Captain Jim Kirk had been in freefall for most of his life. He didn't particularly like or dislike it. It was just a matter of him being comfortable with it, accustomed with it, adapted to it. He flew by the seat of his pants, knew instinctively which way to dodge. That slightly rougher edged survivor mentality. So when Spock kept catching him, yanking him out of freefall, it was just plain wrong. When that pointy eared hobgoblin as Bones called him, reoriented him and told him which way was up with unfailing logic, it just completely screwed with his mind. His mind which screamed at him that it didn't matter which way was up, just freaking surviving this was the only thing worth thinking about. Tomorrow could take care of its own damn self. Something Spock clearly couldn't appreciate. Something that stressed Spock out to the nth degree.

And the young Captain took special pride in the fact that only he seemed to be able to alienate Spock to this level. Not that anyone could normally tell. But Jim had spent his life reading people, getting into that many fights had taught him a thing or two about breaking points. So when Spock's voice put just the slightest more tone into a word, he knew Spock was considering just tying him to the chair to prevent him from doing whatever it was.

The tiny muscle at the base of Spock's little finger twitch was a sign of major bad humor. It was quite hard to spot as Spock did tend to keep his hands behind his back when not in use. Consequently Jim tried to see it at least once a fortnight.

That quiet blankness, that face that Spock wore around strangers, meant that this time Jim had really screwed up and he was dampening all emotions in order to stop himself from having an 'emotional reaction' of the likes of him trying to strangle Jim again. The bridge crew had learnt to watch for that one as well. Of course it was usually quite easy to spot as it usually coupled with Jim doing a fair impression of the term 'bat shit crazy'. Those times were reasonably rare and, for the large part, deleted from the ship's logs. Chekov wasn't suicidal after all. The frosty atmosphere was usually cleared up by the time one or the other and saved the other's life for the nth time, or stopped the ship from being blown up or whatever the latest crisis happened to be. So the crew, quietly and really unobtrusively, did their jobs and tried to ignore the sub-arctic conditions that were currently gripping the Captain and the Commander. It had been bad this time, Jim hadn't shouted, yelled or used that pointing finger. Both had been unfailingly polite, calm and factual. Spock had blinked in an uncharacteristic show of surprise when Jim had first done that. From the looks exchanged there had been no way that either were backing down. This was a spat of royal proportions and it was two weeks and counting. Icy, polite and calm. The crew were praying for another brain damaged Romulan by the end of the first week, by the end of the second they were ready for anything, anything dangerous coming their way. Just something to break the slow building pressure.

Bones had definitely had enough. Technically what he did could have had him up on charges in most galaxies and defiantly up for mutiny in front of Starfleet. Shooting the CO and XO full of sedative and placing them in a room together then engaging the door lock under medical plague setting wasn't strictly legal. On the up side, he had removed anything vaguely sharp from the room or throw-ably heavy. And he had told the computer to alert him if significant violence had ensued. So when the ship reported that bodily contact had ensued, he thought it might be wise to ask for audio. Just to make sure that Jim was alive and at least still protesting. It took him a minute to figure out what the soft sounds coming through the speakers actually was. The soft groan and heavy breathing made the tips of his ears turn beetroot red for the first time since he was a teenager. Bones was fairly sure the disconcerting sound of Spock sighing "Jim" in that tone would scar him for the rest of his life as he hurriedly cancelled the audio.