What is this: is it too much to ask

by gad-eshu'a

After Spock makes mention of leaving Starfleet to help with the conservation effort for the Vulcan people, Nyota is pressed to her heart's limit and requests some time hiatus to think about what he said. As they are stationed on the Yorktown, Nyota and Spock struggle to give each other space and work on themselves. (ST: BEYOND WORLD/SPOILERS) Angst with happy ending.

6. Chapter 6

A/N: Drawing closer to the end, with one more chapter left but it will be nice. Thinking of how I'll tie it up at the end so it may be a while before I post it. Let me just say I've really enjoyed chatting with a number of you and in the time that I do have reading some of your work! I try and review all that do read but I'm not always the best with that nowadays but it's changing ;). I have a M rated version tag on to this chapter where it shows Spock and Nyota's 'intimate' moment if you're interested. It will be titled ' The best in me' and I'm about to post it now!

Still working on Between two suns ( heaven fucking help me), Crown jewels and a few other gifts but my main goal is trying to see each story to the end. Thanks for reading.

" Hmm."

Nyota holds her breath as Demora dances between her legs and that of her parents, all three seemingly oblivious to the anxiety the Lieutenant Commander is facing as she watches her father Ben looking over her beloved plant.

Ben shifts the fern in his hands, thumbing the mossy soil away from its roots to examine it further. " Hmm." he grunts again for the fifth time. When she begins to nibble at her lip, Nyota feels a light pat pat pat in the space between her shoulder blades.

She cranes her to see Sulu shooting her a smile of reassurance and moving his lips to word that it will be okay. The sight of his grin is hard to resist and she's fairly certain that he regularly employs the charm on Ben as well with a similar effect.

Nyota wishes she could be so easily reassured. She wouldn't have come if she thought that the wilting fern would have been fine. Already the its feathery plume like leaves had gone from a deep violet to something more like a halfhearted mauve.

She would also take Hikaru's encouragement to heart if his husband would finally stop humming and give her an answer. As if taking pity on her Ben Sulu, looks up from his patient and gives her a nod. " It will be okay."

" Oh thank God!" Nyota sighs with a hand to her chest. Demora giggles below her and leans heavily onto Nyota's stocking covered legs. " It's okay. Daddy'll fix it for you."

" That's right." Hikaru chimes, mussing his daughter's hair while imparting an affirming wink over in Ben's direction. " So you gave us the verdict. What's the rest of the ruling?"

Ben props his large arms up on the countertop by his elbows and glares at the plant as if it were speaking. " Well it definitely got a lot of attention while you two were gone. Lots of water and sunshine, even some plant food, though it seems like it may have been for a different species of Monilophyta. Ultimately, your specimen is long overdue for a new pot, or pots I might say."

" Pots?" Nyota asks curiously over his use of the plural noun. Ben holds his hands out then with the fern laid out in his palm and Nyota leans over and notices where his finger is gesturing. " Oh. I never noticed."

" Yeah, I'm not surprised. Ferns can be tricky, especially these Bolian beauties. So all along these runner here right on the roots are 'new' ferns fighting with the primarily plant for water, space and nutrients. I can divide it up for you and repot it all? Even throw in some of the right plant food for these puppies since I don't have any Bolian soil here at this facility."

" I would love that! Thank you so much Ben." she sighs, placing her hand onto his. Ben smiles back with a very self-satisfied grin and has Hikaru clearing his throat and playfully removing her hand. " I'm sure you would, Ny."

Nyota giggles as she snatches her hand out of Sulu's grasp. " A little bit jealous, are we?"

Sulu leans onto the countertop beside Ben and gives her a telling smirk.

" No, but I know that you are extraordinarily charming and even possess the power to bring a Vulcan to his knees." he quips, nodding towards her necklace. " Mere mortal men like us hardly stand a chance against you."

Nyota shakes her head with a chuckle and thumbs at the string of sapphires around her neck. Even in the hazy light of the greenhouse, the blue gems were ridiculously brilliant. " Careful now, you're starting to sound like Kirk." she teases.

