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otter-youngjae · 5 months ago

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The twins r so sweet 😭

Love it! Can’t wait to see Anakin and the twins interact with reader!

A Very Cherry Christmas

Summary: A cherry incident that leads to a sweet surprise.

(pt two of A Very Berry Christmas)

pairing: single dad!Anakin x single nurse!reader

warnings: flour galore. and fluff. and a liiittle bit of angst, ft. cursed snowmen.

word count: ~4.6k

a/n: really this is just filler with some fluff and angst but I promise the next one is more fun.

Much to your disappointment, you don’t see the little family for the whole week with work keeping you busy. Seriously why did people’s urges to do dumb shit increase so much more during the holidays? Putting up lights on the roof right after it had snowed – who do you think you are? spiderman? And who the heck stores white paint in maison jars and then proceeds to put it in the pantry? Do you not smell anything before you consume it? And why would anyone ever try to open a gift with a freaking axe, did grandpa just wrap the Christmas tree as a present itself?

You did however have brief interactions with the twins – usually on days when your work shift and their school time coincided. Some days their father was with them and he’d give a single nod of acknowledgment in your direction, and other days they were with that same tan woman with the white hair. The first two days she’d looked curiously in your direction when the twins enthusiastically waved at you across the parking lot, but by the third time she’d given you a small smile in greeting as well.

But the lack of run-ins with the family didn’t keep your mind from drifting to the pretty stranger with the kids. Well, guess he wasn’t that much of a stranger now. You weren’t exactly proud to admit but the handsome man from down the hall had popped up in your thoughts more than you thought appropriate, he was a father after all. But weren’t dilfs the latest hot trend?

Well, at least that's what your best friend told you when you mentioned the events of the previous night at your next shift. She had taken one look at the half-assed bun on your head, the drooping eyebags and the too-large cup of coffee before her dull expression shifted.

"Oh. my. god. You have your cursed happy snowman sweater on."

You had given her an incredulous look, laughing as you gathered your scrubs to change into, "What are you talking about?"

You look down at the oversized white sweater with a snowman face on it. You had gotten it on sale and maybe the slightly crooked smile that made your snowman look a little psychotic had something to do with it, but you thought he was cute, so whatever. "And he is not cursed. Just a little misaligned."

She took a sip of her own coffee while pointing at your torso with a challenging brow, "Whatever you say. But you only wear it whenever something nice or lucky happens. And considering Melanie still hasn't been run over by Santa's sleigh Regina George-style," She turned her head to glare at the dark-haired woman who was scolding the new intern about how 'just because it's Christmas doesn't mean you get to bring all this clown stuff to the hospital. This is a professional setting. Do you think any patient will take you seriously with this stuff?'"

A water bottle. A green and red Christmas-themed water bottle is what she was talking about. The two of you sent another glare in her direction before your best friend continued, "I figured it must be something at home."

Her head suddenly snapped to you, eyes widening in excitement, clicking her fingers to point at you, "Wait! Did you get lucky last night?" She wiggles her brows suggestively.

You gave her a smirk in return, "Very."

"Shut up. Tell me!"

You walked into the changing stall and turned around to face her with a smile, "I actually managed to go to bed before 12 yesterday, well sort of."

"Oh, boo!"

You laughed as you closed the door and started changing into your uniform.

"I said fun as in 'young, wild and free' fun, not 'old lady with back pain' fun."

You shouted over the door, "But I am an old lady with back pain."

You heard your best friend sigh dramatically, "Aren't we all?" But her tone shifts and she's quick to ask you another question, "Wait— what do you mean sort of?"

That's when you told her about last night's events. Well, as much as you could before one of the senior nurses called you to discuss a patient. You left with the promise to tell your best friend more at the end of the shift when the two of you can go out for drinks together now that it's the weekend.

You step out of the stall, turning around to walk backwards, "Oh in return, I heard there's going to be a surprise Christmas mini-parade in the hospital. You know the whole singing, decorating and all that. They're looking for volunteers."

The two of you glanced at Melanie again who was now screaming at another young nurse before your best friend turned to give you a devious smirk, "Oh, I know someone who loves singing and decorating…"

You winked at her before turning on your heel to walk out of the locker room.

There had been an unexpected blizzard later that evening yet the bar had been crowded, nothing surprising considering the holiday season. Your best friend poked and prodded at you for more information on Anakin but every time you only shrugged and told her the same thing, "I only met him properly yesterday, that too in my pyjamas. What do you expect me to know, his parent's address?"

She rolled her eyes, "Of course not. But you said he had a pretty face, so what? Is the seat taken or…?"

You laughed as you scolded her, "He has kids. I don't think any man as gorgeous as that would still be tending to his garden alone." You raised your brows at her in a 'if you know what I mean' way before taking another sip of your drink.

The night continued with more drinks flowing in spirit of the holidays (really it was just an excuse to get drunk but you deserved to let loose after working your ass off the past week) and the two of you definitely had your fun. When the night ended, she dropped you off but not without another teasing smile from the back seat, speaking up before you could shut the door.

"Tell hi to your holiday hunk for me." She winked and you laughed, shaking your head in dismissal as you closed the door.

"It's icy on the roads, get home safe. Text me when you reach."

