Who: Spock & Sulu What: Driving and talking. Where: By Fullerton When: Before Sulu's camping trip with the Trekkers Rating: About as bland and unsexy as it could get Status: Done!
It was a situation that came up once in a while, where Sulu found himself between jobs. A gap in the schedule between lectures and piloting for longer than a few days was a rare treat, and normally Sulu spent that time in his apartment, decompressing.
It was a lot harder to do that when Jim Kirk was currently bunking at your place, though. After the last weekend the man had gone to a lot of lengths to make Sulu feel better, cleaning and being on his best behaviour. Still, Sulu found himself staring at his apartment, looking for reasons to leave the place for a few hours.
Finally he thought of touching base with Spock. He'd been meaning to talk to him about this moon lander project anyway, and now was as good a time as any. Spock was a nice voice of reason, one that wouldn't talk him into doing anything crazy. Sulu needed a break from crazy.
And so he found himself parked out front of Spock's School, leaning against his car and waiting for the other man to finish work for the day. Maybe they could go driving and talk.
It was early afternoon and the sun was still high in the sky. Spock had just finished his last class of the day, and was beginning to feel the specific sort of peace that came hand in hand with not seeing students again for a full 12+ hours. He wasn't the sort of man to smile, not even when the weather was perfect and cottony clouds hung in the sky. But his steps were ever-so lighter than normal.
Spock almost missed the sight of Sulu. The parking lot that held his car was to the right of the main building, where Sulu had veered slightly to the left to park. But Spock had just managed to catch a glimpse of a man. And once he squinted through the sunlight, he realized that the man's silhouette was familiar.
Spock veered to the left, swinging the leather case that carried far too many books with him. Eventually, he was standing before Sulu. The look on his face was about as friendly as Spock could muster. "Hello," he said rather pleasantly. "Waiting for me?"
There was a few seconds of pause while Sulu took his face away from the blackberry he'd been messing with to pass the time, and tucked it into his pocket. He gave Spock a smile that was a mixture between nervous and happy, and nodded his head.
"I was, yes. This might be a bad time and I probably should have called, or sent a message. I apologize for that, but..." He trailed off and squinted upwards at the sky for a bit to gather his thoughts, "I needed to get out of my apartment before I went crazy. And you're an adult who acts like one, which is a welcome change from the usual."
Spock's eyebrows knit themselves together as he gave Sulu a curious look. What he'd said was telling and a little strange. It made him wonder what was going on in the younger man's life. "It's alright," he said quickly. "I didn't have plans for the afternoon." This was often the case; Spock only ever was really busy because of work. He had friends, yes, but they weren't the keep you busy until all hours of the night type. Not typically, anyway.
"Is everything okay?" Spock asked, only barely leaning into Sulu's car.
Sulu actually couldn't claim to have many friends. There were some work acquaintances but he kept mostly to himself. He supposed most people would consider the quantity of friends he'd made in the last month to be some kind of blessing. Sometimes he'd agree. Most of the time.
He adjusted the cap on his head, a bit of a nervous habit, and ducked his head a bit, "Oh you know, everything is fine. I have a friend crashing at my place that likes to go crazy and text people over for wild St. Patrick's Day parties. Apparently McCoy's friend Geoff is overly concerned about the company he's keeping."
He glanced at Spock, "He isn't alone. I feel like my life is crashing headlong into rush hour traffic."
Spock raised a brow. It seemed Mr. Sulu was having all sorts of problems lately. And it wasn't too difficult to guess who these problems were.
"Would you like to talk about it?" It was a little odd for Spock to play the part of therapist, but Sulu seemed to need a sympathetic ear. And Spock couldn't quite help himself; he liked Sulu. "Perhaps we should drive? Get food?" He motioned toward the car they were standing beside. The thought of driving with the windows cracked seemed ideal in Spock's mind. Maybe Sulu could work through whatever problem he was having on the way.
It was a great day to drive with the windows cracked open, too. Sulu’d tried a bit of driving to clear his head already, but it standed to reason that talking it out with a sympathetic ear - who was also great at dispensing reasonable advice - would get better results.
He smiled again and unlocked the doors to his car, "Sure thing. Will your car be safe here while we're out?"
"They lock the lot late at night. It'll be fine." Spock cast one glance in the parking lot's direction, but wasn't worried. There was a guard posted at the entrance and a fence surrounding the cars. And it wasn't as though his car was especially enticing to thieves.
In a swift motion, Spock opened the front passenger side door and slid into the seat. "You'll just have to bring me back here when we're done," he said once Sulu was sitting beside him.
Sulu nodded at he started the car up, "I can do that, no problem at all."
He shifted the car into gear and peeked over his shoulder, just to make sure there weren't any latecomers walking to their cars. The car jerked backwards and came to an embarrassing stop, which caused Sulu to lean his head back against his headrest and let out a very long sigh.
Before Spock could mention anything about the parking brake, which Sulu somehow just felt he would, he fixed it himself, and got the car moving once more.
"What kind of food do you like to eat?" It was a good ice breaker for a conversation, and relevant to where he'd be driving to, as well!
