A/N: Yay! I didn't take too long to upload this one. As promised, it's a bit longer than the previous chapter. Sorry if there's any spelling errors. Enjoy!

Chapter 3

Reassurance

"Well, seems like we're gonna have to do a pit spot at Starfleet headquarters. Just to confirm everything and get the final details. Set course for Earth Mr. Sulu." Jim called out while reading through his PADD.

"Ay, Captain."

Once they got to Starfleet headquarters, the sun was already setting so he decided to give everyone the night off. Jim put on his grey Starfleet uniform and proceeded with the small meeting arranged with him. His first officer decided to tag along. The meeting was fairly short and to the point. They went over regulations and the schedule with four other Starfleet officials. Once the meeting ended, Jim and spock made their way into the hall.

"Oh Captain, may I have a word with you?" The woman whom they spoke to about the schedule called from the room.

Jim looked over at Spock. "Can you give me a sec?" Spock nodded while adjusting his arms behind his back. Jim made his way into the office again.

"Yes, officer?"

The woman grabbed the PADD that was laying on her desk nearby the table they were discussing on a few moments ago.

"I almost forgot to tell you. You will need to create a small speech for the ceremony that will be held that day." She handed him the PADD.

"Here is all the information you will need. You may hold onto this until that day."

Jim started pressing on various options which were displayed on the screen. It was paragraph after paragraph. Jim groaned inwardly at how much reading he had to do.

"Thank you officer, it would be my honor." Jim gave her a charming smile and was off. The door slid open and there was Spock, on the other side of the wall waiting for him. Both walked away into the hall.

"For what did she call you in, if I may know?" Spock asked.

"Turns out I have to make a speech for that day." Jim answered. He lifted the PADD between them.

"And this is pretty much my prompt and guidelines for writing my speech." They reached the end of the hall and into the main lobby of the building. They slowly came into a halt.

"May I see the details on the device?" Spock curiously asked.

"Sure." Jim lifted the PADD once again so that Spock could grab it but instead he grabbed the other side of it and leaned in closer to Jim. They were both holding onto the device while Spock scrolled through it with his free hand. Jim suddenly became self-conscious. Since when was Spock not one to care about personal space? Jim let his eyes wander off to see how close they were standing to one another. Before he could take in the sensation, Spock broke off the physical connection.

"I see." Spock said in a low voice, as if he was talking to himself.

"What?"

"The Enterprise was not originally cleared for use before the ceremony?" Spock questioned him with a bit of amusement in his voice.

"Well, technically no but I made quite a convincing argument as to why-" Jim's communicator beeped again. Man, did he keep getting interrupted when he was with Spock.

"Sorry, can you-?" Jim started

"It is fine." Spock gestured him to answer his communicator. Jim reached down and answered his communicator.

"What is it Bones?"Jim answered with a bit of annoyance in his voice.

"Jim! Sorry to inform ya but it seems like I'll have to cancel on tonight's plans."

Jim lifted his finger to signal for Spock to give him a moment and took a few steps away from him so he wouldn't witness his anger and frustration.

"What? No! Come on Bones! I told you I've been dying to go to that new club in downtown!" Jim was ready to choke him through the communicator. All that time in space with work and documents over documents drove him nuts. Tonight was his night to go chill with Bones at a club and unwind with a few drinks.

"I'm sorry Jim. I wasn't aware that the ship was low on lots of supply needed in sickbay. I need to go see for myself what exactly we need to restock on."

"I'll send someone to go pick it up for you, man! Come on, I don't wanna stay in my room tonight."

"Just go on without me."

"Pff! As if! Who's gonna be my wingman?" Jim said sarcastically. Bones sighed loudly and Jim could almost hear him rolling his eyes at him.

"Look, why don't you take one of the other guys with you?"

"Everyone else is busy." Jim quickly responded. Not that he knew. He just didn't want to consider going with the others.

"Even the green blooded hobgoblin?" Jim paused and discretely looked over at Spock who was busy looking around the hall, preoccupying himself with absolutely nothing.

"Spock? You know how he is, he's not into the whole party setting."

"Well have you asked him?"

Jim paused then muttered "No."

"Well then? Stop giving me a hard time and go ask him!"

Jim huffed and contemplated his suggestion. "Fine. I'll ask. But you owe me one!"

"Yeah, yeah! Don't worry! I'll see you around."

" 'Kay." Jim flipped his communicator shut and made his way back to Spock.

