1.14 - Dinner Turned Sour

~~*~~

Cali and Jim were woken up the next morning by Bones entering the room at a fair hour of the morning. Looking them over for a moment, Bones happily noted they were wearing clothes and continued to enter his room, going over to his side to pull out his academy uniform.

Groggily, Jim leaned up to watch him and then looked at the time. Seeing it was time for him to get up, he stubbornly flopped back down and snuggled back into his boyfriend. Cali laughed lightly at Jim's actions, understanding his want to stay in the warm bed in the other's embrace, but he sat up and went to get out of bed, having noted the time as well. However, his movement was stopped when two strong arms wrapped themselves around his waist and held on tightly, not letting him move.

Sighing in amusement, Cali looked down at his sleepy partner with a brow raised, "Love, we both have classes, I need to get up."

"No." came the mumbled reply making Bones laugh loudly.

Rolling his eyes, Cali accepted that he wasn't going to get to move for a moment and smiled casually as Bones, "Where were you last night?" He knew that Bones often stayed over in Sulu's spare room, who lived not too far from campus with his husband and young daughter, whenever Jim and Cali planned to use the room. But he knew he had no reason to avoid his dorm room last night.

Bones smiled back in amusement at Cali and the lump that was attached to him, "I had a date."

"Congrats, were they nice?" Cali asked instantly with a happy and caring smile. He had been told about the man's divorce that caused him to come to the academy, it having been brought up when he questioned the older man's nickname, so he was especially glad to find out he was finally moving on with his love life.

Bones nodded, mumbling a light "she was", appreciating Cali's tact in comparison to Jim's usual responses, who often made light-heartedly fun of him. At the little reply, Cali smiled again before looking back at his lump, trying to work out how to get out of his embrace. Luckily, Bones saved him from thinking for too long. "Jim, for God's sake, stop acting like a child and let Cali go." He scolded, though in a light tone, shaking his head at his roommate's behaviour.

Groaning in annoyance, Jim finally loosened his arms and flopped onto his back to sulk. The other two shared a look as they shook their heads and rolled their eyes in amusement at his display. Finally free, Cali stood up fully, though leaned down quickly after to kiss Jim, snapping him out of his sulking immediately. "I'm gonna run to my room to change, see you after lessons?" Cali asked as he stood back up. Jim hummed in response as he stretched to try and wake himself up. "Okay, good luck with your assignment, love you."

Cali gave one final smile down at his partner who managed to mumble out a sleepy but meaningful "Love you too," back before Cali turned to Bones.

"Bye Bones,"

"See ya Cal."

With that, Cali left to run home, wanting to shower and change since he'd ended up falling asleep in his uniform from the previous day, too tired the night before to bother changing into one of Jim's spare shorts like he usually did when he stayed round.

~~*~~

By four, Cali was sitting on his sofa, reading a book on his PADD. He'd finished his day of lessons and was waiting for Jim to come round to hang out as they had planned earlier. He had changed from his uniform now, deciding on some black ripped jeans, black semi-formal shoes, a white shirt with the long sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his favourite grey waist jacket over it all. Both the jacket and top couple of buttons on the shirt were unbuttoned making his more formal choice in clothes look a lot more casual and attractive. He'd also decided to do his hair different. Rather than having it down like usual, Cali had the front sides tied into a tail behind his head.

He had just turned the page of his book when the apartment's front door opened behind him. Placing his head on the back of the sofa and leaning up, he spotted his partner grinning in the doorway, leaning against the frame casually. He was also now changed from his uniform and had opted for a grey shirt under a leather jacket with trainers and similar jeans. Cali had given him the key to his place a while ago, figuring they were close enough that he shouldn't have to knock every time. "Hey love." Cali smiled, sitting up and placing his PADD down, but not before saving the page.

Jim shook his head slightly in amusement at his boyfriend as he entered the flat, closing the door behind him and leaning over the back of the couch next to Cali. "Hey Cal." He replied, leaning in, and kissing him on the cheek making both of them smile. "How was your day?"

"Good, had Vulcan studies in the morning, then Klingon and Language Study." Cali answered, shifting sideways on his seat so he was actually facing his partner who was still stood behind him, "How'd you do on the assignment?"

Jim paused for a moment, mind raced, thinking, before smiling lightly. "Only handed it in today, won't be getting the results back for a couple of weeks, the professor has to run the programs and mark them all. Long process." He explained with a slight speed to his tone making Cali laugh. "Which reminds me," Jim smiled more confidently, "I owe you dinner."

Cali smiled again, brightly, but still shook his head, "You know you don't have to, I'm just glad I could help."

"I know I don't have to," Jim replied quickly, leaning back down so he was closer to Cali, "But I want to." When Cali still looked a little hesitant to accept, Jim smiled more, trying to get him to agree, "Come on, let me spoil my boyfriend."