There was a barest hint of amusement that flashed on Spock's face. It was gone as quickly as it came and he found himself, because he liked Sulu, biting his tongue to hold back a comment about his driving. But once Sulu asked him about food, Spock was as straight-faced as ever.
"I'm a vegetarian, though I don't object to watching others eat meat." He felt he always had to add that second thought when sharing that he was a vegetarian. "But I'm not especially picky otherwise." A pause. "Driver picks the meal?"
"That seems fair enough," Sulu nodded his head. His driving was actually impeccible now that he was in motion, a fact that Spock might find some comfort in. He pondered the vegetarian situation, thinking through places he enjoyed eating that had offerings for them both.
"How do you feel about sushi? There should be plenty of selections for us both, and I know a really good place," He glanced in Spock's direction, his smile a lot more confident, "It's not even a hole in the wall, either, and it's reasonably priced.”
Spock shrugged. That seemed as good as any option. "Alright," he said, letting his arm rest on the door. He then let the window down. Not so much that the wind would impede conversation, but enough that there'd be a good breeze.
"Beautiful day," he commented idly, glad that Sulu seemed to be a good driver once he was in motion. "Did you work today?"
"It is a gorgeous day, I'm glad I got out," Sulu nodded agreeably, then rolled his window down a bit to match the one on the other side. He turned a corner and decided to take the scenic route for a bit.
"No work today, no. I'm between jobs right now. No lectures for a few weeks, and my next pilot gig isn't until the weekend. Teach anything new today?"
“That must be nice,” Spock said. And then, he raised a brow. “I teach something new every day.” He might have been amused or he might have been annoyed. It was sometimes hard to tell the difference with Spock. “My students are back from Spring Break. Most of them don’t really want to learn, they just want to go sleep off their respective hangovers.” It was something that Spock had simply grown used to; undergrads were a frustrating bunch.
He didn’t ask Sulu any personal questions yet, figuring that when he was ready to talk, he would. Spock focused his gaze out the window as the world slowly passed them by.
Sulu ducked his head a bit at the response. It was hard to tell if Spock was annoyed or amused, but the tone he'd taken in his reply sounded just shy of a reprimand. He was a teacher, of COURSE he taught new things every day.
If he could have facepalmed while he was driving, he would have.
"I didn't mean any insult by that, I was just trying to make conversation," he admitted, sheepishly.
The smile returned to his face as he continued, "And I was wondering what you were teaching. I'm wondering if any of them took to the lectures I gave, but I guess they're too hungover for you to tell right now."
“It’s alright,” Spock said quickly, waving his hand. He hadn’t been actually insulted. “And I teach Comp Sci. There’s an introductory class, that’s the one I just got out of. And I teach some others, as well. I’ve had two students tell me about your lecture.” Which, honestly, was more than he’d expected. “They seemed to like it.” Spock cast a glance at Sulu, seemed pleased, but wasn’t smiling.
"It's always hard to gauge whether the stuff I'm saying is sinking in or not," Sulu's tone brightened, and it was obvious that he was on a topic of discussion that was more comfortable to him. "I love giving the lectures, but so often it just seems like the students only show up because they can sleep through them and get course credit for it. Lecturing to High Schools is worse, as they tend to view it as an extra recess period."
He turned onto another road, one that seemed to have a nice scenic view of the city around them. The sun twinkled off the windows and made the entire area look like it was a delicate city of glass.
“That’s been the story of my professional life,” Spock said, nodding along with what Sulu had said moments before. “It is a difficult thing to get twenty-somethings to focus, especially on the intro classes. Half of them already know the basics and want to move on to harder material. Half don’t have the slightly clue what they’re doing and aren’t especially interested in the subject.” He shrugged a shoulder ever so slightly. “It is what it is, I suppose.” A pause. “It gets better when you have a group that’s interested in the subjects, either older students or specialty classes.”
“For what it’s worth, I found your lecture interesting,” he added after a moment.
"Thanks, that means a lot," He nodded in response. The respect of his peers meant a lot to Sulu, and Spock was definitely a peer in his book. In some ways, he thought, the other man was probably superior.
"I've been thinking about refreshing the material, some. Adding some models and visuals, and changing the lesson plan. After a while the message gets old and you have to start new, with a new perspective."
An idea came to him, and he smiled a bit more widely, "Maybe you could think of a few things to add. I can't be the only person besides Scotty who thinks that Science is a little backwards and lacks vision."
Spock raised a brow at Sulu’s comments. “I’d be happy to review new material you’d like to bring.” He grew silent, thoughtful. “I’m not sure whether I completely agree with your opinion about science.”
While he understood Spock's position, Sulu felt the need to explain his own a bit better. He turned onto the freeway, while explaining his time at NASA, the frustrations he'd experienced, and his feelings about space travel. He went into detail about why he felt Science wasn't where it could be, and paused every so often to let the other man give his own input.
It wasn't the thing he'd meant to talk to Spock about, but at least it got his mind off of other things, and the conversation was exciting.
It was a nice thing to have a civil discussion about the current state of the science community. Spock didn’t have quite the negative outlook that Sulu did, but he agreed on certain points. They talked all the way to the restaurant, catching a table while a young waitress looked at them with curiosity.
