Five Days

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	Five Days
Author(s):	Emily Adams
Date(s):	1988
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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Five Days is a Kirk/Spock story by Emily Adams. It takes place during a Shore Leave Between ST:TMP and ST:TWOK.

It was published in the print zine First Time #17.

art by Dragon

Excerpt

"We have dinner, and we talk about our day, and neither of us will say anything about how we feel or about the subject that is uppermost in both our minds, each other. We only watch, and I can tell he's watching me and I know he can see I'm watching him. It's so difficult, loving him so much and wanting him and thinking maybe he feels the same but not knowing and not knowing how to ask. Not when one of us is a calm, private, reticent Vulcan. Three days we have left. Only three days and then he'll be off somewhere and I'll put my life on hold and just exist until the next time. If there is a next time. One never knows out there. I feel my eyes start to prickle at the thought and at the hopelessness of the whole thing and I stand up and look out the window the other direction so he won't see."

Reactions and Reviews

I think she has found the perfect recipe for short stories. A few pages not burdened with superfluous detail (detail not pertinent to augment the richness of a story and character) which have the tendency to draw the reader's attention away. Just enough to give the essence of the situation and the feelings they're dealing with. Everything grips tightly together. I'm a sucker for stories where Spock is portrayed as a confident male. Emily has found a way to show him as a very emotional being without losing one bit of his Vulcanness.

A wonderful short story, easy to read but with such a rhythm to it that it's almost like a poem. It is essentially a simple idea - Kirk admitting his love for Spock and finding out that the feeling is reciprocated. Every time I read it, I almost feel what Kirk is feeling - sorrow that they only have a few days together, confusion on whether or not Spock can return his love, happiness when Kirk finds out that he does. Their newly discovered love for each other is one that I can read over and over.

Sigh...I love a story like this—a quiet, sweet story. Remember, though, quiet and sweet doesn't mean it's not hot.

And I like when I don't have to worry about danger lurking around the next corner, or even some major gloom or angst hanging over their heads. Instead, we get to just feel the beauty of an emotional coming-together after living with doubts and hesitation for so long.

This story is in first person Adm. Kirk, in San Francisco. A beautiful opening, as he thinks about his friend Spock, who is staying in the guest room for five days...only five days. I love watching Kirk watch Spock in the morning getting breakfast, his muscles, his butt.... Such a rich, quiet emotional mood, just lovely.

And the moment of the turning point, god, it's so full of feeling, and so clear to visualize. Kirk staring out the window, withdrawn with his love which he probably shouldn't profess...and Spock, of course, sensitive to Kirk's mood, comes up behind him....(Why do I love that so much, that coming up behind?) Kirk just can't bear the thought of Spock leaving, again, always leaving...but doesn't say this, but says, I love you, Spock.

It's beautiful to picture this happening, that finally, finally, Kirk's admission would open the floodgates for Spock, who can then let out all his years of caring, can let himself be demonstrative physically as he had always given so invisibly and asking-nothing...his love, his desire....

Ecstatic scene from here...few words...into the bedroom. This is so hot. So quiet but so hot. An intense, loving coming together.

And we also get a resolution of the big picture in their sweet conversation, about how Kirk can maneuver a new position in Starfleet so he can go with Spock on training cruises and Spock doesn't have to keep leaving him.

All of this would be enough to make a lovely story, but there is also a very nice literary/poetic touch, a through- line in these first-person Kirk thoughts woven through the various moments: My gorgeous Vulcan...my logical Vulcan...my responsible...responsive...beloved Vulcan.