Hikaru scoffs with a smile and edges up from the countertop. " Heaven forbid I sound anything like our resident casanova."

Nyota ignores his idle comment and refocuses back to Ben, who's now carefully dissecting the new growth from the underground runners. " How much do I owe you, Ben?"

Ben looks up from his work and rubs his hand along his jaw, smearing the dirt along his chin. " Hmm, well...this is standard work but I think the pots will cost you extra."

Nyota smiles as she spies Demora clamoring up into his lap to examine the fern. " Oh? How much more?"

He smiles down at his daughter and kisses her soundly on the crown of her head. " In addition to lunch, I think a cookie for all three of us is in order. Don't you think Usagi?"

Demora looks up at the mention of cookies with a gasp and loudly makes her agreement known.

" Cookies!" she shouts running over to wrap her small, sweaty palm around Sulu's hand. Holding his hand as she jump with glee, Demora grins up at him with the signature daddy's little girl expression, which is made more effective but the dainty floral dress bouncing around her knees." Dad, cookies please!"

" Yes, a cookie, but first lunch, bunny." he says firmly. " What do you want me to bring you back, B?"

Ben shrugs as he glances her the countertop for the right size pottery for the vegetative growth. " Anything will do. Food. Bring me back food."

Hikaru rolls his eyes at his husband's vague description of what he wants, much to Nyota's amusement and twists his lips into a grimace. " Fine, something edible it is. Be back soon."

Ben murmurs some sort of goodbye and the three of them leave him to his work. The trio make their way down to the avenue and slowly amble their way through the metro station. Demora walks between them, joining them all together with the soft crush of her hands and chatters endlessly about everything around her. Sulu feeds her one syllable replies as a way to keep her going but Nyota loves engaging her in the jovial sound of Japanese to explore her childish wonder.

When Ben and Hikaru first told Nyota of their plans to have a child through a surrogate, she was thrilled and doubly so when they asked for her to be Demora's godmother.

As it was, she and the youngest Sulu were quite close, with the girl only referring to Nyota as her guardian as needed. She much preferred to call Nyota her Oba Usagi or Aunt Rabbit in affection as the of them called her usachan ( bunny).

This lunch is nothing out of the ordinary for them to do but the time spent away in deep space makes Nyota and Sulu both feel wistful and nostalgic as they board the train for midtown. Demora runs forward securing a seat for them near a window by promptly sitting in the middle with a wiggle of her bottom. Uhura and Sulu both smile and sit on either side of her, looking very much the family that none of them were by blood but more than by name. The officers hover over the child at ease, watching as she points out the construction still happening after Krall's last stand aboard the station's walls.

It's not a memory neither wants to remember but it comes over the pair reflexively, as they recall all the fear of losing the bright, cheery girl between them. Only when his hand comes up to thumb away the tear on her face does Nyota realize she recollects far more than she thought she had. I know, Sulu mouths silently above his daughter's head before making another reassuring sound to the child that he was indeed listening.

The hand that grazed her cheek then gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and a quick rub on her back before settling around his daughter's shoulders. " Yes, I do believe that is the largest crane I've seen. Ah, our stop is coming up. C'mon and hold my hand." he prods her, rising up out of his seat with nary a wrinkle in his gold piped command grays.

Demora dutifully obeys him, dragging Nyota behind her as she pulls with all the strength her scrawny arm can muster to help her up. For her part Nyota acts as if she be foisted up out of her chair in a great deal of strength and 'trips' up onto her heels. " My goodness, bunny! When did you get so strong?"

She's instantly rewarded with a tiny, toothy grin, as Demora giggles and bounces up towards her. " I don't know."

Nyota gathers the little one up in her arms and follows Sulu out the cabin doors and into the fresh recycled air of the station once more. Sulu sheds his jacket and hooked it over his forearm while turning to speak to Nyota as they walk. " So what were you in the mood for? It has to be some place with cookies."

Nyota sucks her bottom lip into her mouth with a hum and surveys the fare down the boulevard. " If we go to the Parisian cafe, will you all make due with macaroons?"

