After half an hour, the warehouse bar had been completely packed and they had to occasionally rotate people to an outside area for safety reasons. Being the magnanimous man that I was, both I and the people that had come with me, took a turn outside as well. That made everyone like me more, especially the people that worked there. They had been surprised that I wasn't taking advantage of their generosity and drinking a ton of drinks, and the patrons were surprised that I was actually socializing with them and not ignoring them like they knew most famous people did.
I danced with Grace a few times, with Tessa once, then with Hanna twice. Sheph, a high member in the government, had managed to get me alone and monopolized me for three dances in a row. The best part was that I danced to fast songs like I would have if I had gone to a bar back on Earth, with about two feet between me and the person I was dancing with. It was just novel enough for everyone to see it as me trying to start a new trend and not the oddity that it actually was. It caught on fairly quickly, and soon the whole dance floor was doing the same thing as me.
I had just managed to sit down to relax when a random woman gathered up the courage and approached me to ask if I wanted to dance, so I looked at Grace.
“I don't own you.” Grace laughed and waved me away.
The woman squealed in delight as she took my hand and brought me out to the dance floor. We were quickly surrounded by other people and the beat of the music picked up.
“You should let your hair down!” The woman said loudly.
“It'll hit the floor and people might step on it.” I said.
“Oh, goddess! I really wanna see that!”
I laughed and shook my head. “Would you settle for my eyes instead?”
“Wh-what?!?” The woman stopped dancing and stared at me. “What did you say?”
I slipped off my blast shield and she let out another shriek of delight, then a few of the women around us let out similar squeals.
“Dance with me next!” One of them said and waved.
I nodded and waved back. The song ended and the other woman came right over to me and was seriously fighting her urge to hug me. The music started again and it was a soft and slow melody. The woman's face filled with redness as she blushed.
“May I have this dance?” I asked and gave her a slight bow.
The woman nodded several times and I stepped close and put my arms around her. She put her arms around me and held on tightly as we just stood there and swayed back and forth, with an occasional step to the right and then to the left. The song seemed to go on for a while and when it ended, she reluctantly let me go.
“Thank you.” I said and bowed to her again and then I turned to a woman that stood slightly off to the side. I could hear her thoughts as if she was speaking in a normal voice, so I walked around a couple of people and over to her. Both her eyes and her mouth grew wide in disbelief as I approached her. She wasn't a telepath; but, her thoughts were very clear and concise. She wanted to dance with me very badly and would never, ever, ask me. So, I didn't say a word and just held a hand out to her.
She very slowly reached out and tenderly placed her fingertips on my palm. I gave her a very slight touch of Presence and closed my hand to hold onto her fingers, then pulled her onto the dance floor. The music started up and it was another slow one, so I held one hand and put my other hand around her back. She was fairly tall, a few inches shorter than my six feet, so it wasn't awkward at all as I slowly waltzed with her. The music slowed down again, so I let her hand go and put my other arm around her. Her hands reached around me and dug into my hair, rather than hug me.
The sheer amount of pleasure she felt doing that as she rested her head on my shoulder, and the strength of her thoughts about it, made me want to untie my hair and let her play with it. I almost did it, then remembered we were on a dance floor with a bunch of other people. If I unleashed my hair now, it would cause too much of a commotion and I doubted that either I, or my hair, would come out of the encounter unscathed. The song ended and she reluctantly took her hands out of my hair and stared into my eyes.
“I think I'm going to sit down for a little while.” I said and she sighed, then she started to turn away. “Would you like to join me for a drink?”
She caught her breath and froze. Her thoughts couldn't believe I had asked her that.
“I have a date, as you know; but, my hair is a little messed up for some reason and I have to redo the ties.” I said teasingly and she blushed. “Do you want to give me a hand fixing it?”
“Yes.” She said out loud and the resounding 'YES!' in her thoughts was very loud. I chuckled and led her over to the roped off section set aside for me and after a bit of jostling with putting two tables together, both Tessa and Grace helped the woman undo the ties in my hair. I told them what order to do them in and then my very long hair, centuries of growth, was spread out across both tables in a long snaking pattern. The three women stared at the mass of it and I held out several hair brushes.
