Title: Names
Disclaimer: I wish it was mine, but obviously, it isn't :)
Rating: M, for language and occasional violence
Warnings: Tarsus, f-word
Summary: Jim's not so unused to be called names.
Author's Notes: This is my first time writing anything in years and my first time writing in this fandom. Feedback would be much appreciated! Also, I'm planning on making this into a five and one.
1. When Jim is first getting used to Frank, because even at the age of eight he knows its fucking awkward to be left on planet with this man his Winona married, he doesn't really mind being called "Boy." It's not until Frank smacks him, almost absently, across the cheek, his breath reeking of alcohol and rancidity (and Jim for a moment thinks that the man's brain must be rotting in his head, reminded of the long tweezers he saw at the museum that ancient Egyptians used to pull out the brain from the noise and throat), that Jim starts loathing the name.
And when he returns from Tarsus, and Winona leaves the planet again, having spent a few weeks staring at Jim with eyes that make him angry and uncomfortable, and Jim is inevitably brought home by a 'concerned' (meddling old batshit) neighbor, or later police-drones, Frank stares at him and says "Boy." Jim doesn't feel guilty because he can't and won't but instead just starts going further and further from home, aided in his late teens with a motorbike that can do 100 easy in an hour.
It's later, when Spock has logic-ed him into accepting an invitation back to Riverside for that fucking shoreleave that Jim spends weeks arranging to align with the holidays of his crew (and the only easy part of that piece of administration maneuvering is that for some reason, most every humanoid or species or whatever that is part of the federation has a major holiday at this time of year), that Jim remembers exactly why he hates being called "Boy."
It's not because he had some pubescent fiction that he was a man, goddamnit, because he'd never really had issues confessing to his immaturity. It's because his name is his and when Winona opens the door, and Jim hears Frank asking "Is that the Boy?" Jim thinks he's going to do something, that same feeling that he gets when Klingons try to hail him or they get stuck on a 'friendly' planet with inevitably-angry-natives. Spock places two fingers at the back of his neck, and Jim calms himself, unwilling to admit that the affection reassurance loyalty coming through those fingers is playing any role.
"What a curious way to address the Captain. He has been a man for ninety eight point two percent of the time I have been acquainted with him. Is there another stage to Male adulthood that perhaps I am not informed of?" Spock queries, passing by introductions with that frankness of his that would be social inadequacy in just about anyone else. And Jim loves him for that, and resigns himself to the next eight or so hours to be spent in Riverside.