolmind confirmed. She handed Padme a fruity drink instead, and took one for herself. “Two more of these and you will be asking Mitth’raw’nuruodo if you can kiss me.”
“Hopefully!” Padme laughed. They toasted to the probability and drank. Thrawn was frowning as he looked between them, but wisely kept his big, dumb mouth shut. “Thrawn’s fine with it, anyway.”
“True - he wants to see it happen.” That made the two women laugh harder and drink again. When Padme arched an eyebrow at her husband, he shrugged minutely.
“I am … curious … as to what reactions that would elicit in me.”
Padme stole some of his ale and gave him some of her drink. “If you kiss Obi-Wan, I will kiss Kolmind.” She waved her glass at the man, who had choked and turned red. “If you want to. I wouldn’t mind.”
“The Jedi don’t ---”
“But are you really a Jedi, still?” she asked curiously. “Do you really believe in their teachings about no relationships? Because I heard that you and Satine ---”
“Try this one,” Obi-Wan said in a hurry as his blush deepened and he shoved a dark purple drink at her.
“Oh, you two absolutely fucked,” Padme laughed after she’d downed the drink.
“We never - I didn’t - Mistakes were made,” he garbled.
“Mm-hm,” Padme giggled. She had Kolmind on her lap by this time and the two women were laughing at Obi-Wan’s discomfort as Thrawn looked on quietly and calmly. “But really, we’ve seen what happens with outright bans on personal attachments, and we’ve seen how the twins react to having personal attachments. Do you still believe that banning them is the right course of action? Wasn’t there a married Jedi Master on the Council?”
“These examples are all very much outliers. Master Ki-Adi-Mundi was exempt from the ban because of his species’ low birth rate for males, Anakin wasn’t tended to properly, psychologically-speaking, and there is no more Order for the twins to be raised in.” Obi-Wan shrugged before smiling brightly at Padme. “And when will you and Thrawn have more children?”
“Three more weeks.” Thrawn’s calm response and raised hand staved off Padme’s string of friendly curses. Everyone blinked at him. “We have three more weeks before I told my parents we would discuss the possibility of more children. Put it from your mind until then, my heart.”
Padme stared at her husband as Kolmind laughed herself onto the floor. “Do you have an alarm set?”
“Of course I do. I made them a promise.”
A child with Thrawn … Padme coughed and slammed back another drink. “Of course you set an alarm.”
“You needn’t think about it right now.”
“I’m not,” she lied. Then she poured him and Obi-Wan more drinks. “If I’m getting drunk enough to make out with Kolmind, you two are getting drunk enough to make out with each other. Come on, before Thrawn’s metabolism catches up.”
Fifteen minutes later, Obi-Wan was staring into the bottom of his empty glass. “Then again,” he murmured, “attachments are - were - forbidden. Casual encounters weren’t. You should have seen the line out Master Windu’s door. Metaphorically, of course. And yet.” He looked Thrawn up and down. “Are we drunk enough to kiss?”
Thrawn, who had been intently watching the way Padme and Kolmind were wrapped together, nodded. “I very much believe so.”
Kolmind came up for air and a laugh. “Because Madam Padme and I are kissing?”
“That has definitely been a contributing factor.”
Obi-Wan nodded as he made his decision. “I accept this. As an experiment.”
“Of course.”
“Two more drinks.”
“Agreed.”
Two more glasses later, he and Thrawn were sitting close with their foreheads pressed together, murmuring and laughing to each other. Thrawn was toying gently with Obi-Wan’s hair and Obi-Wan was gently stroking his still-bare shoulder. Padme was squirming and not sure if she wanted them to get to business or continue at their own pace.
“Is this truly alright?” Kolmind whispered in her ear.
“I’m confident that I’m the only one Thrawn will always come back to,” Padme told her. “Besides, the poor man hasn’t kissed anyone but myself. He should have fun.”
Kolmind’s fingers trailed along her arm. “... And this?”
Padme smiled as lips finally met. “I will always come back to Thrawn. If we agree that certain others are permitted …” She kissed her friend’s hand. “Are you alright?”
“Absolutely,” was the contented purr.
The men parted and their smiles were shy, but then they pitched forward, grasping desperately at each other. Padme let out a soft, satisfied whoop.
“Finally! It’s only been almost seven years. Wait! No! Keep going!” Her declaration had made them laugh, and then Thrawn was pulling her into his lap for her own kisses. “I like you,” she declared as she settled in.
“As I am fond of you,” he said with a smile, flushed. He tasted different for a few kisses, until Obi-Wan’s taste had faded. When Padme looked behind her, the two men had their hands clasped but weren’t looking at each other. They were both flushed, but both smiling.
“I knew you two were in love. We can’t tell Eli - it will break his heart.”
“That slut deserves it.” Kolmind said it as she stood, but then she swayed and sat back down quickly. “Maybe I’ll clean up later.”
“More drinks!” Padme cheered. She clamped her hands over her mouth and looked toward the children, but Obi-Wan waved her back with his own laugh.
