"Friendship is so weird…you just pick a human you've met and you're like 'yep, I like this one' and you just do stuff with them."

I'll be Good

Chapter 12

He adjusts himself on the grass, though there's a heavy body splayed out faced down in the ground, below his knees, keeping him pinned. The breaths fill the night air and the sky is completely clear, the reason why they're out here in the first place. A pack of beers had accompanied them the whole way there, they're empty now but he only had one bottle of six. The five other bottles had been consumed by who other than Jim Kirk, currently passed out on Leonard's legs.

The kid had looked worn out by the time he brought him some Chinese food, so this is the least he can do to let the blond settle down and get some rest. It's well past eleven at night, and curfew is coming around the corner, soon the campus will be crawling with security, but just to have Jim sleep those few extra minutes are worth the risk.

Sighing, he leans back, his arms supporting him, head tilted back to view the wonders above. Jim had insisted, very drunkenly, that if he were to marry, he'd marry the stars. Leonard had informed him strictly that marrying the stars isn't possible. The blond had begun to grumble and complain until Leonard gave in and told Jim he'd let him marry the stars. Right before the blond fell asleep, he asked Leonard to be his best man, and as he went to reply with the obvious answer 'yes', Jim fell over asleep, leading to the current situation.

Leonard continues gazing upwards, feeling Jim shift on top of him and muttering an incoherent string of words slurred with a few different languages, where Jim learned to speak so many different languages is beyond him.

Hanging on for one last moment, he peels his gaze away from Jim's future wife and blinks down at the blond, the urge to shake the brat awake fading away. He's just so, calm. It's quite a sight to see; Jim has brought his legs up, his left arm hooked underneath Leonard's knee while his other hand grasps the front of his shin. Despite the fact he's wearing pants, Leonard can still feel Jim's hot breath blowing down his leg, sending a shiver up his spine.

He takes the scene in for one last minute before gripping Jim's shoulder and gently jostling him, until bright blue eyes peel open, seeming rather sober, until that stupid grin stretches on his lips.

"Hey." Jim says, his voice uncharacteristically soft and soothing, while sitting up and leaning towards Leonard, his face becoming inches away.

Leonard's heart begins to thump faster and faster as Jim's nose his centimeters from his own.

What's happening?

"Jim, you're drunk." He tells the blond, placing a hand on the kid's chest to stop his approach.

Jim frowns, glaring down at Leonard's arm before taking his hand within his own, eyes sparkling with devilish delight. Before Jim can do anything further, he snags away, standing up abruptly, glaring at the blond in question.

The blond only seems confused by the sudden change in mood, "What's wrong?"

"Jim are you hitting on me?"

The kid doubles over in laughter, making Leonard roll his eyes; the night was going just fine until Jim decides to wake up in the mood for sex. Apparently when he's drunk, he doesn't take gender into account, or the fact that Leonard is his friend and very straight friend at that.

"No-no Bonesy, I'd never do that. That would, that would be funny if I did, don't worry I'd make love to a tree before you." Jim giggles, picking up an empty beer bottle and desperately trying to drain the imaginary liquid down his throat.

"I'm glad you think I'm less desirable than a tree. Now please Jim, lemme take you home before curfew." Leonard mutters, snatching all the bottles, including the one Jim currently holds and throws them away into a nearby trashcan before returning to Jim's side.

"I don't have a curfew. What the hell is a curfew any who?"

"Your bedtime." Leonard sighs, pulling Jim up to his feet with one smooth movement.

The blond stumbles forward but Leonard grabs the collar of his shirt and yanks him close, slinging Jim's arm over his shoulder and wrapping an arm around his waist.

"I don't have a bedtime, I'm twenty-two years old, I go to bed whenever I feel like going to bed."

"I'm sure you do kid." Leonard reassures, steering him towards the Roddenberry dorms, but stops halfway there.

What if Francis doesn't look out for him? Lets him drown in his own vomit?

Internally groaning, Leonard turns around and heads for his own dorm room, "What class do you have in the morning?"

"Hand-to-ass."

"Hand-to-hand you mean." He corrects, but Jim blurts a laugh, "No, hand-to-ass." The blond insists and grabs at Leonard's rear.

He jumps, snatching Jim by the hair, "Get your hand off my ass."

"Just exploring." Jim replies so innocently, Leonard could've thought it was all an accident, but Jim's sly grin says otherwise.

"Who knew you'd be like this when drunk? Seriously, I'm gathering a whole shitload of blackmail on you." Leonard laughs and Jim glares at him, "Bones, you're white, how possibly can you get black mail?"

"Jim." He growls, shaking his head.

"That's my name, don't use my name."

"Jim-"

"Bones don't use my name!"

"Okay-okay. Jeez, shut up. You're gonna get us caught."

