Playing With Toys: Playing For Keeps (Part X/XII)
Title: Playing With Toys, Part X: Playing For Keeps
Author: TeaOli
Characters/Pairings: Gaila, Uhura/Spock
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: almost-innocently naked Spock
Summary: Uhura confides Gaila.
Author's Note: Very long when compared to the last two chapters.
Read Part I: The Toy
Read Part II: Come Out and Play
Read Part III: You Got Played!
Read Part IV: Now, Play Fair!
Read Part V: Turnabout is Fair Play!
Read Part VI: Playing With Toys
Read Part VII: Don't Play With Me
Read Part VIII: Playing Games
Read Part IX: Nicely Played
______________________________________
“You’ve got some explaining, to do.” Uhura and her plushie dropped onto the bed next to her roommate.
Gaila broke off painting her toenails, carefully closed the bottle of polish and placed on her night table.
Then she turned to her friend and shoved her. Hard.
Uhura tumbled onto the floor, but managed to save Little Spock from such an ignoble landing by tossing him into the air. He landed safely in the Orion’s lap.
Gaila scrambled over to the side of the bed and looked down at her roomie.
“Sorry, Ny,” she said, wincing as she watched her friend gingerly sit up, “but I could smell the UST coming off you in waves, and I don’t want to catch it. I’ve got a date tonight.”
Glaring up into that apologetic green face, Uhura wasn’t sure what had pissed her off more: the cock up with the dolls - why the hell didn’t they have mouths? how come Spock’s Uhura plushie came with a complete wardrobe?; or landing on her ass just now.
“ Look, Lt. Commander Jenkins may look like he’s never cuddled up to anything more animated than a transporter console, but the man can tire a girl out!” She treated her roommate to a happy grin. “I knew he had it in him. Everyone else may have taken one look at that unibrow and the huge Adam’s apple dismissed him out of hand, but he’s a yogi, Ny. He can twist himself into a pretzel and- .”
“Gaila, I am so not interested in your exploits with Lt. Commander Love Cakes, so, please, spare me the details,”
Suddenly wide awake, she sat up straight and stared into Uhura’s eyes.
“Wait a minute, Ny,” she said, her eyes flicking over the chronometer on the wall. “It’s vitotten quarter to midnight on a school night. You missed curfew. Why the hell aren’t you asleep already? You’re usually home from dinner with Lt. Sexy Ears by nine!”
Uhura grimaced as she got to her feet. The rough fall to the floor wasn’t going to help her quest to be in top physical condition in three weeks’ time.
“Actually, Gai, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” she told her as she retrieved her precious plushie. “This little guy had a busy night getting acquainted with your other present.”
Gaia flew off her bed, grinning and immediately launched into an exuberant happy dance.
“I knew it!” she squealed. “I knew he was as hot for you as you are for him! Damn, I’m good. You can thank me tomorrow, ‘cause Lt. Commander Love Cakes, I mean Jenkins, is picking me up for an ‘independent study review’” she winked at this “in twenty minutes and I have to finish getting ready.”
Uhura had a death grip on her roommate’s wrist before the other girl could waltz her way into the bathroom.
“Hold on there, Violetta Valéry, you need to clear a few things up before you go can just go off stomping all over some poor hot geek’s heart.”
Gaila looked crestfallen.
“Ny,” she whimpered, “Violetta died. Did you forget our rule? Only the ones who are still alive at the end of act three, please.”
Uhura sighed.
“They all die, honey,” she said, slinging a comforting arm around the redhead’s shoulders. “Just like you will if you don’t explain why Spock has a stuffed me sleeping in his bed tonight.”
For a moment, Gaila was silent. Then she wrapped an arm around Uhura’s waist and rested her head on the taller woman’s shoulder.
“I guess that explains why you smell like a Deltan with blueballs,” she said.
“Yeah,” her friend agreed, “and it’s mostly your fault.”
___________________
“He did what?!?!” Gaila fell back onto her bed, knees bent, lower legs beating out her mirth against the air. Spasms of laugher wracked her entire body. “Zetlek, I thought the plushie would be a fun way to nudge him in the right direction, but I never suspected he would get that down and dirty!”
She was pleased to find that canceling her date with Lt. Commander Jenkins hadn’t totally been in vain. Just imagining the uptight Vulcan lieutenant using soft toys to demonstrate copulation sent her into another fit of giggles.
“Can you imagine what he would have done if they had mouths, Ny?” she sighed wistfully. “I bet it would have been hot. Definitely. Those sexy Vulcan lips slowly sliding all over every millimeter of your body. Damn, girl. You missed out!”
