*Nyota*

Spock got out of bed at some dark, cold, ungodly hour. Nyota half awoke as he did so, grumbling when he extracted himself from her embrace. She'd been taking full advantage of his warm Vulcan-ness in the morning chill, pressing as much of herself as possible against him. She rolled over into the warm space he'd left in the covers and promptly went back to sleep.

Some hours later Nyota awoke alone and disorientated. She felt a disconcerting burst of adrenaline as if she'd been shocked. She reached out to Spock in confusion, expecting to feel him meditating nearby. Instead she felt him downstairs, wide awake and… in pain? She sat up abruptly and reached for him more firmly through their bond. She felt a sharp bolt of agony rip through him then vanish just as quickly. Her breath caught in her throat. He was not concerned, but the pain was real. He was… fighting? She did not feel the sense of amusement and enjoyment he felt when sparring with her father, just detached Vulcan logic.

She had her hand on the doorknob before she realised she was naked. Turning she picked up the nearest piece of clothing. It was Spock's meditation robe. The cool silky material felt lovely against her skin, but she ignored the sensation and fastened it hastily as she jogged downstairs barefoot.

She encountered her parents in the kitchen drinking coffee with her mémé. Her mother was in the process of making pancakes and Nyota could smell eggs and bacon.

Her mémé looked up and gave her a bright smiled. 'Good morning!'

Nyota ignored the greeting. 'Is Spock sparring?' she asked the room at large.

Her mother and grandmother glanced at each other in confusion and Zuberi shrugged.

'I only just came downstairs.' her father replied.

In answer to her query there was a loud crashing noise from the general direction of the gym. Nyota felt a wave of pain from Spock through the bond. She doubled over and stumbled slightly. Her father frowned and gave her a concerned look.

'Nyota? What is it?' Her mémé had half risen from her seat.

Nyota ignored her and turned and ran. She heard her father getting to his feet behind her, his chair scrapping against the tiles. Her heart was beating too quickly. The pain had receded again but it had been too much, like being stabbed or electrocuted, not the dull pain of a fist fight. The double doors into the gymnasium were locked. Nyota rattled the handle uselessly.

'Spock!' she called desperately.

Her father took in the locked door and jogged back towards the kitchen, almost bowling over her mother and grandmother in the process. Nyota stood frozen at the door, her ears straining. She could hear thuds, footsteps and heavy breathing. Fighting, someone was fighting with Spock. A jeering laugh carried through the heavy doors.

Her uncle. She clenched her jaw in anger. Of course it was Abasi.

'What's going on Nyota?' her mother inquired. Her grandmother was standing at Tamu's elbow and both were peering at her in concern.

She opened her mouth to explain but instead of words found herself letting out a low moan and arching her back as pain struck her suddenly in her left shoulder, worse than before. It spread through her body for a few seconds before dissipating into an ache. Spock was silently trying to push her away from him within their bond. She realised that she was clinging to him and supposed that was why she was feeling his pain so intensely. She couldn't bring herself to let go.

Her mémé had wrapped a warm papery hand around her arm and her mother stood on her other side with her arm around her shoulders.

'Nyota?!' her grandmother exclaimed, her eyes wide.

'I'm fine.' she reassured them. 'It's not me. They're hurting Spock.' Neither commented on the odd implication of her statement - that she could feel her husband's pain.

Her grandmother exchanged a hard look with her mother. 'Abasi.' It was disconcerting to hear her sweet elderly mémé inject such venom into her softly accented voice.

Her father returned with the house masterkey. The three women shifted from the door to make room for him. Nyota pushed the door nearest her wide the moment Zuberi turned the key and half ran inside.

The scene that met her was unsurprising. Her uncle and cousins were apparently trying to beat up Spock. Amani was holding what looked like a stun baton. Undoubtedly that had been the cause of the pain she'd felt.

Spock was wearing a dark Starfleet undershirt and the loose pants he meditated in. They'd obviously ambushed him when he was exercising. His back was towards her. The soft black cotton of his shirt was torn over his left shoulder. Green blood was visible through the tear. As she watched he pivoted quickly on his feet to avoid a kick from Azizi and knocked Amani and the stun baton backwards with a kick of his own before blocking a hard blow from Abasi. Her uncle's fist made a terrible deep thud as it collided with her husband's raised arm. Now side on to her, Spock looked up as she and her father approached. His hair was messy, pushed back from his face and sticking up in places. Nyota assumed it was from the shock of the baton.

