AN: Not mine. Enjoy.
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Gaila intercepted Nyota on the first of February, a determined look on her face. "There is no way you're going to spend this year's Valentine's in a lab," she stated firmly. "No way. Do you hear me? I will arrange a date for you, just name the guy you want, they all want you, but you. Are. Going. Out."
"Gaila..."
"No, I'm not listening to any excuses. This is your last year as a student, last year on Earth, you have to enjoy yourself! Who knows what kind of selection is going to be on Enterprise, right?"
Nyota took her firmly by her shoulders and held her at arms length. "No, Gaila, listen to me. Listen!"
She just held her and looked at her long enough for Gaila to quiet down. "OK, I'm listening. What is it?"
"There is no one with whom I'd rather be on Valentine's Day, no one in the whole universe, than Commander Spock."
Gaila stared. Then blinked. And then she was hugging Nyota very tightly. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Ny."
"It's okay," her friend muttered.
So, Gaila automatically assumed it was one-sided. That was probably for the best, and it was a logical assumption, really. One she should probably be making herself. He was a freakin' Vulcan. But there was just something that told her it was not quite so simple. She couldn't really put her finger on it, but there were small things...there seemed to be a kind of unspoken understanding between them, something too fragile and uncertain to put into words, but something nonetheless.
"I'm really okay," she repeated. "Just don't try to take my dream Valentine away from me, all right?"
Gaila softly smiled at her. Then she grinned. "Wait, so you're telling me there actually was some foundation to the rumours that circulated last year?"
"There most definitely was not," Nyota said in indignation. "First, I didn't feel like this about him a year ago. Second, the rumours actually assumed there was something going on between us, which there definitely isn't and never was. Except for Vulcan practice and transmission analysis, that is."
"But still. There's no smoke without fire."
Nyota sighed. "Of course, of all the Earth's proverbs, you're just bound to remember that one."
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"Let me introduce a new member of our group," Gaila said cheerfully and proudly when they sat down with their drinks in Space Bay once again. "This is Pylas Tran, and she's a senior medical cadet. Pylas, this is Nyota, Harshika, Aisha, Ines and Rachel."
There was universal shaking of hands. "So," Pylas said, "Gaila said I should support her as the only non-Terran here up to now, and also that I had the honour of representing the doctors here?"
"Gaila takes this way too seriously," Harshika explained.
"I do not!" Gaila defended herself. "If we are to be good Starfleet officers, we need to move in circles as diverse as possible, to be at home in diversity, which is necessary to succeed in Starfleet."
Rachel raised her eyebrows. "You are aware that becoming friends with someone just because he or she is a different species is a form of objectification, right? I mean, I know our interspecies ethics wasn't worth a damn, but..."
Nyota was uncomfortably reminded of the beginnings of her friendship with Spock. Gaila, meanwhile, stared at Rachel like she was stupid. "Everyone I become friends with is a different species. There is only one other Orion in the whole Starfleet."
Rachel waved her hand. "Because they're a more interesting species than human, then."
"Yes, of course I am aware. But you can contact them first for that reason and then slowly start being friends with them just for them, you know, personally. Like me and Pylas."
Rachel turned to the Andorian. "Sorry, I don't want to speak for you, but just...don't you mind? It irritates the hell out of me!"
Pylas shrugged. "Frankly, Gaila was so open about it there was nothing to be angry about. She just came and said, 'I want to get to know some non-human females, and Topek Shrem said you were all right. Care to join me for lunch?' It was objectification in a way, but so honest and well intentioned, and, well, open-ended that I saw no reason to get angry."
"Open-ended?"
"I could see she didn't have any preconceived notions about what an Andorian should be like, and wasn't trying to fit me into them. She just wanted to meet one, for whatever reason," Pylas explained.
"It's like a bug you're missing in your collection!" Rachel said indignantly.
"Yeah. But that attitude didn't last long, she switched to speaking to me as a person pretty soon, so really, no hard feelings."
"But why would you even accept her invitation?" Rachel still didn't understand.
Another shrug from Pylas. "And why not? If I refused to talk to anyone who objectified me in the slightest, I'd be doomed to be forever alone."
Once again that evening, there were words spoken that touched Nyota closely. But she had had this discussion with herself many times already, and she refused to take the way Pylas did. She refused to lower her expectations. Whatever the cost. After all, lately, it was starting to look like she had been right all along, and that her stubbornness was not, in fact, doomed to fail...
"You're certainly pretty good at breaking the preconceived notions," Harshika was saying. "I mean, Andorians are supposed to be passionate and rather aggressive, but you're just being really phlegmatic about this...contrary to Rachel."
"Well, at least there's no stereotype about Jews regarding this, so I don't have to worry about that," Rachel replied, still confused by Pylas' approach.
"Are we going to talk about me all evening?" The Andorian girls asked. "Not thatI would probably mind, you know."
