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Apple- the round fruit of a tree of the rose family, which typically has thin green or red skin and crisp flesh.
Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker walked into a garden centre. That in itself was an unusual, indeed unprecedented, event. The fact Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi followed him in? That, at least in comparison, would have been of no surprise to anyone.
“You were the one who forgot her birthday.”
“You forgot it too.” Anakin pointed out. “At least I have an excuse.” He looked around the foyer of the garden centre. “Do you think she’d like a traditional Naboo Plant, or something more romantic?”
“I was imprisoned by pirates,” Obi-Wan pointed out mildly, grabbing a basket. “And she’s your wife, shouldn’t you know when her birthday is?”
“Excuses,” Anakin teased. “Besides, I was rescuing you.” Then he added, “And she’s your girlfriend. Shouldn’t you?”
Obi-Wan sighed, and cast his eyes around for ideas. Well that was a promising sign. Literally. “Shall we go and see what the Naboo section has?”
“Well,” Anakin considered. “It’s a place to start.” He looked around, hoping for a signal, or a hint as to which way was the right way. “Providing we can find it.”
“Sign’s behind you.” Obi-Wan pointed out, steering his boyfriend around. “I was perfectly capable of rescuing myself by the way.”
“You always say that.” Anakin said as they passed the petunias. “You never are.”
“I always am,” Obi-Wan objected. “I just never have a chance to because someone-“ he looked pointedly at Anakin, “always charges in with no plan and skews all of mine to the point where they’re unusable.”
“Well,” Anakin declared, “If I always do it, then you should know to plan for it by now.” He then strode on ahead.
Obi-Wan couldn’t really react to that. And not just because Anakin had disappeared. Again.
“Okay,” Obi-Wan sighed, finding Anakin two hours later, “How did you manage to find the last remnants of the separatist army at a garden centre?”
Anakin shrugged. “I think you mean how did you?”
“You were the one who disappeared.” Obi-Wan muttered in a low whisper. A clanker walked past the cupboard they were hiding in.
“And you were the one who opened the door and found them.” Anakin hissed back. The clanker turned back in their direction. “Remind me why we’re not out there fighting them?”
“Because we don’t know how many of them there are.” Obi-Wan whispered back. “Wait and see.”
“New strategy for you.” Anakin commented.
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes in the darkness.
A moment later Anakin whispered again. “What are we putting on the label?”
“Love from Anakin and Obi-Wan,”
Anakin frowned. “But that puts me first, and it’s your idea. It should be Obi-Wan and Anakin.”
“Anakin and Obi-Wan is alphabetical, and easier to say.” Obi-Wan argued. A different clanker tore the door open. Obi-Wan sliced its head off.
“Now we have to deal with that lot.” Anakin said, igniting his lightsabre.
“Yep.” Obi-Wan agreed as half the droids in the garden centre began converging on them. “Do we at least have a deal on the label?”
“No!” Anakin insisted. “You should be first.”
“Anakin!” Obi-Wan yelled, then relaxed once his partner dispatched the droid that had just hit his hand. “Will you watch your flank?”
“Relax,” Anakin rolled his eyes. “I had it,”
“Sure,” Obi-Wan said, sarcastically. “Just like you have writing a label.”
“It’s for Padme okay,” Anakin justified before cutting a hole in the ceiling for no reason Obi-Wan could see and jumping through it. Once again stopping Obi-Wan from responding.
He just sighed instead, reflecting the blaster bolts back at the last few droids on this floor. Now where had his partner gotten to?
“62,” Anakin said when he finally saw him again, kicking a head over towards Obi-Wan. “You?”
“59,” Obi-Wan sighed, then gestured to Anakin’s arm. “But unlike you I don’t have a bloody limb.”
“No,” Anakin sighed, “For once you don’t seem to.” He stepped over the small pile of droids separating them and kissed him. “Luckily for you.”
“Why are we putting a label on the present?” Obi-Wan asked. “Padme will know who it’s from, it’s us giving it to her.”
Anakin considered it for a moment, forgetting about his arm. “Huh.”
Neither of them had considered that.
“That’d work.” Anakin admitteded eventually. “What are we doing with these anyway?”
Obi-Wan looked around and shrugged. “Don’t know. Do you want to see about the plant first?”
“Sure,” Anakin agreed.
Obi-Wan looked around at the beds of small yellow flowers. “What were you thinking in terms of plants?”
“I don’t know.” Anakin shrugged, looking around at the rather dazzling display of plants. Ignoring the droid corpses now they were no longer relevant. “This was your idea in the first place. Shouldn’t you have done some research?”
“When I was captured by the pirates, or the few hours I was in medical?” Obi-Wan asked, also rather lost by all the choice. Also ignoring the dead droids.
“And when was I supposed to do it, when I was rescuing you, or when I was reporting into the Council?”
“Oh,” Obi-Wan was genuinely surprised, if playing it up. “You reported into the council.”
Anakin paused, then swatted Obi-Wan on the head.
Obi-Wan grinned, then handed him the basket. “Here. I’m going to go and see if I can see anyone who knows anything about Naboo gardens.”
“Right.” Anakin found himself with arms full of a metal basket, and nothing else to do. He started looking at the shelves.
The pink ones were pretty, but Padme wasn’t that fond of pink. And Anakin had never seen them around any of Padme’s houses or ships, so he doubted she was fond of them. He wondered up the aisle, they were all so unfamiliar.
What would she like? It had to be perfect.
“Anakin?” Obi-Wan send through their bond. “Where have you gone?”
Anakin sighed, then went to find his partner. “Any luck?”
“No-one who knew anything about Naboo in particular, but a lovely lady recommended roses for romantic apologies.”
“Any particular reason?” Anakin asked, while looking around for any label that said roses.
“Tradition?” Obi-Wan shrugged. “I know the flower, they’re pretty.”
Anakin looked along at some of the large bushes. “Hey, here’s one!”
Obi-Wan hurried over.
It was quite an attractive plant with lots of leafage in a deep green colour. There were a few white buds just showing. Sure enough Obi-Wan bent down and looked at the label.
Honeycrisp Trees, a member of the rose family.
It was pretty, it was a rose, and it was within their, more limited than it should be, budget.
Right.
Anakin picked one of them up and put it in his basket, before passing the basket back to Obi-Wan.
“I’m expected to carry this am I?” Obi-Wan called after Anakin set off.
“Hey, moisture’s bad for my hand!” Anakin yelled back over his shoulder.
Obi-Wan pointed out that he should have thought of that before he jumped into half a dozen lakes. Although, in fairness, Obi-Wan has ended up falling into at least half of those as well.
Anakin had crashed the ships.
Mostly.
Two, reasonably uneventful weeks later they presented the tree to Padme, to her delight and amusement. She, at least, knew which particular subgroup of the rose family the Honeycrisp was part of. She was appreciative anyway.
After all, the flowers were indeed pretty, on the occasion they bloomed. The fruit was nicer, especially given it was fresh. Fresh Nabooian apples on Coruscant, it might have been an accident, but Obi-Wan and Anakin could hardly have got her a better present.