Note: First, let me remind you - this is not exactly innocent fiction as you could already say from its rating. Just saying ;-) A now there's a very IMPORTANT THING: this is a censored version. There's also a fully explicit one, being uploaded on my AO3 account at the same time as here. So if you're a little bit perverted like me (or not just a little bit), I recommend for the next chapters checking out that one. And if you're not... How it comes you even read a slash fiction? :D No, no... Not really. Anyway, this in not innocent, but more decent version for those who like to take it easy. Love you.

(full version: archiveofourown, title: Sheer Borderline, author: Chuluchan)


Sulu was teaching Chekov surfing. They were on a beach near San Francisco, it was sunny, but windy day and waves were high.

They just spent almost two hours in water. Sulu was trying some tricks after Chekov quit and left to sandy beach to get a break. Sulu followed him soon after, there was no point in overdoing this, since he felt his muscles were starting to hurt and weaken.

Sulu dropped his board on warm sand, picked up a T-shirt and pulled it over his head to prevent his skin from sunburn. Then he crouched and hooked his arm around Chekov's shoulders. Chekov sitting tiredly, elbows on his knees, and he was looking at the ocean.

"Hey, you. How did you enjoy that?" Sulu asked playfully. He squeezed Chekov's shoulder friendly and then let him be and lied on his back just behind him.

"It waz grreit." Curly boy's lips smiled when he turned to Sulu.

"You wanna tell me surfing's something they invented in Russia?" Sulu laughed at their internal joke.

"I am surre zey did." Chekov teased with a smug expression, while pinning Sulu down by resting his weight on a hand he used to grasp Sulu's shoulder.

"Its origin's in Polynesia, but the modern one's definitely from a California coast. In Russia, your butt would freeze off!" Sulu taunted with a vicious smirk, pulled Chekov down by the other arm than was pinning him, he shifted around and in a split of second he was the one pinning down the other, straddled him, his legs around Chekov's hips as a natural result of a fight training. Sulu grinned victoriously. "Gotcha."

To his surprise, Chekov blushed, he looked away. Avoiding Sulu's look Chekov darted with his eyes from place to place nervously. Sulu looked at him for a moment, contemplating without a single move. Then, he bent closer which made startled Chekov return his eyes back to Sulu. Sulu let Chekov's hand and used his palms to cradle Chekov's cheek bones as he kissed him. He felt a kind of familiar clutch of Chekov's fingers on his T-shirt nearby his abs. That was totally turning him on. Sulu closed his eyes and lifted a bit and their lips parted.

All of sudden, the cheeks under his fingers were cold as an ice. He opened his eyes and Chekov's face was very pale and blank, his eyes were closed. Sulu's eyes widened in shock as he pushed himself off. Chekov's hands weren't clutching him anymore. He laid there without life, dressed in his Starfleet uniform. The same he had on himself, Sulu realized. Suddenly he knew. Chekov was dead and all that was just his imagination… A hammer of fright struck him hard. He felt an urgent rush of nausea. He focused on the man laying cold in his hands once again. 'No… This couldn't happen. It's WRONG.' His chest was so tight he couldn't even took in a breath.


Gasping for an air, Sulu sat up breaking away from a nightmare. It took him a moment to anchor himself in reality, realizing he's still lying on the floor, where he had to fall asleep after the long and emotionally stressful call with Chekov. He reached for his comm that lied on a floor not far from him and crawled up on his feet.

Every muscle in his body was aching. He went to a bathroom and threw up into a toilet. Then he forced himself to undress and take a cold shower. He was soaked with sweat, feeling a strange mix of arousal and nausea cramping his stomach. Hopefully, cold water would wash it all away and wake him up a bit.

Luckily, the shower worked and allowed Sulu to skip a coffee he else would have needed, but of which he wasn't sure he could keep it in his stomach. It was still early, so he aimed to a sickbay first, before he will have to get to a bridge.

McCoy way sitting there, hunched over a microscope, taking down notes with excessively red eyes and a big dark circles under them. He was sipping a coffee from his mug constantly.

"Doctor?" Sulu distracted him and made McCoy's face to turn to him. Doctor's eyes were filled with uncertainty as he was considering what to say to young lieutenant.

"I haven't found anything yet." The doctor settled on with a dark expression, taking a guilt of failure on himself, though a whole research team was working on it.

