Thanks for the reviews! They make me happy. I'm just happy to profess the love that is Junior/Strip to the world! Muahahaha! Er… anyway… here's chapter two! Yes!

By the way, please never try to do what the book tells Junior to do, lol. I made all that crap up, even if it is slightly based on various self-help books.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Cars… though I seriously wish I did. Or I at least wish I owned my own 1970 Plymouth Superbird. I think I could live in happiness forever if I did. Hehehehe.

The Art of Seduction

By Basil-Ovelby

Chapter 2

Chapter Two: That Touchy-Feely Game

In this book, we'll work very slowly to be sure that the love of your life indeed loves you back. One of the ways to do this is to instill feelings in them without them even knowing it. Let them get comfortable around you, let them enjoy being with you, subtly send your own signs that you want to be more than friends. They will start to develop feelings for you all on their own.

One thing that really helps is touching - little touches every now and then. When you walk up to them to say something, lightly touch them on the shoulder. When you're sitting next to them, brush their hand. It's little touches like this that they might not notice consciously, but subconsciously, they'll start to work their magic. This, of course, is obviously not going to make them fall in love with you, but it's a great start to letting them know that you're interested in more…

Junior woke up the next morning a bit groggy, but in his mind he was ready and rarin' to move forward with his next seduction mission. He had taken the liberty of stealthily reading the next chapter by moonlight after he was sure Strip and his wife were both asleep.

Rubbing his eyes, he could tell that it was morning from the brightness that was trying to make its way into his tightly-closed eyes. He finally gave up and cranked them open as far as he could.

Strip was staring right at him.

"Eeeee!" He clutched his blanket in surprise. Somehow his upper-body had fallen off the cot during the middle of the night and he was now situated with his legs up on the cot and Strip staring down at him from his own bed.

"Look who's finally up!" Strip chuckled as he looked at Junior's disheveled form.

"Oh, did he wake up? That's good." Lynda's voice came from the open bathroom.

Junior gave a little groan and tried to pull himself up. This, unfortunately, only resulted in him falling back down, so he reworked his strategy and pulled his legs down from the bed. "What time is it?"

"Almost eleven."

Junior managed to pop up from the floor. "That late? Why didn't you wake me up?"

Strip rested his chin in his hand. "Well, you just looked so cute lyin' like that… it'da been a shame to move ya." He gestured casually to Junior's hair. "And I must say… that's the best bed-head I've ever seen."

Junior blushed and tussled his hair violently. This just caused Strip to laugh again. Lynda walked out of the bathroom still brushing her hair.

"Where do you think they serve that complimentary breakfast, honey?"

Strip turned around to lie on his side so he could see his wife. "M'not sure… maybe outside? We could go ask Sally."

"Good, because I'm getting pretty hungry." She returned to the bathroom to finish up her hair.

Strip grinned and looked back to Junior. "Guess that means we'll be heading out for breakfast. If you wanna shower, it's all yours."

"Ok." Junior made his way to his feet and tossed the mass of sheets that had practically been stripped from the mattress back onto the cot. "I'll just meet you guys out there, then?"

"Sounds good to me." He then held his hand by his mouth in a fake-whisper. "Wouldn't want the missus to get grouchy."

Lynda's head appeared in the bathroom door. "What was that, dear?"

Strip laughed as he got to his feet. "Nothin', darlin', nothin'."

-----------------------

Junior felt much fresher as he walked across the street to the café after his shower. He saw Strip and Lynda sitting at one of the tables outside it, talking to some of the other townsfolk. He figured that breakfast must be served through the café.

As he got closer, everyone turned to look at him. Awkwardly, he walked quickly until he made it to an empty chair next to Strip and sat down in a hurry.

"Y'have a good shower?" Strip asked him between bites of his scrambled egg.

"Er, yeah…" He glanced around and noticed people slowly chewing their food and looking at him, waiting for some kind of introduction. "Oh, uh…" He gave a slight wave. "Hi, uh, everyone… name's Junior." He died off at the end.

Strip smiled and patted him on the back. "He's one of my racin' buddies."

"Well, hello there. It's nice to see a few handsome young faces around here." An ancient-looking lady at the end of the table was eyeing him. He did his best to avoid cringing and gave a forced little laugh.

"So, man, do you know Lightning?" A guy with small, magenta glasses asked him from across the table.

"Well, I do, a little… I haven't exactly talked to him much, but I have, er, raced with him before." He could have slapped himself for sounding so stupid.

A lady in a light-green skirt and blouse came out of the diner and walked over to their table. She noticed Junior. "Hey, hun, can I get you anything to eat? Eggs? Toast? Bacon?"

"Er…" Junior glanced around. "Eggs'll be fine, thanks."

"Comin' right up!" She made her way back into the diner.

Junior gave a little sigh and settled down into his seat better, glad that no one was looking at him anymore. He gave a little side-glance to Strip and then remembered what he had read last night. This would be a perfect time to start with chapter two, right?

Without turning his head at all, he quickly looked around to find something he could do. Would it be too awkward and painfully obvious if he tried to like, touch his hand or something? He wasn't sure. He took a glance down towards the table and noticed underneath that their knees weren't all that far apart. That could be a pretty easy way to touch him and he could easily write that off if Strip asked him about it.

Ever so slightly, he angled his lower-body to face more towards Strip, letting his knees get a little closer. He had to be careful and try not to let Strip notice what he was doing.

He felt the slightest contact from his left knee and stopped, seeing if Strip made any sort of movement. He didn't – merely kept on eating his scrambled eggs. Junior let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He decided to be just a little bit bolder and pushed his knee even closer.

