Something There

                                    

                                          
Sometime the next day, Padme was outside, walking in the snow with a little astromech droid named R2-D2, the only one who hadn't changed from the spell, while Caroline walked with Carmine.
Anakin stood at the balcony, watching Padme. He looked at his bandaged arm and then back at Padme.
"I've never felt this way about anyone." Anakin said.
"It looks like Caroline may be starting to feel the same way about Carmine." Kara said, spotting Carmine flirting with Caroline again, only to fall on his face in the snow, making the girl laugh.
"I want to do something for her." said Anakin. "But what?"
"Well," said Mace. "There is the usual. Flowers, chocolate, promises you don't intend to keep."
"Way to give good romantic advice." said Kara sarcastically.
"No, no." said Obi-Wan. "It should be something that sparks her interest."
And then, Obi-Wan had a great idea.
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Anakin brought Padme back inside and escorted her to some new doors.
"Padme... there is something I want to show you." Anakin started to open the door, then shut it again. "But first, you must close your eyes."
Padme scrunched her nose slightly.
"It's a surprise." said Anakin.
And Padme closed her eyes.
Anakin then opened the doors, then took Padme's hands and slowly walked her in.
"Can I open them yet?" Padme asked.
"No! Not yet." said Anakin. "Just a little farther. Right here!"
Anakin then opened a curtain to let the sunshine in.
"Now can I open?" Padme giggled, feeling the warm sunshine.
"Alright. Now." said Anakin, smiling under his mask.
Padme opened her eyes, and she was astonished by the amazing sight before her. A library filled with shelves and shelves of books. There must have been hundreds of thousands of different books in there.
"I've never seen so many books in all my life!" smiled Padme.
"You like it?" said Anakin nervously.
"It's wonderful!"
"Then it's yours."
"Oh, thank you so much."
Padme kissed Anakin's cheek. Anakin froze and fainted after he'd felt her kiss.
"Are you okay?" Padme asked, getting him off the floor.
"I'm fine. Just lost my balance."
A few friends happened to be watching from the entrance.
"I knew it would work!" Obi-Wan said.
"Look at those two," chuckled Ahsoka, who'd been turned into a lamp. "They're perfect together."
"What?" Boba asked. "What worked?"
"Come, Boba." said Zam. "There are chores to be done in the kitchen."
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Carmine kept trying to show Caroline a good time, but kept making a klutz of himself in front of her, making Caroline have to rescue him from hurting himself.
"You poor thing." Caroline said, getting Carmine's wing unstuck from a bush outside.
That was when they heard hoof steps coming from the front yard.
"Hello? Is anyone home?" Ruwee called.
"Ruwee?" Caroline gasped.
Carmine flew over to the front yard and spotted Padme's parents.
"Mr. and Mrs. Naberrie." Carmine greeted. "Welcome back."
"Where's our daughter?" Ruwee asked.
"She's safe inside, as promised." Carmine said. "Caroline is fine too. Would you like to come in?"
The Naberries were a little surprised; this was certainly a warmer and less intimidating welcome than they'd previously received from any of the masters.
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Anakin and Padme looked around the library together when Carmine came in.
"Anakin, we have visitors." Carmine said.
"Visitors?" Anakin said, confused.
Carmine motioned for Padme's parents to enter.
Padme had a huge smile on her face and immediately ran over and hugged her parents. Anakin gave no objections and greeted the Naberries.
"Welcome back." Anakin said.
"He hasn't hurt you, has he?" Ruwee whispered.
"No, Daddy." Padme shook her head. "Quite the opposite, in fact. His family had been very kind."
"To both of us." Caroline said, and she started to recall Carmine getting himself into trouble. "Though some might be trying a little too hard."
"Where did Carmine get trapped this time?" Anakin asked.
"Wing in the bushes."
"I'm fine though. Free as a bird." Carmine said, stretching out his wings.
"I don't understand," said Ruwee. "This place is actually... nice?"
"To be fair, this place always has tended to be a little creepy in the dark." Carmine said. "Even before we were cursed."
"Cursed?" said Jobal.
"Does your village believe Sith Lords are merely legends made to scare bad children into behaving?" Anakin asked.
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Anakin showed the Naberries an old picture of the royal family and then showed them the stone statue that was his parents.
"Sith Lords are very real." Carmine said. "And one took advantage of Anakin's desire to prove his love to our mother."
"My siblings and I... we lost our family to a cruel fate much worse than death." said Anakin sadly. "All because I was lured into the trap by a beautiful rose planted by someone I thought was my friend. And now every night with a full moon, I turn into an even worse beast than I appear to be now."
"It wasn't enough to just curse Anakin, though." Carmine said. "That Sith Lord decided to turn Kara and I into beasts as well, and turn all our friends into living furniture. But truthfully, our parents got the worst of it."
"And so," Anakin started to conclude. "instead of turning our parents into beasts like us or anything sentient, he turned them to stone."
"We had no idea." Ruwee said.
"Why would you?"
"Everyone who sees us responds the same way you did when you first saw Anakin." Kara explained, hissing. "If they don't run away and hide from us, they attack us."
"Finding a girl who wouldn't run away from me was the only way I could secure any hope for my family to be human again." Anakin said. "And I really do intend to show your daughter everything she deserves."
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The royal family invited the Naberries to join them for a meal.
However, Anakin felt nervous removing his mask. Even though he wasn't full-on werewolf in the daytime, his fangs were still razor sharp underneath.
"Ani, don't be nervous." Padme said. "You can control it."
"Is that mask part of the curse or just to keep from biting anyone unintentionally?" Jobal asked.