" What's that?" Demora asks, wiggling down out of her arms to lead their small party.

Sulu flashes her a brilliant smile and hums as he tells her. " Unbelievably delicious."

Demora's eyes widen as he draws her over to the zebra walk and wait for the mass of flitters to stop their procession. The stringy looking saplings from a variety of worlds sway in the wind the vehicles create along the median, giving a false sense of an air current in the space around them. It's almost like being planetside if it weren't for the obviously stark absence of fauna.

Demora brings Nyota out of her musing with another question as she goes on with her macaroon inquisition.

" Is it still a cookie?" she continues, uncertain if they were trying to pull that ploy adults do when they trick kids into doing something to their advantage, like eating peas to run faster or cleaning your room to keep it free of monsters.

Nyota pulls alongside them with her heels clicking against the aluminum cement. " Tell you what bunny. If you don't like these types of cookies, we'll go to the food kiosk in Starfleet headquarters and get you a cookie there okay?"

" Yeah!"

Sulu looks up from where his daughter is celebrating and cocks his head towards Nyota. " You're getting soft, Uhura."

She smirks back and tugs at her skirt. " Yeah all over but I can't help it. Just look at her! I can't help but spoil her! You sure aren't."

He gasps in mock offense and scoffs as they cross the walk. " I do too spoil her. I let her around you, don't I?"

Nyota wags her finger at him and smiles with a tsk. " Ah, got me there."

Once across, they make a beeline for black and white striped awnings of Boui Boui cafe. Stark white flower boxes line the windows and railings with cheery looking red and purple blooms and the pale blue umbrellas needlessly shading the patio, set the scene for their meal. As much as she would entertain eating outside, she knows from years of friendship, Sulu much prefers the privacy of a booth indoors.

With reflexes honed from years of fencing, Sulu dances a quick side step between them and snags the antique door open. " Ladies first."

Demora exclaims in wonder at the vintage style entryway and asks to open it herself, to which Sulu relents only after she asks the fifth time. The maitre d greets them warmly, grinning down at Demora with an amused expression as he guides them to a sunny booth in the corner covered in a crisp, white linen.

As the maitre d dims the transparency on the windows Nyota picks up her menu and leans over towards Sulu's ear. " This was more fancy than I realized."

Sulu chuckles through his nose with a sly smile painted across his lips. " I'm sure you can afford it, Lieutenant Commander."

Nyota twists her lips and gives him a pointed look over her menu. " Of course I can. I'm just worried that bunny won't enjoy herself."

Sulu lifts a solitary brow not unlike a certain male she knows and huffs. " Are you kidding me? Look."

Nyota peers over to where Demora was neatly folding the napkin in her lap and straightening her silverware. With her jaw gaping open Nyota glances back over at Sulu with a nod of approval. He shrugs as if it were commonplace but she can tell by the look in his eyes that he's proud of his daughter. " Ben has been giving her etiquette lessons and with me gone so often, I like to take them out someone nice to eat every time I gain shore leave. Believe me, she's had lots of practice."

Once comfortably settled, their waiter comes by with sparkling water and the explanation of the soup de jour. Nyota turns to Hikaru with a easy discussion of what dishes they should pick for their courses and to share with the 'bunny' before glancing up at the waiter to order their meal in flawless French.

The waiter peps up at the first few syllables and makes a show of displaying their wine list. " All the best vintage grapes from all our France. And you'll see here along the back we have a prime choice of wines found throughout the galaxy. You won't be disappointed with anything hailing from the Bajorans. Their take on Chardonnay is simply exquisite and would go well with your selection of fish?"

Nyota nods along and folds the slim menu in her hands back in half. " Sounds delightful. We'll each have a glass and she'll have a mint press."

" Now you're really spoiling her." Sulu groans as he hands over their menus.

Nyota smiles sweetly and bumps his shoulder. " I promise to be light on the simple syrup. It will probably be enough to just have the fresh taste of muddled mint in her sparkling water but she's young and that sugar will burn right through her system."

