"Exactly," Anakin said, brushing against her again before pulling back. "So even when I'm not there, I can kind of be there. Or is that too creepy?"

"Kisses don't translate quite as well," he replied, "so you'll have to pretend I'm giving you one."

Anakin didn't reach out to catch it--the man had some pride--but he was dorkfacing like a pro. "I love you."

"Close your eyes," Anakin told her. "It's Tuesday nap time."

It was a way an insanely overprotective boyfriend who knew how Rory got when she was studying could make sure she was getting some sleep.

He felt Very Smart for naming it.

"You do," he said. "What would you like to hear about today? Star systems? Really, really boring species of bugs?"

"You do know I don't have many of these, right?" he asked.

"Very well," Anakin said. "Once upon a time there was a princess with the most beautiful blue eyes in the universe. There was also, as there so often is, a knight who was desperately in love with her."

"He didn't really see it if he was," Anakin said, smiling softly at her for a moment before continuing. "After a wonderful but entirely too brief time together, the knight had to continue on his quest in a faraway kingdom. But he never forgot the beautiful princess, though many years had passed. On one quest he found a flower that was the exact color of her eyes, and he carried it in his pocket for years."

His cheeks went pink. "He never told anyone about it."

"It wasn't quite as blue two years later, no," Anakin replied.

"I--I mean the knight--also had glitter in his pocket. But mostly because no matter how hard he tried, once he touched glitter, it stuck around forever. So he added it to a handful of sand he'd picked up from the desert at home."

Anakin bit his lip. "He didn't tell anyone about that, either."

"That's why he didn't tell anyone," he said, blushing. "He had a reputation of being humorless and unfeeling."

"But only the princess knew that," he whispered. "Sweet dreams, my love."