Chapter 3

"Happy Birthday Hikaru." Chekov grinned ear to ear as he presented Sulu with his present.

Chekov shoved a box into Sulu's hand, a toothy smile present on his face. The box was neatly wrapped and had a bow on it. Sulu admired the craftsmanship that went into simply wrapping up what ever was inside.

"Thank you Pavel." Sulu said finding it hard to find the words to really express what he was feeling. "I don't know what to say."

"Open it." Chekov replaced his smile for a look of curiosity. Sulu supposed that the root of Chekov's curiosity originated from his worry over whether or not he would like the present; and Chekov had gone to town on it.

Sulu took off the bow from the top of the box before sliding his finger nail under a fold of paper and tearing it neatly from side to side. "You must have an artist's hands to wrap this." Sulu commented. He could see that Chekov was on edge since the young Russian was fidgeting constantly, his dark eyes focused on the floor.

Sulu got threw the last of the wrapping and opened the box. He was astonished to see that it wasn't just any plant Chekov had gotten him for his birthday; it was a Myan Bolbec plant, one of the most rarest and beautiful of flowers that was believed to hold the cure for many viruses. Sulu was over whelmed by the present, and he couldn't help but wonder where Chekov had located and sourced the plant from. Not only that, but it proved that Chekov listened to him when at times he could have sworn that the young Russian had switched off and gone onto automatic pilot.

"Chekov ... how?" His eyes going from the plant to Chekov, his face showing shock, surpise and delight all in one expression.

"How is also part of the present." Chekov told him, the word 'how' sounding and feeling foreign to him. He had practiced for hours just to make the word sound convincing. Sulu looked shocked at his pronunciation of the word at first, then a smile spread across his face.

"Is saying 'how' with a 'w' also another addition to the present?" Sulu asked.

"I remembered that conwersation about my accent." Chekov replied nervous. "And i thought that i vould try to say a vord vithout the accent."

Sulu placed the plant down on his desk and walked and gave Chekov a hug. Chekov felt awkward at first but relaxed into it. "Thank you Pavel." Sulu repeated again. "It's perfect, everything is just perfect." Sulu pulled away before asking; "I'm going to get something to eat. Do you want to join me?"

"Sure. Vhy not." Chekov shrugged his shoulders, all the nervous tension that was there before gone. "Sulu?"

"Yeah." Sulu replied as they walked out of his quarters.

"Did you knov that the Myan Bolbec plant originates from Russia?"

A/N: I used the a plant called Myan Bolbec in one of my previous stories but i thought that because i had gone to all the trouble to come up with one name, I decided that I might as well use it again to save time that could be spent on writing more stories. That and I'm extremely lazy! I can't be bothered to go get my dad's world atlas out again; its heavy!

LOL!