Jim juggles three bottles of nail polish, a bottle of white wine, and a holovid of a movie he has on good intel from Sulu that girls love.
When she finally answers her door, Uhura leans against it and eyes him warily. "What is it that you think I do in my spare time?"
"Spock?" Jim asks before he can stop himself, and then grins at her audible groan, coupled with an eye roll the likes of which he hasn't seen since before all the crap with Nero. "Or should I have brought a dictionary maybe? C'mon, let me in, you can braid my hair."
"I have work," she corrects. "As do you, I believe."
"Yeah, but we're friends now. And I have a chocolate bar in my pocket which is going to melt and make a mess and I don't want to answer to the quartermaster why I ruined another uniform."
"I can't believe you're a captain," she sighs as she steps aside and lets him in.
"Your captain," he reminds her, the words warming his chest. "And we're three days at warp six from Earth, so you're totally stuck with me at this point."
"I still can't believe it," she repeats, but is reaching for the bottle of wine he brought so he counts the entire night as a success already.
She's sitting on her bed and he's in her chair again, this time their hands wrapped around sweating glasses of wine and she's already declared the chocolate bar her sole property when he finally brings up what brought him there.
"So, I… I wasn't kidding about wanting to be friends with Spock," he starts. "And now that we're back from all that I just wanted to make sure that wasn't going to be weird for you or anything. With all the… him and me in that other reality."
She takes a long sip of her wine, lifting one shoulder as she lowers the glass and swallows.
"It's kind of strange to find out your boyfriend has a different boyfriend."
"Yeah, I get that."
"You two work really well together," Uhura hedges. "And as I said before, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that you will develop something akin to what the other you and Spock had."
"Well, look, I hope so. But I don't think that means that this universe has to become exactly like the other one. I think there's some wiggle room when it comes to grand, cosmic destinies."
"You turn into a theoretical temporal physicist?"
"Maybe," he grins, curling his hands around his glass. "But you two are good, right?"
"Yeah."
"Really 'yeah' or I'm Lieutenant Uhura and I'm fine and everything's fine and don't talk to me this is all fine type of 'yeah'."
"You drive me nuts, Kirk."
"Remember that time you called me Jim?"
"Nuts," she says slowly, enunciating the word.
"We're like best friends for life now, so I know you love me."
She sighs which just makes him laugh and she tips her head back, shaking her head at the ceiling.
"I don't want to talk about my relationship with Spock with you," she finally says after she's had a long sip of wine that drains half of her glass.
"Ok," he says, pressing his lips together and nodding.
"It's too complicated with all of us working together and besides, you two need to sort your own stuff out."
"No, I get it, that makes sense."
"But."
"But?"
"I will say that I think it's going to be tough for us for a while," she says quietly, smoothing her hand over her thighs until the fabric of her skirt is perfectly flat.
"I think it's going to be tough for all of us," he says gently. "We've all lost a lot, and we all got thrown into this, but you know what?"
"What?" she asks and he counts it as a victory that her voice is soft and not as challenging as it used to be when she was around him.
"It turns out that what my future holds is me being an absolutely brilliant captain –"
"-Same sized ego, though, I'm guessing-"
"-And it also holds our crew growing to be best friends with each other."
She nods but doesn't look up from where she's staring into her wine glass.
"You miss Gaila," he guesses and she glances up only to frown at him.
"It's creepy when you do that."
"You just hate that I'm always right."
"That is one of the things I hate about you."
"That is one of the things I hate about you, sir."
"That is one of the things I hate about you, Jim," she corrects. "And where did you get this chocolate?"
"I am a Starfleet captain," he starts, glossing over what she just said since he decides that pointing out she just used his first name might be the best way to ensure it never happens again. "I have untold resources available at the press of a-"
"Where?" she repeats.
"Scotty," Jim answers with a rueful grin. "That man is a freaking genius at replicators. You should see this sandwich he made me for lunch."
"This is replicated? It's so good."
"I know, right? The wine is, too. But don't let his secret get out or our first officer will find out about all the… enhancements."
Uhura glances at her wine glass, then at the chocolate bar in her hand, and then finally back at Jim.
"He's a stickler," she admits.
"Totally."
Jim's in the middle of pouring them more wine when she says, "you talked to him. About his mom and Gaila."
"You two talking behind my back?" Jim asks and when she just looks at him, he puts down the bottle and gives her a small shrug. "Yeah, I talked to him."
"How was that?"
"Well," Jim starts, rubbing his hand over the back of his head. "He alternated between not saying much and not saying anything."
"Still."
"Still," Jim agrees.
"I'm glad you did that. Thank you."
"You were right that I needed to," Jim admits, squinting at his glass. "Not my favorite conversation I've ever had, that's for sure. He's a tough one."
"He is," Uhura nods. "But he's worth the effort."
"Effort? Effort, Uhura, is you. Is it going to take me three years to become friends with Spock?"
"If it does, do I have to hear about it the whole time?"
"Um, yes."
"Then let's hope not," she answers.
Jim sets his wineglass down so that he can rub his hands together. "Ok, then I'm going to need like instruction manuals and blueprints and a how to guide and probably a trouble shooting hotline and I hear you're qualified for all of that, complete with technical support in thirty different languages."
"I thought you were a Starfleet captain with-"
"-Exactly, untold resources. You being one of the best ones."
"Now you're just resorting to flattery to try to get me to help you," she says, but she's smiling.
"Yes I am, but it doesn't make it less true," Jim says, returning her smile.
"You know, I'd tell you that you can't just make someone be your friend…"
"But I don't believe in no win scenarios, etcetera etcetera. Now help me come up with a game plan to convince Spock that our destiny mandated friendship should start ASAP. I have you and Bones checked off the list-"
"First, you're incorrigible. Second, there's a list?"
"Not my fault you find your newest best friend incorrigible. And yes there's a list. Why have one best friend when you can have two, and why have two when you can have three?"
"You do aim high," she says, laughing and shaking her head.
"C'mon, the four of us gallivanting across the galaxy. What could possibly be better?"
She laughs again instead of answering but Jim thinks that's just fine, because he can't come up with anything better, either.