Getting To Know You

U.S.S. Enterprise, 2279.341, 0933 hours. "Dude! What the hell happened?"

Se'tak grimaced and shrunk a little in his seat at the sound of his friend's voice. Despite this Aaron still plopped his tray down in front of him while Egil, still looking a little too pale after his bout with the flu, pulled out the seat beside him.

"You totally bailed on us…"

"I know…"

"…and the Banshee Queen killed our squadron, AGAIN!" Aaron's yelling now having attracted the attention of the entire Mess, Se'tak tried to slink down further in his seat while shoving some toast in his mouth.

His throat still a little raw, Egil asked quietly, "So where were you?"

"Well you see, I, uh…"

Just then Meruka appeared, looking like an angel in a gauzy, low-cut white dress. "Hi! Mind if I join you?" Both boys' jaws dropped as she sat down and Egil's ears turned beet red. "Are you friends of Se'tak's?"

He nodded and made the introductions, and just like he'd acted around her yesterday his buddies stammered and blubbered like idiots. Meruka kept on chatting away, trying to put everyone at ease, but every time her hand or leg brushed up against him or she said something especially meant for him he lit up inside.

She speared the last piece of syrup-coated French toast and swirled it around on her plate. "Mmmm, this was so tasty! Have you guys ever tried this? I mean, this is like WOW!"

"If you like that you s-should try Cook's b-banana pancakes," Egil suggested. When supplies were available fresh, non-replicated, Sunday morning breakfasts were Cook's specialty and the pancakes were an especial favorite.

Meruka lit up. "Banana pancakes?!" She looked longingly toward the food line. "Am I allowed to have seconds?"

Se'tak shrugged. "Why not?"

"YES!" She bounced up out of her chair and off toward the breakfast line beaming like it was Christmas morning.

Once she was out of earshot Aaron let loose. "AN ORION?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

"What?"

He just shook his head. "You lucky son of a b—"

Egil coughed quietly into his napkin. "What I think Aaron's trying to say is that you are one lucky dog. Most guys would give their right arm just to have a girl like her even look their way and she's practically hanging off you."

His eyebrow shot up into his forehead. "So you think she really likes me? You don't think she's just playing with me or anything?"

"Are you kidding me?! Dude, if I even thought I had half a chance with her I'd be all over h—!"

"'Tak," Egil interjected, "She's definitely into you. Anybody who's spent 5 seconds with you guys can see that."

"Cool. So I guess now you guys know why I missed last night's game."

"Yeah, yeah," Aaron muttered over his orange juice, "Just don't think you're getting a free pass or anything because o—"

"Oh Okeon, you were SO RIGHT!" Meruka squealed, giving Egil a hearty one-armed hug. "These are AMAZING!" Once back in her seat she cut up another piece and held it out to him. "Se'tak, you have to try this."

"I ha—"

She shoved the fork in his mouth before he could stop her. "Good, right?"

"Mmmhmmm."

Egil laughed quietly to himself while Aaron ducked his chin and shook his head. "You lucky son of a…"

1028 hours. He managed to shake off his buddies shortly after they finished eating and led Meruka over to the turbolift. The doors had barely had a chance to close behind them when she turned to look at him, a cute little crinkle forming in the middle of her brow. "I have something I need to ask you."

She was being serious, and in the short time he'd known her Meruka never sounded serious. "Ok…?"

"Did you mean what you said yesterday about really wanting to get to know me and stuff?"

That's what was bothering her? Se'tak bit back a sharp laugh of relief; he thought it was something worse. "Of course I did; why else would I have said it if I didn't mean it?"

"Ok." She turned back to face the front doors and he felt the tension in the small enclosure begin to dissipate. "Good. So what do you want to know?"

The doors opened as he shrugged his shoulders and held the pneumatics back to let her exit first. "I don't know…why don't you tell me about your family and where you grew up?"

He had planned on taking her to the botanical gardens and showing her around, but Se'tak quickly discovered that once Meruka started talking there was no stopping her, so he decided to save that trip for another time and just listen.

1141 hours. "My mom always taught us to plan your next move, because even with the best of care you never know when your looks are gonna go, and so I'm thinking that maybe I'd like to go into fashion design. Not like the obvious lingerie designer—because, you know, Orion lingerie designers are an eccli* a dozen—but more of a women's apparel kind of designer…or maybe just dresses, I don't know, I haven't decided yet."

Before he could reply Meruka tugged on the cuff of her dress. "Do you like this? Because it's one of mine. I mean, I didn't make up the whole outfit, I'm not that good yet, but I added the lace overlay and the bit of feathers at the collar and cuffs. Verena really likes it but Lanae is less than impressed. I'm telling you, that girl is a total achara*…"

1312 hours. "…and that," she said with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows, "is how I came to be the new handmaiden!"

Se'tak grinned. "I'm very impressed."

"You should be!" Meruka danced before him down the hallway, beaming with glee. "Riding a unicycle just isn't something people do anymore but I simply had to find a way to get myself noticed, and I did!" She paused before an open doorway and poked her head in. "Hey, what's this place? I don't remember it from the tour."

