Tasteful Portraits Pt 2

Posted on Sat Nov 12th, 2022 @ 4:29am by Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen & Michelle Erilin

Mission: The Interim
Location: Alexander Espersen's Quarters

Continued from Part 1


Alexander turned off the light at the window and then took the page off the wooden tablet to show Michelle. “Here you are. Pardon me, I’ll just get dinner ready.” He left her with the page in hand to activate the replicator. Moments later, there were two plates of chicken Caesar salad (tasty, filling, but without being heavy) on the table, along with place settings, a carafe of ice water and two glasses, and lit candles. “Dinner is served.”

She gently handed the page back to him, having been very careful not to smudge anything, "You are truly wonderful at that and this looks absolutely delicious." She delicately unfolded the linen napkin and draped it across her lap, truly acting as a lady would do, even at her young age. She handled the fork with the grace of someone raised to society, "And why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself, Alex? You don't mind if I call you Alex, do you?"

“Go right ahead, Michelle,” he said, presuming he could do the same. His own napkin was on his lap as he poured each of them water from the carafe. He picked up his own utensils but waited to dig in. “Well, I’m an engineer by training. I’m from New Copenhagen, on Mars, a town which sadly no longer exists.” A flash of sadness moved across him but he quashed it just as quickly. “I spent the last five years training at the Academy before being sent out here.” He let out a chuckle as he gathered his first bite on his fork. “I think they were getting rid of me. But I’ve found some good people here. Kindred spirits. How about you? I’d love to know more about you.” He began to eat, savouring the warm crispy chicken with the cool lettuce and creamy dressing.

"Oh, there's not much to know about me." Michelle languidly waved her free hand before taking the small sized bite of the salad and chewing for a few seconds and swallowing, "I've been a licensed courtesan for the last four years once I was able to get off of Jovash." She conveniently didn't add what she'd been doing before that point, "Fun little fact is that while I never met my father because he died early in the Dominion War, I finally got to meet my aunt for the first time a few weeks ago."

“Oh?” Alexander said, curiosity piqued. “Was this at Starbase 614?” A silly question, he thought as he gathered another bite to his fork. Where else would it be? It was the only place other than the ship Michelle would’ve visited over the past ‘few weeks’.

"Actually, it wasn't." Michelle gave a slightly dreamy smile, "On board this very ship. Oh, I'd said hello in passing, after all I do work at the lounge and just about everyone goes in there at some point, but I was in a bit of an altercation on board the Starbase with Lieutenant Vianelli and someone from her past and got injured. Aunt Cally came to visit Faith in the infirmary there and it kinda got spilled that 'Surprise! You have a niece you never knew about!' and she and I have had some really nice conversations every since." She tucked another bite into her cheek, then did something unladylike and spoke, "You've got no idea what it was like, finally having family again. Someone not just your mom."

Aunt Cally… It didn’t take long for Alexander to connect the dots. The ship, the incident which he had heard about, the fact that only so many people’s names could abbreviate to Cally (and Crewman Calliope Smith was too young).

He reacted with surprising calm. Part of him wanted to shut everything down, out of concern for how Captain Skyie would react knowing what he was doing. But common sense supplanted that. Michelle was a grown woman, making her own choices, and Alexander was doing nothing wrong.

Another feeling then took over. “I can guess how nice it must feel, connecting with family like that.” What he would give…

"It's most certainly been different," Michelle agreed, picking up on his feelings shift and shifting the conversation a bit on her own, "But I've found that family is where you make it happen." She gestured around them to include the entire ship, "I know that for Aunt Cally, and I can't think of her as anything else, the entire ship is her family. I can understand that, because I've also gotten closer to some of the people on board in the short time I've been here, not to mention some of my regular clients from the Starbase and Jovash. Family is truly where you find it."

“Can we talk about something else please?” Alexander asked, quietly, a bit ashamed of the request. “I’m sorry, it was rude of me to be so blunt. You’ve done nothing wrong, but…this is a hard subject for me.” He found himself staring at his food, struggling to meet her eye.

There was absolutely nothing in her expression that showed how thrown off she was by the request, she was a professional after all, but she also made a mental note to bring the subject back up with him in as gentle a manner as she could when she was around him on their personal time. This was not one of those times, she was, after all, working right now. "Alexander, look at me?" She waited for a few moments until his eyes rose to hers and her warm smile, "There's no shame in being uncomfortable with something and saying it. I will never judge you on it, ever. But let's see, more about me.." She tapped her chin with her fork as she was thinking for a moment, "I run a mean Dabo table and can organize events really well, but I'm mostly a blank slate in general." She leaned forward as if imparting a secret, "I really love cartoons and anime." She loudly mock-whispered.