Her roommate glared from her perch on her own bed.
“No, I can’t imagine what he would have done if you’d seen fit to give the damned dolls lips, but somehow I think my brain is going to spend the next three weeks trying to figure it out anyway,” she said through gritted teeth. “Thanks for reminding me. And, yes, it would have scorched, Gaila. As it was, everything he did sizzled.” She groaned, flopped back on her pillows and covered her eyes with her forearm. “I take back what I said earlier, Gai. This is all your fault.”
Gaila had the audacity to laugh.
“Sweetie, lack of sex is causing your synapses to misfire,” she chided. “I just secured you the hot sexy boyfriend of your dreams and this is how you say ‘thank you’?”
Uhura’s arm dropped from her eyes as she turned over so she could stare at her roommate.
“Gai, you secured the fiancé of my dreams for me, and I can’t even touch the hot and sexy bits for the next three weeks.”
Gaila was off her bed and bouncing up and down on her roommate’s before Uhura even saw her coming.
“What?!?!? Move over, girl,” she ordered, making herself comfortable in the small bed. “Start over, and this time you're telling me everything. Even if it takes all night.”
__________________________________________________________
“Nyota,” he’d whispered, “I think you are underestimating the merits of using anticipation in order to heighten shared pleasure.”
He’d eased her back onto his lap, letting out a nearly inaudible sigh as she settled back into place.
“There’s an old Terran saying: ‘If it’s worth having, it’s worth waiting for,’” she observed. “ Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
The arms holding her had briefly tightened.
“No,” he’d said, “although the idea is apt, I was referring to the additional physical pleasure often derived from the mental stimulation caused by delayed gratification.”
“Oh!” she’d responded. “I hadn’t realized that Vulcans were susceptible to that.”
He’d ghosted a hand up and down her back, beneath her shirt, sending tingles of pleasure throughout her already sensitized body.
“I am only half Vulcan,” he’d reminded her. “However, even full Vulcans are not immune to the influence. My people’s tradition of mental and emotional restraint does allow for the practice. It has proven to be a logical and effective method for teaching control.”
Both of her eyebrows had flown up and she’d squirmed around in his lap until she could comfortably look up at him.
“You mean withholding sex is a common training method? I knew Vulcan had its secrets. but that’s a biggie!”
He’d smiled at her teasing. Another real smile. His lips stretched wide, his white teeth flashing for just an instant. It was the most beautiful thing she’d seen in her life so far.
She’d pulled his head down and kissed his smiling lips.
Fifteen minutes later, when they’d finally come up for air, both of them shaken and shaking from the intensity of shared emotion and mutual passion, Spock had indicated it was time for her to leave.
“It is for the best, Cadet,” he had murmured while leaving a trail of tiny nips and nibbles along her clavicles, “lest we lose our advantage completely.”
Her hands had been buried in his dark glossy hair, urging him on, and thrilling at the feel of having Spock under her fingertips.
“You mean you are in danger of relinquishing your Vulcan control,” she’d said, teasing him again.
She’d felt third his smile against the flesh covering her collarbone. “Indeed,” he had agreed, “that is exactly what I mean.”
Then he’d lifted his face from her skin and her body from his lap.
“I will change into my uniform and then escort you to your residence hall,” he’d told her as he stood and then walked towards his sleeping chamber.
Somehow, he’d managed to pull on an mask of cool aloofness that probably would have fooled anyone who hadn’t just spent the last three hours kissing and touching, and being kissed by and touched by, him. Fortunately, Uhura had passed her crash course in Advanced Spock with flying colors.
“May I watch?” she’d called out before he was halfway across the room.
He’d stopped, turned and regarded her with those dark, intense eyes.
“Cadet,” he said, his even tone betraying none of the internal conflict she knew he was experiencing. “I am well past the age where I need assistance in exchanging my garments.”
She’d refused to be dissuaded. He wanted her to see, probably as much as she wanted to see, she’d been convinced.
“I don’t want to help.” She’d shot him a rueful smile at her obvious prevarication. “Well, I won’t try to help. I’ll look without touching. I promise.”
He’d been so quiet, she’d thought he was going to refuse her no matter how much the both wanted this.
“Very well,” he’d said at last, and turned back towards his bedroom. “There is a chair you may sit in. You must not leave it until I am re-clothed. Is that understood, Cadet?”
She’d nodded her head vigorously, even though his back was to her.
“Of course, Lieutenant.”
He’d pointed out the plain wooden chair near the bed, and she’d sat down, gripping the seat under her thighs for good measure. He had nodded in approval.
