Title: Sardines
Author: Farfalla, formerly Sardine Queen of Ramblewood Elementary School....
Contact: blueberrysnail@yahoo.com
Beta: The beautiful Blue. Thanks babe! Appreciate it. And thank you Sianna, and thank you my beloved Maoric - the two people who helped put an MPAA rating on the danged thing ;-)
Series: TOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock
Rating: R
Part: 1/1
Archive: Yeah sure spread the luv ;-) but somebody tell me about it first (if it's someone other than the regular ASCEM folks)? ;-D
My K/S website: http://spirk.cosmicduckling.com
Summary: Kirk, Spock, and a faulty shuttlecraft careening towards disaster... wait, that can't be. This is a Farfie story! There must be something better in store.

Note: Part of the Slash Advent Calendar Challenge situated at: http://www.kardasi.com/Advent

Disclaimer: The entire Trek universe belongs to Paramount and will not suffer much from the poking and prodding of our curious collective imaginations. We mean our beloved characters no harm and think that quite possibly they enjoy the variety ;-)

SARDINES

"Hurry, Mr. Spock. Get those computers back on line!"

"Negative, Captain. All systems have shut down." Spock dashed around the tiny two-man shuttlecraft pressing buttons and banging on panels. "We will collide with the asteroid in five point eight--"

"What about manual controls?" Panic flew around in Captain James T. Kirk's head like an angry wasp.

"Captain." Spock looked up from his frantic duties. "*Nothing* in this shuttlecraft is working, except for the life support systems."

"Yes, and they're not going to do us any good in a few minutes. Spock," Kirk said, "if there's no way to get this shuttlecraft to change course, we've got no choice."

"Agreed, Captain." The tall Vulcan strode to the other side of the craft and flung open the storage compartment where the two emergency spacesuits usually resided. He froze.

Kirk appeared at his side. "Spock? What's...."

There was only one suit in the box.

"There's supposed to be two," Jim stated dumbly. "Somebody must have put it in the wrong place. It's.... got to be here somewhere." He broke away from his friend's side and began tearing apart the craft's panels madly.

"Captain, this is the only spacesuit on board this vessel. None of the places you are investigating are big enough to contain an entire Manned Maneuvering Unit." Spock's eyes swept over his beloved Captain, memorizing his golden face sadly. "You must take the suit and abandon this doomed craft immediately."

"No!" Kirk breathed heavily. "You take it, Spock. The Federation needs your great brainpower. You'll be Captain of the Enterprise... take good care of her, Spock."

Spock shook his head. "We have no time to argue, Captain. Please. I do not wish to see you die."

"But I--!"

"The matter is not up for discussion." Spock grabbed the captain's shoulders and tried to force him into the suit. Kirk wriggled around and for a few seconds, they both attempted to push the other one's body into the MMU. Finally, Spock nerve-pinched the captain and tucked his limp body carefully into the spacesuit.

Touching him to this extent for the first and last time, Spock felt the unwept tears running through his veins, tears his Vulcan half could not cry. He and the Captain had shared a special kind of friendship, but he had never been able to express it as well as Jim deserved. Knowing that Kirk was knocked out and wouldn't see, he dared to do in the moments before his own end that simple action that spoke volumes. A tiny, warm, pure little kiss from the Vulcan's lips to the Human's forehead.

One minute sixteen.

The Enterprise would be around within several hours to investigate why her shuttlecraft had never arrived. Tracking the craft's planned trajectory, they would discover the Captain floating in space, suspended in his Manned Maneuvering Unit. He was too small to be picked up on ordinary ship sensors, especially because they weren't going to be on the lookout for a single life-form dangling there in the cosmos. Luckily, both Kirk and Spock had their arms injected with subcutaneous transponders before their mission, in case of a completely unrelated planetside emergency. Spock checked Kirk's wrist to make sure the transponder was in working order.

*What* transponder??

Spock couldn't believe his eyes, or his hands, for that matter. He ran his fingers over the soft tan skin, his worry growing exponentially. Kirk's arm had no transponder. Somehow, in the hustle and bustle of leaving the Enterprise, visiting Sickbay had slipped through the cracks.

Spock's eyes darted around the craft. There was nothing sharp he could cut his arm with to excise his own device and toss it in there with the Captain. His mind immediately jumped to his next idea.

Thirty-four seconds.

Spock pushed the MMU closer to the shuttlecraft doors and, bracing himself and holding his breath, flung them open. He held on to Jim and the spacesuit with arms of tight steel as they were sucked out into the dark black vacuum of space. Silky black hair whipped around his head in the wind of lost air.

Not wasting any of the seconds they had, Spock slipped his own thin body into the suit and forced the seals shut. Once he was safely inside, although completely squished against his unconscious friend, he pulled the small cord near his hand to re-pressurize the inside of the suit. Only then did he breathe again, drinking in the air that was scented with stale spacesuit, and Jim.

