Work Text:
“Oh for cryin’ out loud, will you two just kiss already!” Trip cried as his patience wore thin.
“I beg your pardon, Commander?” Shran asked, antennae twitching as his eyes widened in surprise at the outburst.
Gesturing between them, Trip said, “you two have been bickering like an old married couple for the last three days! And when you’re not arguing, you’re looking at each other like you hung the damn moon. So just get it over with and have a good old-fashioned make-out session, and maybe we’ll all feel better about it! We’ve got earplugs in the detonation kit, and I can face the back of the pod if that’ll make it any easier for you, but this is getting beyond ridiculous.”
Wearing a sheepish expression, Jon sighed and glanced at Shran, who nodded his assent. “We’re already together, Trip. This mission was supposed to be just the two of us, until T’Pol insisted on following regulations.”
“The captain’s not supposed to leave the ship without another member of the crew,” Trip murmured, before giving a sheepish grin of his own. “Damn, Cap’n - if I’d known I was going to be third-wheeling your date I’d have talked T’Pol into letting you go without me.”
Sounding sceptical, Shran asked, “do you truly believe you are persuasive enough to accomplish such a feat with Commander T’Pol?”
Chuckling quietly, Trip nodded. “T’Pol and I have been together for months. Pretty sure if I’d told her you needed some private time she’d have understood, given how difficult it’s been for us when things get hectic.”
“You and T’Pol are…” Jon trailed off.
“Yeah,” Trip said with a grin. “We’ve been keeping it quiet, but we both realise it’s gonna come out sooner or later. Better you be the first to know rather than the last. You know how the grapevine can be.”
Nodding, Jon said, “the commanding officer is always last to know any good gossip, unless told directly.”
Looking between them, Shran smirked as he said, “I’m always first to know. Nothing happens aboard Kumari without my knowledge, which is as it should be.”
“Uh huh,” Trip murmured with a chuckle. “And what about your crew when they’re not on the ship?”
“If you’re referring to Talas and her dalliance with Lieutenant Reed, she told me of that herself,” Shran said with an especially smug smirk. “I also happen to know that of the many lovers she took in her life, Lieutenant Reed was considered the finest amongst non-Andorians.”
Laughing, Trip said, “I’ll be sure to tell him that when we get back. Just maybe not where Hoshi can hear me…”
Antennae twitching, Shran asked, “why not in Ensign Sato’s presence?”
“Because they’ve been together almost as long as T’Pol and I,” Trip grinned, “and unlike me and T’Pol, word already got around about them, because Hoshi made the mistake of telling Travis.”
“Ensign Mayweather is not to be trusted?” Shran asked curiously.
With another laugh, Trip shook his head and said, “if it’s official Starfleet business, sure. But private information, especially something like a relationship? You gotta be real careful to tell him not to breathe a word, or the whole crew will know it in no time at all.”
Frowning slightly, Shran asked, “would Ensign Sato be particularly bothered by the knowledge that Lieutenant Reed was intimate with Talas prior to their own relationship?”
“Nah, I’m pretty sure she already knows they had a little moment together,” Trip said with a shrug. “But telling Malcolm that Talas rated him so highly - that’s a whole different kettle of fish, and I’m not real keen on having my arm broken.”
“Is Ensign Sato likely to break a limb, if made privy to such knowledge?” Shran asked.
Chuckling, Trip said, “she broke her company commander’s arm when he tried to break up a poker ring she ran as a cadet. I wouldn’t put it past her.”
Clearly surprised by the revelation, Shran said, “I would not have guessed that Ensign Sato held the capacity for such violence.”
“Hoshi holds a black belt in Aikido,” Jon said quietly. “She’s landed me on my butt more than a few times during training sessions.”
“Anyone who underestimates Hoshi does so at their own peril,” Trip said with a grin. “There’s a reason Malcolm fell in love with her, and it’s not because she’s shy.”
With a nod, Jon said, “she’s trained on more weapons than any other communications officer in the fleet, and her scores in target practice are good enough that she could transfer to security if she wanted to.”
Grinning at Shran’s surprised expression, Trip said, “when the MACOs first joined the crew, Hoshi made an effort to befriend them. First, she talked to them. Then she handed them their asses in training.”
“Which earned their respect in a way that nothing else could have done,” Shran remarked, obviously understanding the mindset.
“Exactly,” Jon said quietly. “If Malcolm hadn’t been at loggerheads with Jay - that’s Major Hayes, their former commanding officer - Hoshi likely could have united the crew in a matter of weeks.”
“So when exactly did you two get together?” Trip asked after a lull in the conversation.
“Shortly after the death of Talas,” Shran said gruffly. “When your captain and I visited Andoria, I was rather unsteady on my feet - a side effect of his having severed my antenna. I suffered a rather severe fall and ordered him to leave me behind in favour of finding the Aenar. He refused to leave my side.”
Giving Shran a fond look, Jon said, “you would have died if I had.”
Nodding, Shran said, “at the time, such an outcome would not have bothered me greatly. Now…”
“Now you bicker like an old married couple, but pretty obviously love each other,” Trip said with a smile. “I recognise the symptoms.”
“Yourself and Commander T’Pol?” Shran enquired.
