Chapter Text
“Who was that pointy-eared bastard?” Jim asked, his face red with fury.
“I don’t know, but I like him,” Leonard replied wistfully, leaving towards the library. Jim had looked for trouble – and found it, as usual. Cheating on the Kobayashi Maru test had never been tried – one simply does not try cheating on a Starfleet Academy test – least of all, on a test built and supervised by Professor Spock.
Jim Kirk began hating the Vulcan with a passion, starting that very day.
He hated him.
Later that day, upon reaching his dorm, he dumped his bag of books by the door and collapsed on his bed, not bothering about the mess and the noise he was making, as if he lived alone.
“Thanks for being a considerate room-mate,” Leonard grumbled, lifting his eyes from his own pile of books which he kept building on the desk in a very unstable balance.
“You are welcome,” Jim replied absent-mindedly. Yes, he was anything but considerate, he knew, but right now he couldn’t care less. Ah, that pointy-eared son-of-a-bitch!
“What did you do, now?” Leonard inquired, chewing his pen.
“Nothing. I went to classes. The bastard won’t let me attend the flight lessons! And no space-jump either!”
“Ah, ah! Professor Spock grounded our dear little Jimmy,” Leonard chuckled.
“You are being infuriating.”
“Yes! And I like it. Did you bring any snack?”
“No. You can continue eating your pens.”
Ashamed by the habit he could not get rid of, Leonard threw the pen in the trash. He got up and came to him.
“If you listened to me and did not cheat, you wouldn’t be in this situation now.”
Jim rolled on his belly, biting the pillow.
“You don’t get it, Bones! You just do not get it! Doesn’t it bother you that no one passed this test? Ever?”
“Nope,” Leonard confessed. “I am not bothered by such trivial matters. I am bothered when I cannot treat an illness – and not when I cannot pass a test. It is time you grew up, Jim,” he added biting into an apple.
“Stop patronizing me – you, infuriating man!” Jim snapped at him. “My feelings are valid too! Not only yours and your precious life-saving, pure and exceptionally mature ideas and thoughts!”
Leonard felt bad, Jim was right. He WAS older, but that was not a good reason to treat Jim as if he were a toddler, even though sometimes he did act like one.
“Sorry, okay? Truce.”
“Yeah, whatever, whatever.”
Leonard came and sat near him on the bed.
“What do you want to do now?”
“Now? Now I wanna go and rip Professor Spock’s ears off!!”
“Jim…oh, brother!” Leonard sighed. “Don’t you want to fix what you did? Perhaps go and apologize? Try to understand why he reacted like that and asked you to explain yourself in front of the whole damn assembly?”
“I don’t wanna apologize. I wanna rip his ears off.”
“Don’t make a fixation, okay? Fine, I do not have time for this. I will go back to my study. If you wanna talk, you know where to find me.”
But Jim did not want to talk. He wanted to think about everything and especially about Professor Spock. Who did that creature even think he was? He downloaded his biography and proceeded to read it – gosh, bloody hell, he was Ambassador Sarek’s son and one of the most appreciated professors at the Academy, already holding two PhD degrees, teaching Music History, Xenolinguistics and Physics. How the hell could one teach Music History AND Physics? It was a nonsense. Oh, he had a degree in Music. Jim’s knowledge of “classical music” ended with Beastie Boys, The Police and Electric Light Orchestra – or so he bragged.
He decided to stalk the pointy-eared bastard and enrolled into his Classical Music class. Ah, how he hated him!
Spock lifted an eyebrow upon seeing him in class.
“Good morning everyone,” he greeted the students. There were no absents and everyone was tranquilly and expectantly waiting for the Professor to begin the lecture. It was an optional course, but Spock always managed to have a full amphitheatre of students who were… all ears. He supposed that they were choosing his course because they wanted to take a break from the difficult topics such as Physics, Command, Piloting, Engineering and Mathematical Analysis. He even had students from the Medical School branch and some who were not Starfleet cadets, but who had been given the authorisation to take part in class.
