Day after day after day on the USS Enterprise were all the same. The times where the crew would be beamed down to another planet were few and few between.
It also sucked for romances on the starship. Relationships were unable to be fueled by danger when there was none to be to Kirk, it seemed as though that was all that his short-lived relationships thrived on.
So, after a long while of not having any kind of successful romance in his life, he decided to not even risk it for a while. Why try if it's going to suck, right?
Kirk sat in his captain's chair for hours and hours, then walked the whole enterprise just to check up on everything (mostly because he was bored). He spent most of that time in with Scotty, in mechanics. He would go there for the last half of his round trip and help Scotty with whatever he needed.
Mainly he would help, and if you asked him he would claim that all he did was help, but he also did a touch of flirting. His replies would be a little off-beat on occasion. He would, if confronted, maybe call it teasing but never in the flirting kind of way.
When Scotty would lean over, tightening some bolt or screw or whatever it was (Kirk wasn't particularly interested), Kirk would brush his hand over his back. A kind of ghost touch; hardly even there.
He did it just enough so that Scotty knew that he was doing it but didn't overdo it so much that Scotty could call him out on it without any doubt.
Scotty had never mentioned it though, so Kirk began thinking that he wasn't thinking big enough in his teasing.
Now, when he was in the depths of the ship, with Scotty, he watched the mechanic fiddle with the ship rather than actually offer much assistance. He watched him and tried to think about what he would do to get under the man's skin with a bit more grandeur than he had previously attempted.
On the fifth day of Kirk not offering Scotty any help; Scotty noted aloud that something was up.
"Don't want to help me anymore, mate?" Maybe because Scotty's head and torso were deep in the ship but mainly because Kirk was too staring at his butt, he wasn't heard by the captain.
After getting no reply to his remark, Scotty drew himself back out from the inside of the inside of the ship. "Hey, don't want to help me now do ye?" He repeated after clearing his throat to get his captain's attention.
"Oh! Yeah, I would help but you know. I just figured you've got it on your own. I'm probably more of a burden in mechanics than an asset." Kirk lied, he knew Scotty always appreciated it when he helped, "Figured I could still come down here and hang though. Still making my rounds, and you know my knees have been a little sore lately too..."
"You droning on isn't helping sell your lie, captain." Scotty set his wrench on the ground. "I know that you've been staring at my ass."
Kirk denied it, because why not try.
"Really mate, don't try to deny that. I just told you that I knew it. Why lie if i'm not huffin and puffin all mad right now, ae?"
"Do you know?"
"Yes, you're not quite as sneaky as you like to believe, captain." There was silence for a minute or two as captain Kirk soaked in what Scotty had said before about how he wasn't mad about his captain staring at his butt. For once the captain was at lost for words.
"So, whaty'da think about it then?"
"What?" said Kirk, regaining his composure.
"'bout my ass, captain. You oughta have something to say."
"Oh, um." Kirk's composure was gone again.
"You stared so long you've gotta say something."
"It was good." He lied again, it was much better than good. He wasn't going to get Scotty the satisfaction of hearing what he wanted hear from his captain. He figured Scotty would just brush it off when all he got was a good in response. For what wasn't the first time, the captain figured wrong.
"Just good, mate? Really?" The mechanic was testing him. He knew Kirk wanted to say more and wanted to test the waters. See how far his captain would go.
"Better than Spock's."
"Is that e'en a complement, captain?"
"Pretty damn hot." The both just kind of looked at each other again and Kirk was anxious to see his crewmates reaction. Kirk wondered if he had already overstepped his grounds and Scotty wondered whether his captain would kiss him or not.
Then Scotty just kind of quirkily smiled and Kirk knew that it was ok when he leaned down to reach the mechanic, who was on his knees on the ground, took his head in his hands and pressed their lips together. He also knew that even if that smile didn't mean hey, kirk, kiss me that it would be worth it because it was so cute of him.
Good thing was, that Scotty immediately began to kiss him back. And they just kind of kept kissing, long past probably when either of them assumed that they would quit kissing. Kirk pressed Scotty's back onto the ground and kissed him more. Then Captain Kirk was called to the bay by Spock and he had to go. Of course not before giving his mechanic another peck to the lips before, though.
