Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek. Weezer owns the song "Only in Dreams". I own nothing.
A/N: I am updating this, because a few typos and deviations from characterization were brought to my attention. Big thanks to redflowercactus and AtanaM for drawing my attention to these. Hope you enjoy, please read and review.
After Uhura finished her song, she stepped back into the line of backup singers, and another woman took their shot at glory. Spock felt his interest in the concert rapidly dwindle.
"Shall we play?" he asked his companion, as the waitress cleared away his empty tray of nachos. Spock was already pulling out the chess set, and expanding the joints to the tri-level board before his companion even answered.
Soon, the board had been constructed, the pieces placed in their proper positions, and the game underway. He found chess engrossing enough that he did not notice the music, except for when his finely tuned ears could pick up the faint sound of Uhura's voice as she sang in harmony with the other backup singers. At these moments, he would steal a look towards the stage, see her move her body in the swaying, synchronized motions of the other singers. But, it was the look on her face that intrigued him. Now that she was out of the spotlight, her features relaxed into a smile that made Spock think she was enjoying something that he could not see, or touch, or hear. Her eyes shone with the innocent excitement of blissful contentment. It was the same look she wore when she thought she was alone in the Xenolinguistics lab, her hands gracefully flying over her PADD as she translated obscure messages from the stars.
It occurred to Spock then that Cadet Uhura took great pleasure from singing, not because of the attention it brought her but for her own personal contentment. As humans would say, it made her happy. She liked to sing.
He had previously been unaware that she enjoyed anything as much as linguistics, and he was fascinated by the happiness she gleaned from the activity, as illogical as happiness was.
"Spock!" Lt. Commander Roth rapt sharply on the tabletop pulling Spock from his thoughts. "Working out some kind of complex algorithm?" he asked.
"Yes," Spock replied, knowing Roth was not serious in his question. His embarrassing lapse of attention was soon made moot, as Spock managed to put his companion into checkmate with his next move. He cautiously stole another look towards the stage while Roth cursed in frustration. But Uhura was no longer there; instead she was determinedly walking towards the table where he sat and, just as determinedly, not looking at him. Spock wondered at her intentions since it would be uncouth for her to approach two ranking officers so boldly, especially since she knew only one of them. At the last moment, however, she veered to the left heading towards the bar. As she passed directly behind Roth, she flicked her eyes onto Spock's own for half a second without slowing or stopping her pace.
"Excuse me," Spock told his companion rather abruptly as he stood. It was illogical, but somehow he just knew that Uhura had meant for him to follow her.
He appreciated her discretion. As he had been witness to at the pub in Oxford last March, other young women her age were not as creative when it came to luring men to them. Spock then blushed, only a slight tinge of green rose to the tips of his pointed ears, but his whole body heated with the thought of Cadet Uhura attempting to seduce him. Which was utterly ridiculous and totally illogical; the Cadet was not trying to seduce him. Yet memories of that night in Oxford came unbidden to his mind.
"Ur-hura," Cadet Sh' Bes slurred in a childish voice as she stumbled towards Uhura and Spock by the fireplace. She dragged a slovenly looking local boy behind her by the wrist. Their conversation interrupted, Uhura turned in her chair to watch her teammate approach.
When Sh' Bes finally noticed Spock, she made a futile attempt at snapping to attention, "Oh, hi, Commander."
"As you were, Cadet."
"Thanks," she said and turned towards Uhura. Slumping over the leather armrest, she asked in what she doubtlessly thought was a quiet whisper, "Do you have a hair tie I can borrow?" This was followed by a fit of giggles.
Observing the other girls short haircut, Uhura started to ask "Why-" when Sh'Bes made an exaggerated wink.
"Sure, fine," Uhura sighed with some hidden meaning that Spock was utterly clueless about as she handed over the elastic that was on her wrist. The cadet had freed her hair from the ponytail she wore it in a little over an hour ago; the process of shaking and pulling her hair out of its usual shape had quite intrigued Spock. "But not too long, ok?" She called over her shoulder as a tipsy cadet made her way up to Uhura and hers shared hotel room, the boy in tow.
There was quiet between Spock and Uhura for a moment.
Finally, Spock voiced his musings. "Why would Cadet Sh'Bes require your elastic hair device when her hair is not of an adequate length to warrant it?"
"Oh," Uhura stirred, pulling her head closer into her shoulders. An action that caused her hair to cover her face and shield her from the heat of the fire and his gaze.
"Is the fire too warm for your comfort, Cadet?" he asked, thinking it was physical discomfort causing her odd behavior.
"No, no," she responded and blushed deeper in a way that let even socially inept Spock know that she was mortified that he had noticed her discomfort. "The hair tie…sometimes if a young woman wants to have a …personal…friend at their room and if they share that room with another person then it is considered …polite…to hang a hair tie outside of the door to let their roommate know."
Spock hoped his impassive face did not show his discomfort, as he gathered the truth from Uhura's own fidgeting as much as her vague words. It was not as though human sexual habits discomfited him usually; indeed, Vulcan mating practices were far more disconcerting. It was Nyota speaking about them to him that he found awkward. He chalked this up to this not being a proper course of discussion between a professor and student.
Nyota turned to stare out the window at the misty Oxford street. Spock continued to ponder the " hair tie situation."
"Nyota," he finally spoke aloud. She turned to look at him, eyes heavy with tiredness. "Has the increasingly obsolete nature of the doorknob affected the logistics of the hair tie communiqué between young women in anyway?"
Cadet Uhura burst into loud laughter, much to Spock's befuddlement.
Nyota was leaning over the bar, speaking to the bartender when he approached her.
