The prettier you are as a child, the more they dress you up. Once you become a teenager, you notice that if you're wearing a skirt, especially a short one, people will pay more attention to you, like you more. Through high school, university, getting your doctorate, and moving on from job to job, you hone this skill. You are more than capable of doing anything you put your mind to, but this has been hard wired into you. Sex sells.
So when you are tasked with getting your new subject's attention, you instinctively dress to impress, yet still fit within normal university garb. A short skirt, bare legs, and knee high boots. It doesn't much matter since 324B21 is female, but still, you need to be noticeable to the males around her, to hopefully garner attention if the phone call and paper left behind aren't enough. Whether the skirt or not has something to do with it, you succeed. An exchange of names, a clasping of hands, and her adorable attempt to speak French back to you.
The next time you see her, you've reverted back to your comfort - tight pants with your boots. A quick hello as you cross paths in the library - she's on her phone, so you just hang back - then settling down twenty feet away. You're debating how to strike up a conversation to get her to come to the Neolution lecture, when she is suddenly leaned against your table, telling you she's bored, while grinning down at you. With a smile back, you suggest the lecture, and tease her until she agrees to come. You slip away to report your success, and tell yourself that this monitoring thing is pretty easy.
She arrives on time, and sits next to you, right where Dr. Leekie will notice her and get her attention while he lectures. You are shocked at her response to him, but laugh along with the audience when he smiles at it. Her mind fascinates you already, from everything you've read of her, but even more just watching her be in what has become your world, though she of course, has no clue about that. After the presentation is finished and the lights have come on, you find yourself debating excitedly with her, drinking your wine as the other takes her turn expressing herself. Watching her almost spill her glass time and time again as she speaks makes you almost forget why you are standing around. The sound of your boss greeting someone loudly behind you brings you back to the task at hand. You maneuver her into speaking with him, then relax. You have succeeded in the task he gave you for today. He will be pleased with you when you see him tonight.
After he leaves you, you wonder if she will say goodbye - which will let you go write your report before your evening plans, but also hoping that maybe, she will want to spend more time with you. Already this girl is showing you that 'unpredictable' is the best way to describe her. She snags two bottles of wine and drags you out the door. You find yourself gripping her hand tightly, running through the campus, and laughing the entire way. When you stop and instinctively pull out your cigarettes, she is laughing and promising to get you high one day. Mind altering substances have never been your thing. The need for a clear head to reach a goal has always kept you focused on the future, but she feels safe. And if smoking marijuana with this cat-eyed subject - girl? - possibly, friend? could help you reach those goals, you will let her hold that safety above you.
You really do need to get your report done before tonight, so you say goodbye, leaning down to kiss her cheeks, something you realize you haven't done often since arriving in this country, but something you'd done without thinking back home all your life.
Once you finish writing, you save it to the flash drive and sigh. It is time to transform yourself again. Away go the pants, out comes the short dress. Goodbye comfortable boots, hello spike heels. An hour to do your hair just so, and a heavy hand with the makeup completes the change. Reminding yourself that this will help your career, and that really, he's not so bad, you drop the flash drive into your clutch, and head for the hotel. Holding your head high as you walk through the lobby does not decrease the sense of shame that you feel as you walk down the hallway. The gold card slips into the door, and you enter, resigning yourself to what will come.
You wish you could have stayed with her. The night is uncomfortable and embarrassing. You'd have rather let her get you baked.
Hi guys, I'm back into fic, but it's time for a new fandom and a new ship for me! I know I have at least one more chapter for this, hope you like it.