Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek or any of its characters.
Oh my god he's looking at me again, thought Ellara, her face gaining a lilac colour. She was currently sitting with Spock playing 3d chess, and he had glanced up while waiting for Ellara to make her next move. She'd been on edge around the Vulcan male since her revelation the previous week.
Ellara glanced down in worry, wondering why she felt like there was a vice-like grip on her heart. Was this… concern? For the life of the ship's First Officer? That's what it seemed to be. But it made no sense- they were barely friends. Well, she enjoyed his company, and they never seemed to run out of things to talk about, and sometimes when the light shone on him just right, she could see his long, brown eyelash- Oh my god I like him.
It was a weird feeling, being attracted to someone, but it wasn't unpleasant. She felt like just seeing him was the highlight of her day. It was also ridiculously stressful. Ellara felt as though there was a flashing neon sign hovering above her at all times, saying, "I LIKE COMMANDER SPOCK!". In fact, if she thought about it too much, Ellara became paranoid that she would say it out loud, or that Spock would somehow be able to read her mind and know exactly what she was feeling. "Are you well, Counsellor?" asked Spock, tilting his head to the side. "You have not moved for approximately three minutes and twenty-five seconds."
Ellara blinked herself out of her stupor and realized that he was correct. "Sorry. Ummm… yeah, I'm fine. I just got lost in thought." she chuckled nervously to try and show that she was alright.
Spock, although clearly unconvinced, accepted her words and looked back down at the board. Ellara followed his moves and did so as well, moving one of her pieces half-heartedly. After a few moments of thought, Spock moved his own, knocking the piece Ellara had just placed away. Her mouth opening and closing like a fish, Ellara debated saying what she had intended. Finally, the words forced themselves out. "So, uh, how was your day?" she asked.
Looking up, Spock wondered if Ellara had contracted an illness of some sort. Her face was flushed and she was acting particularly strange around him. "My day was adequate, Counsellor." Pausing for a moment, Spock considered his next words. "How was yours?"
Ellara's eyes widened, having not expected him to ask her in return, so she simply smiled, nodded, and said "Good, good."
"Hey, Spock! Ellara!" came the enthusiastic voice of their Captain.
Ellara practically sighed with relief, mentally slapping herself for being so weird. Could she never do anything right? "What are you guys up to?" asked Kirk with a wide grin on his face. He placed a hand on Ellara's shoulder, leaning over to look at the board. With very little thought, he took one of her pieces and moved it, looking at Spock and saying "Checkmate."
Ellara studied the surface in front of her and realized that he was right- Spock could not move without his King being overtaken. "Heh, thanks, Jim." she said, looking up at the man behind her. "I wouldn't have seen that."
The Captain raised his hands up. "Please, I'm happy to help. Say, do you guys wanna join me and Uhura for some Go Fish?"
Ellara stared at him quizzically, not really sure what he meant.
Sulu, who had been reading beside them, glanced up quickly and erupted into laughter. "What's so funny?" demanded Ellara as her brows furrowed.
"You and Spock had exactly the same expression." he replied, slowly calming down.
Ellara looked at Spock, feigning confusion. To be fair, she had noticed that the two occasionally had similar facial expressions when it came to their beloved Captain. She hadn't realized that others saw that as well, however. Interesting.
"What's… go fish?" She tested the name on her tongue, not sure whether she remembered it right.
"It's a card game." replied Jim, crossing his arms and leaning back.
A groan erupted from the back of Ellara's throat. "Really, Jim? If it's anything like poker, I don't think I'm interested." She grumbled out her next remark, "I lost 500 credits."
From the corner of her eye, Ellara could see Spock's lip turn up slightly. "Don't worry, no money is involved."
Ellara weighed the pro's and cons. On the one hand, she would have tons of fun with her friends, and she'd be able to learn something new. On the other, she was already feeling embarrassed and awkward from her chess game with Spock.
"I would not be against participating, however I would appreciate it if you could explain the rules of this game to both Counsellor Lat'toy and I." chimed in Spock.
Ellara gulped and looked up, meeting Spock's eyes. If she had to put one emotion to him at that moment, she would say that he was genuinely excited. "Uhhh… yeah." she added, finally tearing her gaze away and looking at the Captain.
"Ok, I'll do that, Spock, but only if you stop calling El 'Counsellor Lat'toy' when we're off duty." replied Jim.
Spock considered it for a moment, before agreeing. Jim's grin reappeared, and he clapped his hands. "Great! Uhura should be here soon. She's just finishing up some work."
He directed the group to a round table nearby, pulling out a deck of cards. Jim began shuffling them quickly, performing fantastic moves and capturing Ellara's attention.
"Hi, sorry I'm late." said Uhura from behind Ellara.
