As the overloaded shuttle drifted towards New Vulcan, Kirk and Spock sat silently. Spock was sitting up straight, needlessly recalibrating the shuttle's forward thrusters and Kirk was sprawled out across two seats, fiddling with a trinket toy starship, bored out of his mind.
"How many buildings are there on New Vulcan now?" he asked Spock, having exhausted all the topics of conversation he found interesting.
"Almost two thousand, according to my father. The Andorians came by with a machine they use to rapidly build settlements on new colonies."
"How does that work?" Kirk asked slowly, holding the toy in front of his face and pressing the button that lit up the miniature nacels for what Spock knew to be the forty-third time.
"If we knew, the Federation would have them," Spock replied.
"Oh, right," Kirk said, as if he wasn't really interested the answer anyhow.
"My father is living in one of those buildings," Spock continued, "I am curious to see what it looks like inside."
Kirk wasn't really listening. He pressed a button that lit up a fake phasor beam and shone it around the ship.
"We should plan how we are going to unload all these boxes," Spock said, turning to look at Kirk.
"The Vulcans are going to use their own transporters once we get to the surface, they won't need much help," he replied.
"So once we have unloaded, I will meet up with Nyota and go to see my father, and you will return with the shuttlecraft," Spock verified.
"Eventually," said Kirk.
Spock blinked.
"What are you planning on doing on New Vulcan in the mean time?" he asked, genuinely confused.
"Going to dinner with you," Kirk stated, continuing to play with his starship, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"You cannot come to dinner with Nyota and I," Spock snapped automatically.
"Why not?" Kirk asked, putting his toy down and looking at Spock.
Spock thought that having Kirk around would not improve his father's mood, but didn't know how to say this. He stammered slightly,
"I am concerned that you might not make the best impression."
"You think I'll make a scene!" Kirk accused.
"Sometimes you do have a tendency to--" Spock replied slowly.
"When have I ever made a scene?" Kirk interrupted, "Certainly not since I became Captain. I've met with countless government officials, resolved dozens of conflicts, and you still don't think I can behave myself at a family dinner!"
Spock paused, concerned that he had managed to anger Kirk so quickly.
"I did not mean to imply that you cannot behave appropriately," he said carefully, "I just think it would be best if I were to focus on getting my father aquainted with Nyota. You were not invited."
"Spock," Kirk scolded, sounding more frustrated than angry "Let's say there's this guy that helped save you when your planet was destroyed, and then let you live on his ship for several weeks while you found a new home planet, and then offered your son a job after he had already left Starfleet, wouldn't you invite him over for dinner if he happened to be nearby?"
Spock froze.
"My father invited you?" he asked in surprise.
"He apologized that you had been so negligent," Kirk answered, "He said you had a lot on your mind ... not that I really would have cared, except you don't want me to go because you think I might start throwing food or something ..."
Spock felt embarrassed.
"I apologize," he said sincerely, "I should not have said that."
Shaking slightly, he continued,
"I ... am ...very ... nervous."
He forced the words out.
Kirk got up and sat next to him.
"It's okay," he said, looking Spock in the eye.
"I never thought to invite you," he went on, "You never invited me to meet your mother when we were on Earth, so I never considered ..."
It was a strange confession. That he didn't always know how to act around people. That most of the time, he just copied what everyone else did.
Kirk smiled, and said gently,
"The difference is that you've never met my mother. And she's not the ambassador to Earth."
Spock nodded.
"And I didn't see her when we were on Earth," Kirk added offhandedly.
Spock pondered what to say. He thought he had upset Kirk enough for one day, but felt compelled to say something.
"You should go see her," he protested softly, "In this uncertain universe you never know what may happen."
Kirk chuckled, but Spock could tell it wasn't an amused laugh.
"Now if there's one thing I'm certain of," Kirk said with a false smile, "It's that I never plan on seeing her again."
"Why?" Spock asked.
Kirk picked up his toy ship and shone the light around the shuttle a few times before answering,
"Because I fucking hate her."
Spock tried not to look unnerved.
"You see, mothers are supposed to be nice," Kirk leaned back, making long strokes in the air with his toy ship, like it was flying, "And even when you tell me bad things about your mom, you can tell that she really meant well, even if she didn't quite get it, but my mom wasn't nice like that at all. I think she kinda blamed me for my dad's death."
Kirk held the toy up to eye level and stared at it.
"And you gotta see that she's the sort of girl that's into status, so she wanted to marry my dad because she thought he'd be a big admiral or something, and then he dies, so she wants it to be her son. So she's always pushing me, and of course I'm resisting, because the last thing I want to do is listen to someone like her. So the next thing I know I'm driving a car off a cliff and robbing liquor stores."
Spock didn't know how to respond to this, so he kept quiet. Kirk looked up at the ceiling.
"You know, Pike was the first one to tell me that success was optional, that I didn't owe it to anybody, that it was for me. And it made me want to listen to him. So I tell my mom I'm going, and at first she's so happy, but then she tells me I better top everything to make up for being such a troublemaker, and then she says she doubts I'll do anything because I'm such a loser criminal. Never talked to her again after that. Second best decision I ever made after joining Starfleet."
Kirk grinned as he said this, but then fell back into his chair, and continued fiddling with the toy dejectedly.
"Well, you will always be welcome in my home," Spock said. He wasn't sure if it was the right thing to say, but he had heard someone say it before.
Kirk suspected this, and smiled slightly.
Looking at a display he said,
"One thousand meters to surface. What do you say, we land this thing?"