You spoke just loud enough that the driver would hear you, he better know that you're keeping track of your best friend's location.

She wished you a good night just as the taxi pulled away and then drunkenly waived out of the window in the back as the car took a right.

You sighed as you watched the car drive out of sight, only then did you truly realise how tired you felt, the exhaustion of your shift finally catching up to you. The weariness seeped into your bones and made every step that much heavier, slowing you down even more than the snow on the ground.

You couldn't wait to just get home and fall right into bed. Still, the thoughts of your pretty neighbour didn't leave your mind.

It’s the weekend after and somehow Anakin has ended up in the kitchen with the twins at 12 in the morning, again.

See, serving in wars had changed Anakin in ways he had never imagined. Front lines weren’t exactly a place synonymous with warmth and cheer, not unless you enjoyed the warmth of the blood on your hands and the cheer of the so-called victory his bosses had declared. So Anakin had adapted to fulfil his duties – he built an armour around himself to preserve whatever bit of humanity was left in him, a hardened shell to mimic the comfort that none of them could afford, and he also stopped celebrating. None of their conquests felt worth the blood and loss.

That all changed when the twins were born. While his marriage with Padme had started to feel like trying to reignite a wet piece of wood, the first cries of the twins in that plain clinical room had felt like his whole world was splashed with rainbow confetti. But in a matter of seconds the world flipped on its axis when the doctor walked out of the emergency room they had rushed Padme into, delivering that dreadful news and whispering his condolences. Every day after that he wondered if it was worth it, if any of it was worth it. At first the days seemed to drag on, his routine had become pretty stable after his retirement but now the stability felt suffocating, everything became monotonous, and the responsibility of his newborn babies felt like a task he might just never measure up to.

He had ended up isolating himself for days. Hardly stepping out of the house to only buy things for the twins, though most days even that ended in frustration when he couldn't figure out just which baby formula was the best, or if strollers were better than baby carriers, and can babies eat meat? Should he buy this overpriced baby teething toy or that fancy automatic rocking chair? It all felt too much and he had started questioning if he was even fit for fatherhood.

One day, after managing to get through breakfast with two unusually fussy twins, yet another frustrating trip to the grocery store and a disastrous attempt at dinner that ended with a bleeding thumb and a puréed mess of tomatoes that made his kitchen comparable to a crime scene, he had finally broken. He was barely managing to keep his calm when he accidentally opened the forbidden drawer in a hurry to find old clothes to clean the mess, and that's when he saw it. An old photograph from the early days of their marriage. Back when things were much less complicated and the two of them were still floating on the wings of their honeymoon bliss. Back when hope and love drove their relationship to such great heights, the same love that caused it all to crash and burn.

He had ended up calling Obi Wan in near tears, trying so hard to control his breathing, if only for the sake of the sleeping twins. That night he had gotten a good hour-long talk from both Obi Wan and Ahsoka, who made him promise that he wouldn't retreat into himself like that again, that he'd share his problems and let them help him. The sharing part wasn't too bad but he still struggled with the whole 'chill out Skyguy, we'll take the twins for a park adventure and you can just sit at home and relax'.

Relax. Relax. God, he's not sure he even knows how to do this 'chill out' anymore.

But he tried.

Every day he found new reasons to be – right from 'the twins have started crawling, Snips! Soon they'll be taking their first steps- they're already growing up so fast' to 'AHSOKA! OBI WAN! COME HERE QUICK THEY'RE- THEY'RE- THEY SAID THEIR FIRST WORD!' Somehow the twins had said their first words almost at the exact same time, though Leia despite being younger had beat her brother by a few minutes.

He had gotten embarrassingly tearful when they called him 'Papa' for the first time, giggling when they realised how much it shocked him, speechlessly staring at the twins in their high chairs with his mouth dropped open in disbelief. They then proceeded to ecstatically babble the word over and over again in childish glee to make him laugh till they finally exhausted themselves to sleep.

He had cried some more later that evening when he decided that no matter what happened he was going to try his damn best to give the twins everything they deserve, which in his opinion was something more than this universe even, after all they were his universe. He could never imagine a world without his babies and he would do anything for them.

Which is why when the twins attacked him with their full weight as he was watching the evening news from the couch, Luke quickly taking his place behind his dad to massage his shoulders with suspicious generosity and Leia immediately listing all the things they did that day,

“Papa, Luke and I had winter sports practice today.”

“Yes, princess I remember. How’d it go?”

“It went really good. I won first in the race and Luke won in karate practice today! I only got second because this other guy cheated. And we got two stars for our maths homework!"

"That's really good princess, I'm proud of you both."

"And Papa we cleaned our room today, I even sorted all my puzzles into the correct boxes, even the big solar system one," Luke was the one to speak up this time.

"—'Soka helped us vacuum, but we did everything else on our own."

Luke walks around the couch to stand beside his sister, nodding enthusiastically in agreement, "and Miss Lawrence said I was being very good today—"

"and Miss Tran told me I have improved my handwriting—"

"—Okay, what do you guys want?"

The twins blink up at him owlishly. He narrows his eyes when they don't say anything for a minute, only looking at each other from the corner of their eyes as if having a secret conversation in their minds.

