Chapter Two: An Alien Concept
"Damn it, Jim! How long does it take to put on a pair of fake eyebrows, get your backside out of the bathroom."
A slanted brow, dark and amused, was cast in the direction of the locked bathroom door before James T. Kirk returned his attention to the mirror before him. He grinned at the face that stared back, one eyebrow pale and blonde and distinctly human and the other dark and ominous, yet to be hidden under the make up and plastic putty he worked in slender hands.
"Wake up early tomorrow and you may get a slot."
His response was met only by a sharp kick delivered to the wooden frame by his brother Sam, which was seconds later followed by their mother's shout of indignation. Jim snorted at his reflection, working his brow to loosen the blasted putty and tossing his collar-length blonde hair to one side to peer at his ears. A small curved cuff made of leather and in-lined with velvet hid the near invisible point perfectly, fitted with silver rings to be something of a fashion statement, rather than something to find odd on a nineteen year old human male.
Jim shrieked when he was suddenly met with the sight and sound of the bathroom door banging open, Sam's grin all but manic as he brandished the spare key he must have dug out of some God forsaken drawer.
"Out!" The tawny haired youth all but demanded, his blue eyes sparking and his legs crossed in such a way that Jim had to chuckle as he was man-handled from the bathroom and the door was shut with a bang behind him. Winona rolled her eyes as she passed him by, a stack of Padds tucked under one arm as she attempted to restrain her curly blonde hair one-handed.
"You shouldn't rile him up so, Jimmy, you know he's panicked enough about going off planet with the new job."
Jim sighed as he took the devices from her, "he's my brother, if I can't torment him, I can't torment anyone! He should have taken uncle Chris' advice and joined Starfleet with me he'd have another four years of training before he even had to look at a starship."
Winona puffed out her cheeks as she took the Padds from him, careful not to allow her fingers to brush against his. Her touch was one he adored but as he had grown so had the sensitivity of his hands. Hand to hand contact was something her James had grown to avoid like the plague. "Yes, well, Sam is Sam and leave him do as he'll do. You're different, Jimmy, you're gonna do different things."
"I know I'm different, mum."
The rebuke was a soft one, said with an easy smile though Jim's body grew tense and Winona sighed at her words. "I didn't mean it like that, James." Her hand came up to touch his cheek briefly, her smile soft. "you're my son and you're Sam's brother. Nothing will ever change that. You being different has made you all the more special."
"Yeah, special," the blonde rolled his eyes as he followed the smaller woman down the stairs, hoisting a backpack from the table onto his shoulder with ease, "special enough to warrant one on one tutorial as a kid and never be allowed to play with anyone else. Took me falling in the garden and spurting green blood for me to realise I wasn't normal and Sam to start asking why he had an alien for a brother."
Winona set the Padds down with a jolt, her lips set in a thin line. "You're not an alien! You may have been born on some other rock, Jimmy, but you're part of this family and much as you hated being isolated, it was for your own good!" Her hands rose to run through her hair in aggravation, pulling strands loose from the bun she had battled it into.
Jim winced, pushing at the hands that pulled his mother's hair and drawing back before the flood of frustration and guilt could drown him. "I love my family. I love being here and I'll always be thankful for the life you've given me. It's just.. It'd be nice to know what I am, I guess."
For a moment his mother's mouth opened, consideration in her eyes, before it snapped shut once more. "You may learn of your heritage one day, Jim but it's not important. You were raised human and you follow human law and customs, that's what matters, no matter who tries to tell you otherwise. You're safer in disguise, sweetheart. Like I said, you're special and there are people out there who see special and turn it into a personal goal or a means to an end. Got it?"
A wry grin, "got it." Jim said, his head shaking at his mother. She'd always protected him hadn't she? Her and Dad? They'd always been good to him, always loved him and tried to include him with the rest of the world under their watchful gaze. He just longed for… Answers.
Jim jumped from the shuttle, his feet planting on the lush green grass of the Starfleet Academy grounds with a sigh of satisfaction from the teenager. "Look at it!" he announced loudly, his hands spread wide and a grin stretching his lips as he took in the pristine white buildings, the many students milling about for registration and the shuttles that seemed to come every five minutes from everywhere. "Isn't it incredible!"
"It'd be incredible if they managed to land one of these blasted death ships without scrambling my insides."
A southern voice soured by the tint of nausea that had painted his face green sounded from behind him and Jim turned to clasp his new found friend's shoulder with a laugh.
"C'mon, Bones, this is something special! Whole new life ahead of you here!"
"Much as I am loathe to give this degenerate the pleasure of agreeing with him, he has a point." Jim flung a lopsided smile in the general direction of Nyota Uhura, a woman with enough leg to almost reach his five foot ten and whom he'd had the delight of aggravating for the entire trip. She glanced at him now with no small amount of affection, her head shaking softly and whipping her ebony black ponytail back and forth. "A new life, but are you ready for it, Jim?"
Jim strode forward, his bag slung over his shoulder and his strides confidant. "I'm more than ready for this!" Jim turned a degree back to his friends as they started after him, his shoulder knocking against something hard and solid by mistake.
"Oh, I'm sorry I…."
The apology trailed off, Jim's happy grin melting to an open mouthed stare of astonishment as he brought his face up to stare at the person… being he had just walked into. Uninterested dark eyes glanced down at him, one sharp, slanted eyebrow quirking up in distant curiosity beneath a thick fringe of liquid black hair that fell to the man's pristine collar. Tall and broad and pale beneath the mid-afternoon sun, the man was a sight even to the most asexual of people, but it was his ears that Jim's pale blue eyes latched to. His hair tucked behind them, in full view of everyone around, they were pointed in the most obvious and captivating of curves.
"My apologies, commander Spock," Jim blinked as Nyota hurried up beside him, her smile polite and sincere as she all but hid the blonde from the intense stare of the man… Spock. "Jim has a tendency to not watch where he's going."
A swift nod, those dark eyes seeming almost… amused?
"It would be in the cadet's best interests to observe and proceed with caution should he desire to one day join the crew of a starship."
And with that advice, he was gone; hands clasped behind his back and spine rigid as he turned and started off in another direction, taking himself from Jim's curious view. Bones huffed a laugh as he clapped a hand over Jim's back, bringing the younger man from his wonderings. "First taste of a Vulcan, was it, Jim? Stoic buggers with no need for the fluffy stuff we mere humans call emotion, but they grow on you. Or so I'm told."
Jim glanced at his friend with wide eyes, his hands lifting to clasp against his chest subconsciously and only one word of McCoy's flickering in his head.
Vulcan.
