Girls' Night 2: Girls' Night Out
By Chibi-Kaz
Ships: R/S, very vague T/T, M/C
Features O.C.s, random made-up alien beefcake…..
Spoilers: Seasons 1 & 2. AU thanks to season 3.
SET
The whole place pulsated with light and sound. The alien music relied heavily on bass and rhythm. Occasional glissandos of treble spun through the music, but as the X'nthyn heard a much lower auditory range than humans, the higher ranges of sound were largely ignored. One fellow had been delighted to realize that the human women could not even hear the melody of one piece, and promised to request the song again to they could try. This led Liz into a lively discussion with him about auditory canals and bone conduction that left everyone else at the table in the dust. It had turned out that the male was a biologist himself.
By and large, the X'nthyns made wonderful company. Tall and lithe, not one stood under two and a half meters. The short fine fur over their whole bodies ranged from light teal to navy blue. They all had thick full manes of hair that gradually turned white with age. Large ears with finely veined pinna and gracefully pointed helixes were frequently bejeweled. In fact, since female X'nthyns had internal mammary glands, the only way to tell a male from a female was by the luxurious sideburns the males grew. In addition, they were so universally polite in a relaxed way, and eager for their new human friends to have a good time, both males and females made frequent offers to "share pleasure" with the Human women, and even more so with T'Pol. Fortunately, a firm 'no thank you' was accepted with equanimity. Since as a species, they tended to get paler with age, and as a culture they saw increased age as increased desirability, Liz and Jessica ran a tie for close second to T'Pol for attention-getting. Amani speculated that it was the ears that made T'Pol more attractive to the X'nthyns, not that she or Hoshi wanted for attention.
A friendly hostess kept a steady supply of weak drinks flowing to their table, and all four humans frequently accepted invitations to dance. Amani had the best grasp of the undulating style the X'nthyns enjoyed, though Jessica called it 'extreme bump-and-grind'. She herself had gotten the attention of the entire club at one point by dancing a jig to a particularly fast piece. The X'nthyns had been delighted, though hopelessly unable to duplicate the complicated footwork.
They had been in the club almost four hours, and by their hosts' standards, the night was still young.
Hoshi was dancing with Eelani, a lovely female with royal blue fur and glitter combed through her mane, when she spotted a flash of pale skin near her table. Focusing, she saw Trip Tucker, Malcolm Reed, and Travis Mayweather in the company of a number of native hosts, greeting T'Pol. As the song ended, Hoshi thanked her dance partner, and they both went back to the table, now expanded times two. A quick glance showed Hoshi some very interesting things.
First, Trip was not at all pleased to find that T'Pol was quite comfortable, having engaged a very well respected male in philosophical debate over the logic of 'free love'. The subject had been started by Amani as an observation of X'nthyn society, but the Vulcan and the X'nthyn had gone to town on the various merits and detriments of the philosophy. Kural was a well-known figure in the local cultural and educational circles, and he held his own against the Vulcan admirably. In fact, several people in the crowd were jealous – Kural was nearly 90, his mane of nearly white hair perfectly styled, his garb the height of fashion. He was the catch of the evening, and T'Pol had him completely engaged in debate.
Travis busily engaged every female around him in conversation, but Hoshi noted that his eyes roved constantly. They seemed to lock in on Liz Cutler every so often, wander away, then come back. Hoshi speculated that there would be very interesting developments there soon, and made a mental note to start a betting pool with Amani and Jessica.
Upon laying her own eyes on the third member of the new party, Hoshi almost had to do a double take. True, all three human men were in casual clothing – Trip in his standard jeans and Hawaiian shirt, Travis in a pair of black pants and a very fitting white tee-shirt of some faintly shiny material, but Malcolm…..
