A talk with the Ensign

Posted on Thu Nov 17th, 2022 @ 6:46am by Lieutenant Commander S'hib & Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: The Lalor-Richardson Wedding
Timeline: A while after Two to Tango
2059 words - 4.1 OF Standard Post Measure

After the disaster with T'Kek, Miraj's evening went by in a drunken whirl of faces. She danced with Neri and a couple of other women, who she thought might have been related to the captain, got in the conga line with the marines, and then out of it again when the twist started; she'd only end up on her arse if she tried that. She kept meaning to say hello to Rin again, but she'd lost the ex-borg in the crowd somehow. But she soon spotted her next victim.

S'hib stood head and shoulder above the rest, even when sitting down and talking with Colonel Azhul, so she drained her mojito, and weaved, mildly unsteadily, over to the sequus. "Can I steal you for a dance? They're going to start the slow ones soon, and I won't be able to dance after that."

"Alright, I was waiting for this..." S'hib snorted, slapping his knees as he stood up. "Don't drink my drink..." He teased to Naxea before offering a very large cloven hand to Miraj

"Waiting for this?" Miraj asked, visions of S'hib in his robe Anglaise suddenly filling her mind. "If this is revenge, I want to point out that my feet are bare! and you are very big."

"Did you want to sit on my shoulders while I dance with someone else?" He teased, slowly moving past, her hand in tow.

She went red, remembering that as well. "No! How about something normal? And completely revenge free?"

"Something normal..." He pondered before turning back to Miraj, raising her hand up. "Like teaching you how to dance like a Sequus?" he mused, his wide and flat equine nose against her fingertips. "Though that's not exactly normal..." He added before slowly standing back up straight.

"You dance!" She gasped at him in mock outrage. "After all that fuss at the Governors Masquerade!"

"Fuss?" He snorted. "I was wearing a tent at the time, I could barely walk!" He frowned, letting go of her hand to place a knuckled fist on each of his fluffy hips.

"Fuss." she said firmly. "I mean. I got to see your minuet. It was very elegant. And the dress covers a lot of missteps." She gave him a shit-eating grin, then cackled a laugh.

"I'll misstep on you in a minute..." He scowled, tail flicking out behind him in irritation.

"No you won't," She retorted, confident he'd never deliberately hurt her. "SO, how do they do it on Sequella? Lots of prancing?"

"Well for starters we dance naked..." He snapped back, confident that his remark would silence her if but for a moment. "And very close to one another." He said with a positively devious smile.

"er..." Miraj went from pale to pink in all of a heartbeat. "Can we skip that bit?"

"Which one?" He said before offering both hands, feigning ignorance.

She took his enormous hands warily. She was sure there was going to be revenge any minute now. "Both of them?"

"We'll see... now, put your feet on my hooves..."

Miraj stepped up gingerly, holding fast to his fingers as she stepped onto his feet. Then she sniggered. "Your feet are tickling mine."

"You'll get used to it." He smirked as he placed her left hand around his waist before cupping her back with his. "Now then..." He continued, thinking aloud as he looked down at Miraj barely up to his chest.

She stiffened a little at the intimacy. She could feel the play of muscles in his back under her hand, flexing slightly as he shifted his balance to account for her weight. She could feel the tendons tightening in his feet under her toes, and the feint press of his pulse across his instep, and the steady warmth of his hand on her back radiating into her. "I don't think I've danced like this since I was a child with my dad." She craned her head back to look at him. "You being all the way up there, I certainly feel like I'm five again."

"You know its funny, I have a lot of sisters... a lot, most of them I've never met; but out of all of them, you're my favourite." He smiled, his chin practically touching his chest to look at her while idly clicking his hooves slowly and rhythmically.

"Challenge accepted!" she grinned. "Where should I start? Hair remover in your shampoo? Glitter bomb your undie drawer?"

"What makes you think I have an underwear drawer in the first place?" He said with a smug smile teasing the ends of his lips.

"I walked into that one." she grumbled. "Blow me down, I need to think before I speak."

S'hib chuckled at this, pausing his steps for a moment as he spoke. "Your mouth should fly the ship, what with those reaction times..." He quipped, jumping back into his dance, feeling her toes curling to grip more against him.

"Ha Ha." Miraj had to hold tight as the sequus started to move. This was way faster than her dad had ever moved. If he got any faster she was going to fall right off, but she didn't care; it felt good to move and not concentrate on not falling over. "Next time, I'll find a chapter with proper dancing. None of the posh minuetting, get you on a hornpipe or a reel!"

"One of these days I'm going to drag you into one of my holodeck programs... get you to be a priestess for an afternoon, then you impress the High Priestess with your knowledge of Mortuary cult decorum... once the blood has stopped pooling in your cheeks of course."

"I'd be terrible. No flying involved. And I don't need to impress the High Priestess. I won her over with my follicle shtimulator," She burped, letting go for one perilous moment to cover her mouth, only to grab back on sharply, digging in fingers hard.

