Disclaimer: Not mine.
Doctor McCoy and Commander Spock hated each other. It was a fact that everyone on the Enterprise was well aware of.
Most people put it down to a conflict of personalities (the doctor was well known for being extremely emotional and the Commander was, well, a Vulcan) though there are a select few who insist it's UST.
All things considered, Hikaru leans strongly towards the first explanation. The two hardly made it a secret of exactly what they thought of each other should the other be mentioned and from what Hikaru could tell, very little of it (i.e. read: none) was complimentary. Hell, whenever the two of them actually met face to face, the whole deck could usually hear the screamed insults (not that the Commander would ever be as emotional as to actually raise his voice though no one could deny that his comments were anything other than pissy).
Sometimes, there would be a really bad fight and the Captain ends up having to interfere. The two officers would then proceed to instead focus all their ill temper on Captain Kirk who would pout and throw himself into work since his two best friends are being mean idiots when he was just doing his Captainly duty but you understand right Hikaru？,and thereby run everyone else ragged. At least, until the Captain gets hurt on yet another away mission gone wrong and the Doctor and Commander would call a temporary truce until the Captain gets better and the Enterprise is safe.
Things would stay on the down low for a while before the tension builds up again and Doctor McCoy and Commander Spock nearly brawling on the command deck yet again and the Captain's getting involved and the other two are lashing out and everyone gets to share in the suffering. Over and over again. Some people have even started betting pools on when each phase of the cycle will start and what'll trigger the switchover. Out there in the middle of the desolate starfields, people end up betting on pretty much everything.
Then, one day, the Captain doesn't get involved. He doesn't call the other two officers in to 'discuss certain problematic behavior'. Instead, he claims shore leave and beams down that evening, presumably to spend some time in the local bars and relax instead of dealing with tantrums of two, otherwise, capable and intelligent beings.
A part of Hikaru cheered the Captain on. It had been a tough last few missions and though there were no major incidents, he knew that things had not been easy for the Captain lately and the man deserved a break from dealing with the two's temper tantrums over each other.
The rest of Hikaru, though, bemoans the fact that the rest of them will now have to try and deal with the bad moods of the Doctor and Commander. As he stands and listens to the Commander coolly decimate his draft on the possible hallucinogenic effects of one of the new plant species from the last planet they visited, he cannot help but wish that the Captain would come back soon and fix it all.
He doesn't.
Instead, the ship receives an urgent message the next morning when the Captain should have been beaming back up that one of the drinking establishments had gone up in flames and collapsed due to a fight that had gotten out of hand and a freak accident involving a keg of Andorian Ale and someone's malfunctioning padd. Five humans, two Andorians, an Orion, and a Betazoid had been found dead, fifteen others of a variety of species found wounded, and about twenty more still unaccounted for.
Including the Captain.
A/N: Review are love!