Think With Your Pants

Writers: Eimi, Rochelle
Date Posted: 16th September 2006

Characters: R'mer, Eleada
Description: Eleada takes R'mer aside for some flirting instruction...
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 13, day 7 of Turn 3

After a short search, Eleada spotted R'mer by the weyrling barracks, and strode jauntily up to him. She was carefully to make her smile friendly -she suspected that R'mer might have forgotten her offer to teach him to flirt. Suddenly reminded, she reached out with her mind.

**Gliorith, could you keep Hanunth distracted? I'm sure it won't be hard, he seems like an enthusiastic little fellow.** She asked her green. She could hear Gliorith's mental snort as she neared R'mer.

"Hi handsome!" She called. She knew he didn't have enough experience with girls to know, but he was handsome in his own way, and she intended for him to get used to the idea whether he thought so or not. Besides, it was a cute pet name.

R'mer smiled. He was becoming accustomed to the greeting, though only from the greenrider. "Good morning. How are you and Gliorith today?"

"Grand." She grinned at him. "How's Hanunth?" She stepped slightly -just
slightly- closer. "Are you ready...?" She asked suggestively, raising an eyebrow.

"Ready?" Ready for what?

Eleada laughed. "For the flirting lesson you just demonstrated you need." She threw an arm around his shoulders, guiding him gently away from the barracks and to a more secluded area by a curve of rock she remembered from her weyrling days.

"How did I demonstrate... whatever I demonstrated? All I said was 'really'..." R'mer was already confused.

She smiled kindly. "Don't worry about it." She stopped looking around. They were out of sight here, hidden by a curve of the rock and the bulk of the weyrling barracks, and this side had no windows. Good. It gave him an easy escape so he wouldn't feel trapped, but was still secluded enough they were unlikely to be seen. "All right, before I get too far into this, what do you think flirting is, R'mer?"

Shards, wasn't that what she was supposed to be teaching him? If he knew already, he'd be doing it. "Talking? And standing kinda close?"

"Hmm." She studied him for a moment. This was going to be a bit harder than she thought... But then, he might be a fast learner, Hanunth was a bronze, after all. "That's part of it, yes. But I'm standing close to you now and talking, but I'm not flirting. Now if I did this -" She altered her manner, becoming overly friendly and eyeing him calculatingly. "I might be flirting." She said coyly, raising a suggestive eyebrow. "Can you see why?"

Well, he could certainly feel the difference. "I think so. You look... sexy this way."

She nodded. "All right, lets work with that. What makes This," she leaned in a little closer for a moment. "More sexy than..." she leaned away and took her original position, relaxing out of her previous manner "...this?"

"How close you are to me. And the way you look at me." Shards, he hoped she wasn't going to practice the leaning in too much. She smelled sharding good...

She smiled, noting his reaction carefully and filing it away. She wanted to expose him to as many examples as possible, but didn't want to get him too worked up. "Good. Now closeness isn't always a good indicator of flirting -some people are just friendly. But it normally is, and you don't usually get someone looking the way I did unless they are interested in _something_. What if I do this though?" She leaned casually back against the rock wall, not necessarily obvious, but definitely displaying herself to attract favorable attention.

"Well, you're not really doing anything," he shrugged. "How is that flirting. You're just standing there."

Eleada laughed. "That's where many men would disagree with you." She said proudly, fond memories of old lovers passing regretfully through her brain. "This pose, well, displays me to an advantage that you don't see when I'm just walking around. Now think. Is there anything about me that attracts more attention when I'm like this than anything else? Don't be shy." She said gently. She'd asked this question before, and the answer always varied.

R'mer blushed slightly. "I'd noticed that, but I didn't know it was intentional."

She chuckled softly. "Oh, it is. Now some girls will do something similar without realizing it, but a lot of girls are taught to know exactly what their most flattering look is. The position varies by the girl and the outfit she's in. It's the same for guys too, except they don't always pay attention to what flatters their appearance quite as closely. Now lets try this one." She pushed off the wall and walked past him, making sure that his attention would be unavoidably caught by her slow sway. "Now what about that?"

"Was that intentional too?" He knew when Isaline had been flirting with him. She was easy. She touched him, kissed him, pulled him aside. But shards, it seemed girls could flirt doing anything! Walking, standing, leaning... "Is there any time when girls _aren't_ flirting?"

"Girls only flirt when they want someone to think romantically about them." She said patiently. If he hadn't figured that out yet, she might have to back up a bit. "The same goes for men. Now, what I've shown you so far are some of the more aggressive moves that you'll see in the weyr. But there are many ways to flirt, and you need to learn to tell the difference. So..." She grinned at R'mer, remembering her mother scolding her brother D'rayn. "Stop thinking with your head and start thinking with your pants!"

R'mer snorted. "I'm not sure if my Weyrlingmaster would quite approve, but I'll try."

She laughed again. "I doubt your Weyrlingmaster would approve of any of this. But you can't recognize flirting with just your eyes -you've tried that already, and you know it doesn't work. The whole point of flirting is to make someone want you, and the easiest way is to think with your pants. But for your Weyrlingmaster's sake..." She grinned at him. "I trust you not to go _too_ far with that advice."

"Well, I will certainly try. Sometimes my... pants... have a mind of their own."

Eleada smiled kindly. "At your age, if they didn't I'd worry. All anyone can do is try. Let's try something a little different. I'm going to do something I did the first time we met, and I want you to tell me why it is flirting." She leaned invitingly in his direction, staring hungrily at him and making absolutely sure that her curves were clearly visible.

He was pretty sure he got that one. "Because its very hard for me not to look down your tunic?" he mumbled, turning slightly pink. Shards, he thought he sounded like an idiot before. Now he sounded like he was a _proddy_ idiot.

"Very good." She said calmly, fighting another smile. She was reasonably certain now what he did and didn't recognize as flirting -proximity and leaning seemed to be the only cues he'd picked up. This could take a while, but if she could keep him blushing, she'd know if he was catching on. A thought occurred to her as she straightened up. "Do you have anyone you like, R'mer? A pretty girl or someone?"

"Maybe," he mumbled and looked away. "Isaline. But we kind of skipped most of the flirting part."

She chuckled softly. **Ah Ha!** "Sometimes flirting isn't necessary." She said easily. "But watch what you do together for a while. The weyrlingmaster is still in charge of you, after all." Her eyes glazed over for a moment as Gliorith reached her, and she cocked her head to the side, studying him. "How about we take a break for a while? Gliorith is getting dizzy watching Hanunth run around her. We can continue after I get back from the picnic with my boys -or if you like, you could come along. It's just on the beach."

R'mer's stomach growled loudly in response. "Uh... Well, if you don't mind me coming along..."

She smiled. "I wouldn't have offered if I did. Besides, my boys would love the chance to play with Hanunth, and my mother's been badgering me about making new friends." She hooked arms with him. "Let's go then. I hear some meatrolls calling you."

Last updated on the September 17th 2006

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Think With Your Pants