Nyota startles backwards, nearly tripping on her train at the nude sight before her. " Oh! Sire!"
She came to the water gardens in hopes of finding Spock there in the ornamental pools as he convalesced but instead found his nude brother sunning along the bank like some fable sea dragon.
With skin sun-kissed and dappled with drops of water, he looks as if he's glowing from within. The long, lean cut of his figure put on a breathtaking display of masculine beauty as he lounged half out of the lavender water along the jade green bank. He had been dragging at the long neck of a churchwarden-style pipe when he caught sight of her coming closer.
Her certainty that he must have been Spock went nil as she drew closer and realized the cut of his hair was all wrong but by then it was too late and the bearded fiend had spotted her. She tears her eyes away with an irritated huff as his lok stirred and stretched where it's resting across his thigh. It looks even larger than it felt when he ran her hand across it and the remembered offense further colors her cheeks. Lewd lout...
Again she curses the horrid creature that is the crown prince within her mind but does not do it aloud with no one there to protect her. The day on the arena taught her a few things, one of which was Sybok is a mad dog. The nature of a typical canine for the most part is predictable. When rabid, however, feralness lurked right beneath the surface. Sybok doesn't seem to choose his madness so much as he snaps from the weight of it.
Nyota backs away into the large but sparsely populated red foliage of the pool's bank and curtsies with a deep but swift bow. She hurries her words as she drops the sides of her robes back down to the ground.
" My pardon! I did not mean to intrude upon your solace. I did not see you here!" she sputters, covering her eyes.
Sybok grins softly and blinks at her languidly as if in a trance. With thick, curling smoke pouring out of his mouth and hums and gestures towards her with his pipe. " And yet you have."
She watches him from underneath her lashes as his eyes trace her face and figure. Heat races across her cheeks as she saw him grow stiffer in response. Drawing at his pipe, Sybok rolled onto his belly and exhaled in a pale blue cloud of smoke. Sand from the bank rode up along his hip and backside as it clung to the wet tanness of his skin. Daring a look at his face Nyota caught sight of him smiling at her surreptitious glances.
" Fancy what you see, Nyota? You may also touch if you wish?" he offers, rolling over again onto his back. She inhales sharply at the sight and swallows with a vigorous shake of her head.
" A privilege and an honor I am sure but I must decline your blessing." she huffs, casting her gaze away from his reclining form.
Nyota watches as his nose flares and scents the air with an lop sidded smile. " You still smell as you did that day in the colonnade. Enticing."
He runs his tongue over the corner of his mouth and release a sigh that's more of a purr. She can't tell for sure but the pipe and his strangely mild demeanor leads her to believe the crown prince to be heavily under the influence. Of what she can't tell, but the smoke smells like the old interior of out-of-date Vulcan survey ships.
What was it again...trillium D, I believe, she thinks as she watches him stretch along the bank like an overgrown house cat that caught the canary. He's still eyeing her intensely but she can't discern his mood which worries her. Yes, it was very much like their time in the colonnade. Perhaps this time she could get away without him touching her.
Curtsying again Nyota takes a step back towards the crystal archway leading to the palace. " With your pardon I'll take my leave. I was looking for Prince-"
" Prince you say? Well look no further, young dove. Here is your Prince."
Nyota bites her lip and fingers the embroidery at her sleeve. " Again, your highness is too kind but I wanted to see to Spock's health-"
" Come lay beside me, beautiful one." he interrupts, pawing at the green sand below him. " Attend me."
Nyota's eyes widen in dismay and search about for the excuse to free her from his request. " Sire, my clothes...they will get wet-"
" If you wish to remove your garments it would be alright. It will make you easier to smell and more tantalizing to look at." he flatly though his eyes hold his amusement. Smoke slips from his mouth as he parts his lips with a grin. Nyota flounders at the gesture and Sybok seems all the more enthused to have her near. Why could she not just say no and why could he not bless her with heeding it?