He wore superbly fitted pants that HAD to be imitation leather with a loose iridescent blue shirt. The top two buttons were undone, though the cuffs were buttoned and the tails tucked into those absolutely evil black pants. Hoshi shook her head for a moment. He looked like some sort of post-modern poet. Like whats-his-name, the 20th century singer…. Well, she'd ask Jessica the name later. Jay Morrison? Something like that. At any rate, with his hair delightfully rumpled and those blue eyes catching the light, Malcolm Reed looked good enough to eat.
And Hoshi was starting to get very, very hungry.
"Oh my!" Eelani hissed in her ear. "Those are the males of your species?"
"Yes. Our Engineer, our Armory Chief, and our best Pilot." Hoshi indicated each.
"Mmm," Eelani hummed appreciatively. "The tallest is quite handsome. Is he preferred?"
"Um, well, most girls do think Trip is handsome…" Hoshi said noncommittally.
Eelani nudged her. "So, which do you prefer?"
Hoshi grinned. "I've been trying to catch the Armory Chief's eye."
Eelani planted a kiss on her cheek. "Happy Hunting, sister." She moved off to flirt with Trip and a local male.
Hoshi greeted her fellow officers and collected her drink from T'Pol's care. She sat next to Malcolm. "So, Lieutenant! Enjoying your leave?"
Malcolm smiled slightly. Hoshi tried to remember if she'd ever seen his teeth. "It is nice to visit a species that are trustworthy. Though perhaps a bit on the decadent side."
Hoshi blinked innocently. "Why Malcolm! Did I just hear you say that you TRUST the X'ynthns?"
He shrugged. "All species have their distasteful elements, criminals et al, but as far as I was able to determine, we are in little danger here." He took a sip of his drink and paused. "Except perhaps in danger of intoxication."
"Here try mine." Hoshi passed over her weaker concoction. He sipped, then looked at her quickly. She smiled smugly. She'd found a drink that reminded her strongly of pineapple juice. "Like it?"
"Excellent choice, Ensign." His eyes remained on hers, and Hoshi suddenly wondered who messed with the environmental controls in the club. It was getting awfully warm in here. "By the way: Excellent color choice for the evening."
Hoshi's eyes widened fractionally at the compliment. She wore the red slipdress again, this time with perfectly painted nails. Amani's endorsement of Candy Apple Red seemed to be correct. The linguist was at a slight loss of words. "Why, thank you, Malcolm." Was he flirting?!?
The tension of the moment was broken by Travis, who bounced over to drag Hoshi onto the dance floor. After another half hour of dancing with Travis, Trip, Gyrin (who was very charming) and Amani, Hoshi returned to find Malcolm still seated at the table, guarding her drink and sipping one of the same himself. Hoshi smiled her thanks as she fell into her chair.
"Whew! Too bad we don't have a nightclub on Enterprise. I must be out of shape."
"You seem to be holding up well enough," Malcolm responded. "Besides, where would we put one?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe someday they'll make ships big enough to have clubs .. and racquetball courts and real gyms and everything!" Malcolm snorted in cynical disagreement. "Well, lord knows I'm getting sick of just jogging!" Hoshi pouted.
"There are other forms of exercise."
Hoshi wagged her eyebrows at him. Lately, she'd been doing this 'overt flirtation' routine with Malcolm. He always responded humorously, but Hoshi considered it all part of her plan. Softening him up for when the REAL flirtation began. Although, every once in a while, she got the feeling it had already started. "Are you suggesting any particular FORM of exercise, Lieutenant?"
Smirking, he replied, "There's a kickbag in the armory. You could take up kickboxing. I'd be happy to teach you."
Hoshi rolled her eyes. "I'd rather dance! Do you dance, Malcolm?"
"No."
She regarded him carefully. "Why do I think that's not the whole story?"
He waved a hand at the happily gyrating crowd on the dancefloor. "Not this. It's…. undignified."
"Oh, pish-posh on dignified!" Hoshi exclaimed, earning a smirk for her British-ism. "It's fun! And sexy." She gave him a devilish grin.
Malcolm shrugged. "You can be sexy without being undignified."
