browngirl | False Friends (Star Trek XI, PG-15)

Title: False Friends
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Rating: PG-15/light R
Pairing: Gaila/Jim Kirk, Gaila/OCs
Summary: Gaila asks Jim about a figure of speech.
Content Advisory: Frank and even naughty language, discussion of nonmonogamy.
Acknowledgements:

lomedet and

asimaiyat.
Author's Note: Written for

where_no_woman's Intergalactic Women's Day Mini-Ficathon, for the prompt "A fair and generous woman is (at best) respected, but seldom loved." (Shulamith Firestone)
Disclaimer: None of these characters or their settings belong to me.

"Hey, Beautiful!" Jim slides into the seat across from Gaila, but her answering smile feels like a performance, a lie. At least he picks upon her mood quickly, turning his head to regard her with one rounded eye, squinting the other until she's amused enough for half a chuckle. "What's up?" he asks lightly, so she can pretend nothing's wrong if she wants. She's learned it's a way many of the young Terrans express concern, and it reminds her of her friends back in her other life, when sometimes troubles were so unsolvable or fresh they were best ignored.

Today, instead, Gaila chooses the help Jim offers. "I'm trying to figure out an idiom in Western Standard," she says, and her voice doesn't quite succeed in lilting. She watches Jim hear her and thinks about how much she values him, no matter how annoying Nyota finds him. He lifts both eyebrows, and she continues, "There's a term in Orion, si'deneh, that literally means, 'tower-breaker'."

"It's a reference to the beautiful, especially beautiful women, who bring down the powerful through desire." Jim nods. "I think I've read about a similar term in some Altaic languages... but in Standard? Tell me more."

"I was wondering," Gaila says as if this were really her question, "if the idiom, 'home wrecker' means something similar."

Jim whistles, leaning back in his chair, sliding his booted feet alongside hers. He hears the real question, and his creasing forehead answers it. "You're not asking your roommate because..."

"Her friend Maeve provided the term." Some features of friendship are universal, such as not making friends choose. Gaila isn't sure whether Nyota would go tight-lipped and storm off to fight Maeve on Gaila's behalf, or if she might potentially soften her voice into its 'reasonable' range and explain why she agrees with Maeve, which Gaila is too selfish to risk. Not now when her emotions are still sore, not ever while she enjoys living with Nyota as much as she does.

Jim nods in understanding, a reassuring sparkle in his eyes. "False friends," he answers. "The two terms don't mean the same thing at all." He casually sets his hand beside her tray so their fingers touch. "I'm sure you've toppled some towers in your time," he says, pitching his voice low and warm, full of friendly appreciation, "but I don't think you've wrecked any homes, unless you had a career in demolition you never told me about."

Gaila smiles, feeling it a bit more truthfully. "No, I haven't. Last night we didn't even damage the bed or the walls or anything." Jim grins as he nods, bright and encouraging. "But even if we had I don't think that would be why Maeve used that term."

Jim slides his fingers forward between hers, his smile dimming, his eyebrows arching, and it feels painfully good to tell someone sympathetic about this, to have someone to tell. "I guess you've got the connotations down, then. Who was she so mad at you about?"

Gaila squeezes his hand to feel his reality. "Her roommate Rashmi, from Sublight Engine Design. She'd been looking at me in study group, and last night she told me her boyfriend likes me, his name's Tienan, and... I thought she does too, because when we all went to bed together she's the one who kept calling me pretty." Gaila wishes she could even enjoy the memory of the compliments Rashmi whispered against her skin as Tienan blushed hotter and hotter, his burning face pressed to her throat or her thighs. "He had to go early, but Rashmi and I were still in bed this morning when Maeve came in and made me leave."

"Wait, what," Jim says flatly, his eyes glinting with anger for her that does make her feel better. "Why does she care? Are they sleeping together too?"

"I'm not sure. They don't seem like it." Gaila shrugs, jerky and shallow with false nonchalance. "Maeve did say... she likes Tienan, she doesn't want her friends to be hurt, and she doesn't know how my roommate can stand me. She called me a 'home wrecker' at least twice." Gaila winces inside at the memory of Maeve's shouted barrage; pulling in an indignant breath, she sat up to yell an answer and felt Rashmi go rigid behind her. She glanced back into Rashmi's round scared eyes, and friends don't make friends choose, so she just exhaled and scooped up her clothes and left.

Jim mutters something that sounds like a curse, all barbed consonants. Then he growls in Orion Prime, "She wouldn't know fun if it landed on her," and Gaila can't help but smile. "What do you think?" he asks. "About Rashmi and Tienan? You mess things up for them?"

"I don't think so." Jim nods encouragingly. "When they kissed goodbye they looked very happy." She can still enjoy that memory, at least, of sleepily watching Tienan wrap Rashmi in his arms, the sheet sliding pale down her skin as they clung together for a lovely moment. "And they both got things they wanted. He enjoyed being between two girls, she wanted to try a girl and he liked watching us, I think I gave him a useful demonstration of cunt licking--" Jim makes a choked noise, rolling his bright eyes, and Gaila stops, feeling stricken deep in her gut. She couldn't have said too much for Jim, could she?

Jim shakes his head, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards. "Sorry, don't mind me. That image just kinda blew my mind." His cheerful leer makes Gaila laugh, dropping her head; then he tightens his hand gently on hers, and she looks up at him. "It sounds like you were good for them," he tells her, looking right in her eyes.

"I hope so." Gaila sighs. "I like it better if I can be."

"I know you do. It's fun, isn't it, watching two people get along even better over your naked body?" Jim shares a grin with her, stories they've traded glimmering in his eyes, until he blows out a heavy breath. "It's just that... A lot of people -- a lot of Terrans, anyway, don't understand how a threesome can possibly be good for a couple."

"Really? But -- most people want a wider assortment of features than one person can possess! I mean..." Gaila trails off, shaking her head. It seems like a conscious rejection of knowledge, and that she'll never understand.

"Like anyone else we struggle with our prevailing ideas. It's all that 'cultural ridiculousness concerning pair bonds'," he says, quoting a past rant of hers to make her giggle. "That doesn't make it right, though. I think you shouldn't give a flying fuck about Maeve, or any other kind, and I think Cadet Uhura will tell you the same thing. So will Rashmi when she grows a pair. Metaphorically."

Gaila almost corrects Jim on Nyota's name, before remembering that he's told her not to tell him, that it's a game between them for him to pretend not to know. Instead, she thinks about what he's suggesting, about the honesty she tries to live with now, about her hope that Nyota won't side against her. Before she can agree aloud, though, Jim continues, "Now, I have a vocab word for you: Fine dining."

"I think that's two words," Gaila says, then understands. "Really? But I have Federation History at 1300."

"Gaila, you already finished the syllabus, the only thing on your tray is an empty miso cup, and you picked all the scallions out." Gaila glances down at a pile of herb fragments she didn't remember making. She's still unused to raw, unprocessed food, and when she's stressed she sometimes picks out any uncooked or unfermented pieces from what she's eating. "So you're coming out with me for a real lunch." Jim squeezes her hand again, picking up her tray as they stand. "You know what, Gorgeous? You deserve to have some fun put together around you." He dumps and deposits the tray without looking away from her. "Maybe we should brainstorm about who gets to be lucky enough to join us in bed."

Gaila has a couple of ideas about that, but for the moment she just tangles her fingers with Jim's and watches her renewed serenity reflect in his eyes. "You, Jim, are a true friend," she tells him, and he rubs the back of his neck and smiles lopsidedly, his blush welling rosy warm as she kisses his cheek.