Hmm, if this whole twin telepathy thing he heard about was true, he's not sure he's ever going to win any argument against the kids.

And he doesn't. As soon as the twins request, more like politely order him to bake yet another sweet treat for the weekend, fluttering their doe eyes and pouting their sweet pleas, he's hardly able to hold his argument for a few minutes. He tries reminding them of last weekend's berry incident and even resorts to using the good ol' parental excuse of old age exhausting him. Still, their constant pleading and Leia's final resolution of 'if Papa doesn't help us, we're going to make it ourselves' has him finally giving in.

So now here they are, on another Friday evening, well a really early Saturday morning to be accurate, with their matching baking aprons on and some Christmas tunes playing in the background.

Leia's hunched over the countertop, standing on a chair with her small hands stroking an imaginary beard in contemplation, the way she had seen Uncle Obi do, trying to make sense of the cherry-something recipe her dad found on a stray page from his mother's old cookbook. Luke's swearing on his favourite light-up space-themed sneakers that he won't overeat the cherries this time, and Anakin's trying not to lose his mind pitting a whole two pounds of cherries that make his hands look like he just walked off the set of Saw.

"Hmmm, Papa, after a whole lot of deliberation," Anakin pauses his task to raise a brow at his daughter's wording but Leia continues without hesitation, "I think Gramma was being silly and messing with us."

Anakin knows that his daughter is smarter than most and could probably even best him in an argument but he also knows that her mother's prudence holds strong in her, so he understands that what she actually means is "I think your mother may have been a little cuckoo in the brains and was taking the piss out of you."

He laughs as he takes in the very serious look on his daughter's face, "While I would normally believe you kiddo, I can assure you that this recipe is very much real because your very not-silly-dad has tasted it when your not-silly-grandma made it for me as a kid."

Leia only gives him an unconvinced look before climbing down from the chair to walk over to her brother who was standing over the dining table on another chair. She climbs one beside his to look over the table as well.

She sees that Luke has the entire table covered in stray sheets that have unintelligible writing scrawled all over them. The pages are all frail and yellow and she wonders if her papa was wrong and maybe the book belonged to her great-grandmother instead. The pages also have an odd sort of smell and various stains and discoloured spots all over them that make her wrinkle her nose. Well, this book surely must've been…well-loved she thinks.

"Luke, did you find the missing half of the recipe?"

Her brother frowns, "No…I can't even read any of the stuff written on these pages. And that's impossible because we just learned to read last week!"

Leia sighs with a shake of her head, taking in her brother who's again shuffling the sheets in a desperate attempt to find any page similar to the cherry thing recipe their father claims is real, and then glances back at her father who is now practically strangling the cherries into a bloody pulp when she's sure she read the recipe say mix.

She takes in the mess they have made of their apartment – the random specks of flour scattered on the carpet, the stray groceries spilling out of the bag they abandoned after finding the ingredients, the more loose sheets lying on the floor, and the scattered Christmas decorations that were yet to be put up.

She sighs once again before climbing down from the chair and walking back over to the kitchen. She grabs her tablet from the counter and quickly makes a search before walking over to her father. She says nothing as she simply places the device screen side up right next to the bowl he's got his hands in. Anakin stops his cherry slaughtering to glance down at the screen before looking up at his daughter.

"And what is this?"

"Our new plan."

He raises a brow at that, "and why do we need a new plan?"

"Because our house looks like a crime scene and I don't want to go with CPS?"

"Why do you know what a crime scene is? Or even CPS??"

She rolls her eyes, "I'm five, not stupid."

He glances back at the recipe on his screen, "But this says it only a takes a few minutes to make…"

"Exactly."

He pouts at his daughter, "but I thought our baking sessions were father-babies bonding time..don't you wanna spend time with your old man?"

Luke chimes in from his place on the chair, "You're not old, Papa" he giggles, "Uncle Obi is old."

"Wow hold on, hey champ? I want you to remember that and repeat it for me when I get my phone out, okay?"

He removes his hands from the bowl, scrunching his brows and looking at the ceiling in thought, "Hmmm, you know what, I can't remember the last time I hugged you guys…"

Anakin once again exaggerates his pout as he looks back at the twins, "I miss my darlings so much, I just want to hold you in my arms, don't you wanna give daddy a hug?"

Both the twins immediately shake their heads, wide eyes trying to anticipate his moves.

He takes a step forward and Leia takes a step backwards, Luke's tiny hands tighten on the back of the chair.

"Aww c'mon, I think we should have a big ol' group hug like we always do." He opens his arms and wiggles his cherry-stained sticky fingers at them.

The twins once again frantically shake their heads, but there's smiles threatening to grow on their faces.

"No? Hmm I think you guys will change your mind if we give it a try. C'mere—"

And with that he springs forward, the squeals of the twins echo in the apartment as they scramble to get away from his squirming red fingers like they were some goosebumps monster.

"No, papa!" Leia screams as she runs away from him but her toothy grin and giggles give her away. Luke's laughing as their dad scoops his twin into his sticky arms, her tiny hands fisting his shirt as he tickles her belly before placing her on his shoulders like a rucksack, her endless giggles colouring the air.

His laughter quickly dies down when Anakin turns around to set his eyes on Luke next, a smirk taking over his face as he takes slow deliberate steps in his son's direction and Luke shrieks before breaking out into a full sprint with their father hot on his heels.

