Chapter Two
Surprise
Trip arrived at his quarters in a most unusual frame of mind. Tia's inadvertent revelation of his surprise birthday party at least assured that when it did happen he would not be lounging about in his undershorts. On the other hand, he would have to feign an appropriate degree of surprise, something he was rarely good at.
He couldn't bring himself to be annoyed at her. She had, all unwittingly, done him a good service. Besides, he could never see himself even remotely annoyed with the intoxicating young woman. Not when he'd spent every spare minute reveling in her company. He wasn't sure how she felt about him, and he was not going to jeopardize anything by screwing up in speaking out of turn, but he knew exactly how he felt about her.
She haunted his waking moments and visited his dreams. She spiced every moment they spent together with the wonder of new discovery, and he cherished every chance he had to spend any time at all with her. And he was certainly not going to ruin it by telling her how he felt.
He'd had enough of those disastrous moments in his life, thank you. He was not going to screw up this time.
He was saved from the burden of any more musing by the chime at his door. 'This is it,' he thought, putting on his most vulnerable face, ready to be shocked when he opened the door.
It was just as well that he was prepared for surprise, for the sight of Tia Anlor standing alone in the hall, wearing the flame red gown he'd seen her in earlier, was not what he had been expecting. But the sight of her, so stunning in the red gown and her natural golden tones, was certainly enough to buoy his spirits. "You look more beautiful than ever." The words were out of his mouth before he could think, but he would not have recalled them for the universe.
"Thank you, Shar-les," she said softly, looking down, unable to meet his eyes.
"Well, come in. Come in." As birthdays went, this was shaping up to be an excellent one.
x
As she entered, and he closed the door after her, she felt his eyes stroking her body. The gown, for what there was of it, was completely open in the back, baring her beyond the middle of her back hair but having only two strips of scarlet material in front meeting behind her long golden hair. It was low and hugging at her hips to flare out to a floor length gown held off the deck by her red high heeled slippers. Against her golden skin tones, it was a powerful combination.
x
She clearly wore nothing more, and for an instant his mind shot back to the moment in the Sick Bay, not hours after coming aboard, when she'd switched from patient's gown to her own clothes by casually and unconcernedly stripping the former from her body and providing him with both an excellent view of her undraped body and his first major coronary in the same moment.
It was his dramatic introduction to the mores of a culture that had no particular sense of modesty as espoused by humans. The Aurans wore what clothing was needed for protection or warmth, but the concept of keeping certain parts covered, the so-called 'private parts' among humans, simply did not exist in their culture.
It would take a lot of getting used to.
x
"Shar-les, I …." She was unable to say it, but she had to say something to him. "Do you …?" No, this was not right. She couldn't say such a thing. "I …" But that was wrong too.
"Yes?"
But then she approached him, put her arms around him and drew him close, came up on her toes to touch her lips to the side of his neck. At all other times she had put her lips to his wrist, just finding the beat of his pulse. It was never a kiss, just the touch of her lips.
It had been one of the first introductions to Auran ways of greeting, and he noticed that over time it became more prolonged, the touch of her lips to the beat of his pulse. He'd wondered if he should repeat the gesture, but she never seemed to expect it, so he had not tried.
As a good ole Southern gentleman, he felt he should respond in kind by kissing her hand, but as she had never kissed him he felt it a very bad idea to try.
But now her lips lay almost feathery soft against his neck and an electric tingle chased up and down his body, but still she did not kiss him, though the touch was considerably more intimate than any they had shared. But it was not a kiss, just the barest sustained touch of her lips to his neck, though the intensity of the tingling that shot through his body, chasing itself up and down him, made it even more intimate. He was just never sure how to respond, or even if he should. Was it woman to man, was it intimate for them, was he cracking up?
She drew back, lowering herself down to her high heels. "Happy birthday, Shar-les," she whispered. Her golden eyes lingered on his, and he wished he knew what she was looking for, or trying to tell him. Should he kiss her?
She stepped back, and asked without the distress a human woman might show if he had cocked it up: "Like you the dress?" She spun slowly to give him a good look.
"It's lovely."
