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Captain Kirk was well-known for his incredible flirting skills. During just one five-year mission, he had proved them very efficient, and was now called, behind his back obviously, the ‘womanizer’. And he certainly wasn’t going to change that.
That day, he and Spock had a chess match planned, and the Vulcan wasn’t on the Bridge at the time of the end of the shift, having been called to the labs. So Kirk was waiting for him outside the door for their game.
The door slid open to a young female officer in the blue science uniform. She had mid-long black hair fading into red on the bottom of the length, light skin and brown eyes, just a bit lighter than Spock’s. And hell, she looked good. Then he noticed her ears. Pointy. Like Spock’s. Same for her eyebrows. She was Vulcan. But he took it as a challenge to seduce her, and wasn’t going to give up so easily. He was James T. Kirk, after all! And the woman who would resist his charms wasn’t born yet!
(He would be proved wrong, and had already been, but he’s just too stubborn.)
“Hey there, lady,” he addressed her his most charming smile. “How come I’ve never seen you around?”
“Hello, Captain,” she politely grinned in return. (Wow, a Vulcan who was smiling ?!) “I have recently been transferred from the Farragut , which explains our lack of chances to meet. Add up that I’m spending my shifts in the labs rather than on the Bridge as I do not have a high enough rank and I avoid going to sickbay, and our opportunities to meet are drastically reduced.”
Alright, now the Vulcan side was showing.
“Yeah,” chuckled Kirk. “What’s your name? You’re Vulcan, aren’t you?”
“Partly,” she nodded. “My great-grandfather was Vulcan. You can call me T’Plinn.”
She looked uncomfortable, but Kirk was focused on his goal and didn’t see it.
“Are you free for a chess game tonight?”
“I’m afraid I have work to finish,” she denied. “And Mr Spock has already left for your game scheduled five minutes ago.”
“Ah, shit,’ swore Kirk, running back to his quarters without a goodbye. How could he forget he had a match scheduled when it was the reason he came to the labs in the first place, and he was constantly thinking about Spock?
But, pretty Vulcans had this effect on him. Which may be the reason why he was thinking about Spock all the time. (It was definitely the reason why he was thinking about Spock all day long. But he was certainly not going to let Spock know about that.)
“Spock!” He called, seeing him about to come into his quarters. “Sorry I’m late.”
“You seemed busy,” calmly replied Spock. “I thought you would appreciate that I leave you to it and reschedule later.”
“No, no.” Jim wanted to slap himself for having flirted with another girl in front of Spock again. “It wasn’t important.”
The Vulcan raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. And the match was much less relaxed than usual.
***
The next day, Jim swore to himself he wouldn’t seek out for T’Plinn. She was of an inferior rank, and one of his crew members, and he had promised himself he wouldn’t get romantically involved (or more) with either. Well, that principle had been yanked out the window ever since he realized he had a crush on Spock, but still, he had decided to let it pass. After all, it was just a crush, at the time; nothing much. But now? Now, he didn’t know. It wasn’t a crush, and somehow he still fell in love with/developed crushes on every hot person he met.
As he washed his face in his quarter’s bathroom, he considered the thought more closely. Now it was clearly a bother, because he just couldn’t deal with having a crush on a part-Vulcan science officer with red-dyed hair and whatever-the-fuck he felt for his First Officer at the same time. And maybe he had never thought about it before because it was never a problem , but it was always there, he realized.
“I think I might be polyamorous,” Jim murmured in the quiet bathroom. Then he looked at Spock’s door, because shit, he never remembered it was there and Spock could hear him. But there was no sound coming from there, maybe Spock was meditating. It seemed unlikely that he would still be sleeping that late in the morning.
Or maybe he had already gone to the mess hall to eat. Which was exactly what Jim needed to do. Well, he said he wouldn’t seek out T’Plinn, he didn’t say anything about Spock, after all.
Maybe you’re not polyamorous and just in big denial about your feelings for him , murmured a voice in Jim’s mind. Shut up , he replied. The voice effectively did shut up for the rest of the day.
***
For some unexplained reason, Jim found himself at the door of lab 3 again that night. And, for the same infuriating reason, he knew T’Plinn was about to come through that exact same door, and that her shift had just ended. He knew he was going to ask her for chess again, and he knew she had no reason to decline, just as he knew it felt wrong to ask that from her, like he was using her as a replacement for… What, he didn’t know. But Jim knew that he didn’t care for chess right now, and that his respectable resolutions of this morning had gone down the toilet and been sucked in a black hole to another universe, because he wanted to take her to his quarters.
And again, he was definitely not thinking about chess.
Jim cursed at himself. Half of him wanted to just do what he had planned, even though it was going to be something way too messy and wrong, and the other half was crying with indignation that he certainly didn’t want that (and that he only felt that way because it had been about a year since he had last had sex with anyone, on shore leave, and holy shit a year?! ).
Finally, that last part was winning. Jim turned away to leave, and it was the moment that T’Plinn chose to get out of the lab, in her blue science dress, and Jim changed his mind again. Okay, maybe not sex, but chess. Chess was fine. There was nothing wrong with playing chess with a fellow officer.
“Captain?” T’Plinn’s voice conveyed her surprise, as well as a slight suspicion. “Mr Spock isn’t here.”
“I know,” Kirk smiled gently. That wasn’t flirting; or if it was, he genuinely didn’t mean it. “But I wanted to ask you again if you’d be up for chess. It was more than rude of me to leave without even a proper goodbye, or even an apology. And even if you don’t like chess, or just don’t want to play, I still need to apologize.”
