Nobis ✴︎ Pavel Chekov

Chapter Two - No More Drinks

Pavel spends the next few days trying to forget everything that happened when he was drunk. He doesn't drink again, and he hopes he'll be put off it for at least a while. He's yet to see the girl around the campus and starts to wonder if he actually will. One part of him hopes they'll meet again, he doesn't know why, he just does. He tells himself that he's probably just using her to get over his last relationship, the reason for his night of crazy intoxication in the first place. He can't let himself use her. He's not that kind of person, or at least he hopes.

The campus café is normally pretty busy but Pavel goes in there when it's a little more quiet. It's late afternoon and the sun will probably start setting but he still has one more class before the day ends. An advanced astrophysics lecture and he's kind of looking forward to it. He likes his classes. They're challenging and he kind of loves testing himself. He never realised how much of a nerd he was until he came to Starfleet at age fourteen. He's nineteen now and even though he has technically graduated, he revisits a lot of classes while he's waiting for their next big mission. He's focusing himself more on engineering now that he's finished navigating. He's made great friends with some of the engineering crew, mainly because of a man named Montgomery Scott. Going by the name Scotty, he single handedly holds the engineering department together. Pavel likes him, he has a great sense of humour and never judged him for his age, something Pavel was always grateful for.

For a good ten minutes, Pavel doesn't even notice one of the baristas is her, the girl. She doesn't notice either until he returns the mug to the counter. They look at each other in a mutual moment of realisation and he kind of loses his ability to speak.

"Hey," she says quietly, regaining herself a little. "I'm off in fifteen minutes. Maybe we could talk?"

Pavel nods. "Yes, sure," he mutters, smiling politely and going back to sit down. He's been thinking about something like this happen all week but now that it's actually happening he isn't sure how to react. He feels really guilty and he's not entirely sure why. She seemed to be fine with what occurred that night, possibly more so than what he was. He taps his foot impatiently and opens his PADD, pretending to do something important. He didn't get a look at her name badge and it only makes him feel a tiny bit worse.

She finishes up work and sits down beside him, taking a few seconds to adjust her bag so Pavel can put his PADD away. He takes a moment to get a better look at her. Her hair is up in a high ponytail and her fringes frame the side of her face. She's prettier than the photos make her look, the dim lights of the bar not doing justice to her deep blue eyes.

"I really sorry, I never actually got your name," Pavel admits, an obvious hint of anxiety in his voice.

"Emory," she answers. "And please don't worry yourself, I'm in the same boat as you are."

He smiles a little, feeling his anxiety ease up a little with her understanding tone. "I'm Pavel," he introduces.

"Nice to see you again. I hope I haven't worried you too much. You seem tense."

Pavel dismisses the idea. "I just was worried I did something wrong. I don't know, hurt you or something."

"You don't know me, though," she points out.

He nods. "I know, but we were both pretty drunk. I was worried I'd disrespected you."

Emory cracks a grin. "Trust me, you're substantially more respectful than any guy I've met. The fact that you worried you'd upset me or something, even though you don't know me, that is a pretty respectful thing."

Pavel smiles gently. "Thank you. How have you been since then?" He has little idea what else to say.

"Good," she says. "Study has been busy. What are you studying?"

"Ah, technically navigating but engineering at the moment."

"Are you a second year? I haven't seen you in any classes."

"I've actually graduated," he says, a little awkwardly. He knows it'll raise a few questions about his age. "I'm stationed on the Enterprise, I just decided to study until our next mission."

"That's so cool," she smirks. "I'm doing navigating. Or at least trying. It's so much harder than I expected. There's so much physics involved. I've considered changing to another course once or twice."

Pavel can relate, he expected navigating to be much easier than it actually was. Even with his impressive ability in mathematics, he still found himself a lot more challenged than he ever imagined. "It's worth it," he says and he means it.

"I was gonna ask you something about the other night," she says, taking a sip of her own coffee. "You did wear... protection, right?"

Pavel feels his face flush a little red. "Yeah, yes I did," he stammers. "I, ah, I had a, uh, condom in my wallet and you gave me more afterwards."

Her face is reasonably expressionless and she nods. "Yeah um, I'm pregnant."

There's a silence.

"What, sorry?" Pavel feels like his English is suddenly failing and he hopes he has misunderstood her.

She breaks out laughing. "Don't worry, I'm kidding. I just wanted to scare you a little."

"A little?" Pavel asks. "I'm nineteen, I think my mother would shoot me if I gave her grandkids at this age."

Emory laughs though Pavel isn't entirely kidding. His mother would lynch him if he got someone pregnant.

"Sorry for scaring you. I probably put you off drunken hook-ups for a while at least."

"You sure did," Pavel mutters. He's glad that even his drunken, horny self was smart enough to use contraception.

"Well, I better let you go," Emory says. "I have a class in ten minutes. Maybe you could give me some help with navigational science some time?"

"Y-yeah," he stutters, smiling and standing up. "Do you want my contact or something?"

She uses PADD-connect, a reasonably new feature where students press their devices together to share contacts. It works and she waves at him, heading on her way. Pavel grins, he's late for class but he doesn't really care.