Martin Luther King, Jr Day
Long but worth it.
In writing, I updated last week, Anything, Where My Demons Hide, My Devotion, and began Bitter Frost.
This week you can expect another chapter of Bitter Frost, Didn’t We Have it All, and Turning Page.
Okay I am currently working on the next chapter of My Devotion. No idea when it will be up as I have barely started it. That’s the last one that hasn’t been updated since October 2017.
I have chosen to delete off AO3, The Life You’re Given. Honestly I haven’t worked on it for the entire year of 2017 and I just don’t see myself getting back to it any time soon. It’s unfair to readers to leave something on there I probably will never finish. If I ever do, I will just upload the finished product in its entirety but I just don’t see that being something I will do at this point. It’s too bad because I loved the idea of exploring a relationship between Jim and his teenaged nephew but I have simply lost the interest in the story and pursuing it.
I have also deleted Keep Forgetting. It’s not a story I want to finish at this point. It was a stupid story to begin with and I am ending it.
I had thoughts of updating The Thought of You is Consuming Me but now I don’t think I will this week. I’m not feeling it. We’ll see.
For the most part this year I think I am going to get away from the alternate universes in my fictions. My more popular ones seem to revolve around the guys on the ship and interacting that way. I love writing alternate scenarios but more and more people are losing interest in them as far as I can tell. My academy stories remain popular but other stories set in some other kind of universe or scenario, not so much.
What does this mean for the Winter Story I intended to write and post? I don’t know. I’ve wanted to do it for so long but I just don’t know if the interest will be there.
In any event, I think I need to spend some time finishing my older fics so I can finally be done with them.
In addition to deleting The Life Your Given, I have marked a couple of “on-going, open-ended” collections or stories as “completed” as I am unsure when or if I will add to those.
Thanks for your understanding
Appreciative One requested a Pinto Flash Fic this week. The prompt was a publicity opportunity for Chris and Zach to christen a new Naval ship called the USS Enterprise in Virginia. Entirely fiction of course.
Chris closed his eyes and leaned his head back as the car service that was to take him to his hotel room from the airport began to move. God, he was tired.
Why had he agreed to this again?
Paramount mostly. And his agent. And his publicity people. Good for the franchise. Good for the future. Good press.
And then there was seeing Zach again. He’d been told Zach was already onboard before he’d agreed. He wouldn’t have otherwise. He was working like crazy. Had only come back from Scotland where he’d been filming Outlaw King, only to have to begin One Day She’ll Darken. He liked working. Keeping busy. But it was getting to be too much even for him. And soon he’d have to start publicity for Disney for A Wrinkle in Time.
This was just a quick two night stay. Friday night come in, as he was now, do the christening of the new USS Enterprise Aircraft Carrier at the Naval Shipyard, stay over Saturday night, and then fly home to California early Sunday.
He’d been to this part of Virginia before, so he didn’t bother looking out the windows. It was getting dark anyway.
He opened his eyes and took out his flip phone.
You here yet?
There was no immediate answer and Chris wasn’t even sure he expected one.
But he’d suddenly had a dreadful thought.
What if Zach wasn’t alone? What if he’d brought Miles?
And what if he had? What could Chris say about it? Lately Miles always came. And Chris just dealt with it.
It wasn’t as though Chris had any kind of hold over Zach. That had ended when Zach moved to New York. Got worse after he met Miles. And now—
Friends. Firmly in the friend zone.
Great.
“We’ve reached the Hilton, Mr. Pine. My instructions are to bring you up to the private side entrance,” the driver said.
Chris straightened and stuck his phone in his pocket. “Thanks, man.”
He always arranged to have the tip included with the initial payment so he didn’t have to deal with the cash scene, so the driver helped him out of the car, and with his luggage, as Chris went into the private entrance.
It was a quick check-in as they’d been expecting him and pretty soon he was riding up the elevator with his small bag to the tenth floor where his suite was located. He didn’t bother to get assistance since he had packed light.
When he accessed his door, he was more than a little surprised to see the figure of a man standing by the floor to ceiling window. His heart began to pound in fright until he recognized the silhouette of Zachary Quinto. And then it pounded for another reason.
“Zach.”
He set his bag down and closed the door behind him.
Zach turned from the window. He was dressed in black jeans and a black turtleneck sweater. There was a smattering of a dark shadow over his chiseled jaw. He looked…amazing.
“What are you doing here?”
“Hello to you too, Christopher.” Zach smirked. “There was a mix up with my room and it wasn’t ready yet.”
Chris frowned. “And so they let you in my room? Some security.”
“I sweet-talked the desk clerk. Turns out he’s a fan.”
“You mean of your ass.”
Zach shrugged. “Whatever works. Are you really bothered?”
“I should be. He could easily be fired for that.”
“True. But you won’t do that.”
Chris sighed. “No. But you could have asked. I sent you a message.”
