'How does he do it?' Pavel Chekov wondered as he kissed the warm, soft lips of the beautiful A'ee'shah passionately, deeply, and for the very last time. 'How does he leave them so easily?' The ensign broke the kiss to bury his face in the thick tangle of honey colored hair. He closed his eyes and inhaled, seeking to capture the scent of her forever in his mind. The young Lateekan smelled of warm female, tropical sun-shine, exotic spices and the musk of their coupling such a short time ago.

The tantalizingly erotic scent pulled a groan out of him and he very nearly fell back into her bed and into the cinnamon-colored arms again. But the sensible, duty-minded part of Chekov insisted it was time to go. Unfortunately, some other embarrassingly protrudent part of his anatomy had other ideas.

Fortunately, the captain was too busy bidding an equally passionate farewell to A'ee'shah's older sister, Ta'nah, to notice his navigator's insubordinate groin.

Chekov reflected a moment (while A'ee'shah nibbled maddeningly on his left earlobe) on the sheer coincidence that had led to him sharing shoreleave, a small beach hut and a pair of very eager sisters with his commander and chief.

The night before, Lateeka's warm tropical breeze, her twin moons reflecting large and blue on the gently lapping sea and a very potent local brew had combined with curvy, very friendly natives to create a strong aphrodisiac effect on the visiting Enterprise personnel. Chekov had not been the only eager human male pulled into one of the cozy seaside huts by an equally eager Lateekan female.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only human male to be pulled into this particular hut.

The captain was there, already tangled in the mocha embrace of a very similar looking, but slightly older looking honey-haired native.

After an extremely awkward moment, it became clear to Chekov that the captain and his paramour were too far-gone to really care about anything. In the time it took him to make this interesting deduction, A'ee'sha had removed what few garments she had been wearing as well as the ensign's sweaty tunic and was Kissing her way slowly down the dark line of bodyhair on Chekov's abdomen. A few seconds later, Pavel Chekov decided he didn't really care about anything either.

As the morning sun cast orange rays across the dirt floor, Chekov's brown eyes met Kirk's hazel ones and the Russian took that glance as the cue for which it was intended. It was time to go.

The captain clapped a firm, affectionate hand to his ensign's back as Chekov turned to look one last time at the two beautiful women who stood weeping and waving in the doorway of their hut. The bright Lateekan sunrise illuminated A'ee'shah in all her Indian summer glory and the Russian let out a long, eloquent sigh.

"It gets easier." James Kirk said, smiling down at Chekov as if reading his navigator's thoughts. "Each time, it gets a little bit easier."

As they walked slowly through the warm sand to the beam-up site, Chekov noticed that the captain's hand still rested between his shoulder blades. He also noticed that Kirk had not turned to look back even once.

Late that night, Chekov stood before the large observation window looking at the bright pinpoint of light that was Lateeka and sipping a cup of black coffee.

"Lights in the sky."

"Excuse me, sir?" Chekov turned, startled by the captain's unexpected presence.

"That's how they think of us, after we leave." Kirk gestured with his own steaming cup toward the glittering gems on the black velvet of space. "Lights in the sky."

"Triskelion." The ensign's encyclopedic memory coughed up the last time he'd heard that phrase. "You said something like that to Shana, just before we beamed out."

Kirk's hazel eyes crinkled above the rim of his cup. "Yes, I did." He admitted with a rueful smile. "And I know that everytime she looks up at the night sky, she will think of me."

"But, sir..." Chekov frowned, a puzzled expression on his round, Slavic face.

"Don't you ever think of them...any one of them...in particular..?"

Kirk smiled one of his golden smiles. "You mean, are any of them special?"

The young Russian nodded slowly, his eyes dark and serious.

"Ensign, have you ever had a girlfriend, one that you stayed with for a very long time?"

Chekov shook his head.

"Have you ever had a girlfriend so long that you grew tired of her? That spark, that thing that drew you to her in the first place, was gone and you knew it was time to move on?"

"Yes...Akaterina...when I was seventeen..."

Kirk pointed out to the starfield just beyond the thick pane of transparent aluminum. "A'ee'shah will never feel that way about you. To her, you will always be that handsome, exotic stranger who left her with a memory that will last a lifetime." Chekov grinned crookedly and looked out the window, the starlight reflecting in the dark depths of his eyes.

"And that is what she, and all the others that will follow, will be to you."

Kirk stepped forward to stand behind his navigator. "Beautiful lights in the sky. And everytime will be like the first time."

Chekov looked up into the hazel eyes reflected in the glass, just above where his own face shown pale in the dim light of what passed for ship's night.

"Come on, " The captain said, breaking the moment and nodding down at the cup in Chekov's hand. "That looks like it could use some warming up."

Pavel Chekov kissed the beautiful Andorian girl deeply, passionately and for the very last time.

She sighed mournfully as he eased out of both her bed and her azure embrace and began to gather his carelessly discarded uniform from the hotel room floor.

"Why can't you stay just a little longer?" She pleaded for what seemed the hundredth time that morning, letting the sheets slip unself-consciously to her lap as she propped herself against the pillows.

The ensign didn't allow himself to be distracted from the task at hand as he slipped on his pants and reached for his tunic.

The Andorian crawled slowly to the foot of the bed and kneeled there on all fours, trying to catch the human's dark-eyed gaze with her own. "But what do I have to remember you by?" She pouted when her efforts were unsuccessful.

Chekov pulled on his boots and without straightening, leaned over to plant a chaste kiss between her feathery white eyebrows.

"Think of me," he whispered, his lips barely brushing her delicate blue ear, "when you see the lights in the sky."

***The End***