It doesn't take more than a few steps for Anakin to catch up with Luke's small feet, picking him up with his other arm to tickle him with the sticky fingers.

Leia's still hanging upside down over his shoulder while Luke's giggling as Anakin blows raspberries against his cheek, trying to get away from the attack but he knows his Papa's arm is strong so there's no escape.

But then Leia spots a weapon of her own. As her dad's too busy terrorizing her twin, she uses his distraction to wiggle out of his hold and land on the counter behind him. She bends down to scoop a handful of the powder spilt on the kitchen counter.

Anakin's laughing at his son who's trying to get rid of the cherry slobber all over him when he feels the 'splat' of something hit his back. He immediately freezes.

There's white powder floating in the air and he can feel the stuff in his hair as he hears a small gasp behind him.

He slowly turns around to face his daughter. She's trying to look innocent, hands behind her back to hide the evidence and eyes avoiding his to look up at the ceiling.

He doesn't say anything as he gently places Luke down. The whole apartment is suddenly quiet and he can tell that the twins are holding their breath.

"Oh, it's on."

And just like that the battle starts. There's flour flying everywhere, bright peals of laughter echoing throughout the room, and paper balls and throw pillows joining the arsenal to make it a full-fledged war.

This continues for a good hour and only ends when Anakin comically steps on a pillow covered in flour and goes zooming across the floor to crash into a wall.

They soon end up cleaning everything up before Anakin sends the twins to shower to get rid of the flour and cherry syrup all over them. In the meanwhile Anakin finishes up the cherry cobbler and throws it in the oven.

When the twins finish showering he asks them to keep an eye on the dish while he takes a shower.

"Promise me you won't try to take it out to taste it when it's still hot," the 'like last time' is left out because they all know what he's referring to, specifically with the pointed look in Luke's direction.

Luke simply avoids his dad's eyes while Leia nods dutifully.

When he's done changing into fresh clothes he walks back into the living room where the twins are watching that cursed snowman movie again. He doesn't understand what they love so much about it, if there was a way to shift to a reality where that abomination doesn't exist, he'd gladly do it.

Leia sees him walking into the kitchen to open the oven and jumps off the couch to follow him with Luke trailing right behind.

He removes the pan from the oven and sets it on the counter, "Hey, do you think we should share some of this with Y/n since she helped us last time?"

Leia is the one who answers, "Yeah, she's nice." She's pointedly looking at Anakin but he isn't sure what she means so he just stares back at her until their stare-off is finally broken by Luke chiming in, "Mhm, her sweater was also very soft."

"Oh right," Anakin had entirely forgotten about it, "we should give that back too."

"But what if she doesn't like cherry cobbler?" Luke speaks up again.

"What if she doesn't like cherries?" Leia joins in.

Well shit he hadn't thought of that either.

He scratches his head.

Hmmm, what if you didn't like cherries? but how could they confirm it? It's not like he could just randomly show up at your door right now at 1 in the morning (again) to ask you if you like cherries or not. Or could he…?

No. No, he definitely can't. There's no way he's going to wake you up and inconvenience you again so late at night. But how could they find out then….?

Anakin quickly shakes his head, "Look we made it for ourselves anyway, we can just give her some of it and if she doesn't like it she can just….give it to someone else or something," you seemed too nice to throw it out but the thought of you giving the food he made to someone else didn't sit right with him for some reason.

"Does that mean we get to see Y/N again?" Luke's excited eyes peep over the opposite edge of the counter.

"Nope. At least not today buddy, not right now."

His words are immediately followed by whining from the twins.

"Aww, why not, I wanna give her the sweater back myself—"

"That's not fair, we helped make it too, Papa just wants to talk to her alone—"

"I do not!"

He sighs as he pinches the bridge of his nose before straightening up, "Okay, how about this, it's really late right now and we don't want to disturb her again, right? So what if the two of you write her thank you notes that we can stick on the box that we'll give her?"

"Okay!" Both the twins scramble to gather their markers and paper, racing each other to the bedroom for dibs on the glitter pens.

After the twins are done with their notes, Anakin takes them with the promise to give them to you along with the cherry cobbler.

What they don't know is that Anakin's snuck in a little note of his own. Nothing too long, just a simple

'Thank you for last weekend.

Have a Cherry Christmas.'

And it's the first thing you see when you open your door the next morning, you can't help the smile that takes over your face when you read it, standing in your doorway still in the ugly snowman sweater you fell asleep in.

You look down at the tupperware before opening its lid to the most tasty-looking dessert, taking a delicious whiff before closing the lid again.

You hold the 2 cards that came with it in between your lips as you pick up the tupperware with both arms, opening your door and hip checking it to close behind you.

The weekend couldn't have started better really, you can't wait to read the notes and dig into this delicious treat.

You drop off the box on the kitchen counter to open the Christmas themed note cards, greeted by multiple drawings of snowmen and candy canes and even an ambiguous red circle, something you assume is a cherry? a red ball? tomato?? No, it has to be cherry right? But then why did one of them have these mistletoe-like leaves? and who're the two people holding hands underneath it?

