Title: Learning to love

Author: Linstock

Pairing : Spock /Uhura, Amanda/Sarek

Rating: K+

Type: Romance, fluff and bit of angst.

Warning: Adult themes and sexy times.

Summary: We learn to love by watching our families. Spock is no exception.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Star trek the characters or profit in from this writing.

A/N: This is dedicated to Hopefuladdict whose comment that she loved "baby Spock" started this train of thought. NotesFromTheClassroom added to the idea by hinting at what Spock learned by watching Sarek and Amanda. (If you have not read "People Will Say" go and do so immediately).

My deepest gratitude to Spoklikescats for her dedicated and excellent beta work on this story. Thanks also the Spockchick for encouragements.

Prologue.

Spock lay on the sofa with his head resting in Nyota's lap. She smiled. He reminded her of a large languid cat; she could just imagine him purring.

"Your parents surely taught you well," she commented.

His perplexed expression indicated the need for clarification.

"When they taught you how to love."

"You are mistaken; I did not receive any instruction in this from my parents."

"Sure you did," she replied as she stroked his forehead, "we each learn to love from our family - we watch and we learn."

He remained silent so she continued, "Sometimes what we learn is what not to do, granted; but it's still where we start - parent, aunts, uncles, grandparents - as children we just absorb it all."

She stroked a while longer, carefully tracing the outline of his ear with her finger tips and causing him to roll his head toward her until his nose brushed her belly.

He felt the vibration of her soft laugh before she spoke, "In your case, Spock, I can imagine you making detailed observations, probably including notes." She tweaked a sensitive ear tip gently.

He had that small crease between his eyebrows now and she smoothed it with her thumb. She sometimes thought she could feel his synapses sparking when he thought.

After several minutes he said, "On consideration I believe you may be correct. I shall think further about what you say, Nyota," and, catching her hand, he brought it to his lips.

=/\=

Chapter 1 The Scientist

In the complex Vulcan lexicon there is no word for "peek." This could lead us to the conclusion that Vulcans don't "peek." Indeed, if anyone had asked the young Vulcan crouching behind the sofa what he was doing, he would have replied that he was observing his parents' behaviour as part of an ongoing scientific enquiry. Any human would have said he was "peeking" around the sofa and "spying on his parents."

He would have been offended by the term "spying," which would be a slur and call the nature of his honest scientific enquiry into question. While he would acknowledge that he was unobserved by his parents, he would argue awareness of his presence would alter their behaviour. This was a fact. The young scientist knew the act of observation itself could change a phenomenon, and if the subject was aware of the observation, well, it was another variable he'd have to account for, and there were already far too many.

Young Spock, who was crouched behind the sofa "peeking" around the arm at his parents, considered himself a scientist. That he was seven years old was of no consequence. He was also rapidly forming the conclusion that the social sciences were fraught with difficulties that the hard sciences were not. Put bluntly, he preferred observing chemical reactions to observing people. You could control all the variables with chemicals. You could form clear hypotheses that were tested and yielded a clear quantifiable result. Not so with people. They were in themselves a mass of uncontrolled variables, and when one of the people was a human, the problem rapidly became incompressible.

At seven years of age Spock knew he was entering a significant life stage, in preparation he had read about the developmental needs of young Vulcans. He was concerned because his family had adopted some human practices and Spock feared that this shift away from Vulcan cultural practice and his less than logical home environment may hamper his optimal development.

The young scientist had observed several things lately that confused him. His father was the model of all things Vulcan; yet he behaved illogically in certain situations. His mother on the other hand was rarely logical. She could make pretence of correct Vulcan behaviour when needed, but she removed it and hung it by the door when she came home along with her outer garments. Spock didn't understand why she rejected predictable, understandable, logical Vulcan behaviour for random and chaotic human behaviour.

He decided that in order to gain understanding it was logical to complete a series of observations, just as he would if observing the pair of miniature shatarrthat nested in the lower corner of the garden. His PADD was full of notes, pictures and sketches detailing the courtship and mating rituals of these fascinating but dangerous creatures and he awaited the hatching of their leathery green eggs with interest. The young scientist didn't see any reason why this scientific method couldn't be used in another context. He would closely observe his parents, record and interpret their behaviour. He wriggled slightly as he realised that he might indeed be the first scientist to observe a Vulcan /Human couple in their natural setting. He almost smiled.

=/\=

TBC