This is old. It was written in Oct. of 2009. It was also based off of a fanvid I saw for a song called 'Life less Ordinary' by Carbon Leaf. The vid was by CollSwan.
Bones darted through the door, trying to be quick so that the light from the hall didn't wake his hopefully sleeping roommate. He waited, holding his breath, till his eyes adjusted to the light coming from the bathroom. He probably didn't have to, as the slight snore that reached his ears told him Jim was asleep. Helped to be so by the empty bottles that were crowding the bedside table.
McCoy sighed quietly, walked over to his desk, set down his bag, then sunk wearily onto his bed. Toeing off his boots, he watch the kid sleep. It had been seven months since he had sat down next to Jim on the shuttle to the Academy. It had been the lowest point of his life. No house, no practice, no wife and worst of all, no daughter. As he told Jim, he didn't have anywhere else to go. But if he had known that he would meet Jim, aviphobia aside, he probably would have been waiting on the shuttle for him. He'd never had a better friend, and he doubted he ever would.
Yeah, Kirk was arrogant, wild, an irrepressible flirt, and an annoying pain in the ass at times, but he was also a genius - barely had to study and still got the best grades. He was pretty sure the Kid had hacked the Academy computer to make sure that they roomed together. Medical and Command track students rarely saw each other, let alone got room assignments. But most important of all, the Kid was loyal.
Two months into the start of their first term, they were getting ready to go to a party that Jim had heard of, had been talking about it all week, when Jocelyn commed him. He stood outside their room as McCoy took the call. Leonard knew that Jim heard them shouting at each other even through the thick door. Jocelyn was trying to prevent him from seeing Joanna at Christmas, even though she had agreed to it in the custody settlement, and when the call was over, Bones was in no mood to go out. He stood up to inform Jim in the hallway, but when he approached the door, it opened. Jim stood there with a six pack, a bottle of Jack and a bottle of Bourbon. McCoy grabbed the bourbon, opened it, and took a mouthful. They didn't talk, just sat on Jim's bed the rest of the night and got drunk.
He pushed that thought away as he threw his uniform coat towards his desk and yanked off the undershirt. That he tossed in the direction of the pile of clothes waiting to be laundered. He stood and undid the fastening of his pants, when a moan from the other bed froze him. His eyes darted down, half afraid that Jim would have his too-blue eyes open and watching him. Not that he would have normally cared. In the time that he and Jim had been roommates, they had seen each other in various states of undress, but after earlier...
He shook that thought out of his head as Jim rolled over from being sprawled in different directions to laying on his side, facing Bones. Leonard let his pants fall and kick them into the pile with the others. He sank back down onto his bed and contemplated his roommate.
He had come back to the room after the last class that day, glad that it was Wednesday and he didn't have class the next two days, he didn't have to be at the clinic till late on Saturday. He just wanted to catch up on some sleep and finish up an assignment or two. Jim was already there, laying on his bed, propped against his headboard, pillow stuffed behind him, and a half empty bottle of something in his hand.
He wordlessly offered the bottle to McCoy, who shook his head no and plopped down at his desk. Bones rooted around in his bag looking for his Warp Theory PADD and started working on the homework that was due in a couple of days. It was quiet for awhile, the only sound the occasional slosh of liquid from Jim's bottle. It was nice, the companionable silence, not like the awkward tense ones that filled the last months of his marriage. He worked till he couldn't stand it any more. The equations weren't making sense, his eyes ached, and back of his neck was stressed from the angle at which he was holding it. He saved his work, turned off the PADD and rested his head on the desk with a groan, pressing a hand to each temple.
He didn't move when he heard Jim get up to perch on the edge of his desk. He did let out a moan as Jim placed one hand on the back of his neck and started to massage it. The Kid seemed to know what he was doing, so he let him continue. He even might have made a murmur of approval as Jim's hands replaced his at his temples, kneading all the tension away as he relaxed more completely against his desk.