You assume it's the twins but the artistic choices are a little...creative so it's hard to make out.

You pull out a spoon and open the lid to scoop up some of the cobbler as you take turns to read each of the notes scribbled in adorable kindergartener handwriting.

The dish is absolutely scrumptious, melting in your mouth with it's sweet tartiness, but what melts your heart is the sweet messages written on the inside of the cards with glitter hearts around them.

You decide this is definitely going on the fridge.

a/n: this was supposed to come out almost a month ago but here we are. it seems I can just never be on schedule...one might as well compare me to local public transit systems -_- so apologies, but I hope you enjoyed nonetheless!

if u did pls like and comment! a little interaction goes a long way ;)

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otter-youngjae · 6 months ago

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BOTH

You write so amazingly!!!

A Verry Berry Christmas

Summary: A certain berry incident leads to finally getting to know the family from down the hall. Could the season's greetings blossom into the start of something sweet?

pairing: single dad!Anakin x single nurse!reader

warnings: lame attempts at humour, brief mentions of barf. a whole lotta xmas puns.

word count: ~4.5k (someone needs to teach me how to not make everything 2k+)

You're sleeping peacefully in your cozy bed when you hear it. Three loud knocks that rouse you from your sleep. Or try to– you have half the mind to simply turn around and pull the covers back over your head and go back to sleep. In fact, that's exactly what you do, maybe this is just some weird dream.

Three more knocks, and they beat down more urgently on your door. That's when your reptilian brain kicks in, your instincts taking over as your eyes fly open and you push off the covers to grab the giant candy cane prop you'd gotten on discount that you'd temporarily propped by your bed. It's not that you live in a shady area or anything, but you'd rather take your chances on your poor hand-eye coordination with a fake candy cane than face whoever was at your door at– you check the clock on the wall, at 1 in the morning without one.

As you reach the front door you curse the old apartment and your annoying landlord for not installing even just a peephole to see who you'd have to fight off at the witching hour. There had to be some sort of basic requirement for safety in these apartments right? You'd have to check for that later since the more pressing matter was now loudly knocking on your door once again. You're thankful it's only you and that man with the twins on your floor, though for his sake you hope the twins aren't light sleepers.

This time the person only knocks twice before abruptly stopping. Should you open the door or simply walk away now that the knocking had stopped?

Your contemplation doesn't last long as you hear voices through the door, a rough voice telling someone to go back inside followed by loud shushing sounds as you hear a child crying. Curiosity gets the best of you and you quickly toss the candy cane aside to throw the door open and the sight that greets you immediately concerns you.

It's the man from down the hall, Mr Skywalker, and gosh he looks miserable. Though it's not like you'd know what he usually looks like, you'd only ever seen him in fleeting moments – sometimes with the twins, sometimes alone, the only reason you even knew his name was because you'd accidentally gotten his mail once. He's halfway down the hallway between his and your apartment and you assume he's the one who had knocked. When he turns around at the sound of your door opening you realise he's carrying a small boy on his hip who's a little red in the face, eyes still scrunched from crying.

"Oh thank god," he makes his way towards you again, "I know this is really sudden and I apologise for disturbing your sleep, but could you please look after my daughter for a while? I have to take my son to the hospital urgently and I don't want her to be alone, she's very well behaved— won't cause you any trouble I promise—" he's frantic as he explains, "Leia! Can you come out here please?" He's calling her over before you can get a word out, not that you were against helping him.

A girl, just as small as the boy, peeks her head around the doorframe of the apartment down the hall. Her father lightly bends down and wiggles his fingers to call her over. You use the brief moment to observe the man for the first time since he appeared at your door. You take in his sleep-tousled caramel blond hair, the wrinkled white henley that was clearly old from the way it stretched over his broad chest and shoulders despite the buttons being undone, probably bought at a time when he wasn't so...muscley. Your eyes quickly move down before your thoughts can continue down that line only to make it worse when your gaze lands on the strip of skin exposed by his shirt riding up, the prominent v-line peeking above the black sweats that sit low on his hips.

As the little girl slowly makes her way to where the two of you are you quickly avert your gaze. It would be mortifying to be caught ogling her father.

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to your son?"

Once little Leia reaches him and takes his hand he turns to you again, "We were making blueberry pie— going to— but Luke ate some of the blueberries and then started throwing up," he worriedly looks back at his son on his hip, tucking him closer as Luke shivers in his arms and curls into his dad.

Looking at Anakin, then back at Luke you clear the remainder of sleepiness from your voice, "I don't mean to intrude sir," you start slowly, "but I happen to know a thing or two about allergies, you can totally still go to the hospital but maybe I can take a look at your son for you?"

When he doesn't answer you get nervous and start rambling, "I know what I'm doing, I'm a nurse you see— I swear, I even have my certification for this– I could show you if you want," You make a move to retreat back into your apartment but Anakin's hand on your wrist stops you.

You gasp when you feel cold metal rather than flesh, eyes going wide as you turn to look at his palm wrapped around your wrist and for the first time you notice that his arm isn't human.

Anakin hears the little sound and immediately curses himself in his mind.

What the fuck were you thinking – grabbing her wrist like that, specifically with the metal arm when it's already freezing.

