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"Jim, just ask him out and stop wallowing in unnecessary self-pity," Uhura rolled her eyes, watching Jim as he eyed the quarterback of their high school’s football team with gooey wistfulness. He sighed and turned back to pick at his sandwich glumly.
"I can’t do that," Jim muttered. "He’s gorgeous. I can’t even talk to him.”
"I think you underestimate those eyes of yours, Kirk," Carol teased, prodding his shoulder as she giggled. "Those baby blues could charm the pants off even the most unattainable of football players."
Jim blushed and continued to tear off pieces of his sandwich, contemplating exactly how far out of his league Leonard McCoy was. McCoy was popular, gorgeous, and probably painfully straight, if the amount of shit Jim took from the rest of the team was anything to go by. McCoy was constantly surrounded by pretty girls and Jim was a nobody whose greatest social achievement was being made head photographer of their school yearbook committee. He was almost certain McCoy didn’t even realize he existed.
Finishing up his lunch, Jim said goodbye to his friends and headed for biology class. He was always a little bit early, but that just gave him time to sift through the folder of photos he always kept in his bag to organize for the yearbook. Today, he had the photos from last week’s game against their rival high school.
He was just flipping through the last of the photos when he heard someone stop in front of his desk. He looked up to see none other than Leonard McCoy smiling down at him.
"Hey," McCoy said, startling Jim. Oh god, how do I talk to him without telling him I love him? Jim said nothing, but turned cherry red instead. “Are those the pictures from the game last week?”
Jim nodded furiously. “Yeah. Um. It was a good game.”
"Thanks," McCoy grinned, flashing his bright hazel eyes on Jim with such sweetness that Jim was sure he’d died and this was some weird, twisted version of the afterlife. "I saw you there. You were wearing this giant red sweater…"
"Um…yeah," Jim squeaked, shocked that anyone remembered what he was wearing, let alone the gorgeous quarterback he’d been pining over for three years. "It was actually Spock’s. I didn’t realize it was going to be so cold."
"Oh. Well, it looked cute. It was so big," McCoy smiled and it wasn’t his usual grin. It was less intense and a little disappointed.
They sat quietly for a few minutes while Jim panicked about McCoy thinking anything of his was cute. And that he apparently did know who Jim was. And that he also remembered seeing him at a game, where McCoy’s attention should really have been focused on the ball and not the dork taking pictures from the sidelines.
"So, uh," McCoy cleared his throat and looked at Jim awkwardly out of the corner of his eye. "So you and Spock, huh?"
"What?" Jim asked, bewildered. He and Spock what?
"You guys are, like…together, right?"
"What? No. Spock’s been dating Uhura since like the third grade."
"Oh," McCoy smiled, shifting to sit up straighter in his chair. "So who are you dating, then?"
Jim laughed before he could stop himself and McCoy looked at him curiously. He immediately shut up and turned pink.
"Sorry," he stammered. "It’s just…me dating somebody? That’ll be the day."
McCoy still looked confused, so Jim expanded.
"I just mean…I’m a total loser, you know? I’m a scrawny idiot with giant glasses and a classic literature obsession," he explained, unable to control the word vomit tumbling out of his mouth. "And also gay, which does not translate into bountiful prospects in this town."
Small town Georgia was not the place to be a nerdy, gay teenager and Jim was quite aware of that, thank you very much. But McCoy just frowned and turned to face Jim on his chair.
"That’s stupid," he said firmly. "I think you’re cute. And - and really sweet."
Jim reached a level of embarrassed that bordered on potential implosion, but McCoy just smiled at him tentatively.
"I don’t get why you think no one would date you. I could, uh…can I prove you wrong?"
"What?" Jim squeaked.
"Can I take you to dinner?" McCoy asked, his face almost as red as Jim’s. They both stared at their hands and fiddled with pencils while McCoy tried to tailor his approach and Jim tried to keep from spontaneously catching on fire. "I mean…you don’t have to or anything, I just think you’re really cute and I always look for you at games because you’re always there taking pictures and Greg says he thinks you might like me, too, so…I don’t know, it’s stupid, I guess. I just had to ask once. Sorry."