With a smoldering look to beckon her over, exhales through his nose and hums at the sensation running through him. " I'll share with you...though I think it will have little effect on your biology. Pity. It feels quite lovely…Hmm, but there are other ways I could share…?" he says flicking his wrist and waving his fingers about. " I'm not selfish like my baby brother. I know how to give, fickle Terran."
Nyota stays rooted in place, unwilling to come any closer when Sybok's narrows his eyes at her. " Shall you come here or shall I make you. Come. Here...?"
The dual meaning of his words is not lost on her as he lok twitches stiffly against his belly and Nyota reluctantly makes her way over towards him. Stepping into the water, her feet are warmed by its heat as much as they are cooled by the wetness in jarring juxtaposed.
She continues to ruefully submerge her feet into the pond while clinging tightly to the bell of her robes when she hears Sybok make an alien noise of irritation. Perhaps she's not going fast enough to his likely because Sybok fixes the pipe between his teeth and pulls her down against him. " Come now, in you go. It's just water."
His arms shoot out from their passive position and lock firmly around her. She only has time to inhale and blink before she's swept off her feet and into the pond.
Nyota squeals and shouts in protest as the water below rushes up her gown in a noisy splash. " Sire! Please I- Oh, you fiendish scoundrel! Hands off my-OH! Your highness, if you do not unhand me right this-!"
He grins at her angry tirade and moves his hands down to her bottom for a hearty squeeze. " Or what, little sha'mi? You'll continue your angry bleating? Oh...maybe you'll fall in love with me? That must be terrifying thought for you? In love with two princes, one of which is devastatingly handsome as much as he is modest...and then Spock."
Nyota huffs angrily at him and tries ineffectively to move his hands from her rump. The heat of his body turns the gentle warmth she felt from the water earlier, chilly as he holds her closer in his arms. He's sniffing at her again in that annoying way that Vulcans do. She considers and rethinks flicking her finger against his nose. " Like that could ever happen! Unhand me you brute."
" I wouldn't so don't waste your breath, human. But it is a terrifying thought isn't it? Well it would be for me...if I was scared of you or love. Subjecting oneself to fear is illogical as being in enthralled by love." he says in a near scoff. He puffs at his pipe and releases a stream of smoke before speaking further.
" As next in line I need to exemplify the epitome of Vulcan life and culture but there's so much that pulls at my curiosity. Spock had always conducted himself admirably and then you came along and...changed him. All this talk of love and devotion, it confuses me. How could he fall prey to emotion? Of all the Vulcans...I never would have thought and yet, you Nyota Uhura did the impossible."
" Before you Spock only cared for others with me being the closest bond he had. You outshine us all now, like some freak of nature. A female of magic and charms. Hmm but how am I, a Vulcan prince, to know whether loving you wouldn't be worthwhile?" He searches her gazes and hums at her shocked expression. Shifting the pipe with his teeth and his lips he continues to ponder aloud. " Would you like that? For me to love you like my baby brother does?"
Nyota jerks in his hold and scoffs in disbelief. " You've truly lost your mind. What madness are you talking about? I want no part in your mind games. Release me to go to my intended."
" Tsk tsk, who said I was playing games, Nyota? You think from my demeanor that I jest with you but as with Spock, I am always serious…" He leans up swiftly with his eyes set on hers, startling her back away from his face as he makes to kiss her. His hands leave her as she does so and has her crashing down into the pond with a noisy splash.
Nyota hold her breath as the water spills over her and flails to bring herself up. The weight of the water with Vulcan's gravity combined with that of her gown has her feeling as if she could possibly drown in the shallows. As embarrassing as it would be, Nyota can't think of anything outside of burning of her lungs and the sting of her nose. Just as she begins to struggle towards the surface, Sybok curls himself around her and brings her up out of the water.
Nyota gasps loudly at the air as he sets her down on the bank and lays down at her side. He watches her curiously as she coughs up what water came in through her nose and blinks up at the sky. Sybok retrieves his pipe and takes a long drag as she continues to regain her composure.
