Fic: Beauty Secrets (Kirk/McCoy)
Title: Beauty Secrets
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Summary: Jim has a visitor
Rating: Teen/PG13
Word Count: 3165
A/N: #7 in the Two Men & a Starship series. Follows Rambling Man. Thank you to everyone who reads/comments! ♥
“If you don’t stop moving, I’m going to spill this,” Jim warns. He looks up and sees Gaila staring at him curiously. “What?”
“You are surprisingly good at this,” she observes as she leans back against the cushion that she stole from the sofa.
“I’m a man of many talents,” he confides with a wink before he looks down. “Stop wiggling, Gaila.”
“The bottom of my foot is ticklish. If you would refrain from brushing your knuckle across it, I would not wiggle.” He doesn’t have to see her face to know that she’s smiling. “I would like to know how you learned this talent, Captain. Do you like applying color to yourself?”
“No,” he says firmly. “It’s a personal choice, of course, but I don’t paint my nails. Finger or toe.”
“I did not think so, but you are adept with the brush. You are better at it than I am, in fact,” she says, sounding slightly put out by that.
He has to grin as he puts the nail brush back into the bottle of vibrant red polish before he begins to paint the next toenail on her right foot. “When I was eighteen, I got a job as a bartender in a dance club. It was a sleazy little place so the owner didn’t care that I was barely eighteen since I knew my way around the bar.”
“That is how you knew all of the different cocktails that you used that night to impress me,” she realizes. “It did not take that to attract me, but I did find it very interesting.”
“Yeah, it is,” he agrees, feeling slightly guilty when she mentions the night he seduced her. Or she seduced him, since he knows that his plans to use her access to the computer lab had been mostly forgotten by the time he was going down on her.
“I was more impressed with your tongue. You are very good at what you do.” She smiles when he glances at her. “I do not wish for an encore, Jim. I am merely stating a fact. Your doctor would not approve of me making such propositions to you.”
“Right. Bedrest means lying down, not exerting myself. That sort of thing.” He looks back down at her toes. “Anyway, back to your question. One of the dancers there, Annette, took a shine to me, and her girlfriend liked me, too. I ended up sleeping on their sofa for a few months, during which time I learned more than I ever wanted to know about make-up and womanly stuff like that.”
“Did they make you paint them in exchange for sex?” she asks. “I have heard of such exchanges before, though it is usually for credits or property.”
Jim’s eyes widen and he clears his throat. “No! I didn’t…I mean, I never had sex with them. They were committed to each other. I was just a dumb kid that they let hang around for a while. I learned how to use their nail polish because I’m not very good at just sitting still doing nothing, so it gave me something to do with my hands.”
“Have you ever participated in such an exchange?” She wiggles her toes when he lets them go to get more paint on the brush. “It is not how things are where I am from. We are able to live in exchange for sex, but we do not receive gifts or favors. I am intrigued by the concept, though I enjoy sexual activity without a barter of services.”
“I…” Jim trails off and stares at the bottle of polish in his hands. “When I first left home, I was fifteen and didn’t have much of anything. I ended up at a shuttle station. There was a woman there who started talking to me, flirting with me. She said I had a pretty mouth and propositioned me. It was like some fantasy come true, a hot older woman wanting to have sex, so I agreed. After we finished, she gave me a credit chip that got me out of Riverside; I guess she assumed I was trading sex for money. Kinda funny considering I didn’t last very long, but she liked my tongue a lot. I was too young to find steady work, so sometimes I had to use what I could, what it turned out I got to be really good at.”
It isn’t a time that he likes to think about, those years between him leaving Frank’s house and finally getting a job that lasted more than a few weeks. He used sex to get a good meal, to get off the street for a short time when the weather was horrible, but he hasn’t done it since he was seventeen, which was a lifetime ago. It’s something that he should probably feel ashamed about, but it seems pointless. Everyone was consenting, even if most of them didn’t have any idea how old he really was, not that they asked. Still, it was definitely a lifetime ago.
He looks up at Gaila and frowns. “It didn’t happen that often, and it wasn’t like it was a job or anything. I had a good time, the women got off, and occasionally there was a decent meal or a warm hotel room in it once they were finished with me.” He bites his lip as he tilts his head slightly. “Unlike you, I had a choice.”
