The Things We Do For The Fleet

The Things We Do For The Fleet

Chapter 5: Tea And Poetry

💙Eventual Leonard McCoy x fem!reader💙

⚠️: didn’t proof read this one

word count: 1,965

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Dr. McCoy came in the door behind Y/N and put down his boxes as well. “Where should I put my things, darlin?” He asked looking down at his boxes. There’s that darlin again, “Well, I’m not sure what’s in the other boxes, but we can push some stuff back in the closet and you could hang your clothes up in there,” Y/N suggested, “The other two boxes are paperwork and files is all, they might as well stay in the boxes for now,” Dr. McCoy explained with a hand on his hip. Y/N went over to the closet and began to push some of her own things to the side and pulling things she didn’t wear often off the hangers and folding them up so she could switch them out for Dr. McCoy’s clothes. “Okay” Y/N called from within the closet, “There’s room now, if you wanna hand me your clothes I’ll start putting them on hangers,” She said, holding out a hand expectantly. He began to hand her clothes: shirt, shirt, shirt, shirt, shirt, shirt, shirt, all uniform shirts. Pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, all uniform as well. Nightgown, nightgown, nightgown, nightgown, nightgown, nightgown, nightgown, all plain white. Y/N held her hand out again for a moment before pinching her fingers together and making a grabby hand, “Is that all Dr. McCoy?” She questioned tiredly. “You can call me Leonard and yes it is,” Leonard told her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Okay, Leonard. If you wanna get into your pyjamas for bed, I’ll make some tea while you change, if you want some of course,” she offered, holding out one of his nightgowns. “That’d be great, I’ll have mine with lemon,” Leonard requested. He took the nightgown from Y/N’s hand and mosied on into the bathroom to change. Y/N half tumbled into the kitchen and filled the kettle with water and put it on to boil. Normally she would wash up her face while the water boiled, but Leonard was in the bathroom at the moment so instead Y/N picked up her own folded clothes and put them in the box that Leonard’s things had come in. “So,” Leonard came out of the bathroom in his own plain nightgown. “It just occurred to me, should we try to move my bed in here tonight, or should I take my clothes for tomorrow and go sleep in my own quarters?” He offered the two options. “Well,” Y/N seemed to be considering her next words very carefully. “I could sleep on the couch, and you could sleep in the bed. That way we wouldn’t have to do any work on it until tomorrow,” Y/N fumbled with the suggestion. “That’s a sweet offer, darlin, but I couldn’t make you sleep on the couch,” Leonard admitted. “Then we’ll both sleep on the bed,” Y/N stated innocently without thinking about what she was really saying. That was so stupid, so you have any idea what that sounds like?, Y/N internally scold herself for the comment.

“Then we’ll both sleep on the bed,” She had said it like it wasn’t a big deal, and maybe to her it wasn’t. Regardless of how she felt about sharing a bed, they both remained in silence from their respective places for a long moment. Leonard finally cut into the silence, “I dunno, do you steal bedding in your sleep?” He asked lightheartedly. “I wouldn’t know,” Y/N confessed to him with a slight shrug. “But if I do, there’s extra blankets and stuff in the bottom drawer of the dresser,” Y/N proposed as compensation for any sleep thefts she might commit. “Alright then, I call dibs on the left side,” He cheered, trying to push his own ill at ease feelings to the side for the time being. There’s no way this can end-, his thoughts were cut short by the kettle. “That’ll be tea,” Y/N perked up and stated, seemingly more out of habit than actual concern that Leonard might not know what the whistling sound meant. “What kind do you want?” She asked as she scrambled into the kitchen to take the kettle off of the heat. “What kind do you have?” He shot back in a form of noncommittal answer. Leonard could hear the shuffling of small paper packets before her answer, “Chamomile, mint, chamomile-lavender, mint-lavender, and radiantly raspberry,” Y/N rattled off the list, “Radiantly Raspberry?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. “I dunno, I’m not in charge of naming them, it’s raspberry, take it or leave it,” She followed the ultimatum with a small giggle, that Leonard swears he would have missed if he blinked.

