A Study In Red(ding) - Hard to Handle/ Love Man
Title: Hard To Handle/Love Man
Pairing(s): Kirk/McCoy Kirk/various OCs
Rating: R
Word Count: ~3100
Summary: Where he interupts, many times.
Disclaimer: Well, of course I don't own the characters of Star Trek....or Otis Redding.
Related Stories: ** Masterpost**
Notes: It's been a tough one today, because I chose to put it in a 5+1 format. Big mistake, what a daunting chore it suddenly turned into. But I made it through in the end, thank god and I may have to return and edit it a little tomorrow, I'm too tired to be reliable right now. So yes, todays is inspired by the combined forces of 'Love Man' and 'Hard To Handle'.
Five times that Bones walked in on Jim and someone else and one time that it wasn't like that. It spans their three years at the academy and slots in with 'Cigarettes and Coffee' and various other ficlets that have yet to get their day.
5.
The way that Leonard sees it, you’d have to be blind to not see just how goddamn attractive James Tiberius Kirk is. The kid turns heads, that’s for sure. A lethal cocktail of blond hair, blue eyes, brains and lean build.
Yes, Leonard has been looking, and admiring, and maybe even wanting. He’s not ashamed to admit this to himself. It’s a natural, acceptable response and plenty of other people are experiencing it. Which is precisely Leonard’s problem.
There isn’t exactly a shortage of people who want Jim Kirk, and Jim Kirk is, as he is fast discovering, a giving kind of man. So whilst Leonard may entertain a fantasy or two concerning his friend, he’d rather steer clear of the sign up sheet for the plethora of people enjoying the ‘JTK Experience’, as Jim half jokingly referred to it one night.
Besides, Jim is turning out to be a damn decent friend and Leonard is no where near fool enough to go ruining that.
Not only that, but the wounds from his divorce still feel fresh; he may have needs, but he still isn’t ready for that kind of intimacy yet. Sure he’s welcomed one or two short-stay partners into his bed, but he never got to know them as well as he has Jim.
In short, a relationship with Jim could never be truly casual and he just isn’t ready for anything other than that yet. Which is just as well, as Jim doesn’t seem to be in anyway inclined towards any semblance of a serious relationship.
The sky is filled with clouds and an unforgiving wind has picked up, so Leonard breaks into a fast paced walk as he leaves Starfleet Medical and heads for Jim’s, hoping to convince him out for dinner. A shuttle wreckage on campus and the resulting series of patients has left him craving some kind of comfort food in an serious way.
Preferably in the form of pork dumplings.
Just the thought of them has him jabbing impatiently at the button of the apartment block elevator and grumbling under his breath. When he finally makes it to the door of Jim’s two-person digs, he efficiently enters the code, having received it a month ago. It had arrived, in a message from Jim, as nothing more than a numerical series and a smiley face, but he hadn’t required an explanation. Instead he had simply been flattered and pleased that Jim felt that he could trust him with it after so little time of knowing each other.
The door slides open and he notes, with some relief, that the coat belonging to Jim’s roommate isn’t hanging on its hook. Gary is an alright roommate for Jim, but Leonard personally feels that he's an over-confident creep. Occasionally, when he sits and studies with them, Mitchell fixes him with an intense stare that feels a lot like it's passing through to some unknown recess of him. It's unnerving to say the least.
He hears Jim’s voice emanating from the bedding area, removes his jacket, and moves around the small divider, talking as he goes.
“Jim, tell me you’re not busy tonight, I got a- OH.” He cuts off in shock.
Shock that the very naked brunette reclining on his friend’s bed mirrors. She automatically moves to cover up all of the important areas, but he can’t quite grasp the same swift reflexes. He gets as far as a drawn out “err” when Jim comes out of the bathroom with a surprised “Bones!”, equally as naked as the girl on his bed, but showing far less inclination towards modesty.
“Now’s not really a good time, but are we still on for lunch tomorrow?”