"Jack on the rocks," he heard her order. The bartender turned to fill a small crystal glass with ice over which he poured quite a lot of amber colored alcohol.
The bartender was staring at Spock, who was standing upright next to the bar facing Uhura.
"Water," he ordered without looking at the menu.
The bartender continued to stare. "Really?"
Spock just cocked his head confused at why the bartender would think he was lying.
"Really." Uhura answered for him. The bartender disappointedly poured Spock a glass of ice water, and slid it across the bar towards him.
A moment of silence passed between them as the bartender moved on to other patrons, allowing the music to reach their ears.
"You can't resist her, she's in your bones…" someone sang to a slow, steady beat. Uhura looked at him expectedly, but Spock, not knowing what to say, did the Vulcan thing and remained silent.
" I wasn't expecting you to come tonight, Commander," she finally said.
"There was a change of plans," Spock replied. The pair fell into silence once again.
"You can't avoid her, she's in the air…in between molecules of oxygen and carbon dioxide…"
"I did not know that you played an instrument, Cadet," he stated. "I found your solo on the harp to be proficiently executed."
Uhura raised an eyebrow, mirroring his favorite mode of expression. "Thanks."
Spock nodded. More silence ensued. Uhura seemed to be expecting something of him, though he did not know what and he found that this made conversation difficult.
"I play the Vulcan lyre," he spoke suddenly.
Uhura's face lit up in surprise. "Oh," she exclaimed, "I have a few recordings of songs on the Vulcan lyre and I've always been fascinated by it though I've never even seen one."
" I have mine in my quarters; since you have expressed an interest, I will show it to you sometime."
"Do you want to show me now?" Uhura asked, her voice dropping an octave as she stepped closer to him, invading his personal space. He did not step away; he did not want to. She raised her eyes to his and he maintained the contact.
"Yes," he replied. Uhura nodded slightly and moved past him towards the exit. Spock turned to follow her into the September night.
Once out of the bar, shrouded in the safety of the dark campus, their conversation flowed easily, the way it did when they were in his office. As the aid for his Advanced Phonology course, she brought warmth to the room with her lively, humorous banter. Spock even found her silent presence, as she diligently completed the tasks assigned to her, comforting rather than awkward. He was also finding the class's grades were improving slightly, as the students, during the laboratory sections, were far more willing to approach Uhura for help than himself.
She has quickly made herself an indispensable asset to me, Spock thought as he strummed the last notes of a traditional Vulcan song on the lyre. They were sitting on the couch in his apartment. Nyota had pulled her knees up onto the seat as she sat facing him; her black kitten heels lay abandoned on the floor. Her watchful brown eyes followed his fingers intently while he played, but now they were trained on his face, sparkling with curiosity.
"That was lovely, Spock," she breathed. While the word choice and phrasing uncannily reminded him of his mother, her tone was utterly new and stimulating.
"Thank you."
Uhura opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. She bit her bottom lip in a most intriguing fashion, before attempting to speak again. "Can I…may I try?" she asked, gesturing toward the lyre.
Spock held the delicate instrument out to her. Uhura gingerly took it into her arms, and tried to imitate the way Spock had held it. She was slightly off in the positioning of her hands, so he leaned across the couch to adjust them. The warm feeling that had been vying for his attention that entire evening rose to the surface upon contact with her. Spock reluctantly pulled his hands away.
Uhura strummed a few notes that came out off key. She frowned and looked at him questioning.
"Your hands moved from their proper positions when you reached for the far string," he noted. "May I?" he asked as he moved behind her, leaning over to adjust her hands. He kept her hands covered with his as he guided them over the strings. After finishing a basic scale, Uhura looked up at him smiling, She was close enough that he could feel her breath against his chin. Though his Vulcan half was telling him to drop her hands, he could not bring himself to do so.
Though silent, Nyota's eyes were asking him for something, and, astoundingly, he knew the answer to her unspoken request. Spock leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers.
Spock woke with a start for the first time since he was a small child. He looked around the room briefly, but there was no sign of Nyota anywhere, or any clue that she had ever been in his quarters at all. But his bizarre dream had been vivid enough to fool his brain into thinking that the lyre lesson and the kiss had been real. A surge of emotion threatened to break through his control as he recalled the actual events of the previous night.
"I play the Vulcan lyre," he spoke suddenly.
Uhura's face lit up in surprise. "Oh," she exclaimed, "I have a few recordings of songs on the Vulcan lyre and I've always been fascinated by it though I've never even seen one."
" I have mine in my quarters; since you have expressed an interest, I will show it to you sometime."
Uhura smiled, "I would greatly appreciate that, Commander." Silence again.
"…But when we wake, it's all been erased. And so it seems, only in dreams…"
It seemed that being in a casual setting like the Soil-Side with so many of their peers around them was seriously impeding their social interaction. Ease of conversation was being sacrificed for maintaining their status as commander and cadet.
The cadet must have been thinking along the same lines as he, because she suggested that they go take a walk outside to get away from the noise and to get some fresh air.
Once again Spock found himself wanting to acquiesce but, remembering Lt. Commander Roth, declined. "I should return to my chess game"
Uhura shrugged, but did not look at him. "I won't keep you any longer then, Commander." Spock nodded and began to move back towards his table when he felt a delicate hand grasp his arm. "Thank you for coming tonight, Spock," Nyota said as he turned back to look at her.
"No gratitude is required, Cadet, but, as humans say, it was 'no problem'." She grinned at him, causing the warm feeling to simmer contentedly. She removed her hand from his arm and he returned to his chess game.
Spock rose from bed the next morning to meditate away two familiar emotions from his childhood: disappointment and loneliness.