It was a few minutes later when he was in danger of falling asleep at his desk, that he realized that the massage had stopped. Jim's hand was still on his head, but it was gently carding through his hair. He lifted his head to look at Jim, who was leaning back against the wall, eyes closed, with a content look on his face. The incredibly blue eyes opened when Bones raised his head, they narrowed, then looked at his still extended hand in confusion, before focusing on Bones. The mouth parted, tongue darting out to moisten lips, while air was pulled in to say something. Whatever Jim wanted to say never came out as his hand moved to cup the side of McCoy's face. The next thing Leonard knew was that he was pushed back against the back of his chair as he suddenly had a lapful of Jim Kirk, whose lips were pressing against his.
Unsurprisingly, it took a couple of seconds for him to figure out what was happing. His hands came up to rest on Jim's hips. Jim's lips were moving against his, at first hard and unrelenting, then slowing down, gently pressing quick kisses before bringing the intensity back up again. Jim pulled back slightly, just enough for them to make eye contact. He could feel Jim's lips part to try to say something again, could almost read it in his eyes, but before Bones could pin it down completely, Jim kissed him again. He could feel the tip of Jim's tongue licking at the seam of his lips. He started to lean into the kiss and open his mouth, taking in the taste of Jim and the alcohol he had been drinking.
Wait.
He tried to pull back a little, but Jim's whimper and the hand in his hair held him close. His conscience was nagging at him that he shouldn't be doing this. He shouldn't be kissing Jim like this because he had only been divorced for seven months, and, well, it was JIM! His Best Friend, who was drunk.
That thought, more than any other, had him pushing back, sending the chair clattering to the floor. Jim fell back, smacking his head against the desk. He stood in the middle of he room, breathing heavily. Jim stood, one hand rubbing the back of his head, the other partially outstretched towards Bones, a look of confused hurt on his face. Mouth open to say to say something that Bones never heard as he grabbed his bag and left. He hid in the library until it closed, then sat on the steps to their dorm until he was sure that Jim would have been asleep.
He sighed again, stood and pulled the sheet up to get into bed. He froze again as he heard something.
"By the way," Jim said, his voice clear of sleep and alcohol, "I know why you stayed away. I will keep tongue tied next time."
They didn't talk about it the next day, which was helped by the fact that they didn't see each other. They didn't talk about it the day after that either, each keeping to their side of the room. McCoy did think that Kirk was being strangely quiet, actually working on his assignments, but he wasn't going to upset their unspoken agreement not to speak. By Monday, Kirk was back to his usual self. He woke up way too early, bounced around the room and rambled on about things that Bones had no interest in before coffee, which Jim shoved a cup of into his hands on the way to their first class. As the day wore on, McCoy let out a sigh of relief that their friendship wasn't going to suffer because of what happened.
As their first year wore on one thing did change. Jim's reputation went from being just an uncontainable flirt, to someone who was known for sleeping around. In their second year, everyone at the Academy knew that James T. Kirk was nothing more than a player, and by the third year, well... if there was a term worse than Manwhore, McCoy didn't know it.
And if somewhere in his chest, a muscle that hadn't been used since Jocelyn sued for divorce gave a twinge or two, well that was the stress of being a student again, and the work load at the clinic, and had nothing to do with his infuriating roommate.
He was thinking of having someone at the clinic examine him when the twinges became a dull ache, because it had to be something medical and didn't have anything to do with the fact that Jim was sticking his tongue down the throat of some random girl he just met ten minutes ago. Or maybe it was the thought that Jim might try and bring her back to the dorm room, or that Jim didn't know who else she had already been with and he wasn't treating for what ever he might pick up...and the warm tingle on his lips, that was the Bourbon, not a remembrance of how Jim's lips felt against his.
The rapidly expanding warm ache in his chest was also not the reason that he couldn't leave Jim behind when the distress call from Vulcan came in. He would absolutely deny that the thought of leaving the planet without Jim by his side scared him more then space itself. He would also claim that the wall he punched when he heard that the pointed-eared-green-blooded-hobgoblin-of-a-bastard had ejected Jim from the ship was already dented from the previous attack. The knot in the pit of his stomach was only contained by the fact that he believed what he had told Spock. Jim would somehow get back on the ship.