“Alright, darlin, I’ll take the chamomile,” His statement was promptly followed by a small tearing sound from the kitchen. maybe havin a roommate won’t be such a terrible thing, Leonard thought to himself as his eyes followed Y/N as she walked out of the kitchen in her cloud white nightgown with her hair out of her face, a mug of tea in each hand. “You’ll have to let it cool awhile,” Y/N warned through a cloud of steam, her usually quiet tone even softer as she handed him his requested tea. Leonard watched the steam rising from the mug and felt the heat radiate from it and seep into his hands. “Thank you,” He drawled, still looking at the steam, “It’s not a problem,” Y/N assures him as she puts down her mug and reaches for a book. Y/N flips through the pages intently before finally settling on a page, she sticks her thumb in between the pages and lets the book fall closed as she comes to sit down next to Leonard on the couch. When she lands on the couch she curls her legs under herself and nestles herself further into the couch, seemingly unaware of his gaze tracking her movements the whole time. Y/N opens up the book again and a look of complete and utter, inner peace melts her previously nervous posture and facial expression. I wonder what she could possibly be reading, Leonard does his best to discreetly catch sight of the title or even just the words on the page, but the way she’s almost protectively curled herself around the book doesn’t lend itself well to his attempts. “What are you reading?” He finally asks with a curious look. Y/N looks up at him in near shock at the question, she relaxes a little, but still hesitates before opening her mouth to speak. “Robert Frost,” She says quietly, looking back down at her book. “I think I’ve heard of him, something about two roads,” Leonard tried to relate, “Diverged into a yellow wood,” Y/N murmured, finishing the line. “What was that?” He asked, genuinely not having heard what she said. “The poem you’re thinking of,” She began, “The Road Not Taken, is what it’s called,” She only looked up at him for a flicker of a moment, “Yeah, that sounds right,” He admitted, still searching his memory for anything he might know about it, but nothing came to mind.

“Would you read it to me?” Leonard asked, “I can’t actually remember any of it,” He explained himself. She looked to him with a demure smile, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveller, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could,” Y/N started not having looked back at her book, but keeping her eyes trained on her cup of tea. “To where it bent in the undergrowth; then took the other, just as fair and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear; though as for that the passing there had worn them really about the same, and both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black.” Y/N looked to him now, “Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.” “Wow,” Leonard started, “I don’t think I could remember all that,” He said in what he meant as a compliment to her. “It’s easy,” Y/N said, still looking at Leonard. I think this might be the longest she’s actually looked at me, “You read it because you love it, at first you can only recall bits and pieces when you aren’t focused on anything else,” She interrupted his thoughts. “Then you wake up one day, distant from where you started, and you can remember all of it without thinking, you can recite it while doing other things. One day when you really know it, you can think and feel how each word feels on your tongue without even saying any of it.” She finished thoughtfully, Leonard wasn’t sure she was talking to him so much as she might have been talking to herself. “Very poetic,” Leonard commented softly, trying not to scare her out of her daze. “Oh, thank you,” She exclaimed softly, appearing to remember that she was actually talking to someone. “Just loose thoughts,” She dismissed her own outburst of poeticism as nothing. “No, it was very nice, where did you learn it?” He asked Y/N, “Nowhere really, I just sort of thought it,” She shrugged to herself. “Well, I thought it was a very- I don’t know, but it was filled with feeling, like you meant it,” Leonard seemed to be forming the thought as he spoke. “You seem surprised by that,” Y/N murmured with a light blush before taking a sip of the tea, Leonard reached for his own forgotten mug of tea, “Sincerity isn’t something there’s a lot of in the universe,” He said with his own shrug as he drank his tea.

His eyebrows furrowed at the taste, “Is it alright, I can go make you something different?” Y/N tried to reach for the mug, but Leonard pulled it back from her reach and drank the rest of it before she could get to it. “No, it’s fine really,” Leonard insisted, “Just a little heavy on the lemon,” He conceded and put the mug back on the table. “You should finish up your tea and we’ll go to bed,” Leonard suggested, moving to put his own mug back in the sink, when he came back he offered to take hers as well. “Okay,” Y/N agreed, waiting for him to come back from the kitchen and then leading him back to the bedroom. She stood shakily in the doorway as he went ahead of her, Leonard looked back at her, “Unless you’re gonna sleep standing up, you should probably come in,” he smiled comfortingly. Y/N timidly walked into the room, waiting for Leonard to take his place first. When he realised what she was waiting for he got into bed on the left side and worked his way under the covers. Y/N waited for Leonard to settle and then slowly came up to the right side of the bed and got in as well, laying as close to the edge as possible. “You can lay further in on the bed, right now if you breathe funny you’ll fall off,” Leonard assured her. Y/N nestled a few inches closer to the middle of the bed, still being sure to give him as much space as she could reasonably manage. “Sweet dreams,” Leonard said, turning off the light, “Goodnight,” Y/N returned the sentiment and rolled over onto her side. They both laid awake, vividly aware of the other laying next to them. Eventually an uneasy sleep overtook them both.

