Spock schedules another meeting with McCoy, and for once, Pavel doesn't consider not going. He still feels guilty beyond imagination but part of him is reassured by their last meeting. He genuinely feels that the Vulcan is not angry at him and it makes things easier when the meeting does roll around. Things seem the slightest bit more even now that Spock knows what happened to Pavel's mother all those years ago. McCoy seems surprised to see Pavel not only there for the meeting but on time as well. He raises an eyebrow at him and lets him inside without saying anything overly sarcastic.
The Vulcan arrives exactly at 0900 hours and sits down beside Pavel, nodding curtly as he does so. McCoy starts with just asking how Pavel's week has been and how the trip was. He answers honestly and briefly explains his meeting with Spock after the Delta Vega meeting. The doctor nods and seems to be subtly pleased with their progress. He continues with questions and discussions for a while and lets them both go after about an hour. Spock doesn't end up saying much altogether, and Pavel's not entirely sure why. He decides it's probably best no to comment. He hope's he is wrong, but he definitely feels that something is not quite right.
Pavel's daydreaming as he opens the door to his dorm and almost doesn't notice Sulu lip locked with a girl on the couch. He snaps back to reality and opens his mouth in slight shock. The girl is straddling Hikaru and both of them seem too busy to notice Pavel coming in. His awkwardness sets in and he has no idea what to do, is he meant to leave? Are they meant to stop? He puts his bag quietly down on the table, pulls out his PADD and leaves, still certain they didn't even notice him come in. He heads to the library and tries to study by himself for a while. He doesn't get a huge amount done and he keeps thinking back to Hikaru and the girl. He feels awkward about the whole thing and doesn't know when he can go back to his own room. He's a little scared he's going to walk in on something worse if he goes back anytime soon.
Three hours pass and Hikaru still hasn't answered his messages. He only asked if they had any milk left, something reasonably unsuspicious but just enough so that he knows he's not busy with the girl still. Pavel has been listening to Scotty complain in the engineering bay while he waits and as funny as it is, he's hungry and sore and wants to go back to his own room. Scotty suggests he just goes back and 'if they're mid-fucking so be it.' Pavel ignores the comment and helps Scotty with one of the wiring circuits instead. It's 1330 hours when Sulu finally replies to his PADD message.
"Hey sorry. There's a little bit of milk left but not much. Why is your bag here?"
Pavel bites his lip uncomfortably and Scotty laughs in the background telling him to reply with "I saw everything you dirty bastard."
He replies instead with "Thanks, I came in and you were busy so I left."
He feels weird replying and waits anxiously for some sort of reply.
A while later he gets back. "Shit sorry, what did you see...?"
Scotty grabs the PADD of him and quickly types "What didn't I see?" and hits send before Pavel can grab it off him. Pavel swears at him and pushes him away, quickly starting to type an apology. Scotty grins and sits down beside him, apologising half-heartedly. He can't help but notice how frustrated and flustered he is about him messaging something like that to Sulu and how awkward he is about the whole situation.
"You seem pretty uptight about this whole thing Lad..."
Pavel shrugs, "Just caught me by surprise I suppose..."
Scotty raises an eyebrow. "D'you fancy him, Pavel?"
Pavel's stomach drops and he shakes his head. "No, no I don't. I just didn't think Sulu was the kinda guy to bring a girl home and... Yeah..."
Scotty doesn't believe it for a second but doesn't say anything.