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[Danny raises an eyebrow at the question.] Since I've never had children, the answer has to be 'no'.

You're not... looking for your birth father alone, are you?

[Bad things can happen when children go looking for their biological parents without help -- just ask Danny's friend Jason Todd.]

Edited (dropped a phrase initially, added back in for clarity) 2022-07-17 17:42 (UTC)

[ SHIT Could he be her real father? He was usually pretty careful about that sort of thing. Only one way to find out.]

I dunno kid. You're pretty adorable, so that might be a thing. Who's your mom?

The ache in Padmé's heart only seems to grow and grow with every word, every look from the girl — her daughter, her daughter; their. The regalness in her bearing that is all Breha. That her child (children) would not have needed to have unless they decided to take the path of duty the same as she had. The hold of her head. The confidence of her shoulders. Regal, without even choosing it. Like breathing.

Not the artful ease of Nabooian child.

"Yes." It's a hard word. An ever dreamed-of word.

One rarely said, and yet held in the thoughts of every day. "He is."

There had been a split second, a span frozen between heartbeats when Padmé had told him she was pregnant, they were to be parents, they were to have a child (children). An unease of the future, a fear of change, the sudden heavy weight of responsibility that landed on him all at once, before joy broke through like sun from behind a year-long, (years long, three years long) storm, shining and bright and warm and exploded inside him.

This baby is a blessing

It pounded in his ears, his heart, his mind, in every fiber of his being since and seeing her, so foreign, so different, and yet so like Padmé in looks, in baring, until he wants to shout it from the highest point because he can see she is.

The chaos, the Darkness, the death of the last few days, how can they hold when faced with something so stunningly bright and wonderful?

Anakin might not have slept in days, too many days, might not have eaten since before then, hadn't stopped moving since he'd nearly been sick all over carpet too expensive to consider fouling in such a way, his hands might be shaking too much of everything and not enough of everything, his hair a mess of tangled curls from repeatedly being sweat soaked and air dried, he looks every bit the battle-worn general he is, one fighting for his life, her life, their lives (their lives together) but somehow the question, Padmé's answer, and looking at the girl-

Taller than he'd been at that age. Self-possessed as he'd been at that age-

The sun that shattered the storm inside him in the aftermath of the Battle of Coruscant rose again, quieting the dragon who could only stare in wonder, rose and exploded in almost painful brightness.

Mine mine mine, ours ours ours something in him sang and it was all Anakin could do not to rush in, grab the girl and twirl her around like he's so often down his wife (her mother).

"Yes. You're mine. Ours." It's utterly breathless. Like everything might break if he so much as blinked too hard.

Oh. [ Her face falls a bit before she fixes it back to propriety. ]

I’m not alone! I have Lola. [ Lola is a personal droid that fits in the palm of an adult human. It chirps perkily at the mention of its name. ]

I was with a friend called Ben, but he’s not here. And besides, he’s not very good at answering questions.

[ She tries not to stare at his silly mask. Leia gazes downward, wondering why she can’t let go finding out who her real parents are. ]

Well, I don’t know who she is either. But I know she was very smart, and nice, and beautiful.

[ Thanks Leia, that really narrows it down. ]

Hmm... [He leans down to peer a little closer at Lola. It looks like a fairly advanced robot, even if he doesn't recognize it. (The sheer number of scientific geniuses running around on Danny's Earth means that there are plenty of advanced robots with all kinds of uses, especially if you're part of the superhero set.) He smiles at the little girl.] Well, I'm sure she keeps you company... but do you have someone to keep you safe?

[Danny nods thoughtfully at the mention of Ben, and wonders if that's another child, or an adult chaperone that's lost track of this girl.] That's frustrating. When you're curious, and people won't... or can't... give you answers. I'm sorry that I can't, either.

Padmé was definitely the most beautiful woman Leia had ever seen, which was saying something, because she knew so many lovely women, including Breha, of course - not all of them were human. The child immediately loved the way Padmé dressed and styled her hair and the gorgeous jewelry. Something about her drew Leia, as if her blood were calling. A sense of comfort, strength, and destiny. Leia wondered if this was what Ben's force felt like.

Briefly and uncharacteristically speechless, the ten year old tried to process that she was finally meeting her parents when it dawned on her. She gazed up at Padmé with big precious eyes, vulnerability dispelling her self-possessed and precocious air that made her seem older than she was, usually.

"Does that mean... you're my mother?" She moved closer to them both, wanting to hold someone's hand but not sure who's to grab first. She looked back and forth between them in disbelief. They were both so handsome.

Edited (typos galore) 2022-07-17 22:11 (UTC)

A lump sprung into her throat and her eyes prickled, and, even now, there was a flicker of training too deep to ever truly be gone, even if she never needed it for the same reasons anymore, there was the war with whether to stop the reaction in its infancy. Once so required for a queen, a senator, of Naboo, whose armor bore no cracks by design.