"It's just one of the classrooms…you know, for school."

"What?" She walked on in to get a better look around, her fingers trailing lightly over the top of the low shelf as she moved. "No way!" Her purple eyes roamed over all the toys—the jump ropes, the costume box filled to overflowing—and the naptime pads rolled up and stored in the corner. "This looks almost like something we had in the temples…"

"Yeah," he hurried to explain, "This is, uh, actually the little kids' room."

Meruka's expression fell. "Oh." She took another look around. "Then where do you study?"

Se'tak smirked as he leaned against the doorway. "I knew you'd ask that." He jerked his thumb back over his shoulder. "I'm over here."

She moved three doors down and he palmed the control panel so they could enter.

To his eyes it looked the same as it did Monday through Friday: dull, boring and totally unappealing; in fact it felt just wrong standing in there on a Sunday of all days. He eyed the neat rows of desks and the blank vid screen behind the teacher's station with disdain.

Meruka stepped into the space and stood between the rows, hands on a desk on either side. Her facial expression as she took in the room was priceless, as if the walls were covered in grime. "It's kind of blech."

He moved closer to her. "I couldn't agree more. I guess blech is universal throughout the Federation, huh?"

She batted her eyes as he leaned toward her. "Oh yeah. Totally. You know what else is universal, or so I hear?"

"What?"

Instead of a reply, Meruka mashed her lips up against his and kissed with a zeal he'd only ever seen in the movies. Se'tak didn't need any coaching to quickly start kissing her back. Despite the fact that it'd been hours since breakfast she still tasted of syrup and bananas and he enjoyed the flavor all the more now. When the kiss finally broke off all he could do was blink.

"Well…?"

Slowly the gears of his mind started churning again. Well. She said well. What does that mean? Well. "Uh…"

"Was I as good as your other girlfriends at least?" He missed the hint of annoyance beginning to creep into her tone.

"Umm…"

Meruka took a step back and put a hand on her hip. He didn't need to know how to read body language to pick up on the fact that she was getting pissed! "Really? Because that was the best kiss I know how to give and I know I'm better than any other girl on this ship or for a 100 light years around! And for another thing I'll have you know…mmfff!"

He stopped her mid-stream with another kiss, only this one wasn't as gentle as before as there was an accidental clash of teeth. "You're my first," Se'tak quietly admitted as they parted.

She languidly opened her eyes and gazed up at him. "What?"

"Kiss, you're my first kiss," he quickly clarified.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

She blushed and her cheeks turned a deep shade of purple. "Because you're so cute I thought you'd dated other girls before."

Se'tak took a half step back and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.. "No. I just turned fourteen a few months back and I, uh, well I don't know how it is on Orion but I guess here that's kind of about the age to maybe start dating. Sort of." He could feel his cheeks flushing hot in embarrassment. "Also I grew up with most of the girls here and I don't really think of them like that."

Meruka confidently stepped forward and backed him into a desk. "Don't think of them like what?"

"Like the kissing type."

"Oh. Good." She pressed herself up against him and threw her arms around his neck, her gleaming smile only centimeters from his face. "Because I am so the kissing type."

1825 hours. Se'tak stumbled into the family quarters with a dazed look on his face. He stopped just inside the door and leaned against the bookcase, unable to wipe the stupid grin off his face. He and Meruka made out for hours, first with their lips, then with a little bit of tongue, and at one point she did this thing with her mouth and his ear lobe and it felt so amazing…he almost lost it right there but he was so blissed out he didn't care if he made a fool of himself.

Aaron was right—he really was the luckiest son of a b—ch on the ship.

Just then Mama looked up from the replicator and noticed him for the first time. "Hey Sweetie, how was your day?"

"Fine." He sighed dreamily.

She stopped and truly looked at him, her lips pursed in concentration. "Are you sure? You sound funny."

"I'm fine." His eyes focused on her long enough to reassure her before he headed to his room.

"Aren't you going to eat with us?"

"I'm not hungry!" he yelled out over his shoulder before disappearing into his room.

1832 hours. Spock entered and halted just inside the door, taking an experimental sniff of the air. Their apartments had a very distinct odor, one not native to their rooms. "Have any members of the Orion delegation been present in our quarters recently?"

Nyota set the dishes down and looked over at him. "No, why do you ask?"

"It is Se'tak," Selas coolly replied, legs swinging beneath his seat.

"What is Se'tak?"

Selas set his PADD aside and folded his hands on the tabletop. "The pheromone scent, it came from Se'tak." Turning in the direction of his mother he added, "Mama, did you not smell it on him when he entered?"

She locked eyes with him over their son's head, her surprise very apparent. "No baby, I didn't."

He picked his PADD back and continued to read before dinner. "Interesting."

Spock merely quirked his brow in response to his adun'a's disbelief and headed toward his seat. This turn of events in their elder son's life was as much as he had predicted. When this 'relationship' ended—and he had no doubt that it would end as quickly as it began—he hoped Se'tak would not be worse off for it.

* eccli = Orion, a small coin currency (term I made up)

* achara = Orion, b**ch (term I made up—yes, those Orions do get catty)