Now they were definitely touching. Junior felt his face get a little warm. He rested his chin in his hand and looked around in the other direction as though bored. After a few seconds without a reaction from Strip, he glanced back to see Strip staring off in front of him, lazily munching on the last of his eggs. He hadn't noticed a thing.

Junior congratulated himself on being so very sneaky. It felt pretty nice – touching him, that is. Not that it was even that big of a touch. Although, oddly enough, part of Junior actually did want Strip to notice. But then again, part of Junior also wanted to ravage the older man right here and now, and that just wouldn't work at all.

He saw the lady from before come back out of the diner with a tray of food. His stomach growled – he hadn't even realized he was hungry! Seducing Strip had a tendency to overtake all the rest of his thoughts.

"Here ya go. Hot and fresh!" She set the plate in front of him and the steam rose up to hit him in the face.

"Phwoo!" He gave a little chuckle. "Thanks! Uh…"

"Flo." She smiled.

"Thanks, Flo. Smells great!"

"It's no problem!" She walked back over to the diner doors.

Junior looked down and was about to grab his fork when he noticed how conveniently it had been set down near Strip's hand which sat idly on the table. "I smell another opportunity." He gave a little smile.

As nonchalantly as he could, he set his hand down and closed it around the fork. As he brought it back up, he let his hand slide a little farther to the left than it needed to, consequently brushing past Strip's hand. Excited, he then proceeded to innocently dig into his eggs.

Nothing happened. He eyed Strip. He looked exactly the same, didn't move at all. Junior's first reaction was one of disappointment, which he was rather surprised at. Why would he want Strip to notice? That would only amount to a rather awkward set of questions which he would, being his usual, articulate self, stumble through. And yet… he wanted Strip to notice so bad.

He took a bite of his eggs, his eyes still focused on Strip. He wanted Strip to notice him.

He pushed his knee up against Strip's a little farther. Nothing. Strip was now holding his head in his heads with his eyes half-closed. Junior raised his hand to bring some eggs to his mouth and let his elbow reach out quite a bit farther than it needed to, brushing past Strip's upper-arm. Strip gave a little yawn.

Junior was getting a little frustrated. He leaned his chair back on its hind legs and idly brought another forkful of eggs to his mouth. "You idiot! This is a good thing… perfect, even! He hasn't noticed you at all, but like the book said, it'll be, like, smoldering in his sub-consciousness." He glanced over at Strip again. "But… but… I want him to notice me! At least let him look at me… come on!"

He let his chair fall back to the ground with a thud. With one more look at Strip, his desire to be noticed overcame everything else and he stood up, grabbing Strip's hand.

"Hey, I need to show you something!"

Strip gave him a surprised look. "Huh? Oh, ok-" Before he even finished his sentence, Junior had pulled him to his feet and started dragging him back towards their room. "Be right back, folks." Strip smiled and raised his hat in farewell with his free hand.

Junior didn't even know what he was doing. He was starting to panic. What exactly what he going to show Strip? He had no idea! He would have to make something up, some really stupid story or something, but he couldn't think at all thanks to his initial panic and the fact that he was holding Strip's hand. He kept walking towards the room, knowing it was the only thing he could do. He was starting to sweat.

They made it back to the room and Junior swung the door open so they could step inside. As soon as they were in, Junior began to fervently sweep the room with him eyes, looking for something, anything that could give him an idea of what to say next.

Strip stepped up beside him. "What was it you wanted me ta see, Junior?"

"Er… ah…" He couldn't think of anything. There was nothing here! Nothing that would work… what was he going to-

And then he saw it - something that could save him. He praised God.

"A s-s-spider! A spider!" He shakily pointed towards the corner of the room. Letting go of Strip's hand, he situated himself behind the older man and clutched his jacket in fear. "I saw it this morning after my shower, but… but then I forgot about it! … 'til… just now." He peeked his head over Strip's shoulder, resting his chin down on it.

"Ahahahaha. You're afraid of that?" Strip pointed back to the spider.

Junior violently nodded his head.

Strip began to walk over to the spider, so Junior clutched his jacket tighter, letting his other hand conveniently rest just below Strip's hip.

"It's just a tiny, lil' thing." Strip bent down and picked the spider up with his finger. He held it up for Junior to see. "See?"

Junior took this opportunity to wrap his arms around Strip's waist and burrow cutely into his shoulder. "But… but I don't like spiders! They're all scary and gross." Maybe he was overdoing it a little…

Strip, oblivious as always, simply hugged Junior with his free arm and observed the tiny spider on his finger. "But they can't hurt ya at all. This one's so small it prolly couldn't hurt a flea!" He gave Junior a little pat. "Now… let's just take it outside and set it free."

He started to walk for the door and Junior quickly grabbed his hand, not quite wanting to give up his gratuitous, scared and innocent Strip-touching yet. Might as well milk it for all it was worth!

They walked back outside and Junior watched as Strip gently set the spider on a near-by potted plant. "See? There we go… all better."

Junior gave a sigh of fake relief. "Thanks, Strip."

"S'no problem. Why don't we head back down to the others, huh?"

"Ok." Junior couldn't help but feel a little juvenile, but it had definitely been worth it. Besides, he would soon have his time to dominate over the older man… He gave a devilish little grin.

He looked up and noticed Strip looking at him. "Ah! Uh… I mean, uh, lead the way! Ahaha… ha…"

Blushing furiously, he started to follow Strip back to the café. He would have to be more careful! Having never been around Strip this much before, he'd never had to keep his dirty little thoughts in check like this. It had been quite the successful morning, however, so Junior decided he would have to check out chapter three later this afternoon. That book was turning out to be a quality investment.