A.N.- This is my first Star Trek fic, I hope you like it, and that if you do you could maybe favourite or review for me, it would be very much appreciated. I don't own Star Trek or any of the characters. Yet.

- J.M.H -

Captain James Tiberius Kirk lay in bed with his eyes wide open, one arm wrapped protectively around the sleeping body curled into his side. He blamed Dr McCoy for his inability to sleep. When they had bunked together at the academy it had taken him just short of four months to pick up the other's insomnia. He never considered that it could have been caused by his own stresses or the sheer amount of caffeine he was ingesting each day: it was easier to blame the doctor. Either way, years down the line, the habit still stuck.

He felt the body beside him stir, and the bicep tense underneath his palm. Instinctively he began to whisper little noises of comfort, and brought his left hand to meet his right where it already lay around his partner, holding him tighter. They made quite a pair, Jim considered, him with his insomnia and Spock with his nightmares. Spock never spoke about the exact nature of his dreams, but Jim wasn't as thick as some people would have liked to think. He knew memories of the destruction of Vulcan and the deaths of those he cared about still haunted his partner. He knew something pursued him in the dreams, although the exact nature of whatever it was Spock kept to himself.

After almost five minutes of soothing, Jim felt a sweat begin to break on the Vulcan and noticed the distinct green that was flooding his skin. He could hear frantic muttering, and it was quiet and broken but painful, and made of words he could only half-recognise. He sighed, and made the always difficult decision to wake Spock. He squeezed his arm gently, and cleared his throat.

'Spock,' he said. He had learnt that the more even he kept his voice, the more relaxed the Vulcan would be when he came round. The night terrors didn't panic Jim anymore, like they had in the early days. 'Spock.'

He felt the body at his side roll over and break away from him. He looked down at Spock, blinking sleep from his eyes, and smiled.

'You're alright, Spock,' he said.

'I know,' came the reply. 'I know.'

That was as close as Spock ever came to saying thank you, and Jim didn't mind: he knew Spock saw the dreams and his reaction to them as a weakness. He pushed himself up on one elbow, and leant over to kiss Spock's forehead.

'Want to talk about it?'

The usual offer.

'No, thank you.'

The usual answer.

Jim shrugged, pretended that he wasn't just a little hurt by Spock's refusal to confide in him, and lay back against his pillows, still slightly upright. He stared at the ceiling. He felt Spock roll over onto his side and settle down again. He waited, but the sound of sleep's steady breathing didn't come. He turned his head, a little confused. Spock always fell asleep easily, even after the dreams. Something to do with meditation, Jim knew. Spock had tried to teach him to meditate before. It hadn't worked. He couldn't sit still long enough. Now, Spock lay on his side, facing away from him, curled up with his legs towards his chin. Jim rolled over, and shuffled towards him. He reached around the Vulcan's still tense shoulders, and rolled him over. Spock looked up at him, face black of any readable emotion.

'Can we talk about something?' Jim asked.

'If you would like that,' Spock replied. 'Mr Scott told me about a new initiative he's working on in engineering, it sounded most interesting, would you like me to tell you about it?'

Jim sighed inwardly. 'That's not really what I meant, Spock.'

'Oh?'

'No. I wanted to ask you something in particular.'

'Of course, Jim.'

He took a deep breath. He could feel his heart pounding. He rolled onto his back again, gaze focused on the ceiling, too nervous to look Spock in the eye, finally ready to reveal the secret he had been holding for nearly three months now.

'Spock, I... I want... I want a child with you. I want to raise a child with you. I want to wake up in the morning and for there to be three of us. In fact, I want to wake up in the middle of the night to have to comfort a screaming pointy-eared brat. I want a tiny Starfleet baby built of me and you. I want to be the father of your child, and to teach him about space and Earth and how to deal with Vulcans. I want him to sit on my lap on the bridge and pretend he's the captain, and to be able to run to you to hold him and to teach him everything you know about me and you and us and just about how to live. I want all of that, and everything else that would come with it.' His breath was shaky when he inhaled, his heart fluttering. 'What do you think?'

There was an unbearably long pause. Jim shifted awkwardly in the bed and spun round towards his partner, an unexplainable fear rising in his throat.

'Him?' Spock said, meeting the captain's intense gaze.

'Or her,' he said, with a shrug, trying and failing to hold back the widest of grins.

'There would be... complications,' Spock said.

Jim's face fell. 'What?'

'Well, to begin with we would need a female to bear the child. We would have to establish if she were to be Terran or Vulcan, or even something else, and which of us would, in the most physical sense, father an infant. Then-'

'Spock,' Jim interrupted, 'are you agreeing with me?'

'Could you clarify the proposal?'

'For God's sake, Spock, forgetting the logistics, I'm asking, do you want a kid with me... or not?'

'Logistics notwithstanding, Captain, yes, I believe I do.'

Jim couldn't hold himself back, and launched himself at Spock, planting a firm kiss on his forehead, and laughing as the green blush rose across his face.

'I love you so much,' he said firmly, and, although he still couldn't sleep, he was happy, and it took him almost an hour to register the ache that had rapidly spread across his face, induced by the constant involuntary smiling.

When he eventually fell asleep, it was with the brightest thoughts he had had in a long time pulsing though his head, and he dreamt of things he later couldn't remember, but which left him with a tingling sensation of warmth in his stomach.

Thanks for reading! :)