He quickly apologises before dropping your hand and you look at him again as he runs a nervous hand through his hair, "Could you do that? Would you do that? Take a look at him I mean," if it weren't for the situation at hand you'd have thought his stuttering and awkwardness were cute and holy shit he was so much prettier up close but you push those thoughts aside as your work brain kicks in.

You hope it's nothing too serious and that the poor man doesn't have to rush to the hospital at this hour.

You invite him and his children into your apartment, leading the little boy and his father into the kitchen while giving Leia full access to your plushie collection as you drop a whole bunch of them on the couch to make her a little more comfortable and keep her distracted while you check on her brother.

Though, when you tell her to get comfy she singles out a fluffy highland cow plushie that you'd customised to match the holiday spirit with a mini red santa hat, and then turns to you with big eyes, "Can I read those?"

When you follow her little finger you realise she's pointing at the stack of old newspapers. You shrug, "Sure, why not," you pick up a part of the pile and lay it out in front of her to let her pick.

Whatever keeps her busy you guess. She thanks you for it and you leave her there on the couch before heading to the kitchen. On the way you make a detour to the bathroom to check for any allergy medicine in case it was something mild.

When you walk into the kitchen you notice Luke is no longer crying, rather slumped against his father, cheek squished against his dad's shoulder. Probably tired from all the crying and throwing up, you think to yourself. You place the few bottles of medicine you had grabbed on the counter and ask him to sit Luke on it as well.

You fill up two glasses of water, handing one to Anakin and holding one out for Luke but he simply shakes his head.

"Does he have any allergies or anything like that?"

Anakin shakes his head no, "Not that I know of. And he's had blueberries before but never such a reaction to them," he tells you, worried eyes constantly shifting between you and Luke.

"Did he have any other reaction other than throwing up?"

The man shakes his head no again, "He only threw up. At first I thought it was one of those 'kids puke all the time' things but then he threw up again and complained about his stomach hurting and wouldn't stop crying."

You walk over to the cabinet in your kitchen and pull out an old friend, hiding him behind your back as you walk back to Luke. He was somewhat calmer now but you didn't want him getting upset again so maybe a distraction would be nice, "Hey Luke. I have a little buddy here who'd like to get to know you, he wants to play with you, do you wanna meet him?"

Curious but still shy he slowly nods his head, a feeble "okay" escaping his lips.

You pull out the old dinosaur toy you'd had since...gosh you couldn't even remember anymore. It was a little faded and worn (well loved is what you called it) but he was soft and smelled clean so maybe it would help.

"This is Rex the T-Rex. He says he's really happy to meet you." You wiggle the dino's hand in a little wave. You pretend that Rex the T-Rex whispers something in your ear, nodding like you understand what he wants to convey.

"He says he wants to talk to you, but he's very shy so maybe you can hold his hand to get to know him? He's a doctor you see, so he wants to ask you a few questions, can you answer them Luke?"

The little boy thankfully looks intrigued enough by the old toy, quietly taking him when you place it in his lap and nodding okay once again.

You then quickly start your assessment with a few questions, "Luke, do you feel any itchiness anywhere?"

The boy shakes his head no. You then ask him how he feels right now and only get a 'sleepy' in response. You could never be too sure with allergies, it was different for different people, but judging from everything you knew till now you had a suspicion this wasn't allergies.

"Luke, how many blueberries did you eat?"

The boy holds up his tiny fist, closing and opening it to show you, "just this much."

"You only had that many berries?"

He gives a 'mhm' while fiddling with the rainbow bracelet on his wrist, "I had them after dad washed them, then I had them after they were cold in the fridge then when we baked the crust and then when we were making the inside thing."

You have to stop yourself from laughing as Luke's father narrows his eyes at him, "Luke, how many blueberries did you have?"

The boy innocently holds up his tiny fist again, waving it in his dad's face this time, "this much."

"But you had that much four times?"

"Uh-huh," hearing his dad's tired sigh as he drops his head into his hand is what breaks you, and you can't help but snort.

You move towards the sink to wet a small cloth before taking it over to him, "Here, you can wipe the fruit on his face, the smell of it might be making it worse," then you leave them alone to head to your bedroom to find one of your older sweatshirts that had shrunken in size after your friend accidentally machine washed it when she borrowed it for a Christmas party.

You finally manage to pull out the old garment from the corner of your closet after struggling to pull out one sleeve that was stuck under a heap of clothes, making you fall on your ass when it finally came loose. You get up and dust your shorts off with a glared huff at the pile of clothes that you were too lazy to sort before heading back to the kitchen.

Since you had already decided what to do for Luke's nausea, you ask Leia if she would like some of the ginger honey tea you were planning to make. When she answers with a "yes, please," you smile at her and tell her you'll bring it to her in a minute before entering the kitchen.

Seeing that Anakin has finished cleaning up all the berry stains from Luke's hands and around his mouth you walk over to hand him the sweater, "I think it'll be better to have him out of that t-shirt, it doesn't exactly have the most...pleasant smell." You try not to make a face at the faint lingering smell of barf and blueberries – a combination you know will haunt you for quite some time.

Anakin takes the sweater from you, and you turn around towards the stove to start making the tea, "I think a little honey-ginger tea might help with the nausea, can he have that?" You glance at Anakin as you stretch up to pull out the ingredients and he barely avoids being caught staring at the sliver of skin peeking under from your shirt when it rides up.

