Chapter Text
“Spock loves him.”
“What was that, ashayam?” Sarek asked, barely glancing up from his parchment. The latest thing recommended for his heart had been meditative activities outside of his regular meditation, so he had taken to writing out his everyday diplomatic notes in longhand Old Vulcan cursive script on parchment, which had left every visitor capable of reading the script, usually reserved for household decoration and traditional ceremonies, very confused.
“I said, Spock loves him,” Amanda repeated. She was sitting curled up against the arm of their couch, looking out through the glass doors to their enclosed garden. Spock had been showing Jim around it, which seemed to be an unusually lengthy process due to Jim’s tendency to stop him at every second plant and ask questions about it. It wasn’t as if her son wouldn’t gladly indulge anyone’s scientific – or otherwise – curiosity, but every time Spock has been turned towards her and Jim has pointed to something or raised his hands in the air or tilted his head to the side, there’s been a soft look in his eyes that she recognised from his father’s face.
“They have been serving together for several years, it is no surprise that they have formed a connection,” replied her lovably obtuse husband. “Besides, he did invite both Kirk and the doctor to come here on shore leave, so he is obviously close to them.”
“You’re really telling me you see no difference between his interactions with the two of them?”
“They are different people. Naturally he talks to them differently.”
“Okay, Sarek, put down the parchment and look at him,” Amanda insisted, pointing out at Spock and Jim. He sighed, but obediently folded his work up and followed her gaze. Jim was now sitting on the edge of the outside table, Spock standing in front of him. Jim leant forward, laughing, and placed a hand on Spock’s forearm to steady himself.
“He’s letting him touch him!” Amanda exclaimed triumphantly. “You barely let me touch you until we’d been dating six months.”
“Yes, well, my son is rather more relaxed with such things than I am,” Sarek said, although with more than a hint of uncertainty about his voice now.
Jim picked a fallen kiaytek flower off the table besides him, smiled at Spock, and leant forward, tucking it into Spock’s hair behind his ear. Spock got a faint tinge of green to his cheeks, but leant into the touch anyway.
Amanda threw her hands in the air. “They’re in love, husband.”
A snort came from the doorway to the living room. “Yeah, no kidding,” Bones continued, walking in. “Ms. Grayson, you wouldn’t happen to have any bourbon stashed around this house, would you? This heat is giving me a real thirst for a good mint julep.”
Amanda leapt up, pacing towards Bones with an aura that reminded Sarek of a hunting sehlat and Bones of a prowling lioness. “It’s in the liquor cabinet in the kitchen. We have seven different species of plants that look exactly like Earth mint in our garden, three of them are poisonous, and I’m only going to tell you which ones they are if you elaborate on your last statement.”
“My desire for a mint julep?” he asked innocently. “Back home, my mama used to fix a mean one, and whenever it just got absolutely hotter than the devil’s– very hot, and once I wasn’t underage, obviously, we’d sit out on the back porch watching the-”
“You know very well I didn’t mean the mint juleps,” Amanda cut him off. “You know something about my son’s relationship with the captain, and I want to know it.”
“Hm. Well, I think I can live without the julep, all things considered. Would probably do my liver some good,” he said, gesturing in the general direction of said organ and stepping backwards towards the door.
“Ah, but when I serve you one tonight, will you be able to trust that I’ve put the right ‘mint’ in it?”
Bones tugged at his earlobe. “See, in all honesty, Ms. Grayson, it’s just not my story to tell. All I’m saying is, if you were thinking of putting in a little holiday matchmaking while we’re all here, I don’t think either of them would object. Is all.”
“Holiday matchmaking, huh?”
Bones shrugged. “Just a suggestion. Can I leave safely now, or are you still planning to poison me?”
Amanda straightened up and got a determined glint in her eye that caused Sarek, who’d been silently watching the entire exchange, to sigh lightly and return to his parchment. “Come on,” she told Bones. “Let’s go make mint juleps. We’ve got plans to make.”
“I don’t think I volunteered to be a matchmaker, actually.”
“We’ve got plans to make, Doctor McCoy.”
“Okay, okay. Plans.”