“I had a choice, too,” she tells him, giving him an understanding look. “I was not supposed to, but I refused to let that stop me. I am here now because I wanted more. You wanted more, too, Jim. What we did to get where we are is part of our journey in life, but it is not all we are.”
“You’re right. It isn’t,” he agrees. While he doesn’t particularly want to talk about how he used sex as a teenager, he figures that it’s something he needs to tell Bones some day. It isn’t something that happened often or really fucked with his head, yet it’s one of those things he’s built a wall around. Since he and Bones finally admitted that this thing between them is a relationship, he’s going to try to let Bones over those walls when he can. He smiles slightly as he thinks about Bones and paints another toenail.
Gaila smiles. “You are happy.”
He arches a brow. “Yeah, I am. Are you?”
“Yes. I enjoy my job and my little Russian brother and my new room,” she tells him. “I have been spending enjoyable time with Cadet Murphy, too.” She looks at her hand and admires her painted nails. “You are an odd man, Jim. You were not so happy last week. The smiles have not reached your eyes. Now, when you are confined due to injuries, your eyes are sparkling.”
“Murphy, huh? You’re being careful?” he asks as he makes a mental note to check up on Murphy.
“I am always careful. He amuses me, and he is good in bed. It will be temporary, but it is fun.” She looks at him. “I have had every vaccine from your doctor and have had to hear a lecture about the various diseases that I might catch if I do not take necessary precautions. He is passionate about his work.” She smiles wickedly. “He is passionate in other ways, too, I think.”
Jim scowls. “Doctor McCoy isn’t an acceptable replacement for Murphy,” he says briskly, tightening his grip on Gaila’s foot as he finishes painting her toenails.
Gaila laughs. “Your doctor is not for me. He is already claimed, is he not?” She shifts her left leg. “His smile reaches his eyes now, too.”
“All done,” Jim says as he puts the brush back into the polish. He doesn’t dare reply about Bones and claiming or any of that because he might slip and say something he shouldn’t. He finishes twisting the cap onto the bottle and settles back against his pillows. “If anyone admires the excellent painting job, please take credit for it yourself. There are some talents that I’d rather keep private.”
“It will be our secret, Captain,” she promises, looking at her toes and wiggling them. “But only if you paint them again. It is the only way that it would be believable that I had done it myself, after all.” She sits up and carefully moves her legs.
“You’re a sneaky woman,” he informs her. “I like it.”
“I am merely pointing out a potential problem with the lie that you wish me to tell so that everyone does not find out that the captain is talented with nail polish,” she says matter-of-factly. “I have offered a viable solution.”
“We’ll see.” He snorts and reaches for the glass of water that Bones put on the table for him. “How are things in Engineering?”
“Things are going well. Scotty is an unusual supervisor, perhaps because I met him and acknowledged sexual desire prior to his appointment, but he is extremely capable.”
Jim coughs and blinks at her. “Sexual desire? For Scotty?”
“I find him stimulating,” she confesses, looking at her fingers instead of him. “However, you do not need to be concerned about it. There are other people on the ship that attract me who are not my superior.”
“I wasn’t concerned,” he tells her. “Just surprised.” While he likes Scotty, he doesn’t find him attractive. Too short and manic and, well, strange.
“I would think that you knew better than many that attraction is odd and unpredictable,” she says simply. She looks at the chronometer and smiles. “I should go now. It has been two hours, and I must do a few things before reporting for my shift this evening.”
“Working on anything interesting?” he asks.
“I am doing research that you would not understand.” She tilts her head to the side. “Not because you are not intelligent, but because it is complex physics and mathematical calculations that only advanced students would comprehend easily.”
“Alright. You can tell me some other day then,” he says. He might not understand it, but that doesn’t mean he can’t learn it. “Thanks for stopping by.”
“It was enjoyable, Jim. Will you be back to work soon?” she asks as she stands up. “Also, you must not blame Pavel for what happened yesterday. He is worried that you are upset with him because he contacted your doctor, but I have explained that you would understand he did so out of concern.”
“Today’s my last day of bedrest, I hope. I’ve got an examination tomorrow to find out if I’ll get a release or not,” he explains. “And tell Chekov not to worry. I know that Bones can be scary, so I don’t blame him for tossing me to the wolves.”
