Work Text:
“Why are we doing this?” Nyota asked, following Erica into the turbolift. “I have some work that –”
“Captain’s prerogative,” Erica shrugged, grabbing the handle. “Deck six.”
“But why?”
“Look, the captain is big on the group activities. You might have noticed. He likes all the teams to run their own sessions. For the bonding, you know. It’s one of the rules of being an Enterprise department head.”
Erica grinned, and lightly punched Nyota in the arm.
“Don’t look so worried. It’s usually a good time. He’s invited you to a senior officers’ gig because you’re on the bridge for Alpha shift. He wouldn’t want you to feel left out.”
Nyota wasn’t convinced, but she didn’t argue. No where, before she had joined Enterprise, did any Starfleet literature tell her that she’d be invited to breakfast in the captain’s quarters, or go to movie night, or quiz night, or join in with team-building. Captain Pike was a law unto himself in the way that he ran his ship, or so it seemed. Three months ago, Cadet Uhura might have run away from that. She just wasn’t ready for it. But now, Ensign Uhura had a much better idea of who she was, and where her place could be.
Even if it did involve blowing off some really fascinating transcription in order to attend whatever the captain had come up with this time.
That was growth.
They ran into La’an outside of the captain’s quarters. She looked about as enthusiastic as Nyota felt.
“Do we know what he’s planned for us this time?” she asked. “Please tell me that he really did give away the karaoke machine to the lower decks.”
“He did,” Erica grinned. “Last seen set up in the engineers den.”
“Thank goodness for that.”
The door slid open to reveal Una on the other side. She was dressed in a teal jumpsuit, her hair down around her face. Not for the first time, she took Nyota’s breath away. Their commander truly was stunning.
She was also grinning. That was possibly not a good thing. She tended to be the number one supporter of the captain’s left-field ideas, and Nyota suspected that she might even be the true driving force behind them. The captain could get distracted. Una Chin-Riley had never been distracted in her life.
“Come on in,” she said. “We’re just waiting on Joseph and Christine.”
Nyota gave the room a once over, trying to figure out what they had planned. There wasn’t anything obvious in the living room, but that didn’t mean anything. It would hardly be a surprise if the stuff was set up when they arrived. Pelia was wandering around the room examining all of the captain’s nick-nacks, and Sam Kirk lounged on the couch, whisky in hand.
There was no sign of the captain or of Spock, for that matter.
Erica skipped over to the kitchen counter where several bottles of the captain’s best contraband were waiting to be drunk. La’an followed, rolling her eyes, but reaching for a bottle anyway.
They didn’t have to wait much longer to find out what Captain Pike had planned for them. As soon as the doctor and Christine arrived, Una herded them all onto the couches.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to art class,” Captain Pike said, and stepped out of his bedroom with a box that soon proved to be full of canvases and tubes of real paint.
La’an groaned, but Nyota felt herself perk up straight away. She’d painted before, back before the academy, and she might even say that she was good at it. Pelia and Sam seemed pretty into it too, as far as she could tell, and Erica and Christine were whispering and giggly. That was good.
“What are we painting, Captain?” Erica asked, as he handed out the equipment. “Something from our imaginations?”
“Nope,” Pike grinned. “I put all of your names in a hat and the one I drew out gets to be our model for the evening. All they have to do is sit in a comfy chair and be still.”
“Who’d you pick?”
“Actually, Erica, I pulled out your name. And then I thought for one second about you sitting still, so I dumped you and just asked Spock instead. He’s the only one of you I can trust not to be a pain.”
Spock appeared, summoned by his name, dressed in one of his deep blue Vulcan outfits. Sam wolf-whistled, and Nyota definitely saw a hint of coppery blush on Spock’s cheeks.
“The captain informs me that the role of a life model is to be as one with the chair,” Spock said primly, taking his seat. “I doubt any human has ever fulfilled the role as successfully as a Vulcan can.”
“Life models are also naked,” Erica called, and Spock’s head shot around to look at Captain Pike.
“I was not informed of this component of the evening.”
“She’s messing with you Spock,” the captain laughed, sitting down next to Dr M’Benga. “Just as you are is fine.”
Spock’s eyes narrowed for a minute, then he settled back in his chair and closed his eyes.
“Forgive me if I fall into meditation. It is easy to do as I have complete control of my body.”
“Just not complete control of your ego,” Erica murmured. Nyota chuckled as she popped open her tube of blue paint.
“Alright kids,” Captain Pike said. “There’s a prize for my favourite painting of the night. You have one hour.”
Nyota twirled her brush between her fingers.
Not to be all Spock about it, but there was no chance she wouldn’t win.