"Caught by who?" Jim mumbles smirking dumbly up at him.

"Security."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Yes."

"Uh huh."

Leonard sets him off to the side, opening the door to Barrett dorms before dragging him inside.

"Be gentle." Jim grins, licking his lips dramatically.

"Tone down the sexy shit Jim, neither of us are gay."

"Won't know until we try."

"We're not trying anything, and that's final." He grounds out, taking Jim up the stairs and to his room, 389e.

The blond mutters the whole way there, explaining rather explicitly how he'd make love to him, but the conversation takes a sharp turn when Leonard reminds him that he said he'd 'make love to a tree' first.

Jim purses his lips, "Oh, makes since, you're not very attractive."

"And a tree is?"

Even though he doesn't want Jim to continue further into his drunken gay fantasies, he can't help but feel slightly annoyed at the fact Jim doesn't think he's attractive. But he then reminds himself, Jim's drunk, and in reality he probably never thinks about this stuff. Hopefully, otherwise he might need a new friend.

"I like tall people."

"What?"

"Trees are tall, and I like tall people."

"Do you?" He prompts, opening his door with his ID card and guiding Jim inside, finding the couch the most preferable place to deposit him.

"Or, do I like short people? I don't know, Bones help me!"

"You like people about my height." Leonard replies, helping Jim sit down on the couch before getting some of the kid's clothes off.

"Huh, makes since, you have little arms." Jim states with complete seriousness, reaching down to untie his boots.

"What does that have to do with anything?" He exclaims, slapping Jim's clumsy hands away and yanking the kid's boots off for him.

Somehow drunk Jim is worse than sober Jim.

"And little hands… Oh my god Bones."

"Hmm?" Leonard hums, beginning to peel off Jim's jacket.

"You're tyrannosaurus rex!"

"What the fu-"

"Oww!"

"Sorry-sorry!" Leonard apologizes quickly, seeing that he accidentally pulled the kid's arm up to high, aggravating one of the many bruises along his ribcage.

"That hurt me." Jim whines, arms now wrapped protectively around his ribs.

Leonard shakes his head and forces Jim's left arm out to pull the other sleeve off, "I said sorry."

Jim hums thoughtfully.

"What?" He prompts, piling up Jim's things off to the corner before scurrying off to the extra room to retrieve a pillow and blanket. Thank god for no roommate.

"This isn't my room."

"No, you're staying at my place tonight."

"I'm tired."

"I know kid, hold on." Leonard replies, coming back to Jim, placing the pillow at the end of the couch, "Alright, lie down now." He gently pushes the blond onto his back and tosses the thin blanket over him.

"Night Bonesy." Jim snuggles up in the blanket, eyes falling shut, proving truly how exhausted the kid must be.

"Night Jim." Leonard says softly, making sure Jim is asleep before heading into his own room.

He changes into a t-shirt and sweats, setting an alarm for five, knowing that Jim's combat class ends at seven, but he's not quite sure when it starts. Leonard skips the shower, deciding to take one in the morning.

Sighing, he snatches a blanket and PADD before dragging a kitchen chair over towards the couch. He sits down, watching Jim's chest rise and fall steadily, the kid's right hand grasping the pillow tightly, brow creased in slight worry, of what he dreams of, Leonard can only wonder. With the PADD resting on the floor, Leonard lets the darkness consume, taking a hold of his mind and pulling him under.

The alarm goes off. It's five in the morning.

Leonard bursts to life, quickly turning it off, only to groan and slump back down in the chair, finding that his back has become quite achy.

"What the hell…" Jim moans from the couch, slowly coming to, but once he realizes he's not in his own room, he bolts upright and glances around.

"Jim." Leonard says, getting the younger man's attention.

Jim clearly relaxes once his mind settles and he comprehends the fact he's in Leonard's room, "What happened last night?" The blond mumbles, shaking his head to remove any wild thoughts.

"Uhh, you got pretty drunk last night."

"Did not." Jim blows off with a look of doubt.

"You said you wanted to marry the stars." He deadpans and Jim frowns at him, still not thinking it's that bad, so he adds flatly, "And you grabbed my ass and told me how you would have sex with me."

Jim's face drains of all color, "Oh, I'm sorry Bones, I didn't-you know I didn't-you know mean that-it was-"

"It's alright kid, I know, you were drunk last night. Everybody does stupid shit when they're drunk." Leonard replies and Jim seems to become more comfortable, appreciating the fact Leonard has saved him from giving one of the most awkward speeches of his life.

"Hungry much?" Leonard asks as he stands up, "Starving, what time is it?"

"About five."

"Shit."

"Hmm?"

"My class starts at five."

"How the hell do you get up for a five am class?"

"Don't sleep in."

"Well you're not going anywhere, doctor's orders." Leonard decides firmly, strolling off to the kitchen to replicate them some food, "Bones, that's not how it works."