The woman I brought over from the dance floor took a brush like it was a holy object and sat at the far side of the tables and started to brush my hair. If you asked her, or listened to her thoughts, there wasn't anything else that was as important as what she was doing at that moment. Grace took a brush and joined the woman in brushing it.
Tessa took a brush and looked at her date. “I gotta do this!”
Jaset laughed and waved at my hair. “Even I'm tempted to do it, so go ahead.”
Tessa gave him a kiss and sat next to Grace and started to brush. Of course, once a few women nearby saw what was going on, they took out their own hair brushes and asked if they could help.
“I don't see why not.” I said. “There's lots to go around.”
I should have kept my mouth shut, because after a minute, a dozen women were brushing my hair and were cooing and stroking it like a pet. A couple of others had forsaken their brushes and just buried their hands and faces into it. I held in my laugh at their reactions because I didn't expect that there would be so many women that had a hair fetish nearby. Even Sheph had come back from the dance floor and joined in. She used a hair brush, despite wanting to play with it with her hands.
I reached over and touched her hand to stop the brush. “I don't mind.”
Sheph gave me a look that said volumes, then she put the brush down and dug her hands into the mass of hair as if she was kneading bread. “By the goddess, this is amazing!” She said and considered not going further, then she saw three other women had their faces buried in it, then gave in to the temptation and lifted the hair to her face and took in a deep breath through her nose.
I sincerely thought the interest in my hair would wane after a while, and yet, the women seemed to move around and were constantly replaced by others. Except for one. The woman with the clear thoughts stayed right where she was and enjoyed herself like she had never enjoyed herself at any other time in her life. I thought it was a little odd that she would think that. After half an hour of listening to her pleasure, I asked one of the waitresses to ask her to move up along the tables to sit beside me.
The woman was surprised to hear my request, so instead of making her way along the train of women as they moved, she stood up and came right over to me and sat down beside me.
“You really like my hair that much?” I asked.
“It's alive.” She said and her hand reached for the back of my head and she dug her fingers into my hair at the base of my skull. “I've never seen or felt anything like it before.”
I glanced at the other women at the tables as they brushed and played with my hair. “Is it really that special?”
She smiled and leaned in close. “You don't know how rare it is to have a man with this much hair around.” She said. “Men usually get frustrated with taking care of it and shear it off at the first opportunity. Most men keep their hair short, and the ones that let it grow, cut it after it gets past their shoulders.”
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“It's not that rare, is it?” I asked, a little surprised that the Presence hadn't wavered as she spoke. I thought back to some of the men that had been in The Order, specifically the two men helping Kara, and to my surprise their hair was tied in a ponytail and if let loose, it would be just past their shoulders and go no further.
“It's very rare.” She said and continued to comb my hair with her fingers while she looked at me with wonder. “You don't slick it back, either. It's billowing out, even on the sides and on top of your head. You're not restraining your hair and pulling it tight to your head like other people do. You're only restricting its movement and letting it flow naturally.”
“Most people don't notice the difference.” I said, and she smiled. “You're a hair aficionado.”
“I love all types, colors and forms.” She said. “I've never seen anything like yours. Ever.”
“That's why you were so nervous at first?” I asked.
“How did you know I wanted to dance with you?” She asked.
“I read your mind.” I said and she laughed, because she didn't believe me. “You were staring at me pretty hard, so I figured you couldn't gather the courage to ask on your own.”
She nodded. “Thank you for this.”
“You're welcome.” I said and glanced at all of the women that didn't look like they were going to let me have my hair back anytime soon. “I think it created a problem I didn't expect to have, though.”
She laughed and gripped my hair with her hand for a moment, then she let it go. “I'll handle it.” She said and stood. “Ladies!” She practically yelled and all of the women stopped doing what they were doing and looked at her. “This hair needs our help!” She said and pointed. “It needs a solid brushing and then it needs to be tied up! We can't let this treasure touch the floor when Hunter starts dancing again!”