Gaila smiles and leans over to kiss his cheek. He feels her fingers glide down his neck. “Is your doctor a wolf, Jim?” She smirks slightly when she steps away from the bed. “He is not the only one claimed now.”
Before he has a chance to figure out what she means, she picks up her shoes and leaves his room barefoot. He shakes his head and takes another drink of water before he picks up the PADD he left on the table. There have been visitors again today, staying longer and keeping him from getting bored. Yesterday, he suspected that there might be some sort of schedule. Today, he’s pretty sure that Bones has something to do with it. When there’s been a delay in visitors, Bones has stopped by to check on him, after all, so it’s too coincidental not to be arranged.
He isn’t sure who will be coming by now that Gaila is gone, but he almost wishes that it’d be no one for a bit. His talk with Gaila has left him in a mood that might not be as social as usual, thinking about the past and about people other than her noticing how passionate Bones can be and wanting him. It’s a conflict, really, because Jim wants Bones to get past his insecurities and realize he’s a handsome, smart, and totally attractive man. But he also doesn’t want Bones to become some sought after catch amongst the crew who have no idea he’s taken.
Since he hopes to return to duty tomorrow, he needs to concentrate on the reports from Scorching Monotony and get up to base with everything that’s been happening the past few days. When he reaches an entry on the stupid rock creatures, he grimaces but keeps reading. The scientific info listed doesn’t change the fact that he felt their teeth and was at risk due to their damn toxic saliva. He has to set aside his personal feelings so he can examine this as Captain. Professional and not personal seems to be something that comes up more than they taught in the Academy. He knows that there’s going to be difficulty when he loses crew members, and it’s going to be even worse when it’s someone he’s familiar with, but he didn’t plan on the separation during events on planet or balancing a relationship with his CMO during the time he was in class.
When he hears the whoosh of his door opening, he looks up from his reports and arches a brow. “It’s just me, Jim,” Bones calls out. He relaxes and smiles, turning off the PADD and looking expectantly at the opening to his bedroom.
“You’re late. It’s been,” he glances at the chronometer, “a little over an hour since Gaila left.”
“You make it sound like I was supposed to be here at a certain time,” Bones grumbles from the other side of the partition. Jim listens carefully and hears the replicator, which explains why he’s not in the bedroom yet.
“I’m not stupid, Bones. I figured out that you had arranged to entertain me after the second guest,” he says. “I thought there might be something like that yesterday, but it wasn’t nearly so organized. I know you’re behind this today.”
“I think confinement is making you paranoid,” Bones announces. He finally walks into the bedroom, and Jim looks him over happily.
“I could just ask Gaila. You know that she tells me most everything.” He smirks and spreads his legs, patting the bed between them. “Come sit down. You look more tired than you did earlier.”
“Cranton came in with gastrointestinal issues, so I’ve been dealing with that for the last couple of hours,” Bones says, making a face as he puts a plate piled with sandwiches down beside him. He crawls onto the bed and doesn’t even mutter as he settles his back against Jim’s chest. “Finally figured out that he’s allergic to peanuts, and there was peanut oil in the chicken dish that they served in mess today.”
Jim begins to massage Bones’ shoulders as he talks. “You’re forgiven for being late then,” he murmurs, kissing the back of Bones’ head. “Gastrointestinal issues aren’t fun at all, to have or to deal with. Are you sure that you’re going to feel like eating that?”
“It’s for you, asshole,” Bones tells him. “That feels good.” Jim smiles and adds a little more pressure with his thumbs. “And I wasn’t late. I just thought I’d come by to get you some lunch and see if you were doing okay.”
“Liar.” Jim rubs his jaw against Bones’ hair, moving his arms so he can get a better angle for the massage. “I got out of bed earlier. Had to use the toilet, but I got back in as soon as I finished.”
“Hmph. I notice that you’re telling me this when I’m under the influence of your skillful hands.”
“Of course. It’s called self-preservation.”
“Now you don’t even try to deny it. Need to make you scared of hyposprays again.”
“Still am. Trust me on that. Just not scared of you. Most the time.”
“If this didn’t feel so good, I’d glare at you.”
“Noted. Also noted is a surefire way to distract you from those hyposprays.”
“Ah, successful but not something that can be used often,” Bones points out. He picks up half of one of the sandwiches and takes a bite before he holds it above his shoulder. “Eat.”
Jim smiles and leans forward to take a bite. “Thought you weren’t hungry.”
