"Jim, I was not aware that the stem tissue of members of the family Rosaceae were edible."

The aging captain knew that he probably looked ridiculous, but on today of all days he felt the need to indulge his hopeless romantic.

"Mmph... Pock..." he burbled before giving up and taking the rose back into his hands, "Spock, have you forgotten what day it is?"

"It is Stardate 8130.3, Captain."

"Terran calendar, Mister Spock."

Kirk's stately first officer and husband clasped his hands behind his back and inclined his head slightly as he made the conversion.

"Ah," he nodded. "I perceive the motivation behind your actions. It is February the fourteenth."

"Valentine's Day," said Kirk as he sidled up and put his arms around his t'hy'la.

"That most human of holidays."

"Yes! And you know what that means."

Spock sighed, resigned to the inevitable. "You will wish once again, no doubt, to complete the dubious human 'ritual' you insist upon every year. If I recall, last year we watched When Harry Met Sally, and the year before that, a selection called Notting Hill. And the year before that..."

"Yes Spock, and you've hated all of them."

"Jim, you must admit that the absence of logic displayed in all of the 'romcoms' you have thus far subjected me to has been... staggering."

Jim made schmoopy eyes and pouted his lip playfully as he twirled the rose between his thumb and forefinger. Spock touched the rose and Jim's hand as he leaned his head in close.

"However," he whispered in his sultry bass, "As a Vulcan I hold the greatest respect for tradition. Tell me, t'hy'la... which 'romcom' have you chosen this year?"

Jim kissed his faithful Vulcan chastely on the cheek and drew away with a satisfied smile.

"Not a romantic comedy this year, Spock, but I'm afraid you will find it just as illogical as all the 20th century vids we've watched. In fact, it was recognized in its time as one of the classic love stories of the silver screen. It's called Titanic, and it's about a pair of t'hy'la."

Spock raised his eyebrows again in surprise. "T'hy'la?" he inquired. "On 20th century Earth?--Jim, I must say I am greatly skeptical --"

Jim almost laughed, the expression on his husband's face was so comic. "Just wait and see, Spock. Our quarters, 2100 hours. Oh," he added as he turned to walk away to his awaiting bridge duty. "Here's a data chip with all the relevant historical information. Read up." He flipped the chip into Spock's hands and deposited the rose in a vase before the door whooshed shut behind him.

"Just about... there!" he said as the last joint clicked into place. "All set. Join me?" He lay on their bed and patted the space next to him. Spock sat down cooperatively, and let his hand gently brush the tips of his husband's fingers.

"Did you do your homework?" asked Jim, warming to the familiar touch. Spock noted his reaction and moved his hand up to massage the back of Kirk's neck.

"Oh, if you think you're going to get out of this with a backrub, you have miscalculated, Mister!"

Spock replied, "Indeed," but did not cease his ministrations. "The R.M.S. Titanic. Regarded as 'unsinkable' by its designers, it foundered on its maiden voyage in April of the year 1912. Jim, if I may inquire... the object of viewing vids is to learn the undisclosed fulfillment of the story's plot arc. I assume that in this vid, the ship sinks."

Jim nodded. "It does."

"Why then should we devote three hours to following a plot to which we already know the conclusion?"

"There's more to the story than just the fate of the ship, Spock. You'll see. Here..." He clicked on the movie and snuggled up to Spock as the opening scene flickered across the screen.

The safe was deposited on the deck of the ship and the crew ran up to it, one member clutching a bottle of champagne.

"Who's the best? Say it!"

"You are, Lewis."

When Bodine grabbed Lovett's face and kissed it in response, Spock's eyebrows shot up again and he turned towards Jim.

"The overweight belligerent man and his boss are t'hy'la?"

Kirk chuckled. "No, Spock, I'm sure that was pure platonic exuberance. You'll have to keep watching." Spock settled back down. Only 2 hours and 45 more minutes to go...

"I can't believe you bet our tickets."

Spock sighed. "Gambling," he noted, "Is a most illogical behavior. But I find it highly improbable that even a slightly inebriated human would be so shortsighted as to risk losing his major means of conveyance in a game of cards."

"Shush, Spock, it's just a movie."

"Full house, boys!"

"How predictable," retorted Spock with a grimace. Jack and Fabrizio began dancing around the bar together, and Spock looked at Jim questioningly. "They?" he asked.

"No, Spock. Not them either."

"You're wrong. They're fascinating. Like in a dream... there's truth, but no logic." Rose set the Picasso back on the couch and eyed it approvingly.

Spock eyed Rose approvingly. "Perhaps tonight's ritual will not involve as much pain as I have been anticipating. That woman is astute."

"That's getting into the spirit." Jim patted Spock's thigh appreciatively.

Jack saw Rose for the first time, and couldn't tear his eyes away.

"Forget it, boyo," said Tommy. "You'd like as have angels fly o' yer arse as get next to the likes o' her."

"Ah," said Spock. "Rose and Jack are to be t'hy'la, then?"

"Yes," answered Jim. "I know what you're thinking. Love at first sight is illogical. One must spend a great deal of time with one's future partner, get to know each other..."

Spock eyed his husband mischievously. "If I thought that," he replied. "It would be to deny my own personal experience."