She walked around the table and kissed Jim on the cheek before sitting down. "So, I see you managed to convince them to join." Nyota looked over at her man, a mischievous glint in her eye. "We should play as groups," she added, "Jim and I will be one, and you two can help each other out."
It took Ellara about half a minute to piece together the puzzle, and once she did, she shot a small glare at the smiling couple. "You jerks" she mouthed. They'd planned this all along, hadn't they?
Spock, however, did not sense Uhura's underlying message, and instead nodded, before asking what the game was about. While Kirk explained, Ellara gestured to Nyota to follow her to the corner of the room. "How long have you two been up to this?" she whispered, practically hissing.
"For a couple of months now. It seemed like a good idea, and now that we're at this point, I can't imagine you two with anyone else." replied Uhura, just as silently.
Ellara took a step back, confusion overtaking her face. "What are you talking about?" she asked slowly.
"What are you talking about?" answered Nyota. Her entire face appeared to have widened in shock and mild fear.
"I was talking about you trying to make Spock and I friends." was Ellara's harsh- yet still just as silent- reply.
Uhura gulped, but waveringly delivered her answer. "I was talking about the same thing."
Ellara jabbed a finger at her friend's' chest. "Don't lie to me; you were trying to set us up!"
Uhura tilted her head back, seeming exasperated. "Well, what did you expect? You two are almost exactly the same, and you're both so lonely! Jim and I needed to have some fun, and this seemed like the perfect idea! I mean, hey, it's not like we were the only ones that thought it was a good idea."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean- Well, the rest of the group made bets on how long it would take you guys to get together."
"WHAT THE HECK?!" cried Ellara in outrage. This was not a whisper- this was a full-blown yell.
The attention of the two men was grabbed, and Spock was quick to ask "What is wrong, Co- Ellara?"
"N-nothing, Spock. Uhura was just… explaining something to me." she replied with some malice. "I don't think I'll be participating in the game tonight."
Ellara stalked off, making sure to grab her book she had left on the couch near Sulu(who received a glare of his own). "Goodnight." growled Ellara.
"I wonder what happened between the Lieutenant and Counsellor to make Ellara so upset." Spock wondered aloud with a tilt of his head.
Jim felt he had an idea, but instead just scoffed and said, "You and me both."
"LEONARD MCCOY!" shouted a furious Ellara.
The back of the doctor in question became straight as a rod upon hearing the furious roar. He turned around, having gotten a message from the wiz-kid about Ellara's… rampage. "Hey, El." he replied nonchalantly.
"Don't you 'hey El' me." she started. "I have a bone to pick with you."
Bones gulped, genuinely nervous. If he didn't know better, he'd say that Ellara's stripes were glowing. "Listen, I-"
"No, you listen. I would expect this from the others, maybe Scotty, but you? I thought we were better friends then this. To make a stupid bet about how long it would take for me to enter a relationship that had zero grounds, I just- I'm hurt, Len, I really am!" Ellara was pacing at this point, running a hand through her short hair.
Leonard was almost one-hundred percent sure that her stripes were glowing. "El?" he asked quietly.
"I mean, ok, to be fair I'm a little insulted you didn't even include me on it. You never know, I could have wanted this relationship to happen too-"
"El." he said a little more firmly.
"But to just act as though a relationship involving not only a Vulcan but a grieving Rendorian is just-"
"ELLARA!" he yelled this time.
She whirled around to face him. "WHAT?"
"You're on fire." was all Leonard said.
Ellara glanced down, and sure enough, she was on fire. It was a beautiful purple blaze, running up and down. Shockingly enough, she didn't feel a thing, and as panic set in, she calmed down from her anger.
"OH MY GOD I'M ON FIIIIIRRRRRREEEE!" she screamed, running around in a circle.
Leonard smacked a palm to his face, wondering why he was stuck with her as a friend. Once he looked up, however, he saw that the flames were now extinguished. He reached forward and grabbed Ellara's hand. It was cool to the touch.
Ellara snapped out of her fear and realized that everything was alright. "What the- I- whu-" she stuttered, looking around at herself.
After a few moments of silence, a frown etched itself onto her face and she stormed out. "Goddammit woman." muttered McCoy, not even bothering to go after her. She'd get help if she needed it.
In the meantime… Leonard cast a pleased look at the whiskey he had pulled out. Oh yeah.
Bum-bum ba daaaa! Yeah. I'm a horrible person and it's a day late. Sorry. :/ But chapter twenty! And also... Ellara on fire? Ooooh lala we're gonna learn more about that later because I totally didn't just come up with that fact in this chapter. A huuuuuge thank you to my beta reader, TransformersGeek, who does a fantastic job. Also yaaaaaaay confusion! Yeah. I write things. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed!
TransformersGeek: Lol.
booklover1898: SO. MUCH. MEDDLING.
pearl. clark. 129: Same here, tbh.
- fangirl0012345
Updated December 8th, 2016.