the rough childhood trio with their childhood pets. (each of these gets a couple sentences of variably cryptic context-- all up for interpretation, of course. in my head these are all bittersweet ^^)
i-chaya wasn't supposed to be at school, technically, but amanda had a talk with the teachers, and they concluded that it was logical to allow i-chaya to continue to accompany spock to school, when his performance showed such marked improvement when she was around.
sometimes, during intervals between lessons, which were always timed precisely for optimal development of social skills, spock would sit cross-legged in a corner of the schoolyard, and i-chaya would sink down onto the red sand beside him and nudge at his cheek with her damp nose, and spock would reach up into her coarse, thick coat and press his forehead into the safety of her fur until the stinging remarks of the other children would melt and fall away in the harsh vulcan sun.
"he's up there in the stars, jamie. whenever you feel like you're on your own, just look up at the night sky and count the stars. he would've been so proud of you."
james tiberius kirk read, once, that pigs were unable to look up at the sky. from then on, he made sure to prop all of the pigs on the farm up every so often, so that they could look at the stars with him. for his birthday, his mother knit him two matching sweaters with stars on the chest-- one for him, and the other for wilbur (the grandpiglet of the sow she tripped over a decade ago).
bones was raised, essentially, by the large, calico barncat who lived on the mccoys' farm. she had not been named, and she wouldn't let anyone else touch her-- only bones.
when he was a baby, she curled up beside him in his crib with her tail around his ankle to stop him from crawling out and hurting himself.
when he got older, on difficult days, she would grab him by the sock and drag him to the old rocking chair in the attic and curl up on his lap and bite at his fingers until he could bring himself to pet her, and then she would purr and purr as he stroked through her warm, soft fur and rocked himself better in the big rocking chair. if anyone tried to drag bones away, she would hiss and yowl and bat vehemently at the intruding hands until he could be left alone.
blakekathryn
kianamaiart
theartofmadeline
