Angels (Pavel Chekov)

65 - What If

Pavel comes in after twenty minutes and asks if she wants to talk. She doesn't answer him, frowning into the pillow and fighting the urge to tell him to leave her alone. He sits down on the end of the bed and thinks about what he can say to try and get her to talk.

"You told me you weren't keeping secrets," Vienna mutters, Pavel feeling a sting from the bitterness in her voice.

"I'm not keeping... I just... I didn't know how to tell you! I was scared, I was worried that... I was worried you wouldn't want to stay together..."

Vienna sits up and rubs her eyes, moving the hair from her face and yet to look at Pavel. "I'm not breaking up with you over something like that. I knew that if I started dating anyone at the academy there was always that chance. But how are we supposed to keep going if I can't trust you?"

"You can trust me..." He says weakly. "I had every intention of telling you, I just didn't know how..."

Vienna shuffles closer to him and sniffles, leaning into his chest and letting him wrap his arms around her.

"I'm sorry Enya. I'm so sorry."

Erik has left when Vienna leaves her room. She spends the rest of the day studying quietly with Pavel. They go to the library for a little while and don't seem to talk much. Vienna looks lost and Pavel just feels down. Ever since he found out the news, he's only had a single thing on his mind. He's only ever been able to think of how he'll manage if Vienna's on another ship. He doesn't want to have to do long distance. He enjoys her company too much.

"Pavel?" Vienna says, trying to pull him back to Earth. He wakes up a little and asks if she's okay. "I'm alright. I'm going to dance for a few hours. I need to clear my head. When I finish, how about I go over to your room? Will you be there?"

"I'll be there," he confirms, putting his hand on top of hers.

Vienna dances and gets completely lost for a while. Selwyn notices her intense concentration and wonders if it's a good or a bad thing. He makes sure he keeps up. They're practising for their showcase and everyone seems a little buzzed about it. Selwyn dips Vienna and trips as he's pulling her back up. They're on the floor and Vienna giggles, surprising Selwyn a little.

He asks why she's laughing and she shrugs. Her shoulder is a little sore but she's fine and Selwyn tries to apologise but Vienna just tells him it's totally fine.

"I'm sure I've stepped on your foot before," Vienna mutters. "It's fine. We're both unharmed."

Selwyn swears he'll never understand the people of Earth and helps her up. She dusts the front of her tights off and shakes her hands out before taking Selwyn's hands. They retry it again and succeed, grinning at one another when they do.

They take a five minute water break and Vienna's lost in thought when a voice pulls her from her trance.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Vienna looks up and Erik's sitting there, smiling at her. She rolls her eyes and comes and sits next to him, asking how long he's watching for. He grins and tells her he's been there long enough to have seen her falling over.

"Shall I finally get to dance with you today?"

"You're persistent, aren't you?"

"That's not a 'no,'" Erik points out, smiling to himself. He stands up and offers his hand to her, which reluctantly, she takes them.

Erik seems to know what he's doing and he starts a basic waltz with her, much like the one she danced with Pavel. He counts in time softly and she follows along, feeling a little awkward keeping eye contact. He spins her around and she giggles. He dips her and pulls her back up, looking at her a little breathlessly. Vienna notices then that he does have a funny kind of look about him and she lets go, alarm bells going off in her head.

Erik stays for the rest of the session and watches her dance with Selwyn. He watches what they do and tries by himself for a few minutes. When they finish, Erik asks to dance with Vienna once more and she raises an eyebrow at him. He offers his hand and she sighs, taking it and letting him count them in. Erik manages to remember Selwyn's part pretty well considering he only just picked it up but he misses a few moves and only dances the first thirty seconds of it.

"Not bad," Vienna mutters, moving her hair from her eyes.

"Not bad yourself," he smiles. "Looks like I have my work cut out for me if I want to keep up."

"No need to keep up," Vienna smirks. "I have Selwyn. He knows what he's doing."

Selwyn looks up at them from the bench and looks like he's biting back a faint hint of smirk. Erik shrugs and walks with Vienna back to Pavel's room. As they're walking, Erik apologising for earlier that morning. He hadn't realised that Vienna didn't know about Pavel's acceptance letter. He was with Pavel when he got it. Erik tells her about how Pavel started freaking out when he opened it. Vienna had forgotten about the letter for a little while.

Vienna studies for a while whilst Erik and Pavel play cards. They throw a few colourful swear words back and forth and Vienna's amazed how the majority of her Russian is limited to vulgarities. Pavel seems to be worse than Erik for the most part and Vienna can't help but be a little amused that her sweet, innocent boyfriend swears so much.

Erik leaves the dorm room to go get something of his from Vienna's room and Pavel and Vienna have a little time to themselves. They cuddle but all they can think about is Pavel's letter. They don't talk all that much but they're both thinking the same thing.

What if.

(Author's Note)

Me: I'll wait a few days before updating
Also me: Yeets updates in your direction every four minutes :))))

I got a lot of work done on this over the past few days even though I have to write on my phone.

Hope you enjoy♪