A/N: Why do I keep writing weird, abstract character studies about my favourite Kirk? Who knows. (Good thing I don't own Star Trek.) Enjoy! xx

They knew the rumours. Or course they did, of course they heard the whispers, just as they heard the shouts. Kirk was too young, too reckless, too wild, but mostly just too crazy. He couldn't be sane, everyone seemed to agree, taking on an angry Vulcan and using technology that didn't even exist and breaking far too many rules to save far too many lives. He couldn't be sane.

Of course they knew the rumours. They were young too. They were at the academy with him, on the Enterprise with him when he faced their certain deaths and told it to piss off. Plenty of them knew the rumours because they helped spread them. People like Jim Kirk didn't usually have many friends, but he certainly made for a good conversation starter.

They knew the rumours. They thought they were prepared.

(They weren't.)

First day on board, he delivers a riveting yet short-lived inspirational speech that leaves the ship silent in awe and no small amount of indignation, laughter, and even tears. He knows all of their names, their dreams, their friends and family. It'd be unnerving, but it's Kirk.

They all see him within the first week of their first journey, which they assume is normal but later find out is far from it. He's hanging from the rafters in engineering, tinkering with an engine, fingers dripping with oil. He's neck-deep into the replicators in the kitchens, popping out with a smile and a shout of triumph as the gears whirr into life. He's bouncing around medbay with a smile and a kind word for anyone who needs it, dodging the doctor's hypos with a practised grace. He's one with his ship and his crew is one with him, and that's okay because he's Crazy Kirk and they wouldn't really want him any other way.

There are times when they wish he wasn't the way he was. Times when they're bleeding, pushed behind a wall gripping a phaser as everything goes wrong yet again. Times they fall into bed fully-clothed, too tired to even take their shoes off, bone-deep exhaustion setting in because Kirk gives them his all and expects nothing less from them, nothing less than the best on his precious ship. Times when they have to sit through an extra interrogation because he's broken another too-necessary rule and everybody suffers for it.

There are times where they remember the rumours and they curse the reality that is so much more vibrant than what they expected, but those times are few and far between, for the most part.

Usually, he's just Kirk. Kirk who knows their birthdays and shortens their hours on them, Kirk who smiles louder than he talks, Kirk who hides a lightning-fast mind behind his pretty blue eyes. He's their captain. He's their Kirk and they're his crew and that's the way it's supposed to be and the only way they can imagine it ever being. Jim's crew are all a little in love with him, if they're being honest, which they aren't, but if they were being honest they'd say that they love him for being him, even if he is entirely insane.

Does loving him make them crazy too?

They begun to realise, slowly, that Kirk's crazy is catching, and the proof is right there in the fact that they aren't concerned in the slightest. They hug each other when they're happy, they click their jaws when they're upset, and they beam so brightly that everybody else has to. They laugh at the guns pointed at them, roll their eyes at the needless new starfleet rules, and jump of cliffs to save someone at the bottom without thinking about how to get back out again. The crazy is most certainly catching, but.

If this was insanity, it wasn't that bad.