<div align="center"><strong>-= Lex Rake, aboard The Gamble =-</strong></div><br/>Sasha was, unsurprisingly, all business. It was one of the things that Lex found fascinating about her. She had this seemingly impenetrable shell that she scrupulously maintained at all times. What was she like beneath it all? It was that element of the unknown and somehow forbidden that was... intoxicating.<br/><br/><strong>"Lex, whatever...little things you feel like sharing, you know they are always appreciated. However, I don't know if you noticed, but it's even more pungent in here than usual. I've got a cleaning crew arriving any minute to wash this stink out; with Hayes holed up in engineering, Dani's the only one staying behind to oversee the cleaning. You mind keeping her company, Lex?"</strong><br/><br/>She laid a hand lightly on his arm and he had to resist the urge to bring her hand up to his mouth and kiss it.<br/><br/>"Not at all, Miss Dearing, not at all." He smiled and stepped back to the rear of the cargo area to await the arrival of the cleaning crew.<br/><br/>In truth, a little down time was just what he needed right now. After all that time spent on Persephone, he was glad to be off of its soil, even if that meant only a few feet of decking between him and it. He could do with a few more supplies before they took off, but he could also wait a bit before acquiring them. They weren't leaving until tomorrow morning, after all, so he had plenty of time.<br/><br/>He glanced over as their medic came back aboard the ship and quickly retreated to her sanctuary. He couldn't blame her. It couldn't have been easy stepping off the ship like she did. He didn't know her history, but he knew it was sad. If she ever chose to open up to him, he'd be there to listen and to help if he could, but he wasn't going to force her - she'd only resent that. Still, it looked like they were going to have some brief time together while the cleaning crew did their job. He wondered idly if she would utilize that opportunity or not.<br/><br/>Lost in his thoughts, he at first didn't see the man leading the truck up into the cargo bay. When he did, though, he inhaled sharply. That brought with it a whiff of what they were here to clean up and he coughed. The man looked and Lex couldn't help but notice at how his gaze lingered. Lex smiled back at the hunk, able to turn even such an awkwardly embarrassing moment into a flirt, even though his heart wasn't truly in it. If the man had the credits, he was available, but otherwise he wasn't looking for any hookups right now. He was tired... But eye-candy was always eye-candy.<br/><br/>Dani began climbing the steps to one of the platforms and gestured that was where she would be even as she told him as much.<strong>"I'll be up here if you need me, Lex."</strong>He nodded lightly to her as she made her way before moving himself over to the muscled dockworker that was even now helping the little Asian uncoil hoses from the back of the truck.<br/><br/>"We'll be up there, supervising. But I guess you don't need me to tell you that I'll be keeping<em>my</em>eyes on<em>you</em>." He winked and left it at that, turning away to climb the stairs himself. Flirting was second nature to him; he wasn't entirely sure he could stop himself even if he tried.<br/><br/>"Rick," called out the man. "My name's Rick." He had a hopeful gleam in his eye that was totally transparent to Lex.<br/><br/>"Well, good for you, Rick."<br/><br/>"Maybe... um..." Mr. Chow noticed his hired hand was moving a little slow and whacked him one to show him that they still had business to attend to here.<br/><br/>"Maybe."<br/><br/>With one last wiggle of his own ass, Lex was up the stairs and standing next to Dani on the platform. He leaned over the railing, one of his long arms snaking up the support strut, striking yet another unconsciously sexy pose.<br/><br/>"What do you think?" he asked the medic. "They look up to the task to you?" He wanted to keep the conversation light - little more than just a "get to know you" chat than anything else. Of all the crew - aside from the new guy, of course - Dani was the one that he knew the least.