Star Trek 1/1
Title: When they come to destroy the earth, they will have to deal with you first
Pairing: James Kirk/Leonard McCoy
Rating: NC-17
Summary: The one where they are superheros. AU.
Notes: Because track_04 is the best. That’s why. Title taken from Invincible by Ok Go
It was a routine bank robbery. As routine as bank robberies get at any rate. It said a lot about the word, that it was pretty fucking routine.
The police scanner crackled to life and Kirk sighed.
“You’re in charge kid.” Jim called wiping his hands off a dirty rag.
Chekov looked up and gave him a not-so-subtle smile and wink. “Of course sir.”
He missed the old days where the kid used to just think he was sneaking out to service his coke habit. Checkov had all the subtlety of a brick to the face, but what he did have was a lot of enthusiasm.
Which lead him merrily up to where the day went from mostly normal, routine back robbery, to suddenly very real and dangerous. His heart beat hard in his chest everything going tense details going sharp with the sudden flood of adrenaline that made his fingers tingle.
“You leave now-- Captain.” The robber snarled. The girl was crying, tiny hitching sobs like she was too panicked to even properly cry. The mother was pale like a ghost; even her lips had lost all their colour. The only thing that seeped to keep her from fainting clean away was sheer willpower. The man pressed the gun harder against her wild nest of curls. She couldn’t have been older than eleven or twelve all vibrant colours and a My Little Mermaid t-shirt.
“Okay, let’s not be hasty.” Jim said voice tight. Suddenly wished he was faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap buildings and all that shit. Even Superman would need to work to be faster than point blank range if he wanted to keep her brains from being splattered all over the blank floor.
“Let her go, take me instead.” One of the patrons was lifting himself off the floor, everyone else was face down with their hands on their heads with varying amounts of terror. His voice was low and rough, just loud enough to carry through the lobby of the bank.
“Stay down or I’m going to blow your brains out. Or hers, people love kids.” The robber snarled, gesturing with his gun in an aborted little half circle.
The man never once looked over at Jim, fixed completely on the one bank robber while Jim’s pulse jumped and stuttered, idiot should just stay down and let the professionals handle it. “Look, the police probably have snipers right? She’s too little.”
Jim could feel the moment that the robber’s attention began to shift over to this man. It was then that the other man looked across at him. It was the barest flicker of movement dark eyes and a faint jerk of his eyebrows.
“Move and I’ll fucking blow you away.” The robber snapped again, clipping the words out between his teeth to show that he meant business here. He wasn’t bluffing anyone here could see that.
He held up his hands with a grimace. “I’m serious. Just let go of the girl.” He looked over at Jim again ever so briefly.
Jim wasn’t breathing tensed and ready for something to change while everything balanced so finely. Everything was going molasses slow, speeding up like time had been holding its breath as well until the last moment, as the man suddenly rushed the gunman. The gun jerked up suddenly, Jim was leaping forward, words ripped from his tongue before he could even think about saying anything. The gunshots were loud he wasn’t fast enough to stop them.
All Jim could do was grab the man, fingers tight around the robber’s hand. He pulled it back hard, he felt the small bones in his hand and wrist crack under the strain one by one popping like so much bubble wrap. He let go when he man was screaming. The girl stumbled forward into her mother’s waiting arms. Both of them were crying.
The man went down shouting so Jim kicked him hard enough to cut off the whining. “You fucker.” He slurred and Jim just looked down at him feeling read hot anger and a biting sense of despair.
“That was just not superhero-ly.” Jim looked up startled to find the man just standing there his hands on his hips giving the robber a blank stare.
“You’re one crazy fucker.” Jim said, disbelieving. It was almost point blank, he’d seen the muzzle pointed straight at the man’s centre of mass. Could even see the bullet embedded in the wall behind him, but he was standing there with a scowl on his face and no apparent gaping wounds.
“Says the man in the spandex.”
Jim just grinned at him.
“I think I like you.” He replied feeling bright with relief.
“What’s going on? Shit.”
Everyone else was already on the ground so Jim lurched forward trying to grab Brown-Eyes and bring him under the line of fire as a second gun man popped up from the stairs leading down to the vault. Instead of tackling him he slid right through him and crashed to the ground, barely managing to keep from bouncing his face off the polished floor, even as gunfire opened up above him.
“What the shit?!” The man yelped. Jim rolled onto his back to see the man’s gun floating in the air completely unassisted and pointing right at the robber.
“Always a pleasure to see you Vulcan.” Jim said with as much faked sugar as he could manage.
“Fighting crime on your back again I see, Captain.” Vulcan replied with the same even tart tone he said everything in (like it was so far below him, fucker couldn’t even fly). His hood was pulled down all the way over his head to throw his face into shadows, cape swirling into the colours of the police cordon behind him, psychedelic reds and blues.
Jim bared his teeth in a smile.
He pulled himself off the ground with all the affront dignity he could muster. The Vulcan just arched an barely-visible eyebrow at him. The second gunman lunged for the gun and Vulcan slapped him around the face with it, telekinetically holding it above his head while he clutched at his bleeding nose and made muffled sort of honking curses.
“Motherfuckers.” He mumbled.
The police rushed in suddenly with a lot of yelling and more guns.
“Need a lift out of here?” Jim asked. Vulcan nodded at him tightly. Pushing himself into the air Jim flew low over everyone’s heads grabbing at Vulcan’s arms as he flew over him pulling them both into the air. The police shouted but he didn’t stop. No one had taken a pop-shot at them yet.
Kirk flew up across the block to a roof where he dropped the Vulcan none-too-gently. His cape flapped around madly this high up. Vulcan dropped to his feet with more grace than anyone should have. “You have my thanks Captain.”
“Right back at you.” He said. Just because he disliked him didn’t mean that the only two superheroes in the area shouldn’t look out for each other from time to time. Might even enjoy it if Vulcan wasn’t some kind of frosty bastard.
He was halfway back to the garage when he realized he didn’t manage to stop the Brown Eyes after the commotion. It was a toss-up if he wanted to know more how he pulled the Casper trick, or maybe just see if he was up for drinks. Both, ideally. San Fransico wasn’t the mecca of superhero activity the way that New York was, it would be nice to know if there was someone new he should know about.
For shits and giggles Jim dive-bombed the back alley, pulling his arms in tight and gaining as much speed as he could. He pulled into a swoop at the last moment flipping himself around so he could land on his feet. Back to his day job then.
