Is that snow?
Title: Is that snow?
Author: bela_black
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Rating: R (sexual content, some swearing)
Words: 2620
Author’s Note: Oh god, this is really a last-minute attempt at a fic, so I sincerely hope it’s worth a read.
First time writing this pairing and I'm not a native speaker, so please be gentle. (yay for captatio benevolentiae)
Also, many thanks to sangueuk who offered to be my beta-reader and wasn’t scared away by the late arrival of this story.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.
Summary: When the impossible happens, when it snows in space, it can mean many things and not necessarily that thermic laws have been turned upside down. For Jim Kirk it may even mean home.
written for the 23rd for space_wrapped
***
Jim woke up slowly to the feeling of a hand settling heavily on his hip.
He didn’t open his eyes yet and allowed himself to stay in the drowsy state between sleep and awakening for a while. In the back of his mind he realized that the alarm hadn’t gone off yet, so he knew he still had time before he needed to get up and prepare for the day.
The hand began to stroke leisurely circles on his hip, straying off towards the small of his back. He let out a sleepy sigh and leaned back into the touch. Before Jim could do anything more, he felt a light grip on his shoulder as he was rolled over onto his other side.
Opening his eyes, Jim was dimly aware of Bones’ still figure next to him. The man was lying propped up on his elbow with a look on his face that Jim couldn’t quite identify in his half-awake state.
Bones wasn’t quite smiling, but the usual furrow on his brow that accompanied his days was softened out. Jim couldn’t hold back the stray thoughts of / content, never-without-him, easy, home / at the look which Bones gave him.
Not wanting to say or do anything to ruin the moment ( - because some part of Jim, the part of his unconsciousness which always knew that Bones was there, the part which sensed his friend’s presence as Bones decided to show up on the bridge unanounced in the middle of a shift without needing to actually see or hear or feel his touch: this part knew that this was a special moment between the two of them, in the early hours of the morning before the day had officially started and they both needed to slip in their respective roles of Captain and CMO - ) Jim kept still and quiet.
Despite the very center of his being gravitating towards the force that Bones was to him, Jim didn’t other and allowing his eyes to wander over his friend’s face. Bones’ expression was still unreadable, although Jim couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was a smile in Bones’ face somewhere. He couldn’t actually see it: his lips were not turned upwards, there were no laugh lines showing around the eyes, but it seemed like the smile was hiding in the corners of Bones’ mouth, not wanting to escape and reveal itself.
Jim, who gradually slipped into a more awake state of mind, was curious as to why Bones might hide something from him, when he himself felt so completely open in this moment.
However, Jim had learnt to read Bones over the years and knew that there was no need to worry. While he couldn’t exactly pinpoint the look Bones was giving him, he was sure that Bones wasn’t hung up over something he didn’t want to bother Jim with. When Bones was inwardly struggling with serious problems ( / daughter - patients - home sickness / ), his brow was furrowed, his jaw set, his entire posture tighter than usual. Now relaxed and unworried poured out of his every pore and it seemed to Jim that whatever it was that Bones was holding back wasn’t out of his reach; if he tried to get at it, Bones would let him, he was certain.
He didn’t try, though, for once deciding not to push until he got what he wanted. He didn’t have to with Bones because where other people needed pushs all the time, Bones just gave and gave and gave without Jim ever having to ask for it.
When Jim still didn’t move or say a word after a few minutes of searching Bones’ face, Bones broke the motionlessness between. His hand, which was still settled on Jim’s shoulder from when he had turned him over, roamed up to Jim’s neck and into the short strands of hair. Finally allowing motion to take him over, Jim, in turn, placed his hand on Bones’ chest, imagining he could feel his heartbeats underhis palm.
At his touch, Bones finally spoke. “Morning, Jim,” he said quietly, the his accent only showing around the edges of his words, which confirmed Jim’s suspicion that the other man had been awake for some time before him. When Bones was in the drowsy state just before or after sleep, or when he was particularily angry or aroused for that matter, his accent slipped, so the fact that Jim didn’t hear it now told him that Bones had probably been watching him sleep for a while.
