Fic: Give Her What She Wants, pre-Kara/Zak, PG for themes, pre-mini, no warnings

[lanalucy]

This is a companion piece to Nobody Special, something that grew out of kdbleu's prompt: Zak was using Kara to get through Basic Flight. It's sort of a prequel, from Zak's POV.

Many fervent thanks to newnumbertwo and laura_mayfair for their beta and friendship.

Zak spent his first week at the Academy scoping out his instructors, gearing up for the long con. He dismissed four of them out of hand: male, likely unsusceptible to his charms. Colonel Makepeace was female, but clearly hated teaching a class of first-years, and did not respond well to his overtures.

Thrace, though...she might work. He spent the next two weeks paying very close attention to Lieutenant Thrace, even going so far as to make up excuses to see her before or after class, and listening to every piece of gossip about her he could dig up.

She liked men. She drank like a fish. She never spent the night, never even frakked the same guy twice. She could beat anybody at Triad. Or Pyramid, for that matter. She flew like she was born with wings. That first one was most important, though: she liked men. Zak was a man. A man who knew he would never pass Basic Flight without a little something as insurance. He knew he wasn’t anywhere near the pilot Lee was. Hell, he didn’t even love flying. But he could fake it. He could fake a lot of things, and he could start with Kara Thrace.

He’d learned a long time ago that the best way to get what he wanted from women was to give them what they wanted, and to pay attention, because most of the time, they wouldn’t come out and tell him what that was.

When he “accidentally” ran into Kara at the bar, he talked flying and Vipers as if he loved them more than sex. When she caught him checking out her ass and preened at his frank appraisal, he gave her more compliments. When she challenged him to pool, he let her win, but not without a lot of touching. And when she was just drunk enough, he backed her into a wall and kissed the frak out of her. He stepped back, and knew by the glaze in her eyes it had been a while for her - not since she’d gotten laid, but since she’d been satisfied; she might frak a lot of guys, but she wasn’t getting what she wanted from them - probably why she never hit the same guy twice.

Zak knew he could have her screaming before the night was out, but he had to play it just right, had to let her think it was her idea to take a student to bed. Once she let him frak her, it was easy street. He wanted his ass in a Viper. As long as he kept that goal in mind, he could convince her of anything.