“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Bones knelt before Jim, examining the tear of his uniform and his bloody scraped knee.

They were on a short wall in a quad area of Starfleet Academy campus.

“I fell.”

“You fell. You didn’t have help falling?”

Jim shrugged.

“Jim—”

“I ran into one of assholes that tried to beat the crap out of me at the Riverside bar,” Jim replied. “Or he ran into me. He stuck his foot out deliberately and I tripped and well…you see the results for yourself.”

“Who is this dickhead? You should report him.”

“I know how to deal with bullies, Bones.”

Bones gave him a look and then ran a regenerator over the scrape. “Fixed up good as new. Though that doesn’t fix your pants.”

“I can sew the tear. Thanks, Bones.”

“You tell this boyfriend of yours. Or whatever he is.”

“Boyfriend, significant other.” Jim smiled. “Spock, Bones. His name is Spock.”

“Yeah, yeah. Have you told him about these clowns?”

“No, of course not. There’s no reason to. That was just …a one off thing.”

“Mm. When do I get to meet Spudnick?”

Jim laughed. “Spock. Geez, I’m going to smack you.”

Bones snorted. “Well? When?”

“We’ll have you over for dinner soon.”

“Good. And I mean it, Jim. Tell him about these guys harassing you.”

“One guy, Bones.”

“Tell him.”

“Okay,” Jim agreed, just to get Bones to leave it alone. He stood up and smoothed out his uniform pants. “I’ve got class and so do you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let me know when for dinner.”

“Will do.” Jim smiled faintly as Bones moved off. Then he winced as he lifted his uniform shirt. He was getting a big fat bruise on his abdomen. He was going to have a hell of a time explaining that to Spock.