Grinning, Trip nodded. “Yeah. Started out with just the bickering, of course - I’d never had fun arguing with anyone before, but with T’Pol, I did. Eventually we both realised that the other was damn good at their job, and we both care about the crew - though we have very different ways of showing it. And then Phlox suggested Vulcan neuropressure to help me sleep after my sister died in the Xindi attack, and things changed again. Turns out apples and oranges make a real tasty combination.”
Frowning in confusion, Shran asked, “how is fruit relevant in this instance?”
“Our first argument,” Trip said with another smile. “She said her Vulcan rank superseded mine. I said it was apples and oranges - two totally different command structures.”
“I see,” Shran said thoughtfully, then looked at Jon with a fond expression. “The same might be said of blueberries and raspberries.”
Laughing, Trip nodded. “Those do actually go really well together, so that fits.”
Wearing earplugs and working on a diagnostic, Trip did his best to ignore the fact that Jon and Shran were now at the back of the shuttlepod, with the Andorian commander straddling his captain’s lap as they made the most of what little privacy was available. He made a point of not looking at the reflection off one of the computer terminals after seeing that Shran no longer wore his uniform jacket, and had his head angled back while the captain’s mouth was at his neck. He tuned out the moans that earplugs couldn’t entirely deafen when Shran changed position for Jon to do something to his antennae. He certainly didn’t pay any attention to the slight vibration of empty boots hitting the deck plating, or the higher-pitched whimper as someone did something for the other. As for when they both groaned in unison, well… what groan? Trip was none the wiser, and that’s what he continued telling himself until Jon tapped him on the shoulder, four systems checks and three diagnostics later.
“Feel better now?” Trip asked with a grin as he pulled the earplugs out.
“It will suffice until we reach Enterprise,” Shran said with a smirk. “Then I believe we shall need some way of adhering a sock to the door of your captain’s quarters.”
Laughing, Trip said, “I can add a hook to the panel beside it as soon as we get back - just above the door chime should do the trick.”
Clearing his throat, Jon asked, “any chance we could change the subject now?”
“Sure thing, Cap’n,” Trip said, grinning again. “What do you want to talk about?”
“How about the fact that two of your engineers have been in a relationship for even longer than you and T’Pol,” Jon suggested.
With another laugh, Trip said, “Janelle and Mike haven’t exactly been subtle about it, I’ll grant you that.”
Looking between them both, Shran frowned slightly. “Who are Janelle and Mike? I don’t recognise those names.”
“Janelle Kelly and Michael Rostov,” Trip explained. “Two of the crew in my department. They got together… oh… a few years ago now. Not long after our encounter with the slime monster.”
“Slime monster?” Shran repeated curiously.
Nodding, Jon said, “it was an alien life form that came aboard from a ship we’d docked with. The four of us were tangled in a slimy sort of web for a while.”
Shuddering, Trip said, “we could hear each other’s thoughts. Turns out Mike was real sweet on Janelle, and she thought he was pretty cute too - which I’ll grant you, she’s not wrong about - so once we were all freed from it by Malcolm, Hoshi, and T’Pol, the two of them got together.”
“You appreciate the male form also?” Shran asked curiously.
“Yeah, sometimes,” Trip said with a shrug. “I mostly favour women - especially T’Pol - but I can admit when a guy is nice to look at, and I’m not ashamed to admit Mike’s on that list. Janelle’s really pretty in her own right, and they get along so damn well. If me and T’Pol can be as happy together as those two in the long term, we’ll be doing just fine.”
“Is Commander T’Pol entirely aware of your feelings for her?” Shran asked curiously.
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Trip said with a grin. “It’s uh… it’s what stopped her from marrying Koss.”
Antennae twitching curiously, Shran repeated, “Koss?”
Clearing his throat as he grimaced, Trip said, “yeah. Vulcan guy she was betrothed to in childhood. Son of a senior minister in the Vulcan government, and full of his own self-worth as a result. Never mind the fact that T’Pol’s accomplished far more than he ever has, and all from her own effort rather than nepotism.”
“You never told me that,” Jon said quietly.
“I talked her out of marrying him twice,” Trip said with a grin. “Remember that letter that was transmitted strangely, that we had Hoshi decrypt real early on in our mission? The one I told you was real personal?”
Nodding slowly, Jon said, “vaguely.”
With a shrug, Trip said, “his family were demanding she return to Vulcan to marry him. I talked her into staying on Enterprise.”
“And the second instance?” Shran asked curiously.
“When I went with her to Vulcan, after we got back from the Expanse. He was trying to bribe her into marrying him, with promises that his father would have her mother reinstated to her position at the Science Academy. I convinced T’Pol that there were better options than marrying that manipulative prat.”
Eyes wide and antennae twitching, Shran said, “you proposed a marriage of your own.”
Chuckling as he shook his head, Trip said, “nah, we’d only been together about six weeks at that point, it was a little soon for a proposal. But I told her I love her, and that I wanted her to give us a chance. And she did.”
“Trip,” Jon said softly, clearly surprised by all he’d heard. “You should have told me.”
“Wasn’t my information to tell,” Trip said with a shrug. “Just the same as this won’t be. Your secrets are safe with me.”