Sulu and Pavel are exiting the shuttle craft when Veesa runs up to him, about to give Sulu a hug. The Asian glares at her and walks straight past, not saying a word. Chekov stands there a little stunned and Veesa instantly snaps her gaze towards him. She starts walking towards him with her fists clenched tightly and the Russian takes a few steps back in surprise and fear.
"You," she mutters through clenched teeth.
Pavel frowns and stands up a little straighter. "He knows what you've done. He doesn't want you anymore. You're a bad person Veesa, it's about time he found that out."
Veesa mouth opens a little and she looks up and down at Pavel. Pavel rolls his eyes and walks off, striding fast in the hopes of catching up with Sulu. The Asian's not far ahead and seems to be waiting for the Russian.
"What did she say?" Sulu asks through gritted teeth.
"Not much actually," Pavel says honestly. "I did the talking."
Sulu raises an eyebrow. "Well," he continues, "I said you know what she has done and that she was a bad person." He deliberately excludes the statement he made about Sulu not wanting her anymore. Sulu never said that. Pavel just assumes (and hopes) it's true.
A small scoff escapes Hikaru's lips. "Nice one. Thank you for that, I don't really want to deal with her."
Pavel grins. "I'm sure she won't bother you for a while."
The Russian is wrong, however, very wrong. He can hear a loud argument coming from their old room and he doesn't need to guess to know who it is. He can't exactly hear what they're saying but he doesn't really need to. There's just a whole lot of yelling. He wonders whether he should just leave or try and interrupt them. He does have the data chip Sulu lent him that he needs back, but he really doesn't want to get into the middle of anything.
Pavel contemplates his options for a minute and knocks on the door loudly, regretting it seconds later. Sulu opens the door and honestly seems a little relieved to see the Russian standing there.
"I'm sorry for the bad timing but you'll probably need this…"
"It's fine," he dismisses quickly, "And thank you."
Veesa is glaring at Pavel from the other side of the room and he looks back to Sulu and nods curtly, about to leave.
"You know what," Veesa says loudly. "I'll go."
She walks past the two and knocks Pavel on the way past. She turns around to look at the two. "If you two bastards want to fuck each other so much why you just fucking do it!?"
Pavel can't breathe, he's standing there frozen and panicking. Sulu is very much the same, he just hides it better. Pavel mutters something about having to go and Sulu just nods, not wanting to have to explain what's happening anyway. Veesa feels likes he's been unfaithful because of his obvious feeling towards the young Russian. What is itching at him is her use of the term 'you both.' Both as in Pavel feels the same? He's pretty sure that's what she means.
"That bitch told Pavel," Sulu says loudly, walking into McCoy's office.
"Hey! Watch your language!" He barks at Sulu, making him jump a little. Sulu is so confused for a second until he looks to the corner of the room and sees a young girl, staring up at him.
"Oh."
"This is Joanna," Bones says quietly, glaring at Sulu. "Say hi, Jo."
"Hi Jo," she giggles.
Sulu laughs, she's certainly inherited his sarcasm. McCoy laughs and picks her up, calling her a cheeky monkey and throwing her over his shoulder. "We've been cooped up in this office for too long. My shift should be over soon, we can talk about this in a park or something."
Jo is a nice kid, McCoy seems like such a different person around her. It's so easy to see how much he loves her. She looks a fair bit like him, the brown hair and brown eyes are identifiably his. So is her sarcasm and quick witted response. Sulu doesn't mind her. He still feels pretty guilty for swearing in front of her but McCoy has probably let slip much worse profanity.
McCoy's ex has agreed to give him custody for a little while why she sorts some things out with her lawyer. She doesn't want McCoy to have her long but she doesn't want to isolate Jo either. McCoy explains the whole situation and Sulu finds it quite refreshing to not be the one complaining, for once. Being a doctor would tire Hikaru, having to handle everyone's problems all at once. It makes him feel bad for unloading all his emotional baggage onto McCoy.
Eventually, Sulu catches McCoy up on the whole issue with Veesa and Pavel and McCoy seems to be quite unsurprised by the whole thing. He has a lot to say but holds it back while Sulu adds some details.
"Look," McCoy says honestly, "just like you, he's come to talk to me, and he's conflicted too. He likes you a whole lot, Sulu. But, if you go after him, I'm going to beat the shit out of you."
Sulu blinks blankly.
"He's too young. You can't go after him when he's still seventeen and I disagree with you going after him when he's 18 either. Hell, he can't even drink yet, you shouldn't be corrupting him."
"Corrupting him?" Sulu scoffs angrily. "I'm not going to fuck his brains out Leo, Jesus, I just want to spend time with him and talk to him and stuff… Is that too much to ask?"
McCoy's nostrils flare. "You'll leave him alone till he's legal, you hear? Or I'll damn report you for statutory rape." Sulu is about to argue but ignores it and walks off, leaving him there with his arms folded. The doctor knows Sulu will ignore him and he's planning to make sure he doesn't.
Sulu and Pavel don't talk for a few days and it makes things weird between them around the campus. Sulu eventually invites Pavel over just to hang out and Scotty urges him to go.
"It's not a date," Pavel clarifies for the fourth time, rolling his eyes at Scotty from across the room. He's finishing his lunch before he goes and Scotty won't stop going on about it. Pavel keeps insisting it's not a date but Scotty feels it probably is. Pavel puts his plate into the sink and picks up his bag.
(A/N)
Apologies I haven't updated for a while but I have finished writing this piece entirely so I am just left to publish it all. Hope you enjoy and feel free to review.