"Oh really?" Hoshi made her innocuous comment a challenge. She leaned forward. Just then, Travis, Liz, and Eelani and Gyrin joined the table, followed by a faintly bickering Trip and T'Pol.
"Hey, hey, what's this?" Travis cried.
"Malcolm says that you can dance sexy and still be dignified about it." Hoshi brought the newcomers up to date. Malcolm just looked away. Hoshi mourned the loss of their little tete-a-tete.
"Do not your people dance the same way?" Eelani asked. "You all seem rather adept, for aliens."
"No offence!" interjected Gyrin quickly.
"Oh, we dance like this too," Liz assured them, "but there are a lot of other forms of dancing on Earth as well. Like Jessica's jig earlier."
Hoshi quickly filled Malcolm in on Jessica's earlier performance. "There are similar dances, like the salsa or the samba. Then there are bouncy dances like the swing or the jive. And there's the tango, and the foxtrot, and the waltz, and all sorts of things. They all depend on the steps and the music."
"And the style of the dancers," Malcolm quietly added. Trip seemed to be trying to catch Malcolm's eye, but he wasn't having any of the Engineer's smart comments this evening.
"Oh, the latin dances are the best!" Travis enthused. "That's when you get to get real close and friendly." He draped an arm around Liz and leered at her good-naturedly.
"'Course, it takes someone who knows what they're doin' on the dance floor to make any of 'em look good, right, Malcolm?" Trip's tone was deliberately trying to provoke Malcolm.
"Malcolm?" Hoshi asked quietly.
He sighed. "Before Trip blabs to all and sundry – Yes, I took dance classes in my youth." He seemed grumpy about having to make the admission. "My sister Madeline wanted to take ballroom dancing in school. She talked me into being her partner, at least when our father was at sea." Hoshi knew enough about Malcolm's family to know that had his father ever found out, there would have been trouble. From what she could see, the only affection in the family existed between Malcolm and his younger sister. No wonder Maddy got him to do whatever she wanted.
"You actually have to LEARN dancing?" Gyrin asked, amazed.
"Not all humans are born with natural rhythm. Some never learn the grace necessary to move well." T'Pol spoke up for the first time. "In addition, humans tend to expend physical energy on pointless games of competition more frequently than in dancing." At Trip's glare, she uncomfortably added, "From what I've observed."
"Wow, Malc, I bet you dance really well! How long did you take lessons?" Travis asked.
"I should like to see a demonstration of another human dance form," Eelani said. "Would you show us?"
"Yes please!" Gyrin said.
Malcolm seemed prepared to ignore all the requests, but Hoshi laid her hand on his arm. "Malcolm? I'll dance with you, if you want? I know most of the ones we've been talking about." He stared at her for a long moment. She wished she could read his expressions as easily as she read Travis or Trip, or even Captain Archer. She leaned forward again, leaning into him. "Please?"
He rose suddenly, and the people around the table stepped back immediately, the Enterprise crewmembers expecting mayhem to commence. Trip especially looked like he expected to be punched, but Malcolm simply turned and made his way to the booth where the young X'nthyn running the music held court. They all watched as Malcolm seemed to have a serious conversation with the sound-engineer, tapping some sort of rhythm on his hand. The X'nthyn nodded, made a selection, and gave Malcolm a listening device. He concentrated for a moment, and then nodded, shaking the X'ynthn's hand.
Malcolm returned to the table, his expression still grave, and extended a hand to Hoshi. Wordlessly, she rose and walked with him towards the dance floor. Her heart began to pound in anticipation.
Malcolm pulled her into a formal 'closed' dance position, his left hand firmly holding hers, his right warm against her waist. Their eyes met, and he smirked a bit and said, "I hope you're familiar with the Argentine Tango."
She only had time to gasp at the selection as the X'ynthn sound engineer announced, "Here's a special request for our visiting guests from Earth, who will honor us with a demonstration of one of their dances!" and the music began to throb.