It was flattering. Music was a fascinating subject! Of course, it did not even cross Spock’s mind that most of them were there because they had a more or less acute crush on him or because they were hoping to get into the good graces of Sarek of Vulcan’s son.
“Good morning, Professor Spock,” a chorus of voices replied.
“We have two new joiners today,” Spock said, taking a look at his padd – as if he didn’t know their names – he knew the names of all the cadets by heart. But he was teaching for Humans and he tried his best not to appear… superior. “Mr. Montgomery Scott, currently studying STEM, and Mr. James Kirk, from Aerospace Science. Let us take 3 minutes to get to know the reasons for which they joined our class. Mr. Scott?”
“I joined this class because classical music helps me in… in, gosh, how should I put it… in thinking more clearly, which is, um… important for an Engineer,” Scotty managed to utter. He could not just say that he was here because he felt like losing consciousness whenever he saw Spock’s dad, the beautiful, ethereal and angelic Sarek of Vulcan of whom he thought day and night; he figured that being close to his son would soothe his troubled heart just a bit.
The class participants nodded – yes, clarity of the mind – they all aspired to it and of course this was the main reason for which they were here.
“A valid reason, Mr. Scott, welcome. Good for you. With such thinking, I am certain you shall become one of our top engineers. What about you, Mr. Kirk?”
“Oh, hello again,” Jim said on a menacing tone.
Spock waited, thinking that Mr. Kirk will reveal something more. But no – it seemed like he did not want to add anything else.
“What drove you to our class?” he asked, not wanting to look intimidated by a shameless cadet.
“I drove here by motorcycle,” Jim replied with a grin.
People laughed – some with embarrassment, others with amusement. Spock raised another eyebrow. He was not going to get drawn into childish games. He was the professor, James Kirk was the student. Things were clear.
“Today we shall discuss about one of the most important composers of the Terran late Classicism and early Romanticism, Franz Schubert. I was mentioning him last time as well; his chamber music is astoundingly beautiful, and his Trio Opus 100 is my Father’s favourite work, therefore it is also dear to me as well. The first movement, which is in sonata form…”
“How do you spell Ssssshhhhhubert??” Scotty leaned towards Jim, writing avidly.
“S-C-H-U-B-E-R-T,” Jim spelled, whilst frowning in Spock’s general direction.
“Thanks, buddy,” he said drawing a rectangle around Schubert’s name and adding a few hearts around it.
Jim smiled smugly.
“One of Professor Spock’s victims, eh?”
“Huh? Oh, no, don’t care about him,” Scotty replied absent-mindedly, trying to focus hard on the main characteristics of this Schubert guy and his Trio. “What’s a Trio, buddy?”
Jim shook his head.
“Why don’t you listen to professor Spock and find out?”
“Well, ‘cause he explains for intelligent people like you, and I am dumb. I don’t know shit except warp core specifications and the colour of Sarek of Vulcan’s eyes.”
“Bloody hell…” Jim cursed. There were love-struck creatures all around him and it seemed like he was the only normal person around, the only person who could see that there was nothing to love about Spock – he didn’t know his dad personally, but he could only presume that he was as infuriating as his son – ah, how he hated him!
I hate you. – he wrote on his own notebook.
He stared at him for the remainder of the class, wanting to just go to him and cup his head and hit him repeatedly against the whiteboard.
“For the next time, your assignment is to listen to Franz Schubert’s entire Trio Opus 100 and describe the feelings inspired to you by the second movement, Andante con moto. Class dismissed.”
Jim gingerly placed the wireless headphones over his ears and started playing Beastie Boys’ Sabotage.
***
Homework:
Listen to:
Franz Schubert: Piano Trio Nr. 2 in E-flat major for piano, violin, and violoncello, Opus 100 - Andante con moto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e52IMaE-3As
Beastie Boys: Sabotage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rRZdiu1UE