Title: Cuddling Is Logical
Characters: Spock, McCoy, Kirk POV, Chapel cameo
Rating: so very K. Yayz for platonic cuddling.
Word Count: exactly 500
Genre: H/C, Humor, Gen
Summary: My entry for the Cuddling for warmth/Snowed in space on my LiveJournal hc_bingo card.
When his Chief Science and Chief Medical Officers had requested the use of a shuttle to study the 'fascinating' planet below (an ice-bound, consistently frigid from pole-to-pole sphere where, inexplicably, a peculiar chrystalline plant life had developed), he was slightly surprised, but granted permission for the two to take the shuttle planet-ward.
When McCoy and Spock exited the Bridge, talking excitedly (as excitedly as a Vulcan could be, anyway) about experimental breeding procedures and medical discoveries and a dozen other things that went completely over his head – all without so much as a single exchanged insult or expletive – he only shook his head in wonder at the miracles of the universe.
When the Galileo II disappeared from their scanners, only to reappear as a terrifying blip as it crash-landed on the planet's surface, he broke the inter-communications switch on his chair's armrest, telling Scotty to boost transporter power immediately to retrieve the two (they were alive, they could tell that much from scans, though no one knew in what condition).
When the transporter malfunctioned halfway through the attempted beam-down of thermal equipment, he should not have been surprised (this happened far too often aboard this ship in particular), but still took his anger out on the wall of the turbolift on his way down to Shuttle Bay Two.
When Chapel met him there with a business-like nod, an emergency response team, and a painkiller for his bruised knuckles, he knew she'd been trained far too well by the human stranded below with only a Vulcan and a small emergency kit for company, in a sub-zero world full of unknowns.
When the Bridge reported two life-signs fading steadily as they battled their way through the planet's ice-particled atmosphere and across snow-crusted glaciers, he only held his breath and prayed to any deity within the hearing distance of the quadrant that Vulcan strength and Southern stubbornness would be enough to keep his two friends alive until they could locate them.
When they reached the debris-strewn site of the decimated shuttle and followed the obviously-laid trail to a nearby crevice in the ice, he purposely refrained from speculating as to what they would find and in what condition, and only the cloud of fog that appeared as he exhaled upon locating them showed the immensity of his sigh of relief.
When the only words they got out of either as they pried the two of them apart were a slurred "Quit hoggin' the blankets, hobgoblin," from McCoy, he found out the hard way that on this world tears – from laughter or relief, they were all the same to the temperature – froze to his face within five seconds.
When both of them (unsuccessfully) denied the entire scenario, he didn't need anything but Chapel's witness (and her deviously-snapped holopics) to prove that Vulcans consider cuddling to be logical under the right circumstances.