Title: Debts
Characters: Spock, Kirk
Rating: K
Word Count: 640
Summary/Spoilers: No particular missing scene this time, just a what-if. Early fic.

They all remembered the first time it happened, simply for the novelty factor.

Captain Pike had been an exemplary officer. His loyalty to his crew and Starfleet had never been questioned. His relationships with his crew were impersonal by choice, and thus none ever approached him, emotionally or physically, unless necessary. Mr. Spock was the most notable leader in this amicable ostracization, keeping his distance (and more) and obviously preferring that state of affairs.

Then Captain James T. Kirk had whirlwinded onto the Enterprise, scattering all preconceptions of command style left, right, and center. Four months into their five-year mission, the new captain had broken his first Starfleet regulation; saved seventeen crewmen in doing so, but nonetheless had broken it.

The Admiralty decided to chastise their poster boy in full view of the Bridge crew, as a lesson to the brashness of youth.

Kirk stood, silent but with eyes flashing defiance and a refusal to promise to never repeat his actions, not if they would save his crew.

Sixty seconds into the tirade, jaws dropped around the Bridge – not from the severe censure, but from the fact that the unapproachable Science Officer had just moved protectively into position immediately behind and to the right of his Captain, close enough that their opposing shoulders nearly touched. He said nothing, face not quite visible to the Admiralty due to the screen angle but his presence unmistakable.

Kirk did not move, but some of the crimson left his countenance in a visible expression of relief.

The Admiral's tone lost a bit of its edge, subsiding into a stern growl rather than a tirade, and finished with a curt warning to not repeat the offense on pain of losing the captain's commission, even at the expense of seventeen crewmen's lives.

The screen went blank, and the crew eyed their new leader for his reaction.

Starfleet's youngest captain blinked at the starry screen for a moment, weighing the consequences of his past and present actions and wondering if he had been or would be found wanting, and by whom.

Finally, "No promises," he muttered loudly enough for the crew to hear, and plopped himself back into his chair with a decisive thwock. "Maintain course, helmsman."

His crew exchanged amused and respectful glances behind his back; not every captain in the 'Fleet, especially the Shooting Star of the Academy as he'd been called recently in a news clip, would take such a rebuke without choice language before or after the communication had been cut – nor would every captain have stuck by his beliefs despite the higher-ups opinions of rules and regulations.

And definitely, no other captain had seemingly won himself the support of the most brilliant and least sociable species in the known galaxy.

Kirk seemed aware of this last, for he glanced up at the silent figure still standing beside and just behind his chair. "Thanks for the moral support, by the way, Mr. Spock," he said easily but in a quiet undertone, knowing better than to make a public display. "It was a very…human thing to do, and I appreciate your sacrifice of your personal space."

"My 'sacrifice', as you so term it, Captain, was completely merited and therefore no real personal sacrifice, sir," the officer returned with sober equanimity.

Every ear perked toward the command chair.

The flush returned to the captain's face. "Oh?"

"Indeed, Captain."

"May I ask…why?" It was a shameless need to hear some sort of reassurance after the scathing rebuke, but not a soul within hearing blamed the young captain.

One eyebrow inclined gracefully, well knowing what was being asked, and for a moment Kirk felt quite foolishly human next to this brilliant Vulcan he'd been given as a Science Officer.

Then the dark eyes softened so imperceptibly that if he hadn't been studying them for any sign he would have missed the flicker, and then the censure and the Admiralty and everything else in the universe suddenly disappeared into a warm glow.

"Because I was that seventeenth crewman, Captain."