Title: A Minor Inconvenience- Star Trek, TOS

[DaylightStarr]

Title: A Minor Inconvenience

Fandom: Star Trek, TOS

Summary: A new planet means a new, unpleasant and decidedly inconvenient reaction to a certain Vulcan first officer. There is very little, if any point to this story other than to make said Vulcan first officer very miserable.

Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were, I would be magical, as I was not born when this series aired.

A/N: This is a gift fic for my fellow Trekkie, and all around cool person, Katie Did What?, just because I wanted to write it for her. *happy un-birthday?* I’ve been playing with this idea for awhile now, but was only just now inspired bout making it a real story. I hope you like it, even if allergy fics aren’t really your thing.

That being said, I come to A/N #2: This is the first (or maybe second) allergy fic I’ve ever done, but I think I like how it came out.

STSTSTSTSTSTSTSTSTSTST

It was a peaceful, pretty planet. The scanners couldn’t pick up any sentient life, nor had it picked up any signs that there had ever been any sentient life living there. “A perfectly virgin world.” Kirk commented, looking at the trees and mountains in awe. “I’d love to retire here, wouldn’t you, Bones?”

The ship’s doctor, who was scanning the various flora for medicinal value, glanced up and smiled wryly. “Sure Jim, maybe for two or three weeks. Then I’d go insane from doing nothing.” He handed a bunch of herbs to a scientist before straightening. “What about you, Spock?”

Spock looked up, seeming almost startled. “Pardon me, Doctor? I’m afraid I did not catch that.”

“Those abnormally large, pointy ears not working for you today?” Came the terse reply. “The captain and I were just saying that it would be nice to retire, or at least vacation here.”

“As Vulcans neither retire, nor vacation, I would not be an authori… Heh-cchhummph! Hep-chhummph!” Spock raised an eyebrow, seeming to be just as surprised at the sneezes as the doctor and captain appeared to be. “Excuse me. As I was saying…”

“We got it. Any sort of leisure is well beneath that ever logical brain of yours. I should have known.” He didn’t mention Spock’s sneezing, though he did take note of it and would speak up if it seemed to be getting worse. As it was, even Vulcans sneezed without cause every now and then.

Kirk shook is head. “And just think, you two have the rather dubious honor of having the first disagreement on this otherwise quiet planet.” He sighed, grinning to himself. In the years he’d known the two of them, he’d accepted the fact that he’d become both their mediator and their parent. Even Spock rose to the challenge and bickered as intently, if not as loudly as McCoy.

“Dr. McCoy?” The female scientist called to him. McCoy turned to jog over to where the others were looking, leaving Spock and Kirk alone.

Kirk stood near Spock’s shoulder. I can travel the whole galaxy on the Enterprise, and not feel small or insignificant, yet as soon as I beam down to a place like this, I feel both. Does that make sense?”

Spock frowned, trying to digest what his friend had said. Not too long ago, he would have spouted off a wholly logical, literal response about an adult humanoid’s unchanging physical size. Hell, if McCoy had been close by, he still might have. But as it was just Jim and himself, he would attempt to understand, if only for Jim’s sake. “I believe so, Jim. Humans seem to measure their own feelings of self awareness by their surroundings. The less populated a place, the more acutely aware you are of how alone, or small, if you prefer, a human feels. Yet, when you are around several other people, you do not seem to notice it as much.” An odd look flitted over his defined features and he brought a hand up to his nose. “Heh-mmph!”

Jim frowned, his feelings of smallness set aside, or even forgotten. “Bless you. Are you alright?”

“Yes Jim, quite. I merely… Hep-chhumph Heh-eh-chhmmph!” He barely managed to muffle his sneezes with a quick elbow.

“Bless you again. Are you coming down with something?”

“I do not feel ill in the slightest.”

Kirk looked doubtful. “I’ll go find Bones.”

“That is unnecessary.” Spock told him quickly. “I am not ill.” He rubbed at his eye, which had started to itch terribly. “Heh-chhummph! Heh-eh-chumph!” A few vagrant hairs fell out of place from the force of the last sneeze.

Kirk seemed unconvinced. Maybe not, but I’ve never seen you sneeze this much. Not even when you were.” Had he not known Spock’s hatred of being reminded of all the times he had been sick, he would have sighted examples.

Spock frowned, puzzled. “You are correct. I do not normally… Heh-Chmmph! Hep-Ah-CHHUU!” He didn’t meet his captain’s gaze after the last forceful sneeze. Rather, he kept his eyes closed and his mouth open only slightly. His breathing was shallow, telling Jim that either he wasn’t done, or he was focusing on not allowing himself to sneeze more than twice. “Heh-AH-CHHUU! HAH-CHumph! Hep-EH-CHUUmmph!” Spock turned away from Kirk fully, more embarrassed to be around his friend than he could ever remember being since they because friends.

“You done?” While it could have been misconstrued as heartless teasing on Jim’s part, the concern that was so naked in his voice made it clear that he really just needed to know.

“I…” Spock sniffled very tentatively, neither wanting to start his nose tickling again, nor wanting Jim to hear how much his nose was running. “I believe so.” He didn’t turn around to look at his friend. “That was unpleasant.”