"What?" Jim squeaked slightly louder than last time. "You want to go out with me?"
"Yeah," McCoy muttered, ducking his head to hide the redness in his cheeks. "It’s okay if you don’t want to. I mean…maybe you already like someone or…"
"Yes!" Jim stammered delightedly. "Yeah, I’ll go out with you! I mean - sure. Yeah, that sounds cool."
"Really?" Jim thought he might die because McCoy looked just as excited as he felt and that was something he’d never imagined in his wildest fantasies. "O-okay! I’ll pick you up at 7 tonight?"
Jim nodded furiously, heart pounding. The bell rang and students started to filter in, heading to their usual seats, but McCoy stayed planted in Carol’s usual spot. He smiled sheepishly at Jim when Carol raised her eyebrows and smirked all the way to a different seat in the back, but he stayed put and they both blushed into oblivion for the rest of the class.
-
At 6:30, Jim was pacing the living room as his mother chuckled at him and continued to read. He sat down on the couch and huffed out a sigh. He stood up and straightened the books on the shelf in the corner. He checked his hair in the mirror.
"Jim, honey," his mom laughed. "You look gorgeous. It’s barely 6:30; be patient."
"Mom," he groaned, flopping down on the couch. "It’s Leonard McCoy. Patience is not an option.”
"Well, don’t get yourself too worked up," she chuckled. "You don’t want to wear yourself out before he even shows up. You’ve got to save some energy for the frantic making out that’s surely to follow dinner."
“Mom!”
Winona just laughed and turned the page of her novel. Jim straightened the pillows on the couch.
Ding-dong!
Jim looked at his mother frantically, but she just raised her eyebrows in amusement and nodded towards the door. Jim checked his watch. 6:33pm. It was probably the girl scouts or something. No way would he arrive this early.
Jim swung open the door to find Leonard McCoy standing on the other side, hair combed neatly to the side and wearing a red button-down with an almost indecent number of buttons undone. He gulped. McCoy was holding flowers.
Oh my god.
"Hi," McCoy smiled shyly. He held out the flowers. "I, uh, I got flowers for your mom."
"Oh, how sweet of you!" Winona exclaimed from behind Jim, reaching around him to take the flowers. Jim stared at her in horror - he’d been hoping she’d leave him alone and he could avoid being horrifically embarrassed on his first date ever. "Lilies, my favourite!"
McCoy blushed and shoved his hands into his pockets, shoulders hunched as he waited for Jim to say something.
"You’re early," Jim blurted out. McCoy stared at him with wide, nervous eyes. "I mean - that’s fine. I’m early, too."
"He’s been wearing a hole in my floor since 6:00," Winona said cheerfully. Jim wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. "It’s been adorable. I’ve never seen him so excited before."
McCoy perked up noticeably and smiled more confidently at Jim, who managed to smile back at him.
"I planned some cool stuff," McCoy told him. "We should go before it gets darker."
Jim smiled and his mom slapped him on the ass as she pushed him out the door. He scooted forwards, mortified, and turned back to stare at her furiously.
"Have fun, boys!" she called after them cheerfully. "McCoy, you had better have my baby back here before 11 or so help me god, I’ll hunt you down!"
She shut the door with a cheerful wave and left Jim standing next to his crush of three years with a forlorn expression on his face.
"Sorry," he muttered. "My mom is sort of crazy."
"That’s okay," McCoy grinned, turning to walk back towards his car. It was a mustang and probably about 20 years old, red and a fastback model. It was pretty sex, Jim decided. It made sense that McCoy would drive a car that turned heads. Everything else about him did, too. "Hop in - we’ve got a bit of a drive."
Jim settled into the passenger seat. They drove for miles and miles, some parts in silence and some parts filled with conversation. McCoy turned out to be hysterically funny and Jim discovered that McCoy was surprisingly tolerant of the camera constantly in his hands snapping photos. They talked about their plans for the future and where they wanted to go to college. They both picked Ole Miss, which made Jim’s stomach flutter excitedly. McCoy told him he wanted to be a doctor and Jim teased him about being a sawbones while McCoy hazed him for his interest in an astronomy degree.
