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One of the perks of being Force-sensitive was that Anakin was super aware when his children needed him. It made dealing with nightmares a little easier, especially as it allowed Padmé to keep sleeping.
He could feel the little tremors and woke up immediately. He scrubbed his hands over his face to try and wake himself up a little bit before he leaned over and kissed his wife’s temple. He smiled at her peaceful sleeping form before he got out of bed and padded down the hall to the twins’ room.
He opened the door and found the culprit of his midnight wanderings. Luke was sleeping in his bed, his sleeping face mirroring his mother’s. Over in her bed Leia was tossing and turning and snuffling slightly. Anakin went over to her bed as fast as he could and sat down gingerly on her bed.
“Baby, daddy’s here. It’s all going to be okay. Ssh, ssh, baby. Daddy’s here. Daddy’s here,” he soothed, stroking her sweaty hair from her forehead.
“Daddy?” Leia woke up with a start, blinking her big eyes and looking around frantically.
“Yes, baby, daddy’s here.”
She reached up with her chubby arms and he pulled her into a big hug, pressing a kiss to her hair.
“I had a nightmare.”
“I know, baby. Do you want to talk about it?”
He could feel her nodding against his shoulder so he pulled back from the hug and adjusted his position on her bed so that he was sitting up against the back of the bed with his little girl in his arms in front of him.
“I had a bad dream where you and mummy weren’t together and I wasn’t with Luke or you or mummy. It was horrible.”
“Ssh, baby. That’s not going to happen. Mummy and I love each other very much and we wouldn’t ever split up you or Luke. I promise. No matter what happens in the future I promise you that I will make sure that you and Luke stay together.”
“And you and mummy?”
“And me and mummy with stay together as well.”
“You promise, daddy?”
“I promise, little princess.”
“Daddy?”
“Yes, baby?”
“Sing me a song?”
“Of course.”
So Anakin sang to his daughter, swaying her slightly in his arms. He could feel her slowly falling back to sleep as he sang her a lullabye. By the time he got to end of his song she was back asleep again and he slowly extracted himself from her bed and wrapped her back up in her duvet. He kissed her on her forehead first then crossed to Luke’s bed to kiss his son again as well. He smiled at them both sleeping soundly again before he closed their bedroom door again and went back to his own bed.
Yes having children was exhausting and there were days when he just wanted to sleep all day to catch up on it. But there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t give up for his children. Sacrificing his own sleep to make sure that they were both sleeping soundly without any nightmares was the least he could do to make sure that they didn’t waste any time at all thinking that their family wasn’t loving and caring and something he promised he would always protect and hold together.