This chapter was also the last chapter of "In the Volcano". Basically I fell in love with the location I invented and wanted to do more with it! This section contains a light side helping of Chulu. :-)
1.
The kitchen is a large room, glimmering in shades of white and blue mosaic, with large windows over- looking the sea. At this time of day the sun shines in casting pale golden gleams across all the work tops. Kirk heads straight to the fridge while Spock finds the recorded message on the wall screen and plays it. Sulu's face appears on the screen.
"Captain Kirk, Commander Spock" Kirk looks up from the fridge – "I hope you enjoyed your first night here –" someone chuckles in the background – "Anyway I hope you're seeing this after that or I've just lost a bet." Kirk looks over at Spock and rolls his eyes – my crew – he mouths.
"There's food in the fridge and an automatic dispenser in the wall in case it turns out neither of you cooks – no offence. Other than that I guess there's nothing you can't work out for yourself – just please don't use the hoverpods to play bubble bumper cars – they're still recovering from last time –"
Kirk grins over at Spock he just looks bemused by this, hey he thinks bubble bumper cars! Spock shakes his head tolerantly. Chekov's face pops up on the screen –
"You started it! That wasn't me!"
"That is just not true"
"It wasn't only me!"
Sulu pushes Chekov gently but firmly out of view –
"Ignore him Captain, he's had too much English candy. Anyway we are truly pleased to see you back Captain."
The little head pops up again like a meerkat -
"Wery wery pleased!" it whoops.
" – and we look forward to seeing you back with us in a few weeks' time. Very much enjoy the break. I can't think of anyone who's earned it more. Sulu out."
"Chekov also out!"
"You were never in!" – is the last thing they hear from Sulu, muttering as he switches off. Kirk shakes his head, grinning –
"My crew" he says aloud, before turning back to the fridge – "Spock they left champagne and strawberries! Why do I feel like I'm being set up?"
"I do not know what you mean Captain" says Spock, already efficiently flipping pancakes, much to Kirk's delight – "Suggest you find condiments if you require pancakes at this time".
"I mean- " says Kirk, rifling through the cupboards – "That this feels like a honeymoon prepared by my crew and me the only one not to know."
"Is this disagreeable to you Captain?"
Kirk frowns –
"Frighteningly not so. Also Spock I think it's quite seriously Jim no don't you?"
"Jim – please sit down, pancakes are occurring imminently."
Kirk sits cross legged on the floor on front of the Japanese table, fork in hand –
"Can you never just say something's nearly ready?"
"I believe I just did. Your plate please."
Kirk holds it aloft –
"Please sir, I want some more" he quips.
"Charles Dickens – "Oliver Twist"" says Spock – "Yet irrelevant in this context as you have not yet –"
"Oh my god Spock –" Kirk groans, then smiles – "I'm gonna have to live with this forever aren't I?"
Spock suppresses the genuine nervousness that threatens to slip into his face and voice –
"Tell me this is not disagreeable to you?" he asks and Kirk gives him that smile that answers him better than words and he knows that is better than fine. He joins Kirk on the floor, watching him squeeze his way effortlessly into cracking open a jam jar –
"I'm never gonna have to struggle with lids again am I?" he beams, jamming, sugaring and taking down a good quarter of a pancake in one bite – "Oh my god – food!"
"I would find it unlikely Captain –" says Spock, ignoring this last, except internally where he views it with extreme fondness – "Also you have jam on your chin."
Kirk grins with a smile that spreads first to his eyes and then seems to infuse him utterly, knowing that this is Vulcan for Spock finding him adorable.
"Sugar?" he offers, watching Spock methodically quarter a lemon and squeeze it onto a pancake with never before seen elegance.
"No thank you"
"Are you sure? It's delicious"
"Jim you are well aware of the effects of sucrose upon my species."
"Sooo….sugar?"
"Not at this hour pekatov"
"Pekatov? That Russian?"
"Vulcan. It means you are –" Spock blushes a little – "Adorable. There appears to be a message on the side of that bottle" he adds quickly, indicating the champagne.
"Oh yeah – it says –" Kirk pauses to watch Spock consume a pancake in a rare and fascinatingly logical manner – "It says "Take us up to the roof. Trust me" – cryptic, you think we should?
"As this note on the strawberries reads "Eat me" therefore clearly referencing Lewis Carroll , I am very much not sure that we should. However I suspect that we will do nevertheless."
"Why Mr. Spock are you actually suggesting we be led by the illogical spirit of adventure?"
"I am suggesting that it would be preferable to watching to see if your digestive functions extend to the consumption of more than five pancakes in quick succession, yes Captain."
"I love you Spock."
"If you are capable of movement suggest you handle the alcoholic beverage" says Spock, taking hold of the strawberries and rising with more than a vague glint in his eye."
"Oh trust me –" Kirk beams, blissfully – "I'm on it."
The roof
From the first floor they find a secret staircase leading up to the roof. Walking out onto it feels a little like walking into a tropical paradise. To call it a roof garden would be a terrible understatement. Kirk blinks in the sunlight, eyes widening at the beauty and the sparkle – with the shimmer of the sea beyond. Spock does not smile, because he generally does not, but Kirk can see his eyes grow warmer and larger and his shoulders relax in a gesture that would be a smile from anyone else.
