It didn't seem like it bothered him and he shook his head immediately. "I had already told some people I trust that I was seeing you. Never intended to hide the fact or deny it, but I didn't go around broadcasting it besides that either. I'm also confident plenty of people saw or heard us on Fontana." There was a degree of tension about him that seemed to be gradually dissipating the longer he was with her, that and the fact his eyes were glued to her face. It wasn't the sort of intensity that came with studious observation, it was admiration.
It was clear something was on his mind, and he didn't need to be prompted to speak up about it either. "Looking at you is like watching the ocean kiss the shoreline. You want to be there to feel it, but you also don't want to get in the way of what you're seeing. This mixture of anticipation and hesitation, before realizing you don't need to ripple your way in with a dive, just lay there and be swept away." There was no need for him to be deliberately poetic in an effort to impress her or win favors, and his sudden thoughtfulness seemed genuinely spontaneous. Conveying feelings was obviously quite difficult for somebody like him that didn't understand what they meant or have a frame of reference for context. He attempted to convey what he was feeling anyway, even if the meaning behind bolting that second seat in place was missed.
Mary huffed out a short amused sound at the idea that the whole station heard them. That time already felt so far away now, a distant memory. Funnily those times were a lot more simple even if it was more rough. She didn't care for the bureaucracy of leadership terribly much and it seemed like it was in her path soon enough.
She was going to ponder more on the thought of asking him how he handled it when she realized he had broken into a poetic session and she missed the first part. Awkwardly she watched and listened to its end. She didn't know how to respond to this sudden verbose wording. She stuttered out, "Well that's- it's uh-" She paused and stared at him a moment more. "So. Um. Wanna teach me t'fly?" It was awful, but it was the first response she could formulate. Her wince showed she understood the fopaux she just performed.
With a brief squeeze of her hand in a manner that seemed affectionate, he agreed. "Get back in your seat and I'll slave flight controls to you. Don't worry about visibility, you'll have gun camera feed to keep your bearings with." He took the time to give her a small bit of explanation as she maneuvered her way back into the secondary seat, which was surprisingly enough fitted with all the instruments and controls needed to fly. "If you make a mistake that puts us at risk, there's no need to panic. My inputs will override yours and I'll keep us from becoming wreckage. It'll be like I'm teaching you how to dance, if you trip up then I'll just catch you. Take a look at all your controls, I'll explain them to you one by one. First just get comfortable." Clearly this wasn't his first time teaching somebody, he'd likely pitched in as a flight instructor at some point during his time with the Alliance, his experience in the field being quite valuable in that regard.
