I've been tagged by the lovely & wonderful @jbarneswilson

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs

There are sooooo many of these... this is gonna be fun 😅

An Angel Drowned - Namor/Okoye/Attuma OT3 nonsense

Like Real People Do - Attoye First Kiss Arranged Marriage AU

Stars Aglow - Pt. 3 of A Sea of Stars

Seas May Burn - Stars-verse spin off where I commit crimes and feel no shame

Sunbound - Attoye Kink Exploration

Unrighteous - Real World Infidelity AU because why not

Gather Our Ghosts - Featuring the heaviest angst I'll ever write aside from SMB

Glory - Attoye Gladiator AU

Carry Me Down - Canon Divergence, Hostage AU

Drown With Me - Dark Attuma, Homicide is a Summer Activity

If I Had A Boat - Okoye-centric, #burnthecape

Bigger Than Love - Another Arranged Marriage AU

Love Comes in Waves - Mission Gone Wrong Hurt/Comfort

Overjoyed - Primetime Pt. 2 (lol its been a long time coming)

Won't You Bring Me Whiskey - Old Western AU

Kiss with a Fist - Hate Sex dubcon, the dove is dead

LRPD Prequel - Because it's more necessary than you think

Oh and I have a Harry Potter fic too 🤣

Blood Never Lies - Pureblood Biracial Hermione

Send an ask if you want detail or anything like that 😂 I'll blab about anything. I do not have 18 people to tag 😭 we'll stick with the same homies I roll with all the time 😂

All Love, No Pressure tags: @theeblackmedusa @mamajankyy @tvreadsandsleep @xenokattz @umber-cinders @sharonrb

Sketch Practice ✨✍️

Some LRPD-verse Vladtegra

I’ve been too shy to ask before but ummm if you're doing a week of smutty prompts, what do you think of another lrpd snippet where Ben calls Anakin “sir”? They both enjoy that right?

OHOHO. They certainly both do. Hey, more established relationship! Set pretty far post-LRPD, definitely after the last of the prompts I wrote for it. I’m posting two things for Spicy September Week today (because I have four snippet prompts related to previously written fics, and they’re not as long as the other things I’ve written.) This is number one!

