Jim was a tiny ball of energy, he never stopped running, jumping, playing and otherwise exploring. Even now, walking down the quiet, uninteresting hallway, tethered to his mother by their locked hands, he was running away from her as far as their reach could take him, to look at cracks in the wall or anything that was slightly out of place.

Winona sighed, pulling him towards her, "This visit is very important." She told him quietly, pressing a hand down on his head.

He wrinkled his nose and shook his head, "But mom, this suit is so stuffy." He pulled at the cuffs, bunching them around his hands. It was a little too big for him in his shoulders and he was nearly tripping over his feet. He was hot and uncomfortable, he didn't like this suit or the insistence that he would 'grow in to it'.

She sighed again, "Please, Jim?" She kneeled down to his height, holding on to his hands. "In that room," She pointed towards the auditorium doors, where the murmur of talking came from, "There is a lot of important people, including ambassadors." She petted his hair gently, smiling. "We need to make a good impression, ok?"

He nodded, biting his lip, "Ok." He said quietly, bowing his head. She stood and again and held out her hand. He took it and held on to it, clutching tightly as he followed her in to the auditorium. He sat down, holding on to her all the time. He didn't pay much attention to the proceedings, to him it was just a lot of boring men speaking in boring voices. Mostly he just stared at his shiny black shoes, sometimes he looked around the room. The women were usually more interesting; they wore brightly coloured dresses with glittery jewels, where the men just wore boring suits like the one he was wearing.

A few seats away there was another pretty woman with light blonde hair. She had a nice smile, thought her eyes were patiently watching the people talking. Why was everyone so interested in the people? They were just standing there, not doing anything interesting; they didn't sing or dance and there weren't any bright colours.

Next to the pretty woman there was another boy around his age. He was sitting there too, perfectly still, back straight, hands on his lap. He looked kind of funny, he had a green tinge to his skin, which made him look sickly, was he ill? He also had pointy green ears, so he definitely wasn't human. Jim found something about him… curious. He sat stock still, he barely even seemed to blink.

Suddenly everyone was clapping and he jumped to attention, clapping along. His mother took his hand and they stood, they were leaving. She told him how good he had been, and how proud she was of him. Then there was a party, but it was loud and full of adults who liked boring music and clinking glasses. He shed his jacket, leaving in on the back of a chair before disappearing underneath the sea of white tablecloths.

The adults had disappeared. There was nobody now to tell him to behave, to be a good boy and not run around. The energy that had been pent up inside him needed a release, and he did so, exploring under the tables. It was so easy to sneak around underneath them. He imagined he was exploring caves that stretched out in to the distance, from here it appeared that they could go on infinitely. The only evidence of the adults were the feet, that peeked in to his game or that walked past, shiny black shoes or heels that clicked. From here they were giants that he had to hide from, or they might eat him.

He also caught glimpses of conversation, but they did not interest him until he heard his mother's voice. Had he gone to his old table again? He had thought it was half way across the room. He paused to listen. "…Winona, pleased to meet you. My boy Jim is around here somewhere. His coat is back at our table at least, but he's so boisterous, he's probably run off." Aha, so it wasn't their table after all. He had to listen on to chart his position.

"If you're worried about his behaviour, why did you bring him along?" Asked another, soft female voice. Whoever she was, she had pretty pink sandals on.

"Well… I couldn't get a babysitter on such short notice and my presence was required." He peeked his head over the table to see the pretty woman he had seen earlier, with the strange boy. He ducked back under the table before he could be seen. He wondered if the strange boy was here was well.

Suddenly, there was a head under the table, and it was the strange boy. He slipped under the table with him. "What are you doing under the table?" His voice was calm, almost monotonous, not really like a child.

"I am playing." He replied at a whisper. "I'm exploring caves, because I'm an explorer." He beamed, sitting down and folding his legs.

The boy, seemingly curious, crawled in further underneath the table to him. "But this is not a cave system, these are clearly tables."

"Yeah, but I'm playing pretend." Jim shuffled closer, "Don't you play pretend?"

The boy shook his head, "It is… illogical." He said, nodding thoughtfully.

He tilted his head, leaning in to the other boy's face and looking it over. "You look sick. Are you sick?" he asked.

The boy shook his head, "No, I am not sick. Vulcans have green blood, and even though green is considered unhealthy on your planet, I assure you that I am quite well."

Jim laughed softly. "You don't talk like a kid."