"And …." She stopped, unable to say it. She knew what she wanted to ask him, but the English words escaped her. She knew, in Auran, what she wanted to say, knew she could turn on the UT and say them, but for so long she had resisted the crutch of the machine, and was not about to fall back on it now. She stepped back. "Yvet dupris akiir?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Ask I … enjoy the view do you?"
"Yes. I said it's very lovely."
She stopped, confused by his reaction. Maybe she was not sensing him as well as she thought.
"Shar-les, a question may ask I you?"
"Of course."
"I …." She wasn't sure how to say it. "I …." She felt like a pervert. A woman simply did not say this to a man, despite Hoshi Sato's assurance and advice. "I …." She looked away, frustrated and embarrassed.
"Well, so far the ayes have it." She turned completely from him, her voice trembling.
"Do you mock me, Shar-les? That a nice thing is to do not."
"Oh, no. I'd never mock you." He stepped closer, trying to get her to turn to him or move around where he could see her but she would not turn. "I'm just trying to understand, and doing a pretty poor job at it."
"If ask you something I do, think a pervert I am will you not?"
"Never." She took a shuddering breath, and when she turned he was surprised to find that there were tears trickling down her golden cheeks. "Tia, why are you crying?"
"I do to want not, but so dirty feel makes this me. It is natural not!"
"What if you don't ask me?"
"Oh, feel I so much better would if I did not."
"Then don't. Maybe we'll find the answer without your having to ask." She blushed a deep gold, turning away, covering her eyes with her fingertips; not wanting him to see her.
"So dirty I feel just asking having thought of."
He reached out, trying to gently turn her back so she would look at him. "You're not dirty. I'm not quite sure what's going on, but I do know that. Whatever's wrong, we'll figure it out without your having to ask - I hope. In the meantime, why don't you just relax?" She looked at him, confused. "Get comfortable, do whatever you need to unwind and relax. I'm going to change out of this uniform, and I'll be right back."
"I may teelriis … um, in your tongue get comfortable?"
"I said so, didn't I? Look, let's have a relaxing evening, and we'll work everything out in its own time, o.k.?"
"O.k. Thank you, Shar-les."
He stepped away toward the inner room, and then stopped. "Have I ever told you how incredibly sexy you make my name sound?"
She smiled. "Shar-les."
"I'll be right back. Just make yourself comfortable and relax."
xx
When he was gone she did feel more relaxed, but since he had explicitly given her permission for teelriis, for a relaxing of her attire, she would do so and relax. So long as she could enjoy teelriis, she need not worry about conventions here. Reaching for the snap under her hair, she undid it and let the red gown snake down her golden body to the floor. Feeling infinitely better, though she left on the high heeled red slippers in order to be more of a height with him, she stepped out of the red puddle of her gown, picked it up and draped it over the back of the couch.
The chime rang, and she crossed the room, pushed the button to open the door. Jonathan, Malcolm, Travis, Phlox, T'Pol, Hoshi and Elizabeth stood in the corridor, laden with trays of food, several liquid refreshments and assorted wrapped gifts. They'd been ready with an exclamation of 'Surprise.', but were universally stricken dumb. With the exception of T'Pol each of them greeted the nude golden Auran with expressions of astonishment. Several eyes stroked her body, again with the exception of T'Pol, and in this case a very carefully restrained Archer, whose eyes were locked very firmly on Tia's.
"Galyas!" she exclaimed, delighted. In the chaos of emotions she had actually forgotten the party. "Klusel, lu res! I mean, 'come in' will you?" Not a single one of them could find an answer to that, and en mass they entered, considerably stunned. The door closed behind them. "Shar-les in the other room is, removing his uniform."
"Obviously he's started the party without us." T'Pol observed. "Clearly, he has already unwrapped his present."
"Sub-Commander." Archer's voice was as hard as his eyes. He dearly hoped he could limit things to that. From within the cabin, they heard Trip's voice as he approached.
"Tia, who was that at the doOH MY GOD!"
Trip and his best friends stared at one another from the either side of the unconcernedly nude Auran, not a single person able to speak until Hoshi managed to say weakly; "Surprise."
xx
The strangest party that anyone in the room had ever experienced was under way, and all were having a grand time in spite of, or perhaps because of, its unique beginnings. Trip had been inclined at first to apologize for his friend's earlier disrobed state; he had quickly convinced her to resume the gown, but Archer's rather distinct observation that the Auran came from a different culture where the Earth human mores held no sway effectively eliminated any need. Besides, these were his friends. If there was anyone who needed no explanations, it was each person in this room.
