Much Ado About Vulcan (A Spock Love Story) - COMPLETE

Authoritative Measures and Unwanted Friendships

He was fucking pissed.

"This is Commander Spock, one of our most distinguished graduates. He's programmed the Kobayashi Maru test for the last four years." The President gestured to him. I took a deep breath in and tried to stop the fluttering increase of my heartrate at his name. I was over him. Completely over him.

Wasn't I?

Spock walked up to the other podium. Slowly. Deliberately. Like a cat stalking his prey. He knew what the outcome of this would be, he didn't have any need to be unsure of himself.

"Cadet Kirk."

I was expecting his voice, but at the sound of it, I reflexively squeezed T'yonga's hand a little bit tighter. His low baritone echoed around the arena, confident and assured. His words, as innocent as they were, went straight to the pit of my stomach. A small part of me wanted to hear that smooth voice say some very different things to me. I shook my head of the unwanted mental image and continued to look at Jim. Spock had made his desicion regarding me, no amount of wishful thinking was going to change that.

"It is obvious you somehow managed to install and activate a subroutine in the programming code, therefore changing the conditions of the test."

Hearing him speak in such an authoritative way turned my knees to jelly. Evidently, I wasn't quite as 'over him' as I had assumed.

"Your point being?" Jim asked with a smirk.

"In academic vernacular," he continued, oblivious to my internal trauma, "You cheated."

The corner of Jim's mouth quirked up in a way I knew all too well. He was about to say something stupid.

"Respectfully," He begun, and I was positive that what he was about to say would not be respectful at all, "Define 'cheating'."

I rolled my eyes. Trust Jim to try to piss of the Vulcan who stood between him and certain expulsion. There was a thin line between brave, and bloody suicidal, and Jim had just stepped over it.

"To deceive by trickery." Spock answered, unsure of where Jim was headed with his line of questions.

"Now let me ask you something I think we all know the answer to," Jim continued, and I sighed audibly, earning a few surprised looks from the students surrounding me. He hadn't just stepped over the line, he'd bloody pole vaulted it, "The test itself is rigged, isn't it? It's programmed to be unwinnable. So isn't the test itself a cheat?"

T'yonga took a sharp breath in next to me, and I squeezed her hand in reassurance.

"He's a fucking idiot." She muttered, "He's an absolute fucking idiot. Why doesn't he just shut up?"

I smiled and leaned over to her, whispering in her ear.

"I don't think Jim does shutting up..."

She begrudgingly smiled at that, and rolled her eyes again, turning her attention back towards the podiums at the front of the arena, where Jim and Spock were looking at each other as if they wanted nothing more than to tear the other apart.

"That precludes the possibility of a no-win scenario-" Spock answered.

"I don't believe in no-win scenarios." Jim interrupted, and I couldn't help the small snort that came from the back of my throat at his response. Typical Jim, shoot first, ask questions later.

At the noise, Spock's head spun around, and he faced me directly, his eyes boring into mine, dark and emotionless, as the ghost of a smile died on my lips. His eyebrow quirked once again, and he broke the gaze, returning his attention to Jim, and leaving me shaking in the aftermath.