Anakin Skywalker (chosentofall) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-09-21 01:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, anakin skywalker, padme amidala |
Who: Padmé Amidala & Anakin Skywalker
What: A date
Where: A Charity Gala
When: Monday, September 16th
Rating: Low
Status: Complete
At the very least Padmé hadn’t turned her nose up at his Sonata when he arrived at her place, or at him in his suit, which had been a great relief for him. He played confident easy with women these days but in general that was all it really was, an act. One would think that because he had been raised by a woman and had been well liked by the girls his age as long as he could remember that he would be a bit more confident with them. He had enough ‘practice’ so to speak, but he was still unsure of himself. They were a lot harder to read than the machines he worked on, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t approach them with the same manner, with that look of ‘I absolutely know what I’m doing here’ he tried to put on. It was all about putting on the right impression and when it came to Padmé he did feel the need to impress her and if he did nothing else that night it would be to impress her with his punctuality.
“So,” he started, turning the car into the line waiting for the valet and taking a moment to glance over at her in that dress again. “Am I allowed to be my charming self, or is this one of those situations where I just need to keep my mouth shut and put on a smoldering look or two?”
Thankfully, Anakin hadn’t lied when he said he looked good in a suit. She was pleasantly surprised when he had come to her place and he looked quite suave. She let him into the apartment and hopped around on one foot while she finished putting her shoes on and earrings while trying to grab her purse. Pretending that she wasn’t just a normal human wasn’t something she tried to do, but once she was done she smoothed out her dress and gave him a smile that indicated she was ready to go. His ride was normal and she was secretly thankful that he wasn’t some muscle head that tried to dazzle with his ride.
Once they reached the waiting line she turned to grin at him, “I’m not completely sure what your charming self is, so you might want to wait for my cue. This is a political gala, so try not to upset too many people. I will step on your foot with my heels if you get out of line. And is there anything I need to know about you? If you can tell me about your job and background and such before we hit the valet it could be useful.”
“That one almost hurt, you know.” he smirked then shrugged as he thought over just what to tell her, what eventually came out was what he considered to be ‘highlights’. “Uh, raised in Arizona by a single mother. Got into the Air Force Academy on the recommendation of Senator Palpatine. Served in Italy for a short time until an injury earned me a discharge. I moved here then got a job in the Phantom Works division of Boeing where I work on design and analysis for what is mostly military prototypes that I can’t in any way talk about.” He wasn’t kidding around with the last part, the non-disclosure agreement he had signed with his contract had been utterly terrifying. “Don’t worry, I don’t follow politics or subscribe to any ideas that might be considered extreme by anyone.”
That explained some things and she filed away all the bits of information that he gave her before picking up on a few things, “I know Senator Palpatine as well. He’s friends with my father. And when you say injury...excuse me if I’m being rude, but do you mean your arm? I didn’t feel like it was something you wanted to bring up since you do your best to be natural, but I did notice a few quirks with you arm.” She honestly hoped he didn’t find that rude and she did her best not to really care that much about it. It clearly wasn’t something he wanted to show the world, but she wanted to know what she was getting into bringing him here. And she would do her best not to really treat him differently if it became an issue.
“What gave it away?” he tapped his right arm on the steering wheel, the flesh-type skin softened the solid noise a little, showing that she had been correct. “It was the mechanical noise or the fact that I press the back of my hand when I need it to do something complicated? Maybe even the limited detail on it, right? Yeah, it’s gone at like three inches below the elbow. Your friend Palpatine arranged for this excellent robotic replacement, I’ve done a few modifications to it myself, but it is mostly the same as when he gave it to me. Carbon fiber and everything with the removable skin over it, but don’t worry, I don’t take the skin off in public. Most people don’t ever notice it and I try not to draw attention to it. It’s not going to be a problem for you, is it?” he was talking about it the way some men would talk about the latest gadget they bought, like he hadn’t lost a limb at all, instead gained something ‘cool’. Though now his voice had taken on a tone of teasing sarcasm. “I mean, I could call the hospital and ask if they have my arm somewhere and if they would reattach it if it would make you more comfortable.”
“Those kind of things. I’m extremely observant so you can’t slip too much by me. And no, it definitely is not a problem for me. Why would I judge someone based on the fact that they lost their arm? It’s not that big of a deal. Your new mechanical arm sounds interesting and I’m not going to bring it up again unless you want me to,” she commented back to him as she turned to look at him for a moment and her eyes flicked down to his arm briefly before coming back to find his eyes, “And no, I’m fairly sure that your arm would be rotted and disgusting by now. And besides, some girls might find it sexy.” With that she gave a small shrug of her shoulders before turning ahead and noticed the valet was waving them forward.
