AN: This fandom needs more Sulu/Chekov. So I decided I was going to out my trekker side, and write this. Yay for me.
Disclaimer: Everything you recognise belongs to Roddenberry. Or... Well, yeah.
Warnings: Character death, Slash
Never Really
--
He's not really entirely sure when he first falls for Pavel Chekov. He knows the exact moment he realized it, yes, but he supposes he just wants to know when his brain decided to take a vacation. And, for that matter, why it hasn't come back yet.
He guesses it might have been when Pavel saved his life. ('And Kirk's.' he reminds himself too late.) After all, who wouldn't love someone that saved them from crashing into a planet at a speed that would most certainly have made them make an extremely unpleasant sound? Something like a mix between a splat and a crunch, he muses, before telling himself that normal beings didn't think about what sound they would have made if they had died. But then, he's never really been normal.
For a moment, he thinks it might have been when the youngest ensign in Starfleet ever drank the entire Bridge Crew under the table. (And considering that McCoy and Scotty were there as well…) It had surprised him later, after the hangover and headache were gone, that a seventeen-year-old could consume close to his weight in alcohol and not pass out immediately. Most normal seventeen-year-olds barely get past one or two glasses before going down. But then, Pavel Chekov's never really been that normal.
--
It's not until he's ten minutes into his fencing practice that he realizes he's probably trying to distract himself from something. Of course, he's not really sure what that something is. He has this nagging feeling it has something to do with, well, something, he guesses, and he's a tad bit disappointed in his brain, but he supposes it needs all the rest it can get. He ponders this until Chekov bounds in, requesting fencing lessons, and it's not until he's said yes that he realizes that probably wasn't a very good idea. But then, Hikaru Sulu never really was for good ideas.
Then he's on the bridge, doing his job, the only reason he's on this ship. The captain is asking for volunteers for an away team, as communications with the planet are jumbled, due to a magnetic field around the planet. (Or something like that. He was too busy trying not the look at Pavel when Kirk explained everything.) He sits, trying to pretend he knows what's going on, until he sees Pavel's hand in the air, and he's practically gaping. Surely Spock, surely Kirk, surely even Chekov realizes that sending down the youngest and the brightest is not a very good idea. But then, the navigator never really has been for good ideas.
--
He's sitting in his quarters, wondering when the away team is going to get the hell back here, when he gets the transmission. It's short, and tells him exactly what to do, though McCoy telling him to get his ass down to sickbay is not exactly informing. So when he shows up to sickbay, he's not really sure what to expect. So naturally, a bloodied and beaten Pavel is not high up on his list. And is he really to blame when he runs like hell out of there when the Russian is taken into surgery? Most people would stick around, wait for their best friend to wake up. But then, Hikaru never really was like most people.
He tells himself it's not his fault, that he's not a doctor; that he couldn't have done anything. He tells himself this, but he never really believes it. But he goes on repeating his mantra as he sprints to sickbay, races to his best friend's side. And for a second, when he sees Pavel, he's fairly certain he's the most beautiful thing ever. And then he sees the IV, he sees the oxygen mask, he sees the life support. And he blanks, because when most people go into a surgery to fix a broken leg, they don't end up dying. But then, Pavel really never has been like most people.
--
Hikaru Sulu is many things, that's a certainty.
He is not normal.
He is not very fond of good ideas.
He is not like most people.
But he'll be damned if he's going to let that stop him.