The BLTS Archive - The Next Best Thing
by Midnight Topaz

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A/N: This takes place in the episode "Requiem for Methuselah". I never
understood how Kirk could have fallen for Rayna so quickly, so this is
my attempt to provide a possible reason why. You'll see it in my fic-
I don't think it was really love. It's before he knows that she's an
android. This is Kirk's first person POV, and it's unspoken slash.
Obviously, slash is a male/male romance pairing. If you're offended by
this, don't read the fic. There's nothing explicit anyway.

Oh, this is a double-drabble (200 words).

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek, Paramount, or any other
entity/company involved therein.

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Rayna. God, she's perfect. She's thoroughly and utterly beautiful. She
has a sharp intelligence, and there's an innate goodness about her
that's completely charming. She has dignified nobility that's
endearing instead of arrogant. And those are just a few of the
qualities that make her so appealing.

I find myself undeniably attracted to her- and I can admit to no one
but myself that it's for all the wrong reasons. I'm not attracted to
her because of who she is. . . 

But because she constantly reminds me of him.

She's so much like Spock in so many ways that sometimes it hurts to be
around her. Yet I can't stay away, even if I wanted to. Rayna is my
only link, fragile and twisted though it is, to anything or anyone
resembling the one person I ache to hold, to truly know. . .  so I 
cling to her all the more.

I live through her, trying to capture those elusive feelings of what
might be- or what might never be- between Spock and me. . .  even 
though I know that, in the end, the parallels are all only illusions 
without substance.

No, she may not be Spock. But she's the next best thing.

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The End