[3] Audentes Fortuna Iuvat ➳ Star Trek: Beyond (2016) ✔️

|02| Calm Before The Storm

Chapter 2!

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Victoria took a deep breath as she and Kirk stepped off the ship and onto the ground of Yorktown Base, looking beside her to Kirk as he stood next to her, sobered up since it had taken a few hours more to get clearance and dock the ship. He was openly holding her hand now that they were off duty, a small smile on his face she knew was mirrored on hers. It really was a breath of fresh air, to be there on the base. A change of scenery from nothing but stars and a passing planet. It was nice to see different faces in casual clothing than crew members in their uniforms day after day.

Both of them remained at the entrance to the base, waiting till all the crew who wished to depart had gone off, always putting the crew first, as a captain should. She stood by him, waiting with him, because she understood duty and she knew Kirk was looking forward to the two of them being able to spend time together again, she wouldn't make him come find her or get started on their shore leave before he could, that wouldn't be fair.

They watched as Uhura and Spock spoke a short distance away before going separate ways, Bones moving to speak to the Vulcan once she left. That was an issue they weren't fully sure about. Spock was tightlipped about anything personal, only asking if his work had not been up to par whenever Kirk would try to speak to him, for if his work was affected only then would the captain have the capacity to speak to him on personal matters. And his work was always above par. Uhura, each time Victoria would try to speak to the woman, would just say it was nothing and she was fine, and then try to turn the conversation onto her and Kirk, which would get Victoria trying to direct it back and neither would find out anything.

Sulu hurried past, heading for his husband and their daughter, who had come to the base to meet with him on this momentary leave. Chekov was excited as ever as he walked off with another of the crew, ready to explore the base as he hadn't been there before and was excited to check out the bars.

Victoria looked over at Kirk when he squeezed her hand, "What?" she asked, smiling at him for the softness in his eyes that he directed at her.

It was...ironic, in a way.

They had been at each others throats, constantly butting heads, for YEARS before the incident with Vulcan. Meeting Spock's older, parallel self and being told they were apparently married and 'sickeningly sweet' together in his dimension had been off-putting and, really, it made them question if Vulcans could go senile. They'd formed a truce in school, by that point, and to hear all that was...something else. But it had forced them to face and admit to feelings that had always been there for each other. Then they'd been given the chance to work together as crew, to explore their relationship more, build it and, perhaps, had become a bit more like what the Future Spock had described them as. Their bickering had taken on more of a teasing tone, they flirted more, they were sweet on each other. Though Victoria would be the first to admit she'd held back a little more than Kirk had, knowing how he'd ben in school, she'd wanted to make sure HE was sure, that he was really willing to give a real relationship a shot.

It wasn't till her father had died, till they'd almost lost everything, including each other, near literally on her end, and begun their five year mission that she'd realized Kirk was genuinely serious about her, that he wanted it all with her, he was in it for the long haul. They'd said they loved each other and there was nothing to hold them back any longer.

...except there was.

At first, and even now in private, they still butted heads, still barbed at each other, they were both too passionate in personality to just make goo-goo eyes at each other, but there was a softness there that had become more prominent. But it was like the longer they were in space, in their roles on the ship, the more they became aware of their actual duties, the rules. Maybe it was a maturity that came with really being out on their own in the vastness of space, a pressure they put on themselves to be better, to make their fathers proud, but things...changed.