" Ben is going to kill us." he chuckles quietly eyeing his daughter as she adjusts her napkin in her lap. " So, Spock? He seems different, lighter perhaps? And then there's this new necklace around her shoulders blinding everyone in sight."

Nyota thanks the waiter as he brings out their drinks and eyes the petite soup and salad the busboys place down onto the table in unison. She takes a sip of the wine and smiles into the glass as it slides down her throat with a chilly burn. " It is nice, isn't it? I had no idea he could be so romantic...well yes, but this was completely unexpected."

" But certainly not unwelcome." Sulu comments back after a sip of his own. " I wouldn't how thought that a Vulcan could be so taken with someone until I saw Spock come after you on Altamid, injured as he was."

Nyota withdraws the spoon from her mouth and swallows the soup in her mouth. The thought of Spock so pale and fragile bitters the taste of tomatoes on her tongue. " Yeah. Somehow I knew he would come."

" The bondlink?" Sulu offers, carefully munching into his salad. He shots a warning glare in between chews as she tries to steal away more simple syrup into her drink and gazes over at her salad with a look that says eat it or else. Whether she does it out of fear of consequences or being chastised, Nyota doesn't know but her goddaughter dutifully picks up her folk and tries to emulate her father's eating style.

" No, it wasn't the bond link. After a certain distance Spock feels vague. I could only know that he was alive, not where he was." she answers, going back for another sip of wine. " I don't know, it's more that, knowing how far he would to do what's right is easy to conclude but when he told me he came for me…"

She stops herself and smiles a little smile while thumbing her necklace. " Hearing that...it healed something inside me I didn't know was broken. It solidified my resolve to stay. I felt wanted again, not like some obligation he had to see through. He came because he loved me and I meant something to him."

At her words, Hikaru smiles and raises his wine glass towards her. " Congratulations. To you both."

She raises her glass and gives a wide toothy grin. " Thank you!"

" Cheers." he says tapping his glass against hers and Demora, who won't be left out of the festivities. Their fish comes out soon after, dressed with a garlic, herb butter that gives the fillet a creamy texture that all three marvel over. Half the fish is gone when Sulu picks up where they left off.

Dabbing his face, he smiles at Demora but speaks to Nyota. " So everything is back to normal between you too?"

Nyota casts her eyes down to the last of her fish and gives a slight shrug of her shoulders. " In most ways they're better. We're talking more but more than that we're listening more too. I feel like we're really getting a chance to understand what the other has been going through for these past few years when communication was infrequent at best."

" You said most ways, what's still a problem?" he questions, waving their waiter over for a refill of their wine.

Nyota waits until their glasses are full and the waiter departs before answering him. " Well we're not completely intimate." she starts with sip of her wine. " Which has been fine up until this time but I think it's wearing on us both."

Sulu hums with a nod, spooning over the last of the fish onto Demora's plate while eyeing his daughter for any glimmer of understanding toward their conversation. Once the pair were both satisfied that she was blissfully clueless to the true meaning of their words, they go onward after their plates are cleared for dessert.

" The physical aspect has always been easy. I mean…" she stops to gesture with her hands to allude to the face and build of the Vulcan while Sulu chuckles in agreement. " We just...clicked. When we realized our feelings were mutual and more than just a passing phase, it was like a moth to a flame." she admits with a faraway look. " I don't know which of us was worse with keeping things under control but the threat of being caught kept us somewhat tempered. After Va'pak and his mother things were awkward...but after Khan, we just stopped…"

Sulu's eyebrows furrow over his goblet as he takes in her words. " You mean you both haven't since…?"

" Yes." she says hurriedly, glancing over to where Demora is worshipping her plate of assorted macaroons. She hadn't mentioned going to get a cookie once after she bite.

" It's like we would start but never quite reach the conclusion." she excuses with a flourish of her hand gestures. " We were just struggling just to stay together that we couldn't get beyond that to just live. Spock was focused on where he should be and what he should be doing and I was just wondering if the other shoe was going to drop."

" So where does that leave you two now? I mean you're engaged now, you've always talked about having a family possibly in the future."