“Some girls. Not you, but some girls, that really doesn’t help me much here does it?” he slipped her a grin as he pulled up to the valet. He hadn’t had the arm long enough for him to be fully used to it, not that he ever thought he would be used to it. Maybe that was okay though, if nothing else it would keep him from doing something stupid and losing it. At least he wasn’t as sensitive about it as he could have been, there had been a time, back when he got his PPL, that he had tried to throw himself at every challenge he could just to prove that he was still the man he used to be. It had taken a fist-fight with Owen to prove to him just how silly that all had been.
The valet had helped her from the car but as soon as Anakin handed off the keys he was there, offering her his left arm. She seemed genuine to him about not caring about his artificial arm but there was no point in testing her so early in the evening. Maybe later, when she let her guard down a little he would offer it to her and see how she reacted. “Only speak when spoken to and the rest of the time smile and nod, I think I can manage that.”
When the arm was offered she took it and chuckled a little at his comment, “I sound like a slave driver. Just wait and see how the conversation goes. I know a lot of these people since I was young and if a conversation gets to be a bit much just let me know. Some of them don’t know how to think before they speak. Otherwise, feel free to do your best impression of arm candy if you want. And feel free to ditch me if you want to.” Hopefully that seem as rude as she thought it to be. She didn’t know Anakin very well, so she didn’t want him to say something that could possibly upset someone else since he was going in blind to this situation.
“Ditch you?” Anakin had to chuckle at that. “Sure, that will happen. I’m super eager for you to leave me alone with these people I’ve never met before. They’d probably mistake me for a waiter if they found me alone, or worse they’d think I was some sort of boy-toy ripe for the picking. No, I’m going to stick with you as much as I can manage.” He didn’t doubt that without her beside him he would never have fit in a place like this or with the people. He had always been a simple guy with simple tastes, part of growing up so low income he supposed, but if she was asking him to pretend to be a little more than he was for the night he figured he could manage. It gave him the chance to look into her world and get to know her lifestyle so he would know if he had a shot of fitting into it at all.
“I can guarantee you that some of these conversations will be extremely boring. You’ll probably want to ditch me and get some drinks. Wait, you are old enough to drink right? I just realized I never asked how old you are,” that earned a mental kick because she was surprised that she hadn’t bothered to ask that. He definitely had a face of someone in their mid-twenties, but looks could be deceiving, “And you won’t get waiter, but maybe boy-toy. But don’t say I didn’t warn you about it being boring - you are not allowed to give me puppy dog eyes to leave a conversation.”
“Oh, no, I’m sixteen, I thought you knew.” he teased because that was quickly becoming the dynamic between them. “Twenty three is old enough to drink in California I hope, I’ve not been carded here yet. If it isn’t somebody better crack down on the local grocery stores because they don’t even look twice when I put beer on the counter.” Debauched choir-boy, that had been Beru’s description of his looks, he hadn’t argued that much with it though he liked to think he didn’t look so young and innocent in any sense. If it became a thing he would have to start wearing short sleeves again so he could show off the scars on what was left of his right arm. “I don’t do puppy dog eyes, don’t worry.”
“Well shit. Good thing I’m going to be a lawyer because I could get arrested if you were sixteen,” she teased back before rolling her eyes a little, “And yes, twenty-three is better than twenty. And I’m sure half of those grocery clerks hate their lives anyway, so they probably couldn’t care less about carding you. Just chalk it up to your winning personality. And no puppy dog eyes? I’m enjoying my choice of date even more.” She lead the way into the building and into the lobby where there was a table for a check in. She greeted the woman manning the table warmly and got their programs and seating arrangement before leaving the table. They were on their way to the ballroom when they got stopped by one of her father’s colleagues. She pasted a smile on and whispered under her breath, “Old friend of my father’s. Very rich and very conservative. Used to be a senator and now runs a business. Likes to laugh loudly.”
Anakin played his part. Smiled, shook the offered hand, let her do the talking unless he was asked something directly. He didn’t mind it much really, almost like being in the military again, doing what he was told. Of course he had a commision in the Air Force, which meant as a Second Lieutenant he occasionally ordered enlisted personnel around when he had to, here it seemed that he was the enlisted man. He was the happiest of enlisted men though, the way many eyes were already falling on her he was beginning to feel quite pleased with himself, like he had won something by being on her arm. He didn’t expect anything from her other than the pleasure of her company for a while, but that didn’t mean he didn’t get some enjoyment of others there thinking he was getting much more out of being with her.
