Teach Me To Fly

[Kohai Drenn]

A little sound of surprise cut through the fit of giggles spilling from Kohai, her entirely seated dance routine interrupted by an eager tug on her wrist. The amused grin never left her face as her pilot closed them off from the rest of the ship, only letting her go when they were well and truly alone.

"Is this good? Crank to the left, crank to the right?" Kohai watched Corvetta step and sway, calloused fingertips pressing against smiling lips as she stifled her returning giggles. The flygirl was definitely a bit sporadic with her movements, each swivel just a little jerky and exaggerated. It was parsecs ahead of how the blonde looked when she first danced, though, the scene conjuring vivid memories of a much smaller Koko spinning and flailing her arms like a sugar-filled monster. It gave Kohai the engineer hope that she could totally fix this.

Koko the friend, however, let her eyes wander back up from her pilot's feet to her face, that familiar, comforting smile reminding her it was already perfect. "You're a natural." She stuck her tongue out teasingly, falling into a slightly more confident step in front of Corvetta. "It kinda harder without music, but try to imagine a beat if it ever feels weird to you, you know?"

[member="Corvetta Salvo"]

 

[Corvetta Salvo]

"Sure I am!" the pilot answered with her own raucous smile, rotating her shoulders and alternating graceless windmill motions with each arm. With exaggeratedly slow motions, she attempted to drag her feet backwards in a 'moonwalk' style, nearly tripping onto her face as the friction soles of her spacer boots caught against the floor. It produced a gasp from her as she regained her balance, but her giddy composure was quick to return. Corvetta was almost never too proud to make fun of herself. "I've always wanted to do that. I mean... the real version," she chuckled.

"What tunes would work best for the beat?" Pop culture things and music were not exactly something the pilot knew much about. But having fun could always be inserted into her itinerary. Plus she was doing what she wanted to learn--or at least, provoking the most primitive form of dance from her body. It was nice getting the kinks out of her joints after lazing around for most of this haul.

[member="Kohai Drenn"]

 

[Kohai Drenn]

Kohai brought her arms up by her head, rotating her hips subtly to a rhythm she found in the cacophony of beeps and whirs made by the cockpit itself. She allowed a familiar exhilaration to overtake her, her body moving and shaking in a way that was indescribably liberating. It was like all the measured steps and routines that made up the Engineer's life were momentarily falling away, making room for a euphoric swell of giddiness in her chest. While fixing a moody hyperdrive could help Kohai center herself, dancing was one of the few ways the girl could truly let go of it all.

Biting down a calloused fingertip, Kohai made a poor attempt at suppressing a fresh outpouring of giggles. It was a rare treat to see her pilot move like this, even if she had to slyly rotate her shoulders away from an approaching hand now and again. There was a single moment where her fixed smile vanished, when Corvetta appeared to be on her way towards the floor. Before she could reach her hands out to catch her, however, the flygirl caught herself, and Kohai felt a little guilty for even suspecting another outcome.

"Well, that's move's toughie, you know? Takes a king to do it justice!" Her smile was back with a vengeance. She had taken that stumble like a true champ.

When Corvetta asked her for a recommendation, Kohai actually had to slow down and think for a moment. "Well... They're hardly a sweet new thing, but ya can't go wrong with the Sleens!" She was of course referring to the Lethargic Sleens, a band that had fallen out of relevance when Kohai was still a brat on Coruscant, and one of her personal favorites. "They aren't the best, but they hit a lot of different styles in their time. You can buy just one album and practice all kinds of dancing!"

"Actually..." Getting an idea, Kohai inched herself forward until she stood face to face with her pilot. Swallowing any encroaching nerves, the engineer brought her hands out to hover on opposing sides of Corvetta's hips. "I mean... may I?" She figured she might as well start with the basics, if they were really gonna do this again.

[member="Corvetta Salvo"]

 

[Corvetta Salvo]

"The Sleens, huh?" The name itself sounded like it had just the right amount of rebellion, melancholy, boredom, and grunge for it to be one of those great bands of the previous decade. Kohai must have had a pretty entertaining childhood, or at least more normal. Not that her engineer was exactly normal, but she seemed a lot wiser about how life on firm, anchored ground was. Corvetta would never tell, but the blonde still lacked a little finesse in how she walked in her space shoes. But that certainly did not stop her from dancing like the pro as far as the pilot perceived it. "Let's grab one of those... albums... when we pad!"

Winding down her motions, Corvetta noticed her friend approaching her, arms somewhat offered to take hold at her hips. While that was not something she was used to, she assumed Kohai had something planned and thought nothing more of it. Unusual, but that was a word that could describe both of the young women. Shrugging, she spread her arms out to signal it was alright. "Yeah, go ahead, flygirl." This must be like that ballroom stuff in the holos.

Totally excited to get her start in a skill she had always wanted to learn, the flyer mused about how it just wasn't fair to everyone else that they couldn't have a best friend as awesome as the one she did.

[member="Kohai Drenn"]

 

[Kohai Drenn]

For a few seconds that seemed to go on forever, Kohai truly could not move a muscle. The idea had come to her as a spur of the moment, and the young engineer had acted on it without any planning or second thoughts. This kind of behavior was much more firmly set in Corvetta's wheelhouse, her pilot making a habit of allowing spontaneity and improvisation to look natural. Kohai could hardly deviate from her familiar style of coffee without rubbing shoulders with a panic attack.

Swallowing a lump that had formed in her throat, she was mentally scrambling to remember what she was meant to do. Shifting her feet, Kohai brought herself just a hair closer, the toes of her shoes briefly bumping against Corvetta's. Go ahead, flygirl... In an instant she made contact, her hands taking a firm grip on the subtle flare of Corvetta's hips.

