Fic: Higher Learning (2/?)
Title: Higher Learning, part II
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Scotty/Polina, Jim/Bones, Spock/Uhura, brief mention of Pike/Winona
Summary: At the ball, we meet the rest of the gang, they get drunk and party, Scotty fails at secrets, and Jim is That Guy.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
“Hot damn, Polina Chekova, please fuck me right here.”
“Sorry, Jim. Our significant others might object,” she responded with a wink.
“You’re damn right about that, lass,” Scotty added as he slid an arm around her waist.
Jim Kirk was leaning against the door to the coatroom, dressed as Captain America. “Come on, please? At least enter the costume contest with me? We just have to think of a theme.”
“America, Fuck Yeah?” came the drawled response. “What’s more American than men in spandex and objectified women?”
“That bitter, jaded snark? Why I love you,” Jim replied, turning around and giving his newly-arrived boyfriend a quick kiss. “Come on, Polina, let’s go for it!”
“I do not think that it counts when the bunny is actually Russian…” she said. Hanging up her coat, she quickly hitched the corset the slightest bit higher and gave Scotty’s arm a squeeze. “But since I refused your earlier proposal, it is the least I can do.”
Len rolled his eyes and pulled Jim away from the wall, jerking his head to Scotty and Polina to follow into the cocktail lounge.
“Len, what are you supposed to be, anyway?” Scotty asked once they had clustered around a high table.
Heaving a sigh, the surgical resident took a step back so that the couple could see his costume-plain jeans and a blue shirt with holes in it, revealing his black undershirt. A molecular structure was carefully drawn across the chest. They stared for a moment, before Polina began giggling.
“It’s ozone-you’re the ozone layer!” she chirped. “You even got the resonance and bonds right!”
“Just wait until the climatologists see you, they’ll be falling over themselves to get pictures,” Scotty added. “And you’re a total fuckin’ dork, by the way.”
“Says the man with a working ray gun he was torturing the cat with earlier,” Polina teased.
“’S’not a working ray gun, it doesn’t blast through things. Dean Archer found me and Gaila working on it and threatened to expel us both because it was too bloody dangerous. Dangerous, my arse…”
Polina rubbed his shoulder affectionately. “It is better this way, now when you are very drunk and pointing it at people nothing bad will happen.”
“Speaking of drunk, I’m not. You wanna play cocktail waitress, Bunny Polina?” Jim asked.
She heaved a large fake sigh. “If you insist. Bourbon for the Doctor, gin and tonic for the Captain, and nothing for the Engineer because he would rather drink his own?” she asked. The men nodded and she trotted off toward the bar.
There was silence for a moment.
“Well,” Len began. “At least she doesn’t look young enough to be my daughter tonight.”
A few minutes later, Polina was back at the table with drinks on a tray she had begged off of one of the catering staff (surprisingly easily, too. Probably had something to do with the way she stuck her chest out in front of her, but maybe he was just very nice).
“You gonna do the Bunny Dip, too?” Len asked.
“The what?” Polina shot the other two men a quizzical look, which Scotty returned with a shrug and Jim with a snicker.
“Bunny Dip. It’s how they put the drinks on the tables without popping out of those outfits,” Len explained. “It’s like… twisting around while bending your knees but keeping the rest of your body from moving.”
Polina pursed her lips for a moment, then attempted the movement, setting the bourbon, gin and tonic, and a third shockingly pink drink on the table.
“That’s a good lass!” Scotty crowed, leaning over and smacking her ass, making her yelp and blush furiously.
“I’m going to ignore what just happened and instead focus on how the hell Bones knows about the Bunny Dip,” Jim stated, taking his drink and staring at Len.
“Had a friend in highschool whose mom was a Bunny. And June, 1976, but I didn’t find that out until a few years later,” he explained with a self-satisfied smile.
“Yeah, but how would you know about… oh. Holy shit Bones, did she wear the outfit for you?”
Len didn’t respond, instead taking a sip of his drink and pointedly not looking at Jim.
Polina rolled her eyes and reached down to her garter-flask, opening it and pouring a generous amount into the pink drink before taking an experimental sip. “Stupid bartenders, they never make these strong enough…” she muttered.
“You know the only reason we keep you around is because you can drink all of us under the table, right?” Jim teased.
“Hey now, she’s got the benefit of a younger liver and genetic predisposition toward holding her liquor!”
