Title: little growing things
Fandom: ST:XI
Pairing: Chekov/Sulu, Sulu/OC, Sulu/Kirk, Kirk/OC, Spock/McCoy
Rating: R
Warnings: mpreg, vomiting, made up science, miscommunication, poly, talk about abortion, sex that - despite someone's best efforts - isn't all that safe
Notes: ~2328 words. Part of Tserillian!verse.
Written for the h/c bingo prompt “unexpected pregnancy” and the C/S bingo prompt “tropes: mpreg”. Sorry it’s Spones-light. Chekov’s alien ancestry has it’s origins in Eighteen.
Also: Once I wrote Scotty Uhura and Chekov as drinking buddies, it became my headcanon. Idk you guys, irdk.
BFF of Notes: I'm really not sure about this one, you guys.
Summary: In which vomiting is not a human mating ritual, panic attacks are had, Bones doesn’t go for the hypo, and Pavel Chekov is not a dick.
"This isn't some sort of human mating ritual, is it?" Hikaru's date is nervous, two arms crossed over his chest, two more darting all over the place. "You're hot and all, but I'm not okay with that."
Hikaru leans against the tub so the auto-flush doesn't send anything flying into his face. He shakes his head, because if he talked he'd either cuss the guy out or puke all over the floor. Probably the latter.
"Oh." He hovers awkwardly in the doorway. "Do you need anything? Should I call someone? Do you need, like, some flatterweed or something?"
Hikaru rolls his eyes. Trex is attractive - hung like a fucking horse, too - but he isn't much more than that.
Hikaru lets him babble and waits for his stomach to calm down. When he knows he won't hurl again, he turns on the tub faucet and sticks his head under the water.
"Maybe you were subconsciously intimidated by the size of that guy's dick?"
Hikaru huffs. "I've seen bigger."
"You haven't fucked bigger.'
"But I've seen it, and tried to fuck bigger. Besides," he adds, "I threw up after we fucked. It's a little late to be intimidated by it."
Kirk shrugs. "Maybe he jostled something around. I dunno. You talked to Bones about it?"
Hikaru shakes his head. "It was just the one time. I'll go to him if it happens again."
"You know, this whole sex thing works better when you're not puking your guts out."
Hikaru gives Kirk the finger.
"Seriously, though. You're seeing Bones as soon as I can trust you in a hallway."
Hikaru shakes his head. "Maybe it's Pavel's alien thing" he rasps, trying to blink the tears out of his eyes. "Maybe when I have sex with other people it..."
"That's stupid," Kirk says. "You've had sex with at least ten people since you first hooked up with Chekov. You probably just have the flu."
"It's not the flu," the doctor says, squinting at the tricorder in his hands. "I'm picking up something funny though; I'm gonna need a blood sample."
Hikaru shifts on the biobed, uncomfortable. He still feels nauseous. When he says as much, the doctor hands him a bucket. "I could use a sample of that, too."
Hikaru wakes up to Pavel crawling into bed with him. His room is dark, but when he shifts he can see Pavel's eyes glowing from an otherwise invisible face. Doctor McCoy has said that Pavel's eyes don't really glow, but that's what it looks like.
It's eerie, how Pavel can see Hikaru's face in the dark, while all Hikaru sees is a pair of eyes hovering above his pillow. It helps that he can feel Pavel on the bed behind him - the way his weight dents the mattress just enough, the heat down Hikaru's back, his breath tickling the back of his neck.
"You weren't on the bridge," Pavel says softly.
"McCoy confined me to quarters." Hikaru lays half on his back; it's easier on his neck.
"What is it?"
Hikaru shrugs. "Don't know yet. I've thrown up a few times, is all."
"What did the doctor say?"
"That it's not the flu." Pavel's eyes are freaking him out; he looks at the ceiling. "I stayed in sickbay for a while, but he said it might be better if I got some rest in my room. He's running some tests."
Pavel buries his face in Hikaru's neck and inhales. That had taken some getting used to. Hikaru feels the shape of Pavel's frown against his skin.
"You don't smell sick." Pavel inhales again.
"How do I smell?" Hikaru says, trying not to let on how much it tickles.
Pavel sniffs around his collarbone, behind his ears, under his jaw. He hums. "Different. Something is new, or something that is old has changed, but you do not smell sick."
"You're pregnant."
Hikaru blinks. "What?"
