Notes:
(See the end of the work for notes)
The first one was left in the middle of his desk with a bow around it. It just read 'Smile' and Bones wondered if someone had left it there by mistake. He swept it into his desk drawer and quickly forgot about it.
The next time it happened, Bones wasn't sure what to think. It was squirreled away in the pocket of his uniform and as he turned it over in his hands he saw that the message was different this time.
'You didn't smile. I noticed.'
He scowled at the little plastic thing and put it back in his pocket. Great, he'd acquired a goddamn stalker.
'Your stubble is really sexy today doctor'.
Bones didn't even know how someone had got the thing into his room while he slept but it was creepy to wake up to it on his sink next to his toothbrush. He checked the security at the door and frowned when he realised that no one had entered his quarters apart from himself and Jim. Well, that was ridiculous. There must be a security breach somewhere.
Bones put his head in his hands and tried not to dwell on it. Five years ago, to the day, to the minute, the judge had finalised his divorce and had taken away everything he had known and loved. It had stripped everything that was Leonard McCoy away, left him stripped to his boneswith nothing left to offer anyone.
That night when he'd returned to his quarters he'd found a bone left on his pillow.
'I'm sorry that it didn't work out for you but some day you're going to have to let it go.'
Bones wasn't sure when he'd stopped thinking of Jim as a friend and started to think of him as more. He hadn't really wanted to consider it, not really, but Jim had that annoying way of pushing boundaries. He'd weaseled his way into Bones' office more often than the other would have thought possible, sometimes for the most inane of reasons. When Jim wasn't annoying Spock in his free time, he seemed to be coming to annoy Bones instead.
And really, Bones couldn't find it in him to complain anymore. Jim's optimism, the way he laughed with his whole body, the way the Captain just looked at Bones like he knew all of him and it didn't matter. It was like an addiction.
But Bones had been fooled by things like that before and it wasn't going to happen to him again.
The bone was hidden in his sock drawer of all places though, this time.
'Stop thinking everything is going to go wrong. Live a little.'
Bones dragged Jim back to his quarters. The other was dead on his feet and couldn't even make it back himself. Bones used his CMO override on the door and he felt Jim stir and mutter a little as he did so.
"Quit your whinin', you infant. You need bed rest and I've got a Sickbay full of Levodian flu. I doubt you want to catch that," Bones scolded. Jim sagged against him in defeat. Bones lowered Jim onto his bed, moving to take off the other's shoes.
As he sat down, he saw a small white thing on the floor by Jim's bed. He bent down to pick it up, turning it over in his hand dumbly. A small, white, plastic bone. He looked up at Jim, seeing the other looking at him, slits of blue from behind heavy eyelids.
"I can explain…" Jim slurred, tiredly. Bones turned it over in his hand. The sharpie on this one was smudged, but still legible.
'Bones, I'm in love with you.'
He could see the panic on Jim's face when the other realised he'd read it and had to put a hand on Jim's shoulder to stop him from sitting up. The simple contact had Jim stilling under his touch as Bones turned the bone over and over in his hand.
Finally, he got to his feet.
"Jim, we'll discuss this in the mornin'. You need to rest now," he said, as he left.
Jim woke the next morning feeling stupidly groggy. He reached out to grab his comm to check the time and his hand closed around something that definitely wasn't his comm. It was one of the little bones he'd been leaving for Bones. He felt his face flush crimson when he remembered that the other knew. He was about to put it down when he saw that something was scribbled on it.
'Hell kid, I just might love you too.'
Notes: Prompt: Bones won't say it himself but he's massively insecure thinking how old he is compared to everyone else and since the divorce that just broke him thinking he's not worth loving. Being the insightful person he is Jim starts sending him little notes telling him how much Jim loves him and how great he is on like little plastic bones ?