“Eh, my stomach disagreed with my brain.” Bones takes another bite before offering it to Jim again.
“How long do you have before you have to go back?” he asks after swallowing the bite.
“’bout an hour. I’m on my lunch break,” he says. “Christine is extremely capable of handling things while I’m gone, so medical is in good hands.” He picks up another half of a sandwich and they begin to eat it the same way.
“I never doubted that. I was just wondering if I’d be able to keep you for a little longer this time.” He licks mustard off the corner of his lips and feels Bones’ shoulders starting to relax beneath his hands. Good. If he’s unable to work too hard, then so is Bones. “Your other check-ups today have only given me fifteen minutes, tops.”
Bones pushes the last part of the sandwich into Jim’s mouth and reaches over for the glass of water. “Jim, why do you have woman’s nail polish on your table?” he asks curiously. “Is there something you need to tell me?”
“It’s Gaila’s. She left it here,” he explains, punching Bones’ shoulder. “You know I’m not into that, nor do I have any skirts or panties hidden away. I draw my sexual lines in random places, but one is definitely drawn before ‘becoming a girl’.”
“Good. My lines are drawn well beyond that, too.” He takes a drink of the water and puts the glass back. “How are your legs feeling?”
“Better. I didn’t have much problem walking to the bathroom or anything.” Bones offers him part of another sandwich, so he takes a bite. He’s hungrier than he realized, which Bones probably guessed. “I should be able to get released tomorrow and finally get back to work.”
“Back to work doesn’t mean much right now, you realize? We’re still orbiting that planet while the science team beats off over all their research,” Bones points out.
Jim snorts. “Yeah, I thought they were going to wet themselves over the plants we found during that first trip down. Of course, if it was some medical discovery, I figure you’d be having a similar reaction.”
“Like you wouldn’t be if it was tactical information and new strategy?” Bones shifts slightly, snuggling against his chest. Jim moves his hands from Bones’ shoulders down to rest on his chest.
“You know me well,” he says, brushing his lips against the back of Bones’ neck. The angle is a little awkward, but it’s worth it for the sigh of contentment that he hears Bones make.
End
#6: Rambling Man | #8: Evaluation Day
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Summary: Jim has a visitor
Rating: Teen/PG13
Word Count: 3165
A/N: #7 in the Two Men & a Starship series. Follows Rambling Man. Thank you to everyone who reads/comments! ♥
“If you don’t stop moving, I’m going to spill this,” Jim warns. He looks up and sees Gaila staring at him curiously. “What?”
“You are surprisingly good at this,” she observes as she leans back against the cushion that she stole from the sofa.
“I’m a man of many talents,” he confides with a wink before he looks down. “Stop wiggling, Gaila.”
“The bottom of my foot is ticklish. If you would refrain from brushing your knuckle across it, I would not wiggle.” He doesn’t have to see her face to know that she’s smiling. “I would like to know how you learned this talent, Captain. Do you like applying color to yourself?”
“No,” he says firmly. “It’s a personal choice, of course, but I don’t paint my nails. Finger or toe.”
“I did not think so, but you are adept with the brush. You are better at it than I am, in fact,” she says, sounding slightly put out by that.
He has to grin as he puts the nail brush back into the bottle of vibrant red polish before he begins to paint the next toenail on her right foot. “When I was eighteen, I got a job as a bartender in a dance club. It was a sleazy little place so the owner didn’t care that I was barely eighteen since I knew my way around the bar.”
“That is how you knew all of the different cocktails that you used that night to impress me,” she realizes. “It did not take that to attract me, but I did find it very interesting.”
“Yeah, it is,” he agrees, feeling slightly guilty when she mentions the night he seduced her. Or she seduced him, since he knows that his plans to use her access to the computer lab had been mostly forgotten by the time he was going down on her.
“I was more impressed with your tongue. You are very good at what you do.” She smiles when he glances at her. “I do not wish for an encore, Jim. I am merely stating a fact. Your doctor would not approve of me making such propositions to you.”
“Right. Bedrest means lying down, not exerting myself. That sort of thing.” He looks back down at her toes. “Anyway, back to your question. One of the dancers there, Annette, took a shine to me, and her girlfriend liked me, too. I ended up sleeping on their sofa for a few months, during which time I learned more than I ever wanted to know about make-up and womanly stuff like that.”