"So," Jim clasped his hands together. "Turns out Bones canceled on me for tonight. We were planning on going to this one club at downtown and well…" Jim starting questioning whether this was a good idea or not. Maybe it'd be pushing the boundaries too much on their slow building friendship?

"Yes, Captain?" Spock decided to ask after about ten seconds of silence.

"I was wondering if maybe…"

Spock looked at him curiously. Wow, was Spock this dense or was he just acting like it?

"...you'd want to…" Jim trailed off. This was ridiculous. He was making this harder than it had to be. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"I was wondering if you'd want to come?"

Spock blinked.

"You want me to accompany you?"

"You don't have to, I was just wondering because I thought maybe you'd want to also relax a bit on this night off the Enterprise?" Jim added.

Spock took a few moments to process this request in his head.

"I'll accept your offer."

Jim was genuinely surprised. His face immediately lit up.

"Awesome! Um-great. Then uh- I guess we'll meet up? I'll send you the time and the address of the place later." Jim was fumbling like an idiot.

"Very well then."

Both made their separate ways to offices each one had to visit.

Jim had a pile of shirts mounted on his bed. He looked at himself in the mirror. He hesitated fixing the collar on his black button down.

"Too serious." He mumbled while taking it off and flinging it onto the pile.

After about the 30th outfit, he finally made his way down to the club. He decided to go with a simple white t-shirt, black leather jacket and dark slim jeans. You can never go wrong with that look.

What he did go wrong on however was showing up to the club early. Very early actually. The reason behind that was that he was already dressed and didn't want to just sit there anxiously waiting in his room. He also didn't want to make Spock wait. I mean, if Spock agreed to coming at least he should have the decency to be there to receive him when he comes.

Jim made his way to the bar and asked for a light beer to pass the time for now.

"Is this seat taken?" He asked the lady next to him.

"Nope." She answered, flashing him a big smile.

"Thank you." Jim told the bartender as he was handed his beer. He turned to see the club with the drink in his hand. Jim couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Half because he was nervous and half because he was happy Spock agreed to meet him up here. He always had a bit of pride in him knowing that he was one of the few that could convince Spock to come along to such things. He would almost say he was Spock's weak-spot; but that would be too ridiculous to say.

"So, what's your name?" The lady scooted closer to him. Jim mentally sighed and saw where this was going. "Not tonight." He thought to himself and took a sip.

"Kirk." He responded looking down at his beer looking uninterested.

"Really? Kirk as in Captain James T. Kirk?" She asked enthusiastically.

"That would be me." Jim smiled.

"Wow. Look at you. They weren't kidding when they say you're one of the youngest captains." She said. Jim looked over at her. She was scanning his body from top to bottom.

"Not to mention one of the cutest captains." She gave him a flirtatious smile.

He nodded to acknowledge her compliment modestly but wanted to hint that he wasn't that interested tonight. Tonight, he was going to busy with someone else.

They sat there for a good five minutes until Jim was overwhelmed with all her advances towards him.

"Abri, as much as I'd love to continue this conversation, I'm actually expecting someone very soon." By now he knew her name, where she was from, and how she was looking to have fun night at the place.

"Well I could always keep you company until she comes." She leaned over to him.

"Or how about I keep you company the whole night and we go back to your place?" She continued and placed her hand on his lap." Jim felt uneasy.

"I think he made it quite clear that he wasn't into you. If I were you I'd back off and find someone else to perch on."

Jim looked up to see who decided to interrupt his crisis. It was a young man, maybe a year or two younger than him with dark hair and fairly tanned skin. She exchanged looks between both of them and grabbed her purse and disappeared into the crowd.

"You okay man?" The man held out his hand to shake. Jim took his hand and responded.

"Yeah, thanks. I didn't know what else to tell her without being harsh."

"No problem. May I?" The man signaled to the now empty seat.

"Of course." Jim scooted to give space. The man settled into the seat and ordered two beer, seeing as how Jim was almost done with his.

"I saw you from across the bar and thought I'd help a brother out." Jim and him both chuckled.

"My name's Jim." He called out over the music.

"Ben." The man responded, handing him a beer.

"Oh no, it's fine. I wouldn't-"

"No, please! I insist!" Jim paused and decided to take his offer. They clinked their beers together and started rambling on about the night.

"I know right! I knew the taste in these changed over the years!" Jim motioned at his beer. "I keep telling everyone but they just tell me I'm mad!"

