Angels (Pavel Chekov)

3 - City Streets

He smiles a little. "I... I will, if you don't mind."

She can only smile at how polite he is, standing up as he puts his journal back into his bag. It's almost strange seeing him in something other than cadet red. He wears jeans and a hoodie, seemingly unphased by the frigid January weather. They start walking together, Vienna finding herself glad that she can finally have a non-schoolwork related conversation with him. She asks about Russia and his time there, to which he doesn't seem to give too many details about. She wonders if he had problems over there but decides to leave it as a conversation for another time.

They walk past a bookshop and Chekov asks if they can have a look inside. Vienna has absolutely no objections. Chekov heads straight for the science books, Vienna stays in the fiction section. She questions if she'd even have time to read with everything else going in terms of study.

"I found it," Chekov mutters, a thick physics book in his hand. Vienna asks to have a look and flips through a few of the pages, realising that the Russian in Chekov's journal would make an equal amount of sense as all the mathematics on the page.

"You understand this?"

He nods, not giving much other information. She thinks he's too humble to say anything else. She gives him back the book and he puts it in his bag as they leave the store. They keep walking and Vienna gets a little lost in all the shops and bright colours. He watches her as she stares in wonderment at the world around her and smiles a little to himself.

Vienna walks past a dress shop and one of the garments in the window catches her eyes. Chekov slows down and sees the dress she's looking at.

"I'm happy to wait for you, if you want to try it on."

She looks to him and nods. The dress is a deep red and the colour alone attracts her eyes. She enters the store with Chekov following silently behind her. He finds a seat and has a look at the book he just bought. She shuffles through the clothing rack for one her size and pulls it, having a closer look at it. She left most of her nice clothes back at her home in Delaware.

She takes it into the change rooms and tries it on, admiring it in the mirror. It's not expensive, she's considering buying it. She steps out of the change rooms and looks over to Chekov, who has his head stuck in the physics book.

"Hey," she calls, attracting more than just his attention. "Does it look aright?"

"You look stunning," he blurts out, quickly covering his mouth. She can see his face heating up and he switches to Russian, muttering to himself. She gives him a smile and disappears back into the dressing room and he rubs his hand across his face, telling himself not to be an idiot.

They leave the shop and Chekov is even more quieter than usual. Vienna nudges his side and he looks over to her, curious. She gives him a grin and despite his blazing cheeks, he can't help returning her smile.

For a while, the keep walking around the city. Vienna asks what Chekov's studying and he tells her a little about navigation. He isn't finding it too hard so far but she wonders if that's just because he's a lot smarter than he cares to admit. He likes mapping out the stars and tells her that Stellar Cartography is quite possibly the most interesting subject he's ever taken.

Chekov ends up walking Vienna back to her room. He thanks her for their day and she isn't entirely sure why. They just walked around and talked together for a few hours. She enjoyed it nonetheless.

"I'll see in you in class?" She asks.

"Definitely."

Vienna takes a seat next to Chekov in their ethics class and he closes his journal. He's more chatty than usual, even just the slightest bit. He tells her that he's finished the book he bought, she isn't sure whether he's kidding or not.

"It was a really good book," he says, brushing the curls from his eyes. "They had some really interesting concepts and ideas in there."

"I still can't believe that you finished it, and that English isn't your first language. When did you move over here? Have you been living in America long, is that why it's so good."

"I've only been here a month or so. I studied English back in Russia. I did an intensive course after high school."

"You didn't graduate at the end of last year?"

"Not exactly..." He mutters, an awkwardness seeping into his voice. "I, uh, I graduated a while ago."

"Are you going to tell me when? You don't have to if you don't want to."

He opens his mouth to say something but the lecturer calls their attention to the front of the room and he just breathes a sigh of relief. He goes back to his journal as she starts talking and keeps writing. Vienna watches from the corner of her eye and wonders what it is he writes about. He wonders if he's written about her and their day together a few days ago. She doesn't know what her name looks like in Russian and she tells herself she'll look it up when she gets back to her dorm room.