Sometimes, like so many of us, I think about "Shore Leave" and the absolutely buckwild opening scene with the cute young yeoman giving Kirk a back massage on the bridge of the ship in front of everyone while he very clearly thinks Spock is doing it. Barrows, the yeoman in question, gives Spock a hilariously dirty look when he steps forward enough for Kirk to realize she's the one dealing with his tension headaches migrating to his back and banishes her with obvious horror.
I feel two details are worth noting:
Barrows is not into Kirk at all, even in an impossible courtly pining à la Janice Rand way. She's actually into McCoy and responds to the interruption by urging Kirk to sleep more, the same concern that McCoy has apparently been kvetching about, which is honestly pretty cute to imagine them gossiping about.
It's pretty clear that the only reason Kirk finds out that it's her and not Spock massaging his back is because of Spock's intervention. And Barrows isn't jealous, she's just annoyed that she didn't get to finish platonically helping their over-stressed captain out because Spock couldn't stay where he was and keep his mouth shut for five minutes.
Barrows being one of the platonically ride-or-die women in Kirk's life does honestly make the scene even better. But I also wonder about, uh, literally every other person on the bridge at the time. Was it just too awkward for anyone to say anything? Are they so used to insane gay shit happening in front of their eyes that it was just Tuesday for them? Were they all part of Barrows's conspiracy of silence to help the captain after he's gone through the absolute wringer?? The world may never know.
("Shore Leave" was aired after "The Menagerie," "The Conscience of the King," and "Balance of Terror," so Kirk being pretty much just a wall of tension and muscle pain at this point tracks.)
