something to do (Pavel Chekov)

4

Eadie wakes up without Pavel on her lap and she rubs her eyes, noticing he's over by the tap, facing away from her. She pretends to go back to sleep, not wanting to embarrass him when he turns back around. She hears him sit back down and she opens her eyes, waking up and letting out a genuine yawn.

"Good morning," she mutters. Her side feels sore and she puts her hand on it, taking a deep breath and frowning a little.

"Still sore?" he asks.

"A little. And your ankle?"

"Better," he mutters, flexing it gently. "It doesn't hurt much when I walk on it anymore. Hopefully it'll clear up in a few days. Or we'll be out of here by then and medbay can give me something for it."

"What are our plans for today?"

He isn't entirely sure if she's serious or not and he doesn't answer, instead asking if she has something in mind. "Well, we need to keep ourselves from getting bored or we'll go stir crazy. They taught us about it in that first year course, remember? About being kept prisoner? We have each other, so that's hugely helpful. I think we need to start a routine of sorts so we can try and keep ourselves occupied."

"I see," he says, thinking that her idea may actually be quite helpful. "After waking up can we start with something physical?"

She raises her eyebrow just a touch and he swallows, realising context might be helpful. "I mean like stretching or push-ups or something... Just because our bodies will decay if all we do is sit and talk. It's not like we can't talk while stretching but I think we just need to try and look after our physical health as well as our mental health."

"Sounds like a good starting point," she says, standing up and reaching her arms up above her head. He stands and does the same. He knows he might be a little limited by his ankle. They stretch their bodies out, working from top to bottom and thoroughly going through everything. They sit on the floor and work on their flexibility. Eadie is quite flexible from doing martial arts when she was younger. They used to stretch before each lesson and she remembers their routine, going through it with Pavel.

They start on fitness and Eadie asks Pavel to hold her legs while she does sit ups. She does twenty five, takes a break then does another twenty five. Pavel counts for her in Russian, at her request. She offers to hold his legs and at his request, she counts in Romanian. He listens and just breaths through the numbers.

"Do you think you could teach me Romanian?" Pavel asks, once they're both finished with exercising for the morning.

"If you want me to teach you. Do you speak any languages other than Russian and English?"

"Technically. I can sign as well. My grandmother, aunt and cousin are all deaf."

"Oh wow," she says, thinking he might be a lot smarter than she realises. "Russian sign, I'm guessing?"

"Yes, Russian sign."

"We should definitely add that to our things to do today then. Romanian and Russian. Sounds good."

Pavel makes a lot more progress with Romanian than Eadie does with Russian. He learns that her middle name is Sorana and he manages to put a few basic sentences together. She smiles at his progress, glad to be able to take her mind of everything for even just a little while.

They fill in the rest of their day with conversation and Pavel maps out the stars for her in the dust on the floor. He names all different constellations and tells her how much he wishes he could see the stars. They fall asleep together feeling a little more fulfilled and a little more content with their lives inside the cell.

Eadie wakes up with Pavel still in her lap and she tries not to shift too much, just yawning and playing with his springy curls. He makes a soft noise of contentment and she keeps going, smiling at him fondly. She's so glad she's not trapped in there alone. She wonders what she'd do if she didn't have someone to teach Romanian to or exercise with. The thought frightens her more than she cares to admit. Pavel stirs and she looks down, watching as two dark blue orbs appear and then focus in on her.

"Good morning," he says, sitting up and smiling at her. "Busy day today?"

"Oh definitely," she says, stretching her legs out.

They stretch together until a figure appears in the corridor with two loaves. They sit cross legged on the ground and pretend their food tastes better than it does. They talk about tongue twisters for a while and Pavel tries a few English ones with little success. Eadie recites a few in both English and Romanian with little effort. He jokingly asks if she'll sing for him today and she shakes her head, knowing it mightn't be all that long before a lack of music drives her to smash through the wall.

"I'm not desperate enough to start singing yet," she tells him, as she holds down his legs. "Might take a little while."

It takes another three days but Pavel has a nap on his jacket for a while and wakes to her soft voice filling the empty cell. He sits and listens until she notices him looking, apologising as soon as their eyes meet.

"I hope I didn't wake you," she says softly.

"Not at all. You have a nice voice. I somehow knew you would."

She rolls hers eyes even though she can feel the honest sincerity in his voice. He asks if she'll keep singing for just a little longer and she finishes her song, only because he smiles ever so slightly as he listens. She asks him to sing something in Russian and with a cheeky grin, he tells her it might take a few days. She sends him a playful glare and goes back to humming, thinking about what they should do next.

Eadie decides to learn Russian sign but she gets a few common nouns in before there's movement in the corridor and low grunting. They look at one another and stand up, feeling their stomachs turn. Two figures stand there and mutter amongst themselves. They stop, they enter and they have a cloth over Eadie's face again.