“So do you, you’re from fucking Scotland!”
-----
Some time later, the four migrated to the main ballroom and met up with more of their table- Gaila, who had dressed as Poison Ivy, and Sulu from Paleobotany, who made a rather dashing Musketeer.
Gaila noticed them first and jumped up, waving. “Over here, guys!”
“Hey there you two, how’s it going? Any other table look like they’ll give us a run for our money in the BAMF department tonight?” Jim asked, giving Gaila a kiss on the cheek and slapping Sulu on the back.
“I’m pretty sure President Pike’s supposed to be JFK, but that’s mostly because Mrs. Pike’s definitely Jackie,” Gaila replied. “They look good.”
Kirk pulled a face. “Can we just refer to my mother by first name? I’d like to pretend that they’re not actually having sex, and it’s easier when I don’t have to think of them being married.”
“Oh, loosen up, Jim. Your mother is a foxy lady fucking the president of Columbia University. They’re probably going to go home to the apartment you grew up in and have sex tonight, if they don’t sneak away during the party to go at it in a storage closet.” With that, Gaila turned to hug Polina while Bones and Sulu assured Jim that nothing she said was true-he had grown up in Iowa, for one thing.
“I’m glad you went through with this costume-you look absolutely amazing, sweetie!”
“Thank you. And thank you for the help with the walking in high heels, I haven’t hurt myself yet!” Polina replied with a grin.
“Hold on a minute. You knew, Gaila? You, the woman I sat with building a bloody ray gun, and who I bitched to about how I didn’t know what my girlfriend was wearing to this fucking party-not only did you know what she was planning, but you were helping her with it? And you didn’t think to warn me or tell me ‘Oh, she’s just planning on being sex on legs that go on for bloody miles, Scotty’ or anything?” Scotty ranted. “Some friend you are!”
“You calm down, too! I promised Polina I’d keep it a surprise, and I did. I didn’t tell her what you’d been planning, now, did I? I love how everyone confides in me, and then gets all pissy when I don’t spill everyone else’s secrets to them.”
“Well… fine, then. But the only reason I’m not mad is because she’s too gorgeous tonight for me to be mad at anyone,” he replied, somewhat cowed.
They all took their seats as Jim began yet another story of his frat boy days at Iowa State, to much heckling from the others.
“Sex on legs that go on for miles?” Polina asked quietly, looking up into Scotty’s eyes.
His face softened-he could see her sincerity, combined with some of the innocence that she still retained no matter how long she spent surrounded by other people.
“Of course, ‘Lina. And not only that, but you’ve got the face of a bloody angel to top it all off,” he murmured, threading an arm around her and kissing her hair.
The tender moment was interrupted by the arrival of the last two members of the table, Nyota and Spock. Nyota was wearing a full classical tutu in red and gold, her hair swept up into a bun and a pair of pointe shoes on her feet.
Spock stood next to her, straight-backed as always, with an expression of slightly detached amusement on his face as he took in the motley assortment already seated.
He was clearly (at least, clear to anyone who had spent a childhood surrounded by science fiction films, books and television shows as most of them had) dressed in the traditional earth-toned robes of a Jedi Knight, complete with a light saber hanging from the utility belt. There was no question about whether or not it would produce a beam of light if turned on.
It was Sulu who spoke. “My sword still wins-it could actually cause damage if necessary.”
-----
“I fuckin’ love this song!”
Polina giggled, clinging to Scotty’s neck with both arms. “I think everybody loves this song!”
Just a small town girl
Living in a lonely world
She took the midnight train going anywhere…
Out of the corner of her eye, Polina saw Jim perform a (likely to be accurate) air-guitar solo and stumbled toward the main part of their group, which formed a vaguely circular shape as they all sang and danced along-even Spock (after quite a few drinks) was shifting from foot to foot and twitching his shoulders rhythmically.
“Polina?” Scotty asked, speaking loudly to be heard over the music.
“What?”
“Will you marry me? Promise I’ll ask you proper again later, but you know how I am with secrets and waiting for…”
Polina let out a gleeful shriek and launched herself at Scotty, who managed to catch her and spin her in a full circle before setting her down and kissing her thoroughly.
“I’ll take that as yes, then?”
“Yes! Of course I say yes!” she cried, unable to suppress her grin.