Sulu frowned. He gave a short nod and turned to leave. He headed to bridge, passing by Uhura at the entrance door. Sulu barely acknowledged her presence, sunk in his worries. This thread was so intimidating. Few weeks ago, he was fighting with Chekov's past fear, literally. And it haven't been much more than month since he fought to save people because of some stupid lizards, but… That was something he could do. All he could do now was just waiting for fate's judgment and hope for a miracle to occur. That was devastating.

As he replayed these thoughts, he was suddenly struck by an idea. He froze in a middle of next step, turned on a heel and flied back to sickbay. As he rushed in, he startled McCoy, Uhura and few science assistants.

"The lizard!" Sulu exclaimed.

"What?" McCoy's eyebrows met as he tried to figure out what Sulu could have meant.

"The lizard we got on Mirena's supposed to have fabulous healing capabilities!" Sulu blurted out as fast as he caught his breath.

Uhura's expression changed from confused to wary. "No, you can't –" she started menacingly.

"The hell we DO that." McCoy smirked with a devilish look, already unstoppable in his actions. Uhura sensed it and gave up on what she thought of as a crucial point of preservation of good relations with a whole population of planet Mirena.


Spock, Sulu and McCoy gathered in a transporter room.

"I got the vaccines. It isn't the lizard itself that can safe them, but the way its body works got me to realize few things." McCoy explained vigorously, while he prepared to beam aboard Prudence.

"By 'lizard' you mean a sacred animal of Mirena planet's inhabitants, which is simultaneously highly prized for being an important element of Federation's relationship with the inhabitants?" Spock implied with only slightly raised eyebrow.

"I didn't kill it!" McCoy grumbled, defending himself. "Anyway," He continued. "Their bodies are just made to think they are sick. That thing is deadly by fooling the body. That's why we couldn't find anything."

"So?" Sulu prodded.

"All we have to do is to convince the body that it's otherwise. I have a nice sample of Andorian pertussis with me. It will take over a control of their neural system for time needed to get rid of the original problem. Well, at least it should." McCoy corrected himself, glancing at Spock.

"It would be more prudent to send somebody else than you, doctor. Taking in you are momentarily unexpendable and your skills will be needed, if a result's not satisfactory, I suggest sending somebody else aboard Prudence." Spock said, his hands clasped behind his back.

"As I said, I'll go by myself. I can't push somebody into doing this. And I won't let anybody to take on the consequences, if this method's a failure. Their sickbay personnel is off, so I go." He eyed first commander solemnly. Spock nodded slightly.

Sulu just wanted to volunteer himself, but he felt that was not what would be appreciated or acknowledged at the moment. McCoy prepared at a transporter pad.

"Many of the engineers stayed in engine room." Sulu noted. "Don't forget to pay them a visit, too."

"I know." McCoy made a not-thrilled face. "Alright. Beam me there."

"Energizing." An officer at an operating console said and a stream of glittering energy shrouded McCoy and he has disappeared.

All that was left now was to wait. If it wasn't for Starfleet officer drill, Sulu couldn't do anything, being too obsessed to actually focus on something else. However, he was used to deal with emotional stress and to work effectively despite being under a pressure. So he had done everything he left out during a search for a cure. One task after another, he completed them precisely.


"The cure works." – those were the most precious words, announced by a McCoy's voice ship-wide through intercom. He called from Prudence and Uhura made the call public. A worry that seized Sulu's heart as well as hearts of all the crew broke apart. He wished to hear this so badly, they all wished. And now a wave of gratitude took him to a verge of tears.

After few hours, Uhura announced that Enterprise's crew is coming back, since the infection is not contagious anymore. Sulu met Spock in a hallway as they headed to welcome them aboard. When they entered a transporter room, a sight of saved persons accompanied and taken care of by Enterprise chief medical officer – their savior – was waiting for them. In the moment of Spock's and Sulu's appearance, all heads turned to them, smile on each face. They were alive.

Sulu's and Chekov's eyes met. Their merry expressions went still and for a moment the look became very intense, more than it has ever been before. Sulu ached to break into a run to Chekov, hug him tight and never let go. But that was not possibly a thing two male high-ranking Starfleet officers could do. It hurt to see a very short flash of disappointment on Chekov's face.

