Spock ran into Nyota's sister on his way back to her house. She was riding her horse down the trail a few blocks away.
"You have excellent technique!" Spock yelled out as she walked by.
"I didn't know they had horses on Vulcan," she replied.
"They don't," Spock said, stopping, "But I've seen a few races." He had read up on it when he had found out that Nyota's sister was a competitive rider, hoping to build rapport. Not that it had made any difference. The sister gave him a strange look and rode off.
When he got to the house, Spock found Nyota sitting in her room.
"How was girl time?" he asked.
"Good," she said, staring down at her hands dejectedly, "We did our nails."
"She does not like me," Spock stated, standing behind her.
"She just doesn't understand ... ," she trailed off, not looking up, "None of them do."
Spock braced himself.
"If you want ..." he started, "I mean if you consider this to be insurmountable, I would understand ..."
She stood up, shocked, and turned towards him.
"Spock!" she spat, "You cannot possibly think that I would-"
"But your family does not like me," he interrupted.
"I like you," she said softly, looking him in the eye. She wrapped her arms around him,
"Don't you worry," she whispered, kissing him softly at first and then harder. Her hands travelled up his back, to the points of his ears, down his chest and across the jeans she had made him buy as soon as they landed.
"Nyota," he said, breaking away, "I do not think this is wise."
"No one will come in," she said with a hint of a smile, as if she was posing a challenge.
He stood solidly, with his hands at his side as she began to touch him again. The Vulcan half stabbed, but the human half burned. Finally, he pulled her towards him and started kissing her again. Soon, he had her pinned across the bed and was taking her shirt off.
"Nyota, I have your laundry fold-" a voice rang out, accompanied by the sound of a door opening. Spock head a stunned silence and then the door slam closed again. He looked up.
"You did that on purpose," he stated, keeping his voice steady, sitting up to look his girlfriend in the eye.
"What?" she asked.
"That door has a lock on it. You did that on purpose," he reiterated.
"I'm sorry, I thought she had gone to market ..." she crooned.
"Nyota, you leave less space between your words when you are lying," he replied, keeping his speech level.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, trembling, "I just wanted them to see. They think that you are ..."
"A machine," Spock interjected, reciting what he had heard her sister say once in the distance.
"They didn't say that did they!" she gasped.
"I overheard," Spock replied, indicating his ear exactly the way her sister did. Uhura laughed a little bit before she put her head in her hands and started to sob. Spock put his arms around her.
"They said such awful things," she whimpered, "I don't know how anyone could be so prejudiced ... "
She took a deep breath, suddenly looking enraged,
"They ... they said our children would be mutants," she said in harsh whisper, as if it were difficult to say out loud.
"When the first hybrids were born, a lot of mistakes were made and there were some genetic defects. But that is very uncommon in the present day," Spock corrected, without thinking.
"That makes me feel much better," she snapped sarcastically.
Spock tried again.
"I would not worry," he stated, "They likely do not mean what they are saying. When my father announced that he was marrying my mother, his family said a number of things that were both inaccurate and inpolite. Needless to say, they eventually altered their point of view."
Spock was lying slightly, the extended family still had plenty of negative things to say about both Spock and his father, although their frequency of expressing had decreased over the years.
"I think that might make me feel a bit better," Uhura whispered.
Spock got up and turned the lock, and started to kiss her tenderly, hoping he was right, hoping he wasn't dragging her towards a life she would regret.
****
The Enterprise never had never seemed so welcoming as when Spock retuned to it. Sure, the repair crew had twisted all the knobs of his research station into slightly different directions, and he had to spend half an hour rearranging them, but regardless, he felt at home.
"How was the rest of your shore leave?" Spock asked the captain when he returned.
"Excellent," he proclaimed, "I slept with five different women."
"Good for you," Spock replied, not sure what the correct response was.
"Don't give me that disapproving glare," Kirk scolded, though Spock didn't think his expression had changed at all, "I had to get it out of my system before I got back to the ship where everyone's my subordinate ..."
"Why, have you developed a sudden penchant for following the rules?" Spock queried.
"Says the guy who would never, ever behave inappropriately with someone under his command," Kirk chided. "Don't look so proud of yourself," he added, looking at Spock, who was sure his expression was still neutral.
"But I've come to realize," Kirk continued grandly, "That some rules are there for a reason, and besides, this whole ship thing makes it difficult to eat and run, if you know what I mean."
"I have no desire to know what you mean," Spock snapped.
Kirk laughed.
"How were the in-laws?" he asked after a minute.
"No rifles," Spock replied.
"That good, eh?" Kirk jibed with a smile, "But you know what what means ..."
"What is that?"
"That things can only improve."
Spock sure hoped so.