When it was all over, the Narada was destroyed, Pike stabilized, the Enterprise limping back to Earth on impulse and the only people in the med bay were those too injured to return to their quarters. Only then did Jim hesitantly stumble into the sick bay.
McCoy said nothing, just pointed to a biobed. Jim carefully hoisted himself onto it. Bones ran a scanner over him, making disgruntled noises all the while.
"You have severe bruising all over, two fractured ribs and one broken one." The scanner made a high pitched chirping noise as it passed over Jim's throat. "This is too much damage for Spock to have done. No, don't speak. I want you to rest your throat as much as possible." The scanner chirped again. "Dammit Jim! How many times were you strangled?"
Jim sheepishly held up a hand with three fingers raised. McCoy's sigh was one of exasperation, annoyance and maybe, just a little bit of understanding. "Only you would nearly get strangled to death three times in one day! Don't move." he said as he left to get bandages to wrap Jim's ribs. He made sure that they weren't too tight to keep the kid distracted and he reached over an grabbed a hypo. "I'm sorry about this, Jim," he said, "but I gotta." Jim's eyes widened in realization as Bones grabbed the scruff of his neck and pressed the hypo to the side of it. As the metal pressed against his neck, Jim squeezed his eyes shut, but then snapped them open in surprise. Leonard just huffed at him.
"You think I'm going to do more damage to your neck? Besides, I'm a Doctor! 'Do no harm', remember?" Kirk just rolled his eyes, obviously remembering all the other hypos Bones had given him. McCoy finished rewrapping the hand that had been injured on the drill and was giving him a look of fond annoyance or annoyed fondness. He wasn't sure which one.
"Here," he said, handing Kirk a cup of water. "Take a small-small- sip and tell me how your throat feels. The painkillers should be working enough to allow you to speak. Thought maybe I should have left you speechless. Be a quieter trip home that way."
Kirk did as he was instructed, swishing the water around in his mouth and letting it trickle down his throat.
"It's okay, Bones." he said, voice still rough, but it was obvious that he wasn't in any pain. Leonard nodded once and started putting his equipment away. He slipped something in his pocket before he motioned for Jim to follow him. They walked down the corridors till they reached McCoy's quarters. Once inside, he pushed Jim towards the bunk.
"Sleep, Jim." he said, placing the extra hypo on the bedside table. Jim eyed it warily. "Relax, it's just an antihistamine. What I gave you earlier is one of the few painkillers we haven't tried on your allergy-ridden ass. Who knows how you'll react to it." Kirk just glared at him before stripping down to his boxers and flopping onto the bunk, turning on his side to face Bones who was laying on his back. After a few minutes, he could feel Jim's eyes on him.
"What do you want, Jim?" he turned to face him. "Are you having a reaction?" he tried to sit up an grab the hypo, but Jim's hand on his chest stopped him. The smirk that Jim had on his lips was familiar, but the look in his eyes wasn't. Whatever it meant was causing the warm ache in his chest to flare up and his heart to thump a little more forcefully against his ribcage.
"You could say I'm having a reaction, Bones. I know myself very well...at least as far as I can tell." Uncertainly flashed across his face for a second, before his resolve firmed and he look in his eyes intensified. "I Love You."
Bones froze. He stared at Jim in shock. His breath held in his lungs, and his heart stalled for a beat before pounding against his chest bone. The warmth exploded, traveling up to scorch the roots of his hair and speeding down his legs to tingle the tips of his toes.
Completely astonished, he realized he knew this feeling! He felt lighter, and part of him just wanted to grin absurdly. He had felt it twice before in his life: The day he got married, and the day that Joanna was born. It was the feeling of being completely in love. He refocused on Jim, whose smirk had softened to a genuine smile.
He met Jim's electric blue eyes; they seemed to sparkle in the star light coming from the window. Or, what he could see of them, anyway. Jim's pupils were dilated. He frowned, and didn't see when Jim's smile faltered as well. The doctor in him reassessed the situation. Pupils dilated, breathing erratic, obviously delusional. Jim was right, he was having a reaction to the medication. He let out the breath he still held slowly. At least this time he didn't require medical attention to fix it.
