[the question, somehow, catches him off guard. tilts him on axis and Jim blinks, once, at the small image of his first officer.
not for the first time, he thinks of the Ambassador. the relief (obvious relief) on his face when he looked at Kirk, spoke to him. he thinks of how easily he closed the distance between them when the Spock he knows remains rigid and cold and distanced. the onslaught of emotion that pooled like rain in him, and a longing he couldn't name.
his memory flickers to a warm smile on his own (not his own) face. to Spock looking at him across the bridge. to hands on shoulders, to running across foreign landscapes, to plomeek soup (and how Jim doesn't know what that is).
the smile, the half laugh, he gives his raw around the edges, an attempt at flippancy that scrabbles and misses the ledge.]
video;
not for the first time, he thinks of the Ambassador. the relief (obvious relief) on his face when he looked at Kirk, spoke to him. he thinks of how easily he closed the distance between them when the Spock he knows remains rigid and cold and distanced. the onslaught of emotion that pooled like rain in him, and a longing he couldn't name.
his memory flickers to a warm smile on his own (not his own) face. to Spock looking at him across the bridge. to hands on shoulders, to running across foreign landscapes, to plomeek soup (and how Jim doesn't know what that is).
the smile, the half laugh, he gives his raw around the edges, an attempt at flippancy that scrabbles and misses the ledge.]
No way.