[1] Ad Victoriam ➳ Star Trek (2009) ✔️

|03| The Kobayashi Maru

Chapter 3 x

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Three Years Later...

As luck would have it, it was NOT the last time one James T. Kirk encountered Victoria or vice versa, as it turned out, both had nearly every class together, a fact which both amused and irritated Uhura and Bones through the course of their three years in the Academy. The two had an...odd relationship, an even odder friendship that had grown in those years together. Bones was still convinced that they HAD to be married secretly and were just denying it out loud for the sake of covering themselves, perhaps disapproving parents or some other such thing. Everyone who encountered them tended to think the same.

The two bickered worse than an old married couple, so much so that it was almost a sport to watch them go at each other at times. And it was the weirdest thing as well as, half the time, they'd end up screaming at each other one second and the next their argument would turn into a rather loud discussion of something different, like what they should eat when they arrived in the cafeterias or who should take what part of an assignment. It was ridiculous to see them go through the process of fighting and have it end up with neither of them actually fighting about anything anymore.

But whatever way they resolved their issues and kept from murdering each other was good in the books of most Cadets.

They didn't actually argue in a full on row all that much, not for about two years now, but more...bickered and shot things back at each other. But there always seemed to be some sort of...affection, if that were the right word, behind their tones and digs. There was a respect that had grown between them and the friendship that had been forged was truly something remarkable for Bones and Uhura to witness.

It really did confuse quite a few Cadets how Victoria and Kirk could get into a tiff about how she was acting like a 'sourpuss' as Kirk would call her and they'd shout at each other, till it was revealed that some boy had insulted her in a way where she was genuinely hurt by the comment...and then the next thing they'd hear about, Kirk was facing suspension for punching another Cadet. Or the times where Kirk would be 'gloomy,' a term that Victoria would insist was not right for him, and they'd bicker and 'sass' each other till Kirk admitted that it was his mother's birthday or some other major event and he wasn't there to celebrate it with her or eat some of her famous pie that she made on special occasions...and then hours later a pie would be sitting outside of Kirk's dorm room.

Their friendship made no sense to anyone, they fought like cats and dogs...but then went out of their way to protect and cheer the other up. And it didn't help that the 'behind the scenes' moments were done with the effort of not revealing who had done it or why. Kirk would proclaim he'd punched a Cadet because the boy attacked him first (not adding on that he'd egged the person into 'attacking' him first) and NOT because said Cadet had been a jerk to Victoria, much like Victoria would deny having any sort of pie-making knowledge, swearing that she could burn water if left in a kitchen by herself.

Bones and Uhura especially had given up long ago trying to define exactly what Kirk and Victoria were to each other. Important, they knew that much, but exactly how they felt...well they could guess. There were little things that the two did, when they thought the other or other people weren't looking, that gave them away. Kirk would look at her when she studied, when she sat there with a book before her, a pencil across her mouth, chewing on it as was her bad habit. He'd watch her at times when she was focused or concentrating on something, and there would be the smallest of smiles on his face, the softest of looks in his eyes. He'd stutter and stumble over his words when he was caught looking, sometimes even when Victoria and he spent time together outside of classes or the Academy, when they were allowed to wear their civilian clothes instead of their uniforms. Outside the Academy, the two seemed to gravitate towards each other, sticking close when they were in large crowds, keeping near each other when they entered bars or one or two clubs that the other Cadets frequented.