All Good Things

Chapter Thirty-six - Courting

On Board the Enterprise

May 2276

Tilek

He felt much more confident since the dance. Those small shocks from the palm-to-palm contact with T'Cila had emboldened him. He now offered her the ozh'esta every evening before he left her, and she never hesitated to return it. If at all possible, he spent most of every evening in her company, and felt that she was becoming quite used to this. Whenever there was any sort of special event at all, he escorted her there. And while there, he carefully watched the behavior of the other couples, and adopted or adapted what he saw, being extremely attentive to her, and even bringing her small gifts from time to time, for no reason at all, except that he liked to see the surprise and pleasure in her eyes when he did so. And he never forgot to ask how her day had gone, and sympathize when things had not gone well, and praise her when she had done something well. At first this was startling to her, but after a while she became used to it, and seemed to appreciate it very much. Silently he thanked Spock and Kurik and Tanik for the things that they had told him.

T'Cila

She had been so startled when she felt those first sparks darting along her nerves from where their hands were clasped together. She had looked up at Tilek with wide eyes, to see him looking back at her, just as startled. She had come back to her quarters that evening, and settled herself down in front of her firepot and thought long and hard about that. When she rose and prepared herself for bed, she had come to a decision. But she was not going to tell Tilek about it, oh no, not until he asked again.

She found that she much enjoyed the days and nights that followed, enjoyed the attention he showered on her. He did not push, but he was always there, complimenting her, telling her what a good job she was doing, taking her places and bringing her gifts. And always, every single night, when he left her at the door to her quarters, he caressed her hands with his fingers before leaving, making her hands tingle and sing from his touch. She found herself beginning to wish that he would hurry up and take things to the next step, whatever that was. She was ready.

Pevek

Although he had not been at all successful in his courtship of human females, he found that the lessons he had learned there came in very handy as he considered how he would court T'Bel. And so he took her for walks about the ship, conversing quietly with her, and walked among the flowering plants in the arboretum, as well. And if they should stop now and then, and sit on one of the benches placed in little niches, surrounded by plants with lovely foliage, and lovelier scents, to talk privately, and his fingers should just happen to lightly brush against the back of her hand or her wrist, well, she did not complain, so it must be a successful ploy, must it not?

T'Bel

She found Pevek's gentle ways much more suited to her liking than the more boisterous human males had been. Walking about with him, standing and watching the stars in the observatory, sitting in the arboretum and smelling the wondrous scents of flowering plants from all over the galaxy were all very enjoyable. And sometimes he forgot to be entirely proper, and brushed his fingertips lightly against her skin, giving her tiny little thrills when he did so. She began to wish that he would do so more often. Perhaps she might even go so far as to place her hands where it would be easier for him to touch them. Surely that would not be too forward.

Brack

When he returned to his quarters after the dance, he sat quietly for some time, remembering how it had felt to have Leah in his arms, her head leaning against his chest as they moved about the floor. And contrary to what he had done then, he allowed his body to truly experience that feeling. He was not entirely sure what to do about the result. This was not something that had occurred to him before, well, not since his body first began to change from a child to that of a man. Eventually he remembered hearing other men talk about taking cold showers so he tried that. He emerged from the shower shaking and shivering, but the problem was still there. Well, he had not stood under that cold water more than one point five minutes, perhaps that was not long enough. There must be a better way of handling this problem. Meditation was not possible to achieve in that state. In desperation, he grasped the offending member and squeezed it, hoping that this would persuade it to return to a quiescent state, and found the holding and squeezing to be so pleasant that he gasped aloud, totally shocked. A little more holding and squeezing and the problem was solved, leaving him with a messy cleanup. As the days passed, he became much neater with the problem solving, which seemed to occur more and more often, as Leah continued to touch him with greater and greater frequency. He did nothing whatsoever to stop her.

Leah

The dancing had been so lovely. Leaning against him with her head tucked under his chin had been wonderful. He was so tall, and covered with firm muscle, and so very warm. She wondered how she could persuade him to hold her like that more often. And so the next week, when they were wandering down the paths of the arboretum, she 'stumbled' and fell against him, and he automatically put his arms around her to keep her from falling. She sighed and snuggled up against him, putting her arms around his waist, and thanked him for his help. His ears turned a lovely shade of green, but he did not drop his arms for several minutes. She became very adroit at finding ways to make him take her in his arms, and he did not seem to suspect at all what she was doing. Perhaps she was playing with fire, but it was such a lovely fire. Very, very soon, she was going to start kissing him, for she could not wait any longer at all.

Karck

The sensation of having Alis's body held closely against his own had aroused sensations and feelings that he had never experienced before. However, he found that he very much wanted to feel them again. Therefore, when she proposed giving him dancing lessons in her quarters, he eagerly accepted. Twice a week he went to her quarters after end-meal and she put on the music, and taught him one dance step after another. And all of them involved touching her body in different places, and holding her close against him in one way or another. It became more and more difficult to control his body's reaction to her, until one night, when she rubbed her fingers against the palm of his hand while rubbing her lovely round bottom against his groin, he forgot himself entirely and growled at her. She looked up at him over her shoulder, her eyes wide. "What was that, Karck?"

His ears and cheekbones turned bright green. "I do apologize. I have no right to treat you so."

