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[kirktastic]

Completely wrung out from the night before, and still a little sore, Jim could not have been happier to be cleared for duty. It felt good to walk up to the bridge in his uniform, greet the alpha crew, tease Pasha at her duties, and go into his office.

Unfortunately, the amount of paperwork made it... less than happy, but at least he could get started on the mess. Inside the handsome and daring space captain was still a book worm, the child who loved the library and the man who collected actual paper books, and it was that book worm that had him start sorting things out first into folders and piles to get done. His fingers flew over the console, throwing files into each folder to sort it out. He reached over and tapped the comm, calling for Rand as well to help out.

It felt good to be the Captain again, and now he wanted to play catch up with his crew.

Comments

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

"Privacy of the mind is a central tenet of modern Vulcan philosophy, Jim." As if he had forgotten. He would give him privacy, of course, but how was he to know his bondmate if it was maintained at all times? "And there is a difference between theory and conjecture, and the only bridge between the two is experience which I do not possess."

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

"Experience comes because you try it. I want to know more, but not at the cost of myself." Jim sighed to himself. He looked up at Spock, those eyes, trying to read what was going on behind them. So, instead, he just gave a little smile. "Bones has to be swimming in all this too."

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

He relaxed a little. "I doubt it would be to such an extent. If they are unoccupied with patients they tend to migrate to the pharmaceutical divisions." Which just meant more paperwork for him. Perhaps he should reroute that directly to Leonard before they became overzealous in their supply requests.

"Do you expect me to master the dynamics of the bond individually?" he asked, curious and calm. "Do you prefer I ignore your part in it until that time?"

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

Jim looked up again at the comment about the bond and sighed. "I think we have time to... master it. I'm not in a rush. I don't know why you are." He frowned a little.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

"Because it seems that I am allowing a portion of my bond to languish in my distraction." He looked aside. "Which is both irresponsible and unacceptable. If you do not believe this is the case, I will accept my impatience and dismiss my concern." What he wouldn't give to just touch him, which was why he kept his hands behind his back.

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

Brows up. "To languish? I think right now, we're just working on making sure we can work together on this. I don't know..." He wasn't sure how to put it into words. "...Guess it's like building out friendship from the ground up."

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Spock considered, tilting his head for a moment, before he spoke. "Then you want to be courted." That would be possible, and he had already done it several times before (and it followed the same general pattern with individual variations he could adjust to). Just none of them had been his superior, somebody he had nearly killed (quite the opposite, with T'Pring), or actually bonded to him at the time.

Perhaps slightly more difficult.

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

Jim made a choking sound, jerking in his seat as he stared at Spock in something like horror. "What?!" He couldn't even immediately process Spock's words. Finally, he just slowly shook his head with a sigh. "No. No. Friendship doesn't equal courtship."

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Spock blinked. "Not to the extent as you are probably projecting." But it was all essentially the same. He would pull back where the advance towards sexual congress normally started. Simple.

"The activities are the same," he observed, "such as inviting one's friend to dinner." A beat, and he added, "Hypothetically."

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

"Why do you make this so damn hard?" Jim growled, standing up and walked right over to Spock. "Why do you have to make it more complicated? Is there some reason you aren't happy letting this," he jerked a hand between them, "work out on its own instead of forcing it to work?"

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

His hand came up with the intention to grab at Jim's hand, but he stopped himself, his fingertips catching gold fabric instead. "Because nothing I cherish has occurred by chance nor matured through time untouched. My relationship with you is not an exception."

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes, life doesn't work like that." Jim fought down the instinct to get Spock's hand off him, instead just watching him. "You have been working on... whatever this is by not forcing it. Maybe whatever happened with your brother and Bones might have fixed that, but only time's going to fix this. Alright?"

He gave a slight smile. "I didn't think 2010 was that bad that you needed to come in here and do this."

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

"It was not." His fingers slipped off Jim's sleeve, and that hand folded behind his back. "It was a fascinating excursion, all things considered...yet I was uncertain about what expectations you hold for me, or the bond. They cannot be met if I am ignorant of them."

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

"Ever think that maybe I don't have any expectations?" Jim laughed a little to himself. "I really don't, Spock. I want us to be friends. I want us to work together for as long as I can damn well keep you as my first officer. This bond... well, however it is, it is. It is what we make it, I guess, but right now I'd like to fix what was broken before the bond even existed."

Or was that too subtle for a Vulcan?

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

The honest simplicity of Jim's answer made him nervous--made the bond nervous, as much as he tried to stifle it. "...I see." He didn't, but he would figure it out later.

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

Jim actually reached out and put his hand on Spock's bicep. "You were doing better in 2010 than you were when you walked in here." A hint.

Then he smiled again. "We'd both better get back to work. Come by with Nyota sometime this week? We can have dinner."

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

He glanced down to the hand at his arm and then back up at Jim . Spock gave him a small nod. "I shall suggest it to her."

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

Bones, he thought to himself, would be proud. He was trying, at least, despite the fact he mostly would have rather let all the chips fall where they would without any help. "Good." And he meant it.

Fix their friendship first, Jim was sure, and well, hopefully everything else would fall into place.