"No you don't, Jim." he sighed again, closing his eyes. "You're just high off the meds. Just sleep it off." he rolled over to face the room, away from Jim. He didn't see Jim's face go blank before he settled down next to him. He laid there in the dark, listing to Jim's breath even out as he drifted to sleep. The heat of Jim's body warmed his back, making his heart clench. It really was the way his life was going lately to make this realization just now when their future was still a little uncertain.
Saving the Earth aside, there was no guarantee that when they returned that both of them weren't going to face an disciplinary hearing far worse than the one Jim faced about the Kobayashi Maru. And if they survived that, there was still no promise that they would serve on the same ship. He startled slightly as Jim's arm snaked around his waist and he rolled on his side to spoon against Bones. McCoy reached down and intertwined their fingers before bringing the hand up and pressing it against his heart.
If he was assigned to a ship at all. His adviser knew he would prefer a post, if not on Earth, then on solid ground somewhere. The thought that Starfleet Command would let Jim keep his Captaincy, let alone the Enterprise never even entered his mind as he finally drifted to sleep.
McCoy let his gaze wander. He was laying on a blanket on one of the less frequented quads on Campus. Night had fallen about an hour ago, but the temperature hadn't cooled off to the point were it was uncomfortable to be outside. He shifted slightly, hands reforming his coat into a better pillow. His eyes darted from one group of stars to another, tracing out the constellations like he had done as a child, when the thought that people went into space was just an abstract. He wondered how long it would be before he saw them again, from this vantage point, at least. He knew he was going to see them. Hell, he was going to spend the next five years living among them.
His eyes circled wildly, trying to find the easiest to identify. He had to twist his head a little to find the three stars of Orion's belt. With his complete lack of knowledge in stellar cartography, he briefly wondered if the Orion system was anywhere near those stars. He sighed as bright red curls and an excited smile flashed across his mind. He hadn't known Gaila well, but he would have liked to know her better. It was impossible now; she had been on the USS Hood.
Their memorial service had been today.
He laced his hands behind his head, looking straight up again at the handle of the big dipper. He didn't say anything at the clinking sound to his left as Jim set two bottles safely on the blanket before flopping down next to him, knees raised, wrists dangling from them. He flicked the cap off both of the beers, handed one to Bones, tapped them together and took a swig from the one he kept.
Leonard lifted up just enough to take a sip. Out of the corner of his eye he watched his roommate, best friend and now, heaven forbid, his Captain! Truthfully, though, Jim had surprised him. In the two months since they had returned to Earth, Jim had met every challenge that Command had thrown at him with a maturity Bones had never seen in him. The calmness of it seemed to glow out of him.
And it wasn't just from a desperate need to keep what he thought of as his ship, or the weight of all the death and destruction he had witnessed. Those were part of it, he thought, but it was more as if Jim had passed some sort of test he had set up for himself. As if being in command, having people listen to him, had proven that he could do it. That he wasn't all cocky attitude and arrogant swagger. That he didn't have to live up to the legend of a father he had never known, he just had to concentrate on making his own.
Jim moved to rest the bottle on the ground. His hand stayed on the ground next to it, inches away from Leonard's own. McCoy's hand twitched with a sudden urge to entwine their fingers, to touch Jim in some way, as the moonlight seemed to shine off his blond hair and sparkle in his eyes. Instead he frowned and took another sip. Damm kid had him making up poetry! He sighed, switched the bottle to the other hand and stuck the free hand under his head.
After a few more minutes of silence between them, a sigh from Jim drew his attention. He glanced over just in time to see Jim's eyes shoot back to the sky. Though now, there was an air of sadness that hung off Jim's drooping shoulders. As if just noticing Bones' gaze, Kirk barely turned his head and threw his a hurried smile before looking back up. McCoy could tell something was hiding behind the smile, but it was too quick for him to tell what.
