It's so quiet that Jim can hear his own heartbeat.
This was as close to a human tradition as it got with him - the two of them, lying on separate couches in the living room, stumped. This usually helped to jig something in Jims mind; the different environment, the calm and quiet. Sometimes, when he was really stuck, he stuck his feet up against the back cushions and sat upside down so all the blood rushed to his head.
Which he promptly did.
Spock looked over at the sudden movement, and looked as concerned as Vulkhansu could get. Jim didn't know for sure though, because the bond was still blocked. But… Spock was different than he had been yesterday. Less closed off, less prickly.
Maybe he went insane, hiding in the attic for hours.
"The rule is," Jim started, trying to ignore the thoughts bouncing around his head, "I gotta have a new idea before all the blood rushes to my head and I pass out."
"That does not seem like a good rule."
"It's a great rule. Works every time."
And there was no reason it wouldn't work here. All they needed was a little more power. There simply wasn't enough in the one microwave he had. And it wasn't like he could take anything else apart - the rest was all sorta attached to the house. So…
"We need to steal more microwaves," Jim said.
"No."
He sat back upright and grestured helplessly at Spock. "Why not? It halfway worked the last time, it just needed a little more! All I'm saying is that my neighbours definitely won't be home until at least 5 o' clock."
"I was correct," Spock said, mostly to himself, "sitting upside down was not a good rule."
"It's a great rule," Jim protested, and resumed the position, "because at this point we're either stealing some microwaves or you're setting up shop here. Permanently."
Spock paused, and he wondered if that was a mean thing to say, but then Spock popped his feet up on the back cushions, head almost touching the floor.
"This is unpleasant," was all he had to say on the matter.
"Hey, pain avoidance is basic human instinct - you wanna avoid pain, you gotta have an idea."
Jim's cheeks were starting to throb. The thing was that nothing in your average American household was equipped to power a freaking warp drive on an alien spaceship. He was stumped.
It's not like they could hook it up to the main grid; extension cords didn't reach that far, and electricity was almost obsolete for the Vulkhansu so he wasn't sure it would work. Spock had crashed at an awkward time period for this because like, thirty years ago there would have been no hope, but thirty years in the future the whole world would probably run on nuclear energy and Spock would just fill up at the closest gas station.
"Y'know, maybe all we can do is… wait," Jim swallowed heavily, "for the rest of the world to catch up, uhh, technology-wise."
His proposal was met with silence. It wasn't something he really wanted to suggest either, but. This was Bumfuck, Iowa, which contained all of three cows, and there was no way of transporting a large alien spaceship (has he mentioned that they were dealing with an alien spaceship? As in, never-before-seen on Earth?) anywhere useful. There were no unwinnable scenarios, but maybe this didn't have to be.
"I mean, it wouldn't be all bad, would it? You guys live for like, ever, so it would only be a blip in your 200-year lifespan and when I'm old enough to drive without being arrested for it we could try sneaking in to some government facility or somewhere and you know your mom wouldn't give up on you and-"
"Jim."
The and I'm here died in his throat. He looked over to Spock, whose face was going green. Maybe this wasn't a good rule after all. Jim sat up.
"I had an idea I'm allowed to not pass out now," he said, looking away.
"Jim," Spock said again, also sitting up. That single word implored him to look back, and so he did. "It would not be… 'all bad,' but I must get a message to my parents. I can't..."
He trailed off, but the sentence didn't need to be finished. Jim understood.
"Ok. We'll figure something out."
Without warning, the lock on the front door turned, and both boys sprung into action - Jim rushing over to Spock's couch and trying to hide him somewhere, but it was all a split second too late.
The door opened. And Bones stepped into the house.
Everyone froze.
And then Bones huffed out a laugh and dragged a palm over his face.
"You had me so go- gosh dammit worried about your tiny ass that I risked both Jocelyn and Frank Donnovan's beatin', to come over here and check" Bones said, "but it was just this?"
