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Manu wasn't really good with feelings.
Manu Noonien-Singh will be the first to admit that he wasn't necessary the best when the spotlight was shined on the emotional aspect of things. He wasn't to blame for this, not really. After all, growing up in fast and hectic as well as dangerous environment surrounded mostly by people that didn't tolerate his family lineage all too well only for the shit to hit the fan even more when they ended up on the Gorn nursery of all places, the place where he had to watch his parents die and to say goodbye to his only sister - it didn't really take a genius to recognize the fact that those events didn't have a positive impact on a development of his then still teenage brain.
He didn't really do well with physical acts of kindness or intimacy either. If he was being completely honest, most of those getures, even when they were preformed by other on others, didn't sit all too great with him. To be quite frank, it made him nauseous.
Manu wasn't someone that would describe himself as the brother of a year, after all, he only reintroduced himself into his sister's life after the whole almost war with the Federation - the moment when his sister was once again captured by the despicable things - so he wasn't really in the position to pretend like he knew what was La'an's romantic status or that he knew how she responded to romantic gestures.
Manu, however, knew his sister didn't tolerate physical touch beyond accidental brush of hands due to poor miscalculation of personal space. Call him crazy but he didn't believe that his sister dropped that particular habit that she was dragging all the way from early childhood, unless she was taking some serious therapy and yes, Manu was aware that pigs weren't flying just yet.
Manu wasn't here to pretend like he was deserving and entitled of knowledge of his sister's personal life - everyone had the right to privacy. Manu wasn't here trying to do anything as much as he was desperately trying to return into the normal rhythm of things that didn't require his fight or flight instinct to be fired up 24/7. He wasn't about to stick his hands into the mess that was an absolute clusterfuck of this ship and he most certanly wasn't about to try and stick his hands into La'an's considering the fact that it very well might cost him his very hands.
And it wasn't until La'an's hands started getting... well, handsy, for the lack of the better term, that his curiosity was peaked and he figured a closer look wouldn't hurt anyone.
Especially since her hands seemed to be closely intertwined to her fellow Vulcan colleague.
Manu didn't consider himself an expert in xenoanthropolpgy, nor was he all too inclined to dwell deeper into the topics considering the fact that the ship's resident xenoanthropologist looked more like a porn star from the 1980s than someone that knew differences between the friendly greeting with bowing of the head and the very similar but completely different "Sorry I fucked your mom" bowing of the head. But he knew that Vulcans were repulsed by physical acts of kindness/affection even more than his sister which is why it was such a surprise to him when he saw him purposely reach out to La'an and what almost sent him into shock and in search of a sick bay, when he saw his sister not only not avoid his touch but actually lean into it.
Manu wondered for a moment if he somehow managed to step into the parallel universe where he was currently surrounded by mirror characters while his actual sister remained in a different dimension but fortunately, or more likely unfortunately, he didn't have to ponder upon an answer for very long considering the fact that the scene he accidentally walked in on was pretty self explanatory and didn't need any further clearing up on his part.
Although it was an event that Manu would greatly prefer to forget, everything became crystal clear to him the moment he mistakenly stepped into what he then thought was an empty lab for a bit of peace and quiet on a busy day, only to discover that he was most cetanly not the only one looking for a bit of privacy on a ship where gossip spread faster than the case of Andorian shingles on underdeveloped colony. The sounds of heavy breathing should have been a dead giveaway but for some reason, an excuse that Manu really couldn't bother with at that moment, he chose to ignore it, shucking it up as some sort of ventilation system failure which proved to be a mistake that he would continue to remember until the end of days for as he stumbled upon the projection of utter debauchery, in his humble opinion, starring his sister of all people and the beformentioned Vulcan that he remembered was called Spock - a name that he vowed to never forget just in case he needed to rearrange his organs.
For a hot second, which was all it took for the image to brand itself to his eyes, the only thing that Manu was capable of seeing was La'an pressed up against the wall with Spock crowding her and keeping her in place while they feverishly made out in what they thought was the privacy of the unused lab. For all that was worth, Manu thanked his lucky fucking stars that kissing was all they were doing even though his augmented optical nerves detected Vulcan's hands heading into the dangerous territory and straight to his sister's behind and he also caught onto her equally enthusiastic response where she, for the lack of the better term, leaned into his touch like an overgrown feline.
Manu has survived multiple encounters with Gorn, many of which had ended with blood and gore and yet he swore that he has never been quite as traumatized as in that very moment, his whole body shutting down and operating on autopilot as he shuffled backwards. He snapped out of his stunned trance when his sister let out a lewd moan and Spock hoisted her up into his arms, his hands well on their way under her uniform top and Manu didn't need the extra brain power to figure out that he should leave unless he wanted to witness an ancient ritual with La'an in the lead role. He snapped back around and rushed out, somehow still just as quiet as when he was walking into the metaphorical lion's den. He was experiencing an interesting case of tunnel vision, his whole visual field narrowing down to the single target, which were the doors in this case, following it in a similar fashion that a blind man would follow the light.
