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AN: I wrote this after watching 'Patterns of Force', 'By Any Other Name', and 'The Omega Glory' from TOS. In this fic, Spock and Uhura's relationship is still very new and I wanted to see Spock struggle with something he couldn't quite understand. I noticed that during the entire second season, Spock's poor vulcan features have been under attack. XD So I wanted to write about that and see how a new relationship with Uhura would affect that struggle.

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The evil one. Sinister. Malformed.

Spock knew it was illogical to dwell on such irrelevant words, whether they were intended as insults or not. However, they seemed to repeat themselves over and over again inside his head, each work getting louder and louder until he could ignore it no longer.

He stood up from his seat in his quarters and strode across the room until he was positioned before a large mirror.

Being half-vulcan, he was not immune to such taunts as a child, however, he had learned to realize their uselessness and grew to ignore them. Those taunts were simply ignorant beings trying to ellicit an emotion from him, to make him feel inferior.

Devil.

Lieutenant Uhura herself had referred to his eyes and ears as 'devil', he once recalled. A strange cold has gripped his chest for only a moment afterward, and he had quickly realized it was a feeling of hurt. It had passed as quickly as it had come, though, because he had realized that it was intended simply as a joke and nothing malicious. In fact, on more than one occasion, Uhura had expressed a certain...interest in his vulcan features.

The evil one. Sinister. Malformed.

They grew louder once more. Perhaps he was most bothered by these taunts because they had not been intended as insults. On his last two expeditions to nearby planets with the captain, inhabitants had referred to him as an evil being. On one such expedition, a nazi-like soldier had referred to his eyes as 'sinister', his ears 'malformed', and suggested that his 'low forehead' implied his intelligence was to the level of a caged animal.

The matter-of-fact tone that each of these characteristics was given disturbed Spock.

Looking into the mirror, his eyes roamed over his vulcan facial features. Turning his head to one side he examined the object of many humans' curiosity: his ears. To him, there was nothing interesting about them. Of course they curved into a delicate point at the tip. He found human ears odd-looking with their blunt, rounded edges. It limited their hearing greatly.

Leaning closer, he slowly traced the edge of his eyebrow with a finger. He failed to see how vulcan eyebrows appeared 'sinister' in any fashion, which made Spock wish to think further on the subject. Those beings must have had a reason for saying such things, so he should certainly try to logically make sense of their comments.

Behind him, he heard the entrance to his quarters open with a soft hiss.

"What a day," Uhura kicked off her boots in the corner of the room, clearly not caring where they landed. "Communications went down twice today. I thought the captain was going to have a heart attack."

Spock's eyes hadn't left the discarded boots that lay strewn across the floor. "You insist on throwing your uniform in any which way across my quarters whenever you arrive even though I've expressed disapproval at this action. Explain plea-," he was cut off as a uniform skirt landed on top of his head.

"Oh, sorry about that," Uhura said distractedly as she walked over and retrieved the article of clothing off of his head. "I was trying to think of a way to ensure at least one open communication line for the next shift. We'll be making contact with the federation and it is imperative that those lines stay open during that time."

Spock straightened, paused, then let out a sigh of air. He decided it was best to let the matter rest. "Have you asked Mr. Scott to perhaps spare some of the ship's extra resources on your back-up subspace frequency line so that it does not go completely down?"

"I did," Uhura reached for the sleep shirt that was laid out on the bed and put it on, ignoring the pants that were directly below it. "But I don't think he'll allow it. He's been quite irritable since he had to give up his special bottle of whiskey to thwart that Kelvin invasion a few weeks ago."

"I fail to see the logic in...what is it you humans say...crying over spilled milk?" Spock reached into his drawers and pulled out yet another one of his shirts, laying it out on the bed to replace the one that Uhura had taken.

"Spilled whiskey is more expensive than spilled milk," Uhura replied wryly, falling back on the chair that Spock was just occupying not more than twenty minutes ago.

"Yes, well," he trailed off, still failing to see the logic in that statement. The engineer's salary was more than enough to replace the bottle.

"So may I now ask why you were so deep in thought while you were looking at yourself in the mirror before I walked in?" Uhura rested her arm on the chair and cocked her head at him, smiling as she did so.

"You are aware enough to notice I was deep in thought but you were not aware enough to notice that you were throwing your clothing at my head?" He raised an eyebrow.

A slow and easy smile was his only answer.

"Ah, I see now. Ms. Uhura, your ...interesting attempts to try and annoy me never cease to amaze me," Spock complimented and nodded his head at her, then turned back to the mirror. "I was simply trying to rationalize why in the past two weeks I've been called evil and malformed."

"Evil and malformed?" Uhura frowned. "Who told you that?" She asked, growing upset.