"You'll say ass but you won't use the Lord's name in vain? I'm disappointed in you, Bones," Jim tried to deflect, "how'd you get in, anyway?"
All he got in response was a raised eyebrow. Jim smiled awkwardly, and then realised his hands were still on Spock's arm - who was still frozen - and he abruptly removed them.
"Uhh… It's not what it looks like?" He tried (and failed).
Bones smirked. "And what does it look like?"
"It looks like absolutely nothing. Just some friends hanging out after school."
Rolling his eyes, Bones closed the door and sat on the now-empty couch. Jim and Spock shared a look and surreptitiously scooched away from each other to sit normally. It was only now that Jim also realised Spock was in his old winter pyjamas. Which, whatever reasoning Bones was putting together, that probably didn't help.
All Jim was thinking was please don't ask me if he's an escaped fugitive, or why he's got pointy ears or why sitting upside down makes his face green.
Despite their attempt at subtility, Bones noticed the movement, and a flash of guilt pulled at the side of his mouth.
"Don't - you don't have to. I didn't mean to be." He paused, fidgeting and looking anywhere but them, red-faced. "I'm not good at this kind of thing, but you don't have to… pretend, for my sake. I didn't know this was what was going on with you but it's… it's ok, in my books anyway."
They shared another look.
"My uh, cousin - on my ma's side. She never said but uh, she's also. Y'know. She's got a" - in substitution of a word he just gestured at them in a stilted manner and dipped his head- "'n all."
"Bones…" Jim started slowly, "what in the fuck are you talking about."
Bones' face had reached maximum blotched redness. It was at its limit. So had his restless fidgeting, and he stood up in an abrupt motion.
"This!" he exclaimed, gesturing to them with both arms, "You and your… him! The two of you! Both! Together! Whatever it is they're calling it these days."
Immediately, Jim's face flushed. Oh. Oh no.
"What? Us? No! That's- it's- no!" Jim also stood up out of nervous energy. "We're not- um, together. I'm just- he's a friend, and I'm helping him out-"
"Oh, you're helping him out, are ya?"
"No, stop it, that's not-"
"Okay, I'm sorry I asked, obviously you two are fine and there's nothing for me to check up on here, don't mind me at all," Bones finished, looking like he wished he had a hat to cram onto his head for effect as he stormed out the door. Before he had a chance to move, Jim grabbed for Spock, whose head had been moving like he was watching his first tennis match, and - hastily, while trying not to pull - showed Bones his ears.
"LOOK," Jim exclaimed as a last-ditch attempt.
It worked. He had Bones' attention. It probably helped that the close (and retrospectively embarrassing) hand-to-ear contact had Spock's cheeks flushed. He really needed to work on that when he got back, some back part of Jim's brain observed. He told it to shut up. Now was not the time.
It never was, for that stupid back part. It always piped up at the most inopportune moments.
Another, further back part said he looked cute, with his hair everywhere like that, one hand lightly holding Jim's wrist. Jim also told it to shut up.
"What?" Bones muttered, and came closer. He placed a hand on either of Spock's cheeks, pushing Jim out of the way, and turned Spock's head side to side. He only managed a few times before it shook Spock out of his stupor and roughly jerked out of his grip.
"Please refrain from doing that."
"What the fuck are you," Bones replied, staring straight at him as he had Mr. Black's math class the first time he had taken it. Jim thought that was slightly unfair; Spock was a whole lot better than twenty-five rowdy fourteen year olds (with more than a few having a taste for throwing erasers).
Spock's eyes snapped to Jim for - reassurance? Approval? - and Jim nodded.
"I am Vulkhansu," he replied simply.
Bones' jaw dropped. He looked at Jim, and then back to Spock. He analysed Spock head to toe, and then looked back at Jim. Back to Spock.
The pair of them patiently waited for him to finish (and to breathe). Privately, Jim was going to bring this moment up for years.