OH I ALMOST FORGOT. SPICY. NOT SAFE FOR WIZARDS (AND OTHER THINGS STARTING WITH W). No real warnings for this one, just happy bjs.

~~~~~~

Anakin was never going to get tired of kissing Ben. He didn’t see how such a thing would ever be possible as they stumbled out of the fresher and over to the bed that was - at least for the night - theirs. He walked backwards, because it was far more important to keep his full attention on Ben than it was to turn and look where he was going.

“Force,” he panted, keeping a grip on Ben’s bare hip with his left hand - always careful not to squeeze too tightly - and sliding his right into Ben’s still-damp hair. “Your mouth,” he added, because Ben kissed like he meant to start something, no, like he meant to finish something.

“What about my mouth?” Ben asked, low and quiet, voice like a promise, nudging Anakin another step backwards, towards the waiting mattress. He was all warm skin, still wet because drying off hadn’t seemed important, really, not with both of them hard and aching for it.

Anakin had wanted to get his hands on Ben since he’d neatly taken out a kriffing slaver ship on his own, almost two hours ago. They’d been nothing but hands, the slide of skin on skin, in the fresher, and now Ben was sucking on his bottom lip, pointedly grinding against him.

Anakin gripped him a little tighter, and ground out, “It’s amazing.”

“Mm,” Ben said, mouth crooking against Anakin’s lips before he shifted, nipping at Anakin’s jaw, back towards his throat. “And what should I do with it?” He sucked at Anakin’s pulse point, and Anakin sucked in a breath, suggestions rising to his lips unbidden.

One suggestion by far outweighed all the rest and he gritted out, “You should put it on my cock.”

Ben exhaled harshly against his skin, his voice thick and wrecked when he said, “Yes, sir.” And Anakin barely felt the bite Ben left at his collarbone on his way to his knees. He - Force, but Ben never called him “sir” anymore in the field. They were so far beyond all that, on their own out in the Rim, but--

But his cock throbbed at the way Ben said it and at the sight of Ben there before him, one hand braced on his thigh for balance, the other curling around the base of his cock, as he leaned forward. Ben looked up through his eyelashes, eyes dark and hungry, when he licked across the head of Anakin’s cock.

Anakin’s breath caught in the back of his throat as Ben licked over his skin, closed his lips over the head and slid down, bobbing his head, tongue curled just so, and--

“Like that?” Ben asked, pulling off with an innocent smile that hit Anakin in the bottom of his stomach. His mouth was already getting red, bottom lip shiny wet. And Anakin wanted --

“Yes,” he gritted out, sliding his fingers into Ben’s hair, his gut tightening at the way Ben’s cheeks stained redder, the way his pupils expanded, “just like that.” He tugged, and Ben groaned, mouth hot and wet as he slid forward.

Anakin reached his other hand out, braced his palm on the wall, as Ben sucked and swallowed and--and the noises he made were delicious, wet and soft. Messy. “Force,” Anakin gritted out, holding himself stil, letting Ben set his own pace, gasping when Ben curled fingers below his mouth, stroking as he slid his mouth up and down.

He broke, eventually, like he’d known he would, unable to keep his hips still. He pushed forward, rocking into Ben’s hot mouth, and Ben groaned, muffled. Anakin bit back a curse, fucking in again - shallow - and Ben leaned his head back against Anakin’s hand, trusting, willing, and--

And Anakin could feel how much Ben enjoyed it, Ben was never closed-off with his emotions when they did this, let his feelings overflow, making soft, wet sounds with each thrust, looking up, again, his eyes clear and so blue and--

“Kriffing hell,” Anakin panted, body thrumming all over with pleasure, and he wanted to stretch the moment as long as possible, wanted Ben’s mouth always around him, Ben’s hair tangled around his fingers, Ben looking up at him like he was the sun and--

And Ben swallowed, around him, when he lost the fight with his self-control, cock pulsing with relief and heady pleasure. Ben slid off, slowly, and pressed a kiss to his hip, and another, and made a shivery, surprised sound when Anakin went to his knees. 

Abruptly, he needed to kiss Ben, needed to put an arm around him and hold him tight, and the bed was only a few feet away, but they didn’t make it, sprawling out there on the floor, instead, tangling together.

okay so those of you who are here because of chatfic already know i’ve got theories about hozier (he’s a buried avatar lads), and those of you who know me irl know i just love batshit mad theories, so here we go (those of you who may possibly see this in the hozier tag without any other context keep scrolling, this gets weird) a post in which i use lyrics to posit that hozier has in fact been marked in some way by all the entities from the magnus archives actually i’m gonna put this under a cut because it’s getting hella long, my apologies mobile users if you disagree with any of these or just want to chat about it then please hit me up! i love my pet theories lol

the buried: “why were you digging, what did you bury / before those hands pulled me from the earth” --like real people do; “when my time comes around / lay me gently in the cold dark earth / no grave can hold my body down / i’ll crawl home to her” --work song; as well as all of both those songs, plus probably more i can’t think of rn this is the easiest to classify. lrpd is just him going “hello yes i am a buried avatar hi there.” plus the whole bog body thing outside of that? “oh yeah hozier rises from the dirt/woods every 5 years to drop a new album” is pretty much what he actually does i think (credit for bringing work song to my attention goes to a_random_nymph on ao3) the corruption: “i have never known hunger / like these insects that feast on me” --in a week definitely encountered it, he’s marked, but it’s not his the dark: “i would shun the light / share in evenings cool and quiet / who would trade that hum of night / for sunlight, sunlight, sunlight” --sunlight; “there will be darkness again” --no plan look, the stuff in sunlight lasts for like. half a verse. it’s definitely not his, but like the corruption, he’s encountered it the desolation: “when i was a child, i’d sit for hours / staring into open flame / something in it had a power / could barely tear my eyes away” --arsonist’s lullabye; “though i’ve handled the wood i still worship the flame” --would that i; as well as all of both of them actually, and again probably others look there’s a lot of evidence to support hozier being a desolation avatar too, as