" You are quite fragile, Nyota Uhura. How is it you are able to survive my brother but nearly fall victim to a lily pond?"
Nyota rolls her eyes and starts to roll away at his rude joking when his hand comes over her shoulder and stops her. She watches in horror as his hand pins her place and his leg swings over to straddle her lap. His weight remains braced on his knees and the balls of his feet but it's not as if Nyota could escape either way.
Her robes waving gently in the lavender water as she lays half submerged beneath him and tries not to draw anymore attention to herself. The hairstyle her maids had so painstakingly taken care to construct flutters around her head in ruins as nothing more than wet, wavy curls. Sybok watches the locks as the float along the surface and glances back towards her face. " Hmm, aside from the water could you survive my brother's fire? I think not...but you've proven me wrong time and again. Then again, there is Spock's jealousy…?"
Her heart threatens to leave her chest as his brings his face closer to her with a pointed sniff. He exhales slowly across her and studies her through the smoke. " I do not think things would go well for you if I were to make off with your heart. What do you humans call it? Ah yes, a crime of passion...in a fit of jealous rage he'd snuff you out leaving me with Spock and one less problem."
His hand leaves her shoulder and trails over towards her neck, dragging his fingers in a torturously slow glide across the length of it. He stops midway on the third time down and wraps his fingers around her. Nyota feels his mental pleasure in it as well as his physical arousal. " Of course I might subject myself to 'heartbreak' and have my emotions lead me to fratricide but I would have to see you avenged, after all. But that's nothing a little meditation and healing wouldn't cure."
Nyota slows her breathing and quiets her mind to bar his entrance. Sybok feels the change in her at once and tilts his head like a befuddled hound at its master. She brings her hand to his without breaking her concentration and pulls it off and away. It's mostly because he allows it but it's clear he can't quite puzzle why she suddenly feels so distant.
She can't do it for much longer though, she feels herself lightheaded and dizzy from the strain of keeping him out. When she is free of his touch, Nyota mentally exhales in relief and speaks up towards him evenly. " If you were to ever love me, your Highness, I would make sure you rue the day you did."
Sybok's mouth flash a quick smirk along with a muffled chuckle. " Don't tempt me."
" I'm not tempting, I'm telling you, your Highness. I will ruin you." she assures him. " Do not think that I'm so simple. You don't know the half of me."
Puffing at his pipe as she threatens him, Sybok looks at her somewhat blandly. " I do enjoy it when you get so full of yourself. So much of you is predictable but the rest remains a mystery."
" What do you wish to know, your highness?" she asks quietly. " There's no need for subterfuge. Just ask."
He mouth quirks into a small smile and he chases her hair with a finger in the water. " Where's the fun in that Uhura? Why not figure things out for myself?"
She swallows nervously as he brushes the sand from the hair along his torso and the thick patch above his lok away and draws again at his pipe. " Tell you what, my sweet, Terran thorn. I shall save my questions and discoveries for a different day. I have to see yet to visit my father and he is in need of my blood and my company. Do try and stay alive. You're too entertaining to die yet."
He raises up out of the water and Nyota tries and fails to not take in the view above her. Sarek's sons had no business looking this...this...grrr. As soon as he step away, Nyota drags herself up and contemplates shedding most of her robes. The water the cloth holds weighs her down to the point of discomfort. There was no way that she would be doing so in front of the crown prince.
She may have no choice in the matter as she fights the many layers draped around her. Her bodice hangs the most heavily, threatening to release her breasts from their confines as it chaffs along her torso.
Sybok stretches out his arms above him with a long, silent yawn in her direction. Nyota doesn't know if it's meant to display his canines but she can't avoid seeing all three sets of above and below. After a moment the prince shakes himself like a dog and reaches out his hand towards the pavilion off the the right.