" Is Aunt Rabbit going to have babies?" Demora asks cluing into their conversation. She had been so focused on thumbing up the crumbs of her dessert that neither of them had noticed her starting to listen.

Sulu glances over at Nyota with his eyes full of apology but she gives him a quick shake of her head to wave away his concern. She turns her face towards the girl and gives a casual flick of her wrist. " Possibly bunny, I may have babies. It's something that me and Mr. Spock have talked about."

Demora chews her macaroon thoughtfully and completely removes what little social filter she has. " If you have babies, are you going to call them bunnies too?"

Nyota laughs along with Sulu and tilts her head. " Gee, I don't know. Would you like me to, usachan?"

Demora pause with a quick flutter of her thick lashes as she considers the thought. " Well, they can be little bunnies and I can be big bunny. That would be okay."

She and Sulu nod down at her with approval as she sagely delivers her concession. " That sounds great. How were you macaroons, bunny?"

" Delicious!" she giggles through her teeth with a impish grin. " We should bring some back for Daddy Ben."

" I think he would like that." Sulu agrees and waves the waiter over to place an order for lunch and dessert to go.

He does so in French as well but not nearly as fluid as he pauses over the genders every few words. The waiter looks no worse for wear in trying to follow his choppy sentences, taking down his order just as he places it. If anything he looks pleased to have them practice. Once he's gone Nyota switches back to Japanese. " You need to tip that poor man well after all this."

Sulu sniffs and gives her a sly look. " I would but you're the one treating us, remember? Dying plant drama?"

" I was not being dramatic." she huffs over the honey cannelle cake they share.

" You were crying." he says flatly, hooking her fork with his to stop her from spearing the glazed strawberry on top.

She grunts at his silverware attack and answer but gets her way as she uses her other hands to pluck the red fruit off the cake and into her mouth. Sulu tsks her as she smirks in victory. " Too slow, Sulu."

" I'm playing fair, Uhura." he shoots back playfully.

" Oh! Okay…" she says in false revelation. Clearing her throat, she swallows down the rest of the berry and imitates his deep tenor. " If you try me, you will fail."

Sulu laughs in spite of himself and pushes at her side with her elbow. " Ha! I do not sound like that!"

" Oh my…" Nyota tease between bites of cake. " Ben hold me closer. Don't let go."

Sulu bats his eyes and pouts his lips as he challenges Nyota to her own imitation game. " Oh Spock how can I be with you when you make me so emotional? Meld with me! I've always have it bad for teacher and what I have in mind will have you giving me a court martial, Commander!"

" What's a court martial?" Demora asks, interested in their fun.

They look between each other as they wait for one of them to gain enough seriousness to explain between stifled laughter but are thankfully saved by the arrival of the check and Ben's lunch neatly stowed away in an attractive bag that matches the awning of the restaurant's storefront. As much as he teased Nyota about paying, Sulu snatches the credit scanner away with a wave and jabs his thumb onto the check tab before she can get a chance to nab it out of his hands.

" Sulu, I was suppose to get lunch as a payment of my plant!" she grumbles as he helps Demora out of her chair with a hand.

" Consider it a bridal brunch." he offers lightly with a squeeze to her shoulder. " Besides I think Ben is going to want to keep a few of those ferns for himself so this should even it out."

Nyota makes a sound of surprise and takes Demora's hand as she juts her arm out to join them once more. " Bolian ferns aren't common but their not necessarily rare."

Sulu shrugs as they get to the crosswalk and glances over to the station for the train arrival times. " I said the same thing but he told me some jibberish about it being a hybrid strain or some such thing. A botanist...Dr. Grayson, cultivated a few on different planets. Yours apparently came from-."

" Vulcan." she finishes, as the epiphany washes over her. It was his mother's.

Sulu looks mildly surprised that she knew his response. " Looks like you have more of a green thumb than I gave you credit for. How did you know it was from Vulcan?"

" I didn't." she answers honestly. " Hey, umm thanks for making sure it was ok."

" Anytime, Uhura. I can't have Oba Usagi sad now, can we?"