There really should be some sort of tax break for being a superhero.
--
The weeks passed as normal as things got. Jim managed to squeeze in work, more work, saving lives, and a few dates in the spaces between. He could sleep when he was dead.
All three crashed together in a train-wreck of epic proportions when a familiar brunette jumped out of the cab of a tow-truck with a familiar scowl. Enterprise specialized in upgrades, detail work, customization, all the little tweaks that motor heads liked, but had been known to take common repair jobs as they were dropped on the doorstep.
Chekov moved to greet him but Jim pre-empted him with a grab to the back of his neck and pulling him back. “I’ve got this one.”
“Sir?” Chekov gave him that wide-eyed curious look.
“Hey man, I’m all about the personalized experience.” Chekov stared at him for a beat longer looking curious while Jim just grinned at him.
“Good afternoon.” He said walking over to watch the unloading of a tank of an SUV from the tow-truck.
“No it isn’t.” Brown-Eyes said waspishly.
Jim just grinned wider. “Sun is shining, birds are singing, where is your love for your fellow man?”
“It broke with my car.” He said giving Jim a seriously unimpressed face. He looked much the same as he had that day in the bank, a plain pale blue button-down and black slacks, deliciously broad in the shoulders and slim in the hips.
“Well let’s see if we can get it fixed then.”
Brown Eyes gave him a deeply suspicious look. “I own this place, Jim Kirk, at your service.” He said sticking out a hand, as if taken off guard Brown Eyes shook his hand back out of reflex. His grip was firm, hands a lot softer than expected.
“McCoy, Leonard McCoy.”
Well, Brown Eyes had a name. Leonard just looked at him.
“Need any help with it?” The tow-truck driver asked him, ambling over to where they were standing.
“We’ve got it. Thanks man.”
While Leonard went to deal with paying the tow-truck Kirk went back into the garage to see if he could flag someone down. Scotty was sitting on a stack of tires texting. “What do I even pay you for?” Jim asked and Scotty look up at him with a smirk.
“I ask myself that every day boss-man.”
“Come help me move a car into the bay?”
“Aye-aye Captain.” Jim rolled his eyes. “Do you want me to push or steer?” Scotty gave him that look that said he was biting his tongue against a smile or something inappropriate.
Jim scoffed. He always pushed.
The weird part was how no one seemed to notice how easy it was that he could pushed all the cars around by himself. Enhanced strength was one of his powers, and something like those little Japanese cubes were no problem, hell Leonard’s giant SUV wouldn’t pose too much of an issue. He could lift it over his head and toss it if he needed too. (There had been one incident, the second summer that Chekov had come to work intern with them, so bright eyed and eager where one of the lifts had malfunctioned. Jim was so fucking proud every day that he had been there because it would have crushed Chekov to death if he hadn’t caught it, holding the weight of the frame and the car as Chekov squirmed out of the pit wide eyed and shaking. Jim had been a real hero that day.)
“Need any help with that?” Leonard asked him as Scotty took his keys and got behind the wheel.
“Just stand there and relax I’m all about service.” Leonard gave him a pinched look.
“Ready?” Jim called and Scotty’s hand waved out the window, the door was open but none of the lights inside seemed to be coming on. Completely without electricity there was obviously a problem with the electrical systems.
It was an actual tank of a car. He couldn’t help but grandstand just a little, stretching obviously and bending over to get a good grip on the lower hatch of the Land Rover. Despite the weight it wasn’t too difficult to move into a gentle roll. Jim didn’t even play it up that much simply pushing it and trusting Scotty to steer it over to an open bay.
“Should I point out that I don’t know how much my car weighs, but that shouldn’t be physically possible.” Leonard said and Jim looked over his shoulder for a moment throwing him a careless wink.
“I eat my Wheeties.”
Leonard snorted.
“Any reason you need to drive something so huge?” Jim asked, he thought he heard a low chuckle from the front where Scotty was, but at least he kept his filthy comments to himself. (The differences in the use of the word ‘ride’ between America and good old Queen’s English [just don’t let him hear you call it that] had afforded Scotty years of sly digs and laughs at every else’s expense. Also he was a filthy bugger.)
“Do you know what happens to little cars in crashes? Or even what happens to the people inside of them? It’s like strawberry jam.”
James laughed, huffing with the faint strain of the last push.
The car rolled across the cutting edge of the shadow thrown by the building, Leonard followed him into the garage proper. Sulu was bent over a muscle car, identifiable only by the excellent shape of his bottom.
“So what’s wrong with it?” James asked, resting against the back fender and looking up through his lashes at Leonard, he was tall.
That got him the most epic scowl yet, “I’m a doctor not a mechanic, why do you think I brought it here?” Spirit, Jim liked spirit.
“Well if you could tell me anything about it, it would make my job a lot easier.”
“The lights didn’t seem bright, then it died while I was driving, it wouldn’t turn back on.”
“Did the truck try to jump it?” He prompted.
“Yeah, but it didn’t turn back on.”
“See, that wasn’t hard at all was it?” Jim grinned at him while Leonard smiled back just a little, a mostly wry quirk of his generous mouth.
“Let’s go to the front, we can discuss payment, how long it will take. Do you need a ride home or anything like that?”
Sulu looked up, this would be office gossip within the hour and he needed a visual confirmation, Sulu gave him an amused smirk before getting back to work. He wasn’t sure why he kept all of them around it was nothing but insubordination and trouble. Admittedly he did only offer that service personally to the more attractive of his customers. The ones he wanted to give a ride-in Scotty’s sense of the word.
It wouldn’t take long to test the battery itself and the alternator-- that was most likely the entire issue there. Maybe give the whole thing a once-over to see if anything else needed any work.
Vulcan had a Girl Friday, why couldn’t he? (A real spitfire of a journalist named Uhura, hair pulled back from her face almost severely; shoving herself right in the middle of the action with an admirable lack of regard for her own safety. She could always be counted on to move civilians to safety. Jim liked to read her cover of their battles even if she did always paint the Captain with less of a shine than Vulcan.)
“So, while someone goes over your car, want to go get lunch?” Jim leaned on the counter pushing his hips forward again and giving his best smile.
Leonard did an amusing double-take. “Really kid?” Jim just let his smirk grow wider.
“Of course, we could also talk about the way you can phase through stuff.” He said that with the same light, flirty tone he used to ask him for lunch.