“Did they make you paint them in exchange for sex?” she asks. “I have heard of such exchanges before, though it is usually for credits or property.”
Jim’s eyes widen and he clears his throat. “No! I didn’t…I mean, I never had sex with them. They were committed to each other. I was just a dumb kid that they let hang around for a while. I learned how to use their nail polish because I’m not very good at just sitting still doing nothing, so it gave me something to do with my hands.”
“Have you ever participated in such an exchange?” She wiggles her toes when he lets them go to get more paint on the brush. “It is not how things are where I am from. We are able to live in exchange for sex, but we do not receive gifts or favors. I am intrigued by the concept, though I enjoy sexual activity without a barter of services.”
“I…” Jim trails off and stares at the bottle of polish in his hands. “When I first left home, I was fifteen and didn’t have much of anything. I ended up at a shuttle station. There was a woman there who started talking to me, flirting with me. She said I had a pretty mouth and propositioned me. It was like some fantasy come true, a hot older woman wanting to have sex, so I agreed. After we finished, she gave me a credit chip that got me out of Riverside; I guess she assumed I was trading sex for money. Kinda funny considering I didn’t last very long, but she liked my tongue a lot. I was too young to find steady work, so sometimes I had to use what I could, what it turned out I got to be really good at.”
It isn’t a time that he likes to think about, those years between him leaving Frank’s house and finally getting a job that lasted more than a few weeks. He used sex to get a good meal, to get off the street for a short time when the weather was horrible, but he hasn’t done it since he was seventeen, which was a lifetime ago. It’s something that he should probably feel ashamed about, but it seems pointless. Everyone was consenting, even if most of them didn’t have any idea how old he really was, not that they asked. Still, it was definitely a lifetime ago.
He looks up at Gaila and frowns. “It didn’t happen that often, and it wasn’t like it was a job or anything. I had a good time, the women got off, and occasionally there was a decent meal or a warm hotel room in it once they were finished with me.” He bites his lip as he tilts his head slightly. “Unlike you, I had a choice.”
“I had a choice, too,” she tells him, giving him an understanding look. “I was not supposed to, but I refused to let that stop me. I am here now because I wanted more. You wanted more, too, Jim. What we did to get where we are is part of our journey in life, but it is not all we are.”
“You’re right. It isn’t,” he agrees. While he doesn’t particularly want to talk about how he used sex as a teenager, he figures that it’s something he needs to tell Bones some day. It isn’t something that happened often or really fucked with his head, yet it’s one of those things he’s built a wall around. Since he and Bones finally admitted that this thing between them is a relationship, he’s going to try to let Bones over those walls when he can. He smiles slightly as he thinks about Bones and paints another toenail.
Gaila smiles. “You are happy.”
He arches a brow. “Yeah, I am. Are you?”
“Yes. I enjoy my job and my little Russian brother and my new room,” she tells him. “I have been spending enjoyable time with Cadet Murphy, too.” She looks at her hand and admires her painted nails. “You are an odd man, Jim. You were not so happy last week. The smiles have not reached your eyes. Now, when you are confined due to injuries, your eyes are sparkling.”
“Murphy, huh? You’re being careful?” he asks as he makes a mental note to check up on Murphy.
“I am always careful. He amuses me, and he is good in bed. It will be temporary, but it is fun.” She looks at him. “I have had every vaccine from your doctor and have had to hear a lecture about the various diseases that I might catch if I do not take necessary precautions. He is passionate about his work.” She smiles wickedly. “He is passionate in other ways, too, I think.”
Jim scowls. “Doctor McCoy isn’t an acceptable replacement for Murphy,” he says briskly, tightening his grip on Gaila’s foot as he finishes painting her toenails.
Gaila laughs. “Your doctor is not for me. He is already claimed, is he not?” She shifts her left leg. “His smile reaches his eyes now, too.”
“All done,” Jim says as he puts the brush back into the polish. He doesn’t dare reply about Bones and claiming or any of that because he might slip and say something he shouldn’t. He finishes twisting the cap onto the bottle and settles back against his pillows. “If anyone admires the excellent painting job, please take credit for it yourself. There are some talents that I’d rather keep private.”
“It will be our secret, Captain,” she promises, looking at her toes and wiggling them. “But only if you paint them again. It is the only way that it would be believable that I had done it myself, after all.” She sits up and carefully moves her legs.