“All right, then… we’re getting married,” Scotty said, almost as if convincing himself of that fact. “We’re actually getting married and doing the whole ‘married’ thing.”
“Who’s getting married?” Uhura asked over the music.
“We are! He just asked me to marry him!” Polina yelled, catching the attention of the rest of the group. Gaila gasped sharply, and the two women clutched at each other’s forearms, bouncing excitably.
“I totally respect you, and her, and I’ll congratulate you for real once they stop with the bouncing,” Jim commented as he stared, earning him a smack upside the head from Uhura. “Come on, it’s not like I planned that! They’re just doing it on their own!”
Polina grabbed Scotty’s arm and beamed up at him; rising on her toes and tilting her face up for a kiss he gladly granted her. She pulled him gently toward the table, the other six following. They all collapsed into chairs, gulping water from glasses that were sweating as much as they all were.
Scotty glanced around furtively, then slid off his chair and onto one knee. He dug around in one of his pockets for a moment, pulling out a small black box. He looked up at Polina-her eye makeup was a little smudged, her hair had gotten wild, and her face was positively radiant. With a small smile of his own, Scotty offered her the box, which she took and opened.
Inside lay a gold knotwork band set with a reddish gem. Polina gasped softly at the sight and her eyes flicked up to meet Scotty’s gaze.
“You’re supposed to put it on her, now,” Len commented dryly, although a smile tugged at his lips.
“Just because you’ve done this before…” Scotty muttered, taking the ring out of the box and reaching for Polina. She offered her right hand and he hesitated.
“What is the matter? Is it the wrong size?” she asked, furrowing her brow.
“Other left hand, ‘Lina,” Scotty teased.
“Left hand?” she repeated bemusedly. “In Russia, ring is worn on the right hand.”
The slight tension around the table broke as Sulu and Gaila fell against each other and snickered into their drinks.
“Well, right hand it is, then,” Scotty said, slipping the band onto her finger and pulling her close for a deep kiss.
Kirk made his way somewhat unsteadily to stand on his chair and clap loudly. “The future Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery and Polina Scott, ladies and gentlemen!”
A good number of the crowd shouted their congratulations, but Scotty and Polina didn’t hear any of it.
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Scotty/Polina, Jim/Bones, Spock/Uhura, brief mention of Pike/Winona
Summary: At the ball, we meet the rest of the gang, they get drunk and party, Scotty fails at secrets, and Jim is That Guy.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
“Hot damn, Polina Chekova, please fuck me right here.”
“Sorry, Jim. Our significant others might object,” she responded with a wink.
“You’re damn right about that, lass,” Scotty added as he slid an arm around her waist.
Jim Kirk was leaning against the door to the coatroom, dressed as Captain America. “Come on, please? At least enter the costume contest with me? We just have to think of a theme.”
“America, Fuck Yeah?” came the drawled response. “What’s more American than men in spandex and objectified women?”
“That bitter, jaded snark? Why I love you,” Jim replied, turning around and giving his newly-arrived boyfriend a quick kiss. “Come on, Polina, let’s go for it!”
“I do not think that it counts when the bunny is actually Russian…” she said. Hanging up her coat, she quickly hitched the corset the slightest bit higher and gave Scotty’s arm a squeeze. “But since I refused your earlier proposal, it is the least I can do.”
Len rolled his eyes and pulled Jim away from the wall, jerking his head to Scotty and Polina to follow into the cocktail lounge.
“Len, what are you supposed to be, anyway?” Scotty asked once they had clustered around a high table.
Heaving a sigh, the surgical resident took a step back so that the couple could see his costume-plain jeans and a blue shirt with holes in it, revealing his black undershirt. A molecular structure was carefully drawn across the chest. They stared for a moment, before Polina began giggling.
“It’s ozone-you’re the ozone layer!” she chirped. “You even got the resonance and bonds right!”
“Just wait until the climatologists see you, they’ll be falling over themselves to get pictures,” Scotty added. “And you’re a total fuckin’ dork, by the way.”
“Says the man with a working ray gun he was torturing the cat with earlier,” Polina teased.
“’S’not a working ray gun, it doesn’t blast through things. Dean Archer found me and Gaila working on it and threatened to expel us both because it was too bloody dangerous. Dangerous, my arse…”
Polina rubbed his shoulder affectionately. “It is better this way, now when you are very drunk and pointing it at people nothing bad will happen.”