"Ow!" S'hib said before snorting sharply. "What do you mean?" He growled, his interest in her comments overshadowing the dull pain left from her grip.

"Follicull shimulators," she said slowly, trying not to slur the words. "Grows you hair. Mine goes down to my bum. Then you can cut it off and start again."

"Wait? so you actually went and got your mane braided by the High Priestess? I've wanted to do that for you for years, but I never asked because it's always so damn short!" He huffed, his hooves stopping abruptly as looked down at her with a fake scowl.

"Yeah well, if you're going to do that, then I want the colonel present and written orders that no jarheads get to space me cos you and I ended up...braiding. If one of that lot thinks we're sssplicing behind her back, I'll be tossed overboard like so much flotham, flitssam. Flotsam."

"Red sands Miraj... I'm dancing with you... in front of her." he said as his free hand pointed directly at Nax.

"Exactly. At a weddigng. No-ones gonna get ther wrong impession. Not so much if we're sneaking into each others quarters. 'M protecting your virtue."

"Miraj, How much have you had to drink?"

"I feel mostly sober, sooo.... not enough? Do you want some rum? the bar has three different types. I'm going to have another zombie prince in a minute."

“Rum eh?” S’hib remarked thoughtfully. “I’ll have to get you to try something from Sequella… I know of one that’ll put hair on the bottom of your hooves.”

"Sign me up, rum-bosun! I want to try new things." She giggled as a particularly sharp turn made her head spin. "Dance faster!"

"I don't want to squish your toes if you slip" He protested, feeling her leaning further into his grip.

"You won't let that happen," she said with the confidence of someone currently two sheets to the wind and working on three. "Faster! " She leaned in close, and muttered to herself, "Make world go away."

He frowned deeply at her muttered words, his ears folding back as though regretting the fact he had heard her. "Let's get that drink first, ok?" His voice was filled with a confused concern, though his face beamed brightly as she tilted her face back up to his.

She leaned her forehead against him, barely coming up to his chest. "I can fly anything with an engine, no matter how damaged or falling apart. Why is talking to people so hard?"

"You can talk to me just fine..." He added before realising just how dense his response was. "What happened?" He added, bringing his free hand up to her head, his oversized mitt swamping the back of her tiny skull.

She twitched slightly at his touch, then settled back against the steady beat of the pulse in his thumb. "Dr T'kek asked me to dance, and I freaked out and knocked my drink all over him."

"Did you still get to dance?" He smiled as he looked over at the bar longingly, all the talk of drink distracting his already distracted mind.

"This was after. We danced, he's really good, and I fell over my feet because I'm not, even though I love it and then he put his hands on my face and I freaked out because I wasn't ready and people don't do that and why would he do that and I freaked out so he went and got me a drink and I didn't realise he'd come back because I was still freaking out and i jumped and knocked pina colada all down him. I'm such an idiot!" she concluded, sucking in a breath.

"Miraj... you're punishing yourself even though it sounds like he was the one to intrude on your personal space, plus accidents happen... doesn't make you an idiot, makes you normal."

She thumped her forehead against his ribs slowly. "Normal people don't freak out every time someone smiles at them. Normal people don't practically faint from blushing just because a pretty man is existing in the same room."

“You saying I'm not pretty then?” he joked, trying to make a point as well as tease his best friend.

"Arggh" the young woman huffed in frustration. "See what I mean? I can't even talk to you without screwing up! Why is peopling so hard?"

"Miraj I'm teasing you..." He grinned, brushing her hair back and tilting her head up to look at him. "That's part of the whole peopling thing... and you're doing fine, Ok? now let's go get that damn drink."

"Yes. Please. I'm getting sober." She sighed. "I've played wingman for Mal for forever. I don't have any trouble with the people he likes. Just the people I like. What is wrong with me?"

"Nothing," S'hib said with the utmost confidence as he wrapped an arm over her shoulder and pulled her to his hip. "You should have seen me when I first tried to get the attention of Nax... I was smitten and followed her around like a newborn foal." He added with a roll of his eyes.

"Point is... if someone likes you, they're gonna like you whether you spill a drink over them or not."

Miraj laughed, even though it had a slight slur around the edges. "I can't imagine you being all puppy love. Did you read poetry and bring her flowers?"

"I still bring her flowers." He huffed.

"Awww," Miraj stepped down from his hooves, and regretted it instantly as she put her toes in a puddle of something sticky. "But what about the poetry?"

"She just about tolerates the flowers Miraj, I think she'd actually shoot me if I tried poetry." He grumbled before walking off in the direction of the bar, his long arm tugging at her hand as he did so.

Miraj turned to look back at where Colonel Azul was watching the dance floor and nursing her drink. "I dare you." she flexed her orbital arches in her best imitation of waggling eyebrows. "I double dog dare you."

He was silent for a moment, glancing back and forth between Naxea and Miraj, his mouth opening and closing to slight murmurs of protest; he just wanted a drink.

"I hate you..." He snorted before clicking off towards Naxea.

Miraj just cackled a laugh, and turned to watch the results.