Trust Jim to respond calmly to being caught, literally, with his pants down.
Leonard finally gets a hold of himself enough to mutter “yeah, sure, sorry” and back out.
His face is burning with mortification as he makes his way to their favourite Chinese. If he didn’t really need those dumplings before then he certainly does now.
He hopes that the incident won’t be brought up again, but of course Jim shatters that notion when he claps Leonard on the shoulder at lunch and, forgoing a conventional greeting, says “You scared Cassie shitless last night, but she was a little disappointed you didn’t stick around for a threesome. Maybe next time, huh buddy?”
With that he saunters away to get some food, leaving Leonard to groan and attempt to smother himself with his chicken salad sub.
He’s praying that there won’t be a next time.
4.
They are both staying on campus for the Christmas holidays and so, naturally, choose to hit a bar or two on Christmas Eve so as to lose sight of why they won’t be at home on Christmas morning.
By the time they get to Collin’s (a frequent haunt of theirs), it’s starting to get a lot more crowded and they have to fight their way through to the bar.
Leonard works up a steady ramble of complaints that endures through the double shot of Jack that Jim buys for him, but soon quietens down when a tumbler of bourbon is pressed into his hand.
Which is probably why Jim buys it in the first place.
He settles for frowning at the other patrons, the bar top and, every now and then, Jim.
The man in question has already fallen into his standard pose; legs slightly spread, smirk in place, resting with his elbows placed on the counter, partially facing Leonard but mostly presenting himself in an open invitation to the rest of the bar. His eyes are lazily scanning the room and Leonard sighs; Jim is on form tonight and clearly has just one agenda now.
Sure enough, he is only halfway into his drink when Jim puts his newly empty beer down and promises “back in a minute.”
He knows exactly how this is going to play out, Jim is going to track down an attractive and willing partner, bring them back to Leonard for a drink or two in the pretense of getting to know them, before asking something along the lines of; “you gonna be alright making your own way back?” and high-tailing it out into the night with his latest friend.
Like clockwork, Jim is swaggering over to a nearby table, a sprig of mistletoe (stolen from god knows where) in hand, clearly gunning for the bored looking blonde in a Mrs Claus outfit.
Leonard snorts at his predictability, causing a nearby group of girls to glance at him warily and shift away, and turns back to his drink. He doesn’t think that watching Jim work his magic will bring the same humour as it normally does.
They’ve been having a good night up until now, chasing out the past with some shared festive cheer and a good few rounds. At one point, Jim had procured a pair of angel wings from a group of cadets who shared his tactics classes, he had then proceeded to approach Leonard with a cry of “for my sweet angel, Bones”, obviously filled with some misguided notions that Leonard’s murderous expression soon annihilated. A few minutes later they had both laughed about it and he had even consented to Jim holding them up to his back and leaning away to look at him, “I just wanna know what you’d look like.”
He reaches out to take a sip from his glass and finds it empty. How much time has passed? Jim and Mrs Claus have disappeared, most likely having already left without bothering to say goodbye. Leonard scowls, grabs his jacket and leaves the bar, there’s no way he’s going to sit around and wait.
It’s so hot in the bar that, when he shoves his way outside, the drop in temperature hits hard. Inexplicably this just makes him madder at Jim.
His stomping feet echo in the quiet street, mingling with the not so distant sounds of giggling and moaning coming from the alley ahead. So unsanitary, he thinks distastefully, then hears a low voice that he definitely recognises.
Sure enough, there is Jim leaning over Mrs Claus, one hand braced on the wall by her head, the other not so mysteriously hidden up her red, velvet skirt. Her own fingers are dancing over the button and fly of his jeans and Leonard feels justified in cutting in loudly.
“Don’t worry, Jim,” his irritation bulldozes straight through such trivial things as ‘tact’ and ‘embarrassment’, “I’m sure I can make my own way home.”
They both jump a foot in the air, which is satisfying, and Jim has the decency to look guilty.
