[IC] Voicemail

[boldygoing]

Captain James Tiberius Kirk, USS Enterprise, is currently unavailable.

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[losthunter]

"I have." Hunter smiles. He had put a lot of thought into each of the gifts, and the origami animals that accompanied the notes.

"But there is a little selfishness here... I can do this one-handed." He smiles.

There are another few pieces laying nearby, if Jim wants to start his own project.

[boldygoing]

Jim is quiet a moment, not sure how to respond, old habits and newer impulses conflicting within him. He's spent a long time trying to fix himself alone. By necessity, by choice, it doesn't really matter. He'd thought he was dealing with it all okay, enough to keep going, enough to bury it all as deep as he could and never look at it again. Halloween proved him wrong.

Talking to his older counterpart had helped, secrets shared with the one person he feels he can truly trust with anything, their differences only casting greater clarity on what he'd done and seen and felt, a shared pain with the only one who would truly understand.

But now even the other captain has gone silent. And Jim has missed being around other people, people who know him and don't want to drive the knife deeper, like so many strangers do this time of year. People who care about James Tiberius Kirk, not the Kelvin baby, not George Kirk's son. Someone who has seen the brokenness inside of him and, instead of sweeping away the pieces, wants to find a way to fit them together again. Not exactly as it was before, scarred and patchwork, forever marked by the shattering, but whole.

"You can do it alone," he says at last, lifting his gaze to meet Hunter's, "but you shouldn't have to."

[losthunter]

Hunter nods. And pauses in his work to reach out to Jim and gently squeeze the other man's hand. "That is why I am glad I have support from my friends, and from you."

"I would have never been able to repair the apartment, like you guys did. You all took what was broken and made it beautiful again."

[boldygoing]

Jim's smile is faint, but real, and he squeezes Hunter's hand back. "It was a group effort." Home should always feel like a safe place. He knows, far too intimately, how it feels to have someone rip that away. But as the Enterprise has been slowly rebuilt and refitted under the watchful eye of Starfleet's Corps of Engineers, Jim wanted Hunter's apartment to experience that same kind of healing, creating something new from the ashes of what was destroyed.

After a moment, he adds, "There's a famous novel from the twenty-second century that revolves around the phrase 'let me help.' The author recommends those three little words, even over 'I love you.'"

[losthunter]

"I was honestly afraid of coming back to this place... especially coming back alone. But you all helped me face my fears." Hunter reveals.

Hunter smiles, giving Jim's hand another squeeze. "I am so grateful for your help."

[boldygoing]

Jim holds Hunter's hand in his own, just glad to have this contact, no matter what horrible shit this year has put them through, together and separately. "It's all I want." Whatever he can do to help, whether it's as big as fixing up the apartment, or as small as helping put pottery back together, one piece at a time.