Like frightened mice, maids and butlers scurry out from their cover and rush to dress and ready his person for being received by the emperor. Some of the glance over towards where she stands sodden and dripping down onto the ground but none of the chance bringing attention to themselves by attending to her. She takes no offense and tries to escape his notice as well but he clears his throat and calls her once more.
" Little human. Take care with my brother, he's quite fragile after the poisoning. Don't arouse his lust or ire, allow him to rest. I would hate to try you for dominicide. I have other plans for you."
Nyota bows heavily under the weight of clothes and bobs her head. " Your highness."
Even as she walks away she feels his eyes boring into the back of her head long after she's reached the archway leading to the palace. Instead of marching straight to Spock's chambers, Nyota races towards her rooms and strips herself of her clothing.
His scent is all over her, in her hair, on her clothes, clogging her nose and she can't stand it any longer. If she never smelled that crazy bastard Sybok again it would be too soon. Her maids ask no questions as she quietly orders for a bath and brand new robes.
It's nothing extravagant this time, just two thin robes over a light purple shift with her hair thickly plaited down her back. When T'Sel frets too much, Nyota acquiesce to a few hair ornaments and a finer set of slippers than the Terran silk ones she originally placed on her feet.
As T'Sel fixes the bright, star like gems along her braid, Nyota sits staring at the her foot as it bounces up and down on top of its mate. " T'Sel, I wish to bring Spock a token of my goodwill and affection when I visit him. I know it is traditional to bring someone in poor health a piece of fruit as a symbol of healing but as my intended and a prince...I do not know what to bring him."
T'Sel stops her hands above her and makes an odd sound of thoughtfulness. " I will see to the gift, my Lady. Let me finish your hair and I'll have you on your way soon enough."
Nyota nods in relief and sighs as she listens to her maid order about the others in search of a tea she's never even heard of.
As soon as T'Sel finishes fastening the last of her garter clips, a willowy maid named T'Jol extends a small, golden pouch out towards her hands. " My Lady."
Nyota accepts with a nod and a smile and tugs lightly at the bronze string. She peers inside and takes a tentative sniff and sighs at the smell. " Oh, that's lovely. What is it?"
T'Jol looks pleased with her success with her eyes blinking down at her brightly but T'Sel answers for her. " Ch'aal. It's a spice tea from out beyond the forge. It only grows there and is especially rare to find. This much here is enough for a king's ransom."
Nyota twists her face in surprise and looked back down at the crumpled, violet leaves in disbelief. " That much? And how is it that I, or you, could come into possession of such a rare delicacy?"
T'Jol tilts her head and speaks out of turn which earns her a hard glance from T'Sel. " My Lady, you are the Prince's intended."
Nyota shakes her hand away at T'Sel's attempt to cow T'Jol and rises from her vanity chair. " I suppose I am. If you would excuse me, I would see to him now."
" Of course, my Lady." they answer in unison, bowing their heads in deference. Nyota quietly makes her way to the door, turns down towards his wing. She turns soon after to find her maids and two sets of guards trailing behind her in a semi-formal procession.
She huffs through her nose at the attention it gathers from the court and masses at large but reminds herself to be grateful for the illusion of protection she gains. Though none of them could stop Sybok, they could at least slow him down enough to make an escape.
She approaches Spock's massive chamber doors and greets the guards standing out front with a grand curtsey. " I wish to see my Prince and intended."
Neither guard say a word but answer her by opening the broad, gilded doors to welcome her in. There her procession stays just within the foyer, taking in the heat of his rooms and chatting among themselves.
Nyota continues on, down towards his chamber, through the gaping, marble maw of the hallway until she reaches his bedroom. Slow and silent, Nyota pushes open the door to take in the room. It's empty of Vulcans with the exception of her own, who lies still in the middle of his ridiculously large bed.
His unresponsiveness unnerves her and sends her over towards his side. When she reaches the bed, Spock still remains limp and unconscious beneath his duvet. Wind blowing in through the sheer, red curtains ruffs his fringe but doesn't disturb the peacefulness of his face. Nyota leans closer with a small frown and studies his appearance.