"It is if I go complain to the school board, tell them that you're not getting an adequate amount of sleep."

"Don't make a fuss Bones, I gotta go." Jim replies, getting up and stretching.

"First of all, you have to go all the way back to your dorms, get dressed-and that's assuming you're not locked out of your room-then you gotta run all the way to class. Screw it Jim, there'd only be about an hour left or less."

Jim sighs, dropping back down into the cushions of the couch. The kid looks mentally exhausted.

Leonard brings over a dish of eggs and a glass of water, sitting beside Jim, concern welling within his eyes.

"Here, eat something kid."

The blond looks up from his feet, taking the food and offering a small smile, "Thanks Bones."

"Yeah, no problem kid." Leonard replies, patting him on the shoulder before grabbing himself a plate of eggs.

"So, where you heading off to today?"

"Xenobiology." He responds, settling beside Jim once more.

Jim nods slowly, "Professor Mondy is alright."

"What about you?"

"Uhh, besides my hand-to-hand, I have Xenolinguistics in the afternoon."

"Yeah, about that…" Leonard chuckles, remembering all the languages Jim had muttered in his sleep, "How many languages do you know?"

"Just a few." Jim replies with a smirk at the edge of his lips, pausing briefly to shove more food into his mouth, "So, what time is this class of yours?"

"At nine I believe."

"Good, we got a little less than four hours."

"To do what?"

"To watch a movie of course."

"Jim, we can't access any movies from here."

"That's true, but with your PADD I might be able to pull up some of those old movies."

Leonard hums, "What are you thinking?"

"Caught between Gladiator and Fight Club."

He frowns, confused, "What?"

"They're old movies, like hundreds of years old!" Jim exclaims, waving his arms around wildly, managing to fling some eggs to the ground.

Leonard looks down at the mess, sighing, "We really need to teach you some table manners."

"I try." The blond exasperates, sounding rather innocent as he glances down longingly at the wasted food, "But we can't all be perfect."

"Amen to that."

"So, Bones, pick a movie."

"Oh I don't know. What's the options again?"

"Gladiator or Fight Club, both of them are good."

Leonard shakes his head, "Of course you've seen them."

"Nothing better to do."

"Alright, uhh Gladiator, that sounds decent enough, Fight Club sounds like it's full of bad ideas for your head."

Jim grins, "Yeah, probably."

Leonard cleans the floor and throws out their plates and cups while Jim turns on the movie, saying that he isn't 'hacking' but rule bending, apparently if he doesn't get caught it's not breaking any campus rules. He doesn't care much; he's actually looking forward to hanging out with Jim.

With the movie on, they settle on the couch, Leonard with a bag of popcorn in hand, propped back against the armrest. In effort to reach the food, Jim is half laying on top of the southerner, arm outstretched and slowly shoving handfuls of popcorn into his mouth. He doesn't mind, they're too wrapped up in their movie to realize their hilariously awkward position on the couch.

Jim mouths the lines, snickers before the funny parts, and waits in anticipation for his favorite scenes. Leonard can only let himself be absorbed into the movie, cringing at the gruesome fights and heart pounding near the end. When the movie comes to the credits, Jim and Leonard exchange a look and begin to laugh.

Sighing, the blond gathers himself off of Leonard, licking his fingers clean.

"Did you like the movie?"

"Leonard nods with a smile, "We'll have to watch your other movie sometime as well."

"Deal."

Only forty minutes left, Leonard takes a quick shower, when he comes out; Jim's asleep on the couch, curled up. He allows a small smile to play his lips; he drapes a blanket over his friend and picks up his PADD and ID card for class. Leonard leaves after watching the blond sleep for ten minutes or so. Xenobiology, with Professor Mondy, should be exciting; though he's slightly disappointed he didn't get the class with Jim.

Luckily, upon arriving, he recognizes Chekov, looking utterly lost within the bustle of students, locating friends and chairs to sit in.

"Pavel!" He calls out, brushing by a few people to get to the Russian boy.

The boy's face lights up like a child on Christmas day.

"Hello Leonard!" Chekov cheers back, happily skipping over to meet him, "See anywhere to sit?" The redhead prompts.

Leonard scans the room, "We'll sit over there."

He leads Chekov through the cluster and finds a table to the far right, at ease since he at least has Chekov with him.

Professor Mondy makes his introduction, it's rather blunt, stating plainly 'if you screw off, you will fail, if you don't do the work, you will fail, if you annoy me, you might fail', students chuckled but the professor reassured them he wasn't joking. He then went on about the class and aspects of it, the procedures and the class adequate. How the professor managed to suck away almost two hours of his life is unbelievable, it's probably the constant stutters and 'uhhs' thrown in between pauses that let the class drag on.