“You’re a sneaky woman,” he informs her. “I like it.”
“I am merely pointing out a potential problem with the lie that you wish me to tell so that everyone does not find out that the captain is talented with nail polish,” she says matter-of-factly. “I have offered a viable solution.”
“We’ll see.” He snorts and reaches for the glass of water that Bones put on the table for him. “How are things in Engineering?”
“Things are going well. Scotty is an unusual supervisor, perhaps because I met him and acknowledged sexual desire prior to his appointment, but he is extremely capable.”
Jim coughs and blinks at her. “Sexual desire? For Scotty?”
“I find him stimulating,” she confesses, looking at her fingers instead of him. “However, you do not need to be concerned about it. There are other people on the ship that attract me who are not my superior.”
“I wasn’t concerned,” he tells her. “Just surprised.” While he likes Scotty, he doesn’t find him attractive. Too short and manic and, well, strange.
“I would think that you knew better than many that attraction is odd and unpredictable,” she says simply. She looks at the chronometer and smiles. “I should go now. It has been two hours, and I must do a few things before reporting for my shift this evening.”
“Working on anything interesting?” he asks.
“I am doing research that you would not understand.” She tilts her head to the side. “Not because you are not intelligent, but because it is complex physics and mathematical calculations that only advanced students would comprehend easily.”
“Alright. You can tell me some other day then,” he says. He might not understand it, but that doesn’t mean he can’t learn it. “Thanks for stopping by.”
“It was enjoyable, Jim. Will you be back to work soon?” she asks as she stands up. “Also, you must not blame Pavel for what happened yesterday. He is worried that you are upset with him because he contacted your doctor, but I have explained that you would understand he did so out of concern.”
“Today’s my last day of bedrest, I hope. I’ve got an examination tomorrow to find out if I’ll get a release or not,” he explains. “And tell Chekov not to worry. I know that Bones can be scary, so I don’t blame him for tossing me to the wolves.”
Gaila smiles and leans over to kiss his cheek. He feels her fingers glide down his neck. “Is your doctor a wolf, Jim?” She smirks slightly when she steps away from the bed. “He is not the only one claimed now.”
Before he has a chance to figure out what she means, she picks up her shoes and leaves his room barefoot. He shakes his head and takes another drink of water before he picks up the PADD he left on the table. There have been visitors again today, staying longer and keeping him from getting bored. Yesterday, he suspected that there might be some sort of schedule. Today, he’s pretty sure that Bones has something to do with it. When there’s been a delay in visitors, Bones has stopped by to check on him, after all, so it’s too coincidental not to be arranged.
He isn’t sure who will be coming by now that Gaila is gone, but he almost wishes that it’d be no one for a bit. His talk with Gaila has left him in a mood that might not be as social as usual, thinking about the past and about people other than her noticing how passionate Bones can be and wanting him. It’s a conflict, really, because Jim wants Bones to get past his insecurities and realize he’s a handsome, smart, and totally attractive man. But he also doesn’t want Bones to become some sought after catch amongst the crew who have no idea he’s taken.
Since he hopes to return to duty tomorrow, he needs to concentrate on the reports from Scorching Monotony and get up to base with everything that’s been happening the past few days. When he reaches an entry on the stupid rock creatures, he grimaces but keeps reading. The scientific info listed doesn’t change the fact that he felt their teeth and was at risk due to their damn toxic saliva. He has to set aside his personal feelings so he can examine this as Captain. Professional and not personal seems to be something that comes up more than they taught in the Academy. He knows that there’s going to be difficulty when he loses crew members, and it’s going to be even worse when it’s someone he’s familiar with, but he didn’t plan on the separation during events on planet or balancing a relationship with his CMO during the time he was in class.
When he hears the whoosh of his door opening, he looks up from his reports and arches a brow. “It’s just me, Jim,” Bones calls out. He relaxes and smiles, turning off the PADD and looking expectantly at the opening to his bedroom.
“You’re late. It’s been,” he glances at the chronometer, “a little over an hour since Gaila left.”
“You make it sound like I was supposed to be here at a certain time,” Bones grumbles from the other side of the partition. Jim listens carefully and hears the replicator, which explains why he’s not in the bedroom yet.