seen above. and i get that! but i really think he’s done a mike crew here and renounced the desolation in favour of the buried. there’s actually a work song quote that might metaphorically relate to that? but yeah arsonist’s lullabye pretty much places the desolation stuff as being when he was young the end: “two corpses we were / two corpses i saw” --in a week; in fact all of in a week tbh yeah, not much to unpack here. again, was marked but isn’t affiliated the eye: “i knew that look, dear, eyes always seeking / was there in someone that dug long ago” --like real people do he’s met the eye. encountered avatars of the eye. is possibly being pulled from the earth by an avatar of the eye here? unsure. but he’s an older avatar than he looks, and i’m clinging to the theory within a theory that he once met jonah magnus the flesh: “something meaty for the main course / ... / we’ve a lot of starving faithful” --take me to church yeah. i know it’s absolutely metaphorical. but it’s the only thing i could really find and it does kinda fit, so i’d say he’s got the mark. now i think about it there are bits of angel of small death and the codeine scene that fit as well, so there u go the hunt: “dragging along, following your form / hung like the pelt of some prey you had worn” --shrike; plus various quotes from “in the woods somewhere” he’s known a hunt avatar intimately i’m pretty sure. it didn’t work out, and it left him marked. he also touched the hunt itself, but once again, it didn’t stick with him the lonely: “never feel too good in crowds / with folks around” --to be alone it’s a passing reference, he’s marked but not affiliated the slaughter: “open hand or closed fist would be fine / the blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine” --cherry wine didn’t feel drawn to it, but hell if he hasn’t been marked by a slaughter avatar the spiral: “the shape that i’m in now is shaping the dooway” --as it was i won’t lie, this is a tenuous one, but that’s a pretty distortion kinda quote. also possibly “when i was sixteen, my senses fooled me” from arsonist’s lullabye, but that’s so tangled up with the desolation so :// the stranger: “i’m almost me again / she’s almost you” and “i laugh like me again / she laughs like you” --almost (sweet music) again, it’s tenuous, sorry lads. he’s marked but not affiliated the vast: “there’s no plan / there’s no hand on the reign” --no plan this one was the hardest to find, actually. but i think the feel of no plan is very much your insignificance in the wider universe, so i’m counting that as a mark the web: “i’d be the voice that urged orpheus / when her body was found / i’d be the choiceless hope in grief / that drove him underground / i’d be the the dreadful need in the devotee / that made him turn around” --talk say it with me lads: marked but not affiliated. it’s a very web statement, but it only appears the once that i can think of bonus! the extinction: all of wasteland, baby. need i say more?

fun fact! if you hit ctrl+enter instead of shift+enter (to avoid a line break) you accidentally end up posting the post Very Before you mean to post it! fun times

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMedwG4m6/

this is probably how anyone who stays beneath them during the night feels 😭

this tiktok gave me flashbacks to when i used to live in an apartment. that exact same sound. at about 1-2 in the morning every few nights. i’d wake up and would have to wait for them to finish before i could fall back asleep. 😬😬

i’m really hoping the people below them in the hotel won’t be able to hear, but i can say that in the lrpd ‘verse, this is the exact sound ian’s downstairs neighbors hear due to his squeaky mattress to the point that they leave a note on his door. 

Like Real People Do - Snippets

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2R8ZWPQ

by glimmerglanger

A series of followups (potentially some missing scenes) from Like Real People Do, as requested over comments and on tumblr. Gathered here for ease of finding them. Each chapter is a different scene, not necessarily in chronological order. POVs bounce around, the timeline shifts, etc.

Chapter One: Anakin and Once Make Nice Chapter Two: Anakin Finds Out About Ben's Last Name Chapter Three: Ahsoka and Rex Try and Sort Things Out Chapter Four: Sparring Chapter Five: Bant and the Baby Type 2s Chapter Six: The Amidalas' Fabulous Wedding

Words: 6984, Chapters: 6/6, Language: English

Fandoms: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: F/M, M/M

Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Minor or Background Relationship(s)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, LRPD verse, Angst, Fluff

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2R8ZWPQ

fic writing tag 2016!

tagged by @harryspaceshipmchale thanks bruv!!!

(these stats are taken across two different ao3 accounts, bc im #extra)

Total 2016 Word Count:  136,722 Total 2016 Hits: 12,990 Other 2016 AO3 Stats: comment threads: 192 bookmarks: 45 subscriptions (works and user): 66 kudos: 583

((for 2015, ao3 doesnt count works that were finished in 2016??))

Total 2015 Word Count: 24955  Total 2015 Hits: 3116 Other 2015 AO3 Stats:  comment threads: 10 bookmarks: 4 subscriptions: 9 kudos: 157

links and titles to 2016 works: (updated/posted in 2016)

Like Real People Do (The Office) Juliet (Community) World From The Bright Side (Community) Magic Words and Frivolous Rhymes (Community, crossover) Predisposition (Community, crossover) At Least It Was There (Community) Emotional Significance of Calendar Events (Community) Age-Gap Algebra in Modern Digital Media (Community) jxaappreciationweek2016 (Community) hours turn into days (Community) Preserving Sweet (Community) Soft Epilogue (Community) heart to heart and hand in hand (Multi)

Favorite Fic: well i wrote LRPD over the course of 1.5 years, so that’s always gonna be special for me i guess? other than that if we’re talking in terms of my favourite to write, then “heart to heart” - stressful, but worth it! however in terms of which i think was the best this year, probably “at least it was there” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

Hardest Fic: DEFINITELY either LRPD or “soft epilogue”. multi-chaps are hard, yo

Do You Plan to Take Prompts in 2017? i think so! sometimes i need a distraction from writing the WIP but don’t want to verge out of the community-verse for fear of losing my knowledge of it, so short prompts are helpful for that! probably not too often though!

What was the best thing about 2016? FINISHING MY GD MULTI-CHAPS

What was the worst thing about 2016? for LRPD i worked with a ‘beta’ who.....wasn’t so great and that kinda put me off fic writing for a while???