“No, it can't!” “That would be a tragedy!” “We'll do our best!” The women exclaimed.
In only a few minutes, the entire length was brushed out straight and then it was folded in half and secured, folded again and secured, then folded one last time to create the cape-like shape it had before.
“Okay, that was impressive.” I said and stood up. “Would you like the next dance?”
She shook her head. “I'd just dig into it and mess it up for you again.” She smiled. “You let me have my fun and I'm very grateful for it.”
I nodded and took her into a hug, to her surprise. I let her go and held a hand out to Grace, who had been on her third turn brushing my hair. She took my hand without hesitation and I led her to the dance floor. Drinks were served and songs played, people danced and talked, and a good time was had by all... especially the bar. My estimation of my value to the bar was both right and wrong. They technically did make more money than they had all week, only it was more money than what they had made all month.
Word had spread, not just from the staff and the bartender calling people; but, the people themselves had told their friends, and the friends of their friends, who also told their friends. By the time the night was breaking into dawn, there were just as many people partying outside as there were inside the large warehouse. Everyone was quite happy until an announcement was made.
“I can't believe I'm saying this.” The bartender's voice said over the loudspeakers and we could all hear his regret. “We have to close down.”
A loud groan came from the crowd, both inside and outside, and he laughed.
“I know! I know!” The bartender's voice said. “The band is exhausted after playing all night and we are almost completely out of drinks! We can't keep going, even though we want to!”
A lot of people laughed and there were shouts to keep going anyway.
“We all had a great time, didn't we?” The bartender's voice asked and a resounding chorus of 'yes' and 'we sure did' responded. “It's all thanks to Hunter! The Hero of Chofaris!”
A loud cheer and hoots and hollers greeted his words.
“You had fun with him here! He had fun here, too!” The bartender said loudly and another cheer and shouts of wanting more fun reverberated from the walls, which made him laugh. “He just told me that he has to get back to work to clear the alien garbage that's been floating around in our space! Make way! Let him through and give him your thanks!”
I hadn't told him that, which meant that he knew a bit more than the average person. The people shouted encouragement to me and they made a path for me and the people with me. As we passed through the crowd and out of the building, people waved, shouted, and pat our backs. A few women reached out to offer me their underthings, if I wanted to take them. One even had hers off already and waved them at me.
I chuckled at the sight and held Grace's hand up to show that I had a woman with me already. We made it to the vice president's large transport without any kind of incident happening, to everyone's relief. We had all been drinking, which meant no one was safe to drive, so we all squeezed into the vehicle to head back to the mansion. I wasn't sure how she managed it; but, Sheph sat right beside me and Grace was on my other side.
“Now that's what a meet and greet should be like!” Hanna, the young woman married to a politician said from the seat across from me. “That was so much FUN!”
“It really was.” Sheph said and looked at me. “Thank you for letting me come along.”
I nodded and she sat back with a contented sigh. A few people did the same thing and finally relaxed after partying all night, then immediately fell asleep. Some of them snored and a few others laughed. It was a surprisingly long drive to get back to the mansion, then I realized we hadn't gone there and the hover vehicle stopped at a fancy building.
“Oh! This is me!” Hanna said and the door opened. “Hunter, give me a hand!”
I chuckled and took her hand and pulled her out of the tight confines of the crowded seat. She giggled as she stumbled and I caught her as she sat on my lap. Her laugh stopped and she looked into my eyes.
“I'm married.” Hanna said as her face flushed red. “I can't kiss you.”
“You're also a little drunk.” I chuckled again and placed a kiss on her cheek, made sure that the edge of my lips touched the edge of hers, then I gave her a touch of Presence to clear up her mind a little to make sure that she wouldn't be so hung over later. “It was nice meeting you, Hanna.”
The driver's hand reached in to help her and she took the hand and stepped out.
