Here is another fluffy chapter.

This is set during Bones and Amelia's three years at the Academy, before she takes the third K.M. test and gets caught cheating and etc.

I hope you enjoy, and please review!

There are many occasions which bring Amelia sauntering into McCoy's dorm room in the late evening and not leaving until the early dawn of the next day.

There are times when she simply needs a friendly face to chat with, which brings her running in his direction every time. Those talks usually end in the wee hours of the morning when any students traveling around campus would be questioned and maybe even reprimanded. So Amelia stays, gratefully accepting the surprisingly comfortable couch as her makeshift bed until seven a.m. comes around and she's sneaking silently out the door like a professional and hurrying to prepare for the day's classes.

Then there are the movie nights, which always end with both of the two falling asleep, more often than not using one another's shoulders as pillows. This occasion doesn't come up a lot, since free time is limited at the Academy and good movies are hard to come across. Good movies are mostly defined as exciting films that keep the Starfleet trainees interested and are able to fit into the ancient DVD player that Bones dug up somewhere inside his home in the south.

The most boring and most often occurrences happen to be the numerous study sessions, hated by Amelia with a passion like none other. She dreads the studying and cramming, which is somewhat funny for someone who is so interested in the learning itself. Bones continuously repeats to her how important learning the material is, because there is no way in hell that she'll achieve any status as an officer if she can't even pass a simple exam on basic engineering principles. Amelia often rolls her eyes in response, sometimes adding in a sigh for further dramatic effect, but always manages to quit her whining for at least a little while to turn her attention back to her course materials.

Though McCoy is training to become a full-fledged Chief Medical Officer, there are some basic classes in their first year which overlap with one another. They both suffer through a xenolinguistics starter course, which gives Amelia a very great appreciation for how many foreign tongues Uhura has already managed to master. That course brings with it many study sessions that extend into ungodly hours. It's time filled with a thousand and one mispronunciations from both Bones and Amelia, though she eventually manages to get a bit of an upper hand on the doctor once the class has come to a close. The stammering attempts at the languages end in knitted brows, confused expressions, or, most often, uncontrollable fits of laughter. They end up celebrating once they both pass in the end with an unsanctioned trip off campus to a bar that happens to be fairly close by.

As the second and third years come along, the best friends find themselves seeing less and less of each other when it comes to class time. Bones is being constantly pushed into the medbay while Amelia continues to be slammed with a variety of courses in order to prepare her for the ultimate goal of captaincy one day in the future. At the time she doesn't realize how near in the future that opportunity will arise, but continues to put in the best effort possible into each and every one of her studies. The academically-focused gatherings in Bones' room are still frequent, though they include a whole lot more silence while the two try and study completely different subjects.

Eventually McCoy begins recruiting Amelia for help, since his classes are getting harder and his stack of items to study is only growing larger. These are the times where she is able to feel a whole lot more relaxed, flopping herself down onto the dorm bed and listing off concepts which Bones answers with every bit of information he knows about the topic from his place in the desk chair. Amelia barely understands any of the medical vernacular, but she can read, and that's all that Bones needs out of his trusty study partner. Although not the one using any brain power to absorb information, Amelia is always the first one to doze off, descending into sleep while sprawled out over the doctor's bed. It's when she clocks out that he finally decides he needs his rest too, and affectionately places a blanket over his friend before taking a place on the nearby couch.

Amelia takes after Bones once her homework starts piling up, and pleadingly contacts the bright doctor for assistance. They still end up in his dorm, since he's had an upgrade to a single and Amelia is still stuck with a roommate that acknowledges her presence with a series of glares and sighs. McCoy continues to sit in the desk chair, Lea's papers spread before him, while she lounges on the bed, blue eyes focused on the ceiling above her. She still manages to fall asleep first after coming to the conclusion that she's had enough absorbing of knowledge and McCoy is still always there with a smile on his lips and a blanket in his hand to cover up the young woman. The couch is still his sleeping place, and he still thinks that taking the sofa is worth it as long as his Amelia is comfortable.

The late night study sessions always somehow manage to make an impact, and a positive one at that. Both the doctor and aspiring officer keep their above average grades. Bones is sure that Amelia is getting by her classes with the help of her superior intellect, while Amelia thinks that Bones is doing well because he's the most talented and natural doctor that she's ever known. In fact, both of them eventually come to the conclusion that the study sessions are only good for a slight refreshing of the concepts, though they never admit it to one another.

Both simply enjoy the get-togethers as times filled with laughter over pronunciations and conversations about the future and blank stares at one another at the sound of a completely forgotten topic. Sure, the constant academic conversation is a bit of a bore, but the two wouldn't rather be discussing alien languages or deadly diseases or parts of a warp core with anyone else. In fact, they eventually realize that they have a lot to owe to the study sessions.

It's nearly two in the morning after a particularly rough session regarding Amelia's communications class when Bones finds her sleeping soundly, one side of her face pressed flatly against his pillow. After he's grabbed a thick blanket and placed it atop her still form, he kneels beside his bed and just looks, realizing that he might just care about the resting girl a lot more than any simple friend should. There's hints of a smile on his lips and a feeling in his heart as he brushes some hair out of her eyes before shutting off the light and trying to grab some sleep of his own.

He tells her about that moment a few years later, after her brush with death and his brief coming to grips of the fact that he'd lost her. Amelia gives him a radiant grin and kiss on the cheek, musing that she always knew that those study sessions had been good for something other than passing all those silly tests.

Another cutesy one-shot that I hope you guys enjoyed.

Please review with your thoughts and let me know what you would like to see me write about!

xo, liz