This came to me whilst considering my own insurance earlier, which has just gone down (yay!). I was aiming for a drabble, but it kinda took over, so it's two-and-a-half instead. I don't have a beta-reader for Trek (and I'm far too impatient to wait for someone to beta a flash-fic before I post it), so let me know if you see any mistakes and I'll correct them.

Disclaimer: Really? Would I be writing fan-fic if I owned them? No, I would be doing unspeakable things to Zachary Quinto instead ;-)

Pavel's Problem

Kirk's heart sank as Chekov bounded onto the bridge on his off-shift, smiling his sweetest smile.

"Please, sair..."

"No, Chekov," Kirk said, cutting off the question with a sigh. He knew what was coming.

Chekov's face fell and Kirk felt like he had just kicked a puppy.

"But vhy, sair?"

"Because you're not old enough."

"But I haff passed my test," Chekov argued. "I had only one minor fault: that is better than Sulu."

"Hey!" Sulu protested, shooting a look at his friend. "He doesn't need to know that."

"You left the EID on at Spacedock," Chekov said pointedly.

"Anyone could make that mistake," Sulu said, flushing furiously at being reminded of the schoolboy error on his very first mission.

"Look, Pavel, if it was up to me, I'd let you," Kirk interrupted them, "but Starfleet can't afford it. Do you have any idea how much it costs to insure a seventeen-year-old human male to drive a starship?"

"No, sair."

"Why don't you look it up?" Kirk suggested.

There was a few minutes of silence whilst Chekov checked comparethemarket at one of the spare science stations.

"Oh. That is... quite a lot."

"Exactly," Kirk said. "Now, wait until you're twenty-one, like everyone else."

"That is vhat efferyone says," Chekov grumbled to himself. "Vait until you are older, Pavel. You are too young. One off these days I vill be old enough, and then…"

Kirk got the feeling that Chekov was getting heartily sick of being the youngest, for some reason.

Okay, if you're not British, you probably don't get the comparethemarket (dot) com reference - it's a price-comparison website that has a commercial starring a Russian meerkat. I suggest looking up 'Compare the Meerkat' on YouTube.