"Jim?" he asked sitting up.
"Yeah, Bones?" Jim asked, not looking. But McCoy didn't say anything else, not until Kirk turned to meet his eyes. There were many emotions flashing through Jim's eyes but the only one that Bones could catch was distress.
"Jim, what's wrong."
"It's nothing, it's just..." he sighed, falling back to lay down. His eyes traced McCoy's face, voice subdued. "I'm a saddend man, I'm a broken boy," he gestured up to the sky with the bottle. "I'm a toddler with a complex toy." he looked back up at the night sky. Leonard followed his gaze to the bright dot that was neither star or planet.
Star Base 1, or StarDock some called it, where the Enterprise, completely repaired and shiny as new, was waiting for her crew to return to were both quiet for another minute. Leonard could see the distress fading to be replaced with uncertainty. "It's our last night on Earth, Bones. Starting tomorrow, and for the next five years, four hundred lives will be in my hands. It's a lot of responsibility. And while I know that this is what I've been waiting my whole life for, it's still nerve wracking. I'm glad you're going to be there, Bones." Jim said softly. McCoy turned his head to look at Jim. The kid was looking at he as well. "I couldn't do this with out you" Jim's breath ghosted over his lips.
Jim seemed about to say something else, the tip of his tongue peaking out to wet his lips. McCoy followed the motion with his eyes and felt his neck muscles straining to keep from moving the short distance between them. Instead he looked up an cleared his throat.
"Of course I'm going to be there." He said. I think I'll follow where ever you lead, his mind whispered. "Who else is going to be able to talk you out of your hare-brained ideas, or be able to patch you up afterwards?"
"Yeah." Jim sighed. They fell into silence again. A breeze started, just enough to add a slight chill to the air. It ruffled Leonard's bangs, sending them across his eyes.
"You have a good crew, Jim. Uhura, Sulu, Scotty, hell, even the kindergartner is the best any Captain could ask for! Trust them to do their jobs, and everything will be fine." he paused, "Did the hobgoblin ever get back to you about being First Officer?"
"Not yet." He finished his drink. "Well, I'm going in. Big day tomorrow." He stood and held out a hand. "You coming?"
"Yeah." McCoy said, standing and folding the blanket, and picking up the bottles, watching Jim as he slowly walked back to the dorms.
I'll follow where ever you lead.
For some reason, that night two years ago was on McCoy's mind as he watched Jim from across the bonfire. He took a small sip of the deep red liquid that was considered an delicacy here on Sarthong IX-a. Sarthong IX itself was a gas giant, but its one small M-Class moon supported life for the Cabbits. A primitive Humanoid species that, besides their slightly elongated limbs, differed from humans mostly in their pastel skin tones. Each of the three tribes that lived on the moon were a different color. The Tant clan were a light mint green in color, the Mport's had no one darker than baby blue, and the Impor were all lavender.
The negotiations had gone smoothly. They had been in orbit for two months. Most of the time had been spent trying to communicate and then getting to know each others cultures. The actual talks took all of a week. The three tribes agreeing, not so much to join the Federation, but enter into a trade agreement with them. Tonight was the last night they were going to be in orbit and the Cabbits' had insisted on celebrating the singing of the Contract of Friendship. All the senior officers were invited to beam down. McCoy was just happy that Jim had completed a mission and had not needed his medical services at all. That was a damm miracle!
He took another sip, extremely glad that the consistency was not as thick as the color made him think it should be. He looked around, wondering how many more missions like this they would be going on. The rumor mill had it that the Brass had a debate going on that missions like these were against General Order 1. Political part of it aside, he thought that it would be a shame, as his eyes drifted to the right and landed on Uhura. She seemed to glow as she spoke to the natives trying to pick up the syntax and nuances in the three different dialects. Spock sat next to her, his expression blank, but Leonard knew, in his own way, he was sharing Uhura's enjoyment.
A laugh to his other side drew his attention. Sulu was demonstrating some sort of fencing move to a group of the Mports. The move looked silly without an actual sword in Sulu's hand. Which would explain why Chekov was on the ground, holding his stomach, laughing. The kid had grown on him in the last two years and there was no one he trusted more at tactical than him.