“Hey, I said I’d be back,” he points out, but Leonard is already walking away and doesn’t bother to respond.
Jim finds him midday Christmas, with a ribbon wrapped bottle and the admission of; “so that was pretty shitty of me last night.” And Leonard calls up enough Christmas spirit to forgive him.
3.
Leonard hurries through the corridors of SF Med, there had been some complications in surgery, causing it to last longer than expected. He had promised to get lunch with Jim and is running very late.
The command track second years have just returned from a week long field trip to Vulcan, where they were attending seminars and running exercises and simulations in diplomacy and tactics.
Leonard had been surprised by just how quiet the past week had been.
His pushes the door to his office open to find Nurse Daniels in there with Jim. The two of them are standing awfully close for your run-of-the-mill conversation and he catches Jim’s hand whipping away from her waist.
Daniels turns a heavy shade of pink and leaves straight away, avoiding his eye.
“Not my nurses, Jim, please.”
Jim grins wide and unabashed, he’s tanned in the past week. “I’ve missed you too, Bones.”
He rolls his eyes, snatches up his bag, jacket and Jim, and takes them all down to the cafeteria.
2.
Jim is in a bad way.
Or so it has been reported. Leonard hasn’t seen him since he failed the Kobyashi Maru and disappeared. He had been unable to follow as he was due at a seminar, but he had searched all over for Jim that night, trying his comm repeatedly and finding it switched off.
It isn’t until today, when he gets out of surgery and checks his communicator, that he hears word of his best friend. It’s a message from Gary, complaining about Jim acting aggressively and drinking a lot in their rooms.
It was sent three hours ago and, as soon as is possible, his is off like a shot to Jim’s, a million scenarios running through his head. He’s worked himself up into a mild panic by the time he gets to Jim’s door, but finds the complete opposite of what he had been imagining on the other side of it.
Jim isn’t drowning his sorrows amidst a clutter of empty bottles and smashed belongings.
No.
He’s got his legs wrapped around the bare back of the man who is currently driving into him at a brutal pace, both of them making a lot of noise. It looks a lot like Jim figured out his own remedy.
They haven’t even made it to the bed, both of them sprawled on the floor next to the divider, surrounded by discarded clothing, like they just couldn’t wait long enough start tearing into each other.
Leonard recognises the man as the T.A. from his flight training classes.
Well, those lessons aren’t going to be the same anymore.
He sighs, rubs a hand down the side of his face (the panic and tension having left him the instant that he crossed over the threshold), “I’ll come back again tomorrow.”
Jim’s head snaps up at the same time as he turns to leave and the slack, blissed out expression on his face burns steadily into Leonard’s retinas while he walks away.
1.
He hears Jim’s voice before he sees him, as is usually the case. What is abnormal is the tone that it has taken and the words that are being spoken.
Leonard is in no way naive and he was married for five years, so he’s no stranger to phone sex, able to recognise it for what it is even when it’s being mumbled. He can also recognise how unsuitable an activity it is for a library, which is where they are, however late and empty it may be.
He had invited Jim to dinner, but it had been declined, Jim claiming to have studying to do. So Leonard had decided to get takeout and bring it to his friend, smuggling it past the librarians and security guard at the front desk.
It doesn’t look like much studying is going on. Admittedly, there are plenty of PADDs strewn across the table and even a few paper books, but the way that Jim is leaning back in his chair and chuckling filthily into his comm shows zero interest towards them.
The sight is making his heart clench more than he is willing to admit to and he stays hidden by a shelf that sits behind and to the left of Jim’s chair.
It has been a month and a half since they kissed on the rooftop of his apartment building and they haven’t really spoken about it since. The moment had been everything that he hadn’t dared to dream about; the kind of intimacy that he craved but was afraid to approach. Especially with Jim.
It all meant too much and he was terrified of losing it.
He had avoided Jim for the next two days and the other man had seemed disappointed but willing enough to accept his reluctance.
