Tavin tipped his head slightly and studied Kov as though the answer was a matter of some difficulty.

"You must take sufficient nourishment to continue your work – and, if you will assist me in the learning you have said I must acquire, certainly you must have need of even more than your typical level of sustenance. Please, share this meal with me. I will find no comfort in it if I must eat alone."

"You make a most compelling case. Perhaps you would have made a fine counsel –"

"No." Kov had learned as a child that it was discourteous and illogical to speak into what another was saying; however, Tavin had done the same several times. Perhaps it wasn't a precept he followed.

"No?"

"No. I –" Again, Kov had no words for the certainty he felt. He struggled to find the means of expressing it, however, because of the way Tavin watched him so directly, as though what he would answer held the greatest importance. "I have difficulties in speaking to others. It's particularly noticeable if the group is larger than what might fit in a small chamber, or if my words are given the full attention of all present."

"I can see how that would make a career such as counsel undesirable. I also feel honored that you have been so willing to share conversation with me, young Kov, if it has been a matter of difficulty for you to do so. It was not evident in the manner of your delivery. Therefore I was unaware until you spoke to it."

"I have had little difficulty with you, Tavin. But you have taken our discussion from the question to which I seek an answer. Will you eat with me, and nourish yourself?"

"I concede, Counselor Kov. I will indeed eat with you." Tavin made the strange sound again; Kov was beginning to suspect that it was some manner of emotional response. Tavin seemed unconcerned with revealing his emotional states, and to feel perhaps more, and more swiftly, than Kov did.

It was intriguing.

He watched as Tavin set about serving the meal; perhaps he should help, but Tavin seemed to enjoy the process, and Kov was quite fatigued after the unexpected and unaccustomed level of activity.

Did he himself wish to feel so openly? Would Tavin be able to assist him in learning to identify his own emotions, so that he was not so often agitated by them?

"You seem to have gone somewhere else, Kov, although you remain seated as you were. Are you well?"

"I am – well enough." Tavin extended a plate, and Kov leaned forward to take it. Their fingers brushed, and Kov gasped out a breath, nearly dropping the offering. Tavin's gaze was searching, and he didn't move his hand, as though to offer Kov the opportunity to explore further.

Did he dare to do as T'Pol had done, and touch the flames?

He had done so with Koss, and it had been transformative. He was Awakened.

"It would not be the same to share such touching with me, Kov."

"How did you know?" He could think no further on it in this moment.

"That you wondered if it would be?"

Kov nodded slightly.

"I am quite sensitive to the emotional energy and thoughts of others," Tavin explained. "I had no intention of intruding, but your concerns were close to the surface, and impossible not to feel. I ask forgiveness if I have caused offense."

"You haven't. I – I have felt it too – the energy?" He wasn't at all certain that this was the best way to identify what he had felt with Koss, and since he encountered Tavin.

"I know. I was uncertain whether you did, however." Tavin's hand remained. "It is because I sensed this knowing in you that I revealed myself to you, and that I would assist you in learning – what it means to be Awakened, and how to develop your latent abilities. However, I will do neither unless it is wholly your choice, and you will still have the position of designing my grounds, and my friendship, no matter what choice you make."

Perhaps Kov should consider such an offer carefully, but his instincts and senses agreed that Tavin could be trusted and was likely to have information Kov had great personal need of. But there was more.

Tavin – felt – more like a father than Sivet had in Kov's lifetime. This man, newly met, was interested in him as a being. Sivet seemed to view his son as nothing other than an inconvenient and inferior extension of himself, or perhaps as an unwelcome reminder of a marriage ended before he would wish.

"I would learn – all I am able – with you, Tavin." As he spoke, Kov realized that he might have inadvertently consented even to mating with the sehlat trainer. Would he welcome such an activity?

"Ah, you are yet so young, Kov. Before his first Burning, but after his Awakening, perhaps every young Vulcan is inordinately curious as regards mating. But such is a thing you should share by mutual consent, and preferably with someone who is not grieving another and too preoccupied with his own soulwounding to tend well to sharing in your discoveries. I am ill-prepared to attempt to provide for that portion of your learning – though, were the circumstances different, it would be a most pleasurable honor."

"I did not – " Kov stopped himself. If Tavin was as easily able to register thoughts while touching as it seemed, he would know at once that this was a mistruth. Koss had caused pain, but he had also given Kov a new awareness of how frequently he spoke mistruths – a skill he had learned under Sivet's raising. "Perhaps I considered it, but it isn't a thing I am prepared to learn now, Tavin."

"That is best, in my opinion. The learning we will do together is indeed of a most intimate nature and will enhance your experiences when the time for you to explore your sexuality arrives. I can prepare you for those explorations, that you may enjoy them and share confidently – whether your partner is your reluctant Intended, or another you have yet to recognize or even meet."

"I will accept your tutelage – and your advisement, though I don't believe Koss will be the one with whom I explore, or that he is my Intended."

"He can be nothing else, with you Awakened to him," Tavin said. "Nor can you be anything other to him, although it may take him far more time than you are willing to wait for him to realize this simple and incontrovertible fact. In the meantime, it might be more logical for us to set this conversation aside and attend to the matter of nourishing ourselves."