Any last thoughts for 2016? thanks so much to everyone who read/commented/left kudos on my fics!!!! 

Goals for 2017: write this WIP!!!!! i wanna have at least the first 4 chapters pre-written before starting to post (although currently im using this tag to procrastinate from writing......whoops)

tagging: @celerylapel (i know you’ve already been tagged, but still!), @gayclaryfray

Oh hey, look...a standalone fic with no affiliation with my LRPD-verse stuff. ;)

Summary:

Tensions flare after an unsuccessful mission. Alucard is clueless, and Integra is at the end of her rope.

Set after the Valentine Brothers Attack/Wild Geese introduction and before the museum meeting with Iscariot.

I just finished marathon reading “Like Real People Do” and the associated snippets. Just wanted to stop by and thank you for creating such a wonderful universe that is equal parts heart-wrenching and hopeful. I don’t have the words to fully express how much that fic had probably effected me; I adore all the Kenobi Clones, and a selfish part of me wishes there was more content of them out there. Thank you for this gift of a fic! Thank you!!!

:D AH THANK YOU! I’m so happy to hear you liked it! I really do love all the clone boys, and still think about them a lot (especially poor Once and Ben).

Just read LRPD and now I'm really curious how Anakin and the others from that universe would react to meeting the original universe's Anakin and Obi-Wan. I wonder if original Anakin would be shocked that apparently everyone, including his wife and his alternate self, would jump at the chance to marry Obi-Wan if only there were enough of him to go around XD

Oooooh, a meeting between them would likely be full of both hilarity and angst. I think that Anakin “DO I love my wife more than my old Master? processing noises” Skywalker, who was also ready to believe that Padmé was having an affair with Obi-Wan after about five seconds of prompting.... takes one look at his double with Ben and Padmé with Nith and goes, “Yeah, okay, that sounds about right.”

and hey maybe after everyone is sorted back to their proper universes some consideration is given to the idea of, you know, sharing the single Obi-Wan they’re lucky enough to have idk

A question about the lrpd verse, where does the name Once come from? How did you choose it? Once means eleven in Spanish, so now everytime I hear Eleven from Stranger things all I can think about is your fic 😅

Well now I'm thinking about a stranger things au....! Once's name, however, came from when he was little and told a long-winded trainer that he only needed to hear instructions once, actually.  (He got in trouble, but his brothers thought it was amazing).

Just so you know, every time I see the word “Once” capitalized in fic now, at the beginnings of sentences and whatnot, I’m immediately like “:C babyyyyyy” and it totally derails me for a minute as I stare into space and remind myself that he’s happy with Cody (or at least getting there) oh man did your work leave an impression on me! Loovvee

MY BABY T_T Once went through so damn much, but he’s got his farm moon now and Cody there to help him get through the hardest days and maybe his mind never gets put completely back together, but.... T_T

Thank you so much, I’m happy to know that other people still think about him. He really got 100% of the Kenobi self-sacrificing genes. T_T

i like to think that someday cody figures out how to punch a force ghost in the lrpd verse

I wish you would write a little LRPD moment involving nakey Ben and Anakin, counting scars, every one of Ben’s Anakin has been there for, but Anakin has scars from before Ben ever existed.

Life had left them both with so many marks. Ben had been created to make war and it showed. He'd spent years on the front lines and gathered scars to show for it. 

Anakin seemed to have no problem with most of them. He would slide fingers across raised flesh as though keeping a count in his head. Most of the time. 

He treated the scars left behind from the mission to the listening station differently. The matching blaster marks on Ben's chest and back received halting attention, ever with the spiking of grief and regret through Anakin's thoughts.

There were some reminders that always burned and stung.

Still, Anakin turned away from none of Ben's scars. He was not so accepting of his own. He'd turn his shoulders aside, sometimes, if Ben touched the old marks there, laid in lines across his flesh. 

It took time, and the slow rebuilding of trust between them, before Ben managed to ask what they were from, pausing in the act of counting each line with his fingertips as Anakin haltingly, chokingly explained.

hello! i just wanted to say that i absolutely ADORED like real people do. at first when i read the summary i was terrified. i cried the second i started the first chapter and instantly fell in love with the story. kudos to you! if you're still doing snippets, i was wondering what life was like for once and cody after the war?

AH, THANK YOU! :D You make my morning. I am still doing snippets, yes. Poor Once. Kid needs a break.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The war ended, somehow. Somehow, a few words were said, and it was just over. Swept away. The thing Cody’d been made for: just done. He’d never known how to be anything but a soldier. In the immediate aftermath, when the Senate announced it was open to his brothers volunteering for service, that had seemed the obvious choice.

The Kaminoans hadn’t trained him to do anything but fight.

But he’d learned other things, along the way, despite their efforts. He’d learned to care for his brothers. For his Generals. For Once, who’d come out of the war worn thin and pale. He didn’t look much better after they pulled him out of the bacta. His hands shook, sometimes, and sometimes he didn’t respond when people talked to him, staring at nothing.

Cody took one look at him and knew he wouldn’t make it on a battlefield. 

The thought of leaving Once somewhere and going off to fight on his own left him feeling so uneasy he had to get up and pace. He’d be fine. The galaxy had tried to kill him over and over for three years. If he’d lived through all that, he didn’t see what else was going to kill him.

But Once sometimes forgot things. Important things. Like eating. 

So, Cody didn’t sign up. He took the funds the Senate had allocated, pay for services rendered, blood money, he supposed. It was more than he’d expected, especially with Once’s included. He looked at the credits in his account, looked at Once, and was left with the massive task of figuring out what next.