'Spock!' she yelled, rather pointlessly.

Her father didn't bother saying anything, he just charged Azizi, who happened to be nearest.

Abasi and Amani ignored him and continued trying to attack Spock. It was plain to Nyota that Spock was trying not to hurt them, and as a result they were getting the occasional hit in. She could feel him considering then dismissing different tactics and moves, worried he'd miscalculate and seriously injure the human men.

Her mother and mémé came to stand near her.

'Stop this! Abasi! What do you think you are doing!' Tamu yelled. She was ignored of course.

Her mémé didn't say anything, just took hold of Nyota's arm and watched closely.

Abasi laughed. 'Your Vulcan's not so tough now!' He glanced at Nyota. 'Watch closely niece.' He and Amani began attacking Spock in earnest. Spock blocked and avoided most of them easily, moving with his inhuman Vulcan speed and grace, but Amani managed to graze the baton along the underside of his ribs. He clearly had the power set on maximum since the shock made a terrible fwoop noise as it released its charge and sent Spock stumbling backwards a few metres.

Nyota let out a pained groan, her hand pressing to her side as she felt an echo of Spock's pain before he could block it from her. Her mémé helped her straighten and looked at her in concern.

She stared at her uncle and tried to get his attention as he advanced upon Spock once more. 'Stop it! You're hurting him!'

'That's the idea!' her uncle replied. 'He needs to learn some manners.'

She glanced at her father helplessly. Zuberi was besting Azizi, but his nephew was twenty years his junior and it was not happening fast enough. Spock needed to snap out of his altruistic mood and fight back already.

'Spock! Hit them already!' she called. 'I don't care if they're family!'

He ignored her.

She watched helpless for perhaps a minute. Spock continued to block, but his technique was not up to its usual standards. He was off balanced by his worry about the frailty of his opponents, second guessing himself and consciously letting the occasional blow connect when the defence might have injured her cousin or uncle.

Frustration welled up inside her. 'He's not even trying uncle! The only reason you're hitting him at all is because he's letting you! He's worried he'll accidentally kill you!' She was exaggerating, but it was more or less accurate.

'He's letting them hit him?' her meme inquired in disbelief. 'But there are two of them and Amani has that… thing!'

'I know! He's being his stupid stubborn Vulcan self!' Nyota responded hotly without looking away from her husband.

He needed to fight back already. She didn't want to have to stand there was watch him get hurt.

She could think of only one fast way to ensure he did so.

She slipped from her position between her mémé and her mother and ran at her uncle. She was dimly aware of her mother yelling something behind her but she ignored her. She attempted to put her hand to hand combat training to good use. It was pointless of course, he was three times her size. Maybe more. He blocked a kick to his shin, completely ignored a punch to his side and blocked another kick aimed at his kidneys before he backhanded her as easily as he might swat a fly. She blocked the blow, but the force of it threw her arm wide and his hand caught her under the jaw. Her teeth snapped together sharply as her face exploded in heat and pain.

The force of the blow tripped her backwards and her feet tangled beneath her. She fell to the mats a few metres away, her face burning. She'd barely gotten her senses back before she felt black rage well up within Spock pushing aside his former cool logic. Compared to the agony of a shock baton on full charge her uncle's backhand hardly hurt at all, but from Spock's reaction it might as well have.

He roared. She looked up in time to see her uncle receive a punch that sent him to straight his knees. The noise of Spock's fist colliding with her uncle's face was obscene – a deep soft crunching noise. Abasi let out a grunt part pain, part shock. Spock's face was twisted in anger. It was both exhilarating and disturbing to witness. He delivered another savage blow with the side of his palm to Abasi's neck that had her uncle gasping and clutching at his throat. Then a kick sent Abasi onto his back to slide a few meters across the room, the mats rucking beneath him. He sprawled across them unmoving.

Spock stared at him, his chest rising and falling rapidly before apparently dismissing him and turning to Amani. The glare he sent her cousin and the snarl on his mouth should have been warning enough, but it was not. Amani brandished the shock baton. Spock didn't wait for him to attack, he charged him with the full superior speed of a Vulcan and a roar that wasn't human.

