Celebrating One's Birthday is Important

"Captain's birthday is during shore leave this year, you know?"

Spock looked away from the console disinterestedly. "Yes. What is your point?"

"I thought, well, I dunno, maybe we all could do a little somethin' nice for the laddy."

"I was under the impression that you were travelling to Scotland during shore leave," Spock said, looking back at the transporter console. "If your log is correct."

"Aye, 'tis correct. And McCoy's goin' ta see Joanna. What are ye doing during Captain's birthday, Commander?"

"I will be aboard the Enterprise, assessing specimens of plant life and sifting through journals. There," Spock said, stepping away from the console.

"Aye... But duncha think we ought to do somethin'? And ye and Jim are friends. He's goin' ta be alone. I'm sure he wouldn't mind the company."

It was so that Spock found himself in a shuttlecraft, stonily perusing digital records on his PADD. Somehow, he always ended up on shore leave- when he didn't want to be on shore leave- on earth- a simplistic place with a multitude of illogical actions- with Kirk- someone whom he had come to trust and call his friend, but Spock didn't know how to deal with a birthday.

He'd picked up on things. The crew of the Enterprise had been talking about a cake and presents. Apparently, it was earth tradition to sing a song, suitably titled Happy Birthday to You. Games were involved sometimes- menial, childish games for the young and games that involved sex or alcohol for the adults. It all sounded like a waste of time to Spock.

Still... It was a human tradition and Spock was on earth. He was on the human's planet with one of the few humans that he called 'friend'. It felt... impolite not to take part of customs set long before Spock's time.

He wasn't well-versed on gift-giving and much less on baking. Still, after three hours of window shopping in London, Spock was rewarded with more than cold fingers and toes.

"Come on, let's go in," Kirk murmured, rubbing his gloved hands together. "It's cold and I want to see the new stuff. Haven't been here in awhile."

Spock followed Kirk into the shoppe- it was a space travel outlet- resisting the urge to sigh as heat blasted him in the face. By design, Spock hated cold weather and January in England was nowhere near the temperature of Vulcan by any means. He fumbled with his sock hat, unsuccessfully trying to smooth down his hair after he had taken it off. He hated the hat, but his ears were warm and toasty with it. Kirk had only made fun of him for a limited amount of time, as well, so Spock had counted it as a success. He removed his gloves as he trailed after his Captain, shoving everything into his coat pocket.

"Spock. Look at that."

From Kirk's tone of voice, Spock could hazard a guess that the Captain had found an attractive woman to ogle at yet again. However, when he dismissively glanced up, he found Kirk staring into a display. Curiosity made him join the Captain, his eyes following Kirk's gaze.

"It's a brand-new model communicator. Isn't she beautiful?" Kirk asked.

The awe was apparent in Kirk's voice and Spock was inclined to agree. It was only logical to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in technology. The communicator was a newly-tested, high-priced, but extremely reliable communicator. Long-range communication, better signals, more options than the current model.

Spock glanced at Kirk before stepping up. "Excuse me," he said, stepping in front of Jim to the digital screen next to the display. Spock typed in his all-access personal pin, chose the colour (gold), and charged the expensive amount of money to his account. He picked up the receipt that printed from the display and walked to the countertop. The sales clerk took the receipt, vanished into the backroom, and returned momentarily with the communicator.

"Have a wonderful day," the clerk chirped.

Spock turned around to face Kirk, who was ogling him with wide eyes. He held the communicator with a straight-face.

"I wish to congratulate you on living to see yet another year in your lifetime," he said emotionlessly.

Kirk still looked confused, and surprised, but he swiped the communicator from Spock's hands without asking. "Is this your way of saying 'happy birthday'? You bought me the new communicator? Spock, this thing is disgustingly expensive! Holy shit." Jim had taken to turning the communicator over in his hands, hesitantly flipping it open. "Spock..."

"As I am unacquainted with earth baking, would buying you coffee suffice for a birthday treat in lieu of not having a birthday cake?" Spock inquired.

Kirk looked up again, blinking a few times. "What? Coffee- oh, yes, no, I mean, you don't have to buy me coffee." He looked back at the communicator. "This is enough. This is... way too much."

"Captain, I really must insist that we follow this tradition similarly to the norm. Coffee and biscuits would suffice, or perhaps stopping by the pastry shoppe."

He kept his voice purposefully flat. He couldn't let emotion seep into his words, lest the awkwardness consume him. He chose not to feel at all in fear of what he may feel. Friendship was a fickle thing and the emotions involved often overloaded Spock's mind.

"Alright... Pastry shoppe, then," Kirk said without giving it a thought. He looked back at his communicator. "You can sync this with everyone else's, yeah?"

"Affirmative."

"Awesome." Kirk paused. "You know, um..." He cleared his throat. "Thanks. For... this."

"Yes... Partaking in human customs every now and then isn't terribly inconveniencing."

Even if they made him feel absolutely ridiculous in the long run.

Wow, there's been some positive reaction on this story. That makes me really very happy. Thank you a lot. Anyway, this chapter: maybe a bit too emotional for Spock. It's difficult to write emotionless Spock trying to 'celebrate' Jim's birthday. But hopefully I captured the awkwardness with human customs and their awkward friendship after Into Darkness. And Spock in a sock hat and gloves- casual wear- is one of the cutest mental pictures ever. I mean, ST: TOS managed to work the sock hat into their amazing production, but just imagine if Quinto!Spock had a sock hat with fuzzy tassles on it. :p

I do not own Star Trek. Thank you!