“I’d like to go somewhere quiet,” Once said, when Cody asked. They were in the quarters they’d been assigned in Coruscant. It was quiet, quieter than it had ever been on the Fallen Star, but Once was sitting wedged into the corner, his hands pressed to either side of his head.

He never complained about the noise, not unprompted, but when asked he always mentioned it, even when there were no sounds at all. Cody’d figured he wasn’t talking about physical noise after the first time or two. 

“Somewhere quiet,” Cody repeated, thinking about all the minds on Coruscant, all the minds on the Fallen Star, thinking about the way Once sometimes replied to things no one said out loud. “We can do that.”

#

Finding somewhere quiet proved a challenge. Cody wasn’t sure where to look. They’d never been sent anywhere quiet. But Once’s brothers had suggestions, especially the one who seemed attached to Senator Amidala by the hip.

They ended up with a piece of land on some moon in the Outer Rim. “I can’t promise it’ll be completely safe,” Nith said, when he came to hand over a deed. Cody recognized him, seeing him in person. He’d been with Once, down on Coruscant, when the red guards tried to kill them. “In fact, it might be incredibly dangerous. But it’ll be -- there won’t be a lot of other minds, around.”

“Do you know what’s…” The words ‘wrong with him’ wouldn’t quite form on Cody’s tongue. They stuck in his throat, choking him. He ground his back teeth together.

Nith glanced to the side, like he heard the entire question, anyway. He said, “I don’t know what he did, exactly. But it was like nothing I’d ever felt before, when he did it. I thought I was going to die. I thought we were all going to die.”

“But you’re not, you don’t need the quiet,” Cody said, plowing onward through this conversation, because he needed to know.

“I wasn’t the focus of it all,” Nith said, expression gone sad and grim. “It’s - he hurts,” Nith spoke the words quickly, quietly, suddenly leaning closer. “He hurts, we can all feel it. It’s. We’re doing our best to help, but. He’s going to need… someone looking out for him. Maybe for a long time. Are you sure…?”

Cody met his eyes, so clear and familiar, different at the same time. Cody didn’t hate, much. Not even the Separatists. But something in him hated General Jinn. Once never looked so sure as Nith did, as his other brothers did. “I’m sure,” Cody said, and Nith smiled at him.

#

Their moon was covered with verdant greenery and not much else. There were some living creatures, mostly small, and insects. No native sapient species, according to the data Cody had been given. 

Once had stopped complaining of headaches on their shuttle; Cody had bought the ship outright with some of their remaining funds. Some of the lines around his eyes disappeared and he started sleeping through the nights, no longer waking up to curl into a ball, arms wrapped over his head.

And if he replied to things Cody had only thought, more often than not, well. There was no one on the moon to be bothered by it. Cody didn’t bother to mention it.

#

They, technically, needed to do something. Sooner or later, they’d run out of credits. Cody had vague ideas about farming, but he’d never planted anything in his life, except bodies in the ground. They made do.

They lived out of the shuttle, for a time, until they managed to construct a habitation. It took time, but there wasn’t really any rush, as near as Cody could tell. They cleared some land. Planted some local flora that had been identified as a nutritional crop, spent their days and nights together.

Cody worried about hurting Once, and shouldn’t have, because Once picked up on it and pulled him close, hands moving over skin, mouth warm and welcoming, and, when they moved together, sometimes Cody slipped into his thoughts, the raging storm of them.

He saw himself there, sometimes, a single stable point around which Once was spinning, struggling to coalesce.

#

They got visitors. Travelers stopped for a chance to stretch their legs. Their brothers dropped in, both those still serving and those not. Once handled some guests better than others, but always with little lines of strain around his eyes. 

Sometimes, Once turned visitors away, refused to let them out of their ships. Cody didn’t question it. He wasn’t a fool, and denying that Once heard things he didn’t would have been ridiculous.

#

Cody was surprised to find things to enjoy, on their little moon, but it was beautiful. He particularly liked the sunrises, which painted the sky from horizon to horizon. He liked not fighting. He liked watching things grow.

And if he sometimes had to remind Once of where they were, or when they were, well.

He could do that, too.

Sooo we know Anakin and Ben went to a wedding for Nith and Padmé but BEN WAS UNDER A HOUSE?! I’m gonna need some further context on how those two idiots are passing the time. I’m sure it involved a nonchalant Ben and Anakin clawing his eyes out at being driven to heroism for this man. Basically I just wanna know how and what they’re doing (other than each other), what are they doing post-war for an occupation, I’m just checking in on the boys okay :P

:D OH THEY’RE GETTING INTO TROUBLE. This ended up ALSO hitting a request I got for Anakin Proposing to Ben, so it’s a two-fer. Thank you for asking about these fooooools! :D

Anakin had dreamed of going home at the head of an army for nearly as long as he could remember. The Hutts, all the other slavers, stirred a disgust in him that had never slept. They were a blight on the galaxy, and he’d never understood the Senate’s reticence to do anything about them.

The fact that a Sith had been leading the Republic around by the nose for almost two decades explained a lot, he supposed, but there had been corruption, even before Palpatine rose to power. Senators who saw their pockets lined by the slavers, who were inclined to look the other way and pass off the problems in the Outer Rim as… minor issues, of no concern to Core worlds.

Anakin wondered, briefly, if Chancellor Organa planned to uphold that status quo. It would have been easy to relax. To claim that they needed to recover after the war. To sweep aside other problems and claim only victory.

Anakin told Ben all his concerns, all his worries, pacing around the small space they’d been allocated on Coruscant in the immediate aftermath of the war, and Ben raised an eyebrow and said, “Aren’t you friends with Senator Amidala?”

Anakin paused in mid step, frowning at him. “She’s an old friend, yes. Why?”

Ben shrugged, reaching out to grab Anakin’s belt, tugging him closer to say, “Why don’t you talk to her about this, then. She’s got a lot of power right now, you know.” And it was a good idea, but one that Anakin didn’t pursue right away, because he was, abruptly, more focused on other concerns.

