Chulu

#01 – Comfort

Though he'll insist otherwise, every now and then Pavel misses his home; Hikaru is always there with half-burnt recreations of his favorite Russian dishes.

#02 – Kiss

The first time they kiss, Hikaru freaks out, convinced he's stolen the younger man's innocence, so Pavel shuts him up the best way he can think of: kissing him again.

#03 – Soft

Though Hikaru is usually comfortable sleeping in whatever boxers he'd worn that day, Pavel insists on sleeping in one of several pairs of silk pajamas the genius owns.

#04 – Pain

For a guy who loves the adrenaline of fighting, Hikaru has a very low pain tolerance—at least when Pavel's around; Jim would never dream of suggesting otherwise to his navigator.

#05 – Potatoes

Every now and again when all is quiet on the Enterprise, Pavel will leave a potato somewhere where Hikaru will definitely find it first; when he stops being surprised, the potatoes gain purple stripes.

#06 – Rain

It must be a common trait shared among super-geniuses, Hikaru decides, because when they get caught in the rain during an away mission, both Pavel and Commander Spock look like wet cats.

#07 – Chocolate

Pavel and Hikaru only tried food play once; both quickly collapsed in a fit of laughter.

#08 – Happiness

After long battles with depression and self-doubt, sitting on the bridge of the Enterprise one day while holding Hikaru's hand beneath their shared console, Pavel decides that happiness can really be that simple.

#09 – Telephone

Hikaru still finds little pieces of the antique telephone Pavel and Kirk rebuilt on the floor of the quarters one day.

#10 – Ears

Cuddling after sex, Hikaru likes to run his fingers through the blonde curls and along the younger man's ears as he sleeps.

#11 – Name

Only Hikaru and Nyota can call him Pasha—the latter only when the two are conversing in his native tongue.

#12 – Sensual

Pavel likes to draw things out and explore the new sensations he can give to Hikaru.

#13 – Death

When Hikaru dies only three and a half months after his husband, the funeral isn't nearly as morbid; their friends and family instead choose to view it as the reunion of the two lovers.

#14 – Sex

It isn't that the word is taboo, it's just that Pavel enjoys coming up with new phrases to describe their nighttime (and occasionally daytime, and shore-leave, and that-one-time-over-lunch-in-storage-room-44c-that-the-Captain-may-have-walked-in-on-that-we-never-speak-of) activities.

#15 – Touch

The first time Hikaru began to think that he was more than a little attracted to his best friend was when he sat at his station just watching the Navigator's fingers glide across the screens at his station.

#16 – Weakness

Hikaru has been sworn to secrecy regarding Pavel's one true weakness: chocolate milk.

#17 – Tears

The quartermaster must be catching on to the real reason they put in so many requests for the replacement of torn uniform shirts if the funny looks are anything to go by.

#18 – Speed

Watching his boyfriend bounce ideas back and forth with Commander Spock and the Captain is like watching a rocket-powered tennis match—even when they're just discussing the latest scientific publications over lunch.

#19 – Wind

Watching Pasha grumble on the beach about the wind messing up his hair is one of the funniest things Hikaru has ever seen.

#20 – Freedom

Friday nights are reserved for bad 20th century action flicks like Independence Day; Pavel likes pointing out to Hikaru the physical impossibilities much to the other man's delight.

#21 – Life

Pavel likes to watch Hikaru tend to his plants in the botany labs; he treats them like his children, Pavel off-handedly notes one day, and though he gets defensive, Hikaru never denies it.

#22 – Jealousy

Alien woman flock to his friend on nearly every planet they beam down to, usually due to his age; Hikaru has to try not to blush as Pavel teases him about being jealous.

#23 – Hands

Hikaru refuses to play poker alone with Pavel; the genius can count cards more easily than breathing—though when confronted he'll vehemently deny it.

#24 – Taste

Both men are explorers by nature, so on shore leave they make sure to plan so that they can sample as much of the local cuisine as possible.

#25 – Devotion

Though he understands that it's tradition, Jim wonders why he bothers asking both if they want to marry the other—looking at the both of them, it's clear that they both are going to say yes.