“Please remain that way, Cadet,” he’d ordered.
__________________________________________________________
“Zetlek! He made you sit there the way you have to when you get a lap dance in strip club?” Gaila’s unrestrained laughter shook the small bed.
Uhura’s barely restrained glare shut her up.
“Do you want to hear the rest, or not?” she asked.
Gaila attempted to look contrite, failed miserably, but urged her friend to continue anyway.
“Really, I’m sorry. I’ll try not to interrupt again,” she said.
The look Uhura shot her way bubbled with disbelief, but she didn’t call the Orion on what was most likely to be an empty promise.
“Anyway, I was sitting there, holding on to the seat,” she continued, cutting her eyes at Gaila, “apparently as if I was waiting to get a lap dance - one day you’re going to explain that one to me, but it won’t be tonight - and Spock goes across the room to a bureau and pulls out underwear and sock, then over to his closet and to take out his uniform. He lays everything carefully on his bed, and then he turns back to me… .”
__________________________________________________________
“How would you like to proceed, Cadet?” he had asked her.
At first, she hadn’t known how to respond. So she said the first thing that came to mind. “Just do whatever it is you usually do.”
He hadn’t appeared uncomfortable, just uncertain, standing there in the loose trousers and sage green long-sleeved T-shirt.
“I do not usually disrobe before an audience,” he had explained.
“Oh, well, um, can you… will you take off your shirt for me?” she’d asked then. “I would like to see you shirtless.”
He’d complied, slowly shrugging first one arm, then the other out of the T-shirt, before pulling the whole thing over his head. The process had left his dark hair mussed and she’d wanted to use her fingers to comb it back into place.
She had watched as he carefully folded the shirt and then turned to place it on the bed beside the uniform before facing her again.
He’d allowed her time to let her eyes roam over his lithe torso. Dark, soft-looking hair had covered his well- defined pectoral muscles and trailed down over his toned abdomen to disappear beneath the waistband of his creamy trousers.
Her gaze had floated over his broad shoulders and down his leanly muscled arms. Without realizing it she’d licked her lips as her sight slid over the black hairs dotting his forearms to settle on his large hands. Only his slight intake of breath had alerted her to what she had been doing.
“Pants. Off. Now,” she said, somewhat breathlessly.
Without speaking again, and never taking his eyes off her face, he’d loosened the drawstring of his trousers and gripped one side of the waistband in either hand. Just as slowly as he had removed his shirt, he’d slid the pants down his thighs to his lower legs, and crouching a bit, had removed first his left, then his right foot from the puddle of linen on the floor.
While she stared at his hands, he’d folded the pants with care and when he turned to place them on the bed, she’d had a magnificent view of his glorious posterior.
But when he’d turned back to her again, she’d lost her breath completely.
__________________________________________________________
“Gaila, I almost fell out of my chair!” she whispered fervently. “I can speak more languages than anyone else I know - more than Spock, even - but I do not have to words to describe how absolutely beautiful he is, so I’m not even going to try. Suffice to say, the next three weeks are going to be even harder than I thought they would be.”
“Wait a sec, are you telling me he wasn’t wearing anything under those trousers? You spent half the night sitting in the man’s lap and you didn’t notice that before then?” Gaila was astounded at the lack in her roommate’s powers of observation
Uhura pouted and clutched Little Spock.
“I kind of had other things on my mind when I was in his lap,” she protested.
Gaila’s face paled to mint green.
“More important than the most important thing?” she asked, aghast. “Zetlek, Ny. I really have failed you, haven’t I? I can’t tell you how sorry I am to have let you down like this. I’ll make it up to you, girl. I promise!”
A light elbow to her ribs stopped her mid-tsk, and she left off lamenting her “failure” to hear the rest of Uhura’s tale.
__________________________________________________________
“Cadet,” he’d told her, “you will have the rest of your life to become accustomed to my body, though I must admit I hope that you will continue to appreciate it, I believe that one day you will not find it as awe-inspiring as you appear to tonight.”
Uhura had ignored the “awe-inspiring” bit, as she’d been certain he hadn’t meant to sound so arrogant.
“What do you mean, ‘the rest of my life’?” She hadn’t been able to dismiss that part.
“Surely you are aware that Vulcans who choose their own bond-mates usually remain together until one of them dies?” he’d asked, his head held at a puzzled angle.
Uhura had found her breath was fleeing her again.
“You’ve chosen me?” she’s just barely choked out. “You wish to bond with me?”
