
Spock did not like to impose on his captain, normally. If Jim had merely invited him to his quarters and to his bed, as was usual, Spock would have gone very willingly. Eagerly, in fact, for he had no desire to spend the night alone in his cold bed without his heater beside him.
And tonight of all nights…
The mission had gone so terribly wrong. It was a miracle both he and Jim were physically unscathed. But they were both exhausted and emotionally, as Jim would say, fried.
And yet…there had been no invitation from Jim. He’d just said goodnight and gone to his quarters.
Spock stared at him empty cold bed and made a decision he hoped he did not regret.
He picked up his sleeping robe and walked out of his quarters and went next door to Jim’s. On the prior Enterprise their bathroom had been shared, but that was an old design, and when they were forced to rebuild the ship after Altamid, they’d all gotten their own bathrooms. Jim’s and Spock’s being the largest floorplan.
“Enter.”
Spock stepped inside as the door slid open, then remained by it, as he held his robe staring at his captain, who already lay in bed. Jim was dressed in a tight fitting T’shirt, molded to his muscles, and Spock suspected, his usual cotton pajama bottoms with the stars dotted on them.
“I…”
“Yeah?” Jim was leaning up against the pillows that propped him up. He had a book in his hand.
And now Spock felt foolish. It was obvious Jim had not wanted him there. Why hadn’t he gotten that?
Jim’s gaze went to the robe clutched in his hands as Spock remained silent. “Spock, what is it? Are you all right?”
“I…wanted to…may I stay with you tonight?” He felt that his face was flushed and knew that he must be a very dark shade of green. But this was not his element. Nyota had never made it this hard. Everything was difficult with Jim. Watching Jim breathe was.
Without a word, Jim picked up the corner of the blanket and sheet, holding it aloft.
Spock swallowed. “I understand if you do not—”
“Just…get in.”
“If you would rather—”
“Spock.” Up until that moment Jim had sounded almost harsh, but just then his tone and his voice had softened considerably. “Put on your robe and get into bed. It’s okay.”
Spock nodded, undressed and redressed quickly, and then slid into bed next to his captain, who had now put aside his book to watch Spock’s every move.
“If I have overstepped—”
Jim held out his fingers toward Spock who was suddenly filled with such relief, he was shaking, as he touched his fingers to Jim’s.
“You can’t, okay? You can’t overstep. And I’m glad you’re here.” His mouth thinned. “What a craptastic day. Yeah?”
“Beyond imagining.”
‘I’m sorry. I should have…I really wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to get in bed and have the day all over.”
“And me as well. But I needed…”
Jim smiled then, soft and sweet. “I know. It’s all right. I don’t mind. Lie down and come here.”
They both lay flat on the bed and then Spock scooted closer, wrapping himself around his captain. He closed his eyes and sighed.
“Computer,” Jim called. “Lights off.”
August 14, 2019 at 4:10 am
This. Man. Gah. The emotion and the vulnerability. But holy crap their connection.
Lovely!
And thanks for the extra flash! 😘
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August 14, 2019 at 7:09 am
Thank you. And now I have even fixed all the typos! Ha
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August 14, 2019 at 8:22 am
(Uh, almost)
It’s so sweet. I was going to miss having a flash today, but you came through with icing for our multi-weeked, multi-layered cake.
This makes them seem so real, so relatable. Loving, but real.
I’ve always wondered why Spock would bother with the robe.
Jim’s gonna be heart eyes, no matter what he does or doesn’t wear, but with Jim his heater, he’d feel him even heaterable if he left off the robe. They sound skin to skin heat in an emergency. And any time those two cuties are together, take my word – it’s an EMERGENCY!
(I mean, keep a fire extinguisher handy at ALL times.)
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August 14, 2019 at 8:34 am
Oh but don’t TELL ME what they are. Just mock me with it (rolling my eyes over and over and over and over)
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August 14, 2019 at 8:41 am
Now, mocking is in the eye of the beholder. I didn’t say here because my comment would be here but you’d have corrected it. We all make constant mistakes and our eyes and brain don’t process them. That’s what being a human is. My comments even are full of typos. You can’t say this much every day over and over, everywhere, and not see typos everywhere. Even with the ao3 biggies/braggarts on their perfect, their almost perfect works still have several typos and they’d swear there were none. I mean, they were beta’ed and neither caught them. Or you fix something, and in so doing, it messes up something else and you don’t even notice. Definitely not mock worthy. Ok, MINE are mockworthy, but certainly not someone who writes literally millions of words!
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August 14, 2019 at 8:53 am
Nope, no deleting. It might amuse others. I recall many times that you thought the autocorrect got me on my phone when posting works and I was like, er no, I just type too fast and think it says what I want it to say! I never type fics on the phone, my old eyes could never handle that!
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August 14, 2019 at 9:14 am
I used to type 112 WPM (timed for jobs). I have no idea what my speed is now. I can text 1 word per 112 minutes on the phone. I hate texting.
But yeah, fast typists are for the most part accurate but our brains actually see what we want it to say, rather than what it really says. As you know from my abundance of emails, chock full of booboos. And when you type so much, you get tired of proofing, and I just depend on you to translate what I meant, not necessarily what I said!
It’s always all ranting anyway. Just mentally stick in a few curse words in my voice and then delete ’em. You won’t miss a thing.
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August 14, 2019 at 8:43 am
PS – stop that. Your eyes will stick that way. 😉
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August 14, 2019 at 8:51 am
Yeah I am pretty sure both Mr. Magoo and my mother told me that my eyes will stick that way. I never listened!
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August 14, 2019 at 3:10 pm
This was great. Spock needed his Jim.
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August 15, 2019 at 12:41 am
Awww! This was so cute. Spock being able to ask for what he needs brings me to my happy place.
❤ ❤
BTW I just read your notification that you were writing a story that would start here and then only get written to completion on ao3. When I tried to comment it said it could not be found. Then I saw the notification of the chapter and read it, and I When I attempted to comment, I saw a message that said it could not be found. 🤷🏻♀️
So I’ll comment here. I really enjoyed the beginning chapter and I’m greatly looking forward to reading more of it. Seems quite intriguing and definitely an AU.
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August 15, 2019 at 7:26 am
Glad you enjoyed the flash!
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