#

Somehow, Anakin didn’t expect that Ben’s suggestion would actually work. Somehow, he figured the entire thing would be delayed, put off, once more. But it wasn’t. They were allocated resources. They were sent off. And, suddenly, after years of waiting, no one was telling him that he had to keep swallowing all the injustice, the cruel unfairness of the galaxy.

Something inside Anakin eased with each fight, with each organization they disrupted, with each person they freed.

It was a difficult slog, miserable and dangerous each day. They drew bounties almost immediately, slavers offering insane amounts of credits for their heads. A bounty hunter blew up a building with Ben in it, and Anakin--

Killed him, dug Ben out, took him somewhere relatively safe and patched him up.

Their little campaign had a cost, taken out in sweat and blood, and Anakin paid it willingly, but, brushing Ben’s hair back while he slept… Well, sometimes Anakin wondered if he’d asked too much.

#

They made terrible progress. The bounties on their heads grew higher. It felt almost inevitable that, eventually, they’d miss a step. Luck was bound to turn against them, sooner or later. When it did, it was on Tatooine - of course, Anakin should have expected that - and he was alone, and when they took him, he spared a moment to be grateful that Ben wasn’t there.

The bounty hunters didn’t kill him. He was, apparently, worth more alive than dead. Wanted for questioning, he was told, when he woke, groggy, in an overheating cell. There was a collar around his neck, shut too tight around his skin, so he felt each beat of his heart. He couldn’t feel the Force at all.

He said nothing, nothing at all, on the entirety of the trip to whoever had bought him, no matter how hard they asked their questions. He thought about Ben, about his smile, the brightness of his eyes, going somewhere else in his head.

#

The bounty hunters brought him to a Hutt. It wasn’t a surprise, truly. The Hutts had their fat, slimy fingers in every aspect of the slave trade. Anakin was dragged in covered in chains and blood. They forced him to his knees in front of the giant, ugly worm, who spoke in a low rumble to the bounty hunters. He spoke in Huttese; Anakin hated the language, but knew it. “Where is the other, the partner?”

“We couldn’t find him,” one of the hunters said, shrugging. “But we got--”

“My orders were that they both be brought to me,” the Hutt said. Anakin didn’t recognize him on sight, but he was one of the biggest Anakin’d ever met.

“And we’ll bring the other.” The hunter shrugged. “Give us half the bounty now; we’ll be able to--”

“You’ll receive your bounty when you’ve completed the job,” the Hutt said, and for a moment Anakin thought they might all fight. But the hunters only inclined their heads and left, leaving him in the Hutt’s stinking presence. The worm said, not looking at him, “You’ve been causing me no end of irritation, Jedi.”

Anakin sneered up at him, his mouth remembering how to speak Huttese. He left the comment about being a Jedi alone. It wasn’t the Hutt’s business. “I’m just getting started.”

The Hutt laughed, shaking all over as he threw back his large head. “You’re finished,” he said. “And so will be your little friend. He’ll be brought to me, and then you will both be executed. I’m almost glad they haven’t found him yet. It will give me more time to decide what to do about you. The only question is…” the Hutt looked at him, huge golden eyes narrowed. “How shall we pass the time?”

#

They passed the time with pain. Anakin hadn’t expected anything else. He sank into his head, into his bones, going away from it. He had long experience with that. It was easier, when he could access the Force, but not impossible without.

He held onto the bright memories of Ben and gritted his teeth while the Hutt’s servants worked over his body, asking questions he wouldn’t answer. He lost track of time. Lost track of everything but thirst and hunger and pain.

The Hutt visited, frequently. He liked to lounge across the room, slaves hand-feeding him wriggling delicacies, breathing heavily while he stared. Anakin ignored him, ignored the questions about where Ben might be, and the suggestions that he would be fed, alive, to a Rancor, ignored them all, until the screams finally started.

He laughed, then, listening to blaster fire and explosions. The Hutt stirred, across the room, demanding of one of his guards, “Go, find out what is going on, right now.” The guard slipped from the room as Anakin grinned, tugging at the bonds around his arm. “Why are you smiling, Jedi?” the Hutt demanded.

Anakin looked up at him, met his eyes. “Because,” he said, “you spent all this time worrying about finding my partner.” Someone screamed, briefly, much closer to the room. Anakin’s gut tightened with anticipation. “When you should have been worrying about him finding you.”

The Hutt sneered, huge, wet mouth twisting as it moved. Anakin never found out where it intended to go, because that was the moment the doors slammed open. The air carried the stench of blaster bolts and blood. “Guards!” the Hutt snapped, for all the good it was going to do him.

Anakin watched the door, heart kicking in his chest when Ben stormed through. He was grim-faced, both sabers lit and moving. He moved impossibly. Anakin couldn’t feel him, couldn’t sense him, with the collar on, but he knew what it looked like when Ben was drawing on the Force.

His movements were crisp. Perfect. He flowed through the guards like water around rocks, expression unchanging the entire time. “Stop,” the Hutt snapped, moving forward, towards Anakin, with a surprising burst of speed, “or I will kill--”

Ben didn’t even slow down in his march across the room. He just kept coming, leaving the Hutt behind in several pieces. Anakin stared at him, breath getting shallow, as Ben deactivated one lightsaber, hooking it to his belt almost absently.

He waved a hand, and metal screamed around Anakin’s wrist before the shackle snapped. Another step and the other shackle was gone. Anakin pushed to his feet, dizzy and ignoring it, full of pains all down his back and body, but barely feeling them.

Ben reached him, then, touched the collar and Anakin felt it sparking, but didn’t care. The Force came flooding back into his body and his mind. He saw the way it bent and spiraled around Ben, thrumming against his skin, and exhaled, hard.

“Ben,” he said, panting, and Ben was putting a careful hand to his face even as Anakin put hands on him and pulled him closer. Ben’s fingers twisted into his hair, holding tight as Ben rocked up onto his toes. Kissing him felt like grabbing the Force with both hands.