The Amidala Mask. The Amidala Voice.
So carefully perfected. Never truly removed.

That soft uncertainty in the little girl — in her daughter — is an undoing. The question even more so. Padmé lowered herself to her knees without thinking of it, or the skirts of her dress, everything that wasn't Leia, a hand held out to her. One that, perhaps, was the only thing she gave herself against the tumultuous storm inside her chest that longed only to sweep Leia up into her arms, her lap, the mess of her skirts.

"I am." The prickle at her eyes is nothing compared to that spiking ache in her heart. The way it's pounding. (The very true want to reach for Anakin's hand in a similar but unrestrained way. She is seeking gravity, where she never has to pause to ask if she's welcome). It comes out quiet, not quite a whisper, so like the one that started all of this so very, very, very long ago on Geonosis.

"I've thought about you every day."

Words she knows that will undo something;
open a door she'll never be able to close again.

Edited 2022-07-18 01:42 (UTC)

Wait...so you don't know who either of them are? Geez, kid. That's rough.

[He sat down beside her and sighed.]

I've got bad news, kid. No smart and beautiful ladies are beating down my door so I don't think I'm the guy.

[He paused and looked around.]

You out here by yourself looking for them?

Anakin is of agreement on Padmé's beauty and it only grew the more you knew her. But for the first time since he was nineteen and being reintroduced to his once childhood friend, he's unaware of Padmé and what she is doing.

He can still feel her, still sense her, she's there, but he's not aware of her on a conscious level. His focus is on the little girl making her way over to them, to the tiny hands reaching out. The tiny, perfect, wonderful little person in front of them.

Padmé we made a person. Does he whisper it or is it only a thought thrown out into the Force like a prayer.

Anakin is utterly dazzled by Leia in a way he's never been with anything. Not once, not ever. No person, no star, no tech, nothing in the Force has ever sparked in him the way his heart does. His soul does.

It's some sound Padmé makes, some rustle of fabric, some breath escaping her lips, or maybe the echoed beating of their hearts that pulls his attention back to center, makes him each out without thinking, uncaring who or what may see, to interlace his fingers in hers. A circuit complete once but now feels broken, the abrupt termination of them and just like he almost instinctively knew how to repair that type of circuit this is no different.

Anakin steps, twists, and sinks to the ground, all the while still holding onto his wife's hand, to frame Leia with their seated bodies.

A throne. A cradle.

Leia's mind spinning, her heart thumping in her throat, words not working, all restraint gone. All pretense gone. All the hours, days, months, years of wondering who her parents were and what they'd been like and what they looked like and if they would have loved her and wondering how they'd died and none of it mattered now. All that mattered is somehow, they were here, together.

Her very small, delicate hand took her mother's outstretched hand and held it, softly but firmly for a child. The spark she felt upon their touch sent a surge of energy unlike anything she had imagined or felt before rushing through her. She wanted to cry and scream and laugh and shout all at the same time. Her eyes glistened with the kind of true joy that grows strongest from a place of previous pain. She had so many questions for them, so much she wanted to know about them, and for them to know about her. So many stories to tell them and no doubt even more to hear. But all she wanted to do was feel them.

Still holding Padmé's hand and not hoping to let go anytime soon, she maneuvered herself to plop firmly in Anakin's lap-throne. It was graceful for a child, and under the circumstances, but probably beneath what was expected of a princess. Oh well. She didn't actually care about things like that anyways.

Anakin was so strong and handsome. She was immediately taken by his flowing mane of hair. She hoped someone even half as handsome would fall in love with her someday. If she ever had to like a boy, that is. He wasn't all fuzzy and wrinkly and smelly like some men. She'd never been able to picture what he would look like, and had even less to go off of regarding who he'd been and what he'd been like than even her mother.

Her child's face turned briefly adult in its perceptiveness as she gazed lovingly but with some concern at Padmé. "I hope I haven't upset you. You don't need to be sad. We're all together now."

I have parents, and they're nice, but they aren't my real parents. [ She sighs, with the disappointed exasperation of someone much older than her ten year old self.

It was silly to ask. What was she expecting to find? Everyone told her that her parents were dead, but people were very vague and mysterious about it, especially regarding her father. She couldn't help but think it had something to do with why she was seemingly in danger all the time.

She perked up a bit at the question though. ] I'm not alone, I have Lola. She's my droid, and my friend.

[ She takes Lola out of her little rucksack to show him. Lola lights up awake and surveys the stranger with the imperceptible scrutiny of a palm-sized droid. Leia scolds her. ]

Don't be rude, Lola.

Edited 2022-07-18 03:05 (UTC)

Anakin's fingers had found hers without his looking or reaching out to him, and she squeezed his hand. Grateful. His words are a whisper against the edge of her thoughts, almost more slippery sound than form with all of her focus centered on their daughter, but she hears it. Or, maybe, feels it—that stuttering awe.

