Sunshine in a Glass
Posted on Sat May 2nd, 2026 @ 5:08pm by Ensign Vesper Wells & Rook & Lieutenant JG Elen Rell
2,766 words; about a 14 minute read
Mission:
Prologue
Location: The Green Kiss, USS Guinevere
Timeline: Early 2389
The Green Kiss had started to become busy by the time Elen led Vesper in. Still, she was able to clear a path to one of the tables where the music wasn't too loud and the dancing bodies didn't press close and trap them. She sat down with a smile, looking at Vesper as she picked the menu up. "So when it comes to drinks...it all depends on what you're in the mood for. And some food...I'm starving, I'm going to have to eat something," she winked, fingers stroking over the smooth PADD that held the menu, eyes darting from it to the woman opposite her.
"Me too," Vesper assured, laughing as she leant in and tilted her head to look too. She was grateful they'd managed to find a table, she wasn't in the mood to crowd on the floor or at the bar. "Any specials you'd recommend? I'd love to share a few plates if you want...?" she offered. She...had a hunch it would be the kind of thing Elen would enjoy.
"Oh! Oh, like...all their food's good," Elen said quickly, meeting her eyes with a smile. "Plates to share sounds great though, just what the doctor wouldn't order because it goes against what dietary profile Medical's decided for me this week..." she winked, playfully, tapping her fingers against the table. "You like small fried stuff? They got loads of different options...oh, and drinks. We need drinks."
"I like pretty much anything, so long as it doesn't have any real animals in it," Vesper chuckled softly, casting her gaze down the cocktail list, letting out a soft whistle. "Oh, this place could steal far too many hours from my life..." she chuckled softly at herself. "Oh! Lavender Lemon Drop? I have to try that...."
Elen laughed at that, nodding as she watched her., her fingers finding her shawl to stroke over the stitches. "It's good, places like this are like the soul of a ship, where everyone can just be people rather than uniforms. And Rook, the bartender? He can make you a drink while reading your soul..." she winked, playfully, before she sat back. "I might go for the same. Lavender Lemon Drop sounds like sunshine and calm with a hint of hugs."
Vesper looked back to the bar to try and catch a glimpse of the man, her eyes a little wider. "Not sure I want my soul read..." she chuckled softly, shaking her head as she looked back. "Sunshine in a glass sounds much better than my soul."
"If it's anything like the light in your eyes...your soul would be far greater than any drink," Elen said smoothly, eyes shining and a small flirty smile on her lips. And then she remembered exactly where and what she was and chuckled at herself. "Sorry...sorry, that was...a lot! I can go to the bar and order if you want me to?"
Vesper laughed warmly, pushing her arm lightly as colour touched her cheeks. "Yes! That's your punishment for being so smooth..." she teased, but fondly, shaking her head gently.
Elen made a face and stood, her head ducked down a little. "Sorry..." she said before she met her eyes. "Two Lavender Lemon Drops and...vegetarian snacks. Plenty to feed two hungry Starfleet officers. Sounds good?"
"Enough vegetarian snacks to feed two hungry Starfleet Officers...?" Rook took up the menu, peering past her shoulder towards the table she'd come from. "Hm...neither of you look as if you're going to eat plenty..." he surmised, but only as a jibe.
Elen grinned and leant closer to him, her eyes shining. "Oh, you got no idea what I can pack away in snacks," she said playfully. "You doing good, Rook?"
"Not as good as you, it seems," the dark haired vulcanoid replied lightly, finishing putting the food order through before setting out two glasses, moving with sleek authority as he started collecting bottles. "You're drinking with the person who has the ear of the Commodore. Smart move," he teased innocently.
She laughed at that, throwing her head back a little. "Oh yes. It's how I manipulate the system...get people to like me, put some poetry into reports...knit something..." she winked before she took a breath. "Just...you know...it's difficult, your first ship. And everyone needs a friend." She didn't point out that Vesper was funny, warm and...stunning. And Elen wanted to be her friend.
"Well aren't you just a saint," Rook teased, but with no bite. And he was more than capable of biting if he wanted to. But he didn't want to. Not today. Not Elen. He started shaking the cocktail, his vivid blue eyes on her as he moved. "Although, poetry in reports is a new one..."
Elen grinned as she leant closer, over the bar, just a touch. "The best reports have haikus. And I'd scribble one on a napkin for you if I had a pen...and anyone could read my handwriting."
"Hm..." Rook tilted his head for a moment in thought, amusement quirking at his lips. " 'Chaos wrapped in charm...sparks and plasma in her eyes...storms bend to her will.' " he shook the drink in time with the syllables of the haiku. "Think I have a future in the fleet?"
