Chasing Jailbait
Title: Chasing Jailbait
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Sulu/Chekov
Summary: Sulu never imagined doing what he knew was right, would feel so terrible.
Notes: Written for the st_xi_kink It started out innocently enough. Whenever their schedules matched up, Chekov would show up to Sulu’s room on the night before their free day, and usually he would end up staying well into the next morning. When the kid started yawning too much, Sulu shooed him off back to his quarters and they both would go to sleep, and meet up for a late breakfast when they woke.
The conversations come easily. Sometimes they don’t even listen to each other; one will talk while the other reads a book or catches up on some paper work.
Sulu talks about piloting ships, fencing, and driving fast cars. Chekov talks about math, vodka, and engineering.
Sometimes, Hikaru talks about his maternal grandfather and botany. And, sometimes, Pavel talks about Russia and his parents.
It’s simple, and it’s easy, and nothing about it is sexual.
But, somewhere around the eighth week, Chekov keeps yawning and Sulu keeps forgetting to tell him to go. They sit on his bed, Pavel leaning his head against Hikaru’s shoulder, their backs against the wall, and fall asleep.
Despite their awkward positions it is the best night of sleep Sulu has had in years.
Sulu wakes up first, and Pavel wakes up a few minutes later, blinking at him rapidly until he takes in his surroundings.
"I fell asleep," Chekov states, lifting his head.
"Me too," Sulu stretches and hears his back crack and his shoulders pop.
"Breakfast?" The pilot offers. Chekov nods and they walk, still half-asleep to the cafeteria.
Gossip circulates pretty quickly, and by the beginning of their shift on the following day people keep staring at them and whispering.
Sulu doesn’t catch all of it, but it seems like some people think that he and Chekov are an item. He calmly refutes this by shaking his head, laughing, and offering them one of his trademarked awkward smiles as he says, "No. I’m not really into chasing jailbait."
The rumors die down, and when shore leave comes a month later, the bridge crew and Scotty go out drinking. Someone provides Chekov with a fake ID. Sulu isn’t sure who, but he has a sneaking suspicion it may in fact have been the good captain.
Partway through the night another group of drunks comes up to them and starts insulting The Enterprise Kirk snarls, Scotty swears, Sulu frowns, and Spock raises an eyebrow.
Pavel, to everyone’s surprise, jumps over the table and punches the biggest guy in the face. The rest of the crew joins in. They get kicked out of that bar, so they stagger down the street until they find a new one and keep on drinking.
It’s a damn fun night. When they make it back to the ship, the thoroughly drunk Russian insists on following Sulu back to his room.
When inside Pavel promptly passes out in his bed and Sulu grabs a spare pillow and sheet and curls up on the floor. He stares at Pavel’s sleeping form. The boy’s mouth is open partway and his curls are rumpled and he looks very fuckable.
He is a child, Sulu has to remind himself as he shuts his eyes tight and rolls over to face the door, he is a goddamn child.
He falls into an uneasy sleep trying his hardest not to dream of Chekov’s lips.
There is a knock on the door the following morning. Sulu answers it, his head is aching and he still feels a touch nauseous. Captain Kirk is standing there looking perfectly healthy, (aside from the new black eye he acquired during the first barfight.)
"How aren’t you hung over?" Sulu finds himself asking as he readjusts the plain white shirt he threw on last night when his uniform got too hot, "You drank more than I did."
"Bones set me up with a saline drip last night."
"Lucky bastard," Sulu mumbles, rubbing at his eyes. "There something I can do for you, Captain?"
"Have you seen Chekov?"
Sulu nods, and yawns, "Yeah. He was pretty wasted, so I let him crash here. I didn’t think he could find his room."
Kirk’s eyes widened, then he notices the pillow and blanket on the floor and they go back to normal.
"Mr. Sulu, I have to ask this, because of regulations. Are you and Chekov…" Kirk trails off and his mouth twitches, "uh. Are you two…? Engaged in uhm certain… Well, are you two fucking?"