#26 – Forever

When Hikaru returns from an extended mission, Pavel is always racing to meet him when he beams back on board the Enterprise.

#27 – Blood

Though Pavel has never been entirely comfortable around blood, it never physically affected him; the sheer amount on Hikaru's uniform shirt is enough to make him lightheaded.

#28 – Sickness

Hikaru thinks that it must be a testament to how much he loves the younger man when he spends four days listening to Pavel whimper, whine, and gripe; when Hikaru catches it from Pavel he stops feeling so guilty—his boyfriend is just as bad.

#29 – Melody

Though Pavel claims to have no affinity for music, when Hikaru tells him his favorite band he hums their most popular songs almost nonstop for the following month and taps his fingers in a manner that almost suggests that he's following the tune on a piano.

#30 – Star

Hikaru once admitted that he'd wanted to be a movie star like Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan; every now and again, when Hikaru does a particularly flamboyant martial arts move, Pavel will call him sensei Chan afterward.

#31 – Home

For Pavel, home had always been Russia, so he couldn't help but pause when he'd told Hikaru that it was time to go home at the end of shore leave.

#32 – Confusion

Hikaru's eyebrows drew closer together, it was the third time since shore leave began that they'd been mistaken as a couple—couldn't two friends just dress up and split a meal at a five star restaurant together?

#33 – Fear

"Hold me, Hikaru?"

#34 - Lightning/Thunder

Hikaru his face light up where Pavel had it pushed against their window each time lightning struck.

#35 – Bonds

"I can't imagine being bonded to someone like the Captain and Commander; we'll be bachelors forever, right Pasha?"

#36 – Market

On their first day of shore leave in Russia, Pavel drags Hikaru through the biggest market in St. Petersburg collecting ingredients his mother asked them to bring with them when they arrived.

#37 – Technology

When Pavel remarks about the lack of technology on the planet they've been granted shore leave, Hikaru reminds him that fire and the wheel were once technology too.

#38 – Gift

Pavel takes great care in picking out Hikaru's Christmas gift each year; Hikaru says it isn't a competition, but then again, he does always win.

#39 – Smile

When the transporter technician beams a battered Pavel back on board, Hikaru's heart stops beating for a moment until the smaller man's eyes open and he smiles weakly at him.

#40 – Innocence

When he first meets Pavel's older family as the Pavel's best friend, Hikaru gets interrogated by the angry Russians for the next hour about the two's relationship and his intentions.

#41 – Completion

After working non-stop for nearly a week with Hikaru on upgrading his padd systems, Pavel lets out a whoop and collapses onto the mound of blankets and pillows on Hikaru's bed.

#42 – Clouds

While staring at the clouds, Pasha occasionally strays into Russian; Hikaru doesn't mind—he likes listening to his partner speak in his native language, but the Asian man's silence cues him in to the slip.

#43 – Sky

Pavel quietly admits that he never even thought that he'd get to see the stars up close.

#44 – Heaven

After waking up in sickbay after an especially bad mission to see a fretting Pasha watching over him, Hikaru can't resist using the cheesy line of asking Pavel if he is an angel.

#45 – Hell

Both Pavel and Hikaru could swear like sailors if they were provoked enough, but being raised by a devoutly Christian family, the one word Pavel refused to say was "hell".

#46 – Sun

"I do not like the sun, it blocks out all of the other stars from the sky—wery wain, no?"

#47 – Moon

Hikaru didn't understand why Pavel religiously tracked the phases of the moon; the first time Hikaru spent the night with him he got his answer: Pavel would project the image of the night sky on his ceiling and pick out constellations until he fell asleep.

#48 – Waves

On the days when Pavel is assigned engineering duties and the duo won't get to see each other, one would find an excuse to cross paths with his friend, if only to wave as he passed.

#49 – Hair

During a prank-off initiated by the Captain as stress relief between missions Hikaru dyed Pasha's hair blue, incurring the wrath of one angry Russian and initiating the couple's longest dry spell to date.

#50 – Supernova

Knowing well of his boyfriend's obsession with the phenomenon, Hikaru enlisted the Captain's assistance to write a program for the younger man's lunar projector to simulate the astral explosions.