Demora skips between them and gives her father a hearty yes. " If she's sad, she'll go to the moon like all the other rabbits, right daddy? But if she goes, she'll be happy because rabbits eat candy there!"

Nyota's expression morphs into that of confusion until Sulu waves it away. " It's from folklore. Last time we went back to San Francisco, Ben and I had family over. Demora's Japanese cousins told her about the rabbits on the moon and she hasn't been quiet about it since."

" I bet it doesn't help that dad pilots a spaceship." Nyota chuckles, stepping onto the platform. She was planning on going back to the Yorktown's headquarters but now wondered if she should make her way back with the Sulus to retrieve her plant. As they wait she wonders over another idea. " Hey Sulu, when Spock and I were gone, did the brass make a big deal about our absence?"

Sulu blinks as he thinks and then shakes his head. " No. If anything it was good publicity coming our way. Not everyone is thrilled with us at the moment. A lot of people still blame Starfleet for what happened with Khan and with Krall turning out to be one of our own, things got a bit more bleek. Any good news for Starfleet is great news, at this point."

She nods and crosses her arms over her chest. " That's good to hear. I'm thinking I want to go back to New Vulcan."

" Just temporarily, I hope?" he replies with a fold of his mouth. They had always been close and she knows that the relationship between her and his family was something she treasured just as much as she cherished her time with Leonard McCoy and Hendorff. Even if she were to seriously entertain living out of New Vulcan, the family she's forged aboard the Enterprise isn't one she would allow to fallow.

" Just for another couple of weeks. I just have some more work I'd like to get down with Spock out there and some question I need answered. Besides, the ship's almost up and I'm eager to get off this 'snowglobe'."

" Ha ha, hanging out with Bones recently I see."

She laughs to herself and nods as she thinks of their dour Chief medical officer. " He's super funny and devastatingly charming. Just like you."

Sulu smiles at her with his whole face and bends to plant a quick peck against her cheek. " I won't tell Bones or Spock that you said that and you won't tell him that I kissed you. Ah, train's here. You heading back?"

Nyota nibbles her lip and glances at the space between them. " I'll swing back by later to get my fern. There's some things I still want to take care off before I can call it a day. Tell Ben he can have all the extra ferns he wants and that I just want mine back."

" He'll be thrilled to hear that. We all need to get back together again, cook in like we use to back at the house. Spock always liked that."

Nyota agrees with a wistful sigh as she remembers the beachfront house Sulu kept off of Baker's beach in San Francisco. When it had just been the four of them, they had grilled out on the patio and made a night of enjoying the western view of the golden gate bridge over drinks and light conversation. They had changed so much since then.

" Yeah let's do that when we get back." she promises. Scooping Demora into her arms, kisses her small, soft face in a flurry of smacks. " Bunny, be a good girl. I'll see you again tonight, ok?"

" Ok!" she chirps with a kiss of her own. She places her down and the two board their train car leaving Nyota on the platform.

She fishes her comm out of her pocket and dials her Spock by wrote. He picks after the third and welcomes her with a deep salutation that leaves her more eager for what she has to say. " Hey. Spock, I'm ready to go back if you are."

She's pleased that it's not the same. The weather feels more stifling and the people more absorbed with their own business to intrude into theirs but New Vulcan still feels like a viable option of a permanent homestead.

Spock also seems to be less taken with the planet the side time around as he makes what he calls observations but what Nyota knows to be a list of complaints about the structure of the relief headquarters and the management therein.

She thinks it's because they are assigned to different posts this time around but there's also T'riel's presence at the reception desk that she knows still irks him as they pass his station on their coming and goings.

It's not all bad, both of them keep busy and pick up where they left off with acquaintances they met previously. And despite being assigned separate rooms again, they split their time between the two studios.

It's at Nyota dorm room that they decide to have their evening meal the third night in. The evening is winding down and the second game into chess, Nyota is yawning over her pawns.

Spock tilts his head around the set and eyes her with a muted expression of mirth. " Some would find my company much more entertaining than you do currently."

She chuckles but yawns again. " Most of those wouldn't be still suffering from jet lag."