"Vulcans are different from humans in more way than just having green blood."

"Do you have fun on Vulcan?"

"Fun is illogical and unproductive." The tablecloth rustled, blowing their hair about softly.

"Yeah, well I don't know what those words mean, so I'm gonna ignore them." He smiled and lunged forwards, grabbing the other boy's hand. His eyes widened in surprise, but Jim was already pulling him away, out from under the table, tripping on his trousers as he went. He did not see their mothers smiling as he pulled the Vulcan boy insistently away.

"My name's Jim and I'm 7 and a quarter." Jim said, leading him out the patio doors to the gardens. There were a few people outside with cigarettes and champagne glasses on their hands. Jim ignored them. "Who are you?" He sat down and pulled off his shoes and socks, wiggling his toes in the grass.

"I am Spock. I am 7.85 years old according to terran years." He replied.

He beamed at Spock and put his hand on him, "Tag!" He said, "You're it!" And he ran off in to the gardens. Spock just stared at him in confusion, eyes following him. He looked himself over, and tried to imagine what 'it' was and why it was applicable to him.

Jim realised he wasn't being chased and turned around, "You're supposed to chase after me!" He said, as if it was obvious.

"Why?"

"Because you're it?"

"And why am I it?" He asked.

"Because… I don't know, it's a game! You chase me and try to make me it then I chase you! Don't you play tag on Vulcan?"

"No, we do not. What purpose does this serve?"

He shrugged, "Why does it need a purpose? It's fun." He gave an earnest smile. "Play with me?" He bounced on the balls of his feet.

Spock considered this, and scanned the garden. He nodded, "Very well." He said. "So the title of 'it' is passed on by physical contact?"

He shook his head, "No, it's passed by touching."

Spock frowned slightly, opened his mouth to speak and then simply nodded. He started running across the grass towards Jim, who squealed and began running away in to the gardens, bare feet slipping around on the dewy grass.

By the patio doors, their mothers watched them. "Should I stop them?" Winona asked, drink in hand.

Amanda smiled gently, "No, I've never seen him play like this… Perhaps being around humans is good for him." They watched Spock catch Jim, his palm pressed flat, making very purposeful contact with Jim's upper arm.

"You're welcome to bring him over to play with Jim any time, of course." Winona smiled gently, "Jim is very boisterous and doesn't take anything seriously… Perhaps he and Spock can even each other out."

Amanda nodded, "I know it sounds crazy, they've only just met, but I have a good feeling about them. They seem good each other. Spock even let him touch his hand!"

"Oh I'm sure that was just Jim taking him by surprise."

"Nonetheless, if Spock had not allowed it, he would have pulled his hand out immediately. You know the symbolism around hands in Vulcan culture, I assume?" Winona nodded in confirmation. "It's not only that, but they are touch telepaths. Spock has yet to completely control his own telepathy. If anyone without mental shielding touches him unexpectedly, he feels their emotions and jerks away. This time, for some reason, he didn't. That must mean something." Jim's laughter rang out across the grass, and Amanda could have sworn that she saw a smile on Spock's face. "We are on Terran for another 7 days, and I would be very happy to bring Spock over."

Spock held the small plastic brick up to the light. It was a 'Lego' brick, a classic terran toy that had been popular for many centuries. He could see the merit in such a toy, it aided cognitive function, hand-eye coordination and introduced the idea of structure and building to small human children, who lacked the capacity to understand it using only theory.

He did not understand however, why they needed to be such bright lurid colours. Presumably it was to keep the children's attention, if Jim could be used as an example of his race, Terran children were very easily distracted. Spock liked him though. He was very human, very happy, but his smile was infectious and while he was here, away from the other Vulcans, he wasn't less ashamed of the small smiles he gave back.

"What is Vulcan like?" Jim asked, building up Lego bricks in a square shape that he claimed was going to be a castle. Spock was rather dubious about the accuracy or complexity of his castle.

"It is much hotter than Iowa. The air is thinner, so it would be harder for you breathe there."

"Kind of like a desert?" He asked, his eyes were focussed on his task, and Spock decided to pick up more of the plastic bricks to help him build his colourful castle. Jim was making no attempt to colour coordinate and the affect was somewhat unpleasant on the eyes. He chose a simple pattern in a combination of blue and green on the wall he was working on. Just because Jim had no desire to make this pleasant on the eyes did not mean he had to follow in his bad example.