However, he became aware of Tia's absence, which grew more pronounced as it was prolonged. Finally, it was the rather astonishing sight of T'Pol exiting his bedroom that peaked his interest. "T'Pol?" She turned her placid gaze to him. "I can't quite think of how to ask why you were in my bedroom."
The words were enough for silence to crash down upon the room, but the Vulcan had a calm answer. "I was conversing with Crewwoman Anlor."
He couldn't help but ask: "What about?"
"I was enlightening her on the standards of Enterprise protocols and behavior." Something about the chillingly dispassionate way she said that made him go to the door and open it.
Tia sat in a chair, her back to the door, and she was sobbing brokenly, her body wracked by the force of her crying. Shooting T'Pol a deadly look, he entered the room and sealed the door behind him.
"Sub-Commander, will you walk with me please?" Archer suggested, his voice as grim as any had ever heard it. No one needed to be told that the party was over.
xx
Trip stood with his back to the door, uncertain how to begin. It was clear she had no idea he was there. She sat weeping in abject misery, completely oblivious to everything except the torment that wracked her soul. "Tia?"
She gasped, startled, and turned, brushed tears from her face, mortified. To be caught crying was horrible enough; to have him catch her … "Oh, Shar-les, sorry am I. You your party at should be."
He came around where he could look at her. "Forget the party. Talk to me."
She looked down, unable to meet his eyes, deeply ashamed and miserable.
"You hate me should. Ruined everything I have. I … too gendlerrs duplendi … too stupid in your language am to even comprehend 'surprise', and ruined I that. I shamed you have before all your friends by as an Auran behaving instead of a human. I humiliated you and myself have. Again! You should even be forced to look at me not. I will - ."
"You'll listen, I hope." He knelt beside the chair. "First off, you didn't ruin anything." She brushed tears from her eyes.
"Your surprise party -."
"Tia, I have to say that I have never been more surprised than I was this evening. You gave me a shock they could not possibly match." She laughed with him. "As to your acting like a human rather than an Auran, I couldn't think of anything I want less. I don't want you to act like anything other than what you are."
She tried to smile, but it was too hard. Her heart was breaking too much. "My behavior to your culture more kalriis is … more perverted is than even I thought in mine I was." She tried to stop the tears that trickled down her cheeks, but could not. She was even more humiliated to be crying in another's presence, especially his, but she could not stop.
"To think … was going curlai to … ahhh, 'tell' you I was … how I felt because … I did think you could feel it not," she cried, unable to hold back her tears. "Now so perverted all of your friends think I am; I all the way should go and that I love you tell you!"
She broke down completely, sobbing into her hands; but he could barely believe he'd heard the words. "Tia, what did you say?"
"'I love you' I said. I wish you it could have felt without my being forced to it say, but even though you feel it can not I do love you!" She looked up at him. "Oh Aura, I more than I have loved anyone in my entire life love you and feel it you do not – ."
She was astonished to be silenced by his lips on hers as he drew her body close to his. She clung to him, returning feeling for feeling, longing to be able to communicate to him the depths of her emotion. Even if he could not feel it the way an Auran would, perhaps he might be able to feel her love for him and perhaps even feel some of it himself for her.
xxx
Ensign Hoshi Sato was on her way to the bridge the following morning when the turbolift doors opened on the deck above her own and Commander Tucker boarded. "Good morning, Hoshi," he greeted her with a delighted smile.
"Good morning. You're in a good mood."
"Shows, doesn't it?"
"I just figured after last evening, when we left, it didn't look like things were going well."
"Well, let's say they improved."
"I'm glad to hear that. Tia doesn't deserve to have T'Pol walk all over her."
"No, she doesn't. But we talked for a long while after you were gone; Tia and I. Got some things into the open."
"Really? That's good. She's still struggling with English, though."
"I know, and I don't know a word of Auran." The doors opened to the Bridge. "But after last evening, she and I; we're learning a whole new language."
He turned toward his station, a good-old-boy grin on his face.