He delivered a powerful blow from both hands to Amani's chest that knocked him stumbling backwards. Amani recovered, though he was coughing and wheezing, and came at Spock swinging the shock baton. Spock dodged it almost negligently before delivered a blow from high above his head that impacted with Amani's shoulder and sent him to his knees. Amani swung wildly with the baton. Spock stepped forward and grabbed Amani's fist with his left hand preventing him from swinging the baton further.

Amani struggled to break the grip as Spock pointed the index and middle finger of his free hand. His movements were a blur as he stabbed his pointed fingers precisely into places on Amani's elbow and shoulder that made her cousin yell out in pain. His arm fell limp at his side. Spock caught the shock baton as he dropped it and punched Amani in the chest. He went sprawling onto his back. Spock took the baton in both hands and broke it as Amani scrambled backwards along the floor. He couldn't shear the metal of the casing, but he bent at a right angle, ignoring the sparks and puffs of smoke as it short circuited, then tossed it aside.

Amani was several meters away and staring at him in obvious fear. Nyota could feel Spock regaining control of his emotions. Amani had not touched her after all, that was Abasi. Spock's anger at him was much less than that at her uncle. She could sense him centering himself to speak, end the pointless exchange of blows. Stupidly, her cousin charged him before he could.

Spock flipped over Amani taking hold of him as he did so and using the momentum of his flip simply threw him over his shoulder as he landed. Threw him across the room. Her 6ft 4 cousin. As if he weighed nothing. Her mémé gasped. Amani landed awkwardly against the stone wall and slid into a heap on the floor, conscious but dazed. Abasi yelled in anger at seeing his son hurt. He was on his feet and charging Spock like an enraged bull within seconds, his earlier humiliation forgotten.

Abasi towered over Spock both in height and build. Her husband ducked under Abasi's right hook and kicked his legs out from under him. As the taller man fell past him Spock roared once more and delivered a solid blow to the back of his neck with the side of his palm. Abasi gasped in pain but Spock had already moved on. He gripped Abasi's arm, his right arm, the one he had struck her with. Nyota suddenly knew exactly what was going to happen. She inhaled sharply, a hand to her mouth. There was a sick nervous feeling in her stomach but she couldn't look away.

There was a horrible grinding crunch as Spock bent her uncle's hand back against his arm and broke the little bones in his wrist, then a sharp crack as he punched his forearm and broke the two bones there, and finally a much louder one as he drove his elbow into his bicep and Abasi's humerus snapped. It had taken only a few seconds. Abasi's eyes were wide and his mouth gaped in a wide O of shock and pain. He hadn't even had time to scream. Spock's face was contorted in a mix of rage and satisfaction. She could feel him… revealing in his strength. He wanted to break Abasi's other arm. And then his neck. The rage she felt in him was alien to her. It was mixed up with that dark feeling Vulcan feeling that was his affection for her. Abasi had hurt her. Spock felt almost compelled to remove the threat posed to her. She could feel him pushing at the urge, restraining his most primitive instincts.

Spock's voice was low and hinted at barely controlled rage as he leant and spoke near his ear. 'Touch my wife again and I will break more than your arm Abasi Uhura.' His normally perfect standard was slightly accented. He did not use tal-shaya to painlessly render his opponent unconscious, he made a fist and punched him in the back of the skull.

Abasi fell forwards boneless onto the mats.

Spock stared at him for a moment then visible repressed his emotions until he once more exuded only pure Vulcan calm. It was like watching a curtain drop. The change in him was sudden and complete. At least outwardly.

Nyota noted that Azizi had been likewise dealt with and her father looked none the worse. He was glancing from Spock to his brother and frowning.

Her mother and grandmother were both staring at Spock wide eyed. Seeing a Vulcan angry, fighting violently was something of a shock to the system.

Spock said nothing. He walked over to Nyota and knelt beside her on the mats. She could feel him reaching for her through their bond even as he pulled her into his arms and onto his lap. He looked down at her with dark eyes and pressed warm Vulcan fingers to the split on her lip and the redness of her cheek. When he spoke it was in Van-Kal Vuhlkansu, in the same deep tone of voice he'd once used in the Shipyard bar after Sparcs had threatened her.

'Thou art hurt.'

His eyes held hers magnetically, expressing a thousand things his words did not.

She responded in a voice that was little more than a whisper. 'It is a small hurt.'