"A bit of both, actually." Anakin said. "I can only remove it when I'm eating, or it pops off when I transform into a werewolf."
"In the first days of this spell," hissed Kara. "He sometimes went without eating because he feared he would hurt someone if he removed his mask."
"What about you two?" Jobal asked Carmine and Kara. "One of you is a giant snake and the other has sharp claws and teeth and no mask."
"It's different for each of us." Carmine said. "Over the years, we've come up with different ways of taming the worst of our ends of the curse."
It was actually pretty simple to figure out for all three royal children.
For Kara, being turned into a giant snake made her literally cold-blooded, so they had to make sure any room she was in had a warm fire set up so she wouldn't get too cold and freeze up. But, they did have to make sure she didn't go too long without eating, as she had also become capable of swallowing things whole and constricting with her tail like some actual snakes did.
For Carmine, all it took was letting him stretch his wings at night to get his extra energy out. That, along with Zam giving him some soothing teas regularly and having lavender flowers in his room to keep him calm, and one of the harps playing soothing music. It didn't hurt to also build him a scratching post for his claws.
But Anakin, he probably had the most issues to deal with. Turning into a wolf, he had a harder time controlling his temper as well as his actions. They tried spraying him with water like pet owners did with misbehaving dogs and cats sometimes, but that only seemed to make him madder. And the smell of meat made him more aggressive. The only effective method they could find was chaining him down on the night of a full moon and locking the doors tightly so he wouldn't go rampaging in the castle or the forest and risk harming any late-night forest strollers.
"Sounds like you've all been busy over the years." Ruwee said.
"It hasn't been easy." said Kara. "But if our parents have taught us anything, it's to make do with what we have."
"Ever since Caroline and Padme arrived," said Carmine. "Things have started to turn a little brighter around here."
Anakin was still very nervous as he was about to remove his mask.
"Can you at least try not to scream when I take this thing off?" Anakin asked nervously.
"Of course, Your Highness." Jobal said.
Slowly, Anakin did remove his mask, and his sharp teeth were exposed as he took his first bite of food.
The two families spent a little more time talking and eating, and as the day passed, Anakin and Padme especially began to notice an odd change in the way they looked at each other.
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Jobal: There's something sweet and very kind
Ruwee: But he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined
Padme: And now he's dear and so unsure
I wonder why I didn't see it there before
Anakin and Padme walked outside in the snow together, where Padme showed him how to feed the birds some seeds.
Anakin: She glanced this way, I thought I saw
And when we touched she didn't shudder at my paw
But Anakin felt unsure. And Padme couldn't tell so easily because of his mask, but he was blushing underneath.
No, it can't be, I'll just ignore
But then she's never looked at me that way before
Caroline was beginning to see things differently about Carmine too. And Carmine kept his balance a little better this time.
Neither Padme nor Caroline knew why, but when they each looked at the twins with whom they each spent the most quality time, they began to feel things they couldn't quite explain.
Anakin watched as Padme interacted with the birds, and some more on them perched on the twins, making the girls smile.
Padme and Caroline: New and a bit alarming
Who'd have ever thought that this could be
True that he's no Prince Charming
But there's something in him that I simply didn't see
Suddenly, Carmine found himself hit in the back of the head with a snowball.
"Oh, that's how you wanna play it, huh?" Carmine smiled mischievously. Then he gathered up tons of snow, and so did Anakin.
However, both princes got smacked by snowballs. Anakin fell on his face in the snow and Carmine on his rear, and both of them got covered in the snow they gathered when they fell. The girls both laughed at how silly the boys looked now.
And from inside, a few friends watched as the four friends were bonding.
Obi-Wan: Well, who'd have thought
Zam: Well, bless my soul
Mace: Well, who'd have known
Obi-Wan: Well, who indeed
Jango: And who'd have guessed they'd come together on their own
Zam: It's so peculiar
All: We'll wait and see
A few days more
There may be something there that wasn't there before
A few days later, Padme and Anakin soon sat together by the fireplace to read a book, while Caroline sat with Carmine, brushing his mane as he purred like a happy kitty, making her laugh.
Mace: You know, perhaps there's something there that wasn't there before
"What?" Boba asked, still not knowing what was going on.
Zam: There may be something there that wasn't there before
"What's there, Mommy?" Boba asked.
"I'll tell you when you're older." Zam said, giving her son a kiss.
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One night, Carmine was being groomed, and Anakin was having a new, more formal outfit made, and his hair spruced up.
"Tonight is the night, Anakin." Obi-Wan said as Anakin looked at himself in the mirror.
"I'm not sure I can do this." Anakin said.
But Obi-Wan looked at the rose and said, "You don't have time to be timid. You must be bold, daring."
"Carmine's having progress with Caroline."
"Caroline's a lot harder to get through to than you'd think." Carmine said. "Apparently, she's the playing hard-to-get but not playing hard-to-get type."
"How do you play hard to get without playing hard to get?" Anakin asked.
"Don't ask me. Women are so complicated."
Carmine shook himself dry, getting Anakin's hair wet and putting out Obi-Wan's flames.
"Both of you, focus." Obi-Wan said. "There will be lights, romantic music, romantic candlelight provided by myself."
Obi-Wan reignited his flames.
"And when the time is right, you confess your love."
"Confess my..." Anakin sighed. "I can't."
"You care for Padme, don't you?"
"More than anything."
"I feel the same about Caroline." Carmine said.
"Then tonight," said Obi-Wan. "You each must tell your chosen ladies."
The beauticians continued to spruce up the twins until Mace came into the room.
"Ahem. Your ladies await you, Your Highnesses." bowed the clock.