The Visitor

3. Flirting Part 1

With a casual glance, Haĝiēn caught sight of Qûarzar making sure she was busied at her station. She sat on a chair similar to his made out of Rhodium. Although precious on Earth, it was an abundant metal on their planet. The table facing her was also built out of the silver-white, metallic material. Its surface was impeccably polished and could be used as a reflector.

Psychokinetically, he pressed the few keys needed for the ship's external light to illuminate and flicker from dim to intense for several long and short intervals of time. He grinned at the Earthling's reaction. 

To call less attention to what he was doing, instead of the usual hologram, Haĝiēn surveilled her through a sizable, smooth monitor thinly carved out of rock crystal quartz. It conducted energy as everything else in the ship and it was powered by starlight. 

He'd arrange it so he could view a close-up of her facial features and response. She narrowed her brows, scratched her head, and laughed astounded by the interaction. Her eyes rounded and her hands flew to her mouth to cover her open-mouth and expression of astonishment. Haĝiēn wasn't sure why she behaved in that manner, but it fascinated him. She fascinated him and he took it as a positive sign and accepting reaction on her part.

He flashed the lights a few more times and she waved back fearless and exposed her teeth. He wasn't certain it meant she was being friendly or if it was a sign of aggression.

"Do it again," she mouthed while gripping both hands in front of her chest. As if they were playing a game. A sort of dalliance distances apart. 

And, so he did it again.

However small the interaction, it filled him with pleasure to communicate with her no matter how minuscule it was. He observed the human bare her teeth again, in what he now understood to be a friendly gesture, and stare at the sky. For a while, she stood frozen, unblinking looking at their craft.

Grinning, she uttered, "Once more".

Qûarzar moved about the cabin towards him and grabbed Haĝiēn attention at the exact moment he was about to flicker the lights again.

"What are you doing?" She'd stopped what she'd been working on and stood facing him, all four of her arms crossed at her chest while massive bug-eyes looked at him in an accusatory manner.

Haĝiēn's bucketed surprised then stiffened at her words. "Why? Nothing. What do you mean?" The light of his body wavered.

I need to control this wavering, he deemed, realizing he hadn't considered his aura would deceive him. Before her, he'd never considered concealing his true emotions, now it was all he was acutely aware of.

He manually flipped a switch that dimmed the ship to be unseen by the naked human eye and casually turned to the monitor one last time. He observed the woman gaze beyond the stars in search of it. He watched her lift and peer through a long lens that hung from her neck and then bobbed her head about from left to right curiously. After bouncing her eyes from side to side, the Earthling lowered her head and gradually walked back towards her shelter.

It was unlikely he would see her again that evening, perhaps not until the following day. That fact dampened his mood considerably and he examined Qûarzar's posture with a hint of frustration.

"Now, before you shut down our luminescence. What did you do?" Qûarzar insisted.

"Uhm, I augmented and decreased our exterior lights a few times," Haĝiēn admitted.

"Why?" Disapproval was evident on her face and her voice.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I was adjusting the radiance of our ship."