Paparazzi

AN: Inspired by "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga! After the past two, you can expect some fluffy humor and such. I need to lighten this up!

Disclaimer: SSDD!

Rating: K

He didn't really expect this. Absolutely not. Regardless of what he had done, this shit was absolutely ridiculous. He couldn't have claimed to have had any time alone in the past twenty-four hours, and that was an unfortunate truth.

No matter where he went, there was somebody who rushed him, someone he didn't know, who seemed to know more about him than his own mother and it made him a little awkward, but he flashed that smile and it all seemed to get better again.

A lot of people came up and talked to him. All different kinds of people. Men, women, teenage girls, prom queens, rebels, fighters, children, and he met with them with the best humor he could, even though his patience was wearing thin and he just wanted some time alone.

They asked him all the same basic things. He was tired of repeating himself. He had briefly considered making a recording, but he knew it was a rude thing to do. But seriously, going from useless drunk to hero was sort of a big leap and even people who had despised him in the past bragged about knowing him. He couldn't help but roll his eyes.

What really got him though, was that he garnered the most attention. Hell, he was nearly killed three times over the course of the entire Narada incident; strangled at least three times, nearly falling off ledges twice. Now that he thought about it, he really should watch what he's doing.

Sure, he had the most dramatic story. The worthless, genius-level repeat offender, drunk extraordinaire rising up and saving a whole planet in some mind-blowing galactic adventure. It sounded great on paper, but he didn't do it alone. Aside from the four hundred plus crewmembers actually assigned to the Enterprise, there were plenty of people who had done more than he had. He just sort of pulled them all in the right direction.

Without Uhura's interception of the Klingon message, he wouldn't have put two and two together as soon as he would have, and when he did, he wouldn't have had enough proof to back up the assumption on the bridge in front of Pike and Spock, who both would have just thrown him off the bridge and dismiss him as an attention whore. Without Scotty, he wouldn't have made it onto the Narada. Without Sulu, he would have fallen off the drill platform and his adventure would have ended there. Without Chekov, he and Sulu would have fallen to their deaths.

But without Spock, he wouldn't have gotten out of this. Spock had really been there, one step behind him all the way, even if he had been reluctant to trust him. The fact that Spock had trusted him, his plan, his judgment, meant a lot to him.

So while everyone on the planet focused on him, he did the same for Spock.

He wouldn't yet put those feelings into words, but he knew they were there.

When he and his First Officer had been stuck together in the longest meeting of his life, he couldn't help but steal glances at the other man, the one person everyone's idol idolized the most. They were barely friends, but he adored him, in spite of the fact that word made him feel pathetic. Every mental picture he saved made him smile, and when Spock would catch him, his smile would only widen, but he'd look away.

Spock was still stiff around him, but he planned on chasing Spock until he felt the same, until he loved him too, until he could hold him in his hands and claim him as his.

Until then, he was content to just be near him, because Spock was blinding and everything and he was glad that he was the only one who saw.

AN: And so, after two hilariously long pieces, there's this! Cute and short. I'll be working on the next chapter, which I hope will be a little longer, but no harm no foul!