Once he was outside, the awkward encounter behind him physically but still very much so present mentally, Manu thanked his lucky stars that the two occupants seemed all too occupied with each other to notice him, therefore avoiding a bigger catastrophe that could have happened had La'an been the one to notice him.
Still feeling almost drunk by the whole experience, Manu stumbled back to his room, the search of a quiet place that weren't his quarters abandoned for the foreseeable future - he really had no desire to stumble upon anyone else, let alone those two again.
Manu would describe that particular incident as the starting point of his more careful observations of the couple - a couple he was pretty sure only he knew about, the rest of their colleagues seemingly oblivious to the small intimate touches exchanged between them. He wondered for a moment how some of those people were even able to advance so far up in their careers since their attention to bizarre detail appeared to be nonexistent. Then again, maybe he was looking too hard into it since Spock definitely seemed different than other Vulcans he, more often than not, had the displeasure of meeting. He wasn't quite sure what that something was until he happened to witness a reunion with his mother - his human mother. Suddenly, it made a bit more sense, at least on Spock's part.
His sister though, remained an enigma to him. Although the two were once again on a very good path of becoming close siblings, Manu still had trouble discerning what exactly pushed his sister into the arms of the stoic Vulcan. And he couldn't even say that he disliked the man, even though he was emotionally stunned he too could see the positive changes that the Vulcan invoke within his sister, the way that she was opening up to those around her a bit more and the way that there were moments when she simply couldn't seem to wipe the smile from her face.
And Manu had missed seeing her smile.
Spock himself, Manu deduced through his observations, didn't go through such drastic transformation of character as his sister but he could detect faint smiles on the corners of his lips ever so often, mostly directed at La'an. The remaining amount of the discreet emotional reaction was reserved for something La'an would say. Manu never failed to miss one of those appear on his lips whenever his sister displayed both her tactical and intellectual capabilites, showing everyone in the vicinity just why she was more than deserving of her name - making sure that everyone knew that the Noonien-Singh's were capable of a lot more than simply being the muscle just in case there was ever any doubt in the first place.
So, overall Spock wasn't a bad person for his sister. He seemed like a polite and well raised man that treated his sister like a drop of water on his hand, holding her in very high regards and having a tremendous amount of respect for her. Manu was limited to their public interactions, the beformentioned incident a one of a kind encounter, and he had no desire to see their interactions in private if the display in the lab was any indication of what they were up to behind the privacy of closed doors but he was pretty certain that Spock treated his sister with the same amount of respect and that he would have never done anything to hurt her intentionally. His sister may have changed a lot in his absence but he was very well aware that her fiery temper and short fuse remained a trademark of her personality and Manu was pretty sure the Vulcan desired to keep both of his testicles.
His only setback regarding the Vulcan came in the form of a blonde nurse that seemed way too attached to the half alien. He happened to catch onto one of their interactions by accident in the mess hall during dinner time as he was sharing his meal with La'an that was, luckily, turned to them with her back. Manu was a pretty good multitasker so he was able to hold a mundane conversation with his sister while his keen eyes observed the way the blonde nurse batted her eyelashes at the science officer. He thought he was good at keeping his expressions neutral but obviously he was rusty since La'an herself turned around to see exactly what was distracting her brother from her and Manu suppressed a wince as La'an's face hardened upon seeing the interaction. She excused herself with a vague explanation of checking up on the security bay and Manu knew better than to probe her for further information while she was seemingly not only irritated but also displaying vulnerability in the form of rather obvious anger. Manu was feeling sorry for whatever poor soul La'an happened upon in her quest to distract herself, he was, after all, very well aware of just how blazing hot La'an's anger could be and just how much damage it could do.
In a fit of his own rage Manu felt the desire to rush across the room and show everybody that he himself was also very much so deserving of his name only the display that Manu had in mind would have played very well into the disastrous reputation their name happened to be dragging behind for centuries. The one thing stopping him from crossing the room in long strides and ripping the Vulcan apart was his seeming lack of interest and cold demeanor that Manu was only seeing now, he didn't have the chance to observe Spock in his "Vulcan mode" as of yet and he never thought that the change could have been quite so drastic up until the moment he was staring down at it. He wasn't sure just what caused the apparent rift between the nurse and the Vulcan but whatever it was must have been quite big to have a normally rather relaxed Vulcan close up and revert back to his fundamental Vulcan training. He would find out later, by pure chance, that the two used to be together for a brief but turbulent period of time out of which Spock was the one that pulled the short end of a stick and Manu was once again torn between feeling sympathy for him and murderous intent upon even the smallest of hints that he was using his sister as a rebound.
It made Manu pay even closer attention to the two.