“It sounded painful.” Jim told him compassionately. “Sure you don’t want me to get Bones? This is more his realm of expertise than it is mine.”

“No, thank you. It is more inconvenient than… Hurr-EH-CHUU! Hur-AH-CHHUU! Heh-eh-CHUU! Heh-eh-CHUUmmph! Heh… Heh…” His nose twitched and his eyes remained closed, but the sneeze refused to come.

Kirk sighed. “It’s either an inconvenience, or you’re getting sick, or you might be allergic to something here.”

The last supposition made Spock forget that he needed to sneeze, if only momentarily. “I have never been allergic to anything in my life. If memory serves, you are the one who is prone to allergies.”

“So I would, logically, be able to recognize the symptoms, then, wouldn’t I?” He smiled in a teasing way. “Or do Vulcans have the monopoly on logic now?”

Spock would have countered with an argument of his own, if his ever more irritated nose would have allowed him to do so. As it was, he was fighting to both keep from another sneezing fit, and to keep his nose from running. He was only marginally successful with both.

Thankfully, Kirk didn’t need to waste his time trying to find McCoy. The ship’s doctor was jogging up to them, as excited as a kid n a candy store. “Jim, you wouldn’t believe the medicinal properties in some of the plants here. We even found one for…” He turned serious. “What’s the matter with you, Spock?” His eyebrows drew down in their normal, disapproving scowl as he regarded the obviously miserable Vulcan.

“A minor inconvenience, Doctor. Nothing… Hurr-EH-CHHUU! Heh-Eh-CHHUUmmph! Heh-EH-CHUUUmmph! Hur-CHUUU!”

McCoy had started to run a scan over Spock before the fit was over. Though he’d already taken in a lot of information with his eyes. The skin around Spock's eyes and nose was greenish and very irritated , his breathing was shallow and irregular, and, if he wasn’t very much mistaken, there were little green bumps on the exposed skin that looked quite a bit like hives to him. The tricorder simply told McCoy what he already knew; and he fought to keep a straight, professional face. “Spock, you’re allergic to a lot of this planet.”

Spock looked confused. “Doctor, you must be mistaken. I do not have…” He took a rather sharp breath and gratefully took the tissues McCoy handed him to sneeze into.

The look of amused annoyance faded from the kind-hearted doctor’s face. He turned and, rather than address the very occupied Vulcan, looked at his captain. “Jim, you need to get him out of here. I’ve never seen a Vulcan have a severe allergy attack before, but I’m pretty damn sure that this is what it looks like. I don’t like his readings, and his breathing is abnormal, even for him.”

Jim nodded and touched Spock’s arm in a warm, concerned way. “Come on, Spock. You and I are going back to the ship.”

“No, Jim. If Dr. McCoy says I must leave, then I will leave. I see no need to force your premature departure as well.”

Jim smiled cheekily. “I think Bones and the others can manage without me. They’ve been doing a great job of it so far. Besides, I want to see that you go to sickbay myself. You need medical attention, not meditation.”

“You have my word that I will seek it.” Spock twitched his nose in a way that would have reminded Kirk of a rabbit, during less serious circumstances.

“I believe you. But I’d also feel better if I could see for myself that everything’ll turn out alright.”

Spock finally gave in. Not so much because he thought Kirk’s argument was logical, or even sound, but because, if he was completely honest with himself, he wanted to get the hell off that planet as much as Jim and McCoy wanted him off, and he’d rather have his friend come with him. “Yes Captain.”

“Scotty, beam Mr. Spock and myself on board. We’ve decided that Dr. McCoy and his team can handle things down here from now on.”

“Aye, Sir.” Came the brogueish reply.

Spock cleared his nose one more time before transport. As much as he’d rather not think of it, he really didn’t want tales being told of how he was beamed aboard the ship, mid-sneeze.

[sfyrist]

I am going to stalk you everywhere to tell you what an awesome gift it is. The way these three handle one another, the teasing and the abrasiveness and the real caring - I just love it.

And Spock's mention of how Jim was supposed to be the one with allergies gave me so much to think about... O.O

[Guest upturned_palms]

I'm usually much more of a sickfic fan, but I loved this! Lovely dynamics, really well written... great job.

[YoriYori]

Oh my gosh... do you know how much I love you right now? How you've totally made my dreams come true ? Guhhh!!! <3 <3 <3 There's so much Kirk-is-allergic-to-stuff fic out there... which is great and all, but I have neever been able to find a Spock allergy fic! Pretty silly if you ask me. With all that exploring they do, they're bound to run into something that doesn't agree with Spock's Vulcan biology !! I've even been hanging around the star trek kink meme on livejournal begging for such a fic for months but it's been totally fruitless so far.

And, beyond that... your description of the characters & their dialogue is absolutely perfect . I can't get over McCoy's mild amusement. Thank you soo much for sharing this! Kate Did What? is one lucky giftee! Now I'm going back to re-read it for the 10th time <3. You did an amazing job!

[SneezyPony]

I really loved this so much! I always see Jim sneezing from allergies but never Spock! I love this so much!

Please continue!