“It was nice meeting you, too.” Hanna said and stopped her hand from touching the spot where the edges of our lips had met. I could hear her thoughts and knew she was going to rush into the house and pretty much ravage her husband because of it. I gave her a wink and the door closed, then we were off to the next stop. Each person was woken up if necessary and I shook the men's hands as they were dropped off and gave the women kisses on their cheeks and hugs if they wanted.
The last to be dropped off were Tessa and Jaset, and she only shook my hand and didn't even try to hug me. That make me laugh and Jaset looked at Tessa in confusion as they left the vehicle. He knew we were closer than a handshake deserved, especially after so many search and rescue operations, and Tessa whacked his arm to stop his stare.
“She's nervous that you'll think she's trying to make you jealous.” I said and a look of understanding passed over Jaset's face.
“Thanks a lot, Hunter.” Tessa said, slightly angry.
“I just kissed eight women's cheeks that I've only known for a few hours.” I said with a grin. “I'm pretty sure I'd have to kiss you on the lips and probably grab your ass before he starts to get jealous.”
Jaset barked a laugh and Tessa shook her head.
“It was nice seeing you again.” I said and gave her a wave. “You too, Jaset.”
“It was fun.” Jaset said. “Even with all the women pawing at your hair.”
I laughed and the driver shut the door. Only Sheph and Grace were left with me in the back and the driver took us to the mansion. The three of us stepped out when the door to the vehicle opened again and Sheph turned to me.
“What kind of goodbye do I deserve?” Sheph asked, her face slightly red.
I stepped close and gave her a tender hug. She hugged me back, slightly surprised. When I leaned back, I gave her cheek a kiss, then I kissed her other cheek, too. She took a breath and let it out, nodded slightly, then turned and walked towards the mansion and went inside. I turned to Grace and took her hand to give her some Presence to clear her head, then we walked around the mansion to get to the large landing pad there. The fast patrol ship looked to be in the middle of its flight preparations.
“Oh, damn.” Grace mumbled and walked faster. “I am in so much trouble.”
“You won't be once what happened gets on the news.” I said and she glanced at me. “There was at least three thousand people there when we left.”
“Wh-what?” Grace stumbled on the ramp and I caught her before she fell. “H-how m-many?”
“At least three thousand, if not more.” I said. “I noticed that the rotating groups going outside started to get bigger and began counting.” I chuckled. “I gave up counting a few hours ago.”
“By the goddess.” Grace whispered as we entered the ship. “So many...”
“I'm thinking it's going to be the biggest social gathering in a long time.” I smiled. “I'm surprised, actually. Who would have thought that so many people wanted to be in the same building with me?”
Grace couldn't help but laugh at that. “I think once they knew you weren't going to treat them like dirt, everyone eagerly wanted to meet you.” She said and closed the ramp. “I need to get to the cockpit.”
“Dressed like that?” I asked and motioned to the little black dress.
“This is why I'll be in trouble.” Grace said with a smile and walked towards the front of the ship. “Who shows up at work looking like this?”
I followed her until I reached the passenger compartment and sat down on one of the available seats and strapped in. I heard the captain of the ship and a few other people react to her outfit, heard her get a slight scolding for it, then waited for the checks to finish. Their next patrol shift was about to start and no one had time to do anything except their jobs. I felt someone looking at me and waved at the camera pickup, then gave them a thumbs up to show that I was strapped in and good to go.
The ship lifted off ten seconds later and we rose up into the air. The pilot flew us in a circular pattern to get us up through the atmosphere with a gentle ride, then they poured on the power when we were in space. They couldn't fly me out to my ship without doing their patrol first, so I got to ride along as they made a sweep of the inner system and the floating scrapyard of wrecks that used to be the old fleet. They curved out to scan along the perimeter of their assigned space and queried all of the satellites and mobile platforms to add them back into their sensor net.
The other fast patrol ship greeted them and left the area to end their shift and headed back to the station. Once they were gone, the ship I was on began following their circular route and moved towards the floating alien wrecks to drop me off.