"Pregnant," the doctor says again, and pulls up something on his PADD. "Planned or unplanned, you've got a bunch of options to choose from..."
"Wait, stop. What? How?"
McCoy scowls. "Hell if I know. I'm starting to think everyone on this ship is a genetic mystery. Nothing makes sense. You being pregnant is the least ridiculous thing I've dealt with today."
"But that's..." Hikaru swallows the word he's about to say and starts again. "I don't have the parts."
McCoy - who certainly does have the parts - eyes him like he knows exactly what Hikaru was going to say. Just about everyone had said it at some point, after it got out that McCoy was pregnant. That lasted up until the latest round of physicals, and then everyone went back to saying how much of a bastard he was.
McCoy doesn't go for the sterile gloves. He seems to be in a merciful kind of mood.
Another thought occurs to Hikaru. "Is it human?"
"Without a more invasive procedure, it's too soon to say. When's the last time you had unprotected sex? Has your contraceptive jelly expired? I know you're on birth control, but that's only ninety-eight percent effective." McCoy gets a thoughtful look. "Though, that only figures towards you getting some woman pregnant and her birth control. I have no idea whether it would stop you getting pregnant; the one you're taking isn't designed for that..."
They're interrupted by Kirk sweeping into sickbay.
"Bones, I have changed my brand of contraceptive jelly three times. I have tried antihistamines. I have tried ye olde fashioned latex condoms," at this, Kirk holds up a jagged ring of latex. "Nothing works."
McCoy rolls his eyes and edges away when Kirk shakes what's left of the condom in his face. "I'm working on it," he says, and flags down a nurse while Kirk pulls fretfully at his pants. "Get lost, I'm in the middle of something."
Kirk's pout is enough to make Hikaru laugh. It drains some of the anxiety away, but his mind is still whirling with questions.
"What do I do with it?" he asks when Kirk is gone and the doctor's attention is on him again.
"Like I was saying earlier, you've got a few options." McCoy hands him the PADD. "They include, but are not limited to: abortion; fetalcryostastasis; fetal transfer; traditional adoption...."
McCoy reels off a long list that makes Hikaru dizzy. Eventually it shifts into different things he can do if he decides to keep the baby. The PADD has more detailed descriptions of every option available. Hikaru skims it, dazed.
"You have some time to think about it. I'm going to give you some vitamins for now, and you can come back to me when you've made your decision, or if you have any questions." McCoy hesitates before he adds, "If you decide to keep it, you won't have to do it on your own."
Pavel blinks awake when Hikaru sits on the bed beside him. "What did the doctor say?"
"I'm...can I tell you tomorrow? I don't want to talk about it right now."
Pavel's worried, but he doesn't push. He curls into Hikaru's side and flings an arm across his stomach, accidentally resting his hand on the place where the doctor said a baby was growing.
Hikaru gets an extra day off shift. He's not sure that's what he wants; it leaves him alone with his own thoughts. He can't focus.
He ends up in hydroponics, surrounded by little growing things. The irony doesn't escape him.
He's still at a loss to explain how this all happened.
Hikaru has a few important rules when it comes to sex: always use protection, and never sleep with a species you haven't researched. The only unprotected sex he has is with Pavel and Kirk, and those are mostly blowjobs, and all three of them use injected contraceptives.
Hikaru can see how that wouldn't keep him from getting - it only affects his semen - but he can't see how that would make it possible for Jim or Pavel to do it.
Unless Jim's frequent interaction with She of the Corrosive Vagina had some affect on it. Unless Pavel's black hole of an alien ancestry had something to do with it. Unless they'd had sex with expired contraceptive jelly. Unless a million tiny things had gone wrong.
Maybe Hikaru's information had been spotty, and one of the non-human's he'd slept with had knocked him up. Maybe -
“Are you alright?” Pavel’s hovering in the doorway. “You weren’t on the bridge today.”
“The doctor gave me off time.” Hikaru hesitates before he adds “I’m pregnant.”
Pavel - who’d been walking towards him - stops short. “Pregnant?”
Hikaru nods.
“Oh.” Pavel’s face gets red. “Really? You…?” He rushes forward to bury his face in Hikaru’s neck. “You’re pregnant.”
Hikaru’s eyebrows shoot up. “Are you okay?”
“Da, da, I had thought…but no, you are pregnant.” It seems to occur to him that Hikaru might not be as excited as he is, because he pulls away. “What are we going to do?”
Hikaru’s eyebrows climb even higher. “We?”