"Your anger is unnecessary," he turned around and faced her. "I am neither bothered nor upset by these names. I am simply trying to see their reasoning. There was no malicious intent behind them, so it must be that these beings believed whatever they were saying to be true."

"Well you may not be bothered, but I am," Uhura stood and walked over until she was directly in front of him. "How could anyone say such things about you?"

"I believe you yourself referred to my eyes and ears as 'devil'," Spock raised an eyebrow at her.

"Oh Spock," Uhura placed a hand on his arm. "You must have known I was only teasing you. You know how much I appreciate your vulcan heritage." She leaned in closer so that their bodies were touching. "I find your vulcan and your human features unique and beautiful," She smiled and reached up to trace along the outside of his ear.

"Yes, well," He cleared his throat. "It appears not everyone agrees with your beliefs."

"I'm assuming these were on landing expeditions?" Uhura asked softly, moving her touch from his ears slowly to his jawline.

"Correct," Spock's jaw tightened instinctively. "And Ms. Uhura," he raised an eyebrow. "If you wish for me to continue this conversation, I suggest you remove your hand from my face."

"Oh, am I distracting you?" She grinned and leaned in closer, but brought her hand down to his arm once more.

"In more ways than one," he coughed lightly, uncomfortable with her close proximity, especially considering she was wearing nothing more than one of his sleep shirts. Their relationship, if Spock were to give it a name humans would understand, had not yet progressed to a physical state as of yet. The two were more than satisfied expressing themselves through the psychic bond that his vulcan heritage offered them.

Spock himself was very pleased with the way their relationship was progressing as it gave them time to converse and deepen their interest in one another. It was certainly the most logical progression for them, and he was pleased that Uhura saw it that way as well. They also shared the opinion that a physical relationship would certainly complicate matters on their oftentimes dangerous mission on the Enterprise. They had agreed to deepen their new mental bond further before moving into a physical relationship.

"Well then, I suppose I'll just return to my seat so we may continue this conversation," Uhura replied softly and turned to walk away.

Just as quickly as his mind registered what she had said, his arm shot out and grabbed her by the shoulder. Immediately surprised by the action, he quickly masked the expression from his face. Uhura, on the other hand, felt no need to mask her emotion as her surprise was registered all over her face.

"Spock?" She asked, glancing down to the grip he had on her shoulder.

He lessened his grip on her shoulder and applied minimal pressure so as to direct her body back towards his. Once her chest was fully pressed against his, he placed his hand across her upper back, gently holding her body in place.

"I find this position...most pleasing," he explained slowly and hesitantly after a long pause.

"Oh?" Uhura blinked, confused by this new display of affection. Outside of sleeping next to one another and receiving a heartfelt kiss goodnight to her temple each night, Spock was not one to initiate physical affection like this.

"I take it from your lack of response, you do not?" He glanced down at her, half-expecting her to back away from him. He certainly was not acting in a very rational manner, and he would assume that he was confusing her.

"I do," Uhura replied quickly. "I was just...surprised is all." She gave him a small smile and brought her arms up around him, slowly enclosing him in a loose embrace.

"Does it not bother you to be embracing a man that others find undesirable?" Spock cocked his head to one side, curious.

"Spock, those idiots don't know what they're talking about," Uhura sighed and allowed her head to fall on his chest, taking advantage of the physical closeness that he was initiating. "You know that they're just ignorant fools, so why are you dwelling on their insults?"

Spock felt his pulse skip the moment Uhura's head landed on his chest. Taking a quick inventory, he also realized that not only was his pulse rate up, but his body temperature was slowly rising. Giving into strange new desires, he allowed his hand to travel up from her back and to her head, his fingers burying themselves in her soft hair. "They were not insults," Spock continued the conversation, pleased at this new physical development. "They were labeling me as though they believed it to be true."

"They are ignorant beings who have never seen a vulcan before," Uhura sighed softly, so softly that Spock barely heard her. "Surely you understand that without the correct knowledge of your heritage, they would of course try to label you as something similar in their culture."

"That is true. Though I find it interesting that they would study me as they see me, and not as how I am," Spock frowned slightly. "They would make terrible scientists."

"Clearly," Uhura raised her head and smiled at him. "Now, you're not bothered by this anymore, are you? Or may we end this conversation so that I may attempt to kiss you before we go to bed?"

"Uhura," Spock frowned, slightly surprised. "I always kiss you before it is time to rest. I know it is an earth custom that you appreciate."

Smiling, and entirely too confident, Uhura reached up and drew his head down to hers. "Not that kind of kiss," she whispered before bringing his lips to her own.

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A/N: Well it's been a while since I posted anything. Let me know what you think! ^^