She's never witnessed him sleep so deeply before that he wouldn't wake at the sound of her entering his rooms. Though he and his brother had bested the le'matyas with no more trouble than his initial wound, Spock had fallen unconscious soon after the last green beast had been slain.
Nyota had initially thought him dead and stood in her palanquin, numb and dumb-struck. Everything rushed about her while she felt stuck in time, shaking from the nervous jolt of adrenaline. Overwhelmed was the best way to describe her emotional state but there were other things that shook her as she stared out onto the blood stained sand.
Sybok's wild-eyed stare as he cleaned his blade, barely registered as she thought of her own mortality. She had been cautious but not nearly enough. The more she tried to shake the Crown Prince's attention the more intent he became in focusing upon her.
Whether it was Spock, her or the both of them, he wanted Nyota was clueless but she hadn't thought to protect Spock from his own brother. And why had he shown up bleeding as he had? As the guards carried him off for the physicians to exam it, her body moved of its own accord following behind them.
She had to see for herself that he was dead, know for certain that the poison put an end to him as the valets and masters of medicine fussed over his person. When the king's medical master declared him alive, the strength left her legs and left her sliding heavily against the wall.
Alive, he was alive. No matter how grave his condition, they both still had a chance to see themselves off of Vulcan and back onto Terra. Academy of Sciences be damned, neither of them could stay here and ensure their safety. Favored as she was, Sybok and any number of court members and waitstaff were watching her. With Spock in such grave condition it was up to her to she them off planet as soon as he was stabilized for transport.
Day after day, she went to see if he had regained consciousness but each check in and subsequent report from T'Sel had come back with no progress. It was only today when Spock's butler came to call upon that she heard that he had awaken and requested to see her at the ornamental pools.
Arriving to the pools to stumble across the nude Crown Prince had been quite the rude awakening but also telling as far as his reach. Spock, slumbering as he was, looks as if he had never roused as the Butler informed her he had. As a general guide, Vulcans do not lie but they were masters of half truths. Add to that the royal's power of mental influence and Nyota had a predicament on her hands.
The only thing she had to reconcile his falsehood and her run-in with the crown prince is the rumored power Sybok had at influencing others. Had Sybok once again lured her into his presence well away from prying eyes or was something else afoot?
Sighing down at the sight of her fallen Vulcan, Nyota feels her middle stir and her chest tighten. He was often times harsh, unnecessarily so but he was prepared to slay his own brother to see to her safety and honor. As much as she reviles the Vulcan empire and those who enforce it, Spock had seen to crawling his way into her heart, much like a worm ruins an apples. She despises his attention as much as she adores it.
" Spock? Spock…" she calls him gently from where she leans upon the bed. He does not stir and continues to breath evenly with his chest rising and falling under the cover of his sleep tunic. Strange…
Her mouth goes dry as she reaches out to shake his shoulder, softly so as not to startle him. " Wake up. I have a gift for you. Please."
Panic wells up in her chest as he goes on sleeping and sends her crawling onto the bed. Even her unbalance wobble across the covers doesn't rouse him and she starts to fear the worst. Had Sybok distracted her from being at his side? Did he feel Spock's katra slipping away and kept her at bay with threats and childish groping?
Her breath hitches in her throat as she reaches out to shake his shoulders, followed by his face. " Don't you do it! Don't you dare die on me, you-"
The moment her hand connects with the skin of his cheek, Spock reels up and pins her to the bed. She feels the pinch of his teeth near her throat when, he pauses and sniffs her. From the single finger near her neck, Nyota senses his confusion and foggy memory. He had been in a trance...healing...and the scent of his brother triggered his alarm when she touched his face. A pointed sniff and the alien sensation of her mind held the conclusion of his attack at bay...but something felt wrong…?
Spock gathers her up, with a little less gusto than usual and nuzzles her face. " Forgive me."
