New Fic: Bearly Convincing

[jackwabbit]

Bearly Convincing

Fandom: Star Trek Discovery
Rated: G
Category: Double Drabble. Culmets. RickyVerse. Angst.
Time Frame: Early Season Four.
Spoilers: General Series Knowledge Only – Through Season Three.
Summary: To everyone else, Paul seemed fine. But Hugh wasn’t buying it.
Note: Another Ricky story, because I just can’t help myself.

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Paul had been distant lately.

Hugh didn’t know why, but it seemed strange, given the whole Verubin nebula incident.

Everything seemed fine on the surface. Paul had been overjoyed at their reunion and was, if anything, more affectionate than ever before.

But Hugh, as always, looked deeper.

So he noticed the shadows in Paul’s eyes during briefings. The jumpiness masked as excited energy. And most of all, the evasion about what happened on Discovery while he was gone.

He’d read the logs, but there were gaps that didn’t make sense, and Hugh wanted to know more.

So he’d asked – repeatedly.

But Paul never answered. Instead, he brushed Hugh off – said he was tired or needed to get an early start.

Tonight had been no exception.

Paul was therefore already in bed, and Hugh sat on the couch, absently running a hand over an irregular seam in Ricky’s trousers.

The scar from Paul’s repair.

Hugh looked down at the bear and sighed.

He would have replicated Ricky a new pair of pants. But Paul had fixed these instead.

Perhaps a role reversal was in order.

He couldn’t replace whatever was bugging Paul.

But maybe, in time, he could help fix it.