It was curious the way all the colour drained from his face, he looked almost sickly under the faint California tan. Leonard glanced around the empty lobby tellingly, fixating on an old issue of Time that sat rather forlorn on the front table. (Someone had stolen the huge photospread of Iron Man from it, he wasn’t pointing fingers but Tony Stark was kind of Chekov’s wet dream.)
“Are you crazy man? I can’t do anything like that?” He was so bad at lying it was almost cute.
“Oh?” Jim smiled up at him, licking his teeth lightly. “I never forget a pretty face, and that was you.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” He crossed his arms and stared hard at the issue of Time like he could light it up with his eyes alone.
“Come on now.” Jim dipped his voice low, “don’t be that way.”
“I’ll be back tomorrow for my car.” Leonard snarled at him and was moving towards the door.
He thought about it for a moment, but he wasn’t a superhero because he was cautious, or even mostly sane. Jim pushed off the ground and caught Leonard in a sort of bridal hold one arm under his knees and the other around his back in a flying tackle.
He hadn’t thought that a man could make a sound like that; high-pitched and full of panic like a small dog being stepped on. The ground fell away quickly, he held on to him hiding his grin at the sky.
He was holding on tight, until he simply wasn’t. Leonard just dropped, phasing out through his arms and dropping like a stone through the air. Jim dropped with him, grabbing frantically at him as his hands went through his body. “Stop that!” He cried and Leonard was flailing about, grabbing at him, but having no luck with the corporeal issue either. “Leonard. Listen to me. You need to become solid again. I can catch you if you do.”
“I-“
It was weird how he was still visible, eyes pressing shut with a look of intense focus his mouth pulled into an angry frown. The next time he grabbed for Jim his arm hit, real and solid. He wrapped his arms around Leonard’s torso, pressed his face against his hair and murmured to him the way they used to talk to spooked horses on the farm. He managed to slow their decent gradually, terrified that Leonard would suddenly phase out again. By the time they hit the roof they were slowed almost completely to a gentle glide.
Leonard threw up as soon as he was safely on the ground again, collapsing to hands and knees on the gravel. Jim hop-skipped back a few steps to avoid getting any splatter on his toes. He was going to have to clean that up later or it would bake in the sun and one of the favourite smoke-break spots would be ruined.
“You, crazy son of a bitch.” Leonard heaved. Jim squinted at him in the bright sunlight.
“Not a fan of heights then.” Jim said at long last, drawing out the words innocently. Leonard crawled away from his pile of sick to sit down hard and glare up at him he was still far too pale, blotchy spots high on his cheeks.
“Not so much-no. What gave you that impression?” There was enough sarcasm in his voice to kill a lesser man. Jim figured it was another of his super powers.
“The vomit was a clue. The way you screamed like a little girl was a bit telling.”
Leonard growled at him. “So what, you’re a mutant too, let’s join hands and be merry? Was that your point?”
“Me? No. One-hundred percent human over here. It’s what the X-gene, that’s your gig?” Explaining years of government tampering and faked memories of a gentle upraising on a farm in Iowa wasn’t the best ice breaker. That was third date material at the very least. If only to explain the super strength and stamina, insert mental smirk here.
Up in New York the X-men were making ripples, mutant hate was pretty high. At least explained why he was hesitant to admit to being a freak since his mutation wasn’t visible.
“It’s a bag of laughs.” Leonard replied thick.
Jim squatted down and helped him to his feet, his knees looked pretty watery there. “Look, I’m sorry about the whole flying thing. Lunch is on me.” He tried his best innocent smile. No one could refuse the puppy dog eyes, and he did feel a little bad about scaring him like that, it honestly had never occurred to him that there was someone who didn’t enjoy the freedom being able to fly afforded.
“Oh god.”
--
Jim ended up doing the work on Leonard’s car pro bono in return for a second date, he’d flat out refused for anything less. One where maybe Leonard wouldn’t bitch about his mouth tasting like road kill the entire time.
It wasn’t the worst trade he ever made. Even if the others teased him relentlessly.
--
Leonard got called out of their third date, going pale at whatever message was on his phone, saying something about being needed at the hospital and fled leaving Jim with the bill. This time he asked Jim out to dinner, to pay him back of course.
Jim thought about playing coy for a few moments, but coy just wasn’t something he did well.
--
Jim got called out of their third date. A spandex alert as he had programmed the news logging program on his phone to call them. It was an algorithm based on keyword mining from twitter mostly; all the local news stations had a twitter these days. IP address hacking could ping local twitters and track them for keywords regardless of their locked status. Joined with a police scanner it generally meant he could respond faster than the police in most cases.
“Gotta dash, business calls.” He smiled apologetically and Leonard just nodded already nibbling at the salad he ordered for dinner. Jim had been looking forward to mocking his rabbit for the next twenty minutes at least. Sad.
--
Jim had never made it to a fifth date before.
--
Or a sixth.
He was on a streak.
--
“Can I do you in the costume?” Jim breathed against Leonard’s mouth. He’d been doing a low patrol of the area when he decided to sneak down and knock on the seventh floor window. Leonard hadn’t kicked him out, looked almost happy to see him hovering there outside the window. Laughed while Jim had a hell of a time getting his shoulders through when it didn’t quite open wide enough.
“God no, you look like a gold and black hot dog.” Leonard mumbled, clearly not overly bothered, if the way his hands were running down Jim’s back were any indication. He was acting like he didn’t have the implicit ‘please touch me all you want’ permission from date #1, all desperate to touch. Only now was he actually acting on it, and he had the gall to act like Jim had been the one holding out on him.
“I do not. I have sources, they told me the suit is dashingly attractive.” Jim defended.
They tumbled onto the couch, Jim cheating by hovering so that he landed on top with a small rush of breath from Leonard fanning across his face they were so close now. This way he could feel the hot lines of him through his own costume and the worn thin material of Leonard’s old jeans and casual t-shirt.
The kisses were unexpectedly hot, the smooth hot slide of Leonard’s tongue into his mouth, hands gripping at his back. Legs tangled awkwardly it was difficult to squirm a hand between him, splaying his hand wide on Leonard’s stomach and wishing that he had thought to take the gloves off.
Leonard made a wheezing sound when Jim groped him through his jeans. Suddenly he was doing a face plant on the couch as Leonard simply dropped through it. Jim let out a sound not completely unlike a giggle, rolling over so he could watch Leonard wiggle out from under the couch.
