Lieutenant Khar approached the door to his partner’s quarters, having been summoned just as his shift on the Bridge had ended. The contents of the message, sent through written communication rather than over the comm system proper, were vague and left much to be desired in terms of a concrete reason for such a break in their usual routine. Even with that thought in the back of his mind, Khar wasn’t so rigid as to avoid their routine being uprooted every now and again. This thought lingered in his mind as his hand reached out and pressed the door chime of Lieutenant Grant’s quarters. With less than a second of lag time, the door to Lily’s domicile slid open and the occupant herself came leaping out of the doorway, a huge grin plastered on her face as she threw her arms around Khar’s neck.

In his semi-distracted state, the Klingon had not been prepared to be leapt upon by the woman, and it took him three full back steps before he managed to regain his balance and steady the figure clinging to his neck enough to keep her from slipping out of his arms.

“What prompted this sudden ambush?” Khar asked.

Lily looked up at the man with a devilish grin, “I got some really good news today, and I wanted to tell you about it while I was still excited.”

“I see,” the Klingon said in a huff of exasperation, “Then perhaps instead of you hanging off my neck, we can sit down in your quarters and discuss this good news.”

“Aww…” Lily groaned with an exaggerated look of disappointment, “You’re no fun…”

Khar shook his head at the woman’s comment and herded her into her quarters as several of the crew passed by, their faces drawn up in amused smirks at the exchange they had witnessed. Once behind the closed door, Khar made his way to the small sitting area in the room and sank down into the two person couch, followed swiftly by Lily, who entwined her arms around Khar’s right one and pressed her head against his shoulder.

“Guess what happened today!” the woman demanded of him not even a heartbeat after they’d gotten comfortable.

“How am I meant to make any educated guesses without even the slightest hint of information?” the Klingon frowned.

“Just one little, uneducated guess… for me,” Lillian said as she looked up at Khar through her eyelashes.

The man couldn’t help but shift about in his seat for a moment as he wrestled with his annoyance at being made to play some silly game Lily had concocted and his desire to make his partner happy despite being put on the spot in a rather abrupt manner. His affection for her won out, and he settled in to think of all of the things that might make her so uproariously giddy.

“You…” Khar started before frowning and chewing on his thoughts a bit further before continuing, “had one of your scientific papers published?”

Lily let out a giggle at his attempt, “No, but that probably would have made me pretty happy too. Not a bad guess. Ok… so here’s a hint. It has to do with where I’m working on the ship.”

“Hrm…” Khar muttered thoughtfully before asking, “did you get put in charge of a new project?”

The woman shook her head with a playful grin, “Not quite, but you’re a lot closer than the last one.”

The Klingon gave it a bit more thought before asking, “Didn’t your department still have the assistant position vacant?”

“It did…” the woman replied in a drawn out manner, the smirk on her face blossoming into a full smile.

“I see…” Khar murmured before finally declaring, “You were asked to take over as Assistant Chief Science Officer.”

“Yes!” Lily said, giving the man’s arm a powerful squeeze. The Klingon let out a hearty laugh and pulled himself free of her grip only to then gather her into a tight embrace. “Congratulations! I know you had been wondering if you might be in the running for it since it had been vacant for so long.”

“I’m pretty sure my discovery when we were looking for those missing ships is what got me the job,” Lily said with a proud smile, “And it doesn’t hurt that we’re going to need that spot filled now that we’re heading into deep space. The best part is, I can still work out of the stellar cartography lab when I’m not doing assistant type work, so I don’t even have to shelve any of my experiments!”

“That is indeed a good thing,” Khar nodded along, “I am certain that before long, you will be considered for a department head position of your own.”

“Heh… yeah, maybe in a year or two,” Lily said with a shrug, “But for now, I’m just happy I get to help run the Science team here.”

“What should we do in honor of this great occasion? I have some blood wine stashed away for such a monumental occasion if you like,” the Klingon offered.

“No… I appreciate the thought, but you know I can’t hold my blood wine…” Lily shook her head at the notion.

“Ah… yes… my apologies…” Khar said as he remembered the last incident that had occurred as a result of her imbibing a little more blood wine than she could handle. 

“How about…” the woman said, leaning heavily into Khar’s chest, “We just spend a quiet evening here, and we can replicate something for dinner and maybe watch one of those crappy holodramas Ensign Greer always talks about in the lab.”

“If that is how you wish to celebrate, we will find the crappiest holodrama in the archives and conquer it from the sofa while ingesting the greasiest of foods,” the Klingon declared.

“Yay! I’ll go grab a blanket!” Lily rushed off the couch to prep for their bizarre night in.