As he drifted away from the shuttlecraft, he watched it through the small viewing area. The damaged craft gracefully careened through space, and then noiselessly collided with the life-threatening asteroid in a sort of catastrophic ballet. Silently, the craft exploded, sending a wave of pebbles out into its immediate vicinity. Spock felt the shock of the explosion bump the MMU into a slightly new course, and hoped that the Enterprise would still be able to discover her two highest ranking officers floating in space. They were out of range of the transponder in Spock's arm as of the moment. There was enough air in the suit for both of them to last approximately twelve hours. There was usually enough for a full day, but there were two creatures breathing in the one-man suit.

Spock shifted to a slightly more comfortable position. He had packed himself sideways into the suit and now he wriggled around so that he now faced Kirk. The viewscreen was now to one side of them. Through it, Spock stared at the stars outside, and counted the minutes until his friend regained consciousness.

After some time, a small moan attracted his attention. Kirk was coming around. "Spock?" was his first word. He lifted his eyebrows in amusement. "You certainly found an interesting solution to our... argument."

"As you humans are fond of saying, necessity is the mother of invention." Spock spoke softly. The two men were pressed together like sardines, and more than whispers wasted air and was not necessary.

"So that's a neck pinch," said Jim. He tried to move the arm opposite the offended shoulder, but found it pressed too tightly against Spock's hip. "My shoulder hurts."

"I shall endeavor to mend what I have damaged." Spock struggled to move his own hand up to Kirk's shoulder, which he carefully and tenderly massaged.

Kirk smiled. He had always found comfort in his dear Vulcan friend. "I'm so glad you squeezed yourself in here, Spock. I don't want to think about what my life would be like without you." He felt so safe, even floating in the blankness of space, since his friend was here with him.

"I will always be by your side."

"You're not at my side now, are you, Mr. Spock? You're at my front!" Kirk grinned at his own joke.

"Indeed," said Spock, cocking his head and lifting an eyebrow. "Captain, why were you not injected with a subcutaneous transponder?"

"There wasn't time. Bones had just gotten the machine fixed when we were leaving on the shuttlecraft," said Kirk. "We had to get to the planet on time for negotiations, or else the Hippocastanaceans would have taken it as a personal offense and blown us up."

"You might have died anyway," said Spock soberly.

"Well, luckily, I didn't, Mr. Spock." Kirk smiled a tiny sheepish smile. "Twice I didn't, thanks to you."

"You are my friend. There was nothing else I could have done." Spock's eyes were full of simple love.

"Isn't it.... painful for you to be touching a human?" Kirk knew Spock's race were touch-telepaths. Both of them were taking comfort in the silent mental hum of each other's close presence, but both minds were politely guarded and not explored by the other.

"It would never pain me to be close to you, Jim."

"Is that your way of saying, 'there's no one else I'd rather be stranded in space stuck together like slices of cheese with'?" Jim teased.

"Captain, I believe that is a privilege reserved for you alone," Spock retorted.

Jim smirked. "I'm flattered. Thank goodness it was me, then, and not Bones."

"Indeed," said Spock. "It is possible that you are slightly more slender than the doctor."

"Oh, is THAT all!" Jim teased. "How long until the Enterprise comes looking for us?" He was mildly enjoying being suspended in space, and almost suspended in time, where the peace would be undisturbed and the only company the pleasant counterpoint heartbeat of his dearest friend. And it was a rare and unfamiliar sensation to be so physically *close* to Spock when one of them wasn't in danger of dying. Not that even then, in those desperate times, were their bodies ever fit together as completely and tightly as this. Thrilling, almost....?

"Approximately three hours, forty-five minutes, and--"

"How do you do that?" Jim interrupted.

"Do what?"

"How do you always know what time it is, to the second?"

"I am a Vulcan," explained Spock.

"Ah," said Jim. "All right. What's our situation."

"We are, at present, floating in space, occupying a single-man suit with enough air for the next ten point one five hours. Our shuttlecraft collided with the asteroid and left only pebbles." Starlight from outside the viewscreen glinted from Spock's dark eyes. "We have no gravity, and extremely little room."

"I... gathered that, Mr. Spock." Jim sighed. "What about the treaty we signed down there on Hippocastanea? Did that... blow up in the shuttlecraft?"

"You had put the disk in your pocket before we lifted off from the planet," reminded the Vulcan. "I am assuming it is still there."

Jim patted his side rather awkwardly, since he could barely move his arm. "Yeah, it's safe. Good thing, too. I must have forgotten what I'd done with it, once the computer problems started on board the craft. Do we have any kind of record of those malfunctions so Engineering can analyze them and tell us what happened?"

"Signals were transmitted and will be picked up by the Enterprise when she arrives," said Spock. "Unfortunately, I was not able to notify them of our escape from the vessel."

"Well, hopefully Scotty will be able to pick up the signal from your transponder," said Jim. "Otherwise we'll be drifting here together forever." A tiny smile flitted across his face. Spock did not say anything, but instead continued to gaze into Jim's eyes. "As it is, we probably only have about four hours to wait, right?"

"That is correct, Captain."

