Angels (Pavel Chekov)

29 - Swear

They walk around a little and Pavel finds something that he thinks won't be too intense for Vienna. He feels for her, he knows what it's like to have a fear of something and he wonders if that's what they were arguing about.

"This one?" He suggests gesturing towards a ride.

Sydel and Vienna look at one another and Pavel feels the tension in the air.

"Sure you're not going to get to the gate and then freak out again?" Sydel says bitterly.

"I told you," Vienna presses, crossing her arms, "He offered to go with me. I didn't drag him off."

"Why did you make him wait all that time in line then? We were waiting for forty minutes, you had all that time to decide whether you'd go on it or not."

"I freaked out, okay?? You're more than capable of riding alone, Sydel, I don't know why you're getting all irritated at me."

"And you're more than capable of getting off by yourself, you didn't need to drag him with you."

"I just told you I didn't drag him!"

Pavel is standing there blankly and trying not to get flustered by them starting to raise their voice at one another. He doesn't want to get involved, but he doesn't want to stand there and watch them get progressively angrier.

"If I can interject here," Pavel says softly, catching the attention of both of them. "I did offer to go with Vienna because she looked frightened. I would have felt bad leaving her alone to not ride."

Sydel doesn't say anything, just nodding. It's gone quiet again and Pavel feels his stomach tighten a little. He's not used to seeing Vienna in a mood like this and he tells himself he needs to look after her as best he can.

The remainder of the afternoon passes by reasonably quietly. They go on a few more rides but there's still a tension lingering that makes Pavel uncomfortable. Sydel goes to find something to eat and Vienna squeezes Pavel's hand, glad to have a few minutes with him alone. They're sitting on a bench together and she just leans into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry for dragging you off the ride earlier. She's right, we were waiting for ages, I shouldn't have freaked out last second."

Pavel smiles. "I thought I was the one who freaked out last second. Remember our almost first kiss?" Vienna smiles a little and nudges his side playfully. "You looked really frightened," he continues. "I didn't want to just leave you. It doesn't matter though, right? We've still had a good day, yeah?"

Vienna kisses his cheek and watches as a grin pulls at his lips. He wraps his arm around her waist and mutters to himself in Russian. She wishes she could understand what he was saying to her sometimes, though she has a vague hunch. Sydel comes back and asks if they want to stick around much longer. It's already late afternoon and they still have a long commute back.

Pavel falls asleep on Vienna's shoulder during the bus ride back and she takes a photo of him while he sleeps. Vienna plans to record what he's saying when he wakes and run it through a translator, seeing if it'll pick up his obscure language mix. She tells Sydel about it and they wait in anticipation.

When they arrive and Pavel starts stirring, Vienna has her PADD ready to translate what he says. She coos his name until he starts muttering. Sydel grins as Vienna's PADD starts transcribing what he's saying.

'Fuck me, too early. Not yet. Five more minutes.'

Vienna and Sydel start laughing which wakes him up a little faster and he asks what they're laughing at. He rubs his eyes and reads over Vienna's PADD, noticing the voice translated Russian.

"Oh," he says softly.

"I've never heard you swear before," Vienna mutters, standing up and picking her bag up. They start to make their way off the bus and Pavel yawns.

"You have, just not in English. I swear a lot in Russian. A lot more than I should. I've only ever heard you swear once."

Sydel's mouth drops and Vienna gives Pavel a look he can't interpret.

"What do you mean you've heard her swear? I've never heard her swear and we've lived together our whole lives. She never swears. What did she say? And why? Wait, it wasn't..."

"No," Vienna quickly mutters. "No. it wasn't like that."

Pavel suddenly picks up on what they mean and feels his face go red. "She was angry with me," Pavel mutters, remembering when she found him on the roof. "I scared her."

Axel and Gabriel come over and Pavel realises the girls much have messaged them while he was sleeping. Gabriel raises an eyebrow at Vienna and Sydel and looks at her husband.

"You two aren't fighting in front of Pavel, are you? I was wondering how long you two would be nice to each other for. What are you arguing about this time?"

"Vienna swore in front of Pavel," Sydel says quickly. Axel and Gabriel look at each other in shock. Vienna glares at Sydel and huffs realising she's going to get tormented endlessly for it. She explains that Pavel scared her, making a clear effort not to give any details about it. She doesn't want to explain how frightened she was by the whole situation. How much time she spent thinking about it after it happened. They change the conversation and Pavel notices how Vienna seems a little withdrawn as they start walking into the city. He nudges her side, asking if she's alright and she just nods.