“So, do you have this problem a lot?” Jim licked the taste of him off his lips shamelessly.
“Stop laughing. You startled me.” He looked so affronted, not unlike a wet cat.
“I’ll give you fair warning next time.” He promised with a sharp smile Leonard scowled at him.
“You should be so lucky there is a next time.” He grumbled but got to his feet.
Jim arched himself along the couch, slotting his hands under his head in a position of casual insolence, the spandex did nothing to hide the fact that he was half-hard just from kissing and a bit of PG-13 touching. Leonard’s eyes flicked quick down his body, then again more lingeringly.
“Get out of that ridiculous get-up and we’ll talk.”
“Get out of that ridiculous get-up, what?” Jim smirked at him.
Leonard scowled harder.
“Come on, I want to hear you say it.” Jim wheedled. “We could totally role play as Superman and Louis Lane.”
Leonard was looking at him like he was insane and Jim just had to laugh. “Get out of that ugly unitard ‘Captain’.”
Jim grinned at him, maybe he was in the superhero business for all the wrong reasons because there was something about that that really did it for him. A sharp tug low in his stomach, because superhero call signs during sex? Totally hot.
“Come here gorgeous and I’ll show you how it comes off.”
Leonard huffed but obligingly crawled onto the couch again, it wasn’t nearly big enough for the two of them but Jim was having a hell of a good time trying to make it work anyways. Leonard was mumbling about squirming like an eel, but he was shifting too, rolling his hips in these lazy little rocking motions that just made Jim want more.
Wandering hands, curious hands, Leonard’s fingers found all the dips and curves, sussed out weak points and soft spots with a single-minded skill that felt almost like an examination. Next time he was on top, Jim smiled into the slick kiss, digging his feet into the couch and using one arm to push himself into a plank position. This close there was no mistaking the way that dark eyes watched him, breathing fast and sharp.
He levitated just a bit, enough not to lose his balance as he wigged out of the top half of his suit, the sleeveless top peeled down to his waist and Leonard pushed it the rest of the way so it caught around his knees. He didn’t bother to wear anything under it, all the support he needed was built into it, also-panty lines.
While he was up anyways he shoved Leonard’s shirt up so it bunched around his armpits, showing off the lean muscles of his abdomen and the sweet little line of dark hair that led down to the fly of his jeans.
“Come on.” He licked his lips and watched as Leonard wiggled, messing with the zip-fly until he could shove the whole thing down, arching to get it out from under him. Jim may have let himself drop a little just so he could feel the heat and every brush of his elbows, listen to him mumble about being crowded. They are barely undressed when Jim decided that patience was for other people, he always prided himself on forward thinking, only just managed not to squish Leonard as he let his weight down blanketing Leonard with arms and legs.
“I’m going to touch your dick again.” Jim mumbled around worrying some of the stubble on his chin with his teeth trying to hide the way he was smiling.
“Fuck you.” Leonard huffed out a laugh doing this body-roll shimmy combo that had them rubbing together in all the right places, skin heating up where it touched until he felt fever-hot all over.
“Didn’t want you to get ‘startled’ again.” Jim said mock-serious.
Leonard bit at his mouth to shut him up muffling the sounds he made when Jim did manage to get an awkward hand on his cock, rubbing the edge of his palm over the head. The dry drag made Leonard jerk and groan, tossing his head to the side and digging his fingers into Jim’s ribs hard just on the proper side of rough.
There wasn’t enough room, not really, still Jim managed to get his knees slotted around Leonard’s hips giving him just enough lift to shove a hand hastily covered in saliva (if he didn’t want to get off right now he would have lingered watching Leonard’s pink tongue working over his fingers because that was something that warranted further exploration. Brave new worlds-the slick heat inside of his mouth-and all that.)
Leonard grunted with the first gritty drag of Jim’s still-too-dry hand between them.
When a big hand joined his, the other planted firmly on his ass, fingertips hinting at more interesting directions, then everything was perfect.
“Jesus.” Leonard moaned low, a sentiment that Jim could really get behind.
Said as much: “Yes, yes, yes.”
The slick slide of them together was so good it was almost obscene. He couldn’t help himself, dipping low to taste the faint sounds that Leonard was making, kissing sloppy and wet when he could pull his scattered wits together enough to multitask. Just a little rubbing shouldn’t feel so good. Writhing on the couch together like teenagers may have not been the most dignified but there was something desperate and beautiful about it.
“Come on, wanna watch you come.” Jim begged against his mouth, underlining the plea with a swipe of his tongue, putting it in italics with a faint whine to the vowels.
Leonard pressed his eyes tight, looking like he was barely hanging on to the edge of control.
Just a little more and Jim watched it shatter. No one looked attractive when they came, but they didn’t look ugly either. Face screwed up like it was hurting him and Leonard groaned, a deep sound that echoed in Jim’s bones.
Oh, oh, oh. Well. Fuck. Leonard was practically coming all over Jim’s dick. Jim’s breath caught in his throat, warm wet heat and the slightly slick sound of their palms. He kept his eyes open, watching the loose shape of Leonard’s mouth as it frizzled through him like a bottle rocket. It was like shooting straight into the sky and letting himself spin into a free-fall just one pure moment followed by rush.
They lay there sticky and panting.
“I can’t believe it took you this long to put out.” Jim mumbled against his shoulder where he was mouthing wetly at the skin and revelling hedonistically in the mess they made.
“We can’t all be whores.” Leonard replied evenly, this close his voice rumbled through both of them like a caress. Shame was for other less-awesome people.
“Wanna take a shower?” He knew Leonard could feel his grin against his shoulder.
“What, do you have super stamina too? I have to work tomorrow.” He complained
“Come on.” Jim wheedled. “I’ll make it good.”
He could hear Leonard scowling.
--
“Want to be my side-kick?” Jim asked, they were sitting in the lobby of the garage, Leonard was coming off shift, professional with a hint of rumpled-- it was a good look on him, one that screamed to be rumpled just a little more. They were sharing a bag of greasy Chinese take-away and bickering about the health benefits of preservatives in food before Jim brought it up again.
“Hell no.” Leonard growled, pointing his chopsticks almost violently at Jim. “I’ve said it once and I will say it again-“
“Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor not a superhero.” Jim cut him off with the worst imitation he could manage of Leonard’s accent.
