They first meet in a bar. In San Francisco. After one of Jim's epic brawls.

Just a week in the (academic) life.

It's probably not love at first sight. But he likes her, a lot, from the very beginning.

It begins because aliens make them do it, and then it becomes one of those things.

He slips in love with Spock inconspicuously, during an uneventful afternoon, on an unnamed planet destined to become little more than a Greek letter and a Roman numeral on Starfleet's chart of the Beta Cygni system. In which: -Spock gets amnesia. -Spock is convinced that he and Jim are a thing. -Jim doesn't exactly disabuse him of the notion.

They were together, and now they're not, and McCoy is not quite sure why.

McCoy, Uhura, and this thing they have.

The first time, Spock looks up from cleaning himself with the tissue McCoy just handed him. "This was a shitty idea," McCoy says, not quite meeting his eyes. OR (Just the first) sixty-eight times.

Modern Day AU: Nyota is a Ph.D. student, Spock is a professor she is collaborating with. They should probably not fall in love.

It's a special kind of hell, when your best friend decides to get married with your nemesis' best friend, and you both end up being best men at the wedding. McCoy and Spock know something about it.

If McCoy could have stopped himself from falling for Spock, he would have done it, dammit.

There is never any sneaking around in the dimly lit corridors of ship's night, or discreet Vulcan kisses in the nooks of engineering. Unless Jim is incredibly tired, or stressed, there are no lingering looks on the bridge, either. The stakes are far too high.