A/N: A lickety-split update this time, what what?! Not a whole lot of plot this time, but there will be. There will be... *taps fingertips together villainously*

Spock felt his breath leave him. The Captain had tossed him over his back and into the hallway as soon as the turbolift doors opened.

Spock grabbed his phaser and shot him. Perhaps he could drag him the rest of the way. The Captain shivered and smiled, like the stun was no more than a tingle to him. Spock then realized it would be necessary to flee. Probability stated the Captain would pursue him.

He was correct in his calculation. The doors to the rec room opened and Spock flew to the mat. He did not bother removing his clothes or shoes. There was no time. He put a hand on the control pad beside the mat.

As soon as Jim crossed onto the mat, Spock enabled an energy field to block either of them from leaving until it was unlocked from outside. He assumed one or both of them would be suitably conscious after their brawl to command someone to unlock the field.

While he entered this command, a hand came in contact with his face, hard. It came at him again and Spock was ready. He caught Jim's hand and held it out in front of him.

He finished enabling the lock. It beeped. He turned his attention to Jim, who then head butted him. He hit the wall.

Spock kicked Jim in the stomach. He lost his balance and fell to the floor, but got straight back up. Spock had crossed over to the other side. He avoided Jim. They circled each other. Jim had his teeth bared.

"Calm down, Jim."

Jim laughed. "You don't want me to calm down. You love this."

"I don't."

Jim took his shirt off. He pointed to the line in his chest and the crescent in his shoulder.

"You don't? How about adding another to my collection?"

Spock, in the 2.23 seconds he was frozen by the veracity of Jim's statement, was overtaken. Jim wrapped his arms around Spock's lower back and held him close. He left Spock's arms free.

"How about some scratches in my back? Or should we save that for another time?" Jim kept squeezing him, harder and harder. Spock felt his heartbeat increase and his breathing labor.

"Jim-"

"Hit me."

Spock struck him in the jaw. He laughed, blue eyes dancing at him. So he struck again. Jim tossed him to the side.

Spock hit the energy field head on and felt its slight electrical current, warning him to stay within the combat zone.

Jim took a handful of his hair and dragged him back to the center of the mat, where he sat across him. Spock lunged, wrapping his hands around Jim's throat. Jim responded by pulling Spock's shirt up as far as he could, suffocating him with it.

Spock released Jim's throat and twisted, pulling his shirt off so it could not be used against him.

Instead, he used it against Jim, tripping him and then pushing him into the energy field. The shock did not register to Jim, Spock deduced, as he did not seem to mind being held against the wall. Spock tied his shirt tightly around Jim's wrists and then held Jim's shoulders flat against the field, his own chest against Jim's back.

He took this brief, calm moment to catch his breath. Both of their chests rose and fell. Spock could hear the faint buzz of the energy field, and that unique way Jim's breath rattled when it was heavy.

"What are you going to do to me next, huh?" Jim asked. He made a biting noise with his teeth.

"I have not calculated which action to take next," Spock responded, perhaps too honestly.

"You're so good at chess. I'd think you'd be all strategic when it comes to me, too."

"When it comes to Khan," Spock corrected him.

"No," Jim said, his fists unclenching, hands stretching out, "when it comes to me." His fingers spread across Spock's thighs. Spock backed away, hiding his physical reaction to Jim's actions.

Jim took that opportunity to hit Spock with both of his tied hands. Spock hit the floor. He wiped dark green blood from his lip. With a growl, he attacked.

Kirk came to after a particularly harsh blow had brought him to the ground, prone. He couldn't tell where the blow landed because he was hurting all fucking over. He was depleted. Done. He didn't want to lift a finger. He didn't even want to breathe.

"Uggggghhhhh."

He slowly did a push up to kneeling. He looked up.

Shit. Spock was a mess. He was nearly fluorescent green, scratches and cuts all over. It looked like he'd rolled down a mountainside into a jungle of thorn bushes…. on a hundred degree day. Well, maybe a hundred and fifty degree day, considering Vulcan's usual temperature.

Spock's eyes stared at him, feral, and then suddenly resumed their native calm, deep brown.