They stood, clenched together, in the middle of all the destruction. Anakin shifted back, just enough to look at Ben’s expression, his bright, clear eyes, the blood splattered across his skin. Ben had found him. Had carved a path to him. Had just killed a room full of slavers without breaking his stride. Anakin gazed at him, heart clenched time, and said, helplessly, “Marry me.”

Any chance we can see more of Padme and Nith being fabulous?

YES. Ajafkdaj, thank you for the request. In fact, there’s a very good chance of that, right now. Set a good ways post-Like Real People Do, because I was granted a powerful image of their nuptials and also everyone getting a chance to be soft and happy. (Anakin butted in).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Huh,” Ben said, over on the bunk where Anakin had, reluctantly, left him. Someone had to get them some breakfast, and, after the way yesterday had gone, he could acknowledge it shouldn’t be Ben. Ben insisted he was fine, but half a building had fallen on him. 

Anakin glanced over at him, propped up against the wall, leaning over a padd that illuminated his skin. There were bruises, here and there, a scrape down his left side. “Huh what?” Anakin asked, pulling on his tunic. It didn’t feel like a bad huh, at the very least.

“Nith - my brother - he’s getting married.” Ben looked up, smiling, and something in the back of Anakin’s head kicked at his memory, but only just. He’d been thinking a lot, recently, about him and Ben, about how easily Ben used his last name, about… lots of things.

“Good for him,” Anakin said, looking to the side before his expression gave too much away.

“Mm,” Ben said. “We’re invited. It’s going to be on Naboo.”

Anakin stopped, turning back to stare at Ben, his memory finally kicking into gear. He’d met Nith at one of the endless dinners hosted by the Senate. He’d been on Padmé ’s arm, Anakin recalled, incredibly well dressed and grinning. “Padmé ’s marrying him?” he asked.

Ben nodded, scrolling down the padd. “She is. Should I tell them we’ll be too busy?” Ben looked up and over, a scrape across his brow, and he’d been under a house, a few hours ago. He’d spent his entire life either training to fight, fighting a war, or taking on an entire slave empire or three with Anakin.

“No,” Anakin said, shaking his head. He had fond memories of Naboo, of visiting the planet with Padmé , when he’d thought… Well. When he’d been in love with her, before Qui-Gon stifled that affection. Their friendship had never quite recovered. And it would be nice to go somewhere and have no one try to kill them, for a while. “Tell them we’ll come.”

#

Naboo was still one of the most beautiful planets Anakin had ever seen. It was strange to visit a planet so untouched by the war, but Naboo had been almost entirely ignored by the galactic strife. Anakin stepped out of their transport and smelled only living things and sunshine.

He took a step forward and stopped when Ben didn’t follow. He looked back, expecting the worst, conditioned to expect the worst, but Ben was just… Staring at the sky and the rolling green hills and the hint of a lake, through a copse of trees. “Anakin,” he said, taking a little step forward, voice pitched low, like he was sharing a secret, “it’s beautiful.”

“Sure is,” Anakin agreed, staring at him. He reached out, brushing Ben’s hand, and said, “you want to look around? We have plenty of time before we’re expected.”

#

Padmé  smiled when they arrived on the doorstep of her fine manse, wide and free, the way he’d only ever seen a few times. She called him “Ani” and stepped forward to embrace him, stretching up to her toes. Anakin bent, and held her, and thought only briefly of a life they might have lived, in another universe.

“You made it,” she said, still smiling, when she pulled back. “I’m so glad. And Ben,” she said, moving past Anakin, “your brothers are all here, we made sure.”

Anakin watched them embrace. It was a strange, jarring image, which only became moreso when he glanced away and found Nith - it had to be Nith, didn’t it? - watching him with a bemused look. “Congratulations,” Anakin said, at a loss for anything else to say, and Nith’s smile widened.

He stepped forward, too, but only to extend a hand. Anakin gripped it, fighting the strangeness of the-same-not-the-same, and Nith said, “Thank you.”

#

They had a few days until the wedding. Apparently, the ceremony included a time to be spent with family and closest friends. Padmé’s family was large, and Nith had many brothers. They ended up playing in the water of the surrounding lake, the second day, engaging in some game of their own devising with a few Type 1s who’d, apparently, come with some of them.

Anakin watched them, sitting on the soft grasses that ran down to the shore with Padmé . It was disconcerting, seeing them all together, the older men taking care with the children, a single girl running amongst them.

They didn’t really talk to each other, though they laughed and exclaimed, chasing around a ball and splashing. Anakin leaned back on his elbows, a piece of grass between his teeth, and said, “You’re happy?”

He felt that she was. It suffused the air around them. She felt a sort of deep contentment and giddy joy at the same time. But not everyone could communicate completely without words. She hummed, leaning sideways against his shoulder. “I can’t remember being happier,” she said, and nudged him a little. “And you, Ani? Are you happy?”

“Yes,” he said, and then thought about it, and realized, with a sharp little ache, that he was. He was happy, sitting here in the grass on a beautiful world, watching Ben get lifted by one of the Type 1s, limbs leaving trails of water through the air. “I really am.”

“Anakin!” Ben called, laughing, from the water, right before he was dumped backwards into the water. He splashed back up, calling, “Anakin, help, I need backup!”

“That’s cheating!” one of his brothers protested, but Anakin was already pushing to his feet. “No fair!”

“Duty calls,” he said, looking down at Padmé, who held out a hand expectantly. He pulled her to her feet, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, you don’t think I’m going to let him go it alone, do you?” she asked, twisting her hair back expertly, and Anakin laughed.

#

“Ani,” Ben said that night, after they’d all gone back to their rooms, pleading exhaustion. He was sitting over Anakin’s hips, head cocked to the side, a teasing smile on his mouth. The sun had kissed his skin, bringing out more freckles. He’d burn, if he weren’t careful, so fair skinned. 