“I saw it just now.” He raised his eyebrows in a way that was both reminiscent of Spock and not at the same time. Some of it was all sardonic Zach. He was an expert at that.
Chris walked over to the window and looked out, standing beside Zach. “It’s starting to rain.”
Zach’s gaze was on Chris’ face. He felt it like a brand. “Yep.”
“Where’s-where’s Miles?” He made himself ask.
“Paris, actually.”
Chris turned and look at him then. “Oh.”
“Modeling. I was supposed to go with him but I canceled when they asked me to do this.”
“Yeah?”
“Well. After they said you had already agreed—”
“Wait. What?” Chris laughed. “They told me you agreed.”
Zach rolled his eyes. “Typical PR bullshit.”
“You…you look good.”
“Chris—”
“No. I mean it. Really good.” Chris licked his lips. “I’ve missed you.”
“Really?”
“And don’t start in on this was all my doing,” he said softly. “I know all that.”
“Well…good.”
Chris looked away. “I still miss you.”
“Listen—” Zach’s phone sprung to life, playing the music from American Horror Story. He hit accept. “Zachary Quinto.”
Chris moved away from the window over to where his bag was. He picked it up and tossed it on the king-sized bed.
“Yeah. Okay. Thanks. I’ll be right down.” Zach ended the call. “Room’s ready.”
Chris nodded. “Okay. I’m going to take a shower and head to bed. See you tomorrow.”
For a moment, Zach said nothing, didn’t react at all. But eventually, he nodded in agreement and headed for the hotel room door. “See you in the morning. Goodnight.”
“Night.”
Chris had barely refrained from asking him to stay. But really.
Friends.
****
The publicity part was over. It had been a long day of being at the Shipyard, christening the Enterprise, smiling for the press, doing interviews. Chris’ jaw muscles hurt from smiling. And his body was tense and wired being next to Zach all day.
“You want to grab some dinner in the restaurant?” Zach asked as they were dropped off at the private side entrance of the Hilton.
Chris shook his head. “I’m really not in the mood to continue being on display. I think I’ll go for room service.”
Zach eyed him sideways as they entered the elevator. “Sounds good. Mind if I join you?”
Friends ate together all the time.
“Sure.”
“I’ll just get some stuff settled in my room and be over to yours. Go ahead and order us something.” Zach smiled. “I defer to your good judgment.”
Chris went over the room service menu and picked a nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to begin with. Then he chose Beef Bourguignon for two along with mashed potatoes and gravy and cheesecake with strawberries for dessert.
Zach came over about ten minutes later. He had changed out of the suit he’d been wearing into the black jeans from the night before and a buttoned down navy colored shirt open at the throat to reveal his dark dark hair against pale skin.
Chris himself had changed into a pair of loose fitting sweats and a T-shirt. He didn’t fail to notice the way Zach’s gaze had swept over him either.
They said little until room service arrived and when the server left and Chris handed Zach a glass of wine, Zach was back to smirking.
“I see you haven’t changed at all. Still a Cab.”
Chris rolled his eyes. “It hasn’t been that long, Zach.”
“I know.” He stared into his glass of wine. “It’s just…I’m floundering a bit here, Chris.”
“You? Calm, cool and collected Zachary Quinto?”
“It’s not easy for me.”
“No?” Chris shook his head. “Because God it sure seems easy for you from where I’m standing.”
Zach stared at him. “Why are you standing way over there, anyway?”
Chris swallowed. “Because if I get any closer—”
“You’ll what?”
He closed his eyes. And then Zach made the decision for him. He came to Chris. He was no longer holding his glass of wine, and instead had both hands on Chris’ arms as he pushed himself into Chris’ personal space.
“I had to see you,” Zach said softly. “Touch you.”
“Is that why Miles isn’t here?”
“To hell with him. I don’t want to talk about him. I want to talk about us.”
“Us?”
Zach leaned in and began to kiss Chris’ rigid jaw. “I want you, baby. Please?”
He opened his eyes to stare into the dark depths of Zach’s gaze. He was lost and he knew it. Knew it when he’d made the decision to come to Virginia.
“You have me,” he said softly. “You always have me.”
Zach kissed him. “I hope you have lube.”
Chris laughed. “Three bottles.”
Zach snorted. “Why the hell did we waste last night?”
“Fuck if I know.” Chris grabbed Zach’s face in his hands. “Fuck me.”
****
His phone buzzed as he sat in first class waiting for the plane to take off. He flipped it open.
Are you sore?
You wish.
Safe travels.
He smiled as a beating heart appeared. Leave it to Quinto to get it to work even on his barebones flip phone. He closed the phone and put it in his pocket.
What the future held for them, he didn’t know. But at the moment, he felt good.
Very.
Hello my friends.
I am doing okay. Busy in life and busy at work. It’s a little stressful, not going to lie. Still have my cough too. It’s better but by no means gone.
