Angels (Pavel Chekov)

81 - Something Crazy

Vienna goes back to her room to get lunch and shower before her last class and finds her roommate curled up in a ball on the couch. Before she can ask what's going on she points to the wall and Vienna's eyes widen.

"It has so many legs! It has so so many legs! Please get rid of it! Please Vienna!"

Vienna shakes her head and takes her PADD from her bag. "I am not going near it. I'll get someone else to come get it."

Erik comes over and seems a little amused. He looks at the large spider on the wall and then to the two of them. "Really?"

"It has so many legs!"

"Erik, I fixed your hand because you can't do blood, you owe me one. You can't do blood, I can't do bugs."

He shrugs and finds a bowl in the kitchen and places it over the spider. He has a paper thin chopping board in the other hand and slides it under the bowl. He takes it outside and comes back rolling his eyes. Fae-Amadis is quick to thank him, taking both his hands and bowing.

"It was just a spider," he says softly. "They're not able to harm you."

"Yes, but the legs. It has too many."

"Wow, don't look up Andorian snow spiders then," he laughs.

Vienna realises they've never met and properly introduces them, explaining that Erik is Pavel's brother. He shakes her hand and she smiles softly at him. She thanks him again and he rolls his eyes, telling her it was nothing.

Erik walks with Vienna to her next class and she tells him about their physical training class earlier. She tells him about the faces Pavel was making and how he didn't even say goodbye before she got called to stay back and he left.

Erik rolls his eyes, seemingly unsurprised. "My brother doesn't like being bad at things. He has a weird complex about it. It's like why he can't enjoy skating. He hates being the worst at something. He probably isn't taking well to seeing someone he's so close to being so skilled at something he feels like he's trying so much harder at. He's getting up early to run and it still isn't helping him as much as he thought it would. It's really just jealously. He's jealous that you can do something better than him but honesty, he needs to know he can't always be the best at everything. It's about time he was bad at something."

"I feel like you've been in my position before."

Erik scoffs. "My whole childhood. Pavel was always the bright one. He was smarter, got better grades, did amazing things but if I did anything better he'd sulk about it. If I would beat him at a video game or something he'd just stop playing it with me until he could beat me at it."

Vienna nods. "I feel like there's more to your brother than I'm seeing."

"It takes time to see the negatives when you're in a relationship with someone. Don't let it worry you too much. He'll stop sulking after a day or two."

Half past four rolls around and Pavel shows up exactly on time. He seems better than earlier that morning and Vienna's thankful for it. She catches him up on what happened with the spider. Pavel asks if there's anything else she's scared of and she thinks back to the rollercoasters they rode when Sydel came to visit.

"Just spiders and heights?"

"Well..."

"Well? Do you have any other fears?"

"I'm scared of clowns too. Like petrified of them. Just thinking about it makes me uncomfortable."

"Clown? Like from a circus? The Russian word is said the same. They're supposed to be funny though, aren't they?"

"I saw one as a kid on Halloween and it chased me with a plastic knife. I've been scared of them ever since."

He nods, wondering if she's as bad with clowns as he is with dogs.

"What about you? Just dogs? Anything else you're scared of?"

"Dogs and I don't like closed in spaces either. Everything I'm scared of is more focused around loss anyway. I'm petrified of losing you. Even loosing Erik would just... After the whole Vulcan incident I'm scared of making mistakes again. I'm scared of getting back at those controls."

"That's understandable. I was scared up there too. I worry about losing you. I worry about losing my friends again. Space is scary Pavel. We've really signed up for something crazy, haven't we?"

He nods, resting his head on the back of the sofa and looking up at the ceiling. Vienna shuffles closer to him and he hooks his arm around her shoulder. She kisses his cheek and they sit there a while, space on their minds.

Vienna falls asleep on Pavel's arm and he doesn't move, even when his arm starts going limp. He sleeps a little himself and feels groggy when he does wake back up. Vienna is there telling him she should be studying and not sleeping. She pulls her PADD out and starts on her homework for the next day. Pavel gets up and walks around, regaining feeling in his legs.

Pavel makes dinner while Vienna studies and she watches him for just a minute, realising she's endlessly lucky to have someone looking after her. She goes back to her work with a smile on her face.

They share a meal together and talk about their favourite movies. Vienna isn't normally one for movies but she has a few films she particularly loves. There are a few Russian ones Pavel wants them to watch together and she smiles watching his eyebrows knit together in thought.