Spock had clasped his hands behind his back and straightened those broad, naked shoulders. The change in posture had had the unintended effect of thrusting his pelvis out slightly and Uhura had gripped the seat of the chair harder to stop herself from reaching out to touch him.
“Of course I have chosen you, Nyota,” he’d told her and she’d shivered at his use of her given name. “What did you think my intentions were?”
She had grimaced. “Of course” he wanted to bond with her. How could she have thought otherwise, she’d thought in a fit of unadulterated sarcasm.
“I don’t know,” she’d said, her voice weak in her own ears. “When did you decide this? I thought you wanted to start dating me. Most likely be my boyfriend. I don’t know.” She’d run a frustrated hand through her hair. “I really hadn’t thought anything beyond finally being with you,” she’d admitted.
Spock, still naked, had crouched before her, his hands resting on his muscular thighs.
“Nyota,” he’d said, “I have known I wanted to bond with you for two years, seven months, six hours and seventeen minutes that I wanted you for my mate.”
Her jaw had dropped at this revelation.
“Since two months after you met me, Spock?” Her voice had been full of the awe he’d suggested was directed towards his physical appearance. “But I was just a silly first-year who thought she knew almost everything.”
His fingers had twitched as he’d wanted to touch her.
“Yes, Nyota,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you to grow up.”
She hadn’t been sure whether to be insulted that he’d thought her immature, or elated that he’d chosen her anyway. She had decided to ignore the debate for the time being.
“What makes you think I want you for a mate,” she’d asked instead.
“For the past six weeks and four days, you have been broadcasting your feelings so heavily, I was aware of them even without touching you,” he’d told her. “It made being in your presence while in public extremely uncomfortable at times. The sensation was so strong that I was compelled to contact my mother to ask if there was a Betazoid ancestor in her background.”
“Was there one?” she’d wanted to know.
“She is unsure, but doubtful. Apparently, something similar occurred when she realized she loved my father, but thought she had no chance with him. Her feelings were so strong, it was impossible for him to ignore them. He did the only logical thing in that situation; he married her.”
“You want to marry me because you think it is the logical choice?” It had felt good, in a way she hadn’t understood, to have a reason to back out if she needed one.
“While bonding is the most logical choice of those that are available to us, you must not forget that I wished to have you as my mate long before I was aware that you were equally attached to me,” he’d reminded her.
“But what makes you so sure I’m equally attached? Yes, I’ve had a crush on you for the last couple of years, but I wasn’t thinking about marriage, about bonding.” Her protest had been half-hearted.
“But, for the last month, you have been thinking about spending you life with me, have you not?” he’d asked.
She’d known she couldn’t start off their new relationship with a bold-faced lie, so she admitted that she had.
“I am not saying that we have to do this right away, Nyota,” he’d assured her. “But I wish you to understand, once I am yours, I intend to remain yours forever. As I expect you to be mine.”
__________________________________________________________
“And that’s it, ” Uhura told her roommate. “I agreed and then he got dressed and he walked me home.”
Gaila wrinkled her nose.
“Okay, if that’s how you left things, all love and romance and stuff, I don’t get why you smelled so strongly of sexlessness,” she argued. “You human women can usually subjugate the need for sex if you have enough love thrown at you. What aren’t you telling me?”
Uhura grinned and pressed the side of her head against her friend’s.
“I spent the whole walk home trying to convince him that we end up having a tirhohinot vitot if he made me wait three weeks. He wouldn’t budge, though. Told me it would be so much better for the wait.”
Gaila’s peals of laughter rang out again.
“Zetelenek, girl, I guess I taught you well, after all!”
__________________________________________________________
Spock pulled back the duvet and top sheet and placed Nyota-doll on the bed’s surface. It was illogical, he knew, to keep the facsimile of Cadet Uhura there, but over the past week, he had become accustomed, as time and circumstance allowed, to dressing the toy in clothing appropriate to whatever activities he believed its real-life counterpart was likely to be engaged in. The practice had begun as an experiment in testing the therapeutic benefits of interacting with the plushie. By now, it was simply habit.
Twitching the doll’s brief white sleep shirt so that it more securely covered her matching white panties, he lay down beside it and drew the bed coverings over both of them.
Within minutes, he was asleep.
He did not awake when, sometime in the night, he gave into an impulse to hold Nyota-doll in his arms.
__________________________________________________________
“You’re so not fair, Gaila,” Uhura sleepily admonished the dark space to the left of her bed. One arm clutched her Spock plushie under her chin while her other hand stroked the soft cloth of his miniature uniform. “I can’t even get him ready for bed.”
