smartass_captain

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While the gifts are appreciated and Spock accepts them, he assures Kirk that no lasting harm has been caused and means it. The timing of their mutually increased workload is fortuitous for Kirk's designs; had Kirk begun to purposely spend less time with Spock without the sudden, severe increase, Spock might have realized it was about him and his stubbornness would have driven him to confront his fellow cadet in an attempt at remedying whatever misstep Spock had taken.

So. Fortuitous for Kirk's plan, not so for either of them not being remarkably stupid.

And Spock forces himself to not be disappointed that they are spending less time together. They have far fewer classes together now and it makes sense they would need to focus on their own tracks.

He also tells himself that it does not sting deep in his side when after an evening and night of wondering if he and Doctor McCoy would need to go find Kirk, he simply receives a message letting him know that his roommate was on a date. It is not Spock's place to be upset about that, or jealous, or any myriad other emotions that he meditates upon to compartmentalize and move past.

Spock had never told Kirk how he felt beyond the lengths he had gone to in order to aid his academic career and push him forward, and it is clear now he is either truly uninterested or Spock should not have waited to clarify. He is simply not human enough to know how to court one, it would seem.

He buries himself into his courses until T'Pring notes that should he refrain from any manner of socializing, he will lack ties later when it comes to crew assignments. What she means is he should approach Kirk. Spock knows this. What he does is accept an evening's invitation with one of his classmates from science track, a pretty blond with striking blue eyes.

He does not purposely note the resemblance.

It is not Spock who ends his first foray into a relationship with a human: she is not looking for as deep of a connection as someone like Spock desires and decides she is better off looking for something a little lighter.

He also does not end the second, but this is because he cancels with her one too many times in favor of spending time with Kirk even if simply to discuss their academic work.

After that, he never sticks with one girl for long, but the gaps between also drag because he keeps telling himself that he really is looking for The One when he knows he already knows who that is. Was. Would have been.

Kirk switching to seeing men is not entirely surprising, though it does give Spock a bitter moment of could have been me before he is able to move on. Again, T'Pring tells him to get over himself and say something. She does not use those words, but it is what she means.

Spock finds, later, that he does not care for Gary Mitchell. There is something about him that Spock finds distasteful, and he cannot help the near-glare that he passes over him every time he sees him. The near-glare that Spock always gets away with due to people presuming he is already always glaring in the first place.

It is three and a half weeks into Kirk's ill-advised relationship (because that is what Kirk is doing, Spock has noted, an attempt at settling down, at sticking with one person, and were it almost anyone else Spock might be able to convince himself to be happy for him) with Gary Mitchell that he hears the human speaking about Kirk without Kirk present and for the first time in a very long time, he struggles to control himself.

Or, well, struggles to do so until after Kirk has already broken things off and Mitchell continues his rumor campaign: Spock catches Mitchell alone between classes, slams him against the wall, and punches him directly in the face. He then wordlessly wipes the red on his knuckles off on Mitchell's uniform coat, stares at him a moment longer, and leaves.

It was not a struggle, then. He willingly and happily let himself go.

Some new 'rumors' start to fly after that, of course, about the Vulcan student's apparent penchant for violence. But Spock? Spock has never been anything but polite, he has never stepped so much as a toe out of line, he would never resort to physical violence. And though it gets chattered about, it is with a measure of disbelief. Which puts what Mitchell had said about Kirk into question as well. A positive, if unintended, side effect.

There is, at some point during all of this, confirmation of Spock's unengaged status, another call with T'Pring which Spock does not know Kirk hears the tail end of, in which T'Pring notes Spock's reluctance to move forward in the way he so desires, Spock has a mild rebuttal, and Stonn behind her makes a comment of his own to which Spock waspishly (for him) replies As the Vulcan who caused the dissolution of my engagement to T'Pring, please note that I will not be following any of your advice on the matter of my romantic entanglements before telling T'Pring his still-fond farewell and hanging up just in time for Kirk to be there a few seconds later.

There is, however, at this point no confirmation what or who T'Pring meant Spock should be chasing.

It is no matter currently. This evening, Spock returns from his classes with a bag of food, and when he notes from the cadence of Kirk's breathing that he is awake despite being in bed, he turns on the lights partway and moves to one of the desks to begin taking out containers of food.

"I am aware you are awake. I have brought us both Thai food. You are not required to eat it now, but it is here when you desire it." The logo on the bag is from the first restaurant they went to together socially as something resembling date-like. He does not anticipate Kirk noting it as a purposeful gesture, but that is immaterial.

He will, as ever, be as his friend needs him.

Because that is what Kirk is: Spock's friend.