Nyota turns her face and kisses along his jaw as she tries to settle her nerves. She had never seen him in such a state, especially towards her. " Think nothing of it."
His face is hidden from her view as he runs his hand down her back. " You have bathed but you reek of him."
Nyota sighs and plays with the tunic strings at his chest. " He played me for a fool. I sought you at the pools and found him there instead, smoking and bare as the day he was born."
As piqued as he is, Spock's amusement at her words tickles her side. " Sybok never was one for clothes."
Glancing back down at her, Spock cups her chin and lifts her face towards him. " Did he hurt you?"
Nyota takes a hold of his hand and runs her fingers over the back of it, to soothe him. " Only my sense of security." she says honestly, as she recounts her time there. " I want to go,...no, we need to go, Spock. It's not safe."
Spock tilts her head and plants a plush kiss behind the shell of her ear. The emotion behind it nearly blinds her to reason but he thankful keeps the topic. " Go where and do what, Nyota? It's not safe anywhere."
" Your brother- he means to ruin us, ruin everything and I don't want either of us to be a party to it." she fidgets as Spock continues to ply her with kisses both Terran and Vulcan. " I don't know what he wishes to do exactly but the farther we are from him the better."
" You think distance will keep you safe of him?" Spock murmurs against her ear. " That his reach and ships stops just outside the gravity well of Terra? You know better than that, ash-vel."
Nyota huffs and cups his face with a pointed squeeze. " He means to hurt us and not just in a conventional sense. He's mad, in every meaning of the word. I shan't stay here like a sitting target while he devises ways to twist our minds and lances arrows through us!"
Her earnestness gets Spock to pause long enough to regard her. She knows Spock's right about Sybok's influence beyond the palace but what was the use of sitting here, waiting in the court do for them other than make her more anxious?
Spock blinks at her with tired eyes and sighs at her worried face. He still looked ill and paler than usual and the muscle around his neck tics erratically. Was it the poison or whatever his father did to him just hours before the le'matya attack?
" Spock...what happened to you? Are you dying? You...your...you're not yourself?"
At that Spock sighs and makes a small inhuman gesture that she interprets to be a shrug. " Nyota. You won't have to worry about my brother much longer. Once my health is regained, I can full guarantee your safety. My father-"
" -is dead!"
The pair flinch and gaze over towards the doors where a dazed and bloodied Sybok stands crookedly. The earlier sensation of wrongness that Spock felt earlier returns and blossoms into full blown queerness.
Sybok stares at them with bloodshot eyes and repeats himself once more. " The emperor has died and been hereby replaced by his heir apparent."
Spock feels vague and distant in her hand as much as a human would but Nyota feels awashed in emotions. Her heart drops along with her stomach as the air leaves her lungs with a stuttering woosh.
Sarek...is dead? When? How? But he had been on the mend! She looks at Sybok's peculiar expression and the tube dangling from his arm. Had he really given his father his blood whilst under the influence? She didn't think that initial use of Trillium D would be fatal to a Vulcan...only the prolonged exposure of it or continued recreational use. Maybe in his weakened state he subcame to the drug's effects but she feels there's something more, something else that she dare not say aloud for fear of their lives.
Beyond the doors of Spock's bedroom, Nyota hears hushed murmurs and strained voices can be heard discussing the news. Further on, towards the main hall, the haunting wail of what she assumes to be the queen mother echos down the halls and throughout the palace.
She's barely registered that Sybok's still there when he chuckles quietly to himself. She looks up aghast and teary at his frightening face and feels Spock stiffen in grief beside her.
Sybok rips the tubing, needle and all from his arm and tosses it across the floor as if it were nothing. Looking between the two of them, Sybok gives a Vulcan grin with that of his eyes and spreads his arms out before him. " Long live the Empire. Long live me."
A/N: Thoughts? Feels? Thanks to and A. Orionis for reviewing what I had initially written of this chapter.