After the Rain (Star Trek: TOS story)
| K/S Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | After the Rain |
| Author(s): | Paris Vautrain |
| Date(s): | 1997 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: The Original Series |
| External Links: | |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
After the Rain is a Kirk/Spock story by Paris Vautrain.
It was published in the print zine First Time #46.
Summary
"After a bad landing party experience, McCoy orders Kirk and Spock to take shoreleave together in order to deal with Kirkʼs lingering anger toward Spockʼs part in dealing with Gary Mitchell."
Reactions and Reviews
This story left me with a few questions such as (1) what was the point of the survey at the beginning? (2) what was wrong wrth Spock and how did he recover so fast? (3) was there a meaning to them spending the night on the ancient burial ground. I kept expecting some form of alien possession of Spock or something.[1]
If I may, I have several observations. "...hadn't had rain in recorded history...."? Does Starfleet keep track of the weather pattern of uninhabited planets? What's the cost efficiency?McCoy, Spock and Kirk are acting in such a way on pages 61-62 in front of crewmen is a recipe for disaster. If I would've been in that position and witnessed any of my commanding officers acting as portrayed, I would feel contempt and distrust. That kind of attitude isn't exactly the right way to inspire trust and confidence in the men under your command. Goodnatured teasing, which shows the bond between co's is okay, this isn't. Never, under any circumstances, show such blatant disrespect for a fellow officer, and certainly not in front of the crew. No matter what, Spock is second in command, and no matter what you might think of him personally, he has the qualities and qualifications to hold that position. Furthermore, Bones acting that way towards Kirk is abusing your privileged position as his friend, and Kirk should've had a hard conversation with McCoy when they got back on board.
What's the point in staying overnight, especially in that weather?
Kirk, talking to a member of his crew, asking about Spock?????? You don't ask a crewmember what he or she thinks about your second in command, neither do you ask questions about any officer or fellow crew.
Nothing indicates a break between the command team and suddenly Bones tells Kirk to get his act together and talk to Spock. Did I miss something?
Beautiful characterization of Kirk acting as a spoiled brat I ached to get him over my knee (hmmmm) and spank him. (Yeahhhhhhhhhh)
Why would Spock bring a medal on Shore Leave?
There's a missing piece in that last paragraph on page 75. It starts with Spock and then the next sentence it's Kirk explaining all in the same paragraph.
"We will remain attached for at least thirty minutes." Is it that Spock can't get his cock out of Kirk's ass or is it that he won't? Can you imagine them having sex on board, Spock buried deeply in Kirk, having just ejaculated, and the red alert sounds.... Would I had the imagination to write a hilarious story around that topic .... Perhaps someone else will....[2]
Kirk, Spock and others in a landing party are stranded on a planet during a torrential rainstorm. They set up camp and wait out the rain. This scenario would have been fine except Kirk decides they should spend the night on the surface when I thought I had read that they could go back to the ship any time they wanted. Why they stayed seemed inexplicable because it was a potentially dangerous place that did become dangerous when Spock gets sick and goes unconscious besides all the yucky wet mud and the slipping and falling and the cold and the wet. Oh well.But things get much better once they return to the Enterprise. The story takes place early in Kirk's command and he is haunted by the death of Gary Mitchell (poor misunderstood Gary) and is unsure of Spock as his first officer.
McCoy tells Kirk he should "sort out how you work together" with Spock. The actual difficulties between Kirk and Spock are never fully explained. It always remained a nebulous problem.
At any rate, they go on shore leave together and check into a hotel. The check-in scene is very humorous as Kirk tries everything not to have to share a room with Spock. But because of McCoy's engineering, they are forced to share a room and a bed!
The following scenes are quite wonderful as Kirk refuses to acknowledge Spock and storms out. Then, in a tender and poignant moment, Spock carefully folds Kirk's discarded uniform and holds Kirk's damp towel to his face.
The next night Kirk comes back drunk with a prostitute and promptly passes out. When the woman demands payment, my heart ached as Spock gave her one of his medals. This scene really touched me with its heart-rending simplicity.
The next day they finally talk about their feelings and the scene developed beautifully until abruptly they're fucking. And I mean abruptly. I thought maybe a foreplay scene had been lost somewhere.
The sex is certainly to the point and the amusing ending is out of sync with the rest of the story. And as far as I could tell, the beginning scene on the rain planet was unnecessary as it didn't relate to anything later in the story.
Nevertheless, so much of the beautiful emotional content in the entire middle of the story almost made up for any difficulties. When part of a story is so good, it points up how with just some adjustments, the entire story could be really excellent.[3]