Scotty was on the far side of Sulu. He was also surrounded by a group of locals. These were all older, and judging by the amount of containers in the middle of their circle, Bones would bet that the crazy engineer was teaching them some demented drinking game.
Completing the circle brought him back to watching Jim across the bonfire talking to the leaders of the Counsel. I'Cal stood half a head taller then Jim. His lavender skin was washed out in the low light from the fire. His hair, which was white with only the slightest tinges of purple in it seemed to shine. M'Lof could have been mistaken for an Andorian if not for his hair, which matched his skin tone completely. T'Nol was the oldest of the three, and Bones couldn't help thinking, with the brown age spots and streaks in his hair, it looked like someone had spilt Mint chocolate chip ice cream over him. Jim was smiling as they talked, and it was a real smile. The fire reflected of highlights in his hair that usually remained hidden in ships lighting. His eye caught McCoy staring, he turned slightly, smirked, and resumed the conversation. Leonard took another sip, he was starting to think that the drink was slightly alcoholic.
Movement to his right had him turning his head. I'Teel, daughter of I'Cal was standing a few steps away. She moved her hand, which had been by her side, in a fluid motion in a circle so that it was palm up in front of her. He finished the greeting hand motion by rotation his hand so that his palm was hovering about hers. After that he patted the empty space next to him.
"Have a seat." She gracefully folded her legs under her and sat down. This close he could see that the lavender skin was complemented by ice blue eyes. The color was also streaked through her hair. She was very pretty.
"Doctor McCoy, are you enjoying the celebration?" she asked slowly, enunciating every word. Leonard knew that she didn't have any trouble understanding, but pronouncing was a different task.
"Yes, I am." He tiled his glass towards her.
"I am glad. Father and the others are very happy to make your aqut...aquent...acquaintance?" she tried, frowning slightly.
"That's right, darlin'." He blinked, yep, definitely alcoholic. "We're happy to get to know you as well." They sat in silence for awhile. He did notice that she keep glancing over at him, then she would look away. One time she opened her mouth, but quickly closed it. Small talk was never his thing, that was one of Jocelyn bigger complaints. And it was obvious that she wanted to ask him something, so he gave her an opening. "What ever you want to say, just say it darlin'."
"I apologize, Doctor McCoy." she said, ducking her head as a darker purple flashed across her face. "There is a question I wish to ask. It would be impertinent to any of my people, but as our cultures are different, I wondered if it was for your people as well. I do not wish to give offence."
"Well," he drawled out, his accent thickening, "You won't know until you ask. You can ask your question and I won't hold it against you if it is. The whole point of us being here is to get to know each other." the darker purple color was now edging down her neck and across what he could see of her shoulders, yet she looked relived.
"Why do you have so many names?" she asked quietly.
"Huh? What do you mean? I only got the one, darlin'."
"You are called many things. Doctor, McCoy, Leonard, and one of your people called you Len."
"Oh, I see." He looked around at the small number of people in each tribe. They had come together for the negotiations, but the three tribes didn't normally live near each other. "You've never had a child named the same thing as someone else in the tribe?" she shook her head no. "Okay, what if the tribes came together, like now, and somehow there was another I'Teel? How would you know which 'I'Teel' someone was speaking to?" she tilted her head. Her color returning to its normal pale purple.
"We would," she said slowly, this time lost in thought, "be of different tribes, so if someone wanted to speak to me they would ask for I'Teel of the Impor tribe." she looked at him, the desire for approval on her face.
"Exactly." he said with a smile. "But that's pretty long to say. After awhile people would stop saying 'of the' and just say I'Teel Impor. That's what happened on my world. A very long time ago, I would have been called Leonard of the McCoy clan, but over the years, as our population grew, we stopped saying the 'of the' part and now I'm just Leonard McCoy. Leonard is my name. McCoy is what my family is called. People call me Len because it's a short way of saying my name. Understand?" she nodded, and he thought that she really did. "Good. Doctor is my title. It tells people what my job is. Like your Father is the Chief of your tribe."