Nyota, too, thought it would probably be better to change the topic, even though she made a note to herself to remind Gaila that just because Pylas personally didn't mind, it didn't mean it was all right to act that way towards anyone.
"Well, I did want to ask what you guys thought about that simulation on Friday," Aisha said from her position in the corner.
There was a collective groan. "I thought," Gaila commented, "that only GS majors should have to go thought this. I'm just a poor engineer, why should I have to deal with the stress of a hostage situation while at school?"
Aisha took a sip of her Virgin Mojito and shrugged. "Well, it is just them who have to take the main role in bargaining, so I think we shouldn't complain too much. My sister went through it last year, acting as the captain, and she was frustrated the whole day afterwards."
"How is Khadija doing, anyway?" Ines asked curiously.
Aisha smiled. "She has already managed to impress everyone on her shift, and now she's bored."
Nyota laughed. "Frankly, I'm surprised it took so long. At least now she has only four more months to be bored. I'm terrified to hear what she does – boredom and brilliant people do not mix. If we hear that Pegasus has a new captain, we will all know who it is."
All the other girls laughed too, Aisha loudest of all.
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That year, Valentine's Day was on Friday, which made it the perfect date for everyone. The Academy was effectively deserted, and in the cafeteria, they were literally alone.
"It surprises me a little," Spock was saying, "that you never seem to observe this holiday in the traditional manner. From what I know, even women who are single tend to find a male companion for the evening and go out with him."
"Well, I have a male companion, don't I?"
"Yes, but we are hardly 'out'."
Nyota sighed. "You know how you once asked me why I had inferiority complexes and I told you I might tell you one day?"
"Yes."
"This ties up to the same thing. But I'm still not able to answer your question. Not because it's too personal, I've told you many personal things already in the course of the last few months, but because the topic is...I simply cannot discuss it with you. Not now. It's nothing personal or anything, just..." she trailed off.
"I understand," Spock replied.
"Do you?"
"Yes."
Looking at him, she had a feeling he understood more than she perhaps wanted him to.
"They're closing down the cafeteria and we're bothering them here," he said after a pause. "We should leave."
Unwillingly, she got up, not wanting to end her variation on Valentine's date so soon.
They left the cafeteria and he turned to her. "Since you don't seem to have any agenda today, now might be a good time to grant your request of another Vulcan lute play."
Her face immediately lit up. "I'd appreciate it very much."
They walked to his quarters in silence. "Commander," she said when they approached them, "it's Valentine's Day, evening, and we're walking together to your quarters. Aren't you worried that if someone checked the security cameras, the suspicion from last year would return? There are no security cameras in your room to prove your innocence this time."
"I do not believe I would be bothered again in the same matter that has already been proven false, at least not without a more concrete proof. And, in any case, I refuse to stop doing something entirely correct just because it could be interpreted in a wrong light. Acting on fear leads only to paranoia," he stated firmly.
She nodded. "I just thought I should warn you."
"I appreciate it. Now, come in."
She did, and he motioned her to the couch again, going to pick up the lute and sitting in his armchair. Without any further words, he started to play...and sing.
He didn't sing the last time, he let her instead, and now she realized it was probably because he wanted her to get used to it slowly. If all of this had come at once, it would have probably been a sensory overload. She was having trouble not turning into goo as it was. And when she realized what it was he was singing...
She knew the song. It was one of the very old Vulcan ones. Tradition held it was pre-Awakening, and while that generally sounded unlikely, it was a love song. There were several of these, and the most accepted theory was that they came from a time shortly after the Awakening, when Vulcans were still emotional enough to do love songs at all, but already cultured enough to actually appreciate such sophisticated music. The fact that they didn't destroy every evidence of such a weakness, and that the songs were still known and occasionally played, was a small mystery.
These songs were deeply emotional. Emotional in a way human songs simply weren't. The lyrics were in Old High Vulcan, and the meaning wasn't really translatable into English. But she understood it well enough.
He played all of them, and sang all of them, and she just sat, unable to stop watching him and desperately wishing, not really knowing for what. There was longing in those songs, there was desire, there was love, there was jealousy, and there was passion. Lots of passion, that seemed to go straight from his fingers on the lute to her heart. And he was looking at her the entire time, as he played and sang those things. She knew her heart was beating faster and her breathing was shallower than normal. She couldn't move. She wasn't sure what he wanted her to do, if he wanted her to do something, and she wasn't sure what she wanted to do herself, still aware that it was not so simple, that she couldn't simply walk to him and kiss him, but the reasons of why exactly that would be unwise were less and less clear in her head as he continued to sing.
And then he ended, and he just kept looking at her steadily and she was gathering her courage to take the initiative because they have obviously crossed the line of propriety and it didn't matter any more, but after several seconds, Spock said quietly: "Good night."
And she nodded mutely, stood up on shaky legs and went back to her dormitory, to her room. The only clear thought in her head was that sleep was not going to come easily that night.
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AN: Why, yes, I am evil, why do you ask?