He clears his throat, "Um, yeah— yeah he can have it." He glances at Luke who's still toying with the dino plushie you gave him. You turn back around to watch the boiling water and hear Anakin gently talking to Luke as he switches his spoilt shirt for your sweater.

With your back still turned to the two you realise that Anakin has a very nice voice – it's very calm and gentle, a smooth cadence that makes you think you could listen to him forever. You wonder how old he is, he didn't look that much older than you but the way he panicked with Luke made it seem like he was a bit inexperienced with such occurrences. Though you definitely had the advantage of your job to thank for your knowledge.

A soft amused chuckle is what pulls you from your thoughts, making you turn around as you switch to low heat. You see Anakin smiling at his son's form on the counter, drowning in your shrunk sweater that was still too big for him. You notice his gaze fixed on the graphics of the sweater – a 'Sleigh All Day' written above the picture of Santa Clause and Rudolph chilling on a sleigh like it was a beach chair, sunnies on and drinks in their hands.

His gaze then shifts to the sweater you're wearing, a dark blue with a white font that says, 'Birch, please.' with the photo of a sassy Christmas tree and it actually makes him snort. You smirk at him before turning back to the tea as he asks, "How many of these do you have?"

You glance at him from the corner of your eye, still smirking, "Do you really wanna know?"

He shakes his head with a smile before clearing his throat, "I uh- I want to thank you for doing all this. Specifically so late at night, and also— I'm really sorry for barging in on you and disturbing you. Neither of the twins have ever had a reaction like that, they're really smart and absolute angels, so tonight just...scared me a little." His voice fades out at the end and you turn the stove off as you turn to look at him again. He's gently running his hands through his son's hair, somehow smoothing out and messing up his hair at the same time.

Luke hasn't said much in the past few minutes but seeing the little boy almost drowning in your too-large sweatshirt as he's lost in his own play world makes a warmth bloom in your chest. Both the twins seem so well-mannered and calm that you're sure Anakin's right and they really must be angels.

"That's alright. Takes a village to raise kids, right? I'm glad I could help. And that it wasn't something too serious."

"I'm sorry— I feel like I've intruded in your house and haven't even given a proper introduction. I'm Anakin. The little blueberry monster is Luke," he points at his son, playfully ruffling his hair and making him giggle and duck to avoid the attack, "and my daughter— that's Leia."

You smile back at him, telling him your name in return, "It's nice to meet all of you." You turn back to finish preparing the tea, pouring it into four different cups for which you apologize with a grimace, "Sorry they're all...like that. I hardly have people over so I don't really have proper tea cup sets..."

Anakin would reassure you that it was nothing if he wasn't busy trying to contain the immediate smile threatening to grow on his face when he sees his cup – a white mug with the words, 'I just took a DNA test turns out, I'm a 100%' on one side and 'that Grinch' on the other, with the Grinch's iconic smiling face staring back at him of course.

He then takes a look at Luke's cup as you go to call Leia for the tea, not wanting the little girl to be alone in the living room. He notices it's a plain white porcelain with the words 'Wake me up before you cocoa' and a cartoon of a singing chocolate bar wrapped up in a red and green scarf.

You must really like Christmas he thinks.

You hear the little patters of her feet before she shows up at the doorway and you call her over. Before you can ask if she wants to sit next to her brother she's already raising her arms to be lifted onto the counter, and before Anakin can step in you're already lifting her into your arms and gently placing her on the countertop next to her twin who excitedly begins to show his sister his new friend while waiting for his tea to cool down.

Leia thanks you for the help again and you can't help but be amused at the kid's manners. She seems to be very well-spoken for someone so tiny, and you wonder if that's from her father or her mother, which in turn makes you think about these kids' mother.

Anakin seemed to live alone, and you had never seen any woman visiting his apartment, other than the one time you saw the twins with a tan woman in the parking lot when you came back from work, though you're pretty sure you overheard them call her 'Auntie'.

"Ouch, hot! Hot! Hot!"

Luke's tiny yelps snap you out of your thoughts and you watch as Anakin quickly puts down his own cup and reaches out to take Luke's from him, placing it on the counter beside him while scolding Luke with an 'I told you to wait till it cools down—'

Followed by a whine from his son "I did! It didn't have the hot floating steam anymore—"

"—and I told you that you should always check first with a tiny sip."

"But you always drink really hot coffee really fast."

"That's 'cause I don't have time in the morning and need to at least pretend to be listening when someone talks to me."

" I wanna try coffee too—"

Anakin sighs, "—No Luke, you cannot—"

Leia simply sits beside her twin, shaking her head with a soft sigh as she listens to her father and brother argue.

You can't help but be amused by this little family before you as they continue their bickering, entertained by their chaos and curious because—

"Why were you guys baking at one in the morning?" It escapes out before you realise and you quickly bite your tongue, chastising yourself in your mind, ohmagosh you can't just ask people why they're baking at one in the morning.

"—sorry you don't have to answer that, just got curious," you awkwardly shuffle on your feet, laughing in embarrassment before you move forward to take everyone's empty cups to the sink.

