Early days

Disclaimer: I own nothing. It's not my characters. It's all for the love of my favourite alien...

Part 7

Nyotas point of view.

Nyota had sat down on the bench. The little ginger cat jumped up next to her and meowed quietly. She held out her hand to it once more and it pushed its head into her palm. "Oh, you little mnyama…" She mumbled. The cat sent her an impatient look. Nyota stroked the cat while it tried to climb on her lap. She held it back when suddenly the cat froze and stopped purring. It looked out in the dark and gave a little mew.

"What is it kitty, huh? A mouse?" Nyota was just about to stroke the cat again, when she heard footsteps. She looked up and was suddenly completely unable to think. Spock was standing where the street lights were just reaching him. He looked… well, not surprised, but certainly out of balance, to see her there.

He shifted his weight a couple of times as though he was debating whether to walk away or to get nearer and talk to her. The ginger cat took the decision. It meowed at him very loudly and started kneading with its paws.

Spock gave what she had learnt to interpret as a smile and approached. "I see you have met my friend T'Pau" He said as he sat down at the bench with the cat between them.

"T'Pau?" She asked. She had almost forgotten the cat. He was looking very… different tonight, she thought. He had his exercise clothes on and even though he wasn't exactly sweating, he was getting there. And he had had a sort of breathlessness in his voice, which could only be heard if you had a trained ear, like she had.

"A name from my home planet…" It seemed to give him some satisfaction to have given the cat this name. Her brain was still in neutral, and she couldn't think of a single thing to say. She could almost feel the awkward silence.

"It's not my cat. I don't know if it belongs somewhere. I meet it often when I exercise, and I decided it should have a name…" If she didn't know better she would think he was babbling.

He reached his long fingers out to the cat. It suddenly purred louder than she had ever heard a cat purr, and its eyes closed in ecstasy as his fingers found the best places to scratch. The cat almost toppled over in an effort to catch every caress.

Spock was concentrating on stroking the cat and Nyota was mesmerised by his hands. They moved with such grace. They looked as if they would never slip or make a wrong move. They were beautiful hands that could caress and hold, and… She looked away and tried to get her cheeks to stop blushing. When she looked back she saw he was looking at her. "… Nyota… Why are you out here alone? I assumed it was customary for cadets to celebrate at this time."

She looked down. "Yeah, it is. I just… I think I just got tired. I was actually on my way home, when I met this little charmer." She smiled down at the cat, which had now laid it self up against Spock's leg, and pretended it had been there for the last tree hours.

Spock let a twitch of a smile show in the corner of his mouth as he too regarded the cat. "It is dark and the temperature is dropping. Do you wish me to accompany you the rest of the way?" She looked up, surprised at his sudden gallantry. She nodded and together they got up. The cat sighed at them and jumped down from the bench. It circled Spock's legs a couple of times and then it disappeared in the shadows.

Nyota started walking with Spock beside her. "Are you sure it is only fatigue that is making you abstain from from celebrating? Usually experience tells me that cadets often celebrate beyond the limits of fatigue." He was sounding worried.

She was surprised. Had she ever heard that tone in his voice before? "Well. Maybe it wasn't all tiredness that made me call it a day." She admitted and looked up at him. He was listening very intent. "I just sat there in the midst of all those people. And they ARE my friends, right? But suddenly I just felt so out of place. I felt like I had nothing in common with them, and… maybe… I got a little lonely…" She had lowered her head. It felt silly to say to this Vulcan commander that she had felt lonely. Did he even know what that was?

"Ah, I see." He said. "I believe I know the sensation of which you are talking. It is a sense I have encountered often, at social functions. I find that most humans have no patience to talk to someone with so different reference points as I appear to have."

She stopped walking and gave a little laugh. "You, Spock? Do you feel out of place sometimes?" she stepped nearer to him to see his eyes. They were very dark.

"To be different: To be "out of place" Nyota? Yes, I believe I know what that is like." He held her gaze, and she realized that she could feel his breath on her face. For a moment she forgot what it was she was doing at a dark lane, in the middle of the night, with her instructor, commander Spock.