Leonard growled at him while Jim just grinned completely unrepentant. He said that now, but there was time.
Pairing: James Kirk/Leonard McCoy
Rating: NC-17
Summary: The one where they are superheros. AU.
Notes: Because track_04 is the best. That’s why. Title taken from Invincible by Ok Go
It was a routine bank robbery. As routine as bank robberies get at any rate. It said a lot about the word, that it was pretty fucking routine.
The police scanner crackled to life and Kirk sighed.
“You’re in charge kid.” Jim called wiping his hands off a dirty rag.
Chekov looked up and gave him a not-so-subtle smile and wink. “Of course sir.”
He missed the old days where the kid used to just think he was sneaking out to service his coke habit. Checkov had all the subtlety of a brick to the face, but what he did have was a lot of enthusiasm.
Which lead him merrily up to where the day went from mostly normal, routine back robbery, to suddenly very real and dangerous. His heart beat hard in his chest everything going tense details going sharp with the sudden flood of adrenaline that made his fingers tingle.
“You leave now-- Captain.” The robber snarled. The girl was crying, tiny hitching sobs like she was too panicked to even properly cry. The mother was pale like a ghost; even her lips had lost all their colour. The only thing that seeped to keep her from fainting clean away was sheer willpower. The man pressed the gun harder against her wild nest of curls. She couldn’t have been older than eleven or twelve all vibrant colours and a My Little Mermaid t-shirt.
“Okay, let’s not be hasty.” Jim said voice tight. Suddenly wished he was faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap buildings and all that shit. Even Superman would need to work to be faster than point blank range if he wanted to keep her brains from being splattered all over the blank floor.
“Let her go, take me instead.” One of the patrons was lifting himself off the floor, everyone else was face down with their hands on their heads with varying amounts of terror. His voice was low and rough, just loud enough to carry through the lobby of the bank.
“Stay down or I’m going to blow your brains out. Or hers, people love kids.” The robber snarled, gesturing with his gun in an aborted little half circle.
The man never once looked over at Jim, fixed completely on the one bank robber while Jim’s pulse jumped and stuttered, idiot should just stay down and let the professionals handle it. “Look, the police probably have snipers right? She’s too little.”
Jim could feel the moment that the robber’s attention began to shift over to this man. It was then that the other man looked across at him. It was the barest flicker of movement dark eyes and a faint jerk of his eyebrows.
“Move and I’ll fucking blow you away.” The robber snapped again, clipping the words out between his teeth to show that he meant business here. He wasn’t bluffing anyone here could see that.
He held up his hands with a grimace. “I’m serious. Just let go of the girl.” He looked over at Jim again ever so briefly.
Jim wasn’t breathing tensed and ready for something to change while everything balanced so finely. Everything was going molasses slow, speeding up like time had been holding its breath as well until the last moment, as the man suddenly rushed the gunman. The gun jerked up suddenly, Jim was leaping forward, words ripped from his tongue before he could even think about saying anything. The gunshots were loud he wasn’t fast enough to stop them.
All Jim could do was grab the man, fingers tight around the robber’s hand. He pulled it back hard, he felt the small bones in his hand and wrist crack under the strain one by one popping like so much bubble wrap. He let go when he man was screaming. The girl stumbled forward into her mother’s waiting arms. Both of them were crying.
The man went down shouting so Jim kicked him hard enough to cut off the whining. “You fucker.” He slurred and Jim just looked down at him feeling read hot anger and a biting sense of despair.
“That was just not superhero-ly.” Jim looked up startled to find the man just standing there his hands on his hips giving the robber a blank stare.
“You’re one crazy fucker.” Jim said, disbelieving. It was almost point blank, he’d seen the muzzle pointed straight at the man’s centre of mass. Could even see the bullet embedded in the wall behind him, but he was standing there with a scowl on his face and no apparent gaping wounds.
“Says the man in the spandex.”
Jim just grinned at him.
“I think I like you.” He replied feeling bright with relief.
“What’s going on? Shit.”
Everyone else was already on the ground so Jim lurched forward trying to grab Brown-Eyes and bring him under the line of fire as a second gun man popped up from the stairs leading down to the vault. Instead of tackling him he slid right through him and crashed to the ground, barely managing to keep from bouncing his face off the polished floor, even as gunfire opened up above him.
“What the shit?!” The man yelped. Jim rolled onto his back to see the man’s gun floating in the air completely unassisted and pointing right at the robber.
“Always a pleasure to see you Vulcan.” Jim said with as much faked sugar as he could manage.
“Fighting crime on your back again I see, Captain.” Vulcan replied with the same even tart tone he said everything in (like it was so far below him, fucker couldn’t even fly). His hood was pulled down all the way over his head to throw his face into shadows, cape swirling into the colours of the police cordon behind him, psychedelic reds and blues.
Jim bared his teeth in a smile.
He pulled himself off the ground with all the affront dignity he could muster. The Vulcan just arched an barely-visible eyebrow at him. The second gunman lunged for the gun and Vulcan slapped him around the face with it, telekinetically holding it above his head while he clutched at his bleeding nose and made muffled sort of honking curses.
“Motherfuckers.” He mumbled.
The police rushed in suddenly with a lot of yelling and more guns.
“Need a lift out of here?” Jim asked. Vulcan nodded at him tightly. Pushing himself into the air Jim flew low over everyone’s heads grabbing at Vulcan’s arms as he flew over him pulling them both into the air. The police shouted but he didn’t stop. No one had taken a pop-shot at them yet.
Kirk flew up across the block to a roof where he dropped the Vulcan none-too-gently. His cape flapped around madly this high up. Vulcan dropped to his feet with more grace than anyone should have. “You have my thanks Captain.”
“Right back at you.” He said. Just because he disliked him didn’t mean that the only two superheroes in the area shouldn’t look out for each other from time to time. Might even enjoy it if Vulcan wasn’t some kind of frosty bastard.
He was halfway back to the garage when he realized he didn’t manage to stop the Brown Eyes after the commotion. It was a toss-up if he wanted to know more how he pulled the Casper trick, or maybe just see if he was up for drinks. Both, ideally. San Fransico wasn’t the mecca of superhero activity the way that New York was, it would be nice to know if there was someone new he should know about.
For shits and giggles Jim dive-bombed the back alley, pulling his arms in tight and gaining as much speed as he could. He pulled into a swoop at the last moment flipping himself around so he could land on his feet. Back to his day job then.