"So you’re from Iowa?" McCoy asked, one hand on the wheel and one on the console between them. Jim’s own hand lay just inches away and he constantly had to fight the urge to grab it and lace their fingers together.
"Yeah, we moved here four years ago," he informed McCoy. "When my dad died, mom didn’t want to stay in our house. We moved to Georgia because my grandparents retired here. It’s cool, I guess. Really hot all the time."
"I’m sorry about your dad," McCoy said softly. Jim turned to look at him and found soft, hazel eyes looking at him with great affection. "It must be hard."
"Sometimes," Jim agreed, frowning. "I mean, he traveled a lot because he was in the air force. I didn’t really see him a lot and I didn’t know him very well. He was only home a few weeks at a time, usually about four times a year. Mom misses him a lot more than I do."
"It’s still hard," McCoy smiled gently and paused for a moment before threading his fingers through Jim’s in an obviously forced attempt at casualness. Jim smiled into his lap and shifted his hand to better fit with McCoy’s.
"This is nice," he said softly. McCoy smiled back at him, clearly happy that he was having a good time. "Where are we going?"
"We’re almost there," McCoy reassured him. "It’s about five minutes out. I promise you’ll like it."
Jim gazed out the window of the car, inspecting the wide open landscape for miles around. Wherever they were going, it was clearly not in town. Maybe McCoy knew a little diner that would somehow crop up in the middle of an empty field? He couldn’t see anything around them.
Finally, they pulled up at the top of a rocky cliff face and McCoy stopped the car. They smiled at each other and stepped out onto the grass, looking out over the edge of the cliff. It was beautiful, Jim decided. It overlooked a small valley that was filled with fog. He turned around to find McCoy unloading a cooler and two lawn chairs from the back of his car.
"What’s this?" he asked, peering into the trunk. McCoy grinned at him sheepishly.
"I, uh…I made some food and brought some juice and stuff. I thought we could watch the sunset over the valley," he explained, looking less and less sure of his plan as he spoke. "Is that okay? We still have time to go to an actual restaurant or something."
Jim beamed at him.
"This is great," he said enthusiastically. "Really great. I love it."
Jim helped him set up the chairs and drag the cooler over to the edge of the cliff. They unloaded sandwiches and apple juice and a whole homemade pie that McCoy’s mom had sent with them. Grinning like idiots, they dug into their dinner and exchanged shy, giddy smiles as they ate. When they finished, McCoy scooted his chair closer to Jim’s and held onto his hand as the sun sank lower and lower.
"This is a good first date," Jim sighed happily, shoulder and arm brushing up against McCoy’s. He leaned his head to the right and settle down on a warm, broad shoulder. He felt McCoy’s cheek press against the stop of his head a moment later and smiled.
"I’m glad you like it," McCoy murmured. "I’ve been so nervous about asking you out. Greg told me he thought you’d say yes, but I couldn’t be sure…"
"Of course I said yes," Jim mumbled. "I’ve been mooning over your for years."
McCoy lifted his head off of Jim’s and turned to face him with nervous eyes. Before Jim could even begin to process what was about to happen, McCoy’s soft, warm, and perfectly eager lips were on his and all the blood in his body rushed to his face. Jim kissed him back desperately, having waited far too long to get his mouth on McCoy’s body.
He lifted half out of his chair for better leverage as McCoy cradled the back of his head with one hand and palmed his rib cage with the other. God, he was a great kisser - and Jim wasn’t quite ready to stop just yet. When McCoy pulled back the slightest fraction of an inch, Jim followed him and traced unfamiliar teeth with his tongue. The moan he received for his efforts was worth the lack of oxygen he endured.
Finally, after several more moments of gasping and sucking and frantic grabbing, they pulled apart and Jim met wild, dark eyes with a grin.
"Jesus Christ," McCoy gasped, gripping Jim’s shirt and trying desperately to catch his breath. "D-definitely like you."
"Definitely like you,” Jim replied, diving back in to press his lips against McCoy’s. He winced as the arm of his chair cut into his ribs when he tried to lean closer. “These chairs suck.”