That last point made Alexander laugh, helping to break him from his melancholy. Not what she sid, but how. “Your secret’s safe with me,” he joked. “People have tried to get me into cinema, television, animated programs, but I never could. Dabo, though, that’s something I can appreciate. I always tried to calculate odds, and would do decently well for a while, but,” he shrugged as put the last bit of salad on his fork, “You Dabo Girls always managed to get me to make Just One More Spin.” He laughed as he took his last bite.

Michelle's eyes opened wide as she giggled while laying her fork flat on his empty plate, an obviously staged smile as she struggled to stifle the laugh, "Please, sir, your luck is about to change and it could change on this very spin! Certainly any bad luck streak must end and now is your chance! Please remember all bets are final and we're going to spin in three... Two... One..." She dragged out the numbers as if waiting for him to get his bet out at the last moment.

He found himself grinning at her performance, one which worked every time on even the strongest willed man. “Ten strips!” he cried, miming throwing latinum onto the table and prompting him to burst out laughing.

"Dabo!" She trilled, throwing her hands up in the customary celebration that every Dabo Girl throughout the quadrants did when one of their players won big, but hers was a bit awkward because she too had broken down in laughter at the pantomime, wrapping her arms around herself because her ribs started to hurt from the laughing, but she felt his stress slipping away from him... Good. "Let's see, with your winnings, where were you going to take me?" She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

“To the colonies, of course,” Alexander said, dramatically. “My ancestors settled the hardest lands of Earth, and then some of the most beautiful worlds beyond.” He stood and offered his hand to Michelle. “Come with me to the glaciers of Aucdet IX. Skiing, walks among the most beautiful ices you’ll ever see, and the warmest saunas you’ll ever relax in.”

Her hand perched upon it gently as she rose from her seat, then she took short but rapid steps to him before 'fainting' into his arms in apparent overwhelmedness, "But lah, sirrah, why are you to treat me like a princess? I am but a poor woman without a centicred to my name! At the least, I shall have to wear a jacket for the cold.. What can I ever do to repay your generosity?"

He caught the ‘fainting’ Dabo girl and scooped her up completely into his arms. “Nonsense!” he declared. “All I desire is your loveliness and your company. All else will be provided, including stylish winter wear! But,” he leaned into speak more softly into her ear, “While indoors it certainly wouldn’t hurt to wear this, should you feel inclined to wear anything.” One hand began gently touching the hem of the kimono, tugging ever so gently, not to remove but merely to emphasize.

Truthfully, he felt better than he had in years. The play acting was supremely fun, and brought him the self confidence of the character he found himself playing. The self-idealized Danish explorer, set to run away with a beautiful woman on a mere whim.

She giggled as he tugged, adjusting a shoulder as he did so gently so as to expose it a bit more, not quite the effect she'd been hoping for, but she'd make do, "Oh, what a gentleman I have managed to fall upon," She managed to shift a leg slightly to expose it by letting the fabric fall from it, that was better, "But what sort of monster would I find should I push my feminine wiles upon him? Would he thus remain a gentle giant, or would he fall upon the baser foundings of his being?"

“I suppose there is but one way to find out,” he said. Eyes locked on hers, feeling an intensity of raw passion not felt for a long long time…

“My appointment request only spoke of the art,” he said, breaking character with his words but not with his tone. “And because of that, and because we’re playing, I’m going to ask instead of assume.” He shifted his grip but stared into her eyes. “In a moment I’m going to set you down. You’re going to do one of two things. Either you’ll drop the kimono, lie on the couch in a comfortable pose, and I’ll draw you. Or you’ll drop the kimono, walk to my bed, and we’ll find out if this man is a gentle giant or if he falls to his baser instincts.”

Alexander Espersen was many things, two of which being, at heart, both an Officer and a Gentleman. It would not do to presume such things, no matter what his heart, his gut, and his loins told him.

Without waiting for a response, he set her gently onto her feet and let her make the next move.

The entire time he'd been speaking, Michelle had been measuring him and his character, both with her eyes and her other senses. She'd nodded when he stated his terms and she felt the sincerity when he gave her the choice, but there was that burning inside him, tinged with... She made up her mind before her feet ever touched the ground.

With one hand, she reached up, never releasing eye contact despite the difference in their heights, and cupped his cheek tenderly while the other undid the sash of her kimono, "There is nothing saying that both options aren't still available to us." She said ever so gently, then released his cheek and with an expert and slight shrug let the fabric slip from her shoulders once more, then reached for his hand as she stood on the balls of her feet and began to step towards the other room. There was more to her profession than just one thing or another, sometimes what was best for the client wasn't what they themselves thought.

He let himself be pulled into the other room, unbuttoning his shirt with his free hand as he went. "Oh, I'll still draw you on the couch," he said with a wry smile. "It just might be another day." He let go of her hand long enough to let his shirt drop to the floor midway between the couch and his bed.

To Be Continued...