Chapter Text
With the fading tones of her Denebrian singing bowl, and the gentle smell of incense, Spock brought her meditation to a close. She took a deep breath and rose from her seated position on the floor. She always felt better when she could meditate for her preferred four hours a day, two during the sleepy end of beta shift, before even the captain was awake, and two just before bed, when she could categorize and file away the day’s experiences. A true Vulcan wouldn't need such systems, she’d always been told. But she did. Spock could never forget she was half human — as long as the captain and her shared a bridge, Kirk would always stir up the emotions carefully concealed behind her psychic boundaries.
She entered her quarter’s bathroom and began to wash her face. She pretended it didn’t bother her, but the truth of the matter was that she didn't have such a contentious relationship in her life except her mother, and didn't have a bond like the one she shared with Kirk, outside of her father. She turned off the tap and toweled herself off. She wasn't quite sure what it meant, that Kirk could get under her skin so easily, nor did she understand what she saw in the mirror as she raised her head: the tiniest, barely even there smile curling the corners of her mouth.
~~~~~
Now, Kirk hadn’t even really meant to say it, she’d just thrown it out in the spur of the moment in between mouthfuls of flaky salmon and Plomeek soup. She supposed the shocked looks on the faces of her crewmates shouldn’t surprise her— Spock excluded of course — after all she had gotten into a very public relationship with Gaia, the hunky communications expert. And Gaia was hard to miss, with his flawlessly green skin and sharp, alluring features. They had almost gotten serious, so the assumption that she was only into men must have been the consensus among her crew. Spock broke the pregnant silence first, with a simple, “ah” and then Uhura, Bones, and Chekov all talked at once. “You’re damn right she is” Bones gleefully pronounced over a cup of coffee. “Does this mean you’ll finally stop flirting with me?” Uhura said hopefully, and Checkov chirped “ You have to let me set you up with somebody!”
Kirk sighed, shook her head and sighed in a faux-disappointed tone “I thought better of your skills of observation! Surely you remember that lovely Bajoran diplomat –”
“Don’t remind me!” Bones crowed, “I was the one that walked in on you playing tonsil tennis! In med bay no less!” Checkov let out a hyperbolic gasp and Uhura arched an imperial brow.
“Really? But she was so smart…”
“Now what’s THAT supposed to mean, Uhura?” Kirk couldn’t believe her ears, she had great taste in women! She attracted plenty of women with good taste! Kirk rallied and was about to let out a witty rejoinder when Spock abruptly shot up out of her seat and said “Excuse me, I have completed my meal.” Suddenly staring at the back of Spock’s head as she deposited her tray in the matter recycler, Kirk wondered why she left so suddenly. Surely it wasn’t … was Spock actually offended? Her tray only had a few bites of food left, but Kirk had never known her to leave a meal unfinished. She always ‘Calculated the necessary proportion of nutrients’ or some other nonsense; Kirk believed it was much more likely it was an ordinary habit to clean her plate.
“Seriously, you never knew she was pansexual? Bones intoned, “What about this is surprising? I mean just look at her! Her hair just screams ‘Hey! I’m sexually adventurous!’”
Kirk’s hand reflexively went to her head and she said “Alright, alright, leave me be!” She got up with a huff, “Now if you’ll excuse me, my meal is complete.”