" Care to indulge in a cup of coffee?" he ventures. " I will stay up with you."

Nyota hums thoughtfully before giving a quick lift of her shoulders. " Why not. My circadian rhythm is already off. May as well have fun with it."

Their chairs groan against the cheap, vinyl flooring of the dining area as they abandon the table in an effort to get the percolator going. Spock stretches over her to grab the carafe while Nyota fills the sonic kettle full of water. Neither of them touch as they busy themselves with their task but the same sort of tension she felt with him out in the desert settles over her as Spock sticks near her.

That light headed eagerness that grounds her feet and makes it hard to feel that she's getting enough air cloys to her like a second skin. The free sort of air hanging over the relief aid dormitory has infected her with an odd kind of bravado. Maybe Spock feels it too?

She turns and leans against the countertop while Spock studies her curiously. " What are you thinking?"

Nyota meets his stare and turns her gaze back over towards the kettle at her right. " I'm happy. I thought New Vulcan was the next step for us, the healthiest place for us to be but I think...the feelings that we felt during our stay were truly because we had time together."

" What feelings inparticular?" he asks holding his mug. Nyota finds it hard to answer as she drinks him in. Spock donning nothing but his undershirt and sweatpants always had that effect.

She clears her throat and tries to distract her eyes away from his frame by ruffling her hand through her hair. It was a silly move, sure to tangle every part she was mussing but she had to be able to think to speak and the sight of him so underdressed had her mind going blank. " I don't know, feeling close? Connected?"

Spock hums neutral and shifts the mug in his hands. " Nothing more?"

" Spock, you know-"

The shrill whistle of the kettle cuts her off and itself as it jars them both into action. Spock comes back towards her and lifts the silver pitcher up from the countertop, pouring the steaming water over the grounds before replacing the lid. Nyota watches his hands hop over the various items and swallows as they come to rest near her arm. " What else were you going to tell me?"

She can't meet his eyes as she says it but gives herself a mental pat on the back as she confesses her mind. " After some consideration, I think, I'd like to that is, seek to gain a permanent residence on the Yorktown base."

Spock inclines his body towards her with a slight nod for her to continue on. " Well, we haven't really sat and gone over our finances for housing but maybe we could buy a nice place on here, Earth and the Yorktown and rent them out accordingly?"

" You enjoy the idea of residing on a star base?" he ponders aloud.

Nyota licks her lips and drums her fingers against the surface of the countertop with her nails clicking against the light marble. " I enjoy the thought of being able to see old friends when they dock for repairs, making new friends as they tenants in the station changes and the neutral ground there…"

She didn't elaborate as to how Yorktown was neutral but as clever and diplomatic as Spock was he nods along with her assessment. " I think it's a proposal worth exploring. We could use what free time we have while on assignment here to scout out housing and communities. Yorktown will be more of an issue of limited space while Earth I believe will come down to the preferred location."

Nyota remembers that she and Spock each had family all over her homeworld so choosing to live near one might be seen as a slight against another, which she was already trying to avoid by having a place on New Vulcan as well. " Ugh, you're right. As usual. Oh well, we have time."

Spock blinks down at her slowly as she runs the beaded line of her necklace between her thumb and forefinger. He looks as if he may kiss her but he remains unmoving. For the first time in a long while, he's frustratingly opaque to her. He asked what she was thinking but it's his brain she wants to pick. Does he feel the same restlessness that's seized her? Does he want to kiss her or maybe he's holding back because he wants something more?

He moves closer and Nyota tilts her head further up with her lips puckered for his arrival but she blinks in surprise as he reaches around her to press the perculator's press slowly downward.

Nyota opens her mouth in surprise and...offense? Why didn't kiss her and better yet why is she so upset that he hadn't? Spock moves onto pouring them each a cup, seemingly unaware of his fiance's brooding.

" I'm tired, I think I'm going to change into my pajamas before I take in this coffee." she says glumly slinking away. He make a motion of acknowledgement to leave her to her task and doesn't glance after her even as she stares after him.

