A/N: Had this one saved up for aaaaages…. It's really long. Here, Chulu and Scones for prompt 24: Families
Against the odds
It had all been going so well. Scotty, Pavel and Hikaru were on an away mission, checking out an unmanned outpost. It would have been just Scotty and Pavel but the last time they did something like this, Pavel was severely injured in an explosion and spent three days in a coma. So naturally, Hikaru refused to let him out of his sight and certainly refused to let him go on an away mission without him. After convincing the Captain with 'they would be safer with someone trained in combat' and 'three is the recommended number for an away mission', Hikaru had beamed down with them. (Although, Kirk knew exactly why Hikaru wanted to go and saw no problem with it. He found their love quite adorable.) Pavel had been adoring as usual and Scotty loved his two best friends and their infatuation. So the three of them worked well together and were walking back to the rendezvous point, alongside a huge lake surrounded by cliffs when Pavel slipped on the shale and clattered over the edge with a scream of,
"HEEKARU!" Without a second thought, Hikaru dived over the edge of cliff after Pavel, leaving a distraught Scotty to howl helplessly after them. He crashed into the lake. The water was numbingly cold but the pilot struck out, reaching down for the gradually disappearing figure of his lover. Deeper and deeper he dived, until Pavel fell still on the lake bottom, eyes shut and Hikaru grabbed his pale wrist. It was relatively clear water but they were so far down Hikaru's ears were popping, water pressure crushing his skull. Kicking hard, the Asian dragged his Russian up, up but the surface was so far. Lungs bursting, strength dimming, he thought it was all over when a strong hand clutched his own and someone pulled them to safety. Everything went black.
When he came round, Hikaru found Scotty performing CPR on him, thumping his chest. He groaned and coughed up water.
"Laddie! Ah though' we'd los' ye!" Scotty sounded so relieved.
"'K-k-kar-ru..." stuttered Pavel, who was sat a couple of feet away, shaking uncontrollably.
"P-P-Pav-v..." The Scotsman guided them together until they were clinging to each other, drenched and ice-cold.
"Need a shel'er. Comms were los' in all commotion." He pulled out the emergency shelter from his bag pack (which also contained blankets, two torches and a box of protein bars) and began to set it up. It would forty eight hours before rescue teams were sent and Pavel and Hikaru were so very cold. As soon as it was set up, the two boys crawled inside, stripped off their sodden clothes and wrapped the blankets around themselves. Without a spare set of clothes, the best way for them to keep warm was just to hide in blankets. Scotty slid in, picked up the Russian-blanket-burrito-boy and sat him next to a small fire he had going before going back for the Japanese-blanket-burrito-boy. Resting his head on Hikaru's shoulder, Pavel moaned weakly; they were both still shivering. Scotty pulled them into a warm hug, holding them both tight. They watched the sun set and the fire die before they slipped into their shelter. With three fully-grown men in there, it was rather cramped but the pilot and the navigator welcomed the proximity and consequent heat.
Despite this, Scotty awoke in the middle of the night, both of his friends blue-lipped and shaking. They had been unlucky enough for it to be winter at that time and so temperatures were around minus six or seven. Now, the Scotsman was no medic, but he knew that having blue lips was not a good sign. He found all of the blankets, covered them in them and put his red over shirt on Pavel and his black undershirt on Hikaru, but to no avail. He considered building another fire but it was snowing and the shelter was too small which only worsened the situation. They were trapped, unable to communicate with the Enterprise and looking at at least another thirty six hours on a wintery planet with two hypothermic boys. The odds were not good. After another few hours, Pavel and Hikaru went silent, not even squeaking little whimpers anymore. When the engineer turned to look at them, he found them unconscious, draped over one and other, breathing slow. This scared him and he desperately took apart their phasers in an attempt to make a communicator of some kind. By the time he had, a good four or five hours later, the Russian and the Asian were comatose, on the verge of death.