Rolling his eyes in amusement, Cali finally nodded in agreement, "Fine, just this once."

"Oh no, now you've agreed, I'm gonna do it forever. We'll be old and grey on my starship and I'll still be spoiling you." Jim joked with his usual smirk, making Cali blush.

It may have been a joke, but Jim had been thinking about a future together, Cali realised with shock. He wasn't used to his partners ever thinking past the first year with him, assuming it would end by then, but Jim actually wanted to be there old and grey. It made his heart leap. "Well," he started, trying to steady his racing heart at the realisation, "I already am grey, so I've got a head start there." He joked, lifting up a stray lock of his wavy hair as an example.

Jim shook his head in amusement, "Yeah, true. But I've got the head start on the old bit so we're even."

"You're only three years older than me!" Cali laughed.

"Oi, respect your elders." Jim smirked, standing up straight smugly with his arms crossed.

"Like you respect Bones?" Cali asked with an equally smug smirk making Jim's falter.

"Anyway!" He announced loudly, making Cali laugh at his victory, "We're getting off topic, let's go before it gets too late."

Cali nodded, standing up and making his way round the large corner sofa to Jim's side, "Of course love, let's go."

~~*~~

Cali and Jim got to the restaurant at about half past four that evening. Since it was a nice night out, still fairly light due to the time of year, the couple decided to take a seat on the outside tables. As soon as they arrived, Cali recognised people around the table, some from just around, others from his classes. He put such a fact to the back of his mind as they took their seat and Jim held his hand over the table.

Shortly after seating themselves, a waiter came over to take their order. Jim ordered for them, though Cali tips in for drinks, deciding on a large pizza to share with a portion of chips each, a coke for Jim and water for Cali. While Cali had programmed some Donum recipes into his personal replicator in his apartment, there weren't any in the main system for him to order from. Either way, he had experimented with multiple different planets foods when he first left his planet and had found that he quite liked a lot of Earth food.

The food and drinks arrived quickly and the two started eating, happily conversing as they did.

Although Jim was unaware of it, Cali noticed the familiar faces of his class watching him and Jim. He ignored them to the best of his ability at first, even after he overheard them start talking among themselves about him.

The couple had almost finished their meal when it got harder to ignore as the group of classmates as they decided to purposefully start talking louder about him, making Jim aware of it.

"He's such a slut." One of them said, in an almost annoyed tone, eyes focused on Cali and his table.

"I know right?" Another answered, sounding much more amused and mocking than the last, "Fucking the commander and that poor sod."

When he first heard the talking from the other table, Jim didn't realise they were talking about Cali, not having recognised the voices and them not having specified his name. However, upon hearing more and able to see Cali's eyes betraying their effect on him more and more as they continued talking, constantly flicking over to the table behind Jim, Jim worked out exactly who they were talking about.

He almost couldn't control the rage bubbling in him at the assholes who would dare say such things about Cali. He was about ready to get up and say something when Cali noticed Jim's change.

"Ignore them." He whispered catching Jim's attention who turned his angry eyes onto Cali, though his anger wasn't really aimed at him.

"What?" Jim questioned in disbelief. Was Cali really just gonna let them talk about him like that?

"Ignore them." He repeated, meeting Jim's eyes making his partner able to see the rising fatigue clearly visible even through his calming smile, "They're not worth it."

Jim couldn't understand why Cali would say that. They were sat there laughing at him. Purposefully insulting him. And Cali wanted him to sit back and do nothing? "They might not be," Jim started, meeting Cali's wary blue eyes, "But you are."

Cali barely managed to call out Jim's name before he was turned around, glaring at the people on the other table who were still laughing, possibly even more now that they had gotten a reaction out of them.

"All of you shut the fuck up." Jim snapped, making the table quieten for a moment, even if their expressions stayed amused. "You don't know what the fuck you're talking about to stay out of it."

The table all started laughing again, even louder this time, finding Jim hilarious apparently making Cali feel worse about it all, his false smile finally beginning to strain. "Love, just leave it."

Unfortunately, the table latched onto Cali's words, one of them barking out loudly, "Love? Ha! Like inbred sluts like you can feel love!"

Cali's eyes widened immediately, feeling sick, as Jim was up on his feet in seconds, pure fury on his expression. "Jim..." Cali tried, but his wary voice was too quiet as Jim practically threw himself onto the man who had made the comment, punching him directly on the nose.

The crack of the bone breaking was like a drop of the pin as suddenly the whole table stood up to defend their friend.

"James. Stop!" Cali called, but the fight had started, Jim against the four people who had been insulting him. He quickly stood up but didn't join in. He wasn't a fighter, not having ever done any combat training, and knew he wouldn't be able to pull Jim away even if he tried. Feeling overwhelmed, he called to his partner again, trying to get him to stop but the shouts of the fight overpowered his calls.

