Play with fire, and you get burned.

Posted on 30 Mar 2015 @ 9:03pm by Ensign K'os Beaumont

1,587 words; about a 8 minute read

"Toor! I'm so happy to see your face." K'os beamed brightly into the LCARS monitor at his Vulcan friend.

"It is good to see your smile." Toor said passively. His tone was non-committal and as with all Vulcans, it was hard to tell if he said it out of politeness or if he truly was glad to see K'os too.

"I'm surprised you called me up, I'm used to corresponding to you through writing." K'os took a sip of water before leaning back in his chair, making himself more comfortable.

"I do prefer to communicate in writing." Toor admitted. "It allows me to better convey my Vulcan air of mystery."

K'os laughed at his joke. Toor's deadpan humour was well known at the Academy, at least among their small group of friends. K'os beamed a dimpled grin at him, "Or it allows you time to look up those big words like 'Verisimilitude', or 'Quixotic'.

Toor raised an eyebrow. "I will be sure to oversimplify my correspondence for you from now on. I wasn't aware those words were particularly...big for you."

K'os smiled again then spent a little time studying the man's face. He wasn't exactly an attractive man, but his intelligence and his dark features made him seem quite handsome; to K'os that was. "I wrote you a letter no less than an hour ago, why the call?" K'os said, steering the conversation back on topic.

Getting right to the point and cutting out all the bullshit, as was Toor's way, he said simply, "You mentioned a great deal about this man you have decided to ask on a 'date' tonight at your Klingon...gala," He said the word 'gala' like it was a heinous use of the word, "but were vague about your treatment or your situation with Ellsworth."

K'os slowly puffed air out of his mouth in an elongated sigh. He shrugged and tried to appear nonchalant. "There's nothing more to say about it, really. I was able to convince him that he needed to let go, and get help for his...our addiction. I've been ordered to avoid him and to seek counseling. There really isn't anymore to it."

"Seems overly simplistic, no?" Toor took a sip of his tea. His posture was rigid and upright as he carefully set the teacup out of view.

"I wouldn't say, overly so." K'os frowned a bit. "Why does it sound like you're not being very supportive?"

Toor quirked his eyebrow again. "Because you are filtering my words through the lens of your emotions and are now subjectively selecting their meanings." Toor's honesty was brutal, but it was still honest.

K'os raised a hand as if shielding himself from the man's words. "I see your point." He conceded. "I think we just need more time apart and it will get better. It'll get easier."

"Tell me, what wisdom do you see in rushing into dating another person so quickly?" Toor said reaching for his tea again.

Toor's face was passive, but K'os had been around Vulcans long enough to recognize the frustration in between the spaces of his words. "I'm not dating anyone, Toor. I haven't even asked him yet. I'd like to go on a date with him, that's it. Surely even you know the difference." K'os' expression grew darker. He didn't like to be lectured or patronized and sometimes Toor could come across like that.

"Do you want to have intercourse with this, potential date of yours?" If anyone else were to ask that question it would sound completely inappropriate to ask.

"Everybody wants to have sex with Andreus." K'os said, before hiding his expression behind his water glass as he drank.

Toor said nothing. He allowed the silence between them to stretch, knowing it would prompt the hybrid to say more to fill the silence.

K'os rolled his eyes, "It may have crossed my mind once...or twice. But what's your point, Toor?"

"I am concerned you are overlooking the ramifications. You have just gotten out of a relationship. Do you not think you are 'rebounding' as they say?" Toor picked up his tea but stopped when he saw the expression on K'os' face.

"Vulcan's don't rebound if they're not emotionally attached." K'os reminded him caustically not bothering to hide the sarcasm in his tone.

"You are not truly Vulcan, K'os."

"Nor am I Human! Stop psychologizing me like I am one. I didn't just get out of a relationship. Ellsworth and I broke up months ago, you know that." K'os took another sip of water but put it down harder than he intended to. The loud sound made him flinch. He was starting to get defensive and he was too tired and irritable to exert control over his emotions. The high blood pressure that Allyndra had warned him about produced a foggy headache and it was now starting to make him jittery and irrational.

"But you are a touch telepath." Toor finally took a sip of his tea. He was completely unphased by K'os' anger.

"So?" K'os practically spat. He was getting even angrier now and he didn't know why. The realization that he was starting to sound as sulky as Ellsworth did sometimes, did nothing to stop his frustration.

"Other people can grow attachments to touch telepaths, K'os. Rarely in the extremes like Ellsworth, but we control a fair part of our partner's pleasure, even their physiological responses to our touch. We can manipulate their senses as easily as we can turn a faucet off. Are you certain you are ready for that? Are there no Vulcan's or others with tactile psionics you could 'date'?"

"Stop using 'date' like it's a damn euphemism you pompous--" K'os stopped. Normally this would have been the time where K'os would break down in guilt for the way he spoke. Under normal circumstance he'd even beg in apology. But his heart beat faster, and he began to vibrate with anger. Suddenly his expression turned suspicious and he narrowed his eyes at the monitor. "You're jealous." He stated, his lip curled in a sneer.

"Do not be foolish." Toor admonished, like he was speaking to a child rather than an angry hybrid with Vulcanoid strength.

"No. That's it, exactly. You're jealous that I've considered having sex with someone, and it isn't you." K'os was being completely unreasonable, but the throbbing in his ears matched his heartbeat and it only urged him on. "You seem to have a lot of opinions on what I should do with my life. I share your memories too, Toor. You think I don't know you? You think I was so weak and inexperienced that I couldn't pluck out the memories I wanted during our meld?"

Toor actually managed to look as surprised as a Vulcan could at that statement. "I employed S.M.A. techniques. That is not possible."

"Selective Memory Acquisition my ass, Toor. I've melded with a Betazoid remember? It took me two days to figure out how to push through those 'barriers' and roam around anywhere I wanted in that stubborn, pontifical brain of yours." K'os looked away from the screen. He couldn't stand to be sitting much longer, and if his legs didn't stop jittering he was going to wear a hole in the carpeting.

Toor was at a loss for words. He had never considered that during their mind meld sessions while he was repairing neuronal damage in K'os' brain, that K'os might somehow figure out how to push through mental barriers. It shook him greatly, and you could tell. "You are bluffing." Toor rationalized.

K'os slouched back in his chair with a satisfied smug look on his face. "You don't sound certain." He said spitefully. "You were right about one thing, Toor. People can grow attachments to touch telepaths. My touch can make your brain release endorphins and oxytocin. I can hold a man or woman and within seconds know every erogenous zone on their body. If they don't have any, I can create them." K'os leaned in closer to the monitor with a taunting look in his eyes. "My touch can ignite pleasure like you have never experienced. I have the emotional awareness of a Human and the stamina of a Vulcan and it kills you inside not to be able to experience it. You thought about it everyday during my rehab. You think you're clever. You think you can just hide your desires like a good little Vulcan and compartmentalize them then spend all your time telling other people that they're not rational. Don't ever tell me what to do with my life again, Toor." His eyes were intense and he knew in the back of his mind he needed to calm himself down. He needed to exert control. But he couldn't.

"K'os please, you are acting immature and frankly ridiculous. You know how to ground yourself. You need to ground yourself." Toor had retreated into his passiveness again.

"Ground this!" K'os flung the LCARS monitor across his quarters, watching with satisfaction when it broke into a couple pieces. The monitor had turned black instantly, and Toor's face was gone. K'os stood with trembling legs. He made his way to the door and stormed into the corridor.

There was nothing else he could think to do other than to go let his anger off on the holodeck.

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