Prompt: Star Trek: Academy-era Bones comes down with a nasty case of a flu. His fevered mental state is brings about by anger and sadness about his recent divorce. His new roommate, James Kirk tries to comfort and care for him. After a fever-frenzied night, Bones wakes up cradled in Jim's arms

Can be read as slightly slashy.

Bonus points: Bones tries to stifle his sneezes but Kirk knocks his hands away.

Making it Through

When Leonard McCoy stumbled into the room they shared at the academy and promptly swayed right into his desk, overturning the experiment he’d been running there for the past week and banging his shin against the desk’s leg, Kirk knew something was wrong. It wasn’t as if Bones didn’t ever get drunk… it was just that it took a fair bit of alcohol to get him that way and, usually, any visit to the bar usually came with an invitation for Kirk. This time, Bones had been on his own.

They hadn’t been roommates very long, though, so maybe this was just something new.

“h’Tngh!” Bones’ head snapped forward. “Uhgh…” Then his hand came up and massaged his nose. “Been doing that all night. Can’t seem to shake this damn tickle.”

The irony of suggesting to a doctor that he might be coming down ill wasn’t lost on Kirk. Plus, he noticed the flush in his roommates’ cheeks.

“Did you take something?”

“Take something? Did I take something?! Hell yes, I took something.” He pointed off in the direction of nowhere in particular. “I took that woman’s hand in marriage and she gave it right back to me! Do you know what today is?”

It didn’t take a genius to guess. “Your wedding anniversary?”

Bones gave a frustrated, affirmative grunt and nod as he sunk onto his bed.

“Are you going to be all right?”

“Don’t know. Damn it, Jim. I’m a doctor not a psychiatrist!”

“Uh, aren’t psychiatrists doctors?”

Bones hunched over and cradled his head in his hands with a soft moan. He didn’t look so good.

“heh-Tchgshh!”

He didn’t sound so good either. “Ah, Bones? Maybe you should lie dow--”

Instead, Bones sat up straight, his eyes wide. “Think I’m gonna be sick.” He raced to the bathroom they shared with the room next to theirs, a concerned Kirk on his heels. The bathroom was blissfully empty, and Bones did not hesitate to fold himself onto the floor and wrap himself around the toilet. He hovered there a minute or two, but nothing at all happened, apart from some sniffling and rubbing of his nose.

Luckily, the bathroom was well-equipped with a tissue box. It also had a standard medical kit. And though Kirk knew that Bones would get better treatment at the academy infirmary, the med kit was a good first line of defense. He got out the pain relieving hypospray, but Bones pulled away. “I don’t want to be numb today.” Kirk could understand that; sometimes pain demanded to be felt and the best way around was through. But making it through was easier when you weren’t sick.

“huh…” He pinched his nose, holding back the sneeze as best he could. “h’ktchh!”

And Bones was definitely sick. Kirk got the small medical scanner out of the kit.

But Bones waved it away. “No, I’m just druh… drunk. huh-Tshkk!” Bones winced as if that half-restrained sneeze hurt. He scrubbed a hand over his forehead and then the bridge of his nose.

Kirk turned the scanner on anyway and scanned his roommate with it. He did it twice before he could believe what it showed him. “Damn it, you’re running a temperature of one hundred and three.”

Bones shook his head and rested his cheek on the toilet seat. He sniffled so much that Kirk reached up and grabbed the tissue box off the counter. He bunched a few tissues at Bones’ nose, and the man made a face of disgust, but he didn’t pull away either. Maybe he didn’t have the energy to do that, or maybe he didn’t have the mindset to, or maybe he secretly kind of liked it. It probably felt nice to have his sniffly nose dry again.

“Bones… you’re sick. You need to be seen by a doctor..”

The man coughed and pulled back. He raised his hand and looked at his palm, then the back of his hand, then the palm again. “Done.” With a grunt, he pulled himself up and stumbled toward his bed. He fell asleep, face-down in his pillow.

Risking waking Bones up again, Kirk walked over and rolled Bones onto his side, so he could breathe better. He pulled the covers up over the man, who curled a little and hugged part of the blanket to his chest in his sleep. Resisting the urge to palm Bones’ forehead and stroke it, Kirk decided he might as well turn off the lights and turn in for the night as well.