“Oh, he’s ready for bed, sweetie,” came the cheeky reply. “It’s just gonna take you three weeks to join him there.”
_______________________________________________________
Go to Part XI
Author: TeaOli
Characters/Pairings: Gaila, Uhura/Spock
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: almost-innocently naked Spock
Summary: Uhura confides Gaila.
Author's Note: Very long when compared to the last two chapters.
Read Part I: The Toy
Read Part II: Come Out and Play
Read Part III: You Got Played!
Read Part IV: Now, Play Fair!
Read Part V: Turnabout is Fair Play!
Read Part VI: Playing With Toys
Read Part VII: Don't Play With Me
Read Part VIII: Playing Games
Read Part IX: Nicely Played
______________________________________
“You’ve got some explaining, to do.” Uhura and her plushie dropped onto the bed next to her roommate.
Gaila broke off painting her toenails, carefully closed the bottle of polish and placed on her night table.
Then she turned to her friend and shoved her. Hard.
Uhura tumbled onto the floor, but managed to save Little Spock from such an ignoble landing by tossing him into the air. He landed safely in the Orion’s lap.
Gaila scrambled over to the side of the bed and looked down at her roomie.
“Sorry, Ny,” she said, wincing as she watched her friend gingerly sit up, “but I could smell the UST coming off you in waves, and I don’t want to catch it. I’ve got a date tonight.”
Glaring up into that apologetic green face, Uhura wasn’t sure what had pissed her off more: the cock up with the dolls - why the hell didn’t they have mouths? how come Spock’s Uhura plushie came with a complete wardrobe?; or landing on her ass just now.
“ Look, Lt. Commander Jenkins may look like he’s never cuddled up to anything more animated than a transporter console, but the man can tire a girl out!” She treated her roommate to a happy grin. “I knew he had it in him. Everyone else may have taken one look at that unibrow and the huge Adam’s apple dismissed him out of hand, but he’s a yogi, Ny. He can twist himself into a pretzel and- .”
“Gaila, I am so not interested in your exploits with Lt. Commander Love Cakes, so, please, spare me the details,”
Suddenly wide awake, she sat up straight and stared into Uhura’s eyes.
“Wait a minute, Ny,” she said, her eyes flicking over the chronometer on the wall. “It’s vitotten quarter to midnight on a school night. You missed curfew. Why the hell aren’t you asleep already? You’re usually home from dinner with Lt. Sexy Ears by nine!”
Uhura grimaced as she got to her feet. The rough fall to the floor wasn’t going to help her quest to be in top physical condition in three weeks’ time.
“Actually, Gai, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” she told her as she retrieved her precious plushie. “This little guy had a busy night getting acquainted with your other present.”
Gaia flew off her bed, grinning and immediately launched into an exuberant happy dance.
“I knew it!” she squealed. “I knew he was as hot for you as you are for him! Damn, I’m good. You can thank me tomorrow, ‘cause Lt. Commander Love Cakes, I mean Jenkins, is picking me up for an ‘independent study review’” she winked at this “in twenty minutes and I have to finish getting ready.”
Uhura had a death grip on her roommate’s wrist before the other girl could waltz her way into the bathroom.
“Hold on there, Violetta Valéry, you need to clear a few things up before you go can just go off stomping all over some poor hot geek’s heart.”
Gaila looked crestfallen.
“Ny,” she whimpered, “Violetta died. Did you forget our rule? Only the ones who are still alive at the end of act three, please.”
Uhura sighed.
“They all die, honey,” she said, slinging a comforting arm around the redhead’s shoulders. “Just like you will if you don’t explain why Spock has a stuffed me sleeping in his bed tonight.”
For a moment, Gaila was silent. Then she wrapped an arm around Uhura’s waist and rested her head on the taller woman’s shoulder.
“I guess that explains why you smell like a Deltan with blueballs,” she said.
“Yeah,” her friend agreed, “and it’s mostly your fault.”
___________________
“He did what?!?!” Gaila fell back onto her bed, knees bent, lower legs beating out her mirth against the air. Spasms of laugher wracked her entire body. “Zetlek, I thought the plushie would be a fun way to nudge him in the right direction, but I never suspected he would get that down and dirty!”
She was pleased to find that canceling her date with Lt. Commander Jenkins hadn’t totally been in vain. Just imagining the uptight Vulcan lieutenant using soft toys to demonstrate copulation sent her into another fit of giggles.
“Can you imagine what he would have done if they had mouths, Ny?” she sighed wistfully. “I bet it would have been hot. Definitely. Those sexy Vulcan lips slowly sliding all over every millimeter of your body. Damn, girl. You missed out!”