Jim nodded his head in agreement, and felt his insides go all fuzzy.

"I'm not some foreman in your mills that you can command! I'm your fiancée--"

Cal turned over the table and the china as he moved towards Rose, menacing and intimidating her with his physicality.

"Yes! You are! And my wife... in practice, if not yet by law. So you will honor me as a wife is required to honor her husband. I will not be made a fool! Is that in any way unclear?"

Spock shifted uncomfortably on the bed and reached for Jim's hand again. The human sent loving pulses back through their bond and Spock felt a (fully contained) relief. Jim was a bit concerned; it was not like Spock to react emotionally to vids...

"Mr. Andrews," said Rose, "I did the sum in my head, and with the number of lifeboats times the capacity you mentioned... Forgive me, but it seems that there are not enough for everyone aboard."

Spock nodded his head. "I had, of course, come to the same conclusion."

"Why, Spock!" said Jim, a note of the playful tease in his voice. "If I didn't know better I'd say you had a crush!"

Spock's face was serene, revealing nothing... except perhaps for a sparkle in his dark eyes.

"Do you trust me?"

"I trust you."

Rose stepped up on the rail, steadied by Jack's hand on her waist. She held out her arms and entwined her fingers in Jack's.

"Trust, of course, is one of the most important qualities in a bond."

Jim was getting seriously worried. He had anticipated a dozen half-veiled attempts at escape from his poor bondmate, and none had yet come. What did Spock see in this vid? Why, even Jim was inclined to consider it overly sappy and self-consciously emotional. He knew that Spock had come to embrace his emotional side a bit more since the V'Ger incident, but he had never expected...

Rose let the kimono drop to the floor, and stood naked before Jack.

"Over on the bed... the couch."

Jim happened to look over at Spock. He noticed that the Vulcan's eyes were rather bigger than usual, and his breath was audible. "Spock!" he cried. "What--"

"Jim, it's just that... her breasts... they look like... they remind me greatly of--" He glanced down at the twin lumps under Jim's t-shirt.

"Never mind, Spock," he said hastily.

"Where to, Miss?"

"To the stars."

Spock gripped Jim's hand tightly as Rose pulled Jack into the backseat of the car. He almost subconsciously kissed Jim's fingers, mirroring Rose's actions on the screen, and Jim could have sworn he heard a dreamy sigh escape those stoic Vulcan lips.

Finally, the boat hit the iceberg, and Jim and Spock watched the rest of the vid in complete silence. Jim kept waiting for a lecture on the human tendency to panic in crisis situations, kept watching for any sign of disdain on the Vulcan's face at the chaotic scenes during the last hour of the movie. None came. He even got through the line "I know, it doesn't make any sense... That's why I trust it," without so much as wincing. In the last scene of the vid Rose returned to the Titanic, found Jack, and kissed him to the applause of the other ghosts as a thoroughly flabbergasted Jim saw tears spring to Spock's eyes. Where was his husband, and who was this blubbering creature at his side, reaching for tissues?

"Spock... Spock. Stop; it's only a movie. Please, if I had known it would have this effect on you, I would never have... but I had no idea... Spock!"

Jim pulled himself up to face his husband and put both his arms around him in a protective embrace.

"Jim," said Spock, voice vibrating with pure feeling. "You continue to surprise and amaze me. Thank you! That was by far the most Vulcan of any Terran art I have yet encountered."

"Most Vulc-- Spock, what are you talking about? Even in its own time that movie was criticized for being overemotional! What do you mean 'most Vulcan?'"

"Well, they are t'hy'la, Jim. Rose and Jack complete each other, as it is with you and I. Their situations, backgrounds, and personalities were different, and yet they discovered that they were no more than two sides of the same coin, as I believe the expression goes. As with you and I."

Spock looked deep into the Jim's eyes and saw himself mirrored there. He clasped both his husband's hands in his and went on.

"I identify heavily with Rose, as she too was trapped in an imperfect bond. Hockley's overt actions reminded me forcefully, in fact to the point of physical discomfort, of T'Pring's painful presence in my mind for all those years."

"Oh my," answered Jim, full of tender regret at stirring up that particular mess. "Spock, I'm sorry I didn't realize sooner."

"It's quite all right, Jim. Rose found Jack, just as I found you. Thank goodness I did not lose you on Vulcan as she lost Jack."

Jim lowered his head to their clasped hands; now tears were springing up in his eyes as well. He looked up again at Spock with a rather damp face.

"Their bond had fully formed, however, at the time of Jack's death, allowing their katras to find each other in the afterlife. Just as ours shall. Remember, Jim, our bond transcends death."

"I trust you."

"And I you, t'hy'la. Death shall pose a surmountable obstacle, how and whenever it may come. And now..." Spock stood up and crossed the room. His back was turned to Jim for a moment, and when he turned around again Jim couldn't help but burst out laughing. Spock came back to bed, the rose between his teeth.

//I love you.//

//I believe the appropriate phrase at this juncture is 'Happy Valentine's Day, dear.'//

And the moment Spock removed the rose from his mouth he was inundated with sloppy kisses.

An ensign intercepted the incoming message from Regula Station. It was marked urgent, but he didn't want to disturb his captain and first officer on Valentine's Day...