Bones took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and then forced it out.
"Okay," he said finally, looking at Jim once more, and pausing. "Of course you had to find an alien boy. Earth ones too boring for you?"
Jim spluttered.
"Jim did not find me, I crashed in his backyard. A chance meeting for us both," Spock answered in his stead, "and from what I have observed, Earth residents are not boring at all."
And that earned a raised eyebrow from Bones. Jim rolled his eyes and elbowed him.
They took him out to the barn. And immediately got yelled at.
"Y'all are kids! Why are you messing around with this, you could have died!" Bones' words seemed to be tripping over each other, with out fast he was trying to get them out. "I mean, you put a microwave in there? And what, just hoped for the best?"
"Hey, it worked!" Jim put in.
"We had hypothesised that since the microwave runs on the closest thing to matter-antimatter-"
"Antimatter? This shit runs on antimatter?"
Spock nodded. Bones looked like his head was about to explode.
"Fucking antimatter - and you've just been hiding this from Frank this whole time? Jesus kid, how are you not dead?"
Jim winced. "We-e-ell…"
Bones glared at him, and Jim crumbled. Damn that ex-babysitter eye.
"We weren't exactly successful, uh, one hundred percent of the time. After the car fell into the quarry Frank sorta saw him - but it was only for a little bit! And he forgot it all happened - probably - well, he hasn't brought it up since."
"Frank is something we have resolved to fix before my departure," Spock said.
"No we haven't-" Jim tried, but was interrupted. Again.
"Frank's been needin'a fix since got here."
Jim felt like the discovery of alien life should have held the topic of conversation more. "Et tu, Brute?"
"Shut up, Jim."
Spock looked smug. He would never say something like shut up, Jim, he'd have to find a much more roundabout way of getting the point across. Jim got the feeling he appreciated the straightforwardness.
Bones turned back to the spaceship - it wasn't much to look at. A beat-up hunk of metal, with insides to match, but it was still something that had been to outer space and hadn't burnt up in the atmosphere. If Jim wasn't quite so frustrated at the rest bucket he might have been able to see that more.
As it stands, though. He's kind of annoyed at it.
"We haven't been able to think of anything that would give it more power," Jim said, "we don't even need to get it off the ground, we just need to send a message out to Spock's parents."
"Ain't you a genius? Shouldn't you have genius-ed your way out by now?"
"Shut up, Bones," Jim parodies.
"Well you're not touching my microwave, that's for sure. Jos would really kill me then- shit, speaking of. I gotta go."
The sunlight was slowly turning bright orange through the barn window. It was getting late.
Jim nodded, and the three of them silently made their way up to the house.
"You're not continuing this by yourselves, you realise. You might be smart but you're still an idiot," Bones grumbled.
"Thanks, Bones."
"I'll drop by when I can. Didn't go through three years of med school without learning nothing, ya know." Just as he turned to leave, Jim caught him by the arm last minute.
"You can't tell anyone," Jim said, "not even Jocelyn. Something could... happen. To Spock."
Bones gave him a smile that he got a lot from adults, and ruffled his hair, and after a moment's hesitation, he ruffled Spock's as well. Much to his (almost invisible) displeasure.
"I won't," Bones promised, "you have my number, make sure you call if a Martian pops up in your kitchen. Or if you decide to pull apart your oven"
Jim rolled his eyes, smiling. "I will."
"Mars is uninhabited, and largely inhospitable to natural life," Spock brought up, "thus, there are no Martians."
"You never know," Bones smiled, and walked off, shaking his head.
Jim closed the door and sighed in relief.
"But I do know," Spock said, "given the data, it is extremely unlikely that-"
"Come on," Jim laughed, and looped an arm around Spock's, dragging him back to the couch, "we still have a solution to think up, nothing's gonna drop out of thin air."
He paused, just in case one did. But that would be too easy.
And Jim felt like the universe would rather bend over backwards than make things easy for him.