Her roommate glared from her perch on her own bed.
“No, I can’t imagine what he would have done if you’d seen fit to give the damned dolls lips, but somehow I think my brain is going to spend the next three weeks trying to figure it out anyway,” she said through gritted teeth. “Thanks for reminding me. And, yes, it would have scorched, Gaila. As it was, everything he did sizzled.” She groaned, flopped back on her pillows and covered her eyes with her forearm. “I take back what I said earlier, Gai. This is all your fault.”
Gaila had the audacity to laugh.
“Sweetie, lack of sex is causing your synapses to misfire,” she chided. “I just secured you the hot sexy boyfriend of your dreams and this is how you say ‘thank you’?”
Uhura’s arm dropped from her eyes as she turned over so she could stare at her roommate.
“Gai, you secured the fiancé of my dreams for me, and I can’t even touch the hot and sexy bits for the next three weeks.”
Gaila was off her bed and bouncing up and down on her roommate’s before Uhura even saw her coming.
“What?!?!? Move over, girl,” she ordered, making herself comfortable in the small bed. “Start over, and this time you're telling me everything. Even if it takes all night.”
__________________________________________________________
“Nyota,” he’d whispered, “I think you are underestimating the merits of using anticipation in order to heighten shared pleasure.”
He’d eased her back onto his lap, letting out a nearly inaudible sigh as she settled back into place.
“There’s an old Terran saying: ‘If it’s worth having, it’s worth waiting for,’” she observed. “ Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
The arms holding her had briefly tightened.
“No,” he’d said, “although the idea is apt, I was referring to the additional physical pleasure often derived from the mental stimulation caused by delayed gratification.”
“Oh!” she’d responded. “I hadn’t realized that Vulcans were susceptible to that.”
He’d ghosted a hand up and down her back, beneath her shirt, sending tingles of pleasure throughout her already sensitized body.
“I am only half Vulcan,” he’d reminded her. “However, even full Vulcans are not immune to the influence. My people’s tradition of mental and emotional restraint does allow for the practice. It has proven to be a logical and effective method for teaching control.”
Both of her eyebrows had flown up and she’d squirmed around in his lap until she could comfortably look up at him.
“You mean withholding sex is a common training method? I knew Vulcan had its secrets. but that’s a biggie!”
He’d smiled at her teasing. Another real smile. His lips stretched wide, his white teeth flashing for just an instant. It was the most beautiful thing she’d seen in her life so far.
She’d pulled his head down and kissed his smiling lips.
Fifteen minutes later, when they’d finally come up for air, both of them shaken and shaking from the intensity of shared emotion and mutual passion, Spock had indicated it was time for her to leave.
“It is for the best, Cadet,” he had murmured while leaving a trail of tiny nips and nibbles along her clavicles, “lest we lose our advantage completely.”
Her hands had been buried in his dark glossy hair, urging him on, and thrilling at the feel of having Spock under her fingertips.
“You mean you are in danger of relinquishing your Vulcan control,” she’d said, teasing him again.
She’d felt third his smile against the flesh covering her collarbone. “Indeed,” he had agreed, “that is exactly what I mean.”
Then he’d lifted his face from her skin and her body from his lap.
“I will change into my uniform and then escort you to your residence hall,” he’d told her as he stood and then walked towards his sleeping chamber.
Somehow, he’d managed to pull on an mask of cool aloofness that probably would have fooled anyone who hadn’t just spent the last three hours kissing and touching, and being kissed by and touched by, him. Fortunately, Uhura had passed her crash course in Advanced Spock with flying colors.
“May I watch?” she’d called out before he was halfway across the room.
He’d stopped, turned and regarded her with those dark, intense eyes.
“Cadet,” he said, his even tone betraying none of the internal conflict she knew he was experiencing. “I am well past the age where I need assistance in exchanging my garments.”
She’d refused to be dissuaded. He wanted her to see, probably as much as she wanted to see, she’d been convinced.
“I don’t want to help.” She’d shot him a rueful smile at her obvious prevarication. “Well, I won’t try to help. I’ll look without touching. I promise.”
He’d been so quiet, she’d thought he was going to refuse her no matter how much the both wanted this.
“Very well,” he’d said at last, and turned back towards his bedroom. “There is a chair you may sit in. You must not leave it until I am re-clothed. Is that understood, Cadet?”
She’d nodded her head vigorously, even though his back was to her.
“Of course, Lieutenant.”
He’d pointed out the plain wooden chair near the bed, and she’d sat down, gripping the seat under her thighs for good measure. He had nodded in approval.