“Speaking of drunk, I’m not. You wanna play cocktail waitress, Bunny Polina?” Jim asked.
She heaved a large fake sigh. “If you insist. Bourbon for the Doctor, gin and tonic for the Captain, and nothing for the Engineer because he would rather drink his own?” she asked. The men nodded and she trotted off toward the bar.
There was silence for a moment.
“Well,” Len began. “At least she doesn’t look young enough to be my daughter tonight.”
A few minutes later, Polina was back at the table with drinks on a tray she had begged off of one of the catering staff (surprisingly easily, too. Probably had something to do with the way she stuck her chest out in front of her, but maybe he was just very nice).
“You gonna do the Bunny Dip, too?” Len asked.
“The what?” Polina shot the other two men a quizzical look, which Scotty returned with a shrug and Jim with a snicker.
“Bunny Dip. It’s how they put the drinks on the tables without popping out of those outfits,” Len explained. “It’s like… twisting around while bending your knees but keeping the rest of your body from moving.”
Polina pursed her lips for a moment, then attempted the movement, setting the bourbon, gin and tonic, and a third shockingly pink drink on the table.
“That’s a good lass!” Scotty crowed, leaning over and smacking her ass, making her yelp and blush furiously.
“I’m going to ignore what just happened and instead focus on how the hell Bones knows about the Bunny Dip,” Jim stated, taking his drink and staring at Len.
“Had a friend in highschool whose mom was a Bunny. And June, 1976, but I didn’t find that out until a few years later,” he explained with a self-satisfied smile.
“Yeah, but how would you know about… oh. Holy shit Bones, did she wear the outfit for you?”
Len didn’t respond, instead taking a sip of his drink and pointedly not looking at Jim.
Polina rolled her eyes and reached down to her garter-flask, opening it and pouring a generous amount into the pink drink before taking an experimental sip. “Stupid bartenders, they never make these strong enough…” she muttered.
“You know the only reason we keep you around is because you can drink all of us under the table, right?” Jim teased.
“Hey now, she’s got the benefit of a younger liver and genetic predisposition toward holding her liquor!”
“So do you, you’re from fucking Scotland!”
-----
Some time later, the four migrated to the main ballroom and met up with more of their table- Gaila, who had dressed as Poison Ivy, and Sulu from Paleobotany, who made a rather dashing Musketeer.
Gaila noticed them first and jumped up, waving. “Over here, guys!”
“Hey there you two, how’s it going? Any other table look like they’ll give us a run for our money in the BAMF department tonight?” Jim asked, giving Gaila a kiss on the cheek and slapping Sulu on the back.
“I’m pretty sure President Pike’s supposed to be JFK, but that’s mostly because Mrs. Pike’s definitely Jackie,” Gaila replied. “They look good.”
Kirk pulled a face. “Can we just refer to my mother by first name? I’d like to pretend that they’re not actually having sex, and it’s easier when I don’t have to think of them being married.”
“Oh, loosen up, Jim. Your mother is a foxy lady fucking the president of Columbia University. They’re probably going to go home to the apartment you grew up in and have sex tonight, if they don’t sneak away during the party to go at it in a storage closet.” With that, Gaila turned to hug Polina while Bones and Sulu assured Jim that nothing she said was true-he had grown up in Iowa, for one thing.
“I’m glad you went through with this costume-you look absolutely amazing, sweetie!”
“Thank you. And thank you for the help with the walking in high heels, I haven’t hurt myself yet!” Polina replied with a grin.
“Hold on a minute. You knew, Gaila? You, the woman I sat with building a bloody ray gun, and who I bitched to about how I didn’t know what my girlfriend was wearing to this fucking party-not only did you know what she was planning, but you were helping her with it? And you didn’t think to warn me or tell me ‘Oh, she’s just planning on being sex on legs that go on for bloody miles, Scotty’ or anything?” Scotty ranted. “Some friend you are!”
“You calm down, too! I promised Polina I’d keep it a surprise, and I did. I didn’t tell her what you’d been planning, now, did I? I love how everyone confides in me, and then gets all pissy when I don’t spill everyone else’s secrets to them.”
“Well… fine, then. But the only reason I’m not mad is because she’s too gorgeous tonight for me to be mad at anyone,” he replied, somewhat cowed.
