They had been seeing each other in a more romantic capacity from the moment she had received a hard earned promotion to Lieutenant, which was a genuine rarity among third year cadets, and if pride were logical, he would feel it for her greatly.
Though she was now considered to be a fellow officer to her peers and his alike, blurring the lines of technicality between the already slightly ambiguous regulations regarding personal relationships, they had decided it would be best to progress beyond a professional setting discreetly and slowly, and he had been grateful for the opportunity to become more familiar with such a Human custom as dating.
The evening he had turned 16, he had been taken for a weekend visit to Earth, and he had been forced by his mother to go along with his rather wayward male cousin to a loud, and blatantly illegal house party. It was traditional for teenage boys, she had said, but having been forbidden to discuss the matter with his father, he was not so sure.
There, a spinning bottle had somehow seen him pushed into kissing on the mouth a girl named Caitlyn that had developed a 'crush' on him when they were much smaller, and she had found him as awkward as she believed him to be handsome. As unresponsive as she believed him to be inexperienced. As alien as she believed him to be unable to understand the apparent significance of the uncomfortable event, and he had had no desire to repeat it then, or at any point in the future.
His first kiss with Nyota, however, taken at the staircase leading up to her dorm building where he had walked her after their third date, had sent static electricity through his cheek and along his scalp, spreading outward from where her palm was pressed to hold him at the back of his neck.
It had been vastly favorable to his previous experience, hot dancing desire pooling low in his stomach with the timid slide of her tongue, and his natural body heat should have been the only thing keeping her from shivering in the near freezing temperature of Terran winter, but still she was, pressed against him on the tips of her toes.
He was more than mildly disappointed when finally she pulled away from him, holding fast to his fingers instead, and the white vapor of her breath against his lips was most appealing, as she said, "Goodnight, Spock."
His alarmingly rapid heartbeat had him taking a half step back from her, though she did not drop his hand, and the feeling she was veritably pouring into him gleamed in her expression.
"Goodnight, Nyota."
His respiration was markedly elevated as he stared at her for longer than was necessary, and he did not make his way toward his apartment for some time, kissing her and kissing her as minutes ticked by.