She was aware of her parents and grandmother staring at them. Spock was clearly out of sorts to touch her so openly in front of others. Before she could think of an appropriate course of action, he'd risen to his feet with her still held in his arms. She slid an arm around his neck, but she didn't really need to hang on, he was strong enough to keep a firm grip on her easily. She could still feel ripples in that dark pool of Vulcan emotion that he kept hidden deep inside him. She pressed her face against him even as she pressed her mind towards him, trying to let her love calm him. Her parents were talking softly to each other in Swahili but she paid them no mind.

Spock carried her from the gymnasium and up to her room without another word. He was carefully keeping his mind blank, but she could tell it was costing him a great deal. It was a sensation she could only equate to holding her breath. Inevitably the need for oxygen would win out.

He sat down on the bed and pushed a hand into her hair so he could pull her face to his. He did not kiss her, just pressed his face against hers, the unmarked side so as not to hurt her. She could feel the thrum of emotion buried within him. His eyes had been so dark and wild, as wild as they'd been the night Spracs had attacked her. There was no doubt in her mind that Spock had come very close to killing the former lieutenant that night. She suddenly felt guilty for intentionally provoking him. She'd known the easiest way to get him to fight back would be to get involved. But she had not thought her actions through. But what if she'd been more seriously hurt? If Amani had shocked her with the baton? Spock might well have killed him. It did not bear thinking of.

Spock's arms were tight around her and he was rubbing his face against her cheek, her neck, her shoulder - like a cat marking her with his scent. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and drew circles on his neck and back. He was shaking slightly with adrenaline or suppressed emotion. She wasn't sure. Absently she started humming. She didn't make a conscious choice, just hummed the last thing in her head. The song she'd sung the evening before, when Spock had played her lute. It was simple song, but dealing as it did with loving someone from the stars she'd always found it quite romantic. Her choral group had performed it at the Academy and she'd day dreamed hopelessly about Spock quite a bit singing it when he was serving on the Nelson.

She softly sang a line in a voice little more than a whisper. 'where my heart is...' She pressed a kiss to his warm cheek and hummed a few more lines before singing again, her lips brushing his skin as she formed soft words. 'I'll be back, though it takes forever…' The ripples seemed to have calmed. Nyota no longer felt him holding his emotions in such tight check. 'somewhere, beyond the stars …' She could feel that he enjoyed hearing her sing, even if he thought the song overly emotional. His dismissiveness of her human sentimentality made her smile. He was clearly feeling more like himself.

She pressed a chaste kiss to his lips and he responded in kind. They lazily kissed and explored each other's mouths. Kissing Spock slowly and thoroughly was something of a novelty. Without frantic lust distracting her, she felt the difference between them, his sharp Vucan teeth with their different arrangement of canines and molars. She liked the way the points rasped against her tongue. He tasted faintly of toothpaste, but for the most part he tasted like Spock - like heat and fire, like a hot wind blown across a red desert. She shifted, turning in his arms so she could straddle his lap and kiss him more deeply.

Spock pushed the robe off her shoulders and began making a more thorough exploration of her. Warm Vulcan fingers trailed over her cool human skin - her neck, her shoulders, her breasts. She shivered. He pressed his mouth to the hollow of her collarbone and licked the skin there. She could feel the growing heat of his desire through their bond, slowly replacing his possessive anger. His hair was like silk. She twisted fingers in it then ran them down the line of his face and out to trace the graceful tilt of his ears. He pressed his face between her breasts, accepting her caress, letting her hold him against her. She sat back on her legs and shuffled closer, pressing her hips flush against his.

He groaned as she twisted her body, grinding herself against him. 'Nyota. My Nyota.'

She felt the unspoken question, his need for reassurance.

His covetous Vulcan's heart required it.

'Yours Spohkh, always.'

He found her lips with his own once more. 'Khio'ri…' The word caught her by surprise. Star. Her name in his native tongue. She felt her heart clench. He had called her more romantic things, but here was something completely new. A perfectly logical, literal translation of her name. A very Vulcan endearment.

She wished vainly she could translate his name into Swahili.