"It's okay," Anakin speaks up, "We have a tradition of baking something every weekend for the entire month of December. The twins were craving some pie and it's the weekend so I thought why not? Their mother used to bake the best desserts, I can't live up to that standard but...I try."

His words once again make you curious about their mother but this time you manage to bite your tongue in time. From his slightly breathier tone you can tell that the story here isn't exactly happy so you don't try to pry.

Seeing as the twins were getting drowsy, now that the adrenaline of the chaos had worn off and been replaced by the warmth of the sweet tea, Anakin pushes off the counter, "Anyways, thank you so much for helping us— helping me. And sorry we disturbed you."

You dismiss his apology with a wave of your hand as Anakin lifts the kids off the counter though Luke requests to be carried back again.

"I'm glad I could help. Kids can give real scares to their parents sometimes, I know I did –many times," you joke as you follow the man and his children out of your kitchen to the front door.

Anakin didn't know you too well, just a few casual run-ins that come with living on the same floor. Though he doesn't know how casual he can consider it when you always seemed to be in a hurry of some sort, finding out your job as a nurse makes things make more sense but still, you were a jittery little thing. He remembers that time when he was awake late one summer night, the twins were at Ahsoka's and he couldn't sleep so he'd stepped out for fresh air. He guessed you were coming home late from work, hair a tangled mess and feet dragging on the ground. You were carrying some paperwork and maybe it was the late night shift or maybe it was the dark parking lot but you accidentally ran into a tree near the door to the building, your paperwork falling from your hands. You quickly bent down to pick it up and then immediately started apologising to the tree and thanked it for helping you pick up the papers, then wished it a good evening and walked away.

He also remembers the time he overheard you talking to your friend in the hallway about babysitting their cat, but the next morning when he ran into you at the laundry there were long claw marks running up and down your arms that you quickly tried to hide by pulling down the sleeves of your sweater and a sheepish smile.

"Took my friend's cat for a walk. Some of the neighbourhood strays didn't like that. Almost lost an eye trying to separate those little bastards." "I mean catfights, amiright?" You had joked and he had only stared in disbelief and mild concern, hoping you had at least gotten the scratches checked out for infections.

He also remembers seeing you a few days back, struggling to drag a too-big-for-an-apartment Christmas tree across the parking lot, he would have helped you if he wasn't sure that he'd spook you in the dark empty lot. Though he didn't see the tree anywhere in your living space when he walked in so he wonders what happened to it.

He turns around at your doorway to look at you again.

"I don't doubt it."

Is that a smirk on Anakin's face? Is he messing with you right now?

You roll your eyes, shaking your head with a laugh.

"I'm just glad it wasn't anything too serious, hopefully though we'll keep the blueberry consumption to a limit from now on." You tease as you ruffle Luke's hair. He makes a gagging face at the mention of eating blueberries and it makes you laugh again.

"Guess berry pie will have to be put off for a while, huh?"

Anakin sighs as he adjusts Luke on his hip, pulling his daughter closer as she slips her tiny hand into his, "I guess so."

He looks back up at you and you're once again stunned speechless by how pretty he is, long eyelashes fluttering and pretty thunderstorm eyes rimmed red by the lack of sleep. He is still one of, if not, the most gorgeous man you've ever seen.

You've noticed that Anakin is a somewhat hard person to read. With the diverse variety of people that came to your work and the ones you helped, you had become sort of used to being able to read people. The way they behaved in emergencies alone told you a lot about a person. But for some reason, other than the panic when he first knocked on your door, you couldn't at all tell what he was thinking right now. And considering he seemed to be a first-time father, especially to twins, you suppose the panic was warranted.

Anakin's intense gaze fixated on you makes you nervous, so you let out an awkward chuckle while wringing your sweater paw hands, "I'd wish you an advanced 'Berry Christmas' but I feel like we've had more than enough of those, huh?"

You cringe and once again curse yourself at the lame attempt at breaking the silence that had lulled over and trying to escape Anakin's sharp eyes. You expect him to scoff and walk away from you as quickly as possible and maybe never talk to you again but instead he just smirks and looks down. He catches sight of the giant candy cane decoration you'd thrown aside and shakes his head, chuckling.

He starts guiding Leia and carrying Luke back down the hall towards their apartment and you think you're right, he's never gonna wanna talk to you again. He probably thinks you're some Christmas-obsessed weirdo who makes godawful jokes and he's gonna tell Luke and Leia to never talk to you again as well and—

With his back turned to you, his voice carries across the hall, snapping you out of your thoughts. He enters his apartment and pokes his head out to give you one last look, eyes looking you over once before he smirks, "There's better weapons out there than candy canes." And then his door shuts.

Your eyes widen when you realise he's joking with you and not immediately rushing to report you or something, and you laugh as you close your door.

As you stand in your apartment with your back pressed against the closed door, you can't contain the growing smile on your face. You hope you get to see more of the cute and slightly chaotic family living down the hall.

dividers by @strangergraphics and @tsunami-of-tears

A/N: an advanced berry christmas to everybody! :)

ps. what do y'all think Anakin's hair colour is?

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otter-youngjae · 6 months ago

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This scratches that part of my brain so well

NEED MORE SINGLE DAD ANAKIN PLEASE 🙏