They've been carrying on as normal as possible, but the tension is still very much there and he often struggles to contain the jealousy that threatens to surface whenever Jim flirts with other cadets or hooks up with someone else. It feels a lot like it’s building up to something that he won’t like, and he isn’t looking to reach the breaking point.
Jim murmurs “go on then, touch yourself,” into the comm, his hand drifting towards his crotch, so Leonard feels that it’s high time that he interrupts and does so, clearing his throat blatantly.
Jim spins around in his chair, clocks his friend and quickly terminates the call with an apology and a promise to call back later.
“Oh, no fair man, just as I was getting to the good part.” He complains, but he’s still smiling.
Leonard scoffs, “in a library, Jim, really?”
The blond waggles his eyebrows, “sometimes it’s just better in public.” He pushes the chair opposite him out in invitation for Leonard to sit down. “What’s up?”
He pulls the takeout from his satchel as he takes the seat. “I thought I’d bring dinner to you, since you’re studying so hard and all.”
“Oh I am studying hard, that was just some extra curricular research.” He says it so seriously, without any hint of innuendo, that Leonard doesn’t know how to respond, because what the hell is that supposed to mean?
Jim opens the lids of one of the two boxes to find pizza and groans happily. “God, Bones, you really are the best.”
He’s at a loss as to how to respond to this statement as well, so instead he crams a slice into his mouth and stays quiet.
+1.
There are quiet voices coming from the direction of Jim’s bed and Leonard is well experienced enough to know that it would be in his best interests to just leave now and save them all the awkwardness. For once, he’s not harbouring any particular ill will towards Jim or his partner, disregarding the kick of envy and regret that it isn’t him in his best friend’s bed of course.
He figures that, after the nightmare that was Nero and the Narada, the obliteration of Vulcan and the shit-storm that followed when they crawled back to Earth, Jim deserved to blow off some steam.
He was dropping by to see how Jim’s meeting with the Admiralty had gone, but figures that his curiosity can wait.
He must have been spotted through the translucent divider, however, because Jim calls out to him before he can leave. He hesitantly pokes his head around the divide, praying not to be called into a threesome.
Jim is standing next to an older, blonde woman, both of them in full uniform. Yet it isn’t their state of dress that alerts him to the fact that he hasn’t interrupted anything sexual, it’s the identical, watery smiles on their faces.
Jim steps forward to introduce them, one hand still on the woman’s arm; “Bones, this is Winona Kirk, mom, I’d like you to meet Leonard McCoy.”
They meet in the middle to shake hands, her grip surprisingly firm and her eyes twinkle up at him.
“Jim talks a lot about you,” Leonard would tell her likewise, but is hasn’t been an entirely positive report that Jim has built up. From what he can tell, she hasn’t exactly been there for her son that way that she should have.
Fortunately she continues speaking, perhaps sensing that this is the case, “I hear that you’re the reason that there was an Earth for me to return to.”
He opens his mouth to disprove this theory, one that Jim has been ragging on far too much, but Jim cuts in, frowning.
“Don’t Bones, you know that it’s the truth. If you hadn’t smuggled me onto the Enterprise then who knows what could have happened.”
Winona is nodding along, “precisely, which is why I’d like to invite you out to dinner with us. My treat. Also, I’d like to get to know the man who has been looking out for my boy so well.”
Jim grins at them both and Leonard hates that he has to disappoint him.
“Sorry ma’am, that’s a wonderful offer, but I’m afraid I have to decline; I have an overdue meeting with my own mom in an hour.”
Their faces fall, but they understand and walk with him to part ways at the front door of the apartment block.
Jim grips his arm before he can leave and mutters “come and find me later, I want to talk to you about something important.”
Leonard nods and watches them go, struck by both their similarities and differences. He has a feeling that Jim wants to talk to him about the outcome of discussion with the Admiralty and desperately hopes that it isn’t bad news.
But for now he is contented to wait until tonight to find out.
Here's the follow-up :) 'Chained and Bound'