A/N: Sorry for the long wait between updates ... my tribble muse just started cooing at me again. Enjoy!
THREE YEARS LATER . . .
Bones jogged easily down the steps. He didn't have to look to see that Jim was right beside him – the alpha's scent was still one of the few he could find in a crowd without even half-trying. It was distinctly brighter.
"What are you so happy about?" McCoy grumbled.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Jim replied with false innocence.
"No, I don't suppose you do," Leonard sighed.
Jim grinned and then his attention was drawn away to follow a contingent of beta females that passed. "Hel-lo, ladies!"
Bones rolled his eyes but didn't bother to look over. It was a scene he'd been witness to hundreds of times in the past three years – he knew the slightly dazed look most people Jim expressed interest in got on their faces. He'd probably worn it a few times himself during their time at the Academy. The alpha just affected people that way.
"I'm taking the test again," Jim announced casually.
Leonard turned to his friend in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me!"
"Yep, tomorrow morning and I want you there, Bones," Jim replied.
Leonard shook his head. "You know, I've got better things to do than watch you embarrass yourself for the third time." McCoy groused. "I'm a doctor, Jim. I'm busy."
Even as the words left his lips, Bones knew they were pointless. He'd show up like the loyal friend he was because he always did. Jim maneuvered in front of him and put a palm against McCoy's chest, pausing the omega.
Bones sighed. Jim was still absolutely the only alpha allowed to touch him in such a casual fashion outside of his heats. He pursed his lips and frowned at his friend.
"Bones, it doesn't bother you that no one's ever passed the test?" Jim asked, his eyes serious.
"Jim, it's the Kobayashi Maru. No one passes the test. And no one goes back for seconds," he looked meaningfully at the alpha. "Let alone for thirds."
Jim grinned and patted Bones on the shoulder. "I gotta study."
He walked off, leaving Leonard to follow his departing back and fading scent like he always did. McCoy sighed. He'd scented the spike off the alpha that meant the studying Jim intended had little to do with any subject Starfleet taught.
"Study, my ass," he growled softly, heading back to his room.
If McCoy had turned, he would have seen a particular dark blonde alpha watching his friend walk away with an appreciative gaze for the view.
Kissing his way down Gaila's body, Jim couldn't help but wish it was someone else with dark hair and hazel eyes and a growling voice that God must have created just for sex. He pushed the daydream out of his mind so he wouldn't lose focus. Gaila's Orion pheromones were strong today ... not that Jim was complaining. He looked down at her as she gasped, "Jim, I think I love you."
Jim froze. "That is so weird," he murmured.
The strong emotional reactions he got from people sometimes truly confused him. He'd complained about it to Bones one night and had been speared with one bright hazel eye and a grumbled, "Leave me the fuck alone, I was asleep."
Bones would have made an awesome alpha.
Gaila, however, wasn't amused by his response. "Lights." The illumination blazed, making Jim blink. "Did you just say, 'that is so weird'?"
"Yeah, I did, but -"
"You don't love me too?"
Jim could feel his planned evening drifting quickly toward a crash and burn. Before he could formulate a response, the door to the room slid open and Gaila's eyes widened.
"Oh my God, my roommate!"
Jim frowned. "I thought you said she was gone for the night?"
"Well obviously she isn't! Quick, get under the bed!" Gaila said, pushing him over.
"What? Oh come on ..." Jim complained.
"She can't see you here!" Gaila whispered frantically.
Jim reluctantly dropped to the floor as a familiar beta scent moved into the room. He grinned. Uhura.
"The strangest thing," Uhura was saying as she undressed. "I was in the long-range sensor lab ... I was tracking solar systems and I picked up an emergency transmission. From a Klingon prison planet .. an entire armada was destroyed. 47 ships."
"So," Gaila asked softly. "You're not going back to the lab tonight?"
Uhura froze and turned with an annoyed look. "Gaila, who is he?"
"Who's who?" Gaila said innocently.
"The mouth-breather under the bed."
