[Venus]

Hume took a glass of champagne from a waiter walking around with a tray of them, and with the other hand gave his dress uniform a tug. It had been a long time since he was at a wedding, and back then he’d been a child. This he supposed was his first ‘adult wedding’ and it was for someone he’d never met. Not that they were unfriendly, or unwelcoming, it was just that as Yuhiro Kolem was busy greeting friends from high school and catching up on events including the destruction of Mars that had necessitated most of them move of Venus, or elsewhere, he was mostly just standing nearby awkwardly.

The groom was, surprisingly to William Hume, a Denobulan which raised some questions since they tended to have three wives. The wife, Kolem’s best friend from high school, was human. The species were compatible on a physiological level, but Kolem had forbid him from asking any awkward questions about whether or not the Demobulan was going to have two other wives at some point. 

Of course also awkward was that Kolem was a former girlfriend of the man.

”You’re should quit Starfleet I could alway use wife two,” he said and everyone laughed but Hume who was not sure if it was a joke or not. He had nothing against Denobulans, but he wasn’t a fan of them hitting on his girlfriend.

He knew better than to step in and puff up his chest and act macho. Kolem was able to handle it, in her own way.

“That’s tempting, but I just made Lieutenant, so I think I’ll put a few more years in,” Kolem said with a grin as if the idea were both delightful and something she might seriously consider. Hume would have preferred it end with a definitive ‘no’ but he knew that Kolem was better at this than him, and knew these people better. 

”Is it true you sleep in a hallway?” a bridesmaid asked Hume.

”Yeah, but next time we leave Starbase I should have my own room,” Hume said, “As a Lieutenant Junior Grade.”

He was quite proud of the promotion, and glad that he finally would have some privacy without Kolem’s taking pity on him and letting him stay in her room. Not that they fought, but it was good having his own space all to himself. 

Being in the wedding party as the Maid of Honour Kolem was not in a uniform. Annoyingly there was not one other person there own age in Starfleet uniform there as everyone was a civilian. Only an uncle in his sixties wore one, and he kept wanting to tell Hume about the Dominion War despite not having fought in it. Starfleet these days, the man kept telling Hume, was too soft.

What became apparent to Hume was that pretty much all of Kolem’s friends saw Hume as temporary, the man of the minute to be quickly replaced by someone more intellectual and more successful. They kept asking Kolem about cute doctors aboard the Anaheim, and Starbase 72. Eligible doctors.

Overall it was putting Hume in a bad mood, but he kept smiling, even if the smile was only surface deep.

On the dance floor Kolem noticed, “You’re angry.”

”I am,” Hume said, “Wouldn’t you be if I took you to Earth and everyone told me how I was going to meet a hot single nurse, right in front of you?”

”No, but then I can sense how you feel. I get that it’s not fair, but this is how they talk. They’re civilians, they don’t get Starfleet or what we do,” Kolem said, “Surely you have friends like that.”

”Not really. Both my parents were Starfleet, it’s all I knew to be. I was Starfleet before I went to the Academy, all of my friends get that. All of them would think you’re out of my weight class anyway,” Hume said, his hands meeting behind her back.

”Hockey reference?” Kolem clarified.

”Boxing.”

“Well I’ve made friends in all phases of my life. Maybe these ones don’t understand what I do now, but they’re no less a part of my life as Pr’Nor, or Tashai, or you,” Kolem said.

Their Vulcan crew mates would have said that it was logical, but it just seemed so divorced from what they did with their lives to Hume as to be not just a different solar system but a completely different reality. People had been trying to kill him, and the most these people came across was people taking a long time deciding what coffee they may want at the replicator in a food court.

He thought about it and kissed Kolem on the top of the forehead, “I don’t like it still, but I’ll behave.”

“Thank you,” Kolem said.

”You look good in a dress,” Hume said.

”Don’t finish that thought,” Kolem said, but she grinned.

Hume had been about to suggest that she wear non-uniform clothing aboard the ship, much the same way at Counselor Troi had been known to do but her warning warned him off. He knew being compared with the other Betazoid was a sore spot for Kolem and the last thing he wanted to do was walk right into it by making her feel that the standard Starfleet uniform that the rest of the crew wore was not enough.

”What do you think of the new Commander?” he asked.

”Let’s not talk about other women here,” Kolem said with a smile.

”What she’s out boss,” Hume protested.

”I’m not talking about work this week,” Kolem said, putting an end to the conversation, “We’ll be back on the Anaheim soon enough, it’ll all still be there.”

Hume had to concede the point. They had just been through one of the worst missions either of them had experienced or even studied at the Academy. It had not been swashbuckling, exciting of novel, and had just been relentlessly depressing with a brief bit of thinking they were all going to die right there at the end. Kolem who was an emotional sponge taking in everything from everyone wanted to forget about that, and have fun while she was with her friends on Venus. It would be unfair, and unkind to prevent that.

”Got it,” Hume confirmed, then teased, “Ma’am.”