Work Text:
Irritated
Bones thought doctors made terrible patients, but they had nothing on young Ensigns. Pavel was very sick but, annoyingly, wasn't in their room. Since the medical bay hadn't notified him that he was admitted, there was only one place he would be.
"Jim!" He called unhappily into his com.
"Yeah, Bones?"
"Is he up there?"
"Yeah, he looks like shit, is he supposed to be back on duty?"
"He absolutely is not!"
"Alright, I'll send him back."
"Better send him with an escort or he'll end up in engineering!" He groused. He paced as he waited for Pavel to return, internally cursing him.
"I'm fine." He said instead of greeting. He did look like shit, skin pallid and clammy. He had dark circles under his eyes, and he moved much slower than usual, his aching muscles must be screaming at him.
"Bullshit you are. Lay down." He ordered. Pavel stomped to the bed and laid down still in his uniform.
"It's so boring just laying here." He whined.
"You act like ya ain't never been sick before." His accent was thicker with annoyance. Pavel just pouted. Fine by Bones, just so long as he stayed put. "You hungry?" Pavel pointedly looked away with a frown still marring his usually happy face. Bones rolled his eyes and ordered him up some soup. He sat on the edge of the bed with the bowl, going so far as to spoon up some soup when Pavel didn’t take the bowl.
"I'm not an invalid! I can feed myself!" He grabbed the bowl, almost sloshing it all over the sheets. He ate less than half. "I'm not hungry." He said sulkily. He sat it down heavily on the side table. He crossed his arms over his chest, and Bones couldn't help but notice how heavy his eyelids were and how slumped over he was.
"I'm just askin' you to rest for a bit, darlin'." He pleaded, feeling Pavel's forehead and then leaning down to press a kiss to the top of his head. Pavel didn’t answer, but didn’t look any less unhappy. Bones took care of the bowl and busied himself with taking care of a few other things. The next time he checked on him, Pavel was fast asleep.
Anger
Pavel's dad liked him just fine. His mom was another story. 14 years was apparently a little too much of an age gap when it came to her precious Pasha. He heard quite the heated argument about it, all in Russian, so he couldn’t understand a word of it. Pavel was left fuming after, every once and while murmuring 'I can make my own choices' under his breath.
"She'll come around the longer we're together." He tried.
"She can't respect my choices now? She doesn't even try to talk to you! Why aren't you more upset? You know she practically called you a pedophile!" Pavel ranted at him, furious. He tried his best to stay out of it after that.
One day Pavel’s mood soured considerably after reading a message on his com. Len braced himself for the fiery rage, but it didn't come.
"Maybe I should have never told her." He lamented quietly. Len knew there was nothing he could say to make this better, so he reached out and took the younger man's hand. In time they might even be able to look back and laugh, because he knew already he was in this for the long haul.
Overwhelmed/shock
The Enterprise was no stranger to missions going wrong. Len’s heart was in his throat when they called up that a member of the landing party was coming into medbay unconscious. He felt a little guilty that he was relieved to see it was a yeoman in a red shirt being carried in by Pavel and the other engineer. Pavel gave a very clear and firm run down of the injuries, jaw set and an uncharacteristically hard look in his eye. He looked a little worse for wear but nothing life threatening. He would be looked over and dismissed quickly, but Len couldn’t think about that. He had his hands full with the bleeding crewman.
After a couple hours of emergency surgery they were stable and he was optimistic about their recovery. He was beat when he finally made his way back to his quarters and was looking forward to some sleep. Pavel was sitting on the couch in sweats, hair frizzy and a mess from air drying weird after a shower. There shouldn't have been anything strange about him sitting there mindlessly watching a movie, but it was very late, he had his knees drawn up tight to his chest and he was still, too still. Wide round eyes turned toward him without really seeing him.
"Is Klesi okay?" He asked, voice small and distant.
"Yeah, they should make a full recovery. Are you alright?" He asked softly. Pavel shrugged.
"Just a few bruises and scrapes." He whispered, wrapping himself into an even tighter ball. Len sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around the other man, and pulling him into his side. He went easily, like a doll he could move however he wanted. After a few moments sitting in silence, he heard Pavel’s shaking inhale against his shoulder. He doesn't ask what happened or how the mission went sideways. He just held him as everything finally hit him and he let go.
Disgust
Leonard was a part of a diplomatic mission, and he was allowed to bring Pavel with him, he wasn’t sure which one of them counted as the trophy husband in this instance.
"I'm probably going to be with Jim or their doctors the whole time."
"That's okay! It'll be like having leave time!" So Pavel was on his own for the first day. Len had to smile and make nice with some senators with Jim and Spock, which was terribly dull. He got to discuss some new vaccines with the local doctors which was far more interesting. He didn’t worry about Pavel since he got along with almost everyone. Almost. When they met up for dinner he was in a foul mood. Even Spock seemed surprised by how ornery he was.
"Who pissed in your corn flakes?" Len asked after the fourth clipped response he received to a perfectly reasonable question.
"D'kleen." He grumbled, staring daggers at one of their hosts. "He's so…" Pavel’s face scrunched up as if he ate something rotten. "Superior. 'You probably won't be able to follow along with this.'" He added in a mocking voice. "Asshole." He hissed.
"You can always go back to the ship you know."
"You're sending me back to the ship?" He said, equally offended by Leonard now.