Jim popped up with a frown. "You can hear me breathing?"
"You!" Uhura accused.
"Big day tomorrow," Jim said with a grin while gathering his clothes. "Gaila, see you around."
"You're gonna fail," Uhura promised.
"If I pass, will you tell me your first name?"
"No! Good night," Uhura said, stalking behind Jim as he headed to the door.
"I think the fact that you picked up a transmission is very interesting . . . " Jim offered. The door slid shut between them.
With a sigh, Jim dressed in the hallway and quickly snuck out of the building. He headed back to his own room and a certain grouchy omega. He paused to look up at the star-sprinkled sky. "Ah, Bones – what am I gonna do if you won't go into the black with me?"
Leonard sat on his bunk with a padd and a cup of now-lukewarm coffee. He'd read the same paragraph at least twelve times and never made it past the first sentence with any recollection. Jim was across campus with someone … a female, a male … human or not … it wasn't Leonard regardless.
"Fuck my life," McCoy growled to himself.
Three years. Three long years and he still couldn't stop the savage jealousy that surged through him whenever Jim was out on the pull. He still spent his mostly lonely heats trying not to picture the alpha's very tone physique. He was still hopelessly in love with a man who would never see him as more than a best friend/sidekick.
It didn't help that Jim was probably the handsiest alpha Leonard had ever known. Whenever they were in proximity of each other, Jim would be patting him on the arm, sliding his arm around Leonard's shoulders or hanging off him in one fashion or another. Nevermind the almost weekly incursions into Leonard's actual bed for one half-assed reason or another – unfortunately not for the reason McCoy wished. He knew no one understood. Several times mutual acquaintances asked if Jim was ever going to claim him and Leonard would just roll his eyes and mutter, "See me when all nine levels of hell are ice skating."
Unbonded omegas had to keep very strict physical boundaries. It was just common sense. An alpha could easily initiate a claim if they got carried away with even the most casual of touching. Jim never took it too far … sure, he couldn't keep his hands to himself unless bound and gagged but the touches were never improper. Not really. And it wasn't as if McCoy was going to protest anyway … he'd become very good at dampening his scent out of self-defense. He never knew when he was going to wake up with Jim clinging to him like a limpet.
McCoy smiled to himself remembering Captain Pike pulling him aside during his first year as a cadet and warning him that Jim's behavior was very close to an alpha marking his omega. Leonard had been married … he knew full-well when an alpha was being … territorial. He didn't care … he'd already made a vow to take Jim however he could have him. If that meant putting up with his overly tactile mannerisms when there was no hope of a claim being offered, so be it. He was Jim's friend and he would always be there for the young man. No matter what it cost Leonard in the process.
However, alone in his room again, McCoy thought – not for the first time – that he was twelve times a fool for not walking away from Jim Kirk when he had the chance. He sipped at his coffee and grimaced. He'd just unfolded to pour it down the drain and make a fresh pot when Jim sauntered in, disheveled but with his usual mile-wide grin.
"Bones! Come on, let's go get dinner!"
"How do you know I haven't already eaten?" McCoy answered, dumping the coffee and rinsing out his mug.
He looked over to see Jim regarding him with an amused expression. Leonard sighed. "You struck out and I'm second choice?"
Jim laughed and started taking off his uniform. McCoy averted his eyes to search desperately for his socks somewhere on the floor.
Don't spike don't spike don't spike.
"Whatever, Bones … I didn't 'strike out'. We were interrupted by her roommate."
"Uhura tossed you out, huh?"
Jim's eyebrows danced up. "How'd you know -?"
Leonard rolled his eyes. "Save me from clueless alphas … kid, Gaila's pheromones are worse than yours. I can tell you every individual she's been with on the entire campus!"
"How … how many people has she been with? Is it a lot?" Jim asked with a frown.
McCoy chuckled. "No, Jim. I exaggerate. It's only you."
Tucking his wallet in the back pocket of his jeans, Leonard paused at the door. "You comin' kid?"