"You're right, buddy!" Ben drank from his beer. Jim looked down at his watch. He told Spock he'd meet him at this time. Where is he?

"So, you said you're captain of a ship right?" Ben asked him, his face very close to his. Since when were they sitting this close?

"Yeah, U.S.S Enterprise." Jim dismissed it. After all, the music was getting very loud to the point they had to start raising their voices. Maybe he was leaning to hear him better. Ben lightly laid his hand on his arm.

"Is that so?"

"Yeup." Jim answered, trying to scoot slightly off into his side but Ben tightened his grip slightly.

"So you were the one who dealt with Khan about a year ago, right?" The topic caught Jim off surprise. He slowly nodded.

"So you're the one everyone calls the hero." Ben added.

"I wouldn't say that…" Jim started to feel very weird about where this was going.

"Me neither." Ben stated harshly. Jim stared at him and decided he had enough of this. He motioned to let go of his arm but Ben tightened his grip.

"You're the shittiest captain I know of." Ben was invading all of Jim's personal space.

"Hey, fuck off alright? Let go of me." Jim didn't want to cause a scene. Not tonight. He was going to dismiss this asshole and spend the rest of the night with Spock.

Up until Ben punched him on the side of his face.

Jim was thrown off into a few seats. He fixed his jacket and lunged at him. The club was getting very crowded at this point that only those near them saw the chaos happening. The sound of breaking bottles was being drowned over the loud booming of the bass. They started throwing punches at each other until Ben decided to knee Jim in the abdomen. Jim fell backwards onto the hard floor. He leaned onto his side.

The bartender was spewing out nonsense of having no fights in the bar area but none listened.

"Because of your shitty-ass captaincy, hundreds of Starfleet officers died! Including my cousin Officer Chapman! You remember him?" Jim was wiping his bloody nose on his sleeve. He felt ashamed to say he didn't know the man well. He probably spoke to him once throughout the whole mission. He slowly stood up and tried to balance himself.

"Of course not! You don't give a shit about your crew members!"

That made Jim boil with anger and charged towards him, punching him straight in the nose. Ben stumbled backwards and cursed to the top of his lungs. Ben charged towards him but Jim was able to grab a stool and hurled it over him, causing Ben to crash to the floor. Jim quickly lunged backwards, getting ready to throw another punch but lost his balance and felt himself falling backwards. He closed his eyes and waited for impact but instead felt someone intertwine their arms under his to stop his impact with the cold hard floor. He shot his eyes open and tried to stand up but stumbled on his own feet. He felt the grip around his torso tighten. Jim turned and grabbed at his shoulders to see that it was none other than

"Spock!" Jim said breathlessly.

"Arrest that man." Spock said coldly to the bartender, shooting him a death glare. The security came through the crowd and picked up Ben.

"I uh-" Jim felt embarrassed at the scene Spock had to walk in. He probably thought Jim was looking for trouble.

"Captain. Cease your explanation." Jim felt Spock slide his arm around under his arms for support.

"Can you walk?" he asked.

"Yeah, sorta." Jim choked out.

Both made their way through the crowd and out into a courtyard that was at the back of the club. It was quite a beautiful courtyard. It was fairly dim, seeing as the only source of light was rows of small light bulbs hanging on top of very chatty people. Everyone seemed spread out and minded their own business. Spock gently helped Jim sit down on a bench far away from everyone else. Spock opened his mouth to speak but Jim beat him to the punch.

"Spock, please! Let me explain." He said, through the cloth he was using to stop the bleeding of his nose. Spock took a seat next to him. Jim damped his nose with the cloth and pulled it away, folding it so that a clean section of it could be used.

"I was minding my own business and then that guy approached me and we started talking but then all of a sudden he started throwing punches at me and well I couldn't just sit there and do nothing about it-"

"And what exactly provoked him to physically assault you?" Spock asked. Just thinking about made Jim feel horrible. He opened his mouth but hesitated to speak. After a moment or two, he spoke.

"It doesn't matter. Point is, he-"

"Jim."

There he goes again with his name. Jim looked at him. Spock's face was so unreadable yet he knew how to decipher the look he was giving him. It was that look of "stop going around the question and just answer it." Jim senses were suddenly overwhelmed by the close proximity between him and his first officer. Spock was leaning slightly towards him. Did he notice he was doing that? Or was it just his human side slipping through? Jim felt his face warm up because of shame and…other things. Things he'd rather push out of his mind. He looked down.

