Work Text:
vulcans are given sehlats as pets to build their discipline. to do that, they have to discipline their sehlats.
spock was at home with his pet sehlat, i-chaya. he had no one else to be with, except his parents. he didn't belong with the other vulcan children so he spent most of his days with i-chaya.
today, spock wanted to teach i-chaya a trick. something simple, like a roll-over.
he grabbed some of i-chaya's food and ran over to him. i-chaya was lying on the ground lazily.
since i-chaya was already laying down, it should be easy to make him roll over. spock held some food in his hand and carefully put it close to i-chaya's nose. logically, i-chaya followed the smell with his nose.
spock slowly started to guide the sehlat, luring his head to the side. i-chaya started to tilt his body to the opposite side, but went back to his old position after flailing on his back.
spock was determined to get i-chaya to roll over. i-chaya was almost there! maybe he the scent of the food needs to be stronger?
he put more food in his hand and tried to get i-chaya to roll. this time i-chaya was more interested in the food, but he still didn't fully roll over.
spock tried this one more time before sitting next to i-chaya. he pet i-chaya on the head, scratching his fluffy ears. it was frustrating that i-chaya wasn't listening to him. he laid against i-chaya, his small body fitting perfectly on the large sehlat.
they rested together for a while. spock finally got up after thinking about what his parents would think if he successfully taught i-chaya something.
spock held the food in his hand, putting it close to i-chaya's nose. this time, everything i-chaya would follow spock's hand, spock would give him a bit of the food as reward. slowly, i-chaya was getting used to the motions.
the food was held to the opposite direction to where i-chaya was laying. he followed, though squirming a bit. spock wasn't sure if i-chaya would finally roll-over or just go back to his original position. however, i-chaya finally flopped in the other direction, successfully rolling over.
spock was overjoyed. he gave all the food in his hand to i-chaya and wrapped his arms around the sehlat. he couldn't wait to show his parents, but they had much more practice to go.