Title: Inside Rather Than Out
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: Cancelled plans can have an up-side. Short domestic one-shot.

Jim thinks the vacation is going to be surreal—and it is, for a time. Then the storm comes. The wind howls, and lightning streaks across the sky. Rain batters the roof, walls, and windows while thunder rattles them. Jim isn’t one to shrink from getting wet, but stepping outside would easily result in him being picked up and carried away. The weather on this planet is that frightening.

“Stop lookin’ so morose,” the man behind Jim says. “Spock says it’ll last through the night and be gone after.”

“I had plans,” Jim replies, running a finger down the cold windowpane, tracing rain drops that he couldn’t actually touch.

“And tomorrow you can do just what you want.”

Jim still doesn’t move from his spot by the window. As he anticipates, his companion mutters to himself before rising from the couch with a much aggrieved sigh and coming towards him.

Jim waits until just the right moment, when he sees through the window’s reflection that Leonard is nearly upon him. He spins around and grabs the man by the waist, reeling him in.

“Caught you!” he exclaims, and plants a kiss on Leonard’s mouth.

Jim pulls back, and Leonard retorts, “I’m not a fish.”

“Mm,” says Jim. He draws Leonard closer to his side and turns them both to look out the window at the swaying plant life.

Leonard doesn’t automatically pull away. “You could’ve come to the couch if you wanted to cuddle.”

“I like it here better.”

“Well I don’t.”

“You can leave anytime,” Jim reminds his grumpy partner in a mild tone.

Leonard stays where he is.

Caught you, Jim confirms again, just to himself.

“Kid, you’re looking much too smug,” comes the warning.

Knowing what that warning might result in, Jim quickly corrects his expression. “Sorry,” he apologizes, sounding sheepish.

Leonard snorts. “You’re not really sorry but I’ll take what I can get.” He cranes his neck in the opposite direction, then, and frowns. “What’s he doin’, do you think?”

“Work,” Jim guesses.

A fire lights in McCoy’s eyes. “While on vacation? That idiot! Why in blazes did he think I prescribed him rest? For the hell of it?”

Jim obediently lets Leonard go and follows the angry doctor at a sedater pace across the cabin. He thinks the showdown to come is certain to be infinitely more interesting than watching the storm outside.

Leonard stops abruptly in the open doorway to the cabin’s solitary bedroom, and Jim halts a moment short of running into the man’s back.

“What?” he wonders, trying to see around Leonard’s shoulder.

“Sshh,” Leonard commands in a quieter-than-usual tone, starting forward.

Their eyes adjust to the darkened interior of the bedroom. Jim’s curiosity vanishes when he catches sight of their errant third and is replaced by something much softer. Leonard walks around the edge of the bed to its opposite side and gently picks up a padd lying across the sleeping Vulcan’s chest. He shuts off the device with a swipe of a finger.

Jim retreats to the doorway and leans there, content to watch Leonard search for a blanket in the closet and then tuck it around Spock. Leonard comes back to him after that, and Jim turns, silently leading the way back to the living area of the cabin.

At the last second, Leonard veers off to the kitchen, asking, “Want something to eat?”

“Sure.” Jim picks a bar stool on the other side of the counter and sits down. “Hit me up, Chef.”

“Why am I the only one who cooks among the three of us?”

“Because I burn water, and Spock would have us eating only vegetables.”

“Vegetables are healthy,” mutters Leonard.

“But meat is a sin,” Jim adds.

The man sniffs. “Never mind.”

The next few minutes of silence are relaxed. Jim props his chin up in his hand and drums his fingers on the countertop. Leonard inspects the entire contents of their refrigerator before he begins to pull out various items. The scene is so comfortingly domestic that Jim feels a pang of regret. Their careers don’t allow for this kind of domesticity often.

“What’s my role?” he asks a moment later, following that thought.

“Role in what, Jim?”

“You cook,” Jim clarifies. “You fuss. Sometimes you clean.”

Leonard snorts.

“So, what my role in this relationship?” But he thinks on that. “Oh. I earn the money.”

“Nope. Spock earns the money.” Leonard is facing away from him but Jim hears the smile in his voice. “You’re the arm candy.”

Jim blinks and sits up. “…What?”

“The trophy wife.”

His hands come down on the counter, palms flat, as he argues, “Bones, I’m not the trophy wife!”

“Look at it this way, kid. You don’t have to do anything strenuous except look pretty.”

An indignant Jim crosses his arms. “I don’t like that joke, Bones.”

“Not joking.”

Jim glares at the man’s back for several minutes.

Eventually Leonard turns around, sighing, but some of his amusement still lingers in the air between them. “If it’s any consolation, you are a good-looking wife, Jim.”

Jim slides off the bar stool and runs a hand through his hair. “You’re not always going to say that.”

“I probably will. I bet you’ll age better than any of us.”

“Thanks,” Jim responds dryly. “Good to know I’m loved for my looks.”

But Leonard shakes his head as he takes a bowl down from a cabinet. “If I loved you only for that, I wouldn’t have bothered marrying you.”

Jim looks away, just briefly. “This isn’t an official marriage, Bones.”

“Spock seems to think so.”

That remark disperses the doubt and brings a smile to Jim’s face. He moves around the counter to loop his arms around Leonard from behind and to tuck his chin between the man’s neck and shoulder. “What do you say to celebrating our marriage the old-fashioned way?”

“Are you horny because you can’t go outside?”

Jim kisses the side of Leonard’s neck. “I’m horny because I love you.”

“That’s what all the pretty wives say. Now quit hanging on me. I’m a cook, not a clothes hanger. I need to finish dinner.”

“How about after dinner?”

Leonard shakes him off with a roll of his eyes. “Spock’s asleep in the bed, or did you forget?”

“But you see,” Jim tells him, “that’s the best part. We’ll wake him up with our activities.”

“Uh-huh. Two frisky humans groping each other right next to him while he’s trying to get some shut-eye. I’m sure that will thrill him to pieces.”

Jim only smiles and says, “You’ll see, Bones.” Then he goes to the stove to poke at the steaks in the frying pan. “Ah, so meat it is.”

“That’s because I knew I’d need my strength for later.”

Jim grins. “It’s the storm.”

“No,” his husband answers, “it’s just Jim Kirk.”

And so, it is that bad weather on his vacation doesn’t disappoint Jim too much after all. How could he be disappointed when the result is spending more time with his family?

-Fini

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