*

He didn’t sleep well. Whether it was Bones’ loud, disturbing snores or his worry about Bones’ illness, Kirk didn’t know. He tossed and turned, waking after nearly every snore and barely able to relax long enough to drift off again in a light, unfulfilling sleep.

But it was the whimpering that woke him for good in the middle of the night. At first, he was so tired and out of it he wasn’t sure what he was hearing exactly. Then there was a sob and a sneeze. “huhttChihhhhhhhh!” Not one of those somewhat stifled sneezes he’d been sneezing all night, but something loud and strong and wet. Poor Bones.

“You need that box of tissues from the bathroom?” Kirk asked the darkness of their room.

There was no answer.

“Bones?”

And then, through the darkness, Kirk heard sobbing. Not just a couple little tears either. He was crying. Shit! Kirk climbed out of bed and padded over to the other bed. He laid his hand over Bones’ forehead and pulled it back almost at once. It was hot--hotter than it had been earlier, certainly.

Doctor be damned, Kirk went into the bathroom and got the hypospray. And the box of tissues. And a small cold pack from the med kit as well. He wrapped the cold pack in a face towel as he walked back into the bedroom, the room illuminated by the glow of light from the bathroom still. It was enough for Kirk to see Bones still crying. Shit!

He laid the cool pack upon Bones’ forehead. Then he gave him a dose from the hypospray, wishing that the device’s soft hiss were more comforting. But he could barely hear it above Bone’s crying. And then the man shuddered with another strong sneeze “huhhrShooo!” and the cold pack slipped off.

With one longing look at his bed, Kirk sat down on Bones’ bed, leaning back against the headboard. He pulled the man’s pillow and head into his lap. He held the wrapped cold pack to Bones’ forehead. And he held a fistful of tissues to Bones’ face. He wiped at the man’s eyes and cheeks for all the good that did, because the crying wouldn’t stop. He pressed the bunch of tissues to Bones’ nise, apparently just in time. “huhht-Chuhhhhhh! urhgihShhhhhhh!”

With Kirk sitting right there, the cold pack stayed in place and Bones’ wet sneezes filled the tissues. “Bless you,” Kirk whispered in the darkness.

There was another whimpery sob. Then the man’s body curled a bit. “Why?” came the soft whisper. “Why’d she leave be?”

Kirk sighed. “I don’t know,” he said, which was the truth. Bones had never told him the details of the divorce, even after more beers than either of them could count. “But you should put her behind you. Move on.”

“hurrKshhhhhhh!”

“And concentrate on getting better.”

Bones was quiet after this. His crying subsided. His sneezes died down. Eventually, he drifted off to sleep. And Kirk did likewise.

*

When Leonard McCoy woke, he wasn’t sure at first where he was. It seemed like his bed, seemed like his dorm room. But he was cradled against something warm and hard. He lifted his stuffed-up head and found James T. Kirk’s hand slip from his head. He saw a sea of used tissues littering the two of them around the bed. And he looked up to see Kirk’s steely blue eyes. looking down at him.

Bones didn’t have to ask what had happened. The hypospray sharing the bed with them helped explain why he didn’t feel worse this morning, given how much he’d had to drink last night. The body beneath him and strong arm around him didn’t hurt any either.

“hhh…” Bones stiffened, feeling a tickle brewing fresh in his nose. He tried to hold back, and he started to reach up to pinch his nose. But Kirk’s hand got in the way, batting away. A tissue was placed against his nose. And, by then, it was too late to dig up the energy or will to stifle properly. “hehhh-Urshchhhhhh!” The tissue wiped gently but effectively at his nose. Bones felt himself relax back into Kirk’s arms. He knew he should move away or get up, but he couldn’t move… and didn’t really need to.

“Feeling better?” Kirk asked, sounding upbeat but tired. Bones wondered how much sleep the man had gotten that night. And he wondered how his roommate had known exactly what he needed. He just hoped he hadn’t confessed the real reason his wife had left him. Though, if Kirk had joined him in the bed and taken care of him and held him in his arms like this, Kirk might have had some idea.