Her ruminations were pushed from her mind as his teeth gently caught her bottom lip. He splayed a hand between her shoulder blades and pressed her closer to him as his long fingers drew circles on her skin. Nyota melted against him, her tongue darting out to entwine with his. She pulled at his hair, tilting his head so she could get her mouth nearer to his. She was vividly aware that the only thing she was wearing was Spock's meditation robe. It was pooled around her elbows where he had pushed it. Heat was quickly spreading through her body and she shifted, rubbing herself against him and fanning that slow burn of desire between them.

Spock tensed beneath her and pulled her even closer. He ran a hand up her thigh and beneath the robe. Nyota froze and held her breath as his fingers drew closer to where her body ached and throbbed for him. He parted her heated folds with warm fingers and her breath was sucked out of her lungs in a whoosh. He gently moved them against her and she groaned helplessly, her grip tightening on him and her kisses becoming more heated. She could tell he was in no hurry to have her, but she felt needy with want. His hand felt wonderful, but it paled into comparison what the hardness pressed against her thigh promised.

She ran a hand down over his chest to squeeze him through the material of his pants. His mouth faltered against hers and she felt his wave of pleasure through the bond. His hand slipped down from where he had been teasing and he slowly pushed two fingers inside her. She keened in his ear as they curled inside her pressing against that place that made her gasp. Her patience snapped. She was only human after all.

She slipped her hand under the waistband of Spock's pants and wrapped her fingers around his length, gently tugging him free of the material. Once she had him free and straining against her she wasted no time in forming a fist around him and sliding her hand down his pulsing flesh. He pulled his mouth from hers and groaned softly. She repeated the movement as he gripped her thighs and pulled her against him so their bodies were aligned. She moaned at the feel of him pressed tantalisingly against her. She heard his longing reflected likewise in his voice 'Nyota…'

She spread her legs wider and squirmed against him wordlessly communicating her desire. He shifted his grip to curve a hand around her hip and slowly pressed himself inside her. Her breath caught and her body froze around him, bolts of pleasure shooting through her both from where his flesh met her own within her and through their bond. She groaned, her head rolling forward weakly to fall against his shoulder. They moved languorously against one another, Nyota rolling her hips and riding him.

The gentle pace of their love-making was also unusual for them. Usually Nyota ended up teasing and arousing her Vulcan until he was in a very un-Vulcan state and what they ended up doing couldn't really be termed 'love-making'. However Nyota could feel Spock had no desire to lose control of his emotions as he usually did when they were together. He had barely kept his anger in check earlier, feeling such strong emotions had left him exhausted.

Nyota kissed him deeply as she rode him towards their mutual completion. Spock traced the shape of her body with his hands; her shoulders, her back, the swell of her hips and the curve of her backside. She felt her climax building and her movements became more frantic. Spock lifted a hand to cradle the side of her face. She turned into his palm and impulsively caught his thumb between her teeth.

Spock stared at her mouth. Sensing his interest she wrapped her tongue around his thumb and sucked even as his fingers found her psi points. She gasped as their minds blurred into one. It was almost as good as sex itself. She could feel the dark well of his buried lust - the alien urge that compelled him to possess her completely, a deep Vulcan instinct that drove him to bite and mark her and name her his his his.

She groaned around his thumb then started at the unexpected pleasure she felt from him. Her eyes opened to meet his. She'd forgotten that Vulcan's had far more sensitive fingers than humans. Biting softly into the pad of his thumb had an even more pronounced effect upon him, his hips snapped up sharply and he growled softly deep in his chest. Nyota mirrored his movements, bracing herself on his shoulders and sliding herself up and down upon him. She tried to hold off, to savour the feel of them joined both body and mind, but the combination of sensations overwhelmed her. Her body shuddered and tensed as she was drowned in burning waves of pleasure. Spock's hips bucked up against her as she pulled him along with her. His head fell forward to rest against her shoulder as he spent himself inside her. She curled an arm around his head and cradled him to her.

AN: I finally read my last um, 30ish reviews because I get LE NERVOUS.

Thank you all so much for your kind words! You made me smile so much reading through them. Definitely makes sharing this online worthwhile knowing some people enjoyed it.

For the people who were disappointed with how the story worked out, thanks anyway for sticking with it for so long and giving it a try. Some of the comments I've gotten I think will help me improve my writing. Eg. I think maybe my *cough* 'love scenes' are a tad... porny. I guess I'm just a bit of slut at heart. I think I need to class them up/tone them down a bit.

Last chapter will be up tomorrow/later on today depending on time to give it a once over.