Light The Way (And I'll Follow) || Spirk

Chapter 3

"First Officer's Log, Stardate 1381.5. Duties on the Enterprise resume as usual. The captain has made the call to return to Spacedock, as the Enterprise's engines seem to be underperforming. Refer to the Chief Engineer's Log."

-

It was safe to say that after the accidental mind meld, Spock was more attentive to his distance from the captain. Whenever the two were in the same room, Spock kept a respectful distance from Kirk (and if said distance was slightly more than respectful, he told himself it was just a precaution).

Spock hadn't attempted a mind mild with anyone since he was a child; in fact, his last attempt at one was back when he lived on Vulcan and his father had insisted he master it. He said 'attempt' because, as a half-human hybrid, Spock had never quite managed to learn how to control his emotions during a meld. They easily became overwhelming, and so Spock preferred to avoid attempting them all-together.

The fact that he had started a meld with only a brief touch of hands was highly illogical. Mind melds took practice and concentration, and as someone who'd never mastered them, one shouldn't have started so easily; Spock had no explanation for it and it bothered him.

And so, Spock had decided that he should maintain his distance from Kirk once more. He'd been careless enough to start a mind meld with his captain, regardless of how short it lasted, and mind melds weren't a common thing for Vulcans to attempt. It was considered a sizeable breach of privacy and was often only used in a last effort attempt to give or receive information. If Spock had started one with Kirk so freely, it was a sign that he was getting too attached to him in one way or the other, and it was time to go back to a purely professional feeling towards his captain.

However, Spock had long learned that Captain Kirk was a particularly stubborn human.

Spock had attempted to back out of their now habitual chess matches, often with the statement that he had a certain report or experiment to finish in the science labs, but Kirk wasn't one to give up easily. He simply rescheduled every single match until Spock could no longer find anything to get him out of it; it seemed Kirk knew Spock's schedule well enough to find an unavoidable date every single time.

Secondly, Spock had requested a change of shifts so that he was no longer on the bridge at the same time as his captain unless absolutely necessary. In response, Kirk had simply taken the same shifts alongside him, regardless of ridiculous time periods—Spock fully realized Kirk's stubbornness when the captain, who normally resented getting up early, agreed to take up Alpha shift four times a week just to match Spock; it was like Kirk knew exactly what his first officer was trying to do, and refused to let him get away with it.

Although avoiding the captain had clearly proven to be more difficult than expected, Spock was quite content with never bringing up the meld; he could at least remain his physical distance from Kirk, making sure there were multiple steps between them at all times and ducking out of any and all touches Kirk had grown used to giving his first officer.

When Spock was making his way down to the science labs one evening with the plan of checking on the ensigns currently at work there, he was surprised to see Kirk step into the turbolift with him. He'd been under the assumption that the captain would already be asleep by now to prepare for tomorrow's Alpha shift.

"Evening, Mr. Spock." Kirk's usual smile was plastered on his face. Spock merely inclined his head in response to the greeting, keeping his eyes focused in front of him. He could see Kirk staring at him for a long while before letting out a soft sigh and finally looking away.

The turbolift whirred softly, but other than that there was only silence as the two made their way towards their respective floors. Spock could almost feel the captain's tension in the air around them and he found himself staring at the little number above the lift, waiting for it to reach his deck with a little less patience than usual.