Facing Facts

Fanfiction
Title:	Facing Facts
Author(s):	Anne Elliot
Date(s):	2003
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
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Facing Facts is a Kirk/Spock story by Anne Elliot.

It was published in the print zine Prophets in the Wilderness.

Summary

"Spock is annoyed at Kirkʼs presumption in making all their plans for shoreleave."

Reactions and Reviews

Kirk is so fed up with Spock always acquiescing to his every demand, he engineers a series of dangerous and exhausting challenges for them both on shore leave in the hope Spock will rebel. This relationship worries me because Spock seems so insecure and emotionally dependent. Why would Kirk want a lover who gives in to him all the time? Interestingly, Anne does explore Kirk's worries about losing his own control in love, and his ambivalence about Spock's physical strength. I find this Spock rather colourless.

I think how much you enjoy this story will partially depend on how you see Spock. There’s a wide range of Spock characterizations in K/S, and this Spock is at the weaker end of the range, being emotionally vulnerable and insecure. This Spock is terrified of doing or saying the wrong thing and losing Kirk, and so he constantly gives in to Kirk’s wishes in order to please him.

In this story, Spock is not having a good time with Kirk on shore leave and has had no say in any of the arrangements or in their daily schedule of action packed activities. We find out Kirk is deliberately planning the increasingly strenuous, exhausting and (for Spock) unpleasant activities in order to provoke Spock to tell him how he really feels. When they finally have their heart to heart talk, we find out a few of Kirk’s fears about the relationship, too. Both Kirk and Spock agree they must each learn to communicate their needs and wants to the other. I did feel the plot was somewhat unnecessarily complicated—let’s see, Kirk is supposedly setting up Spock because he wants Spock to get angry enough to talk to him, but then Kirk figures out that what he really has on his mind is that he feels emotionally vulnerable with Spock and is bothered by Spock being stronger than him, so Kirk wants to see if he can beat Spock at something physical. A bit too convoluted for my tastes. Like Spock says in the story, why didn’t Kirk just talk to him about his concerns? As for the weaker Spock characterization, well I can possibly see Spock being like this at the beginning of his relationship with Kirk, and fortunately by the end of the story Spock has gained confidence in himself and in Kirk’s love for him.

Although this is not one of my favorites of Anne’s stories I still enjoyed it because I love Anne’s writing style, and it’s written with Anne’s usual flair and skill.