"I'm not sending you anywhere. Just reminding you we're guests here, maybe be a little more…diplomatic?"
"What? I didn't say it to his face." Pavel said, still squinting across the room. Len rolled his eyes.
"You two get into a genius-off?" Pavel made an unattractive noise in the back of his throat.
"He wouldn't deign to compete with me." He said, again in that mocking tone. Leonard tried to be understanding of his boyfriend's bruised pride, but…"He's lucky I didn't rip that teticale off when he tried to wrapped it around me."
"When he what!" Leonard shouted. On his other side was Kirk rubbing his temples.
"I hate you both so much right now." They were both sent back to the ship after that.
Sadness/Grief
Len came to slowly. His mouth was dry and he could hear the distant sounds of med bay. It came back to him in flashes; firefight, treating a bleeding wound, intense pain. He wasn’t actually sure what happened; he thought he was hit with something in the back. He thought he must have passed out due to blood loss. He finally peeled his eyes open squinting against the lights. He felt a weight on his left, when he moved his hand the head shot up.
"Leonard!" Pavel’s face filled his vision. He looked a mess, his eyes red and puffy, hair sticking up at all angles, cheeks ruddy and tear stained. He called Chapel in.
"You're lucky," she said seriously. "The spear missed your spine, but pierced right through your kidney." Great, one good ear and one good kidney; at least he was damaging things that came in pairs. She left and Pavel was back in his position by his bedside. He looked tired.
"You should get some rest." He croaked. Pavel shook his head, and sat there quiet for a while.
"I thought you were going to die." He whispered. He folded himself over Len to lay his head on his chest. Maybe listening to his still beating heart. Pavel’s face was drawn and miserable. They didn’t tell him how long he had been knocked out, but it was clear that Pavel was all cried out by now.
"Not today, darlin'." He rasped and moved an arm that felt like it was full of sand, to rest a hand on Pavel’s head.
"I love you." Pavel said wetly, still neck deep in the fear and worry of watching a loved one fight for their life. Len wouldn't have fared any better if their positions had been reversed.
"I love you so much, Pasha." He wanted to thank him: thank you for sitting with me, for worrying about me, for loving me back.
Pavel stayed just like he was, as Len drifted off again. He knew the younger man would still be there when he woke up.
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Joy
Pavel had a surprise for him. The kid knew he hated surprises. Yes, he was still the kid when Len was irritated with him. He just wanted a nice relaxing shore leave, was that so much to ask? Pavel, of course, was excited.
“Don’t be so grumpy.” He smiled at him. Len glowered back. “You will like my surprise, I promise!”
“Yeah well, just don’t get too upset when I don’t.” Pavel just squeezed his hand and kept smiling, undeterred by his boyfriend.
“A friend of mine was headed to Lostos VII anyway, so it was perfect!”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“They should already be here!” Len was thoroughly confused now. “There they are!” Pavel scanned the docking station and pointed when he found who he was looking for.
“Daddy!” Leonard followed the shout to see Johanna already running toward him.
“Hey, sweet pea!” He caught her in a bone crushing hug. “God, you’ve gotten so big!” He practically had a teenager on his hands now. “Your momma let you come out here by yourself?”
“I’m not by myself.” She pointed to a young woman a little older than Pavel with short straight hair.
“This is Amanda!” Pavel introduced. “Jocylen said it was okay as long as someone she trusted was with her!” Pavel smiled beautifully, as Len greeted Amanda and thanked her A friend of mine was headed to Lostos VII anyway Okay so Pavel was right, this was a very good surprise.
The three spent the day together Leonard catching up with JoJo. He always worried about not seeing her enough, but she was overjoyed to see him so he couldn’t be that bad. She and Pavel got along like a house on fire, and he couldn't remember the last time he smiled this much. At the end of the day Amanda had rejoined them and she and JoJo were distracted by something on her PADD, so he and Pavel were alone, sitting outside in the planet's deep purple sunset.
“I told you, you would like my surprise!” Pavel said cuddling against Leonard’s side.
“I don’t know how you swung this.”
“I introduced Amanda to Joanna and her mother, so she wouldn’t be a stranger. Joanna was very insistent about it.”
“Meaning she annoyed the crap out of her until she got what she wanted?” Len said with a smirk. Pavel shrugged, not looking the least bit sorry, but quickly sobered a little.
“When you were…when you were hurt, I was so scared. Then I thought about Johanna and how she wouldn’t even be able to see you, she wouldn’t be able to say good-bye.” Leonard’s eyes widened in surprise.
“So I'm supposed to be saying good-bye?” He asked incredulously.
“No! No, of course not. I just thought it was a good idea for you to see her now…I guess to see her as much as you can…I don’t know…”
“To make the most of every day.” He finished the thought that Pavel couldn’t.
“Yes! To have as many good days with her as possible.” He said, smiling. Len probably meant to say something like ‘I love you’ when he opened his mouth, but it wasn’t what he said.
“Marry me.” Came out instead. Pavel’s mouth opened in shock.
“Really?” Leonard smiled warmly, cradling Pavel’s shocked, but hopeful face in his hand.
“Yeah, really.” Now that it was out there he wouldn’t take it back. A wide smile broke out over the younger man's face. Len couldn’t believe he was the one to inspire such joy in him, it was absolutely infectious.
“Yes! Yes, of course I will! I love you!”
“I love you too.” He breathed, leaning in to capture his fiance’s lips in a kiss.