browngirl | Hopes and Expectations (Star Trek XI, PG with warnings)

Title: Hopes and Expectations
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Rating: PG with warnings.
Pairing: Chekov/Sulu, Chekov/Sulu/Sentient Plant
Summary: Hikaru introduces Pavel to a new friend.
Content Advisory: Rather tentacular, threesome-tinged slash, but not at all explicit.
All Thanks To:

lomedet. *beams*
Disclaimer: None of these characters (except the plant) or their settings belong to me.
Title from "Starlight" by Muse, because I like the theme.
Author's Note: This started as a fill to this kink meme prompt but went far afield, ending up as a sequel to Black Holes and Revelations (rated NC-17), though you don't need to read that to understand this.

When Pavel finds Hikaru he has to stop himself from drawing his phaser. Hikaru lies sprawled in a tangle of tendrils, most thicker than his arms, all emerging from a lush green hummock. Even though Pavel usually sees Hikaru's smile from any distance, it takes him a moment to notice it now, to see through the momentary red haze that Hikaru lies pillowed on one particularly fat tendril, its green warm beside shining black hair, to hear through the thunderous rush in his ears that Hikaru croons wordlessly to the plant.

At which Pavel shakes himself, though his spine stays rigid, and barks a laugh so Hikaru will notice him and turn a bright hot red. This is not the planet of the Jellyfish people, after all, and Hikaru seems quite content, though thoughts of pollen intoxication flash through Pavel's mind, and he considers going back to ask Dr. M'Benga for a mask.

That would mean leaving Hikaru here, so Pavel does not do that. He clears his throat, and folds his arms, and watches Hikaru's eyes ease open then flare wide, watches that blush well up in Hikaru's cheeks and says, "I was worried terribly, and all the while you are canoodeling with a pile of vines."

"I'm pretty sure it's 'canoodling'," Hikaru says as if he isn't blushing, stroking the tendril his cheek lay against as he sits up. "And I -- we were talking. She was talking to me."

Pavel raises an eyebrow in the style of Commander Spock, or as close to it as he can. "I had a similar chat once with a giant jellyfish, do you remember? You needed your katana to end it."

Hikaru tenses all over, so hard his spine stiffens. "This is -- she's not --" He glances side to side at the tendrils tangled all around him, and then up with his eyebrows drawn down, and he and Pavel stare at each other for a stretching, lengthening moment. A vibration builds inside Pavel, and he does not know if it's anger or worry or both, if he feels Hikaru is betraying him, if he should or should not.

Then Hikaru glances down, and the moment breaks, the vibrations jangle against Pavel's shock and sink away under his relief. "No, I get it," Hikaru says, soft and hushed. "I can see how this looks to you, but really, look at me." His eyes are open and sane, undrugged. "I'm not hallucinating, I promise you. She's friendly."

Pavel nods. Hikaru unwinds his right hand from the tendrils, as mindfully as he might unlink arms, and when he reaches up Pavel takes hold of his hand. Pavel's body is rigid with reaction, but this is not that planet, and Hikaru vouches for this plant. So he lets Hikaru draw him near, stepping and sitting carefully as he settles amidst the tendrils.

They rustle and slide up over him, entwining him, and he fights himself as they embrace him, his own tensing limbs, his own urge to flee. Hikaru rubs the back of Pavel's hand with his thumb, broad fingers bracing his palm, and Pavel breathes and slowly relaxes.

And then the voice brushes his mind, and it is nothing like the Mathematician, nothing of that devious, complex focus. This is all sensation and emotion, curiosity and the brush of plant-skin on human skin, sympathy and the sense of past wounds now mended, hope and the quenching coolness of rain so strong Pavel has to open eyes he does not remember closing just to look himself over and see himself dry.

"Oh," Pavel breathes, as Hikaru's cautious smile slowly widens, as tendrils shape themselves in warm green comfort around him, knowing now the true nature of Hikaru's new friend. "Oh, yes. Hello."