Skinning Cats

Fanfiction
Title:	Skinning Cats
Author(s):	Downdilly
Date(s):	2002
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:	AO3
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Skinning Cats is a Kirk/Spock story by Downdilly.

It was published in the e-zine Side by Side #6.

Summary

"Droxine drops a drug into Spock's drink and he starts becoming more responsive or passively receptive to her advances, and Kirk catches them."

Reactions and Reviews

To the best of my knowledge this is the only K/S story written by Downdilly, which is a pity. It’s the first K/S story I found that I reread and reread, and occasionally still reread. It’s funny. It’s sexy. There’s a very real threat and a rescue in a mature relationship story that hits on all cylinders and introduces a delightful, original character. Did I mention there’s hot sex and a take on pon farr I haven’t seen elsewhere? McCoy’s a hoot and by the end, you’ll realize that the title is intended as a double, double entendre. This story skins a lot of cats.

If either link is active ((They are. Kathy R.)), stop here and go read the thing! You won’t regret it. Downdilly’s website is a clever play on her webname. Check it out. Otherwise, spoilers galore… This plot is worth relating.

This story is a follow-up to the ST-TOS episode “The Cloud Minders” and begins with the Enterprise newly arrived in orbit over Ardana to formalize the treaty between the privileged of Stratos and the Trolodyte workers, an outcome Kirk has been working to finalize for the past year. The stress of his nearly constant diplomatic efforts has pushed his bondmate into an early pon farr.

For my money, there’s a bit of inconsistency in the timeline here. The author places these events one year after “Cloud Minders”, but Kirk and Spock are too natural and easy with each other. Their personal lives have truly merged in the best sense of the word and become, well, somewhat domestic. Spock has been holding off the depths of pon farr by taking medication developed on Vulcan to buy time to return to Vulcan in order to satisfy his clan’s, his mother’s and his bondmate’s desire for a child. If it’s truly his bondmate’s desire, this part of the plotline makes more sense if they’ve already had a few pon farrs together and are closer to long-term administrative assignments, but mine is really a minor grumble. The timeline is possible and this element isn’t essential to the story. It will niggle some, though.

Kirk beams down for the formal treaty banquet to find Droxine, the Stratos High Advisor’s daughter, monopolizing his annoyed bondmate’s time and determined to take revenge for the changes in her life brought about by the interdictions initiated by Kirk and Spock after the Enterprise’s first visit. Her plans are revealed interleaved with a lesson on zenite, it’s unique place in the Federation economy and use as a universally outlawed drug that would make Harlan Ellison proud.

The dinner is long and uneventful. Spock is bored and amuses himself by making naughty, running telepathic comments to his bondmate which are picked up by B’lia, the Hardrani wife of the Federation ambassador. She’s delighted and quickly becomes a valuable ally when Droxine lures Spock away by offering to return equipment left during the Enterprise’s first visit. Instead, she slips him the zenite-based drug, Lust, in an aperitif. The Lust will either cause an undeniable, insatiable sexual frenzy and she can yell rape or unbearable pain and death if sexual expression is impossible. But the vain, petulant, self-centered Droxine didn’t do her homework. Spock telepathically screams for help and Kirk is guided to his mate by B’lia, then has them beamed directly to quarters with orders to be met by McCoy. Kirk requests that the embarrassed McCoy consult with B’lia and diagnose the foreign element in Spock’s link with him.

As soon as McCoy leaves, Kirk deals with a nonviolent, single-mindedly determined bondmate with much aplumb, enjoyment and obvious familiarity. I was particularly amused by Kirk trying to discuss the effects of Lust with McCoy from bed via intercom while Spock is single-mindedly pursuing his goal. Kirk gets the last laugh, I mean, skins the last cat while cradling an exhausted, sleeping, ‘lusted out’ Spock, by planning to use Spock’s guilt at completing this pon farr shipboard to coerce his bondmate to go sailing with him on their next shore leave.