Leia's so young, too young — and Padmé's mind argues too old, no, not old ... big, too big; she'd been so tiny, the both of them had. Leia doesn't really understand yet, and Padmé can fiercely hope, with those little fingers holding hers so lightly, that it's a long time until she does. Or even comes close to some recognition of what that indeed might equal.

"No," Padmé says gently. Not a rebuke,
but still a concession away from that. "Not you."

Padme's thumb stroked her daughter's hand lightly. "Never you."

Time passing. So much lost even on the scales of so much now to gain. The deepness of the darkness. The requirement of choices that had to be made. The infinitely tangled web of their universe and those who sought to rule it as predictable as the cycles. All known truths, carved in their days, and yet she wanted to hush them away. To just see them now. Leia in Anakin's lap, so small against his height, even sitting.

Ah, I see.

[Kabal nodded.]

Well, that's good. That's more than a lot of other kids have. It is important to have people that care about you.

[He looked down at the tiny droid and he could feel its judgment.]

Ah, don't worry about it. You've got a perceptive little robot there. That's the smallest one of those I've ever seen. Most of the ones I have seen are human sized.

Anyway...the parents you have...do they know you are out here looking for your real parents?

[ Leia really wanted to ask him about the droids he was used to from his home and also why he was dressed so intense and intimidating when he seemed like a pretty nice person so far overall, so why was he trying to seem so scary? Like was she supposed to be impressed or? Was he one of those creepy and obsessive people who hunted Jedi and dressed ridiculously and liked to hurt people?

He listened though. She liked adults who listened. He could prove useful, like Obi-Wan. Hmm…

Crossing her arms, Leia redirected herself. Focus, Leia. ]

They know I’m not home.

[ Honestly though, where was she even? ]

Edited 2022-07-18 04:02 (UTC)

Too big, she is too big, he knows, agrees as her body lands in his lap, and reflexively he wrapped his arm around her. Leaned in and over, his body protecting her's from anything that might come their way, his arm around her to keep her safe with him should any sudden movement be needed. Such as pulling his wife into his lap to shield them both.

But he can't help ducking his head down and pressing a light kiss against the crown of her head.

Too big. Based on what Padmé's EmDee unit had told her, showed her, he should have been able to cradle their baby with one of his hands and part of his forearm, not need his lap. His memory of their child was a ripple of movement under his hand and her skin and muscle. A beat of a fierce kick. Anakin could all too easily pull that memory to the front of his memory, remember their banter over a son or daughter. Holding Leia he was all too sure who had given her such a kick. "I told you, such a kick meant only a girl."

"We wanted you so much. We still do." He understood why she was sad - mourning. Heart aching from what they had lost and couldn't regain. But she's here, their baby girl, in all her wonder.

[Kabal reached a gloved finger towards Lola, but he kept a few inches away.]

Can I touch her?

[He took a few breaths with his respirator and nodded.]

Ah, so you are out on an adventure where they know you are on one but not where you are.

[This kid is a delightful little scamp with a robot. What's not to love?]

My parents always told me not to talk to strangers. My name is Kabal, what's yours?

[A laugh.]

No, definitely not.

[ Her face scrunches for a second like, of course I didn’t mean you, silly.

But then she gives a very dignified giggle, definitely befitting her status expectations, one-hundred percent. ]

No, definitely not. My name is Leia. What’s your name?

[The scrunched face is too much and Omega laughs a bit harder than before. When she manages to catch her breath, she extends her hand to Leia to shake.]

Nice to meet you, Leia. I’m Omega.

OOC: I was just going off, again, about how I think bb Leia and Omega would be great friends and then you appeared! :V

[ Leia shook Omega's hand and then gave a little curtsey. ] It's a pleasure to meet you, Omega.
[ Insert cute little grin here. ]

Are you on an adventure too?

[ Leia was beyond happy to see another younger person, and a girl too!! And one who looked like she knew how to have fun and get into trouble. She tried to repress a grin and remember what Obi-Wan taught her about being cautious. It was so hard though. She just wanted to be straightforward and know everything about everyone and not have to ask permission or think so hard about everything all the time. Or be polite when people were rude. Especially not that. ]

[OOC: AWWWW. Yes, they would be such BFFs. They would get up to so many shenanigans!]

Yeah! Something like that! Well...not right this second. I'm traveling with my brothers, but they're off doing errands right now.

[Yes, errands. That's a good cover and it isn't a lie either. It's the truth.]

What sort of adventure are you on?

[It was rare to find someone her own age to spend time with. She'd had positive experiences before and saw no reason why she should not make a new friend while she waited for the others to get back.]

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Padmé, Anakin, Leia { when you give so much, but it's not enough

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this is giving me bad batch vibes and i’m here for it.

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I am always here for Bad Batch vibes

DID SOMEONE SAY BAD BATCH VIBES?

brb, screaminnng

Star Wars BBs!!!

:'D

<3