"Do you want to come too?" (Tuvok & Mezoti)

(Author's Note: This story takes place during Season 6.)

/

"Mezoti. Get down."

Mezoti peered down warily from the top of a shelf in Cargo Bay Two. She heard variations of this all too often from the adults on Voyager, which she considered quite unreasonable. If she didn't climb through Jefferies tubes, down ladders or up shelves, how would she know which parts of the ship were safe to hide in? On the Cube, there had always been places to hide. You needed them when First was angry … but she didn't like to think about that.

The voice ordering her to come down did not belong to First this time. It belonged to Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, frowning up at her with his Vulcan eyebrows. If it had been anyone else (except Seven), she might have argued with them, but not their Chief of Security.

Still, today of all days, she had a perfectly good reason to be here. He should know that.

"I'm looking for chocolate, sir," she explained. "Neelix hid some all over the ship. It's an Earth holiday. It's called Easter."

"I am aware." The Commander was still frowning. "I also know that Mr. Neelix would not have hidden confectionery there. It would be unsafe. You might fall and hurt yourself."

"So that's why I didn't find any." Mezoti looked wistfully at the empty basket dangling from her arm. "I bet Rebi and Azan found some by now. They share a neural interface."

She swung her legs over the edge of the shelf and started climbing down, but somehow it wasn't as easy as she had expected. The climb up had been simple enough, but something about looking down from a height like this - Commander Tuvok was very tall, and she could actually see the top of his head - made her strangely dizzy.

She found herself wondering how much it would hurt if she fell. Could a Borg-enhanced spine still break?

"Mezoti." She squinted down and saw that the Commander was holding out his hands. "If you let go, I will catch you."

He was no longer frowning, and his tone was quieter. She could not quite identify the change, but something about it reminded her of Seven. His brown hands were steady as he held them out.

She let go.

He caught her and spun her around; to absorb the impact, said the Borg side of her, but the child in her giggled anyway. He smelled like incense and candle wax, as if he'd just come back from performing some Vulcan ritual. He set her carefully on her feet and smoothed a few tangles out of her hair.

Something about the way he did that made her ask: "Do you have children, Commander?"

"I have one daughter and three sons."

"Like me and Icheb and the twins?"

"They are adults now, but yes."

"Where are they now?"

"In the Alpha Quadrant."

"Do you miss them?"

Mezoti waited anxiously for his answer. She thought of Icheb's parents, who had turned him into a biological weapon against the Borg, and of Seven, who had saved him. She thought of her own parents, whom she could not even remember. For Species 3259 - Vulcans - it would be inappropriate to miss anyone, but somehow it was important to her to know.

"I do," said Tuvok, looking down at her with that nameless expression in his dark eyes.

It was almost as if she'd been falling again and he had caught her. She let out a sigh of relief. Maybe not all parents were like Leucon and Yifay after all.

"Thanks for catching me, sir," she said. "I'm gonna look for candy somewhere else."

"You are welcome." He pulled his tricorder out of his pocket and began typing. "If I may make a suggestion … ?"

"What?" She stood on tiptoe and peered over his elbow at what he was typing.

"Do you know the most important ingredient in chocolate?"

"Um … sugar? No, cacao!"

"Correct." He handed her the tricorder. "Try scanning for it."

She giggled, feeling absurdly grown-up with the Starfleet instrument in her hand. "Isn't that cheating?"

"Did your teachers forbid the use of tricorders?"

"Nooo … "

"Then it is not cheating."

That was logical enough for her. She ran around the cargo bay, scanning, and when the instrument let out a series of beeps, she zeroed in on one particular crate. When she opened it, sure enough, nestled between piles of stem bolts was something wrapped in gold foil and shaped like what Naomi called an "Easter Bunny". Mezoti grabbed it and held it up in triumph, grinning from ear to ear.

"It's so cute, I almost don't want to eat it," she said. "Almost! D'you want some?"

She sent it "hopping" through the air and up toward Tuvok's face. He recoiled.

"Chocolate makes Vulcans ill," he said, "But thank you for the offer. Enjoy your hunt."

He took back the tricorder - too bad, she could have used it some more - and nodded to her in polite dismissal. She turned to leave, tucking her prize into her basket as she went.

As the cargo bay doors opened, she looked over her shoulder. He was crouched down and bent over another crate, sorting through whatever was inside with slow deliberation. Vulcans did not get sad, but something about the angle of his bowed head suggested otherwise.

A daughter and three sons, he'd said.

He missed them.

"Commander? Um … we're meeting in Fair Haven later to eat up all the chocolate. I mean, not just chocolate, there's other things too. Stories, music, Seven and Ms. Wildman are gonna show us how to paint eggs and … Do you want to come too?"

"I had intended to meditate in my quarters … " Commander Tuvok closed the crate and straightened up, holding a tall white candle, which must have been the reason he'd come to the cargo bay in the first place.

"Oh."

" … but I could postpone it. At what time will this event take place?"

"Sixteen hundred hours."

"If your teachers permit it, I will join you."

Mezoti left the cargo bay at a walk that was almost a skip, her basket with its chocolate bunny bouncing with every step.

She really had found a treasure in there, she thought proudly.