Jim Kirk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
smartass_captain) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
nexus_crossings2018-12-03 09:36 pm
smartass_captain) wrote in nexus_crossings2018-12-03 09:36 pm
Impromptu Family Meetups
It's that time of year. Holidays around every corner, family and friends dropping in unannounced, needing to be entertained and fed and plied with stories of how you've been, how is work, and all sorts of things. The thing is, for most of Jim Kirk's life he's never known any of that. It's hard to have sudden family visits when you don't have much in the way of family and aren't speaking to damn near all of them.
Which makes this day exceptionally stressful.
No Starfleet uniform today--even if Jim wanted to he's not allowed to wear any of his own clothes for where he's about to be headed. Instead he's dressed in a soft wool tunic in his preferred golden color and simple linen pants beneath the fur lined cloak he's got pulled over his clothes. Gloved hands fidget with the ties on all of this, a nervous habit he can't quite stop himself from making.
He stops his pacing when he nearly stumbles over a passer-by with how lost in thought he is and it's only then that the captain looks up at whomever he's nearly trodden upon.
"What's the best way to impress your in-laws? What's the etiquette for meeting someone's family for the first time?"
Which makes this day exceptionally stressful.
No Starfleet uniform today--even if Jim wanted to he's not allowed to wear any of his own clothes for where he's about to be headed. Instead he's dressed in a soft wool tunic in his preferred golden color and simple linen pants beneath the fur lined cloak he's got pulled over his clothes. Gloved hands fidget with the ties on all of this, a nervous habit he can't quite stop himself from making.
He stops his pacing when he nearly stumbles over a passer-by with how lost in thought he is and it's only then that the captain looks up at whomever he's nearly trodden upon.
"What's the best way to impress your in-laws? What's the etiquette for meeting someone's family for the first time?"
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The clothes are so very un-Starfleet that if not for the recognition on the other captain's face, Jim might wonder if he's stumbled across some other poor bastard who shares their face.
"Beats the hell out of me. I only met Hunter's dad once, and there were cops involved." No, he's not joking, sadly.
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Like the actual police? What the fuck happened when Jim met Hunter's old man? Was it during a goddamn robbery? It does the trick of getting Jim to calm down a moment and stop to just breathe. He stares after his companion wearing the uniform Jim wishes he could be donning right now and gapes like a fish out of water.
"Is Hunter's dad some kind of criminal or was he that upset to think Hunter was dating a man?"
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It's supposed to be bad manners to speak ill about the dead, and if Hunter were here he might choose his words more carefully, but he's not and Jim doesn't care if Rob's ghost gets hopping mad that someone's talking shit about him. "He'd disowned Hunter years ago, some superficial bullshit over how he didn't turn out exactly how he'd wanted. But he pissed off the wrong people, so this Austin bastard went gunning for him and I got myself cursed trying to stop him, and almost arrested." The less said about that part, the better. Zero out of ten, would not get cursed again, thanks. "We met Hunter's dad after, to warn him about Austin, and he was more interested in picking a fight with Hunter than the part where someone was trying to kill him."
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"An elected official was acting that shitty?" Then again, Jim's known plenty of people who were granted positions of power only to abuse the hell out of it to the detriment of others. Faces that bring up bad bad memories he doesn't want to linger on now. So Jim doesn't.
"You were trying to save his life and he tried to have you arrested. That sounds like something that would happen to us, yeah. Hopefully you at least got to skip the part where we get choked out and then marooned on a rock in the asshole of the system this time."
Though a curse doesn't sound any better, really.
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His gaze skitters away for a brief second and he takes a breath, before admitting, "I would've rather done that one again, hands down."
He's not exactly eager to dive into the details of why, partly because it was actually that bad, and partly because it seems like a shitty thing to make his companion start worrying about curses right before he runs off to meet his possibly-magical future in-laws. Either way, better to leave shit like that for a more appropriate time, like over chess, if he really wants to know. Quickly breezing past that part, Jim adds, "Anyway, I didn't get arrested 'cuz they figured out pretty quick I wasn't in any shape to be a threat to anyone. They eventually caught Austin, too."
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He doesn't ask why. That's against the rules. They'll schedule a chess date if his bearded friend ever wants to talk about it. Until then, Jim nods in understanding enough and the subject is dropped. On the plus side, their impromptu storytime has more or less calmed Jim down entirely. It's easy to talk to himself as it ever was.
"Good. At least the civil servants are doing their jobs properly." Though let's be honest, even in Jim's time he doesn't have the greatest track record with the cops. At least in those cases it was mostly definitely his own fault. Even if he had reasons.
"Well, good. Shithead or not it's better for everyone if a guy set on murder is off the streets."
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Hunter's dad isn't exactly a more pleasant topic, but it's better, anyway. "Yeah. I think Hunter was hoping he'd make nice after that, too, and he did sound like he was gonna give it a try, but then he went and had a heart attack." Jim scrubs a hand over through his hair and gives his counterpart a wan smile. "So yeah, I hope meeting your in-laws goes better than that did."
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Now, Jim's had his fair share of shitty so-called Father figures in his life, and just because he inwardly feels like it's a good riddance there doesn't mean he cna't feel a pang of sympathy toward Hunter in all of this. It just doesn't seem the guy's style to give up on anyone, especially family.
"That must've been pretty hard on Hunter." He's managed to get through it clearly but well, both Jims are masters of covering up their emotional wounds. It's not a stretch to think someone else might try to do the same.
"At the very least I've been reassured that since Felix is the younger son, he's allowed to marry whomever he likes within reason. There's less pressure to start a family. That sort of thing. Stratos, on the other and..."
Shrug.
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God, he hopes Felix's family at least like each other. At least it sounds... less stressful than it could be? "Within reason, huh?" he asks.
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It hasn't really occurred to Jim that just because he gets along with himself just fine that either of their significant others would be comfortable spending time with both Jim Kirks or the idea that someone else is sleeping with one.
He thinks it's a pretty good idea, honestly.
"They're surprisingly laid back about what equipment someone is carrying, so long as property and inheritance can be sorted. Considering the 'modern' Earths don't have that? I'm pretty impressed."
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Given Jim's own firsthand experience with how ridiculously barbaric the twenty-first century can be, he's kinda surprised too that Tamriel doesn't have a problem with that sorta thing. "Huh. Lucky Felix. Good thing you didn't fall for his brother then."
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"I guess that is what you'd call it. Yeah. We'd have to be careful where we went obviously but, I don't know. It'd be nice to spend an evening chatting that didn't involve one of us drunk and both of us sad for a change."
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Jim rolls his eyes. In a place like the Nexus most establishments probably won't give half a shit about the looks of the people who wander through their doors. Unless it's to check out the Jims and their company, of course. That anyone could be forgiven for.
"Arnie's could be fun. Could teach the others some dom-jot while we were at it. S'not the most romantic place in the world but it's a quiet dive with good whiskey and dom jot tables and that's all I ever cared about."
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