Entering her bathroom first, she splashes her face was cold water and studies herself in the reflective aluminum wall. Her face looks as flush as she feels and her eyes are dilated with the anticipation of what hadn't come to pass. She should have told him she thinks as she moves about the bathroom to ready herself for bed, she should have told him she wants more.

Spock, though hardly free of the charge of misunderstanding, has always been a gentleman to her in all things. It was different than doting which he did plenty of but he also stayed his hand when it came to more intimate shows of physical affection.

Which was exactly what she was craving.

She wouldn't have spilled all the beans with Sulu about her love life, for Spock's privacy, but she was ready to pick up where they had left things before Khan's arrival and Marcus' betrayal. But he was being so...coy!

Her shower does nothing to alleviate the itch that plagues, if anything it makes it worse. Having to run the washcloth over her skin heightens her sensitivity along with the imagery of her imagination.

By the time that she emerges from the bathroom into her bedroom she rubbing at her arms and trying to work up the nerve to get dressed and face him again. What would Spock think? What would he say?

What would he do?

A sound of door sliding up has her turning around to face him. He stands there silently in the doorway taking in the darkness of the room as well as her appearance. The light of the kitchen has frames his dark silhouette and sends a little thrill through her. She knows he questions her lack of clothing and her prolonged absence from the kitchen something in her look answers his musing.

He watches her as he moves inside the room, slowly stalking over towards the bed. He stills at the edge waiting for her to move next and with she does with her heart racing inside her like a flickering light from a pulsing quasar.

Nyota hands find him in the dark and search him out like hungry little thieves pillaging a storehouse. She has touches him frequently but it has been ages since she's done so with the intent she currently has.

Spock sighs as her hands glide across him, swallowing loudly as her mind comes into to focus. His arms come around her and she's lifted into that all too familiar lock within them. Just as quickly his lips find hers and they're kissing with something that lies between the cusp of ravenousness and infatuation. The taste of the coffee they brewed earlier floods her mouth as his tongue swipes across hers and up across the roof of her mouth. Her hands fly up to cup his face and draw him deeper, with a madness that passes rapidly between them.

When their lips part their on the bed and when they come back together she's sitting up in his lap as he pants raggedly over her face. She feels light headed and the skin of her lips feels numb and overly hot. Spock is in a similar state, lips swollen and eyes glazed over and impossibly dark as he stares at her through heavy lidded eyes.

After a moment she realizes he's waiting again, wanting but waiting, desperately seeking her permission to go on. The passage of time which had been freed from its reins now regains its normalcy. The frantic pull that they answered to earlier is paused as they regain their wits and slow their breathing. Slowly the room around them comes into a soft focus as her eyes adjust and find the small nightstand and dresser highlighted in the blue haze of the crescent moons suspended above them outside. Spock is similarly highlighted, looking like some dreadfully handsome prince of Vulcan Old, which has him humming quietly in amusement.

" Well, you do." she huffs, embarrassed by her musing.

" Do not be. Embarrassed, that it." he says, running his thumb over her lips. " I am flattered."

" I am too." she says and feels his regard shift away from her face to her body pressed against him. She wanted to say more, tell him something witty or sultry that would have them breathless and panting and set the mood once more but in one of those ironic twists that happen in the universe words fail her, even as a master of them.

Spock quietly takes in the muddled mess of her emotions and brushes them gently away. With a hand to her back and one at her side he brings her closer and gives her a unnerving sense of deja vu. " You do not have to say anything, Nyota."

So she takes his advice by closing her mouth over him once more and succumbs to the inevitable carnal reunion.

They stay clung together atop the mattress as they regain their breath and composure but time does not touch them as they do so. The light of band of stars outside never shifts and the sounds of night never waver, leaving them with little signs as to the passage of time. Nyota slumps against him with a shuddering breath and Spock brings them back down to the mattress with him on his back.

His arms move to wrap around her and that's when they first note the difference. Her eyes move through the moonlit room as she takes in the presence of him in her mind. " Spock?"

She can't see him tilt his head and breath through his mouth but his feels him shift under her as he does so. " I feel it too. I feel you there."