Not too hard... Not too soft... Not too high... Not too low... She went over it all as her eyes remained glued to the point of contact between them, going over that looping inner mantra like she were reciting a chapter from a manual. Her hands were absolutely still, and the smile had returned as quickly as it had left.

Regaining eye contact with her pilot, the pilot-in training gestured downward between their bodies with her chin. "Okay... So try to follow my feet, okay? I'm gonna go slow..." Biting her lip with renewed focus, Kohai slowly took a step to the left with her left foot, followed right after by her right. She made sure to keep her pace nice and slow, a quiet, rhythmic hum vibrating in her throat to a musical beat.

[member="Corvetta Salvo"]

 

[Corvetta Salvo]

A schoolgirl kind of grin spread from cheek to cheek across the brunette's face as Kohai's digits made contact with her hips, the anticipation of discovering the art to dance nearly exploding upon impact. She stared down at their shoes for a moment as the toes touched before looking back into her friend's eyes, a supernova of excitement emanating from her shimmering irises. Follow her feet. Got it.

The pilot reached for the blonde's shoulders as she felt a little strange and even a tad off-kilter in Kohai's guiding grasp, attempting to follow her steps as smoothly as possible. Her first step, right foot to her right, felt perfectly in sync, and for a fleeting moment Corvetta assumed a rare bit of cockiness that she was going to ace the first lesson. Her friend's humming also had an entrancing tingle to it, further inducing an exaggerated nature to her motions. Corvetta's following step, however, quickly remedied that thought, and she nearly stepped on Kohai's foot while regaining her balance.

"Frak. Sorry!" The pilot gave a goofy grimace, sucking in some air while she reset her foot's position. "I guess I won't make it to the twirly part today after all."

[member="Kohai Drenn"]

 

[Kohai Drenn]

The excitement in the pilot's eyes was more than reflected in her own, Kohai's emerald gaze seemingly anchored to those stormy blues. She felt the weight of her pilot's hands on her shoulders, straightening her back just a bit in an effort to prevent herself from being pulled in. Leaning just a bit back, the smallest fraction of her weight was deposited into those gripping fingers, her own hands gradually sliding to the back of Corvetta's hips, supporting her in kind. The engineer had to fight a deep seated urge to go faster, reminding herself that the pace they were going was perfect.

At the very start things seemed to be going perfectly, just one more thing her pilot would take to seemingly like magic. Just as quickly as it started, the trance was broken. Corvetta stumbled briefly, a result of a confident overstep on her part. This time, however, Kohai was ready, her resting hands fastening into a secure grip of the other woman's waist. In her head, she knew the pilot wouldn't fall, but her body had reacted on its own yet again.

"It's okay..." Kohai's voice was quiet, painfully aware as she was of the proximity between the two of them. The twirly part? She suppressed a snicker at the word choice, the lifelong spacer before her never lacking for just the right word for something. "Maybe something a bit easier to get some momentum?" Carefully bringing her hands back down to their earlier position on Corvetta's hips, she shifted her weight to one foot, her hands coaxing the pilot to follow her lead. "Don't worry about any steps, okay? Just lean with me... try to sorta shift your weight from foot to foot. Like a shaky ship!" The last part had just come to her, but it seemed like a rudimentary skill that Corvetta would find familiar.

[member="Corvetta Salvo"]

 

[Corvetta Salvo]

Corvetta settled down, offering a moment to regain their balance and composure before readying for another try. "Yeah, let's keep it simple for knuckler Corvy," she agreed, chuckling as they restarted the sequence. She allowed her weight to be tugged in a little by Kohai's hold so the blonde could control her in a way. It seemed easier to follow if she let her teacher manipulate her center of gravity since she already had a grip on her. Corvetta was no stranger to taking some shortcuts as long as they worked.

Whipping her head back abruptly in order to fling her hair back and out of her eyes, the brand new dancing student kept her view on both of their feet and leaned with Kohai's subtle cants, just like she had suggested. It did seem a bit smoother this way. "Shaky ship" and all that. "Who taught you, anyway?" she asked, relaxing her fingers just a bit for fear that she was straining the engineer's collarbone. "Or is this one of those things ya grill if you're more... normal?"

[member="Kohai Drenn"]

 

[Kohai Drenn]

Kohai bit back a creeping smile, bottom lip caught between her teeth in some vain effort to keep an instructor's composure. She wanted to tell her friend she was being ridiculous, that she was already making some progress. That she was anything but simple. In spite of that, there was nothing wrong with sticking to the basics. The engineer figured that everything else would click into place once they got the rhythm down.

Keep it simple...

A quick giggle spilled from her lips as her pilot dramatically flipped her hair back, the likely utilitarian action causing Corvetta to briefly look like some kind of diva as she almost got kohai in the face with those multicolored tresses. For a moment, her senses were assaulted by the familiar scent of engine grease, coupled with a telltale, almost electric smell she loved. The kind of scent that stuck to you when you spent a half your day massaging a hyperdrive back to fitness, and your very bones had adopted some of the charge. It was a a smell that reminded her of the ship as she saw it, a perfect collection of pieces that truly sang when they came together.

To Kohai, that smell meant home.

Keep it simple...

"Pshh... normal." Kohai rolled her eyes, her face twisting in mock disgust as if to emphasize how silly the word sounded. "I mostly just practiced a lot, you know? It's fun!" Her eyes took on a bit of a distant look, her voice dropping a bit in volume as she continued. "I mean... My mom actually taught me a lot, too." The smile was back, but just a bit of the enthusiasm was yet to return. "...She was good."

Keep it simple...

[member="Corvetta Salvo"]