They wander out across the roof – though it would be easy to forget it even was a roof – the sense are so assaulted by colour and scent, the array of flowers something only Sulu could have created – tropical lilies and vines entwining around roses, daisies and crawling flowers, bindweed and clematis weaving around palm trees. Kirk stumbles upon the Jacuzzi almost by accident, ingeniously surrounded by plants and palms, yet still open to the sky so that somehow nothing has fallen into the water. He almost squeaks with happiness and looks instantly around for Spock. Not seeing him, he puts the bottle down beside the pool and is then alarmed to hear an odd choked noise –
"Spock?" he heads towards the noise and finds Spock looking down at a yellow rose bush, frozen in the act of stroking a petal as he visibly forces an emotion down hard.
"Spock – you okay?" Kirk frowns, putting a gentle hand on his arm. Spock turns at the touch and Kirk can feel him shaking the feeling off like an uncomfortable garment. He drops his hand, gently tracing the edge of the flower as he does so. For a moment Kirk thinks he will not say anything about it, then –
"My mother grew flowers like these –" he says, falteringly – "I used to think it was a trivial concern – I would tell myself to wonder why she did it but really I just knew that I liked it. I think perhaps I was not supposed to, that beauty without reason was illogical – consequently unnecessary. But now I know – that beauty is its own reason – my mother, she must have known this and known too that it was something I had to find out for myself."
"How did you?" Kirk asks – "Find out?"
Spock turns to look at him and this time he smiles, really smiles –
"Jim –" he says it like a prayer – "K'hat' n'd lawa – you are all the answers I ever sought." He takes Kirk's hand in his, that feeling of coming home.
"Do you think she would have liked me? – at all?" Spock's smile goes all the way to his eyes –
"You are illogical, impulsive and emotional" he says – "She would have loved you."
"I wish we could have met"
"As do I."
"But at least you can introduce me to your dad."
"That is illogical Jim, as you have already met."
"Spock I was choking over a console, trying to make you mad and suffering the most uncomfortable erection of my life – hardly at my best –"
Spock scowls a little –
"Neither was I."
"Spock come – I gotta show you something."
Spock squints at him, slightly suspiciously –
"Usually when you say that we end up engaging in coitus."
"I have no problems with that scenario, c'mon." He leads Spock by the hand, bounding like an excited child –
"We have a Jacuzzi!" he beams.
"Fascinating. What is it for?"
Kirk pauses in the act of taking his clothes off –
"Seriously Spock? It's just like – a bath – with bubbles – and it's awesome! Don't tell me you never encountered one before!"
"I have not. It seems a highly illogical human contraption."
Kirk jumps in and turns the bubbles on, stretching and wiggling as he settles into the water. Spock looks at him like he has gone mad and looks at the Jacuzzi like it might bite him.
"Spooock –" Kirk breathes, leaning back and groaning softly from a warm happy place – "Get in here with me – is goooood!"
"I am not sure –"
"Just do the thing Spock"
Spock gets undressed, observing that the combination of bubbles and hot water certainly does seem to produce a near orgasmic response from Kirk. Nevertheless he tests the water with an extremely tentative toe –
"It is not logical –" he begins, getting no further before Kirk cuts in –
"Dude get in already, stop being a pussy!"
"A curious expression Captain, though doubtless the aversion to unnecessary water is comparable to a feline reaction –"
"Spock!"
"Yes Captain"
"Get in and shut up, that's an order!"
Spock slides in quickly and gracefully, masking his awkwardness well, sitting still in the water for a while whilst Kirk's eyes glitter with merriment at his bemused expression. Spock shifts.
"Well?"
"It is – extremely pleasant" he admits, grudgingly – "Do I take it this is a traditional Terran honeymoon activity?"
"Yup, and a good one – also with champagne - you want?"
"I am not sure that is –"
"Shut up, you're having."
"I do not believe I like –"
"Yeah yeah, you said that about the bubbles and now you're wiggling like a happy seal on a rock."
"I refute that statement."
"You are so"
"I am not."
"Are so!"
"Jim, have you regressed back to childhood?"
"Mebbe – cheers!" he waves the champagne bottle aloft, not having any glasses – "Next you'll be telling me you don't like strawberries."
"On the contrary – strawberries are, as I believe you would say –" he uses the word testingly – "Awesome."
Kirk giggles.
"Say awesome again!"
"No."
"Aww please!"
"Awesome" Spock intones, deadpan. Kirk cracks up, wriggling in the water like a bug on a stick. Spock eats a strawberry and pretends to ignore him.
"Spock you nibble like a hamster."
"This amuses you?"
"It's really cute."
"Jim I'm a Vulcan, we are not "cute""
"Pfft. You are."
"Jim if you continue to insult me I will not save you a single strawberry."
"Ouch, Mr Spock, you wound me with your words! Give!"
Later, when the fighting's done they will make love among the bubbles, each aware of how beautiful the other is, no more so than here in this strange Eden – like playground. But for now they wrestle for strawberries, Spock eventually feeding half of them to Kirk himself, in defiance of all logic.
It is not, he reasons, only beauty that occurs just for the sake of occurring.
_x_