Anakin groaned, throwing an arm over his face. “A nickname. She knew me when I was nine,” he said, and Ben laughed at him, pulling his arm aside, stretching forward and brushing a kiss against Anakin’s mouth. 

“I don’t have a nickname for you,” Ben said, against his mouth, shifting just enough to give him a thoughtful look. “Sir?” Anakin felt himself flush, knew Ben said it when his grin got wider. “Oh, you like that?” He leaned down, kissing Anakin again, slow and deep and so full of promise that Anakin rocked up against him.

“Call me whatever you like,” he said, sinking his fingers into Ben’s hair, and Ben nipped at his bottom lip, shifting against him, and Anakin forgot to worry about what he might be projecting, even with so many of Ben’s brothers around.

#

He remembered the next morning, when a dozen of them slapped his shoulders and nudged him in the ribs, at least one thanking him for taking care of our brother.

#

Anakin had thought, vaguely, that Katya would have a harder time fitting in with her brothers. But she seemed to click into place, differences subsumed beneath their shared sameness, he supposed. 

She found him, out on the balconies one evening, slipping out and springing up onto the railing in silence. He glanced up at her, bare feet and billowing skirts, the gray lines of tattoos over her face, and said, “Hey, Katya.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Where’s Ahsoka?”

Anakin had hoped she’d make the ceremony, too. But they hadn’t spoken much, of late. Padmé said she’d been invited - she was like family to Anakin who was, Padmé said, with a little smile, like family to Ben - but had been unable to arrive. Perhaps in time for the exchange of vows.

“Busy,” Anakin said.

Katya hummed acknowledgement, turned, and left without another word. Anakin shook his head, looking up at the stars until Ben found him, sliding an arm around him, leaning into his space. “You’re warm,” Ben said, pressing his face against Anakin’s throat, and Anakin was happy to pull him closer against the chill in the night air.

#

The ceremony itself was beautiful, when it finally arrived. Anakin let protocol droids shuffle him into place, out on the sweet grass, rippling in the breeze, with the lake beyond and a flight of song birds moving across the cloudless sky.

Padmé looked more beautiful than he’d ever seen her, all in soft colors and flowing fabrics, her hair down in curls around her shoulders, wearing a smile he’d never seen. He supposed it wasn’t one that would have ever been for him. Nith smiled back at her, and they said their words and Anakin listened, even if he were distracted, more than he should have been, by Ben at his side.

The soft colors of their wedding garb suited Ben, who had managed to avoid burning only thanks to Anakin’s diligent efforts. Some of his brothers hadn’t been so lucky. But Ben had only freckled under the sun, which was currently turning his hair to molten copper and making his eyes shine.

Ben glanced up at him, feeling his attention, perhaps, and smiled, so pleased and content that it washed over Anakin through their connection. The bruises had faded, during their time on Naboo, there was just skin visible - too much, maybe, the shirts they wore were all cut so low - and a few scars that Anakin knew too well.

Ben threaded their fingers together, and there was cheering, all around, when Padmé curled her arms around Nith’s neck and drew him close, and kissed him, there in front of all of them.

Anakin wrapped an arm around Ben’s back, and leaned down.

#

Ahsoka made it in time for the celebratory meal, still in her field gear. She’d grown again - barely had to look up to meet Anakin’s eyes - and smiled to see him, coming forward to pull him into an embrace. 

Rex stood a few paces behind her, looking unsure of his welcome, until Ben stepped forward to nudge him. “Some of your brothers are here, already,” Ben said, leading him off, “they’ll be glad for the reinforcements.”

“I’m glad you could make it,” Anakin said, squeezing Ahsoka’s shoulders. “There’s still plenty of food.”

She snorted, pulling him into another hug. She said, “I’m glad, too. I’ve missed you, Skyguy.”

And dinner could wait, just for a bit.

#

They ate and they drank and they played ridiculous games that Padmé claimed were traditional and Anakin laughed so hard he cried. Then Ben and his brothers and the Type 1s insisted on doing some kind of dance they claimed was traditional, which looked a lot like fighting, all beautiful, fast movements, that dragged the eye along and ended with Ben jumping into him, just expecting Anakin to catch him.

Anakin did. He planned to make it his job to catch Ben for the rest of their lives, as soon as he found the right words to make it so.

Everyone cheered when Padmé and Nith finally made their way off, the party steamrolling onward, for most of them. Anakin had an armful of Ben and didn’t really care what, exactly, his brothers were planning to do with the knives they’d found.

“Take me to bed,” Ben said, against his mouth, and Anakin groaned, more than happy to oblige. They got cheers, too, and catcalls. Anakin ignored that, though it made Ben laugh, made him feel fizzy and delighted inside, like the bubbly liquor they’d drank earlier.

He was laughing, still, when Anakin pulled him into their room and kissed him. His mouth was soft and welcoming, his hands warm as they skimmed over Anakin’s skin, beneath the loose fabric of his shirt. And Anakin wanted this, everything about this, forever, so much he couldn’t find the words to say it and tried to speak it into being with his body, instead.

And afterwards, he panted, “Ben.”

“Mm?” Ben carded fingers back through his hair, gone sleepy and content across their bond, warm and soft and all the things Anakin had never known how much he needed. Anakin squeezed his eyes shut, fighting a sudden, senseless burn, pressing his face to the skin of Ben’s shoulder. “Anakin?”

Anakin shifted, kissed his skin where there’d been a bruise, only days ago, tasting sunlight on his skin, kissed a path up his shoulder, his throat, to his mouth. Ben hummed, melting against him, and Anakin had to pull back, had to blurt out, “Ben, I know I’m not - I can’t give you this kind of --“

Ben shifted, coming awake, interrupting, “Anakin, you don’t--”

“But I love you.” He knew he didn’t say it enough. That he counted too much on Ben picking it up across their connection. He swallowed, forcing himself to meet Ben’s gaze, so clear and soft, in the pale moonlight. “We - I want - would you -”

“Yes,” Ben said, stretching up, kissing his mouth, and Anakin curled closer, the sweet ache inside his chest filling him up, joy and contentment tangling around one another, filling up the entirety of the world and the night.