“Perhaps I chose incorrectly when procuring a tutor.”

Uhura beamed at Spock as her arms encircled her latest pot.  There were hills and valleys of chips at her space at the table.  The captain, the doctor, and the first officer, on the other hand, weren’t so fortunate.

“Luck be a lady, tonight,” Uhura sang, shuffling the deck of cards into a beautiful arc.

Kirk rolled his eyes and sat back heavily in his chair.  “We’ve been hoodwinked.”

“Not so, Captain,” Sulu said on a laugh.  “You were properly warned, after all.  Why else do you think Riley and I declined another round when Uhura wanted to play?”

“That was an exceedingly wise decision, Mr. Sulu,” Spock commented dryly.  “We should have heeded your example.”  His eyes flicked over to a scowling Dr. McCoy.

“You cheated somehow,” McCoy grumbled.

Uhura tutted, placing the shuffled deck beside her winnings.  “Three times in a row?  I do not think so, Doctor.”

“Humph.”

“Let it go, Bones.  Besides, it feels kind of good to lose three months’ worth of credits to someone else for a change,” Kirk said with a little grin.

“Not to me…Joanna’s birthday’s coming up and I was really looking forward to this payday!”

“Joanna’s birthday already happened, Len.”

McCoy glared at Uhura.  “For next year…”

She laughed and kissed his cheek.  “Well, do you have something else worth these credits?”  She rubbed two of his chips between her fingers.

“My everlasting love,” McCoy deadpanned.

“Your love has a price, Doctor?” Kirk asked, perking up a bit with brief amusement.

McCoy looking longingly at Uhura’s winnings.  “Yes.”

Everyone save Spock laughed at that.  Calming somewhat, Kirk turned his attention to the silent Vulcan.  “You seem to be taking this loss in stride.”

“Bemoaning it will not gain me what I have lost, Jim.”

“Ask me real nicely and maybe we can work something out,” Uhura offered with a smile.

Spock raised an eyebrow.

McCoy brightened and he leaned in close the communications officer.  “Once we return to Earth, I’ll make you Mama McCoy’s famous blueberry cheesecake.”

Every human within earshot moaned.

“Drizzled with caramel?” Uhura asked breathily, her eyes partially glazed over as if she could taste the dessert.

“Drownin’ in it if you want,” McCoy intoned, moving in even closer.

Kirk frowned.  “Earth shore leave isn’t for months, though, Bones.  I wouldn’t take it, Uhura—”

“That’s true,” she said, tapping her chin.  “How about you have to be nice to everyone until I get the cheesecake?”

“Keep the credits!” McCoy groused.

Kirk chuckled and slapped McCoy’s shoulder good-naturedly.  “Don’t think you can do it?”

“The likelihood of his success is less than one percent, Captain,” Spock informed them.

“And if the half-human calculator says so, then you know it’s a wash!” McCoy added.

Uhura sighed and returned a quarter of McCoy’s winnings to him.  “I still want that cheesecake.”

He chuckled and nodded.  “A most reasonable solution, Lieutenant.”

Kirk grinned, leaning back in his chair with his usual nonchalance, determined to pounce on Uhura’s generosity.  “I could—”

“Give me the keys to your classic Mustang Shelby?”

Kirk immediately sat up and glowered.  “You didn’t win that much money from me!”

“But I did win a lesson and a drive, right?” Uhura asked, batting her eyelashes.

Kirk didn’t quite succeed in not sulking, a fact that earned twin eyebrow lifts from Spock and McCoy.

“I get half my winnings back,” he bargained.

“Sold!” Uhura said excitedly, giving Kirk half his chips back.  He took a stack in his hands and squeezed, glad to feel the weight of them, then turned his attention to Spock.

The first officer had his hands steepled under his chin as he regarded Uhura.  She waited expectantly for what he proposed to switch out for his credits.

“I will require all of my chips to appropriately fulfill my debt to you,” he finally said.

“Then why don’t you just let her keep them?” Sulu asked, echoing the question Kirk knew everyone else had on his mind.

“Because, Mr. Sulu, what I could give her is worth more than the credits she currently possesses.”

If said by anyone other than Spock, Kirk would’ve thought it a line.  He turned to Uhura, who continued staring at Spock, assessing him.  Then, she slid over his entirely winnings back to Spock.  He nodded and left, wishing everyone a pleasant night as he did so.  Uhura didn’t stop staring at him until he left the room.

“That was interesting,” McCoy said from the side of his mouth.

Kirk smirked and leaned toward McCoy’s ear.  “Sure there’s nothing going on between them?”

“Not as sure as I was last time…”

Months passed with no word on what Spock’s payment to Uhura would be.  In fact, it seemed to Kirk it had all been forgotten about, except he knew Spock forgot nothing.  Kirk never brought it up when he and his first officer played chess or when he and Uhura managed a jog around the track.  But as it turned out, he wouldn’t have to do so.

One evening, Spock and McCoy were playing kal-toh with Kirk watch with mild interest, although Kirk’s focus was more on the players than whatever shape they were trying to create.  For two men who spent the majority of their time arguing, they worked very well to build…whatever this was.  Sulu, who sat beside him, would look up every now and again, but he was primarily focused on his game of Solitaire.  It was during one of these bouts of wandering eye that Kirk spotted Uhura standing by the door holding Spock’s lute in her arms.  He waved her over and her eyes brightened, but she wasn’t looking at Kirk at all.

Spock’s hand hovered over the kal-toh as he looked up toward the door.  Kirk watched a corner of Spock’s mouth rise and he nodded.  Uhura smiled widely and hugged the lute tighter, nodding in return before leaving the rec room.

McCoy blinked at Spock, then arched an eyebrow at Kirk.  “You gave her your lute.”

Spock finally made a move with a t’an. “Of course not, Doctor.  My lute is far too big.  I commissioned one for her personal use.”

“Too big?  She plays it well from what I can hear,” McCoy said, turning his skeptical gaze from Kirk to its true source.

Spock watched McCoy make his move with a cock of his head.  “Though the human ear will never be able to discern all the notes the lute can create, you are correct.  She is very proficient at what she does, Doctor, and will only become more adept with the instrument now that she has one to her unique specifications.”

“So, what?  You asked her for her measurements?” McCoy asked sharply.

Kirk wasn’t exactly sure if Vulcans could glare; but if they could, they probably looked like Spock did just then.

“Ah, um, I think it was very nice of you, Mr. Spock,” Sulu said, pausing his game to add his thoughts and probably diffuse the tension that had suddenly sprung between the two players.

Kirk noticed the Vulcan’s shoulders relax. “I owed her,” Spock said simply, picking up another t’an and placing it.

“The Vulcan lute is that expensive?” Kirk asked, becoming more interested in the game now that the kal-toh was starting to look like something.

“Not always,” Spock said, raising an eyebrow at McCoy’s turn.

Everyone waited for him to elaborate, but Spock merely moved a t’an that made the kal-toh look like a complete sphere.

“Uh, does this mean you won?” McCoy asked, glaring at the structure.

“The game is finished,” Spock said and he stood.  “I believe it is time for Miss Uhura’s lessons now.”  He nodded to them all and then left with an easy stride out of the rec room.  McCoy, looked at Sulu and Kirk wearing a baffled expression.

“Why do I think he didn’t give her that harp because he was tired of her borrowing it all the time?” McCoy asked.

“Well,” Kirk said, glancing first at the door, then at his two fellow officers, his mouth curved into a half smile.  “It wasn’t as if the…’payment’ weren’t logical.”

Sulu chuckled and McCoy sat back at his chair, eyeing the completed kal-toh.  “‘Indeed.’”