I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, but let the chaotic times roll. Or something like that

The Things We Do For The Fleet

Chapter 4: PJ’s

💙eventual Leonard McCoy x fem!reader💙

⚠️: none

word count: 1,420

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Leonard had looked back at his quarters and the three neatly packed boxes in the corner near the door. It probably said something about him that all he had to pack up were two boxes of paperwork and a box of clothes, but he tried not to mind it as he left to go and find Y/N’s quarters. Three doors to the left Leonard thought to himself as he walked down the hall. “Don’t be weird, that’s all you gotta do” He told himself as he came to Y/N’s door. “It’s not like either of us chose this, we’ll just work it out together,” he said as he brought his hand to the pad that would set off a bell of sorts inside. Don’t be nervous, it’ll all be fine Leonard rocked back and forth on his heels. Alright so she’s not here, better luck next time he turned back the direction he came from, but just then he heard the door slide open. Leonard turned back to see two things: 1) The girl he had frightened near to death this morning, 2) She was soaking wet and wrapped up in nothing but a little periwinkle towel. Where’d she even get that? The Star Fleet only issues plain white towels, it was just as this thought crossed his mind that he recognized, with wide eyes, that he had been staring. “I’m so sorry!” Leonard apologised as Y/N looked at her feet and blushed. So much more awkward than I thought it would be. “I suppose it is your turn to be sorry” Y/N mumbled shyly, but jokingly as she continued to look down. Leonard chuckled, “Hey, listen it’s kinda awkward, but we’ve been roomed together” He told her as he now scratched his neck and looked down at his own feet. “Oh,” Y/N gasped airily, “You must be Dr. McCoy then,” She murmured, holding out her right hand for him to shake while the other clung to her towel. “I guess I must,” Leonard joked lightly as he took her hand in his. They looked at each other for a moment and then jumped apart as though electrically shocked when they realised that they were still shaking hands. “Would you like to come in? I’ll only be a moment changing, and then we can discuss who’s quarters we’ll be moving things into,” Y/N offered, “Oh there’s not much to discuss, I only have uniforms and paperwork, I figured I’d end up moving my things to your quarters, seeing as I don’t have many things,” Leonard attempted what he hoped was a charming smile, but probably came off as a tight lipped grimace. “Well you could come in and wait anyways, and then I could help you start to bring your things over, if that would be okay,” Y/N asked, eyes still glued to her feet, “I would love to come in,” Leonard replied softly, trying to match her quiet and small energy so as not to scare her too much more. “Okay,” She seemed to perk up a bit more at his acceptance of her offer. She beckoned him in, in a manner that seemed to show that they had been standing out in the hall like this for some several minutes. “Oh,” Leonard began in slight shock, I’m not sure what I expected, but somehow this wasn’t it, although it does fit her he looked around the room, “It’s very… I guess it’s very uh, angelic” Leonard stumbled over his own words in an attempt not to insult the sheepish girl in front of him. “Oh, that’s okay, we can change if you like,” Y/N scrambled to offer in a bashful tone of voice. “No, no, I like it, it’s so much more peaceful than the rest of the ship. I can see myself very relaxed here at the end of the day,” Leonard assured her. “Okay, but if you change your mind, we can still change it,” She told him, “Umm, anyway, I should go change,” Y/N seemed to have just remembered they were still only wearing a towel.

Y/N walked into the bathroom, where the tub was still full of, now tepid, water and half dissolved bubbles. She let out a crestfallen sigh as she drained the bath. Oh well, better luck next time I guess Y/N turned away from the bath and put her pyjamas on to the sound of water swirling down the drain. She watched herself in the mirror, did she really want to go back out to that man in these pyjamas? The longer Y/N looked at herself the more she wanted to crawl into the small space between the counter and the hamper and never come out. Maybe this wouldn’t be happening if you would just buy yourself normal, grownup pyjamas she looked at her reflection sternly in a silent admonishment. She couldn’t really stay in the bathroom forever, eventually Dr. McCoy would come looking for her. With one more long look at herself she tied back her hair and opened the bathroom door again. Dr. McCoy looked up from his spot on the couch, Y/N could feel her cheeks grow warm as his eyes roved over her form. After a long moment of silence he finally opened his mouth to speak, “Cute PJ’s, darlin. Wanna come help me with my things or would you rather stay here?” Dr. McCoy asked Y/N. She just nodded her head numbly, Darlin?, she thought as she continued to nod slowly. “That’s not exactly an answer to an A or B question,” Dr. McCoy remarked with a small smile. “Oh! What was the question?” Y/N asked and was about to apologise, "You wanna come with me to get my things?” He asked, stopping her before she could begin to say sorry again. “I’ll come with you,” Y/N nodded and slowly walked up to the couch. Dr. McCoy stood up and put a hand on her back to guide her out the door. Y/N stiffened at his touch and his hand fell away, she couldn’t help but berate herself for reacting in such a manner.