"Jim?"

"Yeah… what… what happened?" He looked at himself. He was in the same state. Scratches, cuts, a number of purple and blue bruises forming.

Spock hobbled to the control panel on the wall. He hailed someone.

"Go for McCoy."

"Doctor, the Captain has returned to normalcy. Come to deck five and release the energy field."

"What's the magic word?"

"Doctor, magic is an archaic notion and has never been-"

"I was looking for 'please,' or "pretty please with sugar on top," but since it's you, I'll accept 'please' on its own."

Spock turned his stare away from the panel to Kirk, who still had one hand on the floor, catching his breath, wiping sweat out of his eyes. He smiled. Spock looked like he'd rather Bones do a jig on his cold, dead body than say the word 'please.'

"The Captain may need medical attention."

"What? I'll be right there, hang on."

Spock reacted with his patented half-smirk and head tilt.

"Ouch. Booonnnnes. Oww!" Bones was fixing all his cuts with the most annoying little medical device Kirk had ever experienced.

They were watching the footage of the fight. It was an uncomfortable experience. It looked like any moment they were going to stop fighting and start- nothing. But the fight just kept going.

"Computer, fast forward."

They watched as fight went on and on and on. The timestamp, when Kirk finally paused, at the moment he remembered coming around, read that their fight had gone on over three hours.

"Whoa, Bones. You knew how long we were in there and you didn't stop us?"

"I kept an eye on you. Neither of you were dead. I figured you had some things to work out."

"Spock? Did you realize we were fighting that long?"

Spock wouldn't look at Kirk. "Vulcans do not operate on Terran time."

"You do on this ship, every day. That's no excuse."

"The fight was stimulating. And necessary."

Kirk knocked his knee against Spock's for a moment, playfully. "I guess it was. I wish I knew how stimulating it was." The last part was supposed to sound bitter but it just came out sounding sexual.

He bit his lip, wishing he could take that back. Bones rolled his eyes. "Speaking of which, the kid needs to talk to you."

"About what?"

"Apparently, he spanked Carol Marcus."

Kirk couldn't help it. A trill of laughter overflowed from him. "What?!"

"Excuse me, Doctor, but what is 'spanked'?"

"What I did to you earlier," Jim replied, suddenly realizing while it came out of his mouth, "Oh."

He gave Bones a guilty look. "I'll talk to him. Spock, can you go to the bridge and join the stakeout?"

"Affirmative." He slid from the gurney and out the door.

"Hey Spock-?" He called. Spock returned.

"Captain?"

"Thanks for bringing me down." He tried to do that grateful thing where he looked up under his brow. Spock opened his mouth to say something, rethought it, nodded, and left again.

Bones sighed. "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm sorry, it was a friendly pat!"

"In front of everyone on the Enterprise? You gotta cool it with the PDA."

Kirk crossed his arms. How could Bones always make him feel like he was ten years old and back in juvie?

"Fine. Computer. Make this video classified. Authorized personnel only."

"Specify officer clearance."

"James Kirk, Spock, Leonard McCoy, Nyota Uhura... Carol Marcus."

"Confirm order."

"Confirm." He turned to Bones, who was replacing his annoying device in its cabinet. Jim reminded himself to come back in the middle of the night and smash it into a million pieces. "Happy now?"

"I'm never happy. Why Carol?"

"She knows already anyway. Apparently everyone knows."

"Everyone doesn't know. She's trying to scare you. I'd have heard more about it if everyone knew."

Kirk scoffed. Since when would Bones know all of the Enterprise gossip? He was the doctor; he was busy, wasn't he?

"Don't look at me like that. While you're off spanking Spock, I host the weekly sewing circle."

"You make it sound like it's a regular thing. It was one time."

"Let me tell you, they're more interested in that than they are in your Khan problem."

Kirk rubbed his face with his hands. It hurt. Everything hurt. And Bones's barbs weren't helping. "Where's Mr. Evans?"

"We put him in the guest quarters at the end of your hall."

"Great. I'm off," He paused on his way out the door. "Oh, and be sure to tell everyone how sweaty Spock and I got for hours today. And that you watched."

