Five times Spock smiled, and one time Jim commented on it - Trek reboot ficlet - PG

[tigriswolf]

Title: Five times Spock smiled, and one time Jim commented on it

Fandom: Star Trek reboot

Disclaimer: the Trek characters aren’t mine

Warnings: spoilers for film; implied torture

Pairings: Spock/Uhura, pre-Spock/Kirk

Rating: PGish

Wordcount: 750

Point of view: third

Dedication:dreamlittleyo, for ’twas her prompt

 

 

 

I

On a planet the locals call Regusiure(or something like that, Jim can’t really be sure since the natives have two mouths and both always speak at the same time) Uhura gets shot in the abdomen with a bow-and-arrow type weapon.

 

Jim wastes no time in blowing up their meeting place and getting Uhura out in all the confusion. Spock is waiting at the beaming pad and takes her from Jim’s arms, rushing through the halls to the sickbay with Jim on his heels.

 

When Bones tells them that she’ll be fine, Spock’s entire body loosens and his lips quirk upwards in what would be jubilation, were he anyone else.

 

Jim just claps him on the back and says, “Awesome.”

 

II

Jim hacks into Spock’s file for his birthday, which is apparently not a big deal on Vulcan. Wasn’t. Wasn’t a big deal on Vulcan.

 

Shit, even nearly a year later, Jim still gets blindsided by that. Vulcan is gone. And most of the Vulcans with her.

 

Spock’s dad is at New Vulcan, where they’re still scrambling to have some semblance of a normal life. And Spock’s mom, well… she’d been human, so there was probably some celebration of Spock’s birthday when he was a kid. A humungous birthday bash is most likely too much, but a simple gift, without a big deal made? Spock would appreciate that.

 

Jim scans Vulcan literature until he figures out which type Spock might like and then tries to settle on a Terran equivalent. It takes the better part of six months to track down both novels he’d chosen, and by the time he gets them in hand, Spock’s birthday is past. He decides to give them to Spock anyway, because it’s not really about the books.

 

Spock just stares at the wrapped package and then raises a brow. “Captain?” he inquires.

 

Jim smiles. The corners of Spock’s mouth turn up as Jim says quietly, “Happy late-birthday, Spock.”

 

III

About two years after the settlement of New Vulcan, word comes that the first baby has been born.

 

Spock ducks his head to hide the emotion, but not before Jim sees the shininess of his eyes and the wide grin stretching his mouth.

 

IV

Jim’s so drugged that up feels like down and his insides are trying to crawl out of his skin, and he’s pretty sure at least two bones in his arm are broken, along with most of his right hand. He hasn’t seen the sun, or what passes for it on this rock just at the edge of Federation space, in—three days? He thinks it’s been three days, but he’s really not too sure.

 

Everything sounds and looks and feels hazy, except for the sharp pain crawling up his side. Maybe more than just his hand and arm are broken. Which isn’t very good, since the door is making that whirring/creaking/more-pain-for-Jim noise. He doesn’t think his body can take much more of his captors’ hospitality, and he doesn’t even know the answers to their questions, which he distinctly remembers telling them that very first hour.

 

“Jim!” he hears, and that’s different. He hasn’t been called anything except the translation of prisoner since he got here.

 

He tries moving his head, but instead Spock hurries to him. “Jim!” Spock says again. “Captain!”

 

It almost looks like a smile on Spock’s face, but then he tries moving Jim and white light flares behind Jim’s eyes, and that’s the last thing he knows before waking to Bones yelling about captains with death-wishes and hero-complexes, and “Damnit, Jim—I’m a doctor, not a miracle worker!”

 

V

For once, Jim thinks, nothing has gone wrong all day. No malfunctions, no glitches, no injuries—nothing.

 

Even Spock looks happy as he goes off-shift. Jim stares as the doors close—is that a smile on Spock’s face?

 

No, he decides. Can’t be.

 

And the one time Jim finally comments—

They’ve just come through another battle with more natives on a small speck of a planet. There were no casualties on their side, and barely any wounded. Luck more than anything else, but Jim will take what he can get.

 

He should be dead. He didn’t even see the spear-thing coming, but Spock shoved him out of the way, ducking to the other side, and the spear-thing flew by harmlessly.

 

Spock turns to him, all masks lowered. Jim nods, breathing deeply.

 

“You have a beautiful smile,” he says simply, and is only slightly surprised when Spock just keeps smiling.

 

Comments

[noein9.livejournal.com]

I love this, and i love the fact that it's Kirk noticing.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you for reading!