Work Text:
Worf walked to the far window of Ten-Forward, boots tapping against the floor in a rhythmic clack-clack, clack-clack as he stepped. He approached a counter-like table overlooking the calm surfing of the stars in low warp and took a seat there, huffing. He almost spilled his bloodwine as he planted it on the table.
He sat, watching the stars. He began to think. He thought about his heritage. He wondered why he always felt so strange when other Klingons boarded the Enterprise. He took a drink from his cup. He kept wondering. He wondered if it was because he was jealous; because he was jealous. He was jealous of a life he never lived. He was jealous of others who lived it for him. He took a drink from his cup. He kept wondering. He wondered if he would feel such strangeness and such twisting in his chest every time he met another Klingon warrior. He wondered if he would meet another Klingon warrior like himself. He wondered if the aforementioned warrior would even call themself Klingon. He took a drink from his cup.
Klingon. Klingon. “What does Klingon mean?” He thought. It is a species. It is a culture. It is a language. It is not a planet. He took a drink from his cup. It is an honour to be Klingon. It is an honour to be a Klingon. But what is a half-Klingon? Who is a half-Klingon? Alexander is Klingon. He is mostly Klingon. But he was raised as a human. Does this make him human, or Klingon? He does not want to be Klingon. He does not care.
Worf is Klingon. Worf is not part-Klingon, like Alexander. Worf dedicated all of his childhood to studying what it means to be Klingon. He acts as a Klingon. He follows the word of Kahless. But he is not natively Klingon. He was not told the stories, he read them. He was not taught how to handle a bat’letlH, he learned by himself. Is a Klingon made from knowledge, or inheritance? He took a drink from his cup. He did not want to wonder anymore.
For a moment he forgot it all. He forgot his jealousy. He forgot his regret. He forgot the sacrifices he had to make to pursue the career he loved. He forgot about the devotion he had to a culture he belonged to but would never fully understand. All he knew, just for one moment, were the stars slowly sailing by.
He went to take a sip of his wine to find that he’d already drank it all.