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Anakin Skywalker was tracking the most dangerous query in the known galaxy. More ruthless than the Hutts, twice as shrewd and at least three times as clever. But they had taken something of his and he needed it back!
He crept through the house, tracking them down based on stifled giggles. Not the kitchen, nor the office - where Padme was in a meeting with someone or other, probably still cleaning up his mess. Honestly he should feel worse about that but it was hard to care. Politics had nearly destroyed him, so let them all argue now. Other than it taking up his wife's time, he simply didn't care.
“Haha… oh.” Ani muttered, having thrown open the door to the bedroom and found nothing but an empty room. All right, the little thieves weren't in there. Or their own bedroom. Or the workshop. Maybe they were on the move, shifting locations on him after he searched an area? That would be the smart tactic, and Leia Skywalker was nothing if not too clever for her parents’ good!
As Anakin crept back past her office, towards the playroom, Padme considered asking why her husband wasn't wearing his prosthetic arm. Then she heard another muffled laugh from their twins and decided that she definitely didn't want to know. With her own concealed laugh, the skilled politician turned her attention back to the meeting. Undoing what Palpatine had done was going to take a long time…
“Gotcha!” Anakin shouted with a laugh in his voice. The door to his bedroom closet had slid open his precious, precocious children. Leia and Luke both giggled mischievously, delighted in their troublemaking and being caught by Daddy.
“Nooo, Daddy we need it, I’m trying to make it work for Francis!” Leia laughed, grabbing for her Dad's artificial limb as Ani snatched it back. Francis, for those not in the know, was the name of the twins’ large stuffed Wookie doll. The two absolutely loved the toy, which showed in the many stains and mended rips poor Francis had suffered. Currently Francis had lost an arm - again - and Leia appeared to have been in the process of attempting to sew her father’s prosthetic onto the toy. Luke seemed to have supervising, judging by the datapad containing the ‘blueprint’ they’d drawn up of their design…
“Trust me, it’s not going to not work,” their daddy chuckled, slipping the limb back into place and wincing just a bit as the circuitry did its job and tightened around his stump. Clearly he needed to find a new hiding spot for when it was time to remove, clean and dry all the little bits inside. Technically speaking, Anakin didn’t have to do all that himself but he had the ability and it was his arm. Who better to tinker around with it! “If you promise to leave my arm alone, I’ll teach you how to jam Mommy’s holocalls.”
The giggles of his twins were well worth the lecture that would be coming his way, Ani decided as he ushered his troublemakers out of the room. These sweet children, the life that he and Padme had built together… it was well worth leaving the past behind. The nightmares plagued him still, Anakin could not simply turn off his connection to the Force and therefore the Dark Side, but he learned to hold onto Padme during those terrifying moments. And these two, with Leia’s brown hair down in a lovely, waving braid and Luke’s blonde hair getting shaggy around the ears, were boisterous reminders of all that Light in the galaxy!