Jim nodded. As they walked down the hallway, Jim threw his arm companionably around McCoy's shoulders and grinned. "Thanks, Bones."
The omega glanced sideways at Jim with a confused look. "For what?"
"For lovin' me even when I drive you right up the wall," Jim said.
Leonard rolled his eyes. "Don't get too lost in your gratitude … you're buying."
"Anything for you, Bones. Anything for you," Jim laughed.
And if other alphas caught wind of his scent all over McCoy and thought his friend was pending a claim, Jim didn't care. He was skirting the edge of acceptable polite behavior, but the omega had never protested and Jim had spent the last three years keeping Leonard comfortably marked. He would continue to do so for as long as he could manage. When he left to go into space … well, he'd deal with that day when it arrived. Until then, Bones was going to smell like Jim Kirk, propriety be damned and all other alphas had better step the fuck off.
The next day, Leonard McCoy sat in the simulation room wondering how the hell he let himself get talked into these things. Oh yes, he remembered ... because he had an unrequited crush on his alpha best friend.
Uhura turned away from the communications console and said in a sweet, prim voice, "We are receiving a distress signal from the U.S.S. Kobayashi Maru. The ship has lost power and is stranded. Starfleet Command has ordered us to rescue them."
Jim smiled. "Starfleet Command has ordered us to rescue them ... Captain," he admonished softly.
Bones rolled his eyes. "Two Klingon vessels have entered the Neutral Zone and are locking weapons on us."
"That's ok," Jim said calmly.
Bones blinked and turned with an incredulous look. Normally he could tell what Jim was thinking by his scent but today it was strangely muddled. "'That's okay'?"
"Yeah, don't worry about it," Jim assured the omega.
"Three more Klingon warbirds decloaking and targeting our ship," Leonard reported. He turned with a sigh. "I don't suppose this is a problem either?"
"They're firing, Captain," The cadet at navigation informed him.
Jim said nothing to that, but turned to Uhura. "Alert Medical Bay to prepare to receive all crew members from the damaged ship."
"And how do you expect us to rescue them when we're surrounded by Klingons, Captain?" Jim didn't miss the derisive tone in her voice
"Alert Medical." Jim said quietly but firmly.
"Our ship is being hit," Bones reported. "Shields at 60%."
"I understand," Jim said calmly, reaching beside him for an apple he'd brought with him.
"Well," Bones offered in his best sarcastic tone. "Should we ... I don't know ... fire back?"
Jim considered and then took a large bite out of the apple. "No."
"Of course not," Bones grumbled.
Turning back to his console he tried again to decipher the alpha's scent. He knew Jim better than anyone, he liked to think – but this time his friend had him seriously confused. Instead of the usual stress and anger over the test's outcome, Jim's scent was almost ... smug?
What are you thinking, kid? Bones wondered.
He frowned when the screen flickered and the lights in the simulation room went briefly down. "What the hell?"
Once the lights came back up, Bones picked up a definite spike in confidence from Jim. He felt a knot of unease begin to grow in his stomach.
Jim smiled calmly as if glitches like that occurred all the time during simulation tests. "Arm photons. Prepare to fire on the Klingon warbirds."
"Jim, their shields are still up," Leonard said
"Are they?" Jim asked, pitching his voice low. Any other time and Bones would have been fighting to hide his physical reaction to the alpha but it only made him more nervous today.
McCoy turned back to his console with a frown and then blinked in confusion. "Uh ... no they're not ..."
"Fire on all enemy ships," Jim said around a bite of apple. "One photon each should do. Let's not waste ammunition."
The ship fired and one by one the warbirds disintegrated in balls of fire. "All ships destroyed, sir."
Jim grinned and stood. "So! We've managed to eliminate all enemy ships, no one on board was injured," Jim clapped Bones on the shoulder. The alpha resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "And the successful rescue of the Kobayashi Maru crew is underway."
Bones shook his head as he mused over the situation. Jim didn't believe in no-win situations. Leonard certainly hoped he hadn't just put himself in one.