Chapter Text
For such a smart motherfucker, Jim Kirk didn’t pay attention to shit. At least, that’s sure as hell how it seemed to Leonard about six weeks into their fast friendship, as well as their shared Federation History class. Or, well, that probably wasn’t quite correct. Jim always seemed to focus his full attention on every conversation he was having, and he certainly looked at the instructor in class, but he seemed to go off in his own little world every time he wasn’t actively speaking to someone. The amount of times Leonard had asked Jim for something, be that to please not leave the door open when he left his room or a simple request to get him a spoon from the kitchen, only to have Jim claim he didn’t hear him, was absurd. Where Jim’s brain went 90% of the day was unclear to Leonard. Maybe that was part of his whole genius schtick, maybe Jim was ignoring him intentionally to fuck with him, he didn’t know, but he was getting pretty sick of it. And yet he continued to spend most of his free time with the kid anyways. Why? He wasn’t entirely sure, but something just drew him to the other man, they just seemed to fit naturally together, Jim’s propensity to completely lose his brain at any given time notwithstanding.
“Want any popcorn?” Leonard offered his friend as he poured his own into a bowl. Only two weeks into the Academy, Jim had found out that Leonard’s knowledge of terrible “classic” movies was “severely lacking”, and they’d somehow fallen into a standing Saturday movie night where Jim’s attempted to remedy what Leonard firmly believed wasn’t a problem. Either old movies were bad, or Jim had terrible taste. Possibly both.
Jim didn’t respond to his offer of popcorn, either because he didn’t want any or because he wasn’t paying attention. It didn’t really matter to Leonard, he wasn’t getting any either way.
“Oh, popcorn!” Jim exclaimed brightly as Leonard sat down next to him on the couch, “That smells fantastic, don’t mind if I do.”
“I don’t think so, kid,” Leonard shook his head, yanking the bowl away as Jim was already digging his hand into it, “I asked you if you wanted any and you didn’t say shit. No popcorn for you.”
“Sorry, Bones, couldn’t hear ya,” Jim shrugged, unbothered by Leonard’s protests as he threw a handful of popcorn into his mouth.
“Jesus Christ, are you deaf or something? Would it kill you to pay a little attention to what’s happening around you?”
Jim snorted and just said, “Yeah.” Leonard rolled his eyes,
“I promise ya, Jim, there has never been a recorded death from paying attention when someone’s speaking to you.”
Jim laughed again, a strange cross between a snort and a giggle that Leonard found oddly charming, but he didn’t have time to process that feeling because next thing he knew Jim said, still casual as ever, “I meant yeah to the first question. I can’t hear you sometimes, ‘cause I’m deaf.”
“You’re fucking with me,” Leonard said after a moment of silence, “And it ain’t funny.”
“I’m not fucking with you, Bones, but it is funny.” Jim’s tone was still light, but there was a strange seriousness behind his brilliant blue eyes that gave Leonard pause. Jim then reached up to his ear and pulled out a small, flesh-colored device that had been sitting just inside his ear canal. “I don’t just wear these things as ear wax collectors.”
“Gross,” Leonard rolled his eyes, but mostly he was left wondering how he hadn’t noticed that the man he spent countless hours with over the past 6 weeks wore hearing aids. Jim slipped the device back in his ear with a shrug, and Leonard realized how he hadn’t noticed it before, as it was really only noticeable if you were looking for it, and he didn’t make a habit of examining his friends’ ears. “Why have you been hiding the fact that you’re fucking deaf this whole time?” Leonard asked, well aware that “this whole time” didn’t even amount to two months, though it did feel longer.
“I’m not hiding shit. You never told me you weren’t deaf,” Jim pointed out which, in Leonard’s opinion, sat on the line between a surprisingly good point and absolutely absurd. Regardless, Leonard was still kicking himself for not noticing the man he’d come to think of as his best friend was deaf.
“Oh my God,” he shook his head and buried his face in his hands, “I’ve spent this whole time thinking you were just too cool to pay attention when I asked you questions.”
Rather abruptly, Jim grabbed Leonard’s face and pulled it out of his hands,
“Man, I really can’t understand you when you’re not looking at me.”
Oh. Of course. Jim probably supplemented whatever he was able to hear through his hearing aids by reading lips. Fucking of course.
“I’m such an asshole,” Leonard shook his head, this time making sure his friend could see his mouth as he spoke.
“That’s not news, Bones,” Jim laughed, “I will, however, admit to maybe, possibly intentionally not bringing it up so I could see how long it took you to notice. Technically you still didn’t, but I’m sick of you muttering things as you walk away from me, as though I have even a single clue what the fuck you’re saying, man.”
Figures. Leonard kicked Jim in the shin and tried not to laugh, “And we have circled back to you being the asshole.”
“It does usually seem to come back to that. I’ll have you know, though, that I’m a total ace at lip reading. You could say I’m fluent in the language of lips.” Jim smirked in that classic, annoying Jim Kirk way. Leonard couldn’t believe he was going to be seeing that fucking face for God only knows how long.
“You continue to be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” Leonard grumbled and threw a piece of popcorn at his friend. He then sighed, “Jim, do you need me to…”
“I don’t need to be fucking babied,” Jim shook his head, his shoulders suddenly tense, “I’ve been dealing with this since I was a kid, I can handle it just fine.”
“I was just gonna ask if you needed me to speak louder with you,” Leonard rolled his eyes, but mentally took a note of the obvious sore spot he had inadvertently poked. Jim was fiercely independent, to the point of not wanting to accept help from anyone for anything, so this wasn’t exactly shocking. “You’re clearly more than capable of getting yourself into and out of trouble without my help.”
“Oh,” Jim flushed a bit, something Leonard hadn’t really seen him do since they’d met, “I don’t really care. I mostly just get tone and some letter sounds from voices anyways, so it wouldn’t be especially useful, but it would be very funny to watch you go around shouting all the time.”
“You are such an asshole,” Leonard reiterated, tossing another piece of popcorn at his friend. Jim caught it in his mouth with seemingly no effort at all. Like he said, asshole.