"Always," she said with a grin, nodding as she watched him. Her fingers tapped on the bar for a moment, not restless as much as her following the beat of the music and the words he had spoken. She'd try and remember that haiku. "And seriously, you could woo anyone with that..." she made a point of letting out a dreamy sigh. "See, tall, dark haired, mysterious...handsome...please tell me you have a fanclub. And receive respectful but brilliant presents from those trying to get to know you?"
"I don't open mystery packages, Plasma Nymph, that's how you lose hands...and faces..." he replied dryly, pouring the violet drink into two martini glasses.
"Note to self...don't gift wrap surprise pressies," she said with a smile, her eyes shining as she looked at the drinks. "Mmm...they look divine, Rook. I love seeing people with skill doing...skill-y things."
Rook chuckled softly at the way she put it, sliding the glasses towards her. He twisted the menu around, tapping through a list of sharing plates they might enjoy. "There, all ordered. And nothing too...difficult to eat in front of someone you're trying to impress," he teased.
She blushed against her best intentions, grinning as she picked the glasses up. "She's a bit out of my league," she admitted before laughing at herself. "But...as a friend, maybe I'll do," she winked and carried the drinks over, putting the down. "Rook's done his magic..." she sat herself down next to Vesper. "I suspect these are potent."
"All the better," Vesper laughed softly, shifting her chair closer to the table, taking the glass to admire the violet liquid before tapping it to Elen's glass, sipping it carefully. "Ohhhh yes, that's strong, but absolutely delicious...I'll have to come here more often."
"You do!" Elen said with a smile before she sipped hers, closing her eyes with a sigh. "It's all different at different times too. Sometimes it can get wild here...usually when Cress and Alina's about if you ask me. Or like this...or even dead quiet, I've heard..." she rolled her eyes before she tapped the table for a moment. "So! You know I am going to pepper you with all the questions I can think of, right?"
"Then I should tell you up front that I'm really not that interesting," Vesper warned with mock seriousness before chuckling softly. "No, honestly, ask anything you like. So long as you tell me how a talented haiku poet ends up fixing Starship engines..."
Elen laughed as she shook her head, but there was warmth there in her skin. "Poet..." she tapped her finger on the table for a moment and shifted. "Okay...Yeoman. Why. I mean, you are in the middle of the action, documenting history, so I totally get that...but why did you become a Yeoman?"
"Because I thought I might be good at it," Vesper replied honestly, smiling warmly to her as she relaxed back into her chair. "It's not all processing reports and pouring coffee. I've always loved to bring calm and order to chaos...being helpful and solving problems. My mind thrives on strategy and dotting every I and crossing every T. I like diving deep, and I don't come up for air until I've found what I'm after. And honestly..." she gave a half shrug with a weak smile, tilting her head towards her cane. "I knew they wouldn't let me in a physical role."
Elen nodded, watching her as her fingers traced over the crochet cuff she wore. She shifted a little in her seat, grinning. "A lighthouse in the middle of the stormy sea," she finally said and nodded, understanding. And putting it in her own mind. "I knew you were smart. Could see it easily, and you got that...vibe..." she let out a breath, her eyes going to the cane for a moment. "And yeah, maybe they wouldn't let you in a physical role but why would you want to run around with a phaser? If you'd gone down Security, you wouldn't even be on this ship....and you don't strike me as someone who would thrive in the Ground Forces..." she leant closer, eyes shining as she studied her face. "Even without that cane, I think your true asset would be your mind. And that is a very cool cane."
"I'm telling you, Elen, there's no sword in it," Vesper teased with a soft laugh, relaxing with the easy response from the other woman. "I think you're right though. Even if that option was open, I think I'd still be exactly where I am right now. And I'm happy with that."
Elen nodded, her eyes going to the cane. "I bet I know someone who could put a sword in it..." she said teasingly, her eyes shining with it before she sipped the drink with a soft moan. "And you know what? I think we're all exactly where we are meant to be, right now."
"You believe in fate then, Elen?" Vesper asked with curiosity, watching her over the glass as she delicately sipped her drink. It really was good, she'd have to remember it.
"I mean...sure," Elen said with a grin, nodding as she stroked her fingers over the glass, feeling the coldness against her fingertips. "Certainly that some force in the universe makes...stuff happen. Maybe not like...entities or something...but energy?" she met her eyes, holding them for a long moment.
"I like that idea," Vesper admitted with a gentle smile, easily admitting the comfort it brought her. That she wasn't just stumbling through life on her own. "Stars are the sentinels, isn't that what they say?"
