He tried not to smirk when she caught on that he was teasing her about her attire, and from her tone of voice and the way she took a few steps around her, Kirk almost wondered if he'd taken it a step too far and she was now finished with the conversation. But then she answered his question, and he couldn't help it - he burst out laughing.
Yeah, perhaps he was in a fairy tale.
"Okay, brace yourself," he teased. "Because it's definitely not 1811 where I'm from. Probably closer to..." he did quick math to work out the stardate difference. "2258? 2259? Somewhere in there." He paused, frowning. "Not that this is exactly common attire where I'm from, but..." he bit his tongue before saying, 'we've moved beyond the fancy dress that you seem to prefer' because he was conscious of the fact that he already had a black strike to his name with her, and he kind of liked her, and didn't want to drive her away just yet.
He licked his lips, wondering how much he wanted to share of what he'd worked out already, and then made a decision. "From what I can tell, we've both been pulled here against our will by something. I've only really got two questions - how and why - and I'm trying to see what's similar about me and you that would lead to answering the why part of it. The how will come eventually, when I've poked around enough, but the why is more interesting anyway."
He wondered if that made even the slightest bit of sense. And belatedly realized how crazy he probably sounded right now. He smiled in vague amusement.