"He said I was a shitty captain."

Spock was taken aback by such statement.

"Apparently his cousin was one of the fallen ones from Khan's incident. He said I didn't give a shit about my crew." Jim hung his head in guilt. Spock swiftly stood up and started to move towards the club again until Jim quickly stood up after him and grabbed his sleeve.

"Where are you going?" Jim asked exasperated.

"I must address this situation at once." Spock responded quickly. In other words "I'm gonna go kick his ass."

"No, it's fine. The security guards listened to you right away when you told them to arrest him." Truth be told, Jim was ready to see Spock defend him by fucking up that Ben guy, but then he thought about how Spock was capable of actually murdering him so he thought he'd rather have a murder-free evening.

Spock quickly focused his gaze down to the floor, as if a million thoughts were running through his mind. Without thinking, Jim pulled him a bit closer, still clutching onto his sleeve.

"Spock, listen to me," Spock's full attention was on Jim's face. "Don't worry about it. It's not worth it."

"What that man said is completely incorrect, Captain."

"Jim; we're off duty." Jim pushed, trying to hear his name escape those lips again.

"Jim, you performed exceptionally as captain and went beyond anyone's expectations on such a distressing event. His statement towards your lack of care for your crew is inaccurate and false. It is fascinating how you are able to balance both your relationship with the crew and your captaincy and leadership over the crew. I admire such quality that you possess among other qualities. Do not ever consider his statement to have an ounce of truth because it has none."

Jim absentmindedly let his grasp slip, sliding his hand towards the bottom of Spock's sleeve. He stood there is awe. He was overwhelmed with Spock's loyalty and kind words. He always assumed that's where he stood on the subject but there was always a hint of doubt. It's different when you actually hear the words come out.

Spock trailed his gaze from Jim's eyes onto where he was holding him. Jim pulled away quickly; a little too quickly actually. He winced in pain. Jim let himself drop onto the bench again and began rubbing his arm.

"Perhaps you should seek medical help. Dr. McCoy should be available-"

"Oh no! We're not calling him. He had plans and if he hears that I got into a fight on my one night off, I'll never hear the end of it." Jim pleaded.

"I insist that-"

"No, Spock, really! I just took a small beating, is all. I've had worse." Jim looked up at him and smiled to reassure him. Spock didn't buy into it and sat down next to him.

"Are you sure of this? Do you feel pain anywhere else?" Spock questioned.

"No, not really. Just a few scratches and bruises."

Spock examined his face while Jim was trying not to feel subconscious of himself. Unexpectedly, Spock grabbed his wrist and lifted his arm, ever so gently turning it. Jim watched as Spock was tugging his arm. His face was so close to his. He was looking at every one of his face features. His unique shape of his eyebrows. His small frown he was doing while focusing on his arm. His dark eyes, full of expression. His skin, pale as ever yet had a hint of green around the cheeks. Little did he know Spock was determining whether to take him to Bones or let him off the hook. Seeing as how Jim did not pull his arm away in pain, Spock laid his arm down again.

"Can you walk?" Spock asked once again. Jim nodded.

Both made their way out of the club and onto the streets of San Francisco at night. Most of the walk there was silent, with a comment here and there. Once they made their way to their headquarters, Jim stopped in the hall. The thought just hit him. Spock turned around and saw that Jim was lost in thought.

"Is everything alright?" Spock asked.

"We didn't even get a chance to hang out at the club. The night was completely ruined." Jim felt stupid, barely realizing this.

"It is fine, Jim." Spock reassured him. The two stood there for a few moments, then Jim spoke up once again.

"Thank you Spock. For everything." Spock looked at him and nodded, placed his hands behind his back, and swiftly turned on his heel to walk towards his room. Jim walked a few feet more, being only a few doors away from his room. He unlocked the door and gave one last look at Spock. He was so caught up with everything that he didn't even pay attention to Spock's outfit. He was wearing slim fitting grey pants with a white collar shirt and black thin jacket. Jim ran his eyes from top to bottom and nonchalantly nodded, making a note to himself and closed the door behind him.

He will totally have to invite Spock to a club again if it meant seeing him in that outfit again.

Oh Jim you silly, silly boy. Little do you know you're falling for him more as each day passes by. So, what do guys think? Please give me some feedback! I wanna hear what you guys think. I kinda have the whole story plotted out but I need to just write it out and see where it goes. Review, Fav, & Follow please! xoxo I'll try to update soon.