"Uh… No, Captain," he laughs lightly, like it’s some ridiculous concept and not like Sulu just woke up from a dream of the Russian going down on him, and shakes his head, "We’re just friends, sir."
"Good. Because you know it’s against regulations, and I don’t need to tell you that he’s fucking seventeen years-old. So, yeah. Just. Just don’t, alright? You guys work well together. I don’t want one of you getting reassigned. And I’d hate to see you get in trouble, Lieutenant Sulu." Kirk calls him Lieutenant like he has somehow forgotten he ranks higher than Chekov. Like Sulu doesn’t already realize what it would look like if the two of them started sleeping together.
"I know, Captain. I appreciate your concern, but you have nothing to worry about."
Kirk nods again, looks at the still sleeping form of Chekov(fully dressed, still in his boots in fact) and looks back to Sulu.
"Good. Good. I’ll see you on the bridge tomorrow."
And after that, things go back to normal for a while. Chekov is still seventeen, and Sulu is still pretty sure he’s falling in love with him anyway, but he realizes there is nothing to do about it, so he does nothing. He doesn’t want to let it get in the way of their friendship. And he sure as hell doesn’t want to get court martialed for fraternization with an underage officer.
So, Chekov comes over and they talk and read and play chess. For the first few weeks Kirk stops by unannounced like he half-expects to find them with their pants down. He doesn’t, of course, he finds Chekov on Sulu’s bed reading a book, and Sulu playing a game of chess against the computer.
But, after another night of easy conversation and synthesized alcohol, Chekov suddenly leans across the table and kisses him. Sulu pulls away as much as he can, but Chekov persists.
"Get off of me, Pavel."
The kid looks at him with those blue eyes, like a fucking kicked puppy, and frowns.
"I thought you wanted…" he trails off and lets the silence in the room fill in the blank.
"What I want is hardly relevant." Sulu has stood up, and Chekov keeps staring up at him
"No. Is very relevant." The ‘w’ gets squeezed out like a ‘v.’ It’s like the kid spells out the word is head and somehow forgets what the symbol stands for.
"What I don’t want is you looking back and regretting this."
"I am old enough to know this is what I want. I will not regret this," Chekov protests.
"And I’m old enough to know better." Sulu turns away from him to steady himself. Chekov puts a hand on his shoulder and it takes all Sulu’s self-control to shake it off.
"I love you."
"I know." He inhales a ragged breath and steadies himself again. "I know. But it doesn’t matter right now."
"It matters very much. I know you care deeply for me. Why can we not be together?"
"Because…" he starts slowly and in his head he runs the list of things Captain Kirk rambled off outside his doorway all those months ago, and the ones the logical part of his brain has been repeating for months now. "Because we work together. Because you’re seventeen. It’s a bad idea, Chekov."
"I don’t care. I don’t care if it is bad idea."
"I do," he says, breathing in sharply again. "If you still feel the same when you’re eighteen… Maybe, maybe we can explore the possibility. But right now, we can’t. I won’t."
"What is the difference between now and a few months?"Chekov persists. Sulu turns around to face the kid. He looks so young. Fuck he is so young. He’s seventeen. At his age Sulu was just about to start his last year of high school, not out in the deep reaches of space.
"I won’t lose my job if people find out," Sulu finally replies.
Chekov extends a hand and places it against the side of Sulu’s face and tries to kiss him again. Sulu is ready for him. He catches the hand and moves it down.
"Get out," Sulu says softly as he lets go of Chekov’s wrist.
And Chekov does just that.
He stops coming over. Sulu stops finding him to share meals. They don’t walk to the bridge together. They work well enough, speaking as little as possible and looking at each other even less.
A few weeks later he hears Chekov has started dating a cute Korean girl that works in the xenobotany lab.
Sulu sits in his room that night, alone except for a synthesized bottle of vodka, and plays chess against the computer. He keeps wondering why what he knows is the right thing to do doesn’t feel right at all.