“Please remain that way, Cadet,” he’d ordered.
__________________________________________________________
“Zetlek! He made you sit there the way you have to when you get a lap dance in strip club?” Gaila’s unrestrained laughter shook the small bed.
Uhura’s barely restrained glare shut her up.
“Do you want to hear the rest, or not?” she asked.
Gaila attempted to look contrite, failed miserably, but urged her friend to continue anyway.
“Really, I’m sorry. I’ll try not to interrupt again,” she said.
The look Uhura shot her way bubbled with disbelief, but she didn’t call the Orion on what was most likely to be an empty promise.
“Anyway, I was sitting there, holding on to the seat,” she continued, cutting her eyes at Gaila, “apparently as if I was waiting to get a lap dance - one day you’re going to explain that one to me, but it won’t be tonight - and Spock goes across the room to a bureau and pulls out underwear and sock, then over to his closet and to take out his uniform. He lays everything carefully on his bed, and then he turns back to me… .”
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“How would you like to proceed, Cadet?” he had asked her.
At first, she hadn’t known how to respond. So she said the first thing that came to mind. “Just do whatever it is you usually do.”
He hadn’t appeared uncomfortable, just uncertain, standing there in the loose trousers and sage green long-sleeved T-shirt.
“I do not usually disrobe before an audience,” he had explained.
“Oh, well, um, can you… will you take off your shirt for me?” she’d asked then. “I would like to see you shirtless.”
He’d complied, slowly shrugging first one arm, then the other out of the T-shirt, before pulling the whole thing over his head. The process had left his dark hair mussed and she’d wanted to use her fingers to comb it back into place.
She had watched as he carefully folded the shirt and then turned to place it on the bed beside the uniform before facing her again.
He’d allowed her time to let her eyes roam over his lithe torso. Dark, soft-looking hair had covered his well- defined pectoral muscles and trailed down over his toned abdomen to disappear beneath the waistband of his creamy trousers.
Her gaze had floated over his broad shoulders and down his leanly muscled arms. Without realizing it she’d licked her lips as her sight slid over the black hairs dotting his forearms to settle on his large hands. Only his slight intake of breath had alerted her to what she had been doing.
“Pants. Off. Now,” she said, somewhat breathlessly.
Without speaking again, and never taking his eyes off her face, he’d loosened the drawstring of his trousers and gripped one side of the waistband in either hand. Just as slowly as he had removed his shirt, he’d slid the pants down his thighs to his lower legs, and crouching a bit, had removed first his left, then his right foot from the puddle of linen on the floor.
While she stared at his hands, he’d folded the pants with care and when he turned to place them on the bed, she’d had a magnificent view of his glorious posterior.
But when he’d turned back to her again, she’d lost her breath completely.
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“Gaila, I almost fell out of my chair!” she whispered fervently. “I can speak more languages than anyone else I know - more than Spock, even - but I do not have to words to describe how absolutely beautiful he is, so I’m not even going to try. Suffice to say, the next three weeks are going to be even harder than I thought they would be.”
“Wait a sec, are you telling me he wasn’t wearing anything under those trousers? You spent half the night sitting in the man’s lap and you didn’t notice that before then?” Gaila was astounded at the lack in her roommate’s powers of observation
Uhura pouted and clutched Little Spock.
“I kind of had other things on my mind when I was in his lap,” she protested.
Gaila’s face paled to mint green.
“More important than the most important thing?” she asked, aghast. “Zetlek, Ny. I really have failed you, haven’t I? I can’t tell you how sorry I am to have let you down like this. I’ll make it up to you, girl. I promise!”
A light elbow to her ribs stopped her mid-tsk, and she left off lamenting her “failure” to hear the rest of Uhura’s tale.
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“Cadet,” he’d told her, “you will have the rest of your life to become accustomed to my body, though I must admit I hope that you will continue to appreciate it, I believe that one day you will not find it as awe-inspiring as you appear to tonight.”
Uhura had ignored the “awe-inspiring” bit, as she’d been certain he hadn’t meant to sound so arrogant.
“What do you mean, ‘the rest of my life’?” She hadn’t been able to dismiss that part.
“Surely you are aware that Vulcans who choose their own bond-mates usually remain together until one of them dies?” he’d asked, his head held at a puzzled angle.
Uhura had found her breath was fleeing her again.
“You’ve chosen me?” she’s just barely choked out. “You wish to bond with me?”
Spock had clasped his hands behind his back and straightened those broad, naked shoulders. The change in posture had had the unintended effect of thrusting his pelvis out slightly and Uhura had gripped the seat of the chair harder to stop herself from reaching out to touch him.