She walked out of the bathroom, dressed in an adorable cloud nightgown with little bows on the sleeves. Gee, I guess we’ll both be wearing nightgowns to bed he took in her whole form with the nightgown draped over her, “Cute PJ’s, darlin. Wanna come help me with my things or would you rather stay here?” Leonard offered her. She nodded at him blankly, Right, the light’s on, but whoever was home just left, “That’s not exactly an answer to an A or B question,” he told her with a soft smile. “Oh! What was the question?” Y/N asked and Leonard could tell she was about to let another apology spill from her lips. “You wanna come with me to get my things?” He rephrases the question for her and she nods once more. “I’ll come with you,” She walked up to the couch to meet him as he stood. Leonard put a hand on her back to lead her out the door and she stiffened at the touch. She must not like to be touched much, he pulled his hand away and let it fall by his side as they walked back to his quarters. Leonard punches the pin into the keypad and the door opens to reveal an empty room with just the three boxes he left by the door.

The door opened and his quarters were empty save three boxes just inside the room. “Where are the rest of them?” Y/N asked not meaning to be impolite, although she couldn’t help but feel that she came off that way. What can he really have if it all fits in three boxes?, “Nothing else, it’ll be easy, light lifting,” Dr. McCoy assured her. “You take the one marked clothes, I’ll get the other two,” Dr. McCoy ordered. Y/N picked up the box she was directed to and began to walk out the door, she heard his footsteps follow behind her shortly. It’s not that it was a very long walk to begin with, but it certainly felt a lot longer when she was just staring at a cardboard box and hoping she didn’t run into anything. Y/N put down the box and pressed the pin into the keypad before kicking the box the rest of the way in the door.

This sound is awesome, it’s what I’ve been listening to the entire time I’ve been writing this fic.

reblog this if your blog is a safe space on april fools and won’t have any jumpers, screamers, or anything scary or anxiety inducing

7

I always knew

That it was all so very fleeting

But I don’t think

That it really ever set in

Until I was looking back

Searching for my footprints in the sand

Only to find that the tide had come and washed them away

The Things We Do For The Fleet

Chapter 3: Appointments To Keep

💙eventual Leonard McCoy x fem!reader💙

⚠️: tiniest bit of language, drinking(Bones pours himself one drink)

word count: 842

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Y/N and Uhura stuffed away their food as quickly as they could manage without choking on it, which Y/N did anyway, but was back in action after a few pats on the back from Uhura. They were practically buzzing with anticipation as they put their trays on the rack next to the replicators. “Come on!” Uhura urged, “I need to smell this cotton candy flower!” she shouted as they ran off the mess deck and down to the botanical labs. As they came up on the fluorescent lights of botanical lab 3, Y/N unlocked the door and ushered Uhura in. “Shh!” Y/N giggled, “We have to be quiet, you’re not meant to be here because I haven’t finished all my tests,” Y/N warned lightly through a slowly dying fit of giggles. “What’s it do so far?” Uhura asked in wonder as she reached out to touch it,

“I wouldn’t touch it unless you’re prepared to be really happy” Y/N said as she batted Uhura’s hand away. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Well so far it’s pretty harmless, aside from the fact that when you touch it, it opens up its blooms and spurts a puff of pollen. I don’t quite understand the chemical breakdown yet, but when you inhale the pollen you get a bit of a dopamine high” Y/N said as she turned a bright shade of pink. “How’d you figure that out?” Uhura asked with a raised brow and a smirk. “I touched when I was studying its petals, I spent the rest of my shift giggling to myself with the lights set on blue” Y/N admitted. A knock came at the door, Y/N jumped at the noise, “Quick, hide behind the aquaponics shelves” Y/N pointed at the shelves and pushed Uhura that way. Y/N opened the door, “Oh, hello mister Spock” she greeted quietly, “I wasn’t expecting you, what brings you around?” Y/N wondered to him. “I’m here to inform you of the new rooming arrangements,” Spock stated, “Uhm, new rooming?” Y/N asked nervously as she twisted the cuff of her uniform shirt. “Yes,” he started as he flipped through his padd briefly, “You will be roomed with Dr. McCoy. I understand that it is not customary to room a male and female, but unfortunately Dr. McCoy and yourself were the last two picked, so there really isn’t the room to switch your roomings,” Spock informed, paused for a short while to look down at Y/N. “Okay,” Y/N accepted meekly, “You have until the end of the week to notify myself or Captain Kirk, of who’s room you’ll be consolidating into,” Spock nodded curtly before turning on his heel. “Also, Ms. Y/L/N, please send lieutenant Uhura up to the bridge,” Spock noted as he turned back momentarily to glance at the aquaponics shelves. “Uhura, I think you’ve been caught,” Y/N giggled softly as Spock opened the door again and walked away. “Well it was nice to see this thing anyway,” Uhura said sadly as she followed Spock out the door. I don’t think I’ve met Dr. McCoy, Y/N thought as she went to mist the new flower.