A bird suddenly started making alarm cries warning other birds that there was a cat on the prowl. Nyota shivered and heard her teeth rattle with cold.

"Are you cold?" he asked softly. He gave her a searching look and hesitantly put his hand on her elbow. She stopped breathing. She felt how he slowly drew her in to put his arms around her, and without even thinking her body had responded and her hands were on his upper arms. She looked at her hands. They seemed like they had just waited to do that.

She breathed in and caught his smell. There was something otherworldly about the smell of him.

What ever it was, her hands had wandered to his neck and her whole body was pressed up against his. "I have, once again, no expendable garments to offer you…" His voice mumbled in her ear, giving her goosebumps all over. She found she couldn't answer. As she stood there in the dark, with his body tight against hers, she, the Little Parrot, had lost all power for speaking.

She closed her eyes, turned her head slightly and breathed in the smell of him. His arms held her a little tighter. She started feeling a nervous longing and something she recognized as a need to protect and keep safe. To… keep her safe… The realization hit her. It was Spock's feelings she was hearing. He was emitting it and she was picking it up.

She felt like she was eavesdropping and pulled a little out of his arms. The feelings subsided a bit, but they were still there. She pulled back some more and he released her, letting his arms fall down by his sides.

"I… I better get going…" She hardly knew what to say to him. When she lifted her eyes to meet his, it was too dark to tell anything from his face.

"Yes of course" He said in a low voice. "I believe your dorm is very near here. Let us walk." They both were very quiet on the last stretch to her dorm. They were almost there when they both stopped. They stood and looked at the entrance. The lights from the street lamps were just reaching them, and she knew he wouldn't follow her all the way to the doors.

She turned to him, feeling the change in the dynamics between them. Something had definitely changed in the last half hour. "Sooo… Yeah… Goodnight… Spock. Thank you for making sure I got home alright." She heard how breathless her voice sounded.

He was very still. His eyes were filled with that nervousness she had sensed earlier. That uneasiness, she realized, he would never allow any other to see. She felt warm inside and stepped closer to him. She put a hand on the side of his head and stroked his cheek. Then she reached up and kissed him gently on the lips.

The kiss was meant to be a thank you for making sure she was safe, but when she touched his lips she suddenly felt like she was in a time warp. It was like their lips fitted perfectly together and the only thing she was aware of was the way her body reacted to the feel of his soft lips. She felt him hesitantly leaning into the kiss and she met him, opening her mouth, encouraging him to explore.

Spock made a little moaning sound. He put his hands to hold her head and deepened the kiss. She was in a river of emotion, of discovering new sensations and tasting her mouth and feeling how the body responded with a heat she could hardly contain, and at the same time as images of the two of them naked in ad darkened room flashed before her, she worried if she was harming her and if she would think him too forward and the need to pull her closer to be part of her was like a hunger that would not be sated unless he could be closer, could be in her...

"Nyota…" She heard his soft whisper in her ear and her eyes flew open and with a gasp she pulled away. She felt like she had felt everything in that kiss twice over. It was like she was looking trough a kaleidoscope. Her mind struggled to make sense, and she shook her head.

She looked at him with eyes that were just awakening to what had happened. "I'm…" She touched her lips, all swollen. "Spock…" He stood there, looking more vulnerable than she had ever seen him. Suddenly she felt faint and the world seemed to spin. She felt his arms supporting her.

"Nyota…" he started, but apparently unsure of what he was going to say next, he went quiet. Then they started talking at the same time "Spock…" "I am sor…" they both went quiet. Spock seemed to stand up a bit taller. "I regret I did not have more control. I was not prepared for…" his voice trailed of again.

She smiled, still feeling a little faint. "Spock, it's alright... I just really need to… Go..." She looked at him. He was slowly regaining control again. She turned and walked to the dorm. When she reached her room she went to the window and looked out. He was still standing there. A shadow in the dark. Standing completely still.

She watched him for a very long time until he jolted ever so slightly and started walking towards his home with steady steps.