"Four hours of not being able to move," remarked Jim.

"You have not lost the ability to move your hands from side to side," Spock pointed out. Kirk had been able to check his pocket for the disk, and was now trying to find a comfortable place for his hands to rest that would not offend his friend.

"And we can still talk, thank God."

"I am pleased that you regained consciousness so quickly," said Spock. "Your conversation is most welcome."

"That nerve pinch was an... interesting experience," said Jim. "I don't think I lost consciousness completely, as a matter of fact. Probably because I was trying to fight you at the time."

"You were, most illogically, trying to sacrifice yourself for my sake," said Spock. "You are my Captain, and my friend, and I must protect your life at all costs to my own."

Words like that were like the soft embrace of silk on Jim's heart.

Jim's voice grew softer. "Spock... while I was out... you kissed my forehead."

Spock's lush eyelashes hid his downcast eyes. "You are my friend, my t'hy'la. At the time I believed I would never see you again. I thought that my action would express my thoughts better than any words I have encountered." He glanced out the little window, waiting for Kirk's answer. "I am sorry if anything I have done made you feel uncomfortable. I assure you I will not repeat my actions."

"Spock?" Jim leaned his face a little closer to Spock's pointed ear, which now faced him since the Vulcan had turned away. "Can I kiss you?"

Spock's velvet face revealed nothing, but he whispered only, "Jim." It was permission.

Jim moved his head over a little further and placed a tender kiss at the base of the Vulcan's cheek, just next to the edge of the mouth. An encyclopedic definition of the exact nature and breadth of the unique love he had for this creature could not have conveyed more pure feeling and knowledge than that simple brief touch.

Spock turned his head back to face Jim. "Love..." The whispered word escaped from his lips. "You love me. I felt it." The mental shields that they had once thought necessary because of the extreme nature of their physical contact were melting away like dry ice, and a deep, pure affection appeared magically in its misty smoke. "That is what it means. Nothing else is... logical."

"Once more?" Jim's lips were almost already touching Spock's at this point.

"Captain, I am yours." And then they kissed. The tiny suit filled up completely with the swimming thoughts of oneness as Kirk's experienced lips and tongue gently taught Spock how to express his love even more eloquently.

Jim's hands couldn't move very far, but they *could* move sideways. They snaked around between Spock and the back of the suit and held his butt firmly. Jim kneaded the other's buttocks and a low moan escaped into the kiss.

Their bodies had already been welded together by the conditions of their maroonment, but now they ground together in a cooperatively rhythmic dance of passion. It was impossible not to notice the twin arousals that had sprung up in the place where their bodies met.

Kirk and Spock simultaneously decided that it was time to investigate exactly *how* far they could move their hands. . . .

Four and a half hours later, Scott waited nervously in the transporter room as the spacesuit materialized on the pad. The shuttlecraft's fate had been determined by the radiation levels and the scattering of pebbles and debris, and scanners had only been able to locate the signals of one spacesuit floating in the void. Bones' face had gone white when he heard the news, and he muttered only, "It's Spock. Jim never got his transponder put in." He stood next to Scotty, heart heavy at the apparent loss of his Midwestern friend.

The spacesuit beamed aboard successfully, and then whatever was inside collapsed in a heap from the shock of the sudden influence of gravity. Scott and McCoy rushed to open it, and were stunned, puzzled, and confused to find inside not only Spock but the Captain as well, dripping with sweat and with their arms around each other.

"Captain! You're alive! Oh, thank Heavens." Scott helped pull the Captain out of the suit.

"You saved his life," remarked Bones, extending a similar helping hand to Commander Spock. “Thank you.”

"The only logical--"

"Captain! What happened? Ye've got bite marks or bruises or something on your neck!" Scott was peering curiously at Kirk's collar in fascinated horror. "What did they do ta ya down there on Hippopotamus or whatevertheycallit?"

Spock's ears turned green.

"Mr. Scott," Kirk said in a businesslike tone. "Have you determined the reason for the shuttlecraft's computer malfunction?"

"We're working on it, sir," said Scott. Forgetting about the bite-marks, he happily left to return to his station.

Bones lifted his eyebrows at Kirk and Spock. "You didn't have those hickeys when you left the planet, Jim, I saw you on the viewscreen."

Spock looked at the wall behind Bones' head. Kirk grinned. "And?"

Bones looked at Spock, then at Jim, then at Spock's uniform, which was oh-so-slightly messed up to, dare we say it? human levels. "I'll see you two in... a couple of hours down in Sickbay to be checked out... okay?" He winked at them as he left them alone.

"I miss being part of your body," Jim murmured when McCoy had left.

"I believe we should retire to your quarters," Spock pointed out. "Floating in space may have served a certain 'romantic' purpose, to a human, but beds are more efficiently designed for--"

"What are you going to do to me... Mr. Spock?" Jim teased.

The shining eyes said everything.

Note: 'Hippocastanaceae' is the scientific name of the buckeye family (trees that grow in North America). Farfalla is a botanist. :-)

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