Disclaimer: I own nada. This goes for all chapters.
Chapter 1: Jim
Sam was dead. He'd been dead a while. He was gone before he was dead. Just… left. Left Jim with an abusive stepfather and a mother who couldn't have cared less. The night Frank beat him so badly he hadn't been able to go to school for 5 days was the night he realized he didn't have a brother. Even if he still loved Sam when the older boy didn't seem to return the favor.
But that was alright now. Because he had a new brother. Someone who protected him, sacrificed for him, loved him even if he didn't like to show it. Spock. The Vulcan/Human hybrid who had just walked in and made Jim feel safer than he ever had before.
Spock, his big brother. The way he taught Jim (and it must have practically killed the man, Jim had started so bad compared to Spock) to play chess, until the student occasionally, (occasionally!) surpassed the teacher. The way he would often times literally stand between Jim and danger, intercepting angry Klingons, poisonous spikes, and Jim from making angry Klingons. The way he was always there with information whenever Jim needed it. The silent support speaking volumes from his shoulder.
Spock was there, constant, steady, the calm in the storm. When Jim finally broke down crying, and fighting, Spock was there, allowing Jim to pound fists that lacked true fight against his chest, until he finally collapsed. And Spock had scooped Jim up into his arms and held him against everything.
That beloved, steady, baritone had never ceased to tell him how he had never failed, how he was a good captain and a better man. Those gentle fingers that had brushed the tears from his eyes, the hair from his forehead.
Spock. Consistent. Reliable. Gently letting Jim know his emotions in that special way that no one else could read, that was only ever meant for Jim.
Jim, curled up against Spock's side, looking out at the universe that sometimes seemed much too large. But knowing that his universe was right beside him, his brother and friend who knew him so much more than anything else in any world.
The raised eyebrow of a teasing older brother. The dry humor than always made Jim smile. And even though Jim commanded him, there was always a sense of difference, something that turned Jim's head when Spock gave a suggestion. Other than, of course, that Spock was almost always right.
Spock had filled every role of big brother, the comforting reassurance, the gentle looks Jim couldn't put into words. The way he teased Jim gently. The way he was always there. Reliable. Always willing to put aside his own pain for Jim's. Always willing to sacrifice himself for Jim, to the point where Jim sometimes watched his own back simply because he knew that if he missed something the knife would end up in Spock.
After a hard mission or a long day Jim would inevitably end up with Spock over a game of chess. There had been so many times he had eventually fallen asleep in Spock's quarters after ranting and talking and trying to make sense of everything and anything, only to wake to being laid in Spock's bed with a note telling him that his presence was not required on the bridge for another 0400 hours.
Spock was his big brother and his touchstone and center. The one person who could keep him safe from being corrupted and broken by a universe that wanted nothing more than to ruin him, to break him down into shattered pieces of glass. But Spock was there to keep him whole. To keep him alive. And Jim would never let that go for anything.