There really should be some sort of tax break for being a superhero.
--
The weeks passed as normal as things got. Jim managed to squeeze in work, more work, saving lives, and a few dates in the spaces between. He could sleep when he was dead.
All three crashed together in a train-wreck of epic proportions when a familiar brunette jumped out of the cab of a tow-truck with a familiar scowl. Enterprise specialized in upgrades, detail work, customization, all the little tweaks that motor heads liked, but had been known to take common repair jobs as they were dropped on the doorstep.
Chekov moved to greet him but Jim pre-empted him with a grab to the back of his neck and pulling him back. “I’ve got this one.”
“Sir?” Chekov gave him that wide-eyed curious look.
“Hey man, I’m all about the personalized experience.” Chekov stared at him for a beat longer looking curious while Jim just grinned at him.
“Good afternoon.” He said walking over to watch the unloading of a tank of an SUV from the tow-truck.
“No it isn’t.” Brown-Eyes said waspishly.
Jim just grinned wider. “Sun is shining, birds are singing, where is your love for your fellow man?”
“It broke with my car.” He said giving Jim a seriously unimpressed face. He looked much the same as he had that day in the bank, a plain pale blue button-down and black slacks, deliciously broad in the shoulders and slim in the hips.
“Well let’s see if we can get it fixed then.”
Brown Eyes gave him a deeply suspicious look. “I own this place, Jim Kirk, at your service.” He said sticking out a hand, as if taken off guard Brown Eyes shook his hand back out of reflex. His grip was firm, hands a lot softer than expected.
“McCoy, Leonard McCoy.”
Well, Brown Eyes had a name. Leonard just looked at him.
“Need any help with it?” The tow-truck driver asked him, ambling over to where they were standing.
“We’ve got it. Thanks man.”
While Leonard went to deal with paying the tow-truck Kirk went back into the garage to see if he could flag someone down. Scotty was sitting on a stack of tires texting. “What do I even pay you for?” Jim asked and Scotty look up at him with a smirk.
“I ask myself that every day boss-man.”
“Come help me move a car into the bay?”
“Aye-aye Captain.” Jim rolled his eyes. “Do you want me to push or steer?” Scotty gave him that look that said he was biting his tongue against a smile or something inappropriate.
Jim scoffed. He always pushed.
The weird part was how no one seemed to notice how easy it was that he could pushed all the cars around by himself. Enhanced strength was one of his powers, and something like those little Japanese cubes were no problem, hell Leonard’s giant SUV wouldn’t pose too much of an issue. He could lift it over his head and toss it if he needed too. (There had been one incident, the second summer that Chekov had come to work intern with them, so bright eyed and eager where one of the lifts had malfunctioned. Jim was so fucking proud every day that he had been there because it would have crushed Chekov to death if he hadn’t caught it, holding the weight of the frame and the car as Chekov squirmed out of the pit wide eyed and shaking. Jim had been a real hero that day.)
“Need any help with that?” Leonard asked him as Scotty took his keys and got behind the wheel.
“Just stand there and relax I’m all about service.” Leonard gave him a pinched look.
“Ready?” Jim called and Scotty’s hand waved out the window, the door was open but none of the lights inside seemed to be coming on. Completely without electricity there was obviously a problem with the electrical systems.
It was an actual tank of a car. He couldn’t help but grandstand just a little, stretching obviously and bending over to get a good grip on the lower hatch of the Land Rover. Despite the weight it wasn’t too difficult to move into a gentle roll. Jim didn’t even play it up that much simply pushing it and trusting Scotty to steer it over to an open bay.
“Should I point out that I don’t know how much my car weighs, but that shouldn’t be physically possible.” Leonard said and Jim looked over his shoulder for a moment throwing him a careless wink.
“I eat my Wheeties.”
Leonard snorted.
“Any reason you need to drive something so huge?” Jim asked, he thought he heard a low chuckle from the front where Scotty was, but at least he kept his filthy comments to himself. (The differences in the use of the word ‘ride’ between America and good old Queen’s English [just don’t let him hear you call it that] had afforded Scotty years of sly digs and laughs at every else’s expense. Also he was a filthy bugger.)
“Do you know what happens to little cars in crashes? Or even what happens to the people inside of them? It’s like strawberry jam.”
James laughed, huffing with the faint strain of the last push.
The car rolled across the cutting edge of the shadow thrown by the building, Leonard followed him into the garage proper. Sulu was bent over a muscle car, identifiable only by the excellent shape of his bottom.
“So what’s wrong with it?” James asked, resting against the back fender and looking up through his lashes at Leonard, he was tall.
That got him the most epic scowl yet, “I’m a doctor not a mechanic, why do you think I brought it here?” Spirit, Jim liked spirit.
“Well if you could tell me anything about it, it would make my job a lot easier.”
“The lights didn’t seem bright, then it died while I was driving, it wouldn’t turn back on.”
“Did the truck try to jump it?” He prompted.
“Yeah, but it didn’t turn back on.”
“See, that wasn’t hard at all was it?” Jim grinned at him while Leonard smiled back just a little, a mostly wry quirk of his generous mouth.
“Let’s go to the front, we can discuss payment, how long it will take. Do you need a ride home or anything like that?”
Sulu looked up, this would be office gossip within the hour and he needed a visual confirmation, Sulu gave him an amused smirk before getting back to work. He wasn’t sure why he kept all of them around it was nothing but insubordination and trouble. Admittedly he did only offer that service personally to the more attractive of his customers. The ones he wanted to give a ride-in Scotty’s sense of the word.
It wouldn’t take long to test the battery itself and the alternator-- that was most likely the entire issue there. Maybe give the whole thing a once-over to see if anything else needed any work.
Vulcan had a Girl Friday, why couldn’t he? (A real spitfire of a journalist named Uhura, hair pulled back from her face almost severely; shoving herself right in the middle of the action with an admirable lack of regard for her own safety. She could always be counted on to move civilians to safety. Jim liked to read her cover of their battles even if she did always paint the Captain with less of a shine than Vulcan.)
“So, while someone goes over your car, want to go get lunch?” Jim leaned on the counter pushing his hips forward again and giving his best smile.
Leonard did an amusing double-take. “Really kid?” Jim just let his smirk grow wider.
“Of course, we could also talk about the way you can phase through stuff.” He said that with the same light, flirty tone he used to ask him for lunch.