There. He'd gotten him back. Bones groaned in disgust. Kirk tried to swagger down the hall in victory, but he was too sore.

Charlie paced in his room. What was he going to do? Eventually they were going to find out. And then they'd hate him even more than they already did!

He'd have to get rid of all of them. Get a fresh start. He heard something about a 'Colony 5' from one of the crew members while he'd been roaming the halls. Maybe he could go there?

His door hailed him. "Who is it?" He already knew. But Carol had said to act like he didn't.

"It's- the Captain."

Charlie opened the door. The Captain looked worse for wear. He could see it, through the Captain's mind. He had fought with Mr. Spock.

Charlie found this confusing. He thought they had liked each other. Now it looked like they hated each other. Which was it? He would never get this human thing right.

And why was he here now? Did he know? Was he going to arrest him? Kill him?

"Mr. Evans, the Doctor tells me you made an inappropriate gesture towards Carol Marcus today?"

"Ohhh." He let his breath out, relieved. It was just that.

"Yes, I saw you do it to Mr. Spock, and I thought that's what you're supposed to do when you like someone, but then she got mad at me. I did this-" Charlie spanked Kirk.

Kirk pursed his lips. Was that weird? Should he not have done that? Why was he so wrong about what to do all the time? HE sat down in his chair and tried to keep still.

"It's hard to explain. That can be a friendly gesture, but only-"

"Only between men?"

"No. It's just… there are certain relationships that allow… levels of… playfulness? Of intimacy?"

"I think I understand. I'm not intimate with Carol, so I shouldn't do that. But you and Mr. Spock are intimate."

"No! Uh…no, that's not…exactly what I mean either. You just have to feel it out. You know what I mean? Every friendship, every relationship, they're all going to be different. And you'll know that, the more people you meet. You just have to be cautious about where your actions are taking you, how fast you're going and if it's too fast. People get uncomfortable if they feel like someone is pushing them into knowing them faster than they want to know… or, be known…. does that make sense?"

The Captain made it sound even harder than he'd ever thought it could be.

"I don't know…"

The Captain made a sound that Charlie didn't recognize but his mind said it was frustration. He'd definitely use that sound in the future… if he could ever get the context right.

There was a knock on Uhura's door. A knock?

She got up from her bed where she'd been sprawled, reading Orion poetry. It was steamy stuff. She closed the book on her PADD and went to the door. She thought for novelty's sake she'd try opening it without knowing who was on the other side.

It swooshed open and Leonard was standing there, with a flower. It was one of those hybrid things Sulu had been working on. It was very pretty, a dark purple color.

"What is this?"

"A present. My good friend told me today that women like presents."

She grinned at him and took the flower. "Come in, then."

He sat down on her sofa. She got them each a glass of the Southern Comfort he'd left there the other day. He gently rolled the ice around his glass, diluting the liquor as it melted.

She remained standing, twirling the flower by its stem. "So what's going on? Are you okay?"

"All this time as a doctor, and it took me til now to realize life- is short. And painful. And you have to be joyful for as much of it as you can or the Devil will pull you down."

Uhura brushed the flower across his hair and then tossed it on the table. She sat down next to Leonard. "That's not the most convincing line I've ever heard. Kinda depressing, actually."

"I'm sorry. Would you like to hear the events of the past week of my life?"

Uhura shook her head. "No, but I'm not going to let you take me to bed because of pity. And you shouldn't want me to."

Leonard tipped his glass to her, and then drank it down. "Fair point. You're right. Can I just spend bend your ear, then?"

"Definitely," she said, letting her smile come back. "Or, you can let me bend yours. You have to hear what I was reading tonight. It will blow your socks off." She hopped up to retrieve her PADD.

Leonard chuckled. "Blow my socks off, huh? There's something you could never say to Mr. Pointy."

"Don't compare."

"I get all this to myself, too. This is definitely a better deal."

Uhura returned to find Leonard stretched out on the sofa, eating chocolate. "Oh, you brought that for me too? You must be really into me."

She took a piece of the chocolate and sat on the floor beside the couch to read some Orion verses aloud. The chocolate and his laughter made it even better.