“I’m not stupid, Bones. I figured out that you had arranged to entertain me after the second guest,” he says. “I thought there might be something like that yesterday, but it wasn’t nearly so organized. I know you’re behind this today.”
“I think confinement is making you paranoid,” Bones announces. He finally walks into the bedroom, and Jim looks him over happily.
“I could just ask Gaila. You know that she tells me most everything.” He smirks and spreads his legs, patting the bed between them. “Come sit down. You look more tired than you did earlier.”
“Cranton came in with gastrointestinal issues, so I’ve been dealing with that for the last couple of hours,” Bones says, making a face as he puts a plate piled with sandwiches down beside him. He crawls onto the bed and doesn’t even mutter as he settles his back against Jim’s chest. “Finally figured out that he’s allergic to peanuts, and there was peanut oil in the chicken dish that they served in mess today.”
Jim begins to massage Bones’ shoulders as he talks. “You’re forgiven for being late then,” he murmurs, kissing the back of Bones’ head. “Gastrointestinal issues aren’t fun at all, to have or to deal with. Are you sure that you’re going to feel like eating that?”
“It’s for you, asshole,” Bones tells him. “That feels good.” Jim smiles and adds a little more pressure with his thumbs. “And I wasn’t late. I just thought I’d come by to get you some lunch and see if you were doing okay.”
“Liar.” Jim rubs his jaw against Bones’ hair, moving his arms so he can get a better angle for the massage. “I got out of bed earlier. Had to use the toilet, but I got back in as soon as I finished.”
“Hmph. I notice that you’re telling me this when I’m under the influence of your skillful hands.”
“Of course. It’s called self-preservation.”
“Now you don’t even try to deny it. Need to make you scared of hyposprays again.”
“Still am. Trust me on that. Just not scared of you. Most the time.”
“If this didn’t feel so good, I’d glare at you.”
“Noted. Also noted is a surefire way to distract you from those hyposprays.”
“Ah, successful but not something that can be used often,” Bones points out. He picks up half of one of the sandwiches and takes a bite before he holds it above his shoulder. “Eat.”
Jim smiles and leans forward to take a bite. “Thought you weren’t hungry.”
“Eh, my stomach disagreed with my brain.” Bones takes another bite before offering it to Jim again.
“How long do you have before you have to go back?” he asks after swallowing the bite.
“’bout an hour. I’m on my lunch break,” he says. “Christine is extremely capable of handling things while I’m gone, so medical is in good hands.” He picks up another half of a sandwich and they begin to eat it the same way.
“I never doubted that. I was just wondering if I’d be able to keep you for a little longer this time.” He licks mustard off the corner of his lips and feels Bones’ shoulders starting to relax beneath his hands. Good. If he’s unable to work too hard, then so is Bones. “Your other check-ups today have only given me fifteen minutes, tops.”
Bones pushes the last part of the sandwich into Jim’s mouth and reaches over for the glass of water. “Jim, why do you have woman’s nail polish on your table?” he asks curiously. “Is there something you need to tell me?”
“It’s Gaila’s. She left it here,” he explains, punching Bones’ shoulder. “You know I’m not into that, nor do I have any skirts or panties hidden away. I draw my sexual lines in random places, but one is definitely drawn before ‘becoming a girl’.”
“Good. My lines are drawn well beyond that, too.” He takes a drink of the water and puts the glass back. “How are your legs feeling?”
“Better. I didn’t have much problem walking to the bathroom or anything.” Bones offers him part of another sandwich, so he takes a bite. He’s hungrier than he realized, which Bones probably guessed. “I should be able to get released tomorrow and finally get back to work.”
“Back to work doesn’t mean much right now, you realize? We’re still orbiting that planet while the science team beats off over all their research,” Bones points out.
Jim snorts. “Yeah, I thought they were going to wet themselves over the plants we found during that first trip down. Of course, if it was some medical discovery, I figure you’d be having a similar reaction.”
“Like you wouldn’t be if it was tactical information and new strategy?” Bones shifts slightly, snuggling against his chest. Jim moves his hands from Bones’ shoulders down to rest on his chest.
“You know me well,” he says, brushing his lips against the back of Bones’ neck. The angle is a little awkward, but it’s worth it for the sigh of contentment that he hears Bones make.
End
#6: Rambling Man | #8: Evaluation Day