“Oh.” She seemed truly touched, her eyes widening a little, as if she was surprised that Kirk would come to apologize. “It’s fine, sir. And I do like playing chess. However, I do not know if it would be wise…” she bit the inside of her mouth. Kikr was not supposed to notice, but he did. “Are you in the habit of playing chess with all your new crew members, Captain?”
She was definitely trying to change the subject. It didn’t matter.
“No,” he admitted. “I’m actually curious to see if all Vulcans play like Spock.”
“I doubt so,” agreed T’Plinn. “I have played against Mr Spock once, and he plays… quite logically. Therefore in order to win, you need to play illogically, and that’s what I did, but he might have found a pattern in my moves, or I was simply playing at my worst because he beat me in fifteen minutes.”
“It isn’t bad,” remarked Kirk. “He usually beats everyone in three.” Something about her revelation made him upset. He couldn’t tell if it was that a) she played against Spock but refused to play against him, b) she had chosen the same strategy as him or c) that Spock accepted to play with her altogether. He decided it was the first, and dropped the thought anyway. “So, how about we go to my quarters? Unless you have a board in yours, of course,” he added upon seeing her face, now doubtful. It was strange to see a Vulcan face displaying so much emotion. Spock never did that, and he showed more than any other.
That’s when he heard the door of lab 2 open, letting someone out. He promptly turned to the source of the noise only to find Spock staring at him, at them , and his stomach dropped. Now it felt so, so much more wrong. And then Jim realized that Spock had not been the one to leave the lab, which meant he’d been there for longer.
As soon as he knew he had been spotted, Spock turned away and left, but it was done. Jim felt sick. For some reason now even chess felt wrong with anyone else but Spock. And talking with T’Plinn? Unthinkable. He still took the time to apologize properly.
“I’m sorry, Miss T’Plinn,” he smiled apologetically, darting a look where Spock had gone. “I don’t think we’re going to play tonight either.”
“I figured,” she nodded. “But I don’t think I would like to play chess with you, at any time. Nor do I think you want to play with me.”
Kirk looked at her again, and blinked. The way she smiled told him she understood. She understood perfectly , in fact. Maybe, no, certainly better than he did. Then she gestured towards the corridor.
“Go after him, sir. Don’t run around.” She turned in the other direction, to… Well, Kirk didn’t know, didn’t want to know. Then she stopped and turned back to him. “And, Captain? Good luck.”
***
“Spock!”
The captain kept running until he was just in front of Spock, who had stopped in front of his quarters. Well, just between his door and the captain’s, which was even better. Kirk took a second to find his breath and the Vulcan waited patiently, but his stiff posture and eyes staring at a point on the wall behind Kirk gave it away: he was pissed. As pissed as a Vulcan could be, which is a lot.
Jim grabbed his arm and pulled him into the captain’s quarters. He locked the door after them, and immediately started to throw around excuses, or so he tried, but nothing sounded good enough in his head. Instead, he took a deep breath, expired, and talked.
“Spock, I’m sorry. I… I’m sorry for a lot of things, actually. First, sorry I forgot our match yesterday and had to be reminded of it to actually come. Second, sorry you had to witness me hitting on another girl.” He winced. “And that’s not the first time it happens, so it’s even worse. But this time’s different, because you’ve seen me hitting on a Vulcan girl. So, sorry about that. And, I think I’m even more sorry that I invited her to join me for chess.”
He saw Spock’s jaw tightening a little.
“What you do in your free time is only your decision, Captain.”
“Jim, please.” His voice was desperate. “And, it’s not what I meant, it’s… Chess is our thing. I don’t even want to play chess with her, really, and… Well, with anyone. I shouldn’t want to, and I don’t . I’m sorry. You’re the only… Chess partner I want to have.”
When he looked up again, Spock’s eyes had softened. And when he talked, his voice had also softened, but the words didn’t feel right.
“It is your love life, Jim. It is yours only, and I have no right to interfere with it. I do not belong there.”
“The thing is…” Jim started. The thing is, you do , cried the voice in Jim’s head, and he let it be. “Love is hard. It’s strange. It’s unpredictable. And stars, I just realized this morning what it really feels like. I can’t explain it clearly, so you’ll have to accept a metaphor.”
Spock waited, his great chocolate eyes locked on Jim’s hazel gaze. He was beautiful, Jim realized. Or maybe he already knew it. He’s always known, deep down. He breathed in, and out. Then in again, and he talked.
“To me, love is like a game of tri-d chess. You either win the heart of the other, or they crush yours. At first it’s just getting into position, analysing the other, getting to know them. Then you have to make a bolder move, one that will set the game into motion, and there’s no going back. You can lose a few pawns doing so, a few battles, but what matters is the final result. And as I said earlier, you’re the only chess partner I want to have… Spock, I just made a move that made my king most vulnerable. The choice is yours.”
Jim couldn’t look at Spock. Not now. Not anymore, not until Spock had answered. Because he needed to know.
Spock stayed silent for a few more seconds. They felt like years, with the weight of a black hole. He didn’t move, neither of them did. But Spock did speak.
“Checkmate,” he announced, “I claim your king.”
And just like that, he took a step forwards until he and Jim were centimeters apart, and even that distance seemed too far away, so he closed his arms around him. Jim leaned into the embrace, warm and perfect and right . He forced himself to look up, a smile on his face, vibrant and contagious.
“You have it,” he murmured. “You have it all. Forever.”