"Yes, it is a desert." He thought about it, trying to simplify it for Jim. "The rocks are red and the sand is sparkly. My family owns a lot of land and a very big house."

"Bigger than the farmhouse?"

Spock nodded, "Yes."

"That's really cool! Is it a mansion?" He asked.

"It could be described as such I suppose."

"I want to see it." Jim said, looking up at him finally. He had very blue eyes, Spock noted.

The request made him stiffen a little bit. He did not want Jim to see Vulcan, because Jim was too emotional for Vulcan, and if they were on Vulcan he would not be able to allow the level of emotion he had given to him already. "I do not think that would be possible."

Jim frowned, concerned and upset. "Why not?"

"Because…" Spock was momentarily lost for words, "The others would not be kind."

"But you're great! Why wouldn't they be?"

Jim's innocence was so much greater than Spock's, even though they had most the same amount of experience in the universe. "Because people, human or Vulcan, sometimes are not." He wished he completely understood it, but all he knew was that he was different, and different was bad. Perhaps one day he would develop a more sophisticated understanding.

Jim sighed, "Ok… but I still want to see Vulcan. Maybe one day?"

Spock thought about it. "It is not impossible." He said, uncomfortably. Jim beamed so happily, that he was glad that he had said that and not a simple 'no'. Jim's smile was pleasant, and that was a rather unnerving fact in his mind. He chose to ignore it, if he needed to, he would suppress the emotions later.

He and Jim met every day that week, so that they could play. Sometimes they played inside with toys like the lego bricks, sometimes outside around the farm, where Jim showed Spock him around, sneaking in to the old barn and tried to teach him how to play pretend. Spock still didn't understand it.

It became a routine, that he would have his breakfast with his mum and ask questions about Spock, about when he was going to come over and plan what they would do that day. Today, he wanted to take Spock down to the river to try and catch fish. His mother was quiet, she didn't really say anything.

When Spock came to the door, he knew something was wrong. He seemed even more demure and serious than usual, and there was a suitcase. He looked up at Amanda and then down at Spock, confusion on his face.

"Our shuttle was cancelled." Spock said, "We have decided to take an earlier one, so we have to be at the shuttle in 2.31 hours."

"So… You came to say goodbye…" Jim finished, his head bowed.

Spock swallowed. "Yes."

Amanda smiled, "You two go talk, I'll wait here."

Jim took Spock's hand and led him in to the living room. "Don't go!" He said, "I know… I know you have to but… You should stay here and be my best friend."

"I cannot." He said quietly, "Thank you for being my friend."

"It was fun! Today I was going to take you down to the stream so we could catch fish…"

"I'm sure that would have been very enjoyable."

"…Will I see you again?" He asked.

Spock bit his lip and thought about it, then he slowly nodded. "It is not an impossibility." Jim launched himself at him in a hug. Spock was a little bit taller than him, but not much, so their faces were almost pressed together as they hugged. Jim clung to him as if by hugging him as tight as possible, he could stop him from leaving. Spock gave a sad look and rested his forehead against Spock's.

Jim felt warm, and right, there. His toes and his fingers felt fuzzy, like they had been warmed by a fire. There was a strange thumping noise, and he realised that it was the sound of Spock's heart. He wasn't sure how he knew it either. Spock was staring in to his eyes, and his mouth began moving, "Parted from me and never parted." He was whispering, his eyes were almost unfocused and Jim got the strange feeling that he didn't know what he was saying, but it all seemed important. He did not realist he was speaking in synch with him. "Never and always touching and touched. We meet at the appointed place." But as soon as he heard the words, they had disappeared from his mind, as if they had never existed in the first place.

He was not sure how long they hugged, but in the hug he felt together with Spock, and he didn't want that feeling to end. But eventually Spock had to let go, though it didn't end, he still felt like they were together. Somehow it made the fact that he was leaving ok, because he was absolutely certain they would meet again. "I have to leave now."

"Goodbye, Spock." He whispered, tears threatening his eyes.

Spock gave him a small smile, one that only he was allowed to see. "Goodbye, Jim."

He watched Amanda and Spock leave by the window. He didn't go to the stream to go fishing then, instead he stayed inside and moped, to a point where Winona began to worry about him.

He did not go to Vulcan, and he did not see Spock again, and after a few years, the events faded from his mind, the memories disappeared. Even after they met, even though they worked together, they did not remember the two little boys who, for seven days, were inseparable.