"Scott t' En'erprise! C'm in En'erprise!"
"Kirk here. Scotty! Are you okay? You missed the rendezvous!"
"Ah know, ah know! Jus' look an' beam us up, would ye? Ahm no' sure how long th' nippers have lef'!"
"What do you mean, 'not sure how long they have left?'"
"Jus' beam us up! An' ge' McCoy t' transpor'er room!" He hung up and cradled Hikaru and Pavel.
"I's okay nae. We're goin' home." Golden lights flickered around them and they reappeared in the transporter room.
Bones skidded in and his jaw dropped. Sat on the platform, shirtless and shivering, was Scotty. In his arms lay the comatose figures of Pavel and Hikaru, wrapped in blankets, faces tinged blue but their lips were purple.
"Hypothermia. Transport all three to medical." Bones swept out, hurrying down as well.
Pavel dragged his eyes open slowly, looking around. The familiar features of the Enterprise's medical bay came into focus and he became aware that he was no longer freezing cold even if he was still far from a comfortable temperature. Giving a soft whimper, he tilted his head to see Scotty, sound asleep in a chair between him and the bed next him which contained a half-awake Hikaru Sulu.
"'Karu?" he squeaked, reaching out a gloved hand. It was then he realised that they were both dressed from head to toe in thermals as well as wrapped in a heavy duty blanket. The pilot's own gloved hand grasped his and he turned his head to fix navigator with a loving gaze from those dark, albeit bloodshot, eyes
"Pavel. Oh, my dear Pavel," he whispered as he slipped into the Russian's bed and wrapped him up in his arms. "I thought I was going to lose you."
"I vould newer leawe you, Heekaru. You should knov zhees," murmured the Russian.
"Of course I know; I was just scared."
"Do nyet be scared. Ve beat ze odds. Es ve alvays do." They shared a deep, gentle kiss with icy lips until they were broken apart by Scotty awakening.
"Yer both 'wake! Oh, laddies, Leo an' I were so worried. Dinnae ye ever do tha' again!" Pavel chuckled fragilely, nuzzling into Hikaru's neck.
"Leo?" asked the Asian with a note of teasing in his voice. "Since when was Doctor McCoy, 'Leo'?" The engineer went the same colour as his shirt and looked at his hands. Making heart hands at him around his gloves, the Russian laughed slightly,
"Montee eend Leo." And, of course, Bones took that exact moment to walk in, sending the pilot and the navigator into fits of weak giggles. The Scotsman looked embarrassed until the doctor pulled him into a kiss and the others clapped a little, still laughing quietly. When they broke apart, Bones checked the Russian's and his lover's vitals, sighing.
"Just escaped. Another hour or so and Monty and I would have been mourning, not laughing." The mood crashed and they all went quiet. Pavel sniffled and nuzzled into Hikaru's chest, who held him tight. "You've both developed pneumonia, from the hypothermia, so you won't be working for a while." As if on cue, Hikaru sneezed and shuddered. Looking at him with listless, cloudy eyes, the navigator whimpered,
"I feel awful. S-so cold. Eend seeck."
"I know, Pasha," muttered the pilot. "Me too." Scotty gently rubbed their necks as he always did to relax them.
"Ge' some sleep, angels. Leo an' ah'll fix ye up," he said. The Russian let his eyes flutter shut and his limbs go limp; he drifted into a light sleep in the Asian's arms, who fell asleep seconds later.
Pacing worriedly in his office, Bones looked at his lover.
"They'll be fine, Leo. Calm doown."
"We could still lose them, Monty. Pneumonia still kills." Taking his hands, Scotty said,
"My deares', ye go'a calm doown. This ain' helpin' nae one, nae i's i'?"
"No..." said Bones with a heavy sigh. "It's not. So now... Now we fix them."
"Like ye always do. These two will survive agains' th' odds. Ah have faith in ye." The doctor smiled gently.
"Against the odds it is then."