“Of course I have chosen you, Nyota,” he’d told her and she’d shivered at his use of her given name. “What did you think my intentions were?”
She had grimaced. “Of course” he wanted to bond with her. How could she have thought otherwise, she’d thought in a fit of unadulterated sarcasm.
“I don’t know,” she’d said, her voice weak in her own ears. “When did you decide this? I thought you wanted to start dating me. Most likely be my boyfriend. I don’t know.” She’d run a frustrated hand through her hair. “I really hadn’t thought anything beyond finally being with you,” she’d admitted.
Spock, still naked, had crouched before her, his hands resting on his muscular thighs.
“Nyota,” he’d said, “I have known I wanted to bond with you for two years, seven months, six hours and seventeen minutes that I wanted you for my mate.”
Her jaw had dropped at this revelation.
“Since two months after you met me, Spock?” Her voice had been full of the awe he’d suggested was directed towards his physical appearance. “But I was just a silly first-year who thought she knew almost everything.”
His fingers had twitched as he’d wanted to touch her.
“Yes, Nyota,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you to grow up.”
She hadn’t been sure whether to be insulted that he’d thought her immature, or elated that he’d chosen her anyway. She had decided to ignore the debate for the time being.
“What makes you think I want you for a mate,” she’d asked instead.
“For the past six weeks and four days, you have been broadcasting your feelings so heavily, I was aware of them even without touching you,” he’d told her. “It made being in your presence while in public extremely uncomfortable at times. The sensation was so strong that I was compelled to contact my mother to ask if there was a Betazoid ancestor in her background.”
“Was there one?” she’d wanted to know.
“She is unsure, but doubtful. Apparently, something similar occurred when she realized she loved my father, but thought she had no chance with him. Her feelings were so strong, it was impossible for him to ignore them. He did the only logical thing in that situation; he married her.”
“You want to marry me because you think it is the logical choice?” It had felt good, in a way she hadn’t understood, to have a reason to back out if she needed one.
“While bonding is the most logical choice of those that are available to us, you must not forget that I wished to have you as my mate long before I was aware that you were equally attached to me,” he’d reminded her.
“But what makes you so sure I’m equally attached? Yes, I’ve had a crush on you for the last couple of years, but I wasn’t thinking about marriage, about bonding.” Her protest had been half-hearted.
“But, for the last month, you have been thinking about spending you life with me, have you not?” he’d asked.
She’d known she couldn’t start off their new relationship with a bold-faced lie, so she admitted that she had.
“I am not saying that we have to do this right away, Nyota,” he’d assured her. “But I wish you to understand, once I am yours, I intend to remain yours forever. As I expect you to be mine.”
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“And that’s it, ” Uhura told her roommate. “I agreed and then he got dressed and he walked me home.”
Gaila wrinkled her nose.
“Okay, if that’s how you left things, all love and romance and stuff, I don’t get why you smelled so strongly of sexlessness,” she argued. “You human women can usually subjugate the need for sex if you have enough love thrown at you. What aren’t you telling me?”
Uhura grinned and pressed the side of her head against her friend’s.
“I spent the whole walk home trying to convince him that we end up having a tirhohinot vitot if he made me wait three weeks. He wouldn’t budge, though. Told me it would be so much better for the wait.”
Gaila’s peals of laughter rang out again.
“Zetelenek, girl, I guess I taught you well, after all!”
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Spock pulled back the duvet and top sheet and placed Nyota-doll on the bed’s surface. It was illogical, he knew, to keep the facsimile of Cadet Uhura there, but over the past week, he had become accustomed, as time and circumstance allowed, to dressing the toy in clothing appropriate to whatever activities he believed its real-life counterpart was likely to be engaged in. The practice had begun as an experiment in testing the therapeutic benefits of interacting with the plushie. By now, it was simply habit.
Twitching the doll’s brief white sleep shirt so that it more securely covered her matching white panties, he lay down beside it and drew the bed coverings over both of them.
Within minutes, he was asleep.
He did not awake when, sometime in the night, he gave into an impulse to hold Nyota-doll in his arms.
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“You’re so not fair, Gaila,” Uhura sleepily admonished the dark space to the left of her bed. One arm clutched her Spock plushie under her chin while her other hand stroked the soft cloth of his miniature uniform. “I can’t even get him ready for bed.”
“Oh, he’s ready for bed, sweetie,” came the cheeky reply. “It’s just gonna take you three weeks to join him there.”
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Go to Part XI