And upon his closer observation he realized that maybe Spock wouldn't be the only one to blame for the whole rebound thing as the visit of another first officer got thrown into the mix and threatened to either make or break Spock and La'an's relationship.
James T. Kirk was even less the type of a man that he thought La'an would go for. Aside from his dashingly good looks, boyish charm and womanizing persona that oozed out of every single pore from his body, he didn't appeal to Manu whatsoever. Then again, he was a straight man so maybe he was biased. But for all that was worth, Manu preferred the xenoanthropologist brother over the womanizing and flirty first officer that looked like he would flirt with everything that moved. And as he watched the said first officer litteraly flirt with every moving thing on the Enterprise, Manu wondered just what exactly his sister saw in the type that she would usually despise with her very being.
There was, however, something slightly odd in their interactions though.
Unlike Spock and Chapel's interaction that seemed completely one sided on Chapel's side, his sister, for some reason, seemed like she was torn between wanting to be close to James and being as far away as possible from him at the same time. And as he watched James flirt his way around his sister, which made him wanna get up and tear him limb by limb since his sister was not an emotional punching bag for anyone, he could clearly see that whatever feelings were there, although they were still very much so conflicting, they were most certanly only present on La'an's side since she was the one uncomfortable between the two. She looked almost caught in the gravitational tug of war between wanting to give him a hug while also itching to knock him unconscious into the next week. James seemed all too comfortable and a bit too cocky in her presence which didn't sit very well with Manu whatsoever. But whatever sort of beef Mamu seemed to have with James without even speaking two words to him, it couldn't compare to the ulcer Spock appeared to have developed as soon as the first officer stepped onto the bridge and headed straight to La'an's console after greeting the Captain. From what Manu had gathered from the linguist on board that also seemed close to James, Spock's behavior was most unusual since the two seemed to have "clicked" the last couple of times the newcomer was on the ship.
So Spock definitely knew the reasoning behind La'an's conflicting emotions which put Manu's mind at ease for at least a brief period of time, knowing that she had some support even though it might have been standing on shaky foundations but she seemed trusting enough that it wouldn't crumble. The longer the playboy remained on board, the more Manu saw La'an's conflict fade, the tender side loosing war to the spiteful one as the first officer continued flirting shamelessly, trying and failing to insert himself in her space, made even more difficult by the buzzing Vulcan that seemed more and more irritated with every passing minute the blonde boy took no hint and simply continued on his merry way. The culmination of the incident which resulted in conflicting feelings in none other than Manu himself happened just a day from James's scheduled departure from the ship when he was a witness to his sister's temperament telling the playboy to "Fuck off to his pregnant girlfriend already." The statement both amoused him to no end but also made him want to stab a very sharp object through the future Captain but he refrained since he didn't really fancy a federational correction centres.
Whatever sort of pent up tension there was in Spock's and La'an's relationship seemed to have evaporated with the seemingly magical words his sister tossed in Jim's direction and the balance to the universe appeared to have resorted back to the normal.
Or to whatever passed for normal on the ship at the very least.
The power dynamics shifted back into correct gears once again and the life on the Enterprise continued flowing in the usual direction. Spock and La'an seemed to have settled into their normal routine, no longer disturbed by the turbulence. The two seemed to have, for the lack of a better term, stopped giving a flying fuck about anyone else but themselves and that seemed to have been doing wonders for their relationship. Whatever sort of hardships those two had to overcome in their private setting seemed to have done them a favor by solidifying their relationship which was something Manu was thankful for since the persistent touching filled with something Manu would rather steer clear from and would have preferred to not tocuh with a ten foot pole seemed to have been brought to a minimum. They still touched frequently, but the touches lacked everything that made Manu uncomfortable back when he first noticed it. Or perhaps, he was plainly wrong and nothing has changed, only he has grown to used to them that he now didn't bat a single eyelash when he caught it in the corner of his eye.
"They're cute, aren't they?" Manu startled as Una Chin-Riley came to stand next to him at the bar, a fruity drink in her hand as she gazed in the direction of the two officers Manu was also busy observing.
He cleared his throat thinking that he has misheard her. "Who is?"
Una smiled and pointed to, yup, Spock and La'an that were standing side by side, not touching, but he guessed they were looking rather cozy for two people that were nothing but colleagues. "Your sister and Spock. They're quite the pair."
Manu shifted uncomfortably on his feet. It seemed like people weren't as oblivious as he had deemed them to be. Or at least, this one individual wasn't. "So, you knew?"
Una scoffed like his question was an insult to her intelligence. "Oh please. They're not subtle in the slightest and we all have eyes."
"And you're ok with that?" He asked, gesturing to the two, Spock's hand now sitting on the small of La'an's back as he gently nudged her out of the way for the people to pass through narrow space.
Una shrugged her shoulders, her long fingers bringing her drink up to her mouth, her eyes firmly set on the two. "They're good for each other."
Manu had to agree.