For some reason this realization didn’t come as much of a surprise to Jim. After all Bones had been looking for him since the day they had met, patching him up, dealing with his hang-overs and offering his presence when it was needed. Now with both of them aboard the Enterprise it even was part of Leonard McCoy’s job description to look after Jim Kirk, so it was, after a fashion, only natural for his friend to watch over him while he slept too.
“Morning,” Jim murmured back, leaning forward to press his lips against Bones’, who took advantage of already having his hand in Jim’s hair by pulling him closer until Jim parted his lips. Letting their tongues brush together, Jim’s hand wandered from Bones’ chest to his back, slipping under his shirt to touch skin.
Bones, in turn, drew circles with his thumb on Jim’s stomach, straying down and up, which had Jim groaning encouragingly into Bones’ mouth. After exchaning lazy kisses and soft touches for a while, Bones rolled over onto Jim, so that he had him pinned down to the matress with his knees on both sides of his hips. When their groins met, Jim gave a throaty moan, surging up to place wet, open-mouthed kisses along Bones’ jawline. The earlier calm had given way to heat and haste, both aware that these were just stolen moments before the alarm went off.
“Nice way to start the day,” Jim voiced said while moving one hand up into Bones’ hair and the other one down to his ass. “Will give me something to think about in the middle of a shift when Spock attacks me with totally necessary, but really, really boring statistics about the probability of my ship crashing into a formerly unknown planet.”
“Damnit, Jim,” Bones growled. “Would you not to mention the hobgoblin when we’re like this? It’s not exactly a turn-on.” When Bones bit down sharply on Jim’s collarbone, Jim didn’t so much feel reprimanded, but he rather enjoyed the actions Bones’ flash of anger drove him to in bed. In everyday life Bones’ moodiness could be annoying, but in bed it was … arousing at least, hot-as-hell-turned-icy-and-reheated-with-southern-whiskey-as-fuel at most, with all the angry biting and heated glances.
“Sorry,” Jim said huskily, squeezing Bones’ ass in a firm grip while moving his head up a bit to capture the other’s lips again. “Just figured you might enjoy hearing about the fantasies I harbour about you while on bridge.” Turning his head in order to allow Bones better access to his neck, Jim kept on teasing. “Didn’t think you’d be so fri-“ - he stopped in the middle of the sentence and not because of the things Bones was doing with his mouth right now.
“Hang on a minute,” Jim said, giving Bones a light push on the shoulders to stop him from nibbling on his throat enthusiastically.
“What’s this?”
Having his head turned into the general direction of the window without Bones broad figure blocking the view from him like before Jim had caught a glimpse of something decidedly white glinting on the window.
“What?,” Bones asked in confusion, obviously not very pleased to be interrupted. He continued to move his mouth along Jim’s neck and skimmed his large hands over his sides. Jim sat up completely, forcing Bones up too.
“Is that snow?,” Jim asked in disbelief, eyeing the window of his quarters more closely.
Bones gave an exasperated sigh, finally stilling letting his hands come to a rest on Jim’s hips. “Took you long enough to realize,” he grumbled.
At his words Jim tore his gaze away from the window before giving Bones a baffled look. “Excuse me?”, he uttered. “What did you just say?”
“I said, took you long enough to realize”, Bones repeated his in a voice which might have been annoyed, but was mostly amused.
Jim’s face went from confusion into something more like irritation, his brow furrowing and his jaw setting. “Are you telling me that you knew there was snow outside my window and didn’t say a word about it? It’s just, you know, it’s snow, we’re in space; there shouldn’t be any goddamn snow outside my window while we’re in fucking space, so maybe I, as Captain, should have been informed about that kind of anomaly?!”
Jim’s voice had gotten louder, his tone even verging on the edge of hysteria while he climbed out of bed, marching through the room to examine the ‘snowflakes’. There was no doubt; it was real snow made of big, fluffy flakes which danced just outside the window in a lazy downward movement, which was very weird. They were travelling at warp speed and even if there could be any snow in space, Jim shouldn’t be able to make out anything but a white swirl and certainly not single snowflakes.
“Jesus, Jim, relax,” Bones laughed, giving up his earlier position now that Jim was out of bed, moving to lean against the wall. “There’s no need to worry.”
Rather than reassure Jim, Bones’ laid-back demeanor had quite the opposite effect on Jim. Didn’t Bones know snow in space could only mean that something was seriously, seriously wrong, since it was. Not. Supposed. To. Be. There, all all thermal laws taken into consideration.