Afterwards, he and Chekov and get the required textbook before parting ways. Leonard treks back to his dorm, Xenobiology his only class for today, which he's glad, he's rather tired and could use a nap.

He almost forgot he left Jim Kirk in his room. Almost.

Upon returning, he's goes through his normal routine of putting his belongings away and kicking his shoes off, only to come oh so very close of sitting on top of a certain blond, still cuddled within the warmth of the blanket, humming gently in his sleep.

The kid hasn't moved since he left.

He sighs, shaking his head, allowing the blond this time to rest, he probably needs it, there's no one who can get up for a five am class and still function properly. Leonard straightens up the room, all the awhile making sure he doesn't disturb the blond from his much needed sleep.

It's not until noon Jim finally comes around, clearly disoriented by the change in time. Though he slaps on that stupid grin the moment he spots Leonard coming beside him.

"Feeling better?"

Jim huffs, "Who said I wasn't feeling good?"

Leonard gives him a look.

"Yeah, I feel better." He decides carefully, after giving his head a scratch.

"Here, I have some extra clothes, why don't you take a shower and I'll have some lunch ready." Leonard offers kindly, causing Jim to squint at him, face completely lost.

"Why?" The blond's voice nearly cracks, and Leonard realizes it's hitting Jim pretty hard. Has the kid never been showed appreciation or some form of kindness ever in his life? Didn't he know what it was like to have a friend who cares about him?

"Because I'm a grumpy old man who has a heavy southern drawl." Leonard jokes, and the little look Jim gives him, the one full of wonder and innocence, causes him to swallow and admit softly, "…And I care about you Jim. We're friends."

Jim nods, seeming satisfied with the answer, "Alright, yeah, sounds good. Thanks Bones." The blond takes the clothes and gets up.

"Yeah-yeah, just go take a shower, you're starting to smell." Leonard replies as Jim heads for the door of the bathroom, "Oh shut up." He grumbles and lets the door slide shut behind him.

Leonard laughs to himself before getting up, pondering a meal. The food replicator only allows uses for water, or breakfast meals from four to eleven am, to stop people from abusing their power. So, he heads off to the cafeteria with a lunchbox in hand. He orders two meals off of his own ID card and places the replicated food in his bag before heading back out.

"Leonard!"

He turns sharply around, met by Sulu and Chekov rushing over to him, plates in hand, "Where are you going?" Sulu asks.

"Uhh, Jim's at my room, so I was just bringing some food over, wanna come?"

The two nod eagerly.

"Alright, let's go."

The three of them make it to Barrett dorms without dropping any food, even up the stairs and through the front door. As Leonard goes to open the door, it slides away, revealing Jim, wearing his red pants and Leonard's t-shirt which hangs loosely off his shoulders.

"Hey guys!" He says with a smirk, welcoming them all inside as if it were his own room.

"Make sure you give me the shirt back." Leonard mutters, noticing that the blond's hair is still wet and plastered to his head in some places and the top is rather messy, but not in his normal fashion.

"Will do." Jim replies, licking lips slowly, seeing that Chekov and Sulu have platefuls of food.

"Lunch is served." Leonard announces, giving Jim his portion of food.

The kid's face screws over, "It's salad!"

"Yes, it is, now eat up."

"Where's the meat?" He complains, but Leonard fixes him with a glare.

"Okay-okay, I'm eating!"

Two o'clock nears all too quickly, and before the group knows it, Jim's packing bags and sprinting off to his dorm to get his things for his Xenolinguistics class. It's then that Sulu and Chekov excuse themselves, Sulu saying something about making sure Jim hadn't tripped and knocked himself out on the way to the Roddenberry dorms.

Leonard is glad for the tranquility that now hangs over his dorm room, letting the sound of his exhale fill it. He gathers his work, getting a head start; tomorrow he has the alpha medical shift, from eight am to four pm.

Sitting back, Leonard snatches his Klingon Physiology textbook and flips through the pages, if he wants to survive through this, there has to be some simple rules. Firstly, he'll have to get his work done ASAP to make time for other things. Secondly, with that extra time he's saved, he has to spend it sleeping. And thirdly, make sure Jim Kirk stays afloat. It's been one week; god only knows what several years of Starfleet Academy will bring at their feet.

Author's Note: There you have it folks, their first week of school finished, man that took only twelve chapters, how am I ever supposed to finish all three years of the academy? This might take a very long time; hopefully you guys stick around though ;) Also, I'd like to thank Anonymous and LOORIOVER50 (since I can't reply directly) for the reviews you guys are awesome! Thanks to all of you who have followed this far, and believe me when I say this, there's a lot more to come! I'm so excited to get into some deep Jim&Bones, it's about to get real. So, hopefully you've enjoyed this far, and stay tuned for the next chapter. Live Long and Prosper.