Title: Simple Pleasures

Author: stubadingdong

Series: ENT

Summary: The title is rather self-explanatory. Almost everyone appears in this one. Yay!

Rating: PG-13, I suppose

Disclaimer: Standard ones apply…I have no money, blah blah blah.

Notes: Spoilers for Shuttle Pod One



Chapter One

Malcolm Reed strode into the mess hall with the purpose of a hungry bear. He'd been in the armory all day and had unintentionally skipped lunch. Trying to get the phase canons online seemed to be an ongoing project. Every time he'd get them stabilized, they'd go offline again. Malcolm began to think perhaps they were sentient and doing it on purpose to spite him.

He headed for the buffet, found some scraps that his fellow crewmen had been kind enough to leave him and looked around for familiar eating companions. He spotted Ensigns Mayweather and Sato against the far wall of the mess. Malcolm approached with a smile.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked with his distinct British voice. He hadn't noticed them intently watching the table in the corner.

Hoshi glanced up and him and smiled broadly. "Hey Malcolm! Please, sit!" She gestured to the empty seat next to her. Travis flashed his senior officer a bright smile in greeting, and returned his attention to the corner table. Malcolm sat down between them and dug ravenously into his meal.

"What exactly are we scrutinizing, Ensigns?" Malcolm asked between bites, noticing the attention of the two ensigns was not at the table he was at. His gaze followed theirs to find Commander Tucker and Sub-Commander T'Pol at the point of interest. His fork stopped halfway to his mouth.

"I think it started out innocent enough," Hoshi whispered conspiratorially. "But now…I can't believe they're doing this in public!"

"Yeah," Travis sighed. "I don't think they realize they've got an audience. It's like they're the only ones in here."

"I don't believe it," Malcolm mused. He watched on as Trip Tucker carefully unscrewed a chocolate sandwich cookie and handed half to the Vulcan science officer. There was a large glass of milk between them. Trip carefully removed the white creamy filling with his tongue as T'Pol looked on, mimicking him.

"How long have they been at it?" he asked.

"Not too long," shrugged Hoshi. "Maybe ten minutes before you walked in."

They all watched in rapt silence as Trip's eyes glazed over, studying his protégé's efforts with the cookie. He lightly grasped her wrist and led her cookie to the glass of milk. They could not hear the words, but it was obvious the Vulcan protested the idea of consuming an animal product. They did, however, hear Trip's exaggerated sigh and saw him roll his eyes.

"Here we go," Travis muttered, fascinated. He always enjoyed listening to the arguments between Commander Tucker and Sub-Commander T'Pol. They fed off each other's patience and temper, fueling whatever disagreement they needed to survive. Travis was quite convinced of this. It was the perfect symbiotic relationship.

"Hosh, what are they saying?" Travis whispered desperately. Her keen hearing should allow her to hear the good stuff.

Hoshi listened for a moment, then shook her head. "I'm not sure. They're talking awfully low. All I caught was something about narcissistic cannibalism and pent up frustrations." She shrugged. "I'm not sure what either one has to do with the other or this entire situation for that matter, but you know those two…"

"They just need something to argue about," grumbled Malcolm. "They're not happy unless they're fighting." He glared at the table in the corner.

"Well *I* think it's kind of fun to watch," Hoshi smiled. She elbowed Malcolm good-naturedly and turned her attention back to the mismatched pair in the corner.

"Yes, well, Trip's a good actor," Malcolm replied, finishing his meal. "They both are." He pushed his plate aside and slumped in his chair.

Travis and Hoshi both looked at him with shocked expressions. "Please, Lieutenant, go on…" prodded Travis.

"Yes, do tell what leads you to this conclusion," Hoshi grinned.

Realizing his mistake, Malcolm sighed with resignation. "Alright, but you must swear this goes no further, understood?"

Travis and Hoshi nodded enthusiastically and waited. They were like two eager children gathered around the school teacher at story time. I'm not really betraying any confidences except my own Malcolm justified to himself.

"Alright," he began, "when Commander Tucker and I were on that shuttle pod, things got a bit…revealing. Mostly for me, since I thought we were dead anyway. We got pissed from a bottle of bourbon. Gods only know why, but I brought up T'Pol." Malcolm rested his elbows on the table and massaged his temples. He couldn't believe he was admitting this to them.

"Please keep in mind we were…not sober. I asked Mr. Tucker if he thought T'Pol had a nice bum," Malcolm continued, completely embarrassed now. The two ensigns were listening intently, leaning forward and grinning. He glanced at the other table and felt his stomach knot with jealousy.

"He did an excellent job of not answering that question, going on about how she was just a Vulcan and pretending to be disgusted with my observation. I bought it then because I was drunk. But now…" His voice trailed off, leaving Hoshi and Travis to prod him along.

"We did drink to T'Pol's arse, mind you. I just thought he was humoring me," Malcolm finished with a shrug. He looked out the window at the passing stars.

"Maybe he was, at the time," Hoshi offered quietly. Malcolm's gaze drifted back to her, questioning with his eyes. "Maybe you planted the seed for him. He'd probably never thought of T'Pol in *that* way until you said it. I'm sure it was innocent enough, Malcolm." She reached over and patted his hand.

They all turned their attention back to the corner just in time to witness Trip sucking on his index finger, a smoldering gaze locked with T'Pol's. He had switched from licking the creamy center with his tongue to scraping it off with his finger. T'Pol, trying to keep with her Vulcanness did not emulate this action. She appeared, however, to be leaning towards him, whether she was conscious of it or not they couldn't tell.

"I can't believe he's seducing her with a bloody Oreo!!" Malcolm hissed. Travis and Hoshi whipped their heads around and glared at the tactical officer.

"You're sounding more and more jealous, Malcolm," Travis noted. He tried to hide a smile. The young ensign's attention was now torn between the cookie seduction and the envious man sitting next to him. Travis quirked an eyebrow at Malcolm.

"Don't be silly, Travis," he tried to brush it off. Trip was dunking the cookie in the glass of milk, letting it soak up the liquid. The engineer's gaze never wavered from T'Pol's. This time, to the astonishment of Trip and the three voyeurs, she took Trip's hand and allowed his cookie to touch her lips. Trip's jaw fell open as he slowly pushed the chocolate treat into her mouth. His finger tips brushed her bottom lip. A visible shiver raced up his spine.

"Did you see that??" Travis exclaimed quietly. He softly clapped his hands and watched as the chief engineer grabbed a napkin and casually swept it into his lap. "Hahaaaaa!" he laughed, folding an arm around Hoshi's shoulders. She laughed with him, though covered his mouth with her hand to muffle his voice.

It was too late. Trip's head snapped up and looked over at their table. T'Pol glanced over as well and quickly diverted her eyes. She pushed back from the table, a greenish blush creeping into her cheeks and ears. She was suddenly absorbed in the stars outside.

"Guess the show's over," murmured Travis.

"Indeed," Malcolm spat, glaring at Trip. He rose from the table and stormed out of the mess hall. He did not look back to see Trip bang his forehead gently on the table.



~ ~ End Chapter One