Every conversation was basically the same and Padmé almost wanted to rattle off all the answers at first hello. How were your parents? - Fine, they were just here last weekend. So sorry you missed them. How did your BAR exam go? - I feel quite confident in how well I did and can’t wait to get my results. Do you have a job lined up? - Not quite yet, but there are a couple firms that I would really like to work at. Who is this young man? - This is Anakin Skywalker [insert fact about him]. Same old, same old and Padmé was quite thankful to get to their table so they could eat and get a few drinks in her system. The night was mostly about raising money for a political cause and Padmé had already donated earlier in the week, so they were thankfully left alone for that part of it. As she relaxed during a speaker she couldn’t help but be thankful that Anakin had put up with this and was doing quite well. She reached over and took his left hand and squeezed. When he looked at her she smiled at him, “Thanks, you’ve been a rock star so far.”
Most of the conversations had been pretty dull, but he had enjoyed watching her talk, how she handled everyone differently even though she was essentially repeating herself again and again. He didn’t doubt that she would make a great lawyer, especially now with how she touched him and smiled in a way that felt like he was being managed but in such a pleasant way that he didn’t even care. “A rock star? A rock star would be completely, out of his mind drunk by now, molesting the decor and shouting rude things about grandmothers and goats and a stick of butter. Is that your way of saying I’m allowed to do that now because if I am we’re gonna need a bottle or two before I get there.”
“Well, if you did that I think someone might accidentally shoot you, so I wouldn’t advise it. And I also would never hear the end of it from my parents because these people know them and it would be repeated to them over and over. So, I’m going to go with a no to letting you do it, but you can feel free to get quietly drunk?” she couldn’t help but smirk because that’s what she felt like doing. She didn’t mind this group, but long drawn out galas made her drink a little more than she normally did. It didn’t help that the food wasn’t enough to completely fill her stomach so she got drunk a lot quicker.
“No, I think I ought to stay relatively sober, I can already spot a few around the place that are getting tipsy. It would be nice to see how rich people behave when drunk. It’s a shame none of them wear monocles, I’d like to see what a drunk person would do with one of those.” after that one time in flight training that he had gone up drunk he swore to never drive or pilot anything while drunk again. It had served him well for the most part, now if he could give up driving or piloting while tired that would really be something. “Besides, there’s always a chance they could do something really stupid and I could just happen to record a little of it with my phone and make a little money.”
That made her narrow her eyes at him a little bit and give him a curt shake of the head, “No, please don’t. And you can definitely go buy a monocle and try that out for yourself if you ever find yourself here again.” The last thing he wanted was for him to do something like recording part of this and getting in trouble over it later. She turned her attention to watch the next speaker change out and she leaned forward to study the program for a moment. She checked her watch and let out a sigh as she leaned back, “alright, we’re almost wrapped up here. There’ll be more random mingling and some desserts. Then we can run away.”
He almost told her he was joking but decided not to, knowing he wouldn’t be able to salvage it. It was alright though as she moved on from it fairly quickly, though in his head he could swear he could see ‘-1 Approval’ floating over her head like in his games. If only he had rolled higher charisma. “Oh I thoroughly believe dessert can make any function worthwhile, as long as it’s good. None of that over-rich cake that makes your stomach and teeth ache. Running away does sound good, but it means I won’t get to watch you be all socially dazzling in that dress, that’s kind of a pity.”
“Hopefully it’ll be good. I don’t think I’ve been to this place before, but the meal wasn’t half way bad. And you can watch me be socially dazzling somewhere else that isn’t this place if you wanted. I can dazzle in a park, in a McDonalds, in a random bar, and wherever I go basically. I had a lot of lessons when I was younger,” she commented as she reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear. The event portion of the evening was finally wrapping up and the dessert was being passed around. It seemed to be a cheesecake and Padmé was thankful for that because it was simple to eat and wouldn’t completely fill her up.
“Yes, but probably not in that dress.” she was beautiful and he could see that just as well as anyone else but he had avoided telling her such, at least lately. If he said it too much it wouldn’t seem genuine and he didn’t want her thinking handing out compliments was his SOP, she deserved to treated better. His eyes might have given him away, the way he kept looking at her, but he would do his best not to stare. “So you go to these sorts of things a lot?”
“I would dazzle at any of those places in this dress tonight if you wanted me to. But after tonight, no. I’ll go back to my normal self,” she thanked the waiter for her dessert before reaching for her glass of wine. The question was easy to answer, so she nodded as she took a long sip of her wine, “Not as much as I used to when I was started my undergrad and while I was younger. I declined a lot of the invites for these things when I was in school because that’s what I wanted to focus on and my parents understood. They only made me go to a few so they could show me off. I’ve started going to a few more lately now that I’m out of grad school, but I’ll tone it back once I have an official job.”
