Work Text:
It was Bones’ birthday today and Jim, knowing how he hated to sleep in total darkness and that he had a (well-hidden) heart for cute, fluffy animals, had just the perfect present for him: a glowing tribble!
He had secretly raised the (barren) baby tribble after he acquired it some weeks ago, feeding it only bioluminescent food and water, until it regained the ability to glow in the dark. The food was self-made with the help of Spock, who had developed a formula, that was “safe for the tribble to consume while also resulting in the required effect” as Spock had presented the special nutrition.
Mind you, confronting and convincing Spock with the idea had been difficult and somewhat funny - Spock hadn´t exactly been amused by his project, calling it completely ridiculous and naming multiple reasons why it was an unnecessary waste of time and resources. He was sure that if Spock was less concerned with hiding his emotions, he even would´ve called him crazy, but in the end, he somehow managed to sweet-talked him into it, despite all his counterarguments. Not that Spock would ever admit that fact.
The tribble didn´t glow all that much, but enough to work as a weak nightlight, counteracting the absence of moonlight (or any other natural light) in Bones´ quarters. He had enough of the special food left to last for at least half a year and they could always produce more of it if needed.
And the little creature was cute, too. It had light, cream coloured fur, which was very soft and silk-like and it immediately started purring whenever it was stroked. All in all, it resembled a ball of pure fluffiness and Jim just knew that Bones would love it.
Striding back to their shared quarters with bouncing steps, the tribble (retrieved from the lab) in his arms, he beamed at everyone walking by and finally arrived at the door. Letting himself in, he heard the noises of the shower. Good, he would made himself comfortable on the couch, then, and wait for Bones to come out of the bathroom.
Helping himself to a coffee out of their replicator first and then sitting down on the pillows next to the tribble, which he had put down on the softest pillow. With a satisfied sigh, he took back the tribble, stroking it softly. It began purring happily, vibrating softly in his lap.
Just then, Bones exited the bathroom with a fresh, sharp set of clothes and his hair still slightly damp, looking too hot for his own good. Jim gaped a little, but remembered just in time to hastily place his hands over the tribble to obscure it from sight before Bones noticed him, and began talking loudly to hide the purring.
“Bones! Just the man I need! Come here, birthday boy or you won´t get your present!”
Bones sighed loudly and even rolled his eyes, demonstrating that he wasn´t a fan of overenthusiasm over his birthday, but his mouth betrayed him, the corners of it slightly twitching upwards.
“Jim, don´t you have somewhere else to be? My birthday´s not that important, ya know, it’s just another number in my file,” he said unimpressed, not liking the fact that he was getting older, but of course, Jim wouldn´t have any of that nonsense.
“Not important? Bones, it’s the day you were born, the celebration of your very existence, of course it´s fucking important!! Now come here and be a good boy!” he lamented, looking at Bones expectantly. Normally, he wouldn´t just sprung up and thrown himself at Bones, dragging him to where he wanted, but hugging him would be a bit difficult while he was still hiding the tribble.
Bones seemed to sense that something was up, because he looked at Jim suspiciously.
“Why are you so set on me joining you on the couch? Don´t you have some party organized to drag me to? And now don´t look so innocent, I know as well as you know that you do that every year, for every one of the senior crew no less, so why would today be different? Do you have some kind of trap hidden on that couch? Like a stinking bomb that goes off when I sit down?” he walked a little closer, his eyes roaming over the sofa in suspicion.
Jim gasped in mock offense. “Bones! As if I would ever do that to... on your birthday!” he exclaimed and Bones snorted in amusement, but, after having found noting suspicious looking laying on the couch (having missed to check the more obvious, what Jim was holding in his hands), he carefully sat beside him, sighing in relieve when nothing happened.
“Happy birthday, Bones!” Jim exclaimed, beaming at him and Bones rolled his eyes again, but smiled.
“Thanks, Jim.”
“And of course you´re right, I SO have a little party planned, and I will drag you there in a moment, but first, I want you to meet Purr!” he said excitedly.
“Purr? Who in the hell would be called Purr?” he huffed out, laughing about the ridiculousness of the name.
In retrospect, maybe it wasn´t exactly the coolest name-choosing, Jim thought, but, well, what was done was done.
“He is,” he said, throwing the tribble at Bones´ chest, where it softly bumped against, and then fell down in the doctor´s lap, purring happily after just a moment of being startled.
“Good lord,” Bones exclaimed in surprise, staring down at the tribble, who purred even louder when hearing his voice. Jim had the suspicion that about anything could bring this tribble to purr, hence the name.
“Where the hell did you get a tribble from? And I sure hope this one isn´t able to reproduce or we´ll soon have a huge problem on our hands!” Bones exclaimed, still staring at the tribble, now with a soft frown, like it might reproduce the second he stopped looking at it.
“Haha, naaw, as if I would like to go through that again, one time was enough for a lifetime, of course this little guy is totally safe and won´t multiply and he also won´t grow huge. I´ve had him for a couple of weeks and it´s still only one normal sized tribble, don´t worry. Isn´t he cute?” Jim said excitedly, watching Bones for his reaction.