“Seriously, Bones. I can only guess where all your blood has rushed, but I’m sure there’s not enough in your brain right now. SNOW. Outside the window. IN SPACE. Jeez, are you a scientist or not? There’s some weird shit going on,” Jim uttered somewhat abrasively. “I’m going to comm Spock now to find out how this is possible and whether it’s dangerous to my ship and crew.”
As Jim reached for his communicator, Bones gripped his wrist, making short work of his intentions.
“Hey,” he said, his voice no longer amused, but softening at Jim’s apparent worry over his crew. When Jim didn’t turn, Bones grew more insistent. “Hey,” he repeated quietly.
“What is it?,” Jim barked, reluctantly turning towards his friend, giving him an impatient look.
Bones tugged on Jim’s arm, pulling him down to sit on the bed again. “There’s no need to worry. Really not, Jim”, he added at Jim’s incredulous look. “It isn’t real snow. It’s just a simulation.”
Incredulousness turned into complete bewilderment. What the fuck was Bones talking about? Voicing his thoughts, Jim asked, “What the fuck are you talking about, Bones?”
Bones watched him attentively and gave Jim the the same look he had been contemplating earlier when Bones had been looking at him in that unidentifiable half smiling way. It made him feel even more confused. What was going on here?
“Okay, see. There’s no real snow outside that window, it’s just a sim, sorta like a screensaver on a monitor. I asked Scotty to install it, so would you please stop freaking out now?” Bones didn’t seem irritated, but it was obvious that he really wanted Jim to calm down.
After a moment of hesistation Jim did as he was asked, not longer trying to escape from Bones’ grip. “Um, okay, so care to explain why you asked Scotty to manipulate my window screen into showing fake snow?”
The look on Bones’ face sort of intensified at his question. He still wasn’t smiling, but he just seemed to be seconds away from it.
“Well, you see, it’s a little early, but it’s gonna be Christmas in a view days. So I just thought … well, I guessed you might enjoy at least getting the impression of having it snow outside, for the sake of festive spirit and all. I know how much you love snow during Christmas time and since we can’t be home on Earth this year, I figured I could at least do this,” Bones explained.
Jim stared at him in astonishment as Bones continued. “So yeah, I didn’t take into consideration you being your usual protective Captain self, but still, think of it as my Christmas present. It’s just meant to give you a bit of a homely feeling when you’re in here with all that paperwork stuff you have to do, so that you won’t miss the real thing with the tree and the home-made cookies and all that too much,” Bones finished.
Wow. This was the last thing Jim had expected. However, coming to think of it, it all sort of made sense. Bones’ unreadable look after Jim had woken up, the shared silent moments between the two of them, Bones’ amusement at Jim’s freak-out. It now became clear to Jim that Bones had already seen the result of Scotty’s work before Jim had woken up and had just waited for Jim to see the snow too. This explained the look he had been giving him, which had been one of silent expectation, as Jim now realized in retrospective.
“Bones, this is just … I don’t know what to say”, Jim tried to find the right words. Now that he knew what the snow really was about, his irritation and anger vanished, replaced by a tightening in his chest he couldn’t quite define. It was only a small thing for Bones to go to Scotty and ask him to install the simulation, but Jim knew it meant more. It meant that Bones knew him, knew his love for Christmas spent on Earth, decorating the tree, drinking spiced wine and eating cookies; and it meant that Bones cared for him so much that he found ways to at least create the impression of a Christmas like that; here in the infinity of space where all of these things could be nothing more than a wish gone with the blinking of an eye.
Jim turned to face Bones, placing one hand on the other man’s knee and the other on the back of his head to pull him close so their brows were touching.
“Thank you,” Jim whispered before pressing a dry kiss against Bones’ lips.
Now, finally, Bones’ smile, which had been verging on the edge since the moment when Jim had woken, broke lose. “You’re welcome”, he breathed into Jim’s mouth, after a few heartbeats adding a murmured “Merry Christmas Jim”.
Burrying his hand in Bones’ dark hair, Jim to get another glimpse of the white crystalline flakes outside the window.
“Merry Christmas, Bones”.
***
The End
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