Where the hell is that green blooded pocket calculator?!? He’s late, what happened to all that punctuality nonsense from the other day!?, Leonard was waiting, rather impatiently, at his desk for the aforementioned Vulcan to show up for his physical. “About time!” He hollered as Spock finally walked into the medbay. “I apologise for being late, I had one more errand to attend to, there was just one more person who needed to be informed of the new rooming arrangements,” Spock explained himself. These words were to Leonard’s utter horror, as he realised this meant Y/N had been told before he could get to her. Not that Jim’s gotten back to me on where to find her, he began leading Spock into an exam room. “Where are Y/N’s quarters right now?” Leonard asked as he finished Spock’s exam. “I believe that at the moment her quarters are only three doors to the left of your own,” Spock informed with a raised eyebrow. “What?” Leonard asked, “We’re about to live in the same quarters, this is the least personal thing I’ll learn about her,” Leonard defended. “I’m sure that’s true,” Spock agreed as he left the medbay. This is gonna be awkward, he entered his office and slid into his chair before pouring himself a glass of whiskey. He downed his glass and headed back to his quarters. He began to put his things neatly into boxes, he already knew that anyone on board had to have more things than he did, so it just made sense that if all he had was paperwork and clothes, he should bring his things to Y/N’s quarters and not the other way around. Leonard looked around his quarters to see it tidier than it had probably been since he first moved in. Wow, it doesn’t even look that different, he looked around seeing for the first time that it had always been fairly empty.

I feel like I’m on a roll here. I didn’t even think I had it in me to write a multi part fic. Anyway, hope you like ❤️

~I used Pixlr to generate an image of what the cotton candy flower might look like~

Sudoku Challenge

Spock x gn!reader

⚠️: language

word count: 493

You were going through your things when you stumbled across a book of sudoku. You weren't even sure why you had it, you hated that stuff. You think that maybe you bought it before you knew what Sudoku was and just never threw it away. You were about to throw it away now, but then a brilliant idea and immense curiosity struck you. You took it with you down to the bridge.

"Hey, Spock!" You called when you saw him, he turned slowly to look at you. "Yes, Lieutenant Y/L/N?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. "I bet you thirty credits that you can't do this whole book in two days!" You said as you walked nearer to him, waving the book in front of yourself the entire time. "An interesting hypothesis, Lieutenant," Spock replied, taking the book in his hand and flipping through the pages.

"Have you a pen?" He asked, still looking down at the Sudoku. "Uh, let me see," you paused, patting yourself down, you didn't have any pockets but you usually kept one clipped to you somewhere.

You finally found behind your ear, "here," you said handing spock the pen, "Good luck, " you chuckled as you walked back into the turbo lift and headed down to engineering.

*There's no way he'll finish it in two days, that thin is like 300 pages, four puzzle a page*, you thought to yourself as you stepped out of the turbo lift. There was a medical bed sitting at your station, a whole fucking medical bed.

"What happened to this thing?!?" You called to scotty as you stood in front of your station. "I'm not sure, but it started zapping patients, McCoy had it taken away entirely," Scotty explained, "Alright," You let up as you picked up your tools and slid down to the ground.

You opened up the panel on the side of the bed and slid in. Looking at it for five minutes, you figured out that there was a quantum breakdown in the phase rubidium core, a simple fix, the electro-ceramic shell just had to be uncoupled.

You quickly got to work removing the electro-ceramic shell in question, but it was a very delicate matter and time consuming too.

"Lieutenant Y/L/N," Spock deadpanned, scaring the shit out of you, you hit your head on the underside of the medical bed. "Crap! What's up Spock?!?" You asked as you slid out from under the bed.

"I believe you owe me thirty credits," He stated with a slight smile, handing you the book and pen as you stood. "You're kidding, right?!?" You asked incredulously, "I assure you I am not," He said as you flipped through the book.

"Well damn," you huffed, "I guess I owe you thirty, " you chuckle. Spock looked around for a moment to make sure no one was around. "Don't worry, T'hy'la, I won't hold you to it," He assured you, pulling you close to him for a kiss.