"I never used to like hugs," Elle mused, comfortably squashed between Kirk and Uhura on the couch, Kirk's arm around her shoulders. Everyone shifted to make room for Scotty on Uhura's other side and Elle curled closer to Kirk.

He patted her arm. "Not surprising," he said. "With drastic change comes the need for simple human touch. And, you know, being cooped up in deep space, people also start getting more tactile."

Elle turned her head to observe the other movie-goers. Most everyone was squashed into couches, lazily leaning against each other, socked feet tucked up under thighs or heads resting on shoulders. "'S'nice," Elle decided. "Not like my universe. The 21st century is the worst."

Uhura leaned over and pressed a kiss to Elle's cheek. "Getting sleepy, Elle?"

"Nuh-uh," Elle said.

The next thing she knew, her head was Uhura's lap and the older woman was gently carding her fingers through Elle's hair. Elle almost blushed when she realized her mismatched socks were on display with her feet on Kirk's lap, but she was warm and sleepy and the third movie was just starting...

"We're back to Legos?"

"Miniblocks," Scotty corrects. "The fundamentals of robotics and programming." He gestured to the piles of colored blocks, chips, and attachments. "Go nuts. If anything catches on fire, holler." He stepped out of Elle's classroom.

Elle poked at one of the modules to see if it would catch fire. Nothing happened. Probably safe, then. For Scotty/Engineering levels of safe.

She went through the tutorials and exited her classroom to go find Scotty. She found him methodically stripping and refilling plasma conduits. She sat next to him. "Hey Scotty?"

"Aye, lass."

"I have a question."

He made an affirmative noise. "Pass me the 02 spanner, yes, thanks. What's your question?"

"Is that really your real accent or did one day somebody say 'oh hey, you're Scottish and your name's Scotty haha you must be like, really Scottish,' and you just really decided to lean into it?" Elle asked in a rush.

Clang! went the spanner. He stared at her, open-mouthed, ignoring the plasma dripping onto the floor. "Wha' kinda ridiculous question is tha'?" he asked, becoming exponentially more Glaswegian.

"Well Lt. Riley is super Irish but he barely has an accent and Ensign Mackenzie is from Aberdeen but she's got a real light accent and that other engineer from K7 was from Glasgow but he isn't as accent-y as you," Elle said, shifting uneasily.

"Ye have wounded mah soul," Scotty said.

"Sorry." She peered up at him expectantly. "I won't tell anyone, not a single soul. I swear."

"Swear on the Enterprise's engines," he said mock-solemnly.

"I swear."

He sighed. "You know, after thirty years, you're the first person to ask me that," he said in a perfectly understandable Scottish-lite accent, like the main guy from the Monarch of the Glen.

Elle's jaw dropped. "Wait, no, put it back," she protested weakly. "That's so weird..."

He snickered. "My first day at the Academy, some young idiot asked me that very question. I was already feeling the odd man out, coming to the Academy after getting civilian degrees and experience as an engineer, and being a decade older than all the rest. I didn't think twice. It was my grandfather's accent, thick as any Scots you've ever heard. And like you said, I just went full Scottish madman on 'em and never looked back."

Elle couldn't stop gaping. "...I'm really sorry I asked," she said. "Can we pretend I never said anything? It's like Spock without ears, I can't handle this."

He cackled until he had tears in his eyes. "Aye lass. Ah, the things you come up wi'."

She sighed in relief. "Much better. What did your family say?"

"Tha' I'm off my rocker, so to speak."

Elle grinned. "Nice."

Another crewman entered that section and Scotty turned back to the console. "Pass me the 05, lass."

"Yup."

"And don't think that I haven't noticed you didn't start on your robot."

Elle went back to her classroom. She couldn't get the whole concept out of her head. What even-She grinned. "Oh, I'm a genius..."

Over the next two weeks she managed to construct and program a little droid that did the Cupid shuffle. She set it up in the Rec Deck as a curiosity and somebody, probably from Ops, put it on a pedestal with a plaque. "Dance demo, 21st century Earth." That wasn't the good part, though.

She programmed the droid to sing "Never Gonna Give You Up" any time someone picked it up off the pedestal.

It nearly gave a Maintenance ensign a heart attack when he went to clean that table. Nobody really understood the concept of rick-rolling but that's okay. They still thought it was hilarious. It was a silent tribute to Scotty's trolling an entire 'fleet. Elle was gonna take that secret to her grave...