Chapter 4

There's an old joke about Asian tourists and cameras. Well, that joke had nothing on the folks at the Cosplay breakfast. Nearly every second somebody would be demanding that Kelly or Sandy pose for a picture, even after Sandy had repeatedly explained that she wasn't wearing a costume. Apparently her look was generic enough that multiple fandoms recognized their characters in her appearance.

"Is it always like this?" Sandy asked Kelly after being photographed mid-bite of her pancakes.

"No, sometimes it gets really crazy with the pictures." Kelly smiled back. They had been placed into a booth along with several other convention attendees.

Sandy acknowledged the joke with a twist of her lips, and was about to return to her trademarked breakfast combo when she suddenly felt a hand on her knee. For an instant, she felt the urge to tell whatever guy had pulled the stunt to take a flying leap, when it registered on her that the person sitting next to her was Kelly. The contact was soft, a gentle rubbing which showed obvious intent.

"Uh ... you want to uhm ... move that hand?" Sandy asked, trying to draw Kelly's attention, who was apparently trying to take a one handed picture of a girl in a gothic costume of some kind.

"Sure..." Kelly grinned, before sliding her hand up to rest on the upper portion of Sandy's thigh.

"That's not ... what I meant." Sandy dropped her fork and used the now free hand to push away Kelly's. Kelly took the contact as a cue, however, and spun her hand so that she could squeeze Sandy's fondly.

"Oh, I know. But I like playing..." Kelly grinned, whipping her camera around to take a quick shot of Sandy's once again red features.

"Look, Kelly, I'm ... I'm flattered really, but I don't think..." Sandy started, once again trying to find a diplomatic way out of the situation.

"Shh ... enjoy it. Or make me work for it. Either way is fun." Kelly punctuated her final word with a broad wink.

"I'm not trying to make ... I don't want to lead you on here." Sandy tried a different tactic. Maybe if she was totally clear, Kelly would back off.

"Oh, don't worry; I'm not going to show up at your house uninvited." Kelly laughed. "I'm not a stalker or anything creepy. Just know that I'm here to have fun. And I want to have fun with you. And quick! Say cheese!"

The camera went off again, and Sandy smiled at the playful way that Kelly had changed the subject. Even the touch on the shoulder afterwords didn't seem as aggressive. Perhaps she had finally gotten through to her after all.

For the rest of the meal, Sandy found herself beginning to enjoy the attention. It was general, not specific to her, after all, with costumes the focus, and the photos thereof the main event. She lost track of the number of times she was asked to hold a camera, a pose, or both whilst some girl showed off a particular item. She actually seemed to be pretty popular with regards to being the "Straight man" for numerous anime girls, who alternated glomping, with the angry girl stare, and finished it off with gratuitous "V's" of the fingers.

The breakfast with the costumed characters finally began to break up as the time for the opening of the convention approached. From experience, Sandy knew that it was best to wait a few minutes before trying to get into the registration line. Especially the line for those that had already bought their passes. It almost always cleared out rapidly, but the jostling and maneuvering required for those first few minutes was not something she wanted to deal with, especially restrained as she was.

It was however, a welcome relief when Kelly finally scurried off to one of her cosplay events. Sandy managed to avoid coming along by claiming that she was going to be involved in a classic 2nd edition game on another floor, but did not manage to avoid the quick kiss on the cheek "For Luck", or the promise that she would be meeting Kelly for lunch afterwords.

On her own for the first time in many hours, Sandy took the time to reflect on how this had ended up. For the most part, she had been exactly what she had planned to be, a random face in the crowd. The attention of Kelly was an anomaly, somebody who didn't react in the typical manner to pretty much anyone.

Sandy wasn't even sure how she felt about Kelly. The attention was sweet, and she knew from last night that Kelly wasn't the type to tease a guy she found attractive. She was mercurial, sexual, and not shy whatsoever about going after what she wanted. The fact that Sandy had attracted her attention was indeed flattering, but also a bit frightening. She was almost certain that the only way to really get her to back off would be to reveal her deception, and then of course, Kelly would move on to some other guy who she found attractive.

"And of course that will prove that I can't solve my own problems." Sandy thought a bit angrily. No, she wouldn't tell Kelly she was a girl as a quick way of getting out of her problems. She had intended to experience things as a guy, and apparently this was just one of those things guys did have to deal with. Immediately rushing back to her privilege of being a woman in order to avoid a minor problem was cheating at least and outright cowardice at worst.

With her mind fully made up, she focused on why she was here in the first place: to enjoy the convention. Her first stop was of course going to be the dealer's hall. After a quick glance at the events, and seeing nothing that she immediately wanted to do, she headed towards the large double doors which led to the convention center's main hall.

Inside Sandy marveled at the length and breadth of every permutation of gaming. She spent a few hours wandering up and down the labyrinth of booths, each one with some game or concept to try. It was easy to lose herself in the minutia of gaming, and for a little while she was really achieving her purpose. It was nice to have people talking about the games for a change instead of the fact she was a woman.

Of course she filled her swag bag with free stuff. Dice, sample cards, even a few free issues of comic books found their way into the small blue backpack she had brought with her. One thing that Sandy had learned about conventions was that if you didn't bring a bag, there was no way in hell you'd be able to carry everything you wanted.

Eventually, Sandy made her way back to the food court, to find a broadly smiling Kelly sitting at a table, a half-eaten meal in front of her. She was grinning in a way that told Sandy she'd been having fun. In fact, Sandy strongly suspected that she had been doing something other than just playing in costume.

"You're late." Kelly cheerily greeted Sandy with a wave.

"Just was having some fun and I lost track of time." Sandy apologized, taking a seat opposite Kelly. "Have you seen Nathan anywhere?"