She turned around within his embrace. "Treat me how? What did that noise you made mean? Tell me."

He stammered and stuttered, completely unable to get a single word out. Finally he managed a short sentence. "It is not proper to display aitlun toward you when there is no ugaya between us."

She looked at him oddly for a moment, and then nodded. He assumed she understood. "I will make greater attempts to control myself." And so he returned to his quarters and took another of those cold showers, standing under the freezing waters for two point three minutes before emerging shaking and shivering, completely unable to understand how human males could endure such torture.

Alis

The very next day she sought out Lieutenant Commander Uhura and asked for the translation of the two words that Karck had used. "Desire and promise. He thinks it is improper to desire me when there is no promise between us? What promise does he mean?"

Nyota looked at her and grinned. "Vulcan child are promised to each other when they are seven years old, or at least they used to be. I'm not so sure that much of that is done any more. It's sort of like being engaged, but they can sense each other's minds. So when they get to the stage of their life when they begin to feel sexual urgings, they have someone they're 'promised' to that it's proper to feel that way about."

Alis looked at Nyota with her eyes wide. "He's trying to suppress that?"

"Almost certainly. What do you intend to do about that?" Nyota was almost laughing.

"Oh, he's not going to get away with that. Oh, no, not at all." She grinned back. "How do I get my feelings on that across to him?"

"Touch his fingers, or even better, stick them in your mouth." Now she was laughing, and Alis was giggling, too. Poor Karck did not stand a chance.

And at the next dancing lesson, when she stood so very close to him, and took the hand she was holding and rubbing lightly between hers, and stuck his first two fingers right into her mouth and teased the tips with her tongue, he growled even louder than he had the first time, and used his other arm to wrap her tightly about the waist and pull her body so close to his that she could tell exactly what he though about what she was doing. That was the night that he proposed and she accepted.

Stuln

He continued to take Momoko on walks about the ships, conversing with her about the differences between their childhoods, the assumptions their parents had made about their futures, and many other things. Gradually, she became less shy around him, and eventually began to slip her hand into the crook of his elbow, as he had seen other women doing to the men they were with. This made him feel very proud, and extremely protective of her. This feeling of protectiveness became stronger each day, and led to him doing things like checking intersections to be sure they were clear before walking into them when she was with him, and querying about the contents of dishes on the serving line to be sure that they did not contain any of the foodstuffs to which she was allergic. It was only when he realized that some of his actions were embarrassing to her that he went and spoke to those more experienced than he was to see whether he was going too far. He then attempted to apologize.

"But Stuln, your actions tell me how much you care about me." Her lovely almond-shaped eyes looked right into his. "I would much rather be slightly embarrassed at times than wonder whether you were actually concerned about things that might happen to me."

These words made him swell with something that he could not at first identify. It was not anything that he had ever felt before. He looked down at her and so very gently raised one hand and ran one finger down the side of her face. Her eyes fluttered and she sighed softly and leaned her face into his touch. And all about them, he saw fine silver lines, floating in the air. He was not at all sure what those were, but they must be something very important. He would ask one of the bonded Vulcans tomorrow.

The Others

Apask continued to sing with the chorus. He met thirty-eight people of various species and sexes in that way. Some of them became very good friends. At the insistence of one of those, he joined the intra-mural volleyball team. He discovered that all the women wore bikinis and the men wore very brief trunks. There was much touching. And at the conclusion of each game, there was a group hug. He found he enjoyed this very much. And there were three women on his volleyball team that he asked Spock to help him find out whether they were joined or free. Two of them listed their status as single.

Deltk also sang with the chorus. This led to his becoming an assistant teacher in one of the women's self-defense classes. He found that he must touch the women to show them how to position their bodies. At first this was difficult, but the women were very focused on improving their skills, and so it became easier for him. That is, except for one young woman with very curly black hair and bright blue eyes, who always smiled so nicely at him. It took him five lessons to ask if he could walk her back to her quarters at the class conclusion. She smiled happily and led the way.

Gron followed up with every female that he had met at the dance. Some of them only lasted for a few hours, but two of them seemed extremely compatible. He alternated between them, walking about the ship, talking, sitting in the observatory or the arboretum, and eating with them in the mess hall, until they confronted him together one evening and told him to chose. He was very flustered over this, and said he needed time to think about this decision. They told him he had twenty-four hours. He went straight to Kurik and begged for help. Kurik just shook his head and told him to make a list of the good points and not-so-good points of each woman and compare them. So that is what he did.

And then he called them to meet him and read them the lists, and told him his decision. And they both looked at him like he was a wild le-matya and stalked off, telling him to go find someone else. He had no idea what he had done wrong, and required much meditation to recover from this incident.

Skillar joined a bowling league and watched many young women make the approach to the line, stooping down and throwing the heavy balls. He was quite impressed with their skill. And their musculature. But the ones he was most interested in seemed to already be claimed.

Lonon took a cooking class. He was the only male in the class. He enjoyed himself tremendously, and found himself invited to several women's quarters to sample the things they had cooked. This pleased him even more. He found himself becoming much better at making 'small talk' and began to relax a little. Surely eventually he would find the special one for him.

/

Ozh'esta = Vulcan finger embrace

Aitlun = desire

Ugaya = promise