It was curious the way all the colour drained from his face, he looked almost sickly under the faint California tan. Leonard glanced around the empty lobby tellingly, fixating on an old issue of Time that sat rather forlorn on the front table. (Someone had stolen the huge photospread of Iron Man from it, he wasn’t pointing fingers but Tony Stark was kind of Chekov’s wet dream.)
“Are you crazy man? I can’t do anything like that?” He was so bad at lying it was almost cute.
“Oh?” Jim smiled up at him, licking his teeth lightly. “I never forget a pretty face, and that was you.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” He crossed his arms and stared hard at the issue of Time like he could light it up with his eyes alone.
“Come on now.” Jim dipped his voice low, “don’t be that way.”
“I’ll be back tomorrow for my car.” Leonard snarled at him and was moving towards the door.
He thought about it for a moment, but he wasn’t a superhero because he was cautious, or even mostly sane. Jim pushed off the ground and caught Leonard in a sort of bridal hold one arm under his knees and the other around his back in a flying tackle.
He hadn’t thought that a man could make a sound like that; high-pitched and full of panic like a small dog being stepped on. The ground fell away quickly, he held on to him hiding his grin at the sky.
He was holding on tight, until he simply wasn’t. Leonard just dropped, phasing out through his arms and dropping like a stone through the air. Jim dropped with him, grabbing frantically at him as his hands went through his body. “Stop that!” He cried and Leonard was flailing about, grabbing at him, but having no luck with the corporeal issue either. “Leonard. Listen to me. You need to become solid again. I can catch you if you do.”
“I-“
It was weird how he was still visible, eyes pressing shut with a look of intense focus his mouth pulled into an angry frown. The next time he grabbed for Jim his arm hit, real and solid. He wrapped his arms around Leonard’s torso, pressed his face against his hair and murmured to him the way they used to talk to spooked horses on the farm. He managed to slow their decent gradually, terrified that Leonard would suddenly phase out again. By the time they hit the roof they were slowed almost completely to a gentle glide.
Leonard threw up as soon as he was safely on the ground again, collapsing to hands and knees on the gravel. Jim hop-skipped back a few steps to avoid getting any splatter on his toes. He was going to have to clean that up later or it would bake in the sun and one of the favourite smoke-break spots would be ruined.
“You, crazy son of a bitch.” Leonard heaved. Jim squinted at him in the bright sunlight.
“Not a fan of heights then.” Jim said at long last, drawing out the words innocently. Leonard crawled away from his pile of sick to sit down hard and glare up at him he was still far too pale, blotchy spots high on his cheeks.
“Not so much-no. What gave you that impression?” There was enough sarcasm in his voice to kill a lesser man. Jim figured it was another of his super powers.
“The vomit was a clue. The way you screamed like a little girl was a bit telling.”
Leonard growled at him. “So what, you’re a mutant too, let’s join hands and be merry? Was that your point?”
“Me? No. One-hundred percent human over here. It’s what the X-gene, that’s your gig?” Explaining years of government tampering and faked memories of a gentle upraising on a farm in Iowa wasn’t the best ice breaker. That was third date material at the very least. If only to explain the super strength and stamina, insert mental smirk here.
Up in New York the X-men were making ripples, mutant hate was pretty high. At least explained why he was hesitant to admit to being a freak since his mutation wasn’t visible.
“It’s a bag of laughs.” Leonard replied thick.
Jim squatted down and helped him to his feet, his knees looked pretty watery there. “Look, I’m sorry about the whole flying thing. Lunch is on me.” He tried his best innocent smile. No one could refuse the puppy dog eyes, and he did feel a little bad about scaring him like that, it honestly had never occurred to him that there was someone who didn’t enjoy the freedom being able to fly afforded.
“Oh god.”
--
Jim ended up doing the work on Leonard’s car pro bono in return for a second date, he’d flat out refused for anything less. One where maybe Leonard wouldn’t bitch about his mouth tasting like road kill the entire time.
It wasn’t the worst trade he ever made. Even if the others teased him relentlessly.
--
Leonard got called out of their third date, going pale at whatever message was on his phone, saying something about being needed at the hospital and fled leaving Jim with the bill. This time he asked Jim out to dinner, to pay him back of course.
Jim thought about playing coy for a few moments, but coy just wasn’t something he did well.
--
Jim got called out of their third date. A spandex alert as he had programmed the news logging program on his phone to call them. It was an algorithm based on keyword mining from twitter mostly; all the local news stations had a twitter these days. IP address hacking could ping local twitters and track them for keywords regardless of their locked status. Joined with a police scanner it generally meant he could respond faster than the police in most cases.
“Gotta dash, business calls.” He smiled apologetically and Leonard just nodded already nibbling at the salad he ordered for dinner. Jim had been looking forward to mocking his rabbit for the next twenty minutes at least. Sad.
--
Jim had never made it to a fifth date before.
--
Or a sixth.
He was on a streak.
--
“Can I do you in the costume?” Jim breathed against Leonard’s mouth. He’d been doing a low patrol of the area when he decided to sneak down and knock on the seventh floor window. Leonard hadn’t kicked him out, looked almost happy to see him hovering there outside the window. Laughed while Jim had a hell of a time getting his shoulders through when it didn’t quite open wide enough.
“God no, you look like a gold and black hot dog.” Leonard mumbled, clearly not overly bothered, if the way his hands were running down Jim’s back were any indication. He was acting like he didn’t have the implicit ‘please touch me all you want’ permission from date #1, all desperate to touch. Only now was he actually acting on it, and he had the gall to act like Jim had been the one holding out on him.
“I do not. I have sources, they told me the suit is dashingly attractive.” Jim defended.
They tumbled onto the couch, Jim cheating by hovering so that he landed on top with a small rush of breath from Leonard fanning across his face they were so close now. This way he could feel the hot lines of him through his own costume and the worn thin material of Leonard’s old jeans and casual t-shirt.
The kisses were unexpectedly hot, the smooth hot slide of Leonard’s tongue into his mouth, hands gripping at his back. Legs tangled awkwardly it was difficult to squirm a hand between him, splaying his hand wide on Leonard’s stomach and wishing that he had thought to take the gloves off.
Leonard made a wheezing sound when Jim groped him through his jeans. Suddenly he was doing a face plant on the couch as Leonard simply dropped through it. Jim let out a sound not completely unlike a giggle, rolling over so he could watch Leonard wiggle out from under the couch.
