Chapter Text
It had been a long day. Leonard had an 8-hour shift at the hospital, immediately followed by a two-hour orchestra rehearsal (the only bright part of said rehearsal being Spock conducting Finlandia with a passion that filled Leonard’s heart with— joy, he told himself, just happiness, nothing more, definitely not love, nope.), followed by his duties as the librarian— and of course Chekov’s copy of Persichetti’s Symphony no. 6 had been destroyed in a minor fire at work (Leonard had made a mental note to tell Chekov not to ever bring his music to his job in a research lab again), so Leonard had to work up a whole new copy in Finale. All he wanted was to go home and sleep. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that yet, because of course the new janitors had fucked up his filing system. Of fucking course. He had been sifting through score after score for 30 minutes now, and he still had a long way to go. Leonard sat back on his heels and sighed, then picked up his phone. Time for some Postmates , he thought to himself.
After looking through the options, he selected a Mediterranean café and ordered a platter with kibbeh, grape leaves, tabbouleh, kafta, falafel, hummus, and baba ganoush— because goddamn it, he hadn’t eaten all day, and he was hungry, and he deserved to treat himself.
He glanced past the delivery driver’s name— Grayson — and sighed at the wait time. Damn store’s only a couple block’s down, it shouldn’t take that long . He knew that distance wasn’t the only factor though, and his ire was only half-hearted.
He got a message on his PADD sooner than the projected time, thank God.
[Postmates Driver Grayson] : I am outside the address specified. However, the doors are locked.
[Leonard] : I’m on my way out, I’ll just grab the food from you. You don’t have to come inside.
Leonard unlocked the doors and stepped into the warmth of the summer night, only to see—
“Spock?”
“Leonard. I had suspected that it was you ordering this meal, given the name and the address. Why are you here so late?”
Leonard shoved his hands in his scrub pockets. “Still had work to do, I suppose. My job never ends.”
The Vulcan nodded in that quiet, understanding way of his. “I see. Is there anything I can do to assist you? My shift here has just ended. I would be… happy. To assist you, that is.”
Leonard sighed. He normally hates people working with him, but how can he say no to Spock’s earnestness? “All right, come on in. I’m working on re-filing pretty much everything from C-H because the new janitors somehow fucked it up.”
Spock followed Leonard into the music library. Leonard plopped back down into his seat on the floor and opened up his box of food. “Hey Spock, want a grape leaf?”
Spock delicately accepted the offered food. “Thank you.”
Leonard quietly set aside the rest of the grape leaves for Spock, as well as the tabbouleh and a generous portion of the pita to dip in the hummus and baba ghanoush. The rest of the food wasn’t vegetarian, so he knew Spock wouldn’t eat it.
After they finished the food, they set to work. With two sets of hands, the work went twice as fast, and they were done much sooner than Leonard had expected. They both sat back and admired the neatly organized files. Spock quietly turned towards Leonard. “How often do you stay this late to work on library tasks?”
Leonard shrugged. “Almost every rehearsal, I think. I’ve got a lot to do. I have assistant librarians, but they’re younger. I’d hate to keep them from living their lives and coop them up here with a grumpy curmudgeon like me.”
Spock— wait did he? was that — Spock smiled softly then, and took Leonard’s hand in his own. “You do so much for everyone around you, Leonard. I do not think you are grumpy at all. You merely pretend to be.”
In the haze of confusion, joy, love, and who knows what else he was feeling, Leonard felt Spock press two fingers against two of his own in an unfamiliar configuration, and while Leonard was thinking about that he felt the soft press of Spock’s lips against his.
Leonard may have briefly short-circuited. He then remembered that he should probably kiss Spock back. And he did.