Elen smiled, nodding as she watched her. "You know, my Mum...she told me the stars held the memories of all those that had passed. I don't know where she picked it up, maybe her Betazoid mother. But it...sort of stuck as an idea. But it's not like...a creepy thing. It's...reassuring. Like...legends never die but...neither do your memories. Not the memories people have of you, but...your own. That...part that makes you uniquely you..." she looked down, heat rising to her cheeks and she pushed some hair from her own face before her finger tapped her own ear. "Or something like that anyway."
Vesper saw the blush, smiling fondly as she reached to squeeze her wrist reassuringly. "I like that idea too," she said quickly, so she didn't feel self-conscious.
Elen laughed, her hand going to cover the wrist for a moment. "I'm glad someone else does. Like...I get it...various faiths, religions...we didn't have it. My family, I mean. But I always liked...that idea. Maybe it means my memories will somehow survive when I don't."
"That does sound comforting," Vesper agreed with a soft smile, swirling her straw in her drink as she thought on it. "But...more of you will survive than most of us," she motioned around the ship, indicating the work she did.
Elen watched her with surprise before she chuckled. "Suppose I have bled properly into the seams of the ship...no amount of scrubbing will get my genetic material out of jeffries tube 33A..." she said lightly, her eyes shining.
Vesper laughed warmly, shaking her head as she watched her fondly. Elen was a bright spark in a vast universe. It was nice; she put a note of real life into the utilitarian vessel. "Well, if it makes you feel better, I sleep easier at night knowing you're looking after the ship."
Elen looked at her with surprise and then warmth, shaking her head. "Oh, she's solid. She won't break on us and I am pretty sure the Captain wants to make sure we are okay..." she smiled as the food arrived, almost clapping. "Oh yes...thank you!"
Vesper laughed softly at her reaction...but in truth, her stomach rumbled the moment she smelled the food. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving..."
Elen looked at her with a warm smile and reached out, to pick up something. She blew on it, tried to take a bite, gave up, blew on it again. "Okay...don't need blisters on the roof of my mouth again...also, have you ever had pizza with coated chili nuts on? Sooo good...this is nothing like it, but yeah, the heat reminds me of melted cheese..."
"Coated chili nuts...on pizza....?" Vesper asked doubtfully, watching her with a soft laugh before narrowing her eyes playfully. "Are you pulling the newbie's leg?"
"No," Elen shook her head, gravely, watching her before she shrugged and reached for her drink. "What can I say, Engineering can be a weird place when you're in the Academy. A place of strange food choices and midnight feasting..."
Vesper laughed softly, carefully sipping the delicious cocktail, her eyebrows lifted as she watched the other woman fondly. "You're making me regret not choosing Engineering..."
"You don't need to have studied it to be part of the fun...come down any time. We're more welcoming than people think," Elen said with a warm smile, reaching for more to eat. "And I can show you the best hiding places on the ship too. Quiet places with good views...or just quiet places."
"Maybe somewhere with good acoustics, where I can play my guitar," Vesper chuckled softly, not really meaning it.
Elen watched her with awe before she smiled, reaching out to touch her hand. "Jeffries tubes. Seriously, they have great acoustics and people just have zero idea. Also, you know...cosy..." she winked, her eyes shining as she took a breath of awe. Awe at Vesper, how warm and easy to talk so she was.
"You...might have to help me..." Vesper admitted with a soft, almost bashful smile, glancing to her stick.
"Of course!" Elen's eyes widened at the idea that she even had to ask, giving her a nod as she reached out for some food. "And I can bring my knitting or whatnot, we can make it a few hours if you like that. And, I know the roomier bit, where you can actually get like...a cushion. Back support."
"May as well take a picnic while we're at it..." Vesper laughed warmly, shaking her head as she pictured it, her eyes shining with mischief.
Elen smiled as she looked at her, picking up some deep fried...something, to pop in her mouth. She moaned as she enjoyed it, already thinking. "I've had snacks in there before, a picnic is just a fancy snack platter!"
"Why do I get the feeling that you'd rather have a picnic in the tubes than in the arboretum...." Vesper accused with a small, playful smile, her blue eyes glinting with humour.
Elen leant closer to her, watching her with shining eyes. "Because I like little hidey holes..." she said teasingly in return.
Vesper laughed gently, enjoying the authentic playfulness of the other woman as she lifted her glass. "Then you'll have to show me the best ones on this ship..."
---
Lt. JG Elen Rell
Engineering
USS Guinevere
Ensign Vesper Wells
Yeoman
USS Guinevere
Rook
Proprietor of The Green Kiss
USS Guinevere
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