“So, do you have this problem a lot?” Jim licked the taste of him off his lips shamelessly.
“Stop laughing. You startled me.” He looked so affronted, not unlike a wet cat.
“I’ll give you fair warning next time.” He promised with a sharp smile Leonard scowled at him.
“You should be so lucky there is a next time.” He grumbled but got to his feet.
Jim arched himself along the couch, slotting his hands under his head in a position of casual insolence, the spandex did nothing to hide the fact that he was half-hard just from kissing and a bit of PG-13 touching. Leonard’s eyes flicked quick down his body, then again more lingeringly.
“Get out of that ridiculous get-up and we’ll talk.”
“Get out of that ridiculous get-up, what?” Jim smirked at him.
Leonard scowled harder.
“Come on, I want to hear you say it.” Jim wheedled. “We could totally role play as Superman and Louis Lane.”
Leonard was looking at him like he was insane and Jim just had to laugh. “Get out of that ugly unitard ‘Captain’.”
Jim grinned at him, maybe he was in the superhero business for all the wrong reasons because there was something about that that really did it for him. A sharp tug low in his stomach, because superhero call signs during sex? Totally hot.
“Come here gorgeous and I’ll show you how it comes off.”
Leonard huffed but obligingly crawled onto the couch again, it wasn’t nearly big enough for the two of them but Jim was having a hell of a good time trying to make it work anyways. Leonard was mumbling about squirming like an eel, but he was shifting too, rolling his hips in these lazy little rocking motions that just made Jim want more.
Wandering hands, curious hands, Leonard’s fingers found all the dips and curves, sussed out weak points and soft spots with a single-minded skill that felt almost like an examination. Next time he was on top, Jim smiled into the slick kiss, digging his feet into the couch and using one arm to push himself into a plank position. This close there was no mistaking the way that dark eyes watched him, breathing fast and sharp.
He levitated just a bit, enough not to lose his balance as he wigged out of the top half of his suit, the sleeveless top peeled down to his waist and Leonard pushed it the rest of the way so it caught around his knees. He didn’t bother to wear anything under it, all the support he needed was built into it, also-panty lines.
While he was up anyways he shoved Leonard’s shirt up so it bunched around his armpits, showing off the lean muscles of his abdomen and the sweet little line of dark hair that led down to the fly of his jeans.
“Come on.” He licked his lips and watched as Leonard wiggled, messing with the zip-fly until he could shove the whole thing down, arching to get it out from under him. Jim may have let himself drop a little just so he could feel the heat and every brush of his elbows, listen to him mumble about being crowded. They are barely undressed when Jim decided that patience was for other people, he always prided himself on forward thinking, only just managed not to squish Leonard as he let his weight down blanketing Leonard with arms and legs.
“I’m going to touch your dick again.” Jim mumbled around worrying some of the stubble on his chin with his teeth trying to hide the way he was smiling.
“Fuck you.” Leonard huffed out a laugh doing this body-roll shimmy combo that had them rubbing together in all the right places, skin heating up where it touched until he felt fever-hot all over.
“Didn’t want you to get ‘startled’ again.” Jim said mock-serious.
Leonard bit at his mouth to shut him up muffling the sounds he made when Jim did manage to get an awkward hand on his cock, rubbing the edge of his palm over the head. The dry drag made Leonard jerk and groan, tossing his head to the side and digging his fingers into Jim’s ribs hard just on the proper side of rough.
There wasn’t enough room, not really, still Jim managed to get his knees slotted around Leonard’s hips giving him just enough lift to shove a hand hastily covered in saliva (if he didn’t want to get off right now he would have lingered watching Leonard’s pink tongue working over his fingers because that was something that warranted further exploration. Brave new worlds-the slick heat inside of his mouth-and all that.)
Leonard grunted with the first gritty drag of Jim’s still-too-dry hand between them.
When a big hand joined his, the other planted firmly on his ass, fingertips hinting at more interesting directions, then everything was perfect.
“Jesus.” Leonard moaned low, a sentiment that Jim could really get behind.
Said as much: “Yes, yes, yes.”
The slick slide of them together was so good it was almost obscene. He couldn’t help himself, dipping low to taste the faint sounds that Leonard was making, kissing sloppy and wet when he could pull his scattered wits together enough to multitask. Just a little rubbing shouldn’t feel so good. Writhing on the couch together like teenagers may have not been the most dignified but there was something desperate and beautiful about it.
“Come on, wanna watch you come.” Jim begged against his mouth, underlining the plea with a swipe of his tongue, putting it in italics with a faint whine to the vowels.
Leonard pressed his eyes tight, looking like he was barely hanging on to the edge of control.
Just a little more and Jim watched it shatter. No one looked attractive when they came, but they didn’t look ugly either. Face screwed up like it was hurting him and Leonard groaned, a deep sound that echoed in Jim’s bones.
Oh, oh, oh. Well. Fuck. Leonard was practically coming all over Jim’s dick. Jim’s breath caught in his throat, warm wet heat and the slightly slick sound of their palms. He kept his eyes open, watching the loose shape of Leonard’s mouth as it frizzled through him like a bottle rocket. It was like shooting straight into the sky and letting himself spin into a free-fall just one pure moment followed by rush.
They lay there sticky and panting.
“I can’t believe it took you this long to put out.” Jim mumbled against his shoulder where he was mouthing wetly at the skin and revelling hedonistically in the mess they made.
“We can’t all be whores.” Leonard replied evenly, this close his voice rumbled through both of them like a caress. Shame was for other less-awesome people.
“Wanna take a shower?” He knew Leonard could feel his grin against his shoulder.
“What, do you have super stamina too? I have to work tomorrow.” He complained
“Come on.” Jim wheedled. “I’ll make it good.”
He could hear Leonard scowling.
--
“Want to be my side-kick?” Jim asked, they were sitting in the lobby of the garage, Leonard was coming off shift, professional with a hint of rumpled-- it was a good look on him, one that screamed to be rumpled just a little more. They were sharing a bag of greasy Chinese take-away and bickering about the health benefits of preservatives in food before Jim brought it up again.
“Hell no.” Leonard growled, pointing his chopsticks almost violently at Jim. “I’ve said it once and I will say it again-“
“Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor not a superhero.” Jim cut him off with the worst imitation he could manage of Leonard’s accent.
Leonard growled at him while Jim just grinned completely unrepentant. He said that now, but there was time.