Learn to Love

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	Learn to Love
Author(s):	T'Kuhn
Date(s):	1996
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
External Links:	Learn to Love
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Learn to Love is a Kirk/Spock story by T'Kuhn.

It was published in the print zine KaleidoScope #5 and is online.

Summary

"Spock and McCoy must endure Kirkʼs memorial service after his death on the Enterprise B, after which McCoy learns of the great changes Spockʼs bonding with Kirk made in Spock."

Reactions and Reviews

I hate death stories. I hate depressing stories. I hate what they did to Kirk in STVII.... Well, I’m still wiping my eyes... this short story was so touching, somehow beautiful. No, I don’t love it, but I might learn to love it....

A short story told from McCoy's POV about the aftermath of Kirk's death. Uh, oh. Death story alert! Oh well, put this one in the alternate-alternate universe category.

That said, there's a formal memorial service and McCoy watches Spock and reflects. When Spock cries in McCoy's arms, I fought back my own tears. But I can't say the feeling was a satisfying one. Sorry, I'm just not objective when it comes to this scenario. The difficulty for me, and this issue has been discussed in these pages before, is death stories. Death stories and unhappy endings. Kind of like a rock in my stomach afterwards. More like a boulder.

But I certainly can't deny that this story is very well-written and emotionally engaging to those who don't mind death stories.

There were some beautiful moments in this story; aside from my preferences regarding irreversible-death stories.

I expected the ensign to be someone more important in Kirk's life, more than just the coincidence of being named Kirk, but the character was used well, the encounter with her making McCoy see things about Spock.

I liked the first-person-present-tense McCoy POV. although it switched in some places in an inexplicable way to past tense.

So beautiful was the pathos of Spock crying in McCoy's arms. But a moment that struck me even more was at the memorial service for Kirk when Spock says "This is intolerable." This really got to me and has stayed with me; it was so see-able, and feel-able, his grief so deep he cannot abide going through the motions.