“Well, he´s... something,” Bones said, hesitatingly touching the tribble, which purred even louder on the contact. Bones mouth corners twitched even harder now then before, he liked him!
“You love him, admit it!” he exclaimed happily, nudging him with his elbow.
“And you didn´t even see his best side yet,” Jim grinned, thinking about the glow in the dark aspect.
“Oh yeah? And what´s that?” Bones asked warily.
“Always so suspicious, you wound me, Bones,” Jim exclaimed in mock offense once more.
“Nah, I just know you, that´s all,” Bones said, grinning, and Jim poked him again, but harder this time, making Bones laugh.
Hearing that, the tribble was basically going crazy, purring as loudly as the little thing was able to. It was plain adoring and Jim made an “awwwww” sound over the thing, while even Bones seemed to be endeared, watching the tribble in childlike wonder, before he managed to school his expression back into looking grumpy.
Clearly, it was a match made in the stars. He just knew that Bones and the tribble would love each other!
Grinning in triumph, Jim sprung up from the sofa.
“And now to the best part. Computer, turn lights out!” Jim said, and then the computer asked for Bones´ verification, since it was his quarters.
Knowing better that to go against Jim´s wishes when he was set on something, Bones thoughtfully looked at him for a second, but then agreed, making the computer drop the room in darkness in an instant.
Or near-darkness, for the tribble was beautifully glowing in the dark.
Bones gasped, staring down at Purr, as far as Jim could tell in the dark.
“What the... Jim, am I going crazy or does this tribble actually glow?” Bones asked disbelievingly.
“He does glow! Pretty cool, huh?”
Bones couldn´t see much of his expression, but he was sure he sported a huge grin. He snorted.
Almost against his will, he also started to smile, shaking his head about Jim´s crazy ideas. A glowing tribble, of all things! He wondered how Jim had made that work.
“What did you do, anyway, spray him with luminao?” He asked, referring to a substance, that, sprayed or tinted onto surfaced, made them glow for a couple of hours. It has been developed a couple of years ago by some crazy guy who obviously had nothing better to do with his live and had been trending a lot in the year after.
“Noo, even better! I fed it with bioluminescent food,” Jim exclaimed beamingly and Bones once more looked at him in disbelieve.
“Bioluminescent food! Are you sure that´s even safe for the poor thing?” he asked, frowning.
“100%! Spock helped develop it!” Jim told him proudly and Bones rose his eyebrows.
He asked the computer to turn on the light at 30%, so he could better see Jim´s expressions, while the glowing of the tribble was still noticeable. It was beautiful.
“Really? And how in the blazes did you get Spock to help you with that?” he then asked, a little distracted by the still loudly purring animal in his lap and Jim grinned.
“That´s simple. I promise him some new equipment for his lab when we hit the next space station. You should´ve seen his face though, when I told him what he should help me with,” Jim laughed, making Bones snort.
“I can imagine,” he noted.
“Come on. Let´s get to your party,” Jim said, dragging him up from the sofa, and Bones followed, the tribble safely secured in his hands.
“Happy birthday!” Everyone exclaimed when they entered the big room that Jim had reserved for the occasion. Some added “Len”, “Doc”, or whatever they best liked to call him.
Bones made a gesture for them to calm down, but was secretly happy about the display and surprise that so many crew members where there, making the room very crowded.
“Thank you, guys! Wasn´t necessary at all, but thank you,” he called, and the people laughed, the once nearest to him clapping him on his shoulder or shaking his hands – well, intending to shake his hands before they noticed that his hands were already occupied, which caused multiple reactions of “awww” and “oh my God, how cute!”. The people still further away curiously pushed towards him, trying to see what was the cause for the delighted reactions, so he was in the middle of a packed crowed in seconds, Jim keeping close, but letting the others get to him.
A couple of minutes later, the craziness subsided a bit and Jim dragged to a table with foods and drinks.
Of course there was a huge birthday cake, absolutely covered with candles and Jim insisted for him to blow them all out, with the other birthday guests also cheering him on.
He rolled his eyes and protested a little for show, but then blew out the candles, not telling anyone his secret wish as was tradition, and the party started for real, with the food buffet officially opened and people clinking classes together, toasting him.
The cake was cut into precise pieces by Nyota and she urged him to take the first piece, which he accepted with his one free hand (after shifting around the tribble) with a smile, thanking her. Sulu was complimenting his outfit and Chekov claimed that he was looking ten years younger than he was now, making him snort and roll his eyes a lot at them, but despite keeping up his “grumpy act” as Jim sometimes called it, he enjoyed himself a lot.
He also had called Joanna earlier in the day, having had a nice and long talk with her, where she had told him everything she was up to lately, while he told her about their latest missions (leaving out any gory or violent details, of course), or “space adventures” as his daughter liked to call them.
Now at his party, his closer friends and especially Jim never left his side for long, making him feel loved and appreciated. Even the food was pretty good for the occasion, considering they were in space.
The whole time, the tribble glowed and purred loudly.