Private Life-Long Learners | Lucien

[Auteme]

Lucien Dooku
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Auteme grimaced, stabbing another chunk of the tofu. "I don't know what I did wrong," she said. "I swear, I followed the recipe."

The noodles were watery, the broth was tasteless, and the tofu may as well have been duracrete. It was passable, but not quite good. The Ithorian in the video had made it look so easy. Should she have started with something simpler? She could pick out the healthiest ingredients, but cooking was beyond even the Shield of the Jedi.

They could've definitely had take-out, but Auteme wanted to try something 'normal'. They were on vacation, and vacation was time for new experiences, and having someone else make her food was the norm on Coruscant. Plus, cooking was an invaluable skill. She was also reasonably confident Lucien wouldn't judge her.

Not too much, anyways. She didn't know his cooking skills.

At least everything else was perfect. Bespin's gas clouds -- especially those by Cloud City -- had a beautiful glow about them during the evenings, and the view from Lucien's apartment was stunning. Neither of them were quite adjusted to Bespin's rotational period, but they'd managed to time their meal right today. The world just outside the window had an etherealness to it.

"Well, whatever. Night's still young, we can- I don't know. What do you want to do tonight?" She looked at him. "I only know, like, one place here, from the one time I visited, and it was... something. I don't know."

 

[Lucien Dooku]

Auteme | VIBES

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From the couch in the living room he idly watched his lady friend attempt to make the two of them dinner. There had been a handful of firsts since the start of their little vacation, and her attempt to cook for the two of them would go down in the books as a treasured moment in his heart-- Even if she struggled to make a dish worth eating.

But at least she was trying, was the thought that ran through his mind. He didn't expect the world from Auteme, even when the world seemed to fall upon their collective shoulders more often than not. All that he wanted was a quiet place away from the chaotic normality of their world; a place that that both Auteme and Lucien could escape to, and be normal. He didn't see that eventuality coming sooner than later, but Lucien would never stop fighting for that dream to come true.

Their little vacation was the closest that the two of them would get to that quiet life away from the politics and war of the Core. Even if she somehow managed to burn down the entire apartment complex as a result of her terrible cooking, Lucien would probably still be smiling as he was in that moment.

He pushed off the couch as she began to speak, strolling into the kitchen and unexpectedly wrapping his woman within his arms. "Y'know-- I won this apartment in a game of Sabacc, back when I uhh... wasn't trying to save the galaxy. I've still got friends in the city, if you want to hit up a cantina or three tonight, maybe tag team the tables and win us a bigger condo~"

Luc shrugged, still all smiles as he released an arm from around her waist and reached into the boiling pot of water like an idiot. Somehow he retrieved one of the stiff cubes of tofu and plopped it into his mouth, chewing with the ferocity of a starving rancor. He smacked his lips once he was able to swallow it down in one go, smiling at her mischievously. "That was actually amazing."

It wasn't great, if he were being honest. In fact, it was the worst thing he'd eaten since the nutrient bricks he had to force down back when he was alone and broke in the galaxy. But regardless of the failure that both of them knew it was, it was still the first meal that he'd been looking forwards to in a while.

And for that he was eternally grateful, almost enough to thank the force.

​

 

[Auteme]

Lucien Dooku
​

She couldn't help but smile at his comment. "You know, it's bad to lie to your girlfriend," she said. "But... you know. You can do it sometimes. Not all the time."

The way he smiled had just the right cadence to it; always genuine, always real. There was never a time she couldn't smile back.

Abandoning her poor platter of noodles and tofu, she turned to face Lucien.

"I think," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck, "That this apartment is just big enough for the two of us." She lingered a moment, before slipping from his grasp.

"Sure, let's go out." She'd heard quite a bit about Cloud City's myriad of gambling establishments. Some were famous -- others, infamous -- but all were a part of the city's culture. "Of course, you need to keep in mind that I have a terrible sabacc face, and I have basically no money. But at the very least I'll make sure you don't get embarrassed if you drink too much."

She grinned.

 

[Lucien Dooku]

Auteme | VIBES

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Luc grabbed her hand, giving her another smile once she confirmed that she was up for a night out on the town. It'd been a while since the last time he'd been out and about in Cloud City, though he still remembered those dive bars and cantinas from his spacer days pretty fondly. A few of them were rougher than others, but his connections with the city's criminal elite had done wonders to ensure the safety of him and his guests back then.

In fact, those same connections were the reason why his apartment had been spotless when the two of them first arrived onto the planet. He'd arranged for the place to be kept in order for whenever he needed to disappear off the map and lay down his head. He never imagined that it would come in handy for a romantic getaway with a significant other, but he was glad nonetheless that his friends hadn't forgotten him after he went... mainstream.

Out the door they went, leaving behind the barely edible dinner on the stove. A short walk to the turbolift came next, and soon the two were out on the streets with Luc in the lead.

"So uhh.." He squeezed her hand, slowly his gait down until he was brushing his shoulder lightly against her frame. "Back before the Order, the politics and stuff-- I uhh, led a bit of a.. rougher life."

It wasn't a topic that the two explored very often, mostly in part to his reluctance to touch on subjects of his past. "I spent a lot of time in Cloud City back then. I wasn't always such an outstanding paragon of the Jedi." He dipped his head away from the woman, softening the grin down to the limit. "I did what I had to back then-- to live, to survive."

​

 

[Auteme]

Or would you love me more?
Lucien Dooku
​

"Well," she said, gently squeezing his hand back, "I'm not in love with rough-life, spent-a-lot-of-time-in-Cloud-City, did-what-he-had-to-to-survive Lucien. I'm in love with you."

She smiled. "Life's all about change, right? Growth and change, always looking to improve. I know it's easy to focus on the mistakes, or how things used to be, but it's better to see how far you've come. Just the way you talk about- that stuff, you know, you think it's bad, but think about what you are now."

When they'd first met, she couldn't (entirely) have imagined where they'd end up. No, she didn't think he was perfect, but she knew he'd keep changing and she was going to be there with him the entire way. Her hand reached up to mess with his hair.

"No matter what you tell me, it won't change how I think of you."