Sulu was so consumed by his effort to hold himself back he barely noticed that even Spock was broadcasting an aura of contentment and he practically stood on tip toes as he inclined to a captain. When Uhura came in, she made her way between Spock and Sulu and went to hug a captain, for which she obtained a rascally smirk with typical Kirk's comment. "Oh, babe. I know you missed me, but let's leave this for the evening." He winked at her. She rolled her eyes on that, but didn't seemed to be bothered at all, though, since she continued to smile warmly and moved to hug Chekov as well. That was welcomed and sincerely reciprocated.

"Are you alright?" Uhura asked him protectively.

"Zat waz notting I couldn't haendle. We, Russianz, hawe an irron constituution."

She smiled and looked for chief engineer. "Where's Scotty?"

"He said he'll finish with the warp engines first." Kirk informed her.

"I guess we should get goin'." McCoy interrupted them, his hand friendly resting on captain Kirk's shoulder.

"Yes. Let's go and be done with this. I'm starving." Captain decided himself.


They needed to finish up with the procedures in a sickbay, what took them another few hours, but since they were not under pressure anymore, the time passed rather quickly. By the end, when everything was clear and there were only simple tasks left to do, the doctor was sleeping along with his less lucky patients on one of the biobeds. Lacking a high level of adrenaline, caffeine, a sense for responsibility and a simple need that kept him up during this whole almost four-days long horror marathon, he finally let his body to subdue to its basic physiological needs. The luckier patients left sickbay and aimed for their quarters to take additional rest. So did Chekov. Sulu was just next to him all the time from a moment they left a transporter room and now they walked side by side towards Chekov's quarters.

As Sulu maintained a short distance between the two of them, avoiding any actual contact, he started to think. He was never so conscious about a physical proximity between Chekov and him before. Once he fully realized that Chekov was… That he could be Chekov's subject of interest in other way than he assumed before, the thought messed him up. After all that happened on their way to Ardana, after a call with his sister Yuki, after that weird dream, he had to deeper consider a nature of his relationship with Chekov. This young navigator cared about him as no one has before and also the other way, Sulu never cared about anybody as much as about Chekov. But that didn't defined whether their relationship was a platonic friendship or if there was expected something more. What if, meanwhile Sulu have seen Chekov always as a best friend, Chekov didn't, but surrendered to Sulu's needs? Was he content to go on like this and let Sulu to be blind towards his feelings forever? That possibility was really disturbing. And what if Sulu just thought too high of himself and Chekov was simply never interested in him that way? What if Sulu was the one whose fantasies went wild where they never should have gone? – All these questions burned in back of his head. He never gave a damn about it, until his own subconscious showed him the possibility. A flash of a memory of the dream made him imagine the kiss again. He swallowed hard.

"Would you mind to join me in my quarters?" Sulu asked.

"Ah, no. Of courrz, letz go." Chekov replied easily, though without his usual energy. He followed Sulu, who seemed to be a bit off, almost absent minded, but was pacing firmly to his room.

In a turbolift, Sulu, still focused on an imaginary spot in air in front of him, asked "What do you want from me?", wondering quietly.

"What yu mean by zat?" Chekov tried to make it clear, but his question has been left without an answer.


As they entered Sulu's quarters and door shut behind Chekov, Sulu turned to him, his look telling Chekov it's not the right time to start casual talk about whatever he was just about to say. Sulu stepped closer, restraining Chekov from moving further and locked his eyes with the younger man's.

"I don't want to miss this chance." He said almost inaudibly. Then, he leaned closer and briefly glancing on Chekov's lips he pressed a kiss on them. His heart beat so aloud he wondered if Chekov could hear it.

Young Russian's eyes widened and it took him a moment to break the freeze he has found himself in. As Sulu was backing, his eyes wandering around, already thinking of an apology, he reached out to seal their lips again.

Sulu allowed the kiss to deepen, parting his lips to taste each other's mouth. As the kiss became less reserved in favor of wanting, Chekov leaned in and pressed his body against Sulu's slender one. When Sulu felt a proof of Chekov's arousal against his thigh, he swallowed hard.

"It's a first time I am doing this with guy." He explained anxiously. "So, let's take it slowly, please."

"Yez, of courrz." Chekov smiled lightly and huffed against Sulu's mouth, then leaned in to kiss him again and Sulu hesitantly placed his hands on Chekov's back.

Chekov was so warm, so real, so alive. Sulu broke the kiss and squeezed Chekov tightly.

"Missed you so much." His voice got husky, his yes blinking as uncalled for moisture irritated them.


If you liked it, do not forget to tell me! Thank you for reading. Ch