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Hoshi was alone in the mess hall, hours after dinner when she should be in bed, sipping a mug of chamomile tea, staring at the grey lifeless walls, and regretting. It was wrong of Captain Archer to want T’Pol’s personal messages decoded. She should have refused the order.
At least she didn’t read the message, she told herself. But she caught glimpses, and her mind was too quick to fill in the gaps between return and wedding.
The door slid open. Hoshi looked up, still not used to how public every part of Enterprise was, and made eye contact with Subcommander T’Pol. It was strange to see her at this hour; usually staying up late into the evening was a human failing. Hoshi swallowed, and took another sip of her tea.
Hoshi’s mouth felt dry as she watched T’Pol saunter to the automat and take out what appeared to be a slice of pie. There was something in the catlike grace with which she moved that never failed to set Hoshi’s heart aflutter.
T’Pol pulled out the seat across from Hoshi and placed her plate on the table.
“Ensign Sato. Have you tried the pecan pie?”
Hoshi’s heart jumped. “I don’t usually eat dessert,” Hoshi said, unsure how to respond.
“You must. Ensign.” T’Pol returned to the automat, took out a second slice, and placed it in front of Hoshi.
She then sat down across from her, picked up her fork, and brought a morsel of pie to her mouth. Her eyelids fluttered shut, her tongue snuck out to lick the fork clean, and she moaned in obvious pleasure. Hoshi was sure the image would haunt her forever.
“That good, is it?” Hoshi said, smiling weakly to hide the way her heart raced.
“You haven’t tried it,” T’Pol said. Then, in a move that must surely go against all logic, she reached across the table, grabbed Hoshi’s fork, and brought a bite of pie to Hoshi’s mouth.
Hoshi opened her lips, leaned forward, keeping eye contact with T’Pol’s intense gaze, and wrapped her lips around the fork, scraped the piece of pie off with her teeth. Flavor developed on her tongue, nutty, gooey, framed by crumbly crust. Rich warmth seeped throughout her body. She closed her eyes, let the flavor wash over her as she chewed. She had eaten pecan pie before, and it was good, but it wasn’t this. Maybe it was the company.
T’Pol raised a bite of pie to her lips and asked, “Hoshi, have you ever considered marriage?” before biting into it.
Hoshi’s eyes shot open. “Where did that come from?” Vulcans did not discuss personal matters. Was T’Pol asking her…?
“Trip said I should talk to you about it.”
“Well, um, I… no, I haven’t. I figure I’ll know when I’ve found the right person.”
“Vulcans do not… ‘find the right person’.” T’Pol took another bite.
“How do you choose, then?”
“We don’t. Our parents choose for us, when we are young.”
“So you were… betrothed?”
“I am no longer. The Ti’Mur left, and I am still here.”
Hoshi found herself relieved, eager, hopeful.
T’Pol held up a forkful of pie, observing. “This is a completely illogical meal. It provides nearly no nutritional value. And yet,” she put it in her mouth and moaned as she chewed, “it ish delishous.”
“…Subcommander?”
“How often has Captain Archer made illogical decisions, simply because he… wanted to? How often has he pressured me to do the same?” T’Pol’s voice was slurred, even without a mouth full of pie.
“Are you feeling alright?”
“I’m fine. We are celebrating,” T’Pol said, and lifted another bite to her lips, closing her eyes.
“What exactly are we celebrating?”
She opened her mouth, closed it. Frowned, thinking, then her eyes opened wide with a childlike grin. “All that eisilium! The Science Directorate won’t want to study it, but I know Enterprise will. Aren’t you excited to investigate its geophysical properties?”
Hoshi smiled back, simultaneously charmed and taken aback. She didn’t know Vulcans could smile. “That’s not really my wheelhouse.”
“Your wheelhouse! As if a house could have wheels. Why would a house be portable?” She broke into a laugh, a jagged noise, atrophied from disuse. “Where would it need to go?”
It was obvious that something was wrong, but at the same time… Hoshi wanted to see T’Pol laugh like this again. It was the most precious thing she had ever seen. Hoshi felt guilty for enjoying it, but then a sly smile crossed her face instead. “You know, in certain human cultures, there’s a myth about a type of house that can grow legs and walk.”
“It’s simply a preposterous concept. Someone could pull a house on wheels. How would it ever generate the metabolic energy to walk?”
Hoshi allowed herself another chuckle, then T’Pol’s head bobbed, and Hoshi pushed her chair back and stood up. “Alright. We have to get you to sickbay,” Hoshi said, grabbing T’Pol’s arm and dragging her to her feet.
“I just wanted to enjoy a slice of pecan pie.”
“You’re not acting like yourself.”
Hoshi pushed T’Pol forward, out the door.
“I know you read my letter,” T’Pol said in the hallway, her voice suddenly sounding more her own. “Commander Tucker told me you translated it.”
“I tried not to read it.”
“I find it unlikely that you succeeded.”
“We were all on edge.” Hoshi cringed. “Especially after the incident at P’Jem.”
“I forgive you. It was a logical course of action. But—” a smile again, turning to face Hoshi, her eyes squinting in something that may even approach mischief “—I don’t think Captain Archer needs to know I’ve forgiven him.”
Before Hoshi could respond, T’Pol stumbled, and leaned heavily into her.
“Are you planning to blackmail him?”
“What if I am?”
Usually T’Pol was so wound tight, too stubborn to adapt. Like this, she was easygoing, playful. Was this a piece of her nature that she failed to express? What made it come out now?
“He won’t hear it from me,” Hoshi said, and shoved her into the turbolift.
“Pecan pie?” Doctor Phlox said. “That’ll do it. Sucrose has mild euphoric effects on Vulcan physiology.”
“So she’s just… intoxicated?” Hoshi said.
“Exactly,” Phlox said.
“It’s delicious,” T’Pol said.
“I’m afraid you’ll just have to sleep it off, though you may feel somewhat… unpleasant, in the morning.”
“Ensign,” T’Pol said, looking up with a smile, possibly the last Hoshi would see. “Thank you for celebrating with me.”
Then she collapsed on the bed, and Hoshi took one last appreciating look at her face, more cheerful than Hoshi had ever imagined seeing it, before leaving her to rest.