Spock studied the human from his science station. His eyes trailing across the man's face, down his body, and back up to his face which shone with humour. He laughed openly as ensign Chekov told another story about times long past in Russia, his strikingly blue eyes twinkled and his mouth was curled up in an easy smile as another chuckle rolled past his lips.
The human in study was of course, none other than the captain, James Kirk. Spock often found himself watching the human as he interacted with the crew. He was open with them and Spock often found himself shamefully jealous of the way he could comfortably interact with the others aboard the ship. For all his time working aboard the Enterprise he had never been able to communicate with crew as James Kirk could. It was quite obvious that none of the on-bridge crew were as intimidated by him as they were by Spock. He seemed to fit in, less as a captain and more as another member of the crew.
Spock looked down to notice the human's fingers were idly drumming on the right armrest of the captain's chair, his left elbow resting on the other so that he could support and rest his chin upon his cradled hand. The bridge was nearly silent now beside the insistent beeping and the slight murmur of the crew above the humming of the ship. However, James Kirk's face was still resting in a smile as if he still found humour elsewhere and his eyes were shining under the lights of the bridge.
They had been traveling at warp speed for nearly three days now. No threats had been showing themselves on the radars and so they continued at their pace towards the planet Sigma Cephei III. The lack of threat and peaceful destination seemed to have a calming effect on the crew and after the Khan incident, it was a welcome change.
Captain Kirk shifted slightly in his chair and ostensibly noticing eyes on him, he turned to meet Spock's stare. His grin seemed to grow bigger and his eyes shone with, admiration? No, perhaps not. But Spock nodded his head slightly in acknowledgment and something that he could not quite put a name on seemed to flutter in his stomach and make the heart in his side stammer for a brief moment. It was strange, he thought, that such a feeling could be brought on by the captain's smile being directed towards him. It was not the first time he had after all, but this feeling was new. Something he had never experienced in his life before. Perhaps it would prove successful to run an experiment or two.
James Kirk winked at Spock, there it was again the slight skip in his heart beat, and turned to face the observation screen once again. Spock spun around to face his science station once again and mentally scolded himself for being caught openly studying the captain. Why was it that he found himself losing control when it came to captain. Yes, Spock thought, it was definitely time to run some experiments.