"My car…" McCoy breathed, tugging Jim out of his seat and half-stumbling, half-groping their way back to the car. They reached the hood at the same time Jim decided he wanted more of McCoy’s lips on his own and he tugged them closer together too enthusiastically. They toppled onto the hood and Jim spread his legs to accommodate McCoy’s mostly-standing position as he lay with his back against warm metal. God, he felt like such a cheesy movie chick, but right now all he wanted was to be kissed on the hood of his boyfriend’s car as the sun set behind them.
He got what he wanted.
"Jim, oh god," McCoy panted, chest pressed fully against Jim’s as they reached for new skin furiously. "Fuck - I’ve never kissed a boy before…oh…”
"Me neither," Jim moaned as he slipped his hands under the back of McCoy’s shirt to feel warm, firm skin beneath his palms. He panicked briefly when he realized he was hard, but calmed down once he decided that the feeling of McCoy’s hands on his skin was more important than modesty. "Shit, you’re so hot…"
And then McCoy ground his hips into Jim’s and their erections collided, making Jim see stars. God, he’d never felt something so good before and clearly, neither had McCoy because he was suddenly rocking against Jim and gasping into his mouth like he was never going to get enough air. But this was tumbling into ‘too fast’ territory, no matter how much Jim liked how it felt. He pressed on McCoy’s chest and they came up for air.
"Feels so good," Jim panted, still clutching McCoy’s shoulders from behind. "But I don’t think I’m ready…"
He was, after all, seventeen and on his first actual date ever. It seemed a little cheap to give it up right away.
"Okay," McCoy gasped, dropping his face into Jim’s neck. "Okay. I can wait. We should probably wait anyway. But, god, Jim, when you’re ready…"
"Yeah," Jim laughed shakily, trailing his hands calmly over McCoy’s skin. "You’ll be the first to know."
"Are we dating now? Can we please be dating?"
"Oh, hell yes."
"Thank fuck," McCoy laughed, sucking a kiss against Jim’s neck. "I don’t think I could have handled a ‘no’."
A half hour of slow kisses and innocently wandering hands later, they had gained enough control over themselves to separate long enough to pack up and head home. McCoy walked Jim to his door and kissed him long and hard until the lights flickered on and off and Jim cursed his mother for peeking through the windows.
"I had a great night," Jim sighed, kissing him one more time. "I’ll see you tomorrow, Bones."
"Bones?"
"Yeah," Jim smiled. "Because you’re gonna be a doctor. Sawbones."
"Oh," McCoy blushed, obviously happy to have a personalized nickname from Jim. "Alright. Can I take you to a movie tomorrow?"
"Are you shitting me? You’ve got complete access to all my nights for the foreseeable future."
"Great," Bones smiled. "I’ll see you at school."
"Yeah. I’ll see you."
Jim watched him drive away and waved awkwardly from the front step. Not even his mother asking for all the dirty details of his date and teasing him about protection could wipe the grin off his face for the rest of the night.
The next day, Jim looked down the hall from his locker to see Bones closing his own and smiling at him shyly. Jim grinned back and Bones looked around the crowded hallway briefly before half jogging over to Jim and pressing him up against the lockers with a hungry kiss. Jim kissed him back as his heart beat a thousand beats per minute, basking in the feeling of kiss his boyfriend in the hallway for the first time in his life.
"I missed you," Bones breathed, cupping Jim’s cheek. "Thought about you all night."
"Me, too," Jim murmured. "I mean - I thought about you. Not about me."
"I got that," Bones chuckled, kissing him again. "I can’t wait to see you again tonight."
"Me neither," Jim agreed. He brushed the wild tuft of hair on Bones’ head to lay neatly with the others. He looked around Bones’ shoulder to see half the football team staring at them, some confused and some shocked. "Aren’t you worried about your football friends?"
"No," Bones smiled. "I like you. If they don’t like it, they can suck it."
Jim kissed him so hard he felt his lips bruise.
"I’ll see you in biology, Bones."
They didn’t make it to the movie that night. Instead, they took Bones’ car for a drive and make love in the back seat until neither one of them could see straight.
They were such fucking clichés, Jim thought. The nerd and the quarterback. He didn’t really care. There was a reason people wrote books and made movies about it. It was perfect.