Angels (Pavel Chekov)

5 - Виенна

The next time she sees him is two days later in another safety protocol class and they're told they'll start simulations within the next few weeks. Vienna is too busy trying to find her name in Chekov's journal to pay real attention. She memorised what her name looked like and now she wants to see if she can find it. She scans over the first paragraph and doesn't find it. She keeps reading and spots it, right in the middle of his page.

Виенна

It appears a few more times after that. She wishes she knew what it was saying about her. She goes back trying to pay attention, though her mind is busy elsewhere. She wonders if she should ask him how to write her name in Russian and see if he uses his journal as an example as opposed to writing it. If he did that, he'd probably tell her what the rest of the sentence said. She frowns, knowing that she really shouldn't be snooping anyway, even though she desperately wants to.

After class, the two of them find a spot in the library together and Vienna tells Chekov about a dentistry position that has just opened up. Starships need at least one practising dentist and though it's an uncommon subject choice, Vienna is seriously considering it. She likes the idea of something a little different than just nursing and Chekov tells her she should try it if she's interested.

"I know this is a little off track but we never really finished the conversation about when you graduated high school... I was going to ask about it, but you seemed a little uneasy about it last time."

"Ah," he says, thinking of how to word his thoughts. "I am studying navigation as a post graduate course."

"Wait, so you've been to college already?"

"Moscow University," he says, not making eye contact. "I actually have a Masters in astrophysics. I graduated high school when I was ten. I did an intensive English course for a year before I came here."

"How old are you now? Are you eighteen?"

He looks up at her, as though he's been dreading this question. "I'm... I'm still sixteen. My birthday is in a month but no, I'm a long way off eighteen."

"I'm only just older than you," she says, his eyes focus in on her, curious. "I'm not eighteen yet either."

Chekov feels comforted in knowing this, though he doesn't voice the though aloud. He moves his hair out of his eyes, going back to writing in his journal. They keep working quietly together for a while, Vienna trying to get a grasp on alien anatomy. She complains about it periodically, Chekov smiling as he listens to her rants. He always stops writing when he's listening to her, something she's yet to notice.

Chekov leaves his journal open on the table when he goes to the bathroom. Vienna looks to where he was walking and reads over his journal, trying to spot the one word she recognises. She finds it, in amongst a sea of Cyrillic that she can't make sense of. A thought crosses her mind and tells herself it would be easy just to take a photo of the page. She could auto-translate it when she got back to her dorm. It would be so easy. It would take one second and she could cure her curiosity, get a little insight into Chekov's mind.

Vienna waits half an hour after Chekov gets back to ask about what he's writing. He raises an eyebrow, asking for a little more detail.

"What do you write about? Do you go over class content or what you had for breakfast or what? I just want to know what's in there."

He smiles at her comment. "I do write about what I eat sometimes," he says softly. "It's just embarrassing for me to go into detail about. I write about my feelings and what I'm thinking about or worried about... I don't know how else to describe it."

"Am I in there?"

He anticipated the question, but he feels no more prepared for it. "Well, yes... I don't want to sound weird or anything but thoughts I've had stemming from our conversations are in here. When we spent the day together that was in there too..."

"And if your feelings are all in there, does that include your feelings about me?" She asks the question with a smile and he can feel his face heat up.

"Ah, well... I..."

"I'm sorry," she says quickly, noticing how flustered he's getting. "You don't have to answer that. I shouldn't be asking such personal questions. I think it's cool that you write a journal though. It's probably a good idea to have your thoughts in a way that you're able to visualise them."

"Exactly," he mutters. "Not many people understand that."

(Author's Note)

So, someone pointed out the age inconsistency in my earlier version - that Chekov, who was 17 in the 2009 remake, would have been 14 presuming he did the same 3 year course as everyone else. Also considering Vienna would have graduated and been 18, it made things a little weird. Angels is set in the same universe and I plan to weave it in better in this version.
I've fixed the inconsistency now and it's still set in the same universe. This was one of the things I wanted to change about the original version, along with how fast Vienna and Pavel's relationship progressed. It was way too rushed in the first one and hopefully it's a little better now.

Thank you for reading!!
-Lucky