“And then you can call it a work-related expense on your taxes, networking is important for lawyers I hear.” Not that he would know. He was an engineer, they didn’t have parties as much as they played Team Fortress 2 or whichever MMO was hot that week, maybe they would shoot each other a work related email when they weren’t arguing the superiority of one Starfleet captain over the other, but it wasn’t often. He didn’t mind it so much but he wouldn’t doubt that the agent from whichever military agency that was monitoring him now that he was working on a few classified projects probably wished he and his coworkers were a little more entertaining. “I’m sure you were adorable when you got dragged to these when you were younger.”
“I usually don’t have to pay to go - my parents are usually the ones that find these out and if they can’t make it they send me in their place. It’s a terrible thing because then I need to have an extremely long conversation with my parents afterward about everything that happened. And I am sure to get grilled about who you are,” she wasn’t really looking forward to that conversation, but it would be easy to explain away Anakin without having to bring up the dreams. And the comment about her being adorable as a kid made her laugh, “Suuuuure. I mostly sat around, pouted, and colored or something. I think I did a lot of reading too.” It hadn’t been much fun when she was younger, but she couldn’t complain because it meant time with her busy parents.
“I meant more for buying a nice dress, maybe a squash or two to lure in some guy who looks good in a suit to be your escort.” She was kidding herself if she thought he wasn’t going to try to slip squash into the conversation at least once every time he saw her. He had to smile, enjoying her laughter. “Come on, little mary-janes, ruffly dresses, those socks with the little bead things at the top that all the girls seemed to have in the nineties, super cute I’m sure.” he paused to take a drink of his wine. “Not that you’re not quite enjoyable to look at now, but well, I bet you don’t still have those socks.”
“The fact that you just described that outfit is a little scary. I don’t think I wore ruffles, but I did have mary-janes. And I have no idea what those socks are. I didn’t really think that my socks were important enough to be ingrained in my memory,” her nose wrinkled slightly as she tried to imagine herself in that kind of outfit and it just wasn’t working. She was more of a tomboy when she was younger and definitely avoided ruffles. The mary-janes were because of a school uniform, “Oh and stop bringing up squash or I might dump your cheesecake on your head.”
“Now wouldn’t that be something to explain to mom and dad, this date of yours that everyone said was so handsome and charming ended up covered in cheesecake because you didn’t have the stomach for him talking about a vegetable during dessert.” he smirked. “I can’t decide if that’s better than having a drink thrown in my face or not, it’s dirtier but at least I wouldn’t smell like a drunk. Thank god it wasn’t a tiramisu, otherwise I’d get the worst of both. At least I have leather seats in the Sonata so it won’t be a problem driving home.”
“I’ll make sure to report back to you about what people say to them. I’m sure your ego will need the attention if you go a day without hearing compliments about yourself,” she countered with a similar smirk. She rolled her eyes as he rambled a bit about tiramisu and took the opportunity to finish up her cheesecake. Once she was finished she pushed the plate away from herself, “Alright then. Shall we try to make our way to the door and see how many times we get stopped? I’m so ready to get into some fresh air.”
“You are so considerate, looking out for my poor, fragile male ego. Thank you.” he chuckled then nodded, getting up to do the polite thing, such as pulling her chair out and offering her his right arm. It might have been a test, even Anakin wasn’t sure himself, he knew he was going to test her in some way similar to that at some point but he hadn’t intended for it to be now. This was simply another slip as for as he was concerned. “I figure if we walk quickly and don’t make eye contact with anyone we might be able to get out before dawn.”
“Welcome,” she resisted the urge to snicker a little as she got up off her hair and grabbed her purse off the table. She helped him push the chair in as she adjusted her hair and dress, “And thanks for pulling my chair out, appreciate it. And I think that is a fairly safe estimation of time. It’s like people sense when you want to actually leave so they make sure that they have one last thing to say. It’s the longest goodbye on the face of the planet.” She took his arm once again as they started to make their way towards the exit door.
“I hear it’s like when you’re trying to attract the attention of cats, you act uninterested and they come to you. Do it in reverse, act like you want to talk to them and maybe they’ll scatter? I don’t know, I don’t look good enough in a dress to have everyone want to come up and speak with me.” he teased though took quiet note of how she didn’t seem to care that she took the artificial arm, of course the fact that one couldn’t feel that it was fake through his clothes probably helped with that. He let her lead them on as he had before, this was her show after all.
