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It was hard to imagine. If it hadn't been for that one day the jedi decided to land on Tatooine, if their ship's hyperdrive hadn't been damaged during their escape through the barrier, if they hadn't decided to search through the desert planet for a replacement until they finally met the young Skywalker...and if they didn't bring R2-D2 with them...it wouldn't have been like this. Nothing would've actually. And C-3PO too.
The odds were low. And it still happened.
Back then, C-3PO couldn't even have guessed what it would entail. The little astromech merely a nice acquaintance. He found him nice instantly and they spent some time together on Tatooine while Anakin prepared for and participated in the Boonta Eve, but the protocol droid couldn't possibly anticipate what would follow ten years after they left again.
Because they came back. And the protocol droid found himself again at the side of his maker. Or...the first time actually, traveling through space. And not just with him but with R2-D2 too.
It was inconceivable. The odds were incredibly low. So low...it shouldn't even have happened, that's what C-3PO's ability to estimate probabilities told him.
It, not just being the fact that they saw each other again. But more what started to arise within C-3PO's systems as time went by. A strange affection he developed for the other droid.
It was nothing that was heard of really in regards to droids and C-3PO more than wondered how it hit him of all. He, whose priority always was to do his tasks properly, to act adequate. Who knew about species' behavior more than many others did.
He wasn't supposed to feel what he did, didn't know much about it. But he did know that these feelings could only arise by his now best friend. And that just lowered the odds even more.
The strangeness, the instability it brought, messed with his systems, made him worry about how it could continue if the other would know, fear even. He wouldn't tell him, that was certain.
And so...if it hadn't been for the landing of this ship on his home planet all this years ago, C-3PO wouldn't be here now. Here, with the other droid asking him a question the protocol droid had hoped to never hear.
C-3PO of course denied his feelings at first, forcing untrue words through his systems, which simultaneously produced sensations that contradicted them. But R2-D2 would ask or address it some more times on other days. After all, it was something very unfamiliar and strange for the astromech as well.
"It's...it's not the right protocol.", was all that C-3PO answered one time. It was a confession and a rejection at the same time. His words sounded set, though his mind wasn't. And that was also something that he only got to experience because of this one day.
Just as what finally happened some day. When C-3PO eventually turned to R2-D2 to tell him the truth...