The Breakfast Club

After whispering in Lorelei's ear and touching and also that orange blossom scent and...well, needless to say T'Pren needed a little cooling off time before Akhil and Rai showed up. So she was standing against the wall outside the Eel, face burning green and blood practically boiling, shaking her hands at the wrists as if to sling off the feel of the singer's skin.

"Okay, Pren," she whispered to herself drunkenly, "you have to leave her for Regan. Regan deserves her." She sighed happily. "Regan's the best. So. Pull it together."

Rai rubbed his hands together. He ignored the green hue in her cheeks, hoping she'd snap out of it when she had some food in her.
"Lieutenant, let's go get something to eat, I'm famished!"

The doors to the bar slid open, noise bursting out into the hall. Akhil was remarkably steady on his feet still. "There you both are. Still standing?"

"Leaning," admitted the lieutenant with a broad grin, but she pushed off the wall and held out her arms so that Akhil could see how balanced she was on her feet. "Now I'm standing!"

She twisted around so that she could face the two men and started walking backward down the hall. "Do I want blood sausage or gagh?" she wondered out loud. This was followed immediately by, "Lorelei's beautiful. I didn't know a person could be that beautiful. Also she's very talented!"

"Of course I am, it's me, after all." He blinked sleepily.

Akhil grinned at the Commander, the two of them following Pren. "She is indeed. I heard she is helping you with..." he caught Pren by the scruff off her dress, quickly righting her just as she was about to trip, "...your room?"

"Oh!" yelped T'Pren in surprise both as she thought she was going down and also when the Klingon saved her. This turned into a very mischievous grin. "My hero!"

The half-Vulcan whirled around, setting her dress spinning out around her, and continued on down the hall at the head of their triangle, but with an eye to where she was going now. "She is! Regan and I are both worthless at those kinds of things and I was at Wheezy's with Val Etilen replacing the scarf I blew up, which is where I met Lorelei and it seemed they were probably very good at those things..."

"You are making friends already. That is good," Akhil approved with a somber note. "I do not know Val Etilen. But Lorelei is a very kind and loyal person. And she has good taste. Even if she is wrong about Klingon opera."

"She's fantastic, you're in good hands with her," said Rai, still slurring his speech.

When the two older men started extolling Lorelei's virtues, Pren turned around again, walking backwards and listening intently to what they had to say. Her brow knit with great concentration. "Regan is smitten. I don't want her to get hurt." Her expression and her tone are extremely earnest. "Will she get hurt?"

Akhil frowned with confusion. "They have only just met..."

"Regan doesn't..." T'Pren pursed her lips, trying to figure out just the right way to say this without betraying her friend. "She doesn't often have non-platonic feelings for people. But when she does..." The half-Vulcan shrugged helplessly. "But if Lorelei isn't interested, will Lorelei lead her on?"

"Lorelei won't lead anyone on, she's a professional. You understand that, right? Anyway, Dr. Ozan is an adult, she can handle this."

"Well, I know, but..." T'Pren responded, walking facing forward again to hide the green blush to her cheeks that came with her embarrassment and defensiveness. She had a sudden urge to get huffy and run away to sulk, but she obviously did no such thing.

Instead, she fell into a silence accompanied by feelings of protectiveness and the kind of humiliated sting that comes with thinking you've been chastised.

They walked on in silence for a few moments. Akhil placed a heavy hand on Pren's shoulder. "You can't safeguard against people getting hurt. People hurt each other all the time without meaning to. Klingons express their love by hurting each other. I met my first lover by brawling with him in the mess hall. But if it makes you feel better," he continued, "Commander Rai is right - Doctor Ozan is an adult. And Lorelei is experienced, and a good and kind person."

"You met him by brawling? That's so romantic," Rai said without a hint of irony or sarcasm. "You Klingons know how to express passion, it's beautiful."

It wasn't the hand on Pren's shoulder that made her stumble: that much is obvious because it took a few seconds after initial contact for the physical surprise to register. But stumble she did, barely catching herself before she fell and then pausing in her walk to catch her breath. She stared wide-eyed at her feet, slanted brow furrowed. "That was..." T'Pren tried to find just the right word. "...Intense."

Cmdr Darren Rai wrote:

"You met him by brawling? That's so romantic," Rai said without a hint of irony or sarcasm. "You Klingons know how to express passion, it's beautiful."

"I did not stand close enough to him when addressing him in conversation," Akhil replied, "He took offense and challenged me. I realized later that it was because he wished to know me better."

His story was interrupted by Pren's stumbling. "Are you alright?"

"Lieutenant, perhaps you'd just like to sleep it off?" he asked her. He was genuinely concerned she'd throw up whatever food she took down at this point. Possibly upon him.

"No, no, I'm fine," T'Pren insisted, looking slightly more sober now, actually, than she had before she stumbled. She twisted around to face them, looking sheepish and blushing yet again. "Vulcans are touch-telepaths," she explained.

"Oh. Did you... see something?" Akhil asked. He looked... not embarrassed, exactly, but sheepish somehow. Which, on a Klingon, was bewildering to behold. But it lasted only a moment, as they reached the restaurant.

"Yes, I know," Rai said sweetly. He gestured to the Klingon restaurant before them.
"Why don't you get your bearings over a Raktajino?"

Rather than really answering the Klingon's question, T'Pren continued to turn ever brighter shades of emerald. She couldn't quite make herself look at Akhil, but she did eventually explain to the Commander's knees: "It was more of a...feeling. It was..." She took a breath. "Well, no wonder Klingons are so passionate."

She quickly turned on her heels and headed into the restaurant. Yes. Raktajino.

When they were seated, Rai beamed up at the Klingon waiter.
"A Blas-rika omelette, six blood sausages, a side of Gagh, extra spicy, and a Raktajino to wash it down."
He turned back to T'Pren and Akhil.
"I love this restaurant, the Gagh is so vivacious!"

Akhil dearly hoped that that what Pren saw was only a vague reflection of what actually transpired in his past relationship. He cleared his throat, and ordered six different things on the menu. "Yes. It is very good. Takes me back to Kronos and my mother's cooking. My father never quite developed a taste - he missed out."