“I’m fairly sure that you look good enough in a tux that if I left you by yourself for a half hour that I would come back to find you surrounded by the older ladies at this event,” she couldn’t help but counter his argument with a similar one, but she did enjoy this idea of looking like she wanted to chat on the off chance that everyone may scurry away from them. However, she wasn’t able to try that idea out when they were only a few feet away from their table and someone sought them out. She held onto his arm, even though she didn’t really know it was the artificial one and she didn’t care, and made sure to involve him while the conversation lasted.
One person led to more and soon enough ten minutes had passed, and while he would have liked to move on sooner he enjoyed her on his arm the way she was. More than just because of his own pride of course, the more time he spent with her the more he found he liked her, he might not have been the best judge but he did think that she seemed to enjoy his company. Hopefully she wasn’t just being polite and enjoyed their banter as much as he did. Eventually someone else, likely better known than she was but he wouldn’t know, announced they leaving and that sent the little group that had formed around them away. They took advantage of their chance to slip out and soon enough were back out at the valet stand waiting for his car.
Once they were outside she let go of his arm and moved a hand to the back of her head to lift her hair up and off her neck. She was warm from being inside and the cooler air outside felt nice on her skin. She looked up at Anakin, who was watching the valet off in the distance, and studied him for a moment. He was better at this than she had expected and he wasn’t horrible company to bring along. She liked him more than she cared to admit at the moment, but she wasn’t going to completely write him off in any way. If anything, perhaps she had found a new friend she could have fun with. As her thoughts processed she realized that she had been staring at him and he was staring back. Her cheeks instantly colored and a smile was slow to build on her face, “Thank you again for coming with me. You were great and I can’t thank you enough for helping me get through that.”
He absolutely beamed when he caught her staring at him, if she thought his ego was inflated before she really had no idea. “Yeah, I was pretty great, as usual.” he wasn’t really that bad though. “No it was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be and I didn’t completely embarrass myself, that’s always a plus. But you made it easy for me, so thank you. Can’t say I’m all that eager to to play arm-candy again soon but there are worse things, like not getting to see you again.” the conversation paused a moment when the car pulled up, he gave the valet a tip and got in before speaking again. “So does this mean I earned the chance to see you again or shall I start pining now?”
The comment about worse things made her duck her head slightly and give an embarrassed shake of it. God, this boy was definitely something else and she couldn’t figure out if he was being completely honest or just trying to lay it on. “Don’t worry, I don’t believe I have another gala type thing coming up for a while. Maybe once I become a real lawyer but for now my schedule is free of older people who know my family,” she was being truthful, but she wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to allow him another “date” right away or not. Once they were inside the car she smirked and rolled her eyes playfully, “We shall see. Just start pining now and we’ll see where that gets you.”
“Ah, I see how you are. How about this then,” he began, turning out onto the street. Unsurprisingly he handled his car with the same ease he handled those planes back in the air force. “I’m going to a beer walk, run, charity thing this Saturday and it would be nice to go with someone I already knew on my team. I’ll send you the details later and you let me know if you want to come. It gives me about a week to pine and you can take as long as you like to get back to me.” he wasn’t going to argue that she wasn’t interested in him, that look she had given him told him all he needed to know on that score.
“I think I can handle that. Just give me the details and if I don’t have a conflict then I’ll think about it and let you know,” she could handle vague plans like this. It was easier to figure out what was going on in her world if she didn’t have to worry too much about making plans with someone she barely knew in this world, but possibly knew in her dream world. She wouldn’t say this was the worst night ever though and she almost hoped she didn’t have anything going on so she could tell him yes. If only for the sheer fact that she wanted to see if he knew anything about the dream life.
“Are you going to include this in the story you tell your parents? If so feel free to improve the moment if you want. Tell them I offered to take you to an art museum by way of hand-gilded calligraphy on a calling card, and that I’m even taller and maybe a little less charming because we want to keep me somewhat believable.” he didn’t outwardly celebrate her ‘maybe’ but he lightly tap the fingers of his left hand repeatedly over the steering wheel. “Well, if you do end up saying no I’ll be in the perfect place to drown my sorrows, but I hope you do come.”
“Oh god. I think they would choke on the lies if we went with that. No man does that kind of thing in this day and age. Besides, you don’t ever get to find out what I tell my parents about this. And I only have to bring you up if you’re mentioned, so don’t start getting a big head over it,” she knew his ego was on high alert already and she didn’t want to be the cause of it exploding. The comment about the place to drown his sorrows earned a chuckle, “We shall see.”