"And what Captain Kirk calls you? I noticed that he is the only one to call you that. What was it?"
"Bones." McCoy sighed. Trying to think of a way to explain a moniker to a culture that didn't even have last names yet. "It's what we call a nickname. Sometimes we call people a name because of something that happened or they did or that they make us think of. Like, since the day she was born, I've always called my daughter 'Baby girl', she is no longer a baby, but she will always be my baby girl."
"Oh," I'Teel exclaimed. "Like how my Father calls me Precious one?"
"Yeah," Bones smiled, "Just like that. With the Captain, though, it's a little different. He calls me Bones because of something I said the day we met, about only having my bones."
"That wasn't it." McCoy looked up to see Jim and I'Cal standing next to them.
"The entertainment is about to start." I'Cal said, holding a hand out to his daughter. She gave him a strange look, but stood and left with him. Jim chuckled after they were out of hearing range, kneeling down next to him.
"I think he thought you might take her up on her offer. Fathers are always over protective."
"Huh?"
"You didn't know?"
"Know what?"
"Bones!" Jim laughed. "Didn't you see her change colors? She was telling you that she wouldn't mind if you wanted to spend the night with her. You really didn't know that? " He laughed harder at the shocked look on McCoy's face. "If you knew," he asked, voice suddenly sobering, "would you have accepted the offer?"
"Jim!" Leonard said, horrified. "She fifteen! Of course I wouldn't have taken the offer. She's to young to be making the offer."
"Primitive society, they grow up faster."
"Yeah, right. So what was the reason you dubbed me with this name if not for what I said?"
"Well, it wasn't only for that reason.
"Then what was the other reason?" Jim caught his eyes, the flickering of the fire making the blue deeper.
"The reason I call you that, Leonard McCoy, it because the day you came into my life you took the bones of me. Blew away my storm and strife and shook the bones of me." With that he stood up and walked over the where Uhura was still conversing with the locals and stared up a conversation with Spock. Leaving McCoy with a heart that was thumping so hard it seemed like it was trying to break free.
It wasn't too much later that the entertainment did start. It started when I'Cal stood up, gathering everyone's attention. He made a short speech in his own language. Then he started to sing. It was pleasant, McCoy thought, not high pitched or too low. He wondered what the song meant, but by the look on Uhura's face, it could only mean good things. T'Nol was the next to perform. The dance he enacted looked a little like some kind of martial arts kata to Leonard. A lot of kicks and swirling hand motions. M'Lof somehow managed to combine the two and not only not be out of breath, but make it look easy.
After he sat down, the crowd turned too look at Jim. Bones chuckled at the shocked look on his face. Uhura placed her hand on Jim's shoulder, leaned in and whispered in his ear. McCoy watched as they had a short conversation between them. Uhura seemed to be getting her feet under her to stand. Jim grabbed her wrist and place his other hand on her should to press her back into her seat. He swallowed once, before looking around at everybody present, then shook his head once and stood up.
"Okay, I never claimed that this was one of the things I could actually do, so don't laugh too much." He pointed at his crew. McCoy smiled, wondering how much Jim was going to embarrass himself and how long the blackmail would last.
He started by tapping against his leg, nodding his head with the beat. Then he began humming, quietly at first, but growing louder as he gained confidence in what he was doing. The vocalizing began then. His voice was strong and clear. Uhura looked impressed.
Bones didn't want to think about what hearing Jim make those kind of sounds were doing to him, but he did pull his knees up and wrap his arms around them. He shook his head once and started listening as Jim began singing then. He was obviously making it up as he went along. The first stanza was about the Enterprise, and the point of their mission. The second was about meeting the people of Sarthong IX-a. the Council elders smiling at the mention of each of their tribes and the reason for the festivities. At that point, Jim moved onto the crew. He only paused slightly between each section as he moved from Sulu to Chekov to Uhura to Scotty to Spock, letting them laugh, clap, blush or raise an eyebrow at their Captain's praise.