This week I am going to attempt to see The Man Who Invented Christmas as I was forced to skip it last week due illness.
I’ve gotten a good jump on my Christmas shopping.
As I declared before my main focus is my two holiday stories. I hope to get further on my other Christmas story this week. Everything else is still on hold. It has to be as I am stressed as it is.
I’ve got parties and get-togethers coming up as well as an amusement park visit later this month and a special dinner. December isn’t terribly relaxing for me. Never has been.
Hope everyone has a good week and takes some time for themselves.
All right this weeks’s updates are bound to be My Devotion, Anything and Where My Demons Hide. Those are the last ones left updated in September. Then up after that will be Didn’t We Almost Have it All and Turning Page. Those might be pushed out to the next week. We shall see.
I took the weekend off from posting because…well I wanted to. I didn’t really do much of anything but watch stupid shit and do laundry and a little cleaning. Playing some games. Pretty much lazy stuff.
For the last 10 years we’ve lived in this town home we don’t really get trick or treaters on Halloween. We always buy candy and no one comes. I think it will be the same this year! Ah well. It’s just not the same as when I was a kid.
At work, we are having a pizza party that day as well as trick or treating. Should be fun.
Sometimes he didn’t mind being alone. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence. Most of his childhood had been spent that way. At least until he got sent away. But before that, before Sam had left, Jim spent most days finding ways to entertain himself. Most of his classmates thought he was too smart or too cocky or too cute or…too something.
He’s made friends on Tarsus, but that hadn’t gone well.
And when he’d gone to the academy, well, he’d met Bones. He’d met a few others. Gary Mitchell, for example, but Gary went batshit crazy and decided he was a god with psychic powers.
Bones stuck with him though and that was good.
He got the Enterprise and he loved his crew, he did. And he was pretty sure he’d gained their admiration and trust, if not their love. His officers were friendly with him and occasionally he spent time with them.
It was all good.
And then there was Spock.
They were friends. At least Spock had finally admitted it while Jim was dying. And during his recovery he had acted like they were friends and things were good.
But once they got on the Enterprise, well, things got strange again. Spock wasn’t openly derisive like he’d once been. But he grew distant and spent most of his off time with Uhura.
Bones was great, he really was, but Jim supposed Bones needed a break from him every once in a while.
And so when they’d gone to Yorktown, Jim had spent his time there, before being called in by Commodore Paris, alone.
Everything changed with Krall, of course. All Jim’s doubts that had crept in about his place in all this disappeared.
He belonged with the Enterprise. He was the captain. And if it meant being alone the rest of his damn life, he had the ship. His beautiful lady.
There were still times he got bored. Still times he wanted to do anything but spend his time alone in his quarters. This was one of those times.
Bones was busy. There’d been a minor explosion on deck five that had caused a few injuries and as grumpy as Bones could be, he was grumpier still when he had casualties to tend to.
So he found out via the computer that Spock was in lab 6, so, after some contemplation, he headed there.
He’d made it to the outside of the lab when he heard the low murmur of voices. Uhura and Spock.
Damn, he hadn’t intended to interrupt a date or whatever.
“Spock,” Uhura’s voice suddenly rose. “You need to tell him.”
“It is…difficult.”
“Of course it is. But he needs to know. You can’t go on like this. We can’t go on like this. So the only thing to do is tell him. He needs to know your decision.”
Fuck.
Spock was going to leave.
Bones had told him about Spock maybe going to New Vulcan before all the Krall stuff happened. He’d heard that Spock and Uhura had even ended their relationship over it, briefly, as they were back together, obviously.
Which probably meant they would both leave.
“I cannot. To lose him as a friend—”
“You won’t. He won’t react that way.”
Of course Jim wouldn’t. He would support Spock leaving if that was what he wanted. But he couldn’t hear anymore. It was too much.
He turned around and went back down the corridor and to the turbolift. He willed away the tears that sprang to his eyes.
He was the captain. And he would get through this just like he got through everything.
Sheer determination.
This week I have been busy updating.
I finished October Romance, updated Who’s the Daddy, Young and Beautiful and You’re in My Veins. I have also nearly completed the next chapter of Unbonded and that will go up sometime tomorrow.
Also, I wrote a Flash Fic for this week which will go live at somewhere around 4 AM Pacific Time.
Next week I plan to continue updating stories that have been waiting since September to be updated. I think for next week that means at least What Happened to Spock and When I Fall in Love. If it’s more than those, we shall see.
This weekend I will likely work on the Christmas story and the Winter Story if I work on anything at all. I have plans to do some shopping and some mindless television/movie stuff. I am back to taking the weekends off from posting unless there’s some huge pressing need to do so.
Tomorrow night, M and I are having a date at one of our favorite restaurants. They make this to die for Pumpkin Cheesecake that I will definitely be ordering.
Spirk (with a small dose of Pinto) 