Hikaru's still asleep when Pavel gets back. He wonders how the Asian can sleep for so long when it's this bright and he's already slept well past the recommended 8 hours. Pavel starts work on one of his assessments for his physics class. He understands the majority of it despite being away and it makes him feel the slightest bit more self-confident. He can hear Sulu get up and wonder into the shower. For a split second Pavel thinks about sharing the shower with him but he quickly tries to dismiss it. He tries to pull his mind back to physics. Why is he thinking of his friend like that? He's annoyed at himself for being an idiot. Pavel's never put much thought into which gender he was into. Female? Male? Neither? Both? He had no clue. He had a girlfriend back in Russia in middle school but she dumped him after about two weeks. He wasn't sure that technically counted.
Sulu coming into the kitchen interrupts his chain of thought.
"How was the meeting?" Hikaru asks, pouring himself some juice.
"Good morning to you too," Pavel laughs. "It was pretty boring. I ran into Commander Spock after…"
Hikaru's face hardens a little. "Oh. How did that go? Are you alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine," he says dismissing the question. "He apologised for the last meeting."
"The mind-meld thing?"
"Yeah. I think I just made things more awkward but it wasn't as bad as the last times at least."
"Yeah well you're not locking yourself in the bathroom," he grins. "That's probably a good start."
Pavel rolls his eyes light-heartedly. The embarrassment over that still stings him a little. "Want to go out for breakfast? I'll shout for you?"
Hikaru starts laughing and Pavel has no idea why. "It's just 'shout you,' not shout for me. It's like you're saying you're going to cheer me on or something."
Pavel's face flushes red. His English is good, but not quite perfect yet. He still can't shake his thick Russian accent despite the issues it causes him on the ship. He still remembers the smirks he got when he couldn't get into the ship wide com-cast.
"I'm sorry," he says, unsure of what else to say.
"Don't be," Sulu smiles. "Your English is very impressive considering you grew up in Russia. I've lived here my whole life and I still can't spell for shit."
Pavel grins and turns his PADD off. Sulu goes and puts some proper clothes and Pavel makes a start on unpacking his bag. They weren't allowed to take much but he hasn't sorted through any of the clothes that got wrecked in the hike. Pavel was meant to buy more clothes once he moved to San Francisco but he never got around to it and the money from his aunt is still in an envelope in one of his Russian books.
Sulu chooses some burger place half an hours walk from the campus, by the time they finish eating, Pavel is glad it's so far away. They can barely finish the meal and they're probably put on a good kilo or two each. Pavel used to be quite into exercising back in Russia, it was some of the only social interaction he got with kids his own age. They're not even halfway back to the dorms and Pavel feels like he's at least worked off some one the bacon he had.
Sulu ends up racing Pavel the last block back to the dorm. Pavel wins easily and laughs as Hikaru tries to catch his breath on a park bench. The Russian sits down beside him and lets his lungs fill with air. He forgets how much he enjoys running. Hikaru on the other hand, forgets how much he hates running. Fencing. Now there's a real sport. He was always sword fighting as a kid and his father tried to get him into kendo, but it really wasn't the same as fencing. Hikaru thinks back to the Romulans on the drill he fought with. Fencing was never meant to be a violent sport. Using it to kill someone really made him question his ethics. Was he a murderer? Was he a bad person? Was he going to hell? Pavel can see the concern plastered on the Asians face and nudges his side gently.
"You okay, you seem a little-"
"Yeah I'm fine," he laughs. "Just thinking."
Pavel knows he's not. He knows he's covering something up, but he also knows he should probably leave it be for the time being.
"Race you back to the dorm?" the Asian asks. Pavel nods. "Okay 3, 2-" Sulu is off before he can continue and Pavel laughs, swearing at him in Russian.