The laughter continued even when the kissing died down. The men endured gentle teasing, with Obi-Wan covering his face with one hand and Thrawn hiding his own face in the crook of Padme’s neck. They stayed up and enjoyed each other’s company for another hour or so, until they were able to lay down in the warmth pile without disturbing the twins.
***
In the morning, they all watched each other over breakfast. There was some discomfort, but Padme wasn’t quite sure if it was from regret or not, so she dove right in.
“I enjoyed last night.”
The adults looked at her, then each other again. Thrawn looked at Obi-Wan and then down, the bridge of his nose lavender as he nodded.
“I did, as well.”
Obi-Wan and Kolmind both nodded, and then Kolmind giggled. “But perhaps only once in a while.”
That got more nods of agreement, then Padme turned to her children. “Do you remember what we asked you last night?”
“Yeah,” Luke nodded. “You want to send us away.” He looked up at the strangled noise Padme made as sharp pain lanced through her chest, and his little eyes went wide. “No, Daddy! Not because you don’t love us! Because you do love us!”
“Oh … Oh, really?” She was going to cry at the thought that perhaps her children didn’t think she wanted them with her, and Luke got up to come over and hug her.
“It’s ok, Daddy. You still love us. And we love you! We want to go see Mi’ma’ah and Mi’da’ah first, please.”
She hugged him tightly. “Are you sure? A year is a long time.”
Leia nodded vigorously. “We’re sure! We’ll be good. Will you miss us?”
“Every day, my sweet.” She wiped a tear away. “But we need to make sure it’s alright with Mi’ma’ah and Mi’da’ah before we send you there. If they can’t take you, then we’ll ask Grandmother and Grandfather Naberrie.”
“Oh, well, we can go ask! Then we’ll already be there! Si’buh Ben can take us if you can’t.”
“Because we’re secrets,” Luke giggled. “The bad people can’t know about us.”
“They already know about us,” Leia shot back.
“They don’t know everything about us. Not the secret parts. Those are secret.”
“Mi’ma’ah and Mi’da’ah are secrets.”
As the children classified every part of their life as “secret” or “not secret,” more plans were made to get them to their grandparents on Rentor.
“We will leave within the week, then,” Thrawn decided. Padme nodded her agreement. “Excellent. We will take my shuttle, and meet Kenobi there.”
“My babies are going to have so much fun.” Padme tried to sound excited, but the twins just looked at her blankly before sighing.
“We don’t have to go, Daddy, if it makes you sad.”
Oh, dear. That wouldn’t do. Padme let out a soft sigh and reach out to gently caress Luke’s cheek, then Leia’s.
“It will always make me a little sad when you go away,” she told them, “because I love you and I want you to me with me and Ma’ah all the time. But you’re growing up, and you don’t need to always be with us anymore. And that means you can see Grandmother and Grandfather Naberrie, and Mi’ma’ah and Mi’da’ah Kivu, all by yourselves! Which means you can see them more often.”
“But Si'buh Kolmind and Mister Rukh have to stay with us,” Leia said assertively. “They keep us out of trouble.” She thought. Then, “Well, they keep us safe. We're always in trouble.” She gave her parents a toothy grin, then gasped. “Oh! I forgot! Look! My tooth is loose!” She bared her teeth and started to wiggle one of her lower front teeth.
As Thrawn and Padme congratulated her on it, Luke stuck his finger in his mouth to try to wiggle his own teeth. When he wasn't able to, he let out a long, sad sigh. Thrawn picked him up and set him on his lap.
“You will lose yours in time, my son. You cannot rush these things.”
“But Tholi's is loose! Why can't mine be loose, too?”
“You can't do everything together,” Thrawn advised him. “You're two different people, and will therefore reach the same milestones at different times. However, as you are the same age, you will reach those milestones within a relatively close ---”
“We're not the same age, Mummy,” Leia interrupted. Thrawn blinked at her and she got up on his lap, too. “I'm older than Thalin.”
“Yeah, two minutes older,” Luke scoffed. “That's not really older.”
“Yes it is!”
“It's not older enough. Right, Mummy?”
“Thalin is correct in this instance. Thalin, if you stick your tongue out again, I will remove it.” Luke stuck his tongue out at Thrawn this time, and giggled when Thrawn's hand shot out to grab it and tug. He chewed on Thrawn's fingers as his father went on. “You are both at the age where you will start losing your baby teeth.” Thrawn finally let Luke’s tongue go, and Obi-Wan handed him a cleaning wipe.
“What if you miss us so much you get new babies while we're gone to replace us?” Leia asked. She was sticking her own tongue out now, snapping her mouth closed before Thrawn could get it.
“We will not do that,” Thrawn told her. “No amount of new children would replace you. Besides, where would we put new children? We have no more room.”
“Oh, well, me and Thalin can sleep with you and Daddy, and the new babies can have our room,” Leia decided.
“They can sleep in the bathtub,” was Luke’s idea.
“Can we have our own rooms outside?”
Padme laughed. “No, my loves, you're not big enough for that yet.”
“Oh.” The twins looked at each other, then Luke shrugged. “We'll just sleep out here in a tent. Let's go pack, Tholi.”
“Ok!” They walked off hand-in-hand as the adults laughed.