At last he faced Leonard, the look in Jim's eye made Bones catch his breath.
Then he started to sing again.
"If I could name you in this song
Would it make you smile and sing along
This is the goal, to get into your soul
If I could make you dance for joy
Could that be my second chance, McCoy?"
Bones' heart was pounding, he was gasping for breath. The look in Jim's eye was serious, trying to make sure the McCoy understood what he was saying. It couldn't mean what he wanted it to. He'd given up hope for that over two years ago, if he'd ever had it. Jim broke the eye contact, finished up the end of the song and sat down next to Spock and Uhura. He didn't look at McCoy for the rest of the night.
The ship's clock had just switched over to the new day. McCoy was standing in the observation lounge, watching the streaks of light that passed for planets and stars at warp. They had beamed back up only a half hour ago and he had come here instead of his quarters. Space travel still scared him, only a thin piece of plexi-glass between him and the vacuum, but his aviphobia paled in comparison to being transported. Just the idea of being broken down into his component atoms terrified him. But his thoughts tonight were, for once, not on how technology constantly failed, but on the serious look in Jim's eyes when he explained why he calls him 'Bones' and the sly smirk on his lips that tried to hide the pleading tone when he sang the line.
"This is the goal, to get into your soul.
Could this be my second chance, McCoy?"
To say that Bones was confused was and understatement. If he looked at this from an outsiders point of view, it seemed like Jim was laying it on a little thick. In the five years he had known Jim, he would say that his seduction technique was a lot more subtle. Of course, he was never trying to seduce McCoy before and Leonard wanted to know why now? Because tonight couldn't have been anything else. Why would Jim put their friendship at risk over this? Though, maybe he wasn't giving Jim enough credit.
The thought that Jim might return his feelings was hard to grasp. Jim could, and had, proven that he could get any one he wanted. Why would he want a cantankerous, sarcastic, divorced doctor? He heard the hiss of the door opening behind him.
"We my no means live ordinary lives," Jim said, stepping up next to McCoy, "But I think we could do better. You know, that was on of the things that Pike said to me the night he recruited me. He said that I could enlist or stay in Riverside and live a less then ordinary life." Bones turned to his best friend. Jim was still looking out the window. When he finally met Bones' gaze, Leonard watched as all of his defenses dropped.
He watched as the cocky self-assurance faded away, leaving a vulnerable hopefulness that the conversation would go the way he wanted it to. A bit of caution, not wanting to be hurt again, but willing to risk it if Bones felt the same way. Hope that he believed this time. That Bones didn't dismiss it as Jim being drunk or high or being sex starved. Just believe that Jim Kirk was in love with his best friend, had been in love for four years, and was the best friend ready to accept that love.
McCoy couldn't help it, he started laughing. And in a way, it was funny. The realization that if he had opened his damm eyes and saw all the times that Jim tried to tell him for what they were, they could have been together for five years now.
The day they kissed, Jim was drinking at three in the afternoon on a Wednesday. He was a lot of things, but Jim always keep the drinking for the weekend. After Nero, well, after a near death experience it was normal to let the people you care about know and dammit, he wasn't just a doctor, he was Jim's doctor! He knew what and how drugs affected him. And tonight, Jim singing with his heart on his sleeve, battering at McCoy's obliviousness. He wrapped a hand over his aching stomach. He looked up and gave one last chuckle at the perplexed-hurt-loving look on Jim's face.
"Dammit Jim," he said. He grabbed the back of Jim's neck and smashed their lips together. Jim let out a startled squeak, eyes widening, before he wrapped his arms around Bones' shoulders. Leonard relaxed his grip a little, then started to kiss his best friend in earnest. He wasn't sure how long they stood there kissing, the only semi coherent thought in his head was how to get to his quarters. They pulled back, gasping for breath. Jim rested his forehead against his. His sight was filled with the amazing blue of Jim's eyes and he could just see a hint of the smile that was resting on his lips.
"So what do you say, Bones? Want to live a life extraordinary with me?"