"Nope. So anyway, I ran into a guy I knew online at the costume contest, and ... well, you know." Kelly grinned at the last part.

"Well, uhm ... glad you had fun." Sandy remarked, feeling the blood starting to flow to her face again. This woman was insatiable.

"Eh, it was ok. He was a big talker, but..." Kelly held up her hand with her thumb and forefinger about an inch apart.

"Too much Info." Sandy raised her hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Oh come on, you know you love it." Kelly smirked.

"Not ... not really. I think I need to tell you something." Sandy said, deciding that it was time to really come clean about her intentions.

"You're a virgin." Kelly laughed. "I knew that. It's totally obvious that you don't know the first thing about flirting."

"No, it's not that." Sandy objected, not wanting to explain that she'd had sex before, just never in the manner that Kelly expected. "I'm not ... I'm not into you."

"You're cute when you lie, Sam." Kelly chuckled, leaning forward and planting her elbow on the table. She rested her cheek on her hand and blew a kiss at Sandy.

"I'm NOT lying."

"Yes, you are. You don't push me away, you send out all the signals that say, 'I totally want to take you to a room and fuck your brains out', and you are totally trying to deny it." Kelly smiled again, her expression becoming positively predatory.

"But you've been ... you already have ... two guys, right?" Sandy objected.

"One and a half, really. With a raincoat it only counts as half. And the day's still young." Kelly winked again.

"I didn't... "Sandy was at a loss as to what to say. She didn't want to be cruel. The immediate thoughts that ran through her head to reject Kelly were some of the most vicious insults she could think of. She knew she could call her a "town bike" or a "whore" or numerous other epithets. All of which weren't nice, and would result in a stressful two remaining nights till she flew back.

"Just relax, and stop worrying so much about what to do." Kelly assured Sandy. "I just want to let you know, that my answer, is yes."

"I'm ... I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. That's the point." Kelly grinned. She dropped her hand under the table and leaned forward. Sandy wasn't quite sure what she had in mind, until she suddenly felt the pressure of Kelly's hand sliding up the inside of her thigh.

"Woah. Ok, Kelly, look you're really nice..." Sandy pushed back in her chair, away from the questing hand. The last thing that she needed was Kelly copping a feel of a non-existent member.

"Ticklish?" Kelly straightened up again, both hands once again fully visible. "Good to know."

"Are you always this ... aggressive?" Sandy asked, trying to think of the best way to put it.

"Only when there's something I want." Kelly answered, her catlike smile returning.

"So ... what are you doing after lunch?" Sandy abruptly changed the subject, yanking the only paper copy she had been able to find of the con's schedule out of her bag.

"Well, I haven't had a chance to hit the dealer's hall yet, but there's this really fun panel on character design I was thinking of going to." Kelly played along, her smile stating quite plainly that she wasn't really thinking about the convention with her full mind. "Aaand that should take me to the end of the day. Then you and I are going dancing."

"What about Nathan? You want him to come along?" Sandy asked. If Kelly could be distracted by somebody else, perhaps...

"Not really. You can tell a lot about how somebody dances from the way ... and vice versa." The unspoken words were completely plain.

"Do you have anything else to talk about?" Sandy groaned.

"Sure. I can talk about games, playing games, how cool somebody's costume looks, how cool I look, what I do for a living, and every other topic of small talk, but why waste time when what I really want to do is have a good time." Kelly rattled off the list as if by rote. "I get one good vacation a year, this is it, and I like being free to enjoy myself."

"Don't you ... is this just a game?" Sandy asked, trying to make sense of what Kelly was saying to her.

"Some people collect experience points; I collect experiences." Kelly said in a very rehearsed manner.

"So, you don't really want me, just..." Sandy began, once again looking for the way out.

"Oh no, I totally want you now. You're completely playing hard to get, which means I'm going to have to be even sexier to get you before some other gal does. You know you had every gal in the Cosplay breakfast's eyes on you." Kelly leaned her chin on her palm again.

Sandy glanced around the small food court, but nobody seemed to be paying attention to her that she could see.

"Bullshit." She rejected the idea completely. "I look just like anybody else."

"Except you don't stink, have decent fashion sense, at least have the courtesy to shave, and don't stare down my cleavage." Kelly accentuated the last part by pulling her arms back so that the décolletage of her costume was much more prominent. "Face it, babe, you're a rare con gamer."

And there was the problem, Sandy realized. In order to look masculine, she had been forced to adopt a clean and well-polished look. She reflected back over the last few hours, and realized that she had indeed been the subject of numerous nonverbal flirts. She hadn't really thought about them, because she had been concentrating on blending in and being normal. Instead, she had essentially traded one group of admirers for another.

"So, why don't..." Sandy was about to ask, but then cut herself off. "Never mind." Women didn't generally pursue. They had been waiting for Sandy to make the first move, and she had no interest in doing so. It was only Kelly, with her aggressive and somewhat intimidating stance who had come right out and said it. Of all the room-mates Sandy could have gotten, this was rather like winning the lottery in hell.

"Because they're waiting for YOU." Kelly explained, to the question that Sandy had already answered for herself. "Course, every gal here is fending off enough guys that they just expect you to go for it. The con's kinda like mating season to half of these guys. Only chance they'll get to get laid."

"So why do you..." Sandy began the obvious question.

"Because it scares away the macho jerks, amazingly. And occasionally you find a really cute guy who's shy and you get to play seductress..." Kelly adopted one of the widest grins at the last part.

"And your online friend?" Sandy inquired.

"He was ... ok. Nothing really special. Wanted me in costume, so I wore this one early." Kelly gestured to her black outfit.