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"Okay, Mr. Spock. That'll be all," Bones sighed, writing some notes down before handing him a cup of hot tea. "For your troubles." It was sarcastic and matched with an equally sarcastic smile.
"Thank you doctor," The Vulcan took the cup reluctantly, sniffing it with great suspicion. "It is not customary for you to offer tea after a physical."
"What, do you not want it?"
"I said nothing of the sort," He glared at him and took a slow sip, before his eyes widened in surprise. "This particular tea is enjoyable."
"Your welcome, you stubborn hobgoblin," Bones tried to hide a smile, knowing the serum should take effect instantly, and when Spock downed the entire cup in one swallow just to hand it back to the doctor empty, he could barely contain himself. "Now get out of here before I give you a hypo for your health."
Spock nodded curtly before leaving the sick bay, heading down the hall feeling strange. When he entered the turbolift, he pressed the stop button to just take a breath and focus. Then everything was fine again and the doors opened on the bridge.
Jim spun around in his chair with a cheeky smile, resting his head on his hand. "Well, well, well."
"There is no natural deep-level water source anywhere on this starship captain."
"Okay, Spock," The blonde shook his head in amused disbelief. "How was your physical?"
"Mccoy was just as irritating as ever," He blurts out. "Wow that was abnormal." Spock thought but Everyone turned around face him in confusion. "Why is everyone staring at me?"
Then he realized he said all of those things out loud. "Jim you have mustard on your shirt. I can smell it from here." The Vulcan heard a laugh escape Uhura as the captain turned bright red.
Spock couldn't stop himself from saying that, usually he would simply let him know in private. There was a scent of cologne that wafted through his nose.
"Ensign, is that la fleur de l'amour? Sulu is a lucky man-" The Vulcan slapped a hand over his mouth as horror danced across his eyes. Chekov and Sulu looked between each other in bafflement as the rest of the bridge just stared. "Oh surak," Spock gasped behind his hand. "I am so sorry, I do not know why I said that."
"Spock..." Jim stood up. "Are you okay? What's going on?"
The Vulcan just shook his head, hand still clasped on his mouth. This was all a bit confusing because Spock never shared his thoughts as openly as that, and when he did it was in a very objective and obscure way. There was no one who knew that Sulu and Chekov were seeing each other, literally no one except themselves. Spock had only deduced it from obvious clues.
"How long have you known?" Sulu asked, more impressed than anything else.
Spock's hand ripped away from his mouth to say, "2 months, 18 days, and 5 hours" before both hands were on his mouth and he added with a muffled voice, "It was not my place to disclose the status of your intimate relationship."
The turbolift doors opened and Bones stood there, so amused and chuckling.
"Hey, Spock. Have a genuine day? I'm going to be honest with you when I say you look very healthy."
As soon as Spock saw the doctor standing there, smug as ever, looking happy, he knew he caused this.
"What have you done to me, you overgrown bridge troll?" Spock took a deep breath, and even Mccoy stepped back from the Vulcan who looked more surprised than him. "My apologies, I do not know what came over me."
"You're not sorry, are you?" Bones smiled, actually smiled, but it was devilish.
"No," It just slipped out. "I believe you have poisoned my tea with some type of truth-forcing composite, though I do not know how you acquired it. In fact, I am almost entirely positive your reasoning for doing so is to force a love confession out of me that will result in not only disaster but the figurative death of all that I have ever cared about. You think a simple serum will bring me to confess my feelings for Jim, but you are incorrect and your logic is inaccurate for you forgot to factor in that the dominant Vulcan side of my genealogy would never put my career in jeopardy for the sake of a lovesick crush!" He ended it yelling, and everyone was silent, staring wide-eyed until he realized what he said.
Turning in a circle, he looked at all of them with absolute horror in his eyes, before mumbling something like, "As the colloquial term goes 'I screwed up'."
And he passed Bones to the turbolift, relief flooding him like a tsunami when the doors closed. Spock just wanted to hide under the covers of his bed until this all went away like a bad dream.
The next day, no one dared talk about what happened, and there was only small talk and light chatter.
Jim counted the sentences Spock said on one hand, and he didn't even make eye contact with the captain. It was like he retreated inside himself, leaving only a robotic autopilot version to say and speak and act on his behalf.
At the end of the day, it was just the two of them left on the bridge.
Spock and Kirk, two words that should never be separate.
The blonde kept trying to meet his gaze, but he was pointedly focused on his work, turned completely away from the captain. When there was nothing else left to do, Spock awkwardly moved past Jim and said "Goodnight, sir" before rigidly walking to the turbolift.
"Spock wait-" Jim jumped up from his chair and slid into the elevator with him. "Might as well catch a ride with my best officer."
Spock stiffened at the word 'best', looking straight ahead into nothingness. There was a moment of silence before Jim opened his mouth again.
"So I wanted to talk about what happened on the bridge yesterday-"
"Captain," Spock didn't look away from the wall, but his voice was raw. "Please do not."
"I want to tell you that it's alright how you feel-"
"I would not like to discuss this topic."
Jim pressed a button on the turbolift that abruptly stopped everything and Spock's eyes finally tore away from the wall, looking at the blond with confusion.
"Spock," Kirk turned to face him, his voice just a whisper.
"What I feel for you, I am ashamed," Was the Vulcan's response, his eyes darting around frantically as Kirk neared closer, eventually placing his hands on the sides of his shoulders. Spock stiffened at his touch, exhaling sharply. "I cannot handle their eyes on me, mocking me behind my back for long."
"They are not talking behind your back. Spock, I-" Jim's words got caught in his throat as he tried to form a sentence, and heat radiated in his face. "I did something stupid last week."
Spock just stared at him, his head ever-so-slightly tilted in response.
"At last week's party, I got drunk. Very drunk. And told everyone that I was in love with you."
"You what?"
"You were out at the bathroom. That's why everyone was acting so weird. They knew about my feelings for you and didn't know how to say it. That's also most likely why Bones gave you that truth serum."
"You return my feelings?"
"For someone so perceptive, you can be so thick-headed."
"I do not know what the density of my cranium-"
Jim cut him off with his lips pressed against his own and wrapped his arm around him. The Vulcan's breath hitched at such a surprise, but soon was pushing back against him, moving his hands to cup his face. It was wonderful, feeling his hot lips against his own, how they fit together perfectly like a complete puzzle. When Spock broke away to catch a breath, Jim chuckled and hit the button which started the elevator again.
They both tried to compose themselves before the door opened, and there was no trace of anything that happened except for Spock's swollen lips and the little smile that was exchanged between them.
"Mr. Spock?"
"Yes sir."
"Care for a game of chess?"
"Yes sir."