Pavel squirms. “I’m sorry. I had assumed that…”
“Wait. Shut up. Let’s start this over again.” Hikaru rubbed his eyes. “I think I’m going to throw up.”
The ship shakes. Hikaru swallows compulsively as he and Pavel brace themselves.
“I hawe to go,” Pavel says, giving Hikaru a quick peck on the lips. “We will talk later, yes?”
“And you’re in my quarters because…?”
“Shut up, are you really complaining?”
Kirk shrugs and pulls his shirts off. “Not really, but if you think you’re getting any you’re dead wrong. And speaking of dead, shouldn’t you and Chekov be having sappy ‘I’m-glad-you-didn’t-get-spaced-by-Klingons’ sex?”
“I usually do that with you.”
Kirk rolls his eyes. “Okay, so shouldn’t you be having happy relationship sex with him? Because if I try to have sex right now I’ll fall sleep halfway through.”
“I’m not here for sex. I’m…” Hikaru tries to find a word that didn’t make him sound like a coward. Kirk speaks before he comes up with something.
“You’re hiding? Did you fight?”
“We didn’t fight, I just…I don’t know, I panicked a bit.”
Kirk huffs. “Dude, you’re pregnant. If you weren’t panicking I’d be worried.”
“No, I mean….” Hikaru sighs. “He was so…excited. He didn’t even ask how, he was just…and it freaked me out I guess. I mean, I’m pregnant what the fuck? This shouldn’t even be possible! And I don’t know whether it’s mostly human or only half human, and if it’s not mostly human then what is it?”
Kirk sits on the bed. “Does this mean you’re getting rid of it?”
“Maybe? I don’t know.” Hikaru rubs his temples. “This could be a once in a lifetime thing. I want kids eventually, but not now, and I never expected anything like this. What happens if I get rid of it, and it turns out I blew my only chance?”
“Then you blew it, and you come up with something else,” Kirk says. “You can’t have this kid out of some sense of obligation - that wouldn’t be fair to either of you. You have this kid if you want it, and if you’re not sure, you ice it and wait, or you get rid of it and hope you can try again later. Chekov can be as gleeful as he wants to be; in the end, it’s your decision, and if he doesn’t get that he’s a dick. I think if you talked to him about this - tell him what you told me - you’ll find that Pavel Chekov is not a dick.” Kirk pauses before adding. “If by some strange accident he is a dick, stab him and send him to Bones. He’ll keep his dickishness to himself after that.”
Hikaru smiles a little. “So mature of you.”
Kirk shrugs. “I’ve had practice. Come on.” He motions for Hikaru to join him on the bed.
“I thought you were too tired for sex.”
“This isn’t sex, this is sleeping. Spend the night here, talk to Chekov in the morning.” He yawns. “He’s probably got Uhura or someone drying his vodka soaked tears.”
At some point during the night, Hikaru gets teary and says an emotional thank you, but Kirk has the good grace to bitch about being woken up. They end up having a short but intense wrestling match, and Hikaru falls off the bed, but it results in Hikaru feeling much better in the morning.
Kirk also has the good grace not to mention it again.
When he enters Pavel’s quarters, his boyfriend is in the middle of taking a hangover hypo; Kirk’s joking comment about vodka soaked tears wasn’t too far from the truth.
“Hey.”
Pavel gives him a tentative smile. “Good morning.”
Hikaru chews on the inside of his lip. “We should talk.”
Pavel nods.
In the end, no one needs to get stabbed and sent to Dr. McCoy. Pavel lets him rant for half an hour even though they end up late for their shift, and they reason things out.
“Mostly I am happy that you are not ill,” Pavel says. “I thought something wery terrible had happened.”
“Nothing like that. Sorry I freaked out on you.”
“Do not apologize. I would be frightened as well. I’m nerwous, too; the thought of us hawing a baby is wery exciting, but also wery intimidating.”
“What if I don’t want a baby right now?”
“Then you don’t want one.”
“That doesn’t upset you at all?”
“It’s a little disappointing, but the whole point of hawing a baby with you is doing it with you. If you do not want a baby right now, then we will not hawe a baby right now.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
Hikaru lets out a deep breath. “Okay.” He takes another deep breath, letting it out slowly. Okay. “You wanna be there? When I talk to McCoy?”
“If that is okay with you.”
“Okay.”
He chooses fetalcryostasis over abortion, just in case. Then he changes his birth control.