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[captain_jtkirk]

I seem to be missing a dog.

He's black and white and has a great love for shoes and chasing sock balls.

[ooc; McCoy is actually finding the dog but all are free to have seen him and watch him EVADE CAPTURE because that's obviously what dogs do, the little shits.]

Comments

[captain_jtkirk]

"Do you want to come inside maybe?" Jim asked instead of answering the question right away but this seemed like a private conversation kind of thing.

[imaythrowuponyou]

That got him some more suspicious staring, but McCoy nodded once, not really sure of where this was going, exactly. "Alright."

[captain_jtkirk]

Kirk ignored the staring and wait for Bones to actual enter before shutting his door.

"Shego and I are doing it. Have been since I got back."

[imaythrowuponyou]

Well, you're just going to be getting some more staring, because while he didn't really know what he'd been expecting... it wasn't really that.

"What?"

Seriously, that was the best way you could articulate what was going on here?

[captain_jtkirk]

Yeah, that was pretty much the gist of it.

"It's pretty much what it sounds like, Bones."

[imaythrowuponyou]

"And you didn't think this was pertinent information, because?" he asked, in a tone that was starting to get a little prickly.

[captain_jtkirk]

"Since when do you actually want to know who I'm sleeping with?" In the back of his mind, he was pretty much aware of the fact that the last time he'd had anything like a relationship, it'd been with the man in front of him, who didn't remember any of it, so this was just... weird, at best.

[imaythrowuponyou]

"Because I thought I was your best friend. I kind of figured - even if I don't want the details, at all - friends weren't supposed to tiptoe around each other's backs and have some secret relationship they're actively trying to hide from each other. And for the record? If you don't want people finding out about it, you probably shouldn't be using a method of delivering messages to each other literally anyone could've found out about."

[captain_jtkirk]

"Duly noted," Kirk answered, crossing his arms over his chest. "If I was maliciously going out of my way to hide it from you, I probably wouldn't have said anything right now."

[imaythrowuponyou]

"Yeah." He could admit to that, and it maybe took some of the heat out of what he was feeling about all of this, which was mostly just frustration. "I still probably shouldn't have heard about it from the dog first."

[captain_jtkirk]

"Probably not," Jim agreed after a moment. "I'm not really in the habit of sharing who I sleep with here. People overreact to everything. And I don't know, it wasn't that big of a deal. It's just like before but with sex."

[imaythrowuponyou]

Although McCoy still sounded vaguely pissed off, anyone who was used to him - which hopefully Jim was by now - would know he wasn't exactly mad so much as annoyed and frustrated, which was really just masking being kind of hurt to have been kept in the dark. "I'm not 'people', Jim, it's me. Hell, this is the closest thing you've had to a relationship in the entire time I've known you, I'm glad you have something consistent in your life besides getting shot at."

He was at least smart enough by now to not mention himself, Enterprise or any of the other crew members in that context, but that was something else that was going to stay locked away to feel shitty about in private.

[captain_jtkirk]

Jim made a face at that, and it had very little to do with the fact that Enterprise and his crew could be considered something stable too. But if Bones wanted to take it that way, that was fine. He wasn't going to talk about that time and no one could make him.

"Thanks, I guess."

[imaythrowuponyou]

He rolled his eyes, annoyed and grumbled "Don't mention it" before turning for the door.

"I'll see you around, Jim."

[captain_jtkirk]

"You're still mad, aren't you?"

[imaythrowuponyou]

He sighed, maybe a little huffily. "I'm not mad. I'm just-" Kind of mad. But mostly, "Frustrated."

[captain_jtkirk]

"With me?"

[imaythrowuponyou]

"With everything, Jim." Being stuck here, the garbage they were put through on at least a weekly if not daily basis, arguing with people about what was best for the Barge and for their well being and for Arya when really all he wanted to do was go home, where people actually respected his opinion and trusted him was all kind of snowballing into just wanting to get the hell out of Dodge, not that he ever would even if you kind of were an ungrateful asshole. "But yeah, kinda with you."

[captain_jtkirk]

Hey man, Kirk didn't want to be here any more than you did.

"I don't have anything else to update you on," Jim said, which was a lie because there were things but they were in the past and Bones didn't remember any of it, so why bother going there.

"If that helps."

[imaythrowuponyou]

He let out a short, humorless laugh at that. "Great. Thanks."

[captain_jtkirk]

"What else are you frustrated about?"

[imaythrowuponyou]

"It's not important." Jim Kirk and Leonard McCoy: pillars of maturity in the Barge community.

[captain_jtkirk]

"Bullshit, it's not important."

[imaythrowuponyou]

"What do you want me to say, Jim?" he said, exasperated. "I'm tired, I'm frustrated, I'm sick to death of people trying to use me as an emotional punching bag because doctors are the scum of the Earth who exist only to make their lives miserable, because I'm sorry, you're pretty damn mistaken. I've got an inmate who's only a year older than my daughter, who's the only reason I still have my hands because she killed someone in port before he could hurt me, and I've got everyone and their cousin telling me everything I'm doing wrong with her, and maybe they're right because sometimes it feels like I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing or if I'm the best person to keep an eye out for her because I don't want her to go back to her world. It's a shithole and she's probably going to get killed before she turns sixteen, but if the solution was just sticking her somewhere safer, like bringing her home with us or something, we'd be out of here by now."

[captain_jtkirk]

Jim stared at him for a moment before turning to go for his drink collection and grab a bottle of bourbon for Bones, and a couple of glasses. He poured him a drink and offered it over to him.

"She can do whatever she wants after graduating," he said. "Maybe she'll stay here. Or we'll shove her in one of the suitcases and take her with us anyway. But you know that it only sucks more as an Inmate here than it does as a Warden."