Angels (Pavel Chekov)

47 - Double Negatives

Erik is already there when they arrive and he encourages them in quietly.

"She's finally cooking again," Erik mutters. "I told her you two were coming and she started cooking."

Pavel goes to the kitchen to talk to her and leaves Erik and Vienna alone. Erik has a drink in his hand and Vienna wonders if this is a regular thing. He asks if she liked seeing the local area and she nods, telling him about her favourite parts of the city. He listens and enjoys hearing her view on his hometown from a tourist perspective.

When Pavel comes back in he sits next to Vienna and asks if Erik's behaving, to which she just nods. Erik rolls his eyes at the question.

"Do you have any hobbies aside from annoying your brother?" Vienna asks cordially, nudging Pavel's side gently.

"I have many hobbies. I'm guessing that drinking doesn't count but aside from that I like ice skating. I like gaming, I read. I used to dance a million years ago as well."

"Dance?" Vienna chirps. "What type?"

"I'm no professional, I just took a few classes to impress a girl a few years ago and liked it more than I anticipated. I think it was ballroom but we did salsa and a few other types."

"You're kidding," Vienna laughs. "I've danced most of my life. I took a little time off when I started studying but I recently joined the academy dance club."

"You dance too?" Erik grins. "May I?" He asks, extending his hand towards her.

"No, you may not," Pavel interjects. "I've never even danced with her before. I don't want you taking that opportunity off me before I get a chance to."

"You dance with her then," Erik scoffs. "You're so uncoordinated, I'd like to see you try. I was just going to try a few steps with her, you're making a way bigger deal out of this than it is."

Pavel switches to Russian and starts getting frustrated with Erik. Vienna picks up her name and barely anything else. She sighs as they start arguing. She gives them a minute before getting frustrated and going into the kitchen to find Dariya. She's humming as she cooks and Vienna offers to help her.

Dariya doesn't need her help but encourages her to sit down in broken English. Vienna has been reading more and more into Russian language and can ask 'What is that?' as Dariya stirs a pot of something. Dariya beams, glad to see her trying to use Russian with her. Pavel doesn't know that she's been trying to learn a few phrases and she plans to keep it that way.

Dariya tries speaking to her in Russian as she describe what she's cooking and though she goes slowly, Vienna quickly gets lost. Dariya realises that she's not picking much up and just starts teaching her vegetable names. Her pronunciation needs a lot of works, she struggles with the amount of consonants in comparison to her native language.

"You're speaking Russian again?" Erik smiles, coming into the kitchen.

"Trying to. Where's Pavel? Did you sort your argument out?"

"He's cooling off in his old bedroom. He gets agitated so easily. I didn't just grab you and I don't need his permission either. It's your choice not his."

"After the comment you made about me speaking Russian, it's understandable that he's uneasy with you being around me. Especially when you literally offered yourself as a boyfriend if things went wrong with him."

Erik blinks, a little surprised that she's being so blunt. "Listen, Pavel probably goes on and on about me being a huge flirt but I'm not. You dancing with another guy at the academy dance club isn't flirting, it isn't when I do it either. I respect your relationship, despite what Pavel wants you to think. I'm not going to do anything to make you uncomfortable, I'm not going to try and coax you into dumping my brother or anything. He's overreacting and blowing it out of proportion."

"Because he cares," she says softly. "I'm his first real relationship; of course he's going to be worried about everything. I'm not surprised. I'm going to go talk to him."

Erik watches as she leaves, surprised at how easily she can back him up. She finds Pavel staring at the stars on his ceiling again. He's glad to see Vienna come in, he sits up a little and starts trying to apologise. He's acknowledging Erik's point; that it's not up to him. Vienna fills him in on the conversation she just had with his brother. Pavel's glad that she can articulate how she feels so easily.

"He drives me crazy," Pavel mutters, putting a hand on her knee. She puts a hand on his cheek and he smiles at her, taking the chance to kiss her softly. She hooks her arms around his neck and keeps kissing him slowly, letting the word around them disappear a little. His arms rest on her hips and he remembers all the times he wished he'd be kissing a girl in his room.

"Dinner's ready," Erik calls out, knocking on Pavel's door. Vienna just smiles and kisses him once more before they decide to leave the room. Just before she opens his room door Pavel takes her hands and kisses her again. She giggles and leans against the wall, pulling him up against her. He kisses her hungrily and Vienna loves it, letting her hands run up his back.

Erik calls something out in Russian and Pavel ignores it, keeping his lips on hers and smiling a little into their kiss.

"Pavel," she giggles softly. "Let's go before you get yelled at again."

He places one more kiss on her lips before opening the door. He has this crazy grin playing on his lips and it sends her head spinning a little. He goes to wash his hands and Erik raises an eyebrow at her when she sits down at the table.

"What?" She asks softly. Erik doesn't say anything, just smiling to himself. Pavel joins them and Erik keeps to himself, just eating and starting a conversation with his mother. Pavel seems to listen, she wonders if Erik is talking about him.

"Yes," Dariya says in English. "You have girl in your room, Pasha. That is new, yes?"

Pavel's face flushes and Erik grins at him. He mutters something back in soft Russian and Vienna wishes she knew what he was saying.

"When Pasha was child," Dariya continues, not addressing whatever Pavel said, "He never not talk with girls. He always read book or study. It is very good for see Pasha with nice girl."

"What she means," Erik interjects, "Is that he never talked to girls. Double negatives are still negatives in Russian."

"We get it," Pavel mutters, "I was shy. Why do we need to keep bringing this up? I've never really been around people my own age until now. It's not as crazy and surprising to see me with a girl as you two seem to think."

Vienna gives him a soft smile and Erik translates, Dariya just sighs. She's not trying to embarrass him like Pavel is accusing her of, she's just happy that he's finally doing something reasonably normal. They eat without going back to the same conversation, Vienna squeezing his hand under the table when she gets the chance.

(Author's Note)

All these damn spam bots will kill me

Angels is sitting at just under 70k and it's a little crazy how quickly the story came about. I still have a fair way to go before finishing and I feel like it'll be over 100k words when I'm done. Haven't quite figured out where I'm steering the ending but I've got a vague idea where I want the main plot points to be.

Hope you're all still enjoying and I'm not putting up chapters too frequently lol

Much love ♪