They all took their seats as Jim began yet another story of his frat boy days at Iowa State, to much heckling from the others.
“Sex on legs that go on for miles?” Polina asked quietly, looking up into Scotty’s eyes.
His face softened-he could see her sincerity, combined with some of the innocence that she still retained no matter how long she spent surrounded by other people.
“Of course, ‘Lina. And not only that, but you’ve got the face of a bloody angel to top it all off,” he murmured, threading an arm around her and kissing her hair.
The tender moment was interrupted by the arrival of the last two members of the table, Nyota and Spock. Nyota was wearing a full classical tutu in red and gold, her hair swept up into a bun and a pair of pointe shoes on her feet.
Spock stood next to her, straight-backed as always, with an expression of slightly detached amusement on his face as he took in the motley assortment already seated.
He was clearly (at least, clear to anyone who had spent a childhood surrounded by science fiction films, books and television shows as most of them had) dressed in the traditional earth-toned robes of a Jedi Knight, complete with a light saber hanging from the utility belt. There was no question about whether or not it would produce a beam of light if turned on.
It was Sulu who spoke. “My sword still wins-it could actually cause damage if necessary.”
-----
“I fuckin’ love this song!”
Polina giggled, clinging to Scotty’s neck with both arms. “I think everybody loves this song!”
Just a small town girl
Living in a lonely world
She took the midnight train going anywhere…
Out of the corner of her eye, Polina saw Jim perform a (likely to be accurate) air-guitar solo and stumbled toward the main part of their group, which formed a vaguely circular shape as they all sang and danced along-even Spock (after quite a few drinks) was shifting from foot to foot and twitching his shoulders rhythmically.
“Polina?” Scotty asked, speaking loudly to be heard over the music.
“What?”
“Will you marry me? Promise I’ll ask you proper again later, but you know how I am with secrets and waiting for…”
Polina let out a gleeful shriek and launched herself at Scotty, who managed to catch her and spin her in a full circle before setting her down and kissing her thoroughly.
“I’ll take that as yes, then?”
“Yes! Of course I say yes!” she cried, unable to suppress her grin.
“All right, then… we’re getting married,” Scotty said, almost as if convincing himself of that fact. “We’re actually getting married and doing the whole ‘married’ thing.”
“Who’s getting married?” Uhura asked over the music.
“We are! He just asked me to marry him!” Polina yelled, catching the attention of the rest of the group. Gaila gasped sharply, and the two women clutched at each other’s forearms, bouncing excitably.
“I totally respect you, and her, and I’ll congratulate you for real once they stop with the bouncing,” Jim commented as he stared, earning him a smack upside the head from Uhura. “Come on, it’s not like I planned that! They’re just doing it on their own!”
Polina grabbed Scotty’s arm and beamed up at him; rising on her toes and tilting her face up for a kiss he gladly granted her. She pulled him gently toward the table, the other six following. They all collapsed into chairs, gulping water from glasses that were sweating as much as they all were.
Scotty glanced around furtively, then slid off his chair and onto one knee. He dug around in one of his pockets for a moment, pulling out a small black box. He looked up at Polina-her eye makeup was a little smudged, her hair had gotten wild, and her face was positively radiant. With a small smile of his own, Scotty offered her the box, which she took and opened.
Inside lay a gold knotwork band set with a reddish gem. Polina gasped softly at the sight and her eyes flicked up to meet Scotty’s gaze.
“You’re supposed to put it on her, now,” Len commented dryly, although a smile tugged at his lips.
“Just because you’ve done this before…” Scotty muttered, taking the ring out of the box and reaching for Polina. She offered her right hand and he hesitated.
“What is the matter? Is it the wrong size?” she asked, furrowing her brow.
“Other left hand, ‘Lina,” Scotty teased.
“Left hand?” she repeated bemusedly. “In Russia, ring is worn on the right hand.”
The slight tension around the table broke as Sulu and Gaila fell against each other and snickered into their drinks.
“Well, right hand it is, then,” Scotty said, slipping the band onto her finger and pulling her close for a deep kiss.
Kirk made his way somewhat unsteadily to stand on his chair and clap loudly. “The future Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery and Polina Scott, ladies and gentlemen!”
A good number of the crowd shouted their congratulations, but Scotty and Polina didn’t hear any of it.