STAR. TREK.

plaidshirtjimkirk Answer:

(cont by @pywren): Sure most things are digitalized now anyway, but especially restricted material or the big star charts are only accessible via the library stations specifically designed for this task.

So Spock comes in every day asking for a book or access to sensitive material and only after a few weeks he takes note of the librarian. It’s a young cadet with blond hair and hazel eyes and Spock would have never noticed that, if not for the one time he checked out a few books and turned to go. It was when he heard the two cadets behind the counter whisper. “Jimbo, you are staring again.” “Oh shut up will you!?”

Ever since he observed the cadet more keenly. Puzzled, he comes to notice a slight blush on the cadet’s cheeks whenever he enters the building in the morning.

A few days later again he finds himself spending an entire day to reconfigure the libraries’ checkout system, because Jim (his name was James, but he insisted on Jim) had complained about the inflexibility of it. Lying on his back up to his stomach inside the circuitry he changes a few wires and reroutes a few others. Though when he comes back up Jim’s cheeks are reddening again. The colour deepens when he firmly insists on having lunch together to thank for the help.

A few weeks later it is a cup of tea, while Spock has to wait for an access terminal to become available. The hot beverage does wonders to his cold hands and face. It was a cold November morning and rain flooded the streets. But where Jim procured the Vulcan tea remained a mystery.

Without consciously deciding so, Spock finds himself scheduling his work in the library according to the times Jim would be behind the desk. Until one cold morning early in December when Spock finds the library in chaos.

“Morning, Spock. Sorry but I guess you can’t access anything today. The computers are down.” Jim says as a manner of greeting, handing Spock a mug of spice tea with a shy smile. Spock frowns and drinks his tea in silence while he listens to the events that had taken place before he arrived.

As soon as his mug is empty he takes off his warm jacket and goes to work. It had never occurred to him how efficiently it could be to work with a human…but by now Jim had checked out books for him for half a year. To say nothing of the many other things Spock had ordered knowing that the chance of getting his hands on them were bleak and which Jim had managed to get anyway.

In the end it was a virus embedded in the computer banks by someone from the outside. And after resetting the system, they chase down the culprit. It takes them roughly 16 hours, two incidents with Starfleet security, quite a few bent regulations, at least a dozen cuts and bruises, and an incident Jim defines as a “near-death-experience”…But they catch him.

Later when they stop shivering from the cold and the adrenaline slowly subsides they just fall asleep on a couch in the library. Leaning against each other with Jim’s head on Spock’s shoulder they doze. No one has the heart to wake them.

“You know what?” Jim says later, still exhausted but awake. “I’m starving…meet me in half an hour for dinner?” Spock confirms the invitation with a tingling in his stomach. The feeling only amplifies when he sees Jim’s radiant smile. “It’s a date!“