This conversation carried them through their meal. By the end, they were fairly science-d out. Once the bill was paid and they returned to the car, Spock put his seatbelt back on and glanced at Sulu. He smiled a very small smile, “There was something bothering you, wasn’t there?” He prompted Sulu, figuring they could talk about it on their way back to Spock’s car.
Amongst the enjoyment of the meal and the company, Sulu had almost forgotten about the stresses that had driven him out of his apartment to begin with. He found Spock to be an easy person to speak to, however, and as he pulled out of the parking lot, he nodded.
"You're right, and I'm not sure where to start," he let out a long sigh, "From the beginning, I guess. There's this man named Jim Kirk, who I think you've seen on the Network before. He's a new friend of mine, and being his friend has put me in touch with other new friends. Alone, any one of these guys is a great person to know, but when we all get together things go haywire."
He glanced at Spock as he headed down the road, "It's seriously disturbing my calm."
Spock’s brows knit together. There was something about Kirk that was simply annoying in a way he couldn’t exactly explain. Perhaps it was just that so much ego bled from the screen into the reader’s mind and Spock had read too much from the man. Maybe it was something more. At any rate, the mention of the man alone was enough to make Spock nod in understanding.
Still, he needed more information before he could really make a statement to Sulu about this issue. So he asked, “What do you mean when you say things go haywire?”
"Well, take last weekend as an example. He started up a party at my apartment without even asking. I got home and there was porn and drunken people, my ferret was drugged up on caffiene..." Sulu trailed off and shook his head, remembering what he could of the evening, "I had way too much to drink, we all did. There's a hole in my wall. I think some girls were kissing."
Spock frowned. This sort of behavior was near unacceptable in his eyes. Spock was a man who liked rules and quiet, prefered a book or computer to most people, and had little tolerance for drunken idiocy. “How did he get in to your apartment?” This was the first problem. Spock opened his mouth, preparing to ask Sulu why he was even friends with these people, but held his tongue at the last moment. Instead, he just glanced curiously at Sulu.
Grinning sheepishly in response, Sulu answered, "I ... let him in. He was injured in a bar fight, a midget shot him. I was letting him stay there for a while until he got better."
At this juncture, Sulu decided it was probably not the best idea to mention that Kirk was still living in his apartment. He could hear the tone of disapproval in Spock's voice and found himself worried that the other man would decide to keep his distance. He wasn't sure why that should worry him, but it did.
“A midget?” He asked aloud, not really expecting or wanting an answer. Spock simply shook his head. “Kindness is not always a good thing.” His sternness was directed more at Kirk than at Sulu, but this wasn’t something that could be easily interpreted. Spock was too rigid. After a silent moment, he looked at Sulu and his expression softened, but only just so. “You should limit your interaction with people who upset you so much.” It was simple logic.
"You're probably right," Sulu responded with a sadness in his voice, though it was unclear if that mood was brought about by the sternness or the realisation that his friends weren't that good for him.
He nodded a bit, thoughtfully, as he tried to think everything through. Kirk and Scotty and Bones were fun to hang out with, but it often lead to chaos and pain - not to mention that he now questioned his own sexuality. That topic wasn't something he was comfortable sharing with Spock, though he recalled Spock had confronted him about his network post.
But he was right about this, and Sulu realised that he'd had a great time tonight without any of that added baggage, "I really appreciate you coming along with me tonight. This has been a nice change."
Spock respected Sulu and could pick up a resigned sort of agreement from how quiet he was. This made him respect the man all the more; because even in the face of an inconvenient truth, Sulu could be honest about the situation. Spock nodded after a moment, giving the driver a rare smile. “I’m glad you stopped by,” he said, meaning it completely. “If you need a sympathetic ear, I hope you will not hesitate to come to me in the future.” This wasn’t the sort of offer Spock tended to make. He was quiet, shy, and often lonesome. The last thing he typically wanted to hear was about the problems of others. But there was something simply likable about Sulu.
That was a feeling that was completely mutual between the two of them, Sulu would agree.
"I won't, and I hope that if you ever need to talk, you won't be a stranger either," he gave Spock a genuine smile in response to the other man's, glad that he'd gotten Spock to open up enough to feel comfortable doing so. It made him feel better about life in general, and the rest of the ride was spent in a companionable silence.
He turned into the parking lot of Spock's college. At this time of night there were still quite a few cars in the parking lot, more than he'd expected to see - likely students working late in labs, or possibly a few night courses. He located Spock's car thanks to the directions of its owner, and pulled up beside it.
"I'd like to do this again sometime, though maybe next time I'll give you some advance notice."
“Alright.” Spock said, rather amicably. He was out of the car soon, fishing his keys out of his pocket and unlocking the door to his own vehicle. Unlocking his door, Spock turned and spoke to Sulu through the open window, “Have a goodnight, Mr. Sulu.” He nodded and got in his car.
The pair drove off in their separate directions and, as Spock drove himself home, he found himself rather pleased by the events of the day. It was an afternoon such as this that reminded him the importance of making new friends. As he drove off, he thought about the Valar network and what he might post in the evening.