Suddenly, a loud voice broke through the shouts and the fight froze, recognising the authoritative voice of a commander, even if Jim didn't recognise which one it was.

"What is going on here?" All the participants of the fight broke apart as they and Cali turned to look at Commander Spock, who was stood not too far way from them all, looking extremely unimpressed with what he had walked over to find.

Looking over all of the people of the fight with a critical eye, Spock was shocked to recognise them all but not as shocked as when his eyes spotted Caliaire stood close to the fight, obviously having been involved in the incident even if he wasn't fighting.

As his eyes looked him over, Cali felt his insides shuffling. Already feeling exhausted and sick, he didn't need Spock there. Especially as all of the others had now turned their eyes to watch Cali as well. He felt like he was a speck under a microscope as they all watched him, waiting for him to do something. He had, of course, been the unwillingly centre of the whole incident.

"I am not going to repeat myself." Spock spoke up again, his eyes momentarily looking over everyone before landing back on Cali again.

Feeling like he was going to cry, but also too tired to even try, Cali let out a small sigh before looking at the commander and smiling. Everyone could tell his smile was forced. It looked unnatural and made Spock frown, especially at the words that followed. "Nothing sir." Cali replied in as light of a tone as he could manage.

Jim quickly looked at Cali in disbelief and tried to speak up, to say something so that the people would get punished but Cali quickly snapped at Jim, repeating his words with a glare at his partner, successfully shutting him up. "Nothing," He tried to smile again, but only managed a slight grimace before giving up and looking away from the commander entirely, "sir."

Even though he was usually very good at it, it was obvious to everyone that Cali was lying.

Spock watched him for a moment longer, worried, before looking over everyone else. The people he recognised from his classes seemed to smile at him genuinely, as if nothing had happened, but the other man involved in the fight, who Spock now recognised upon closer inspection to be Cali's partner, seemed furious, but was biting his tongue. Making eye contact with Cali, who had looked back in his direction briefly.

Spock nodded. He knew that if it were any other cadet that he had found in the centre of such an incident, he would have pressed for an explanation. But seeing Caliaire looking so troubled, he let him play it off and dropped it. He trusted Cali. He knew he'd tell him later what had happened when there wasn't an audience. Looking towards those he had caught fighting, Spock spoke to them scoldingly, "You are Starfleet cadets, I expect for you to behave accordingly in the future." Giving one final look at Cali, telling him with his eyes that he does expect an explanation soon, Spock left the scene.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment, just watching the commander walk away. Once they were all certain that the commander was gone, the group turned to Jim and Cali looking even more smug and amused by the whole situation, "Good boy, keep your pets away from us."

Jim immediately turned to them again, going to defend Cali, but was interrupted by his hand being grabbed from behind. Turning his head, he made direct eye contact with Cali's dulled blue eyes. "Enough." He said in a tired tone, pulling on Jim's hand as he walked away from it all.

The group laughed at their retreating, calling taunting comments making Jim want to go back but Cali just tightened his grip on his hand and continued pulling him along. Jim tried to pull his hand out of his boyfriend's grip, still frustrated and angry, but Cali kept going, not looking back, until they were a great distance away.

~~*~~

With no one else to take his frustrations out on, Jim finally snatched his hand out of Cali's grip, almost making the tired man stumble as he was pulled backwards to a stop. "What the hell Cali?" Jim snapped, looking at his boyfriend in anger. He just couldn't understand why Cali hadn't defended himself.

"Leave it Jim," Cali said, just wanting to go home and forget about it all, too tired to even bother faking happy like he'd always been trained to do. "Please." He continued, his tone pleading and exhausted.

"No," Jim snapped, "Why didn't you say anything? To them? To the Commander? Why did you try to stop me? What they were saying about you!"

"Didn't matter." Cali sighed making Jim glare at him.

"Yes, they did! How can you say that?"

"Because it's true. People will always talk, it's what people do. There's no point getting upset over it." Cali replied, fatigue clear in his quiet and monotone voice, making direct eye contact with his partner.

Jim hadn't realised how tired Cali actually looked. It hurt him to see. He could clearly see that Cali was hurt by what was happening and he knew his boyfriend would never show such emotions if he could help it. It made him even madder that Cali was so resigned to his fate.

Shaking his head, Jim gave one final glare at him before storming off in the opposite direction, not saying another word. Cali watched him go silently. A part of him wanted to cry, but most just felt numb. Without saying another word, Cali turned around and walked away, going home to crawl under his fur blanket and hide from the world.

~~*~~

Do you hate me yet?

Don't worry. It get's worse.

Only two more chapters for Part One! We're so close to the end.