Fandom: Star Trek
Pairing/characters: Jim Kirk x reader, Coridanite officers, Montgomery Scott, Commander Kyle
Words: 608

It was a busy day in engineering. We had some Coridanite representatives onboard, transporting them from their planet to a space station where they were going to hold a conference on advanced warp theory, seeing as Coridanites were slightly more advanced than most Federation members, Earth in particular. Even so, they were very interested in how the Enterprise worked. Jim had been sceptical at first – he didn't want to reveal secrets about his ship, but Admiral Ainsworth insisted.

So, Jim had been wandering around the ship with them for a couple of days, playing the gracious host. They'd been down in engineering a few times and they asked all sorts of questions and – in my opinion – really disrupted the workday.

I knew they'd be down again today, and I was going to open up one of our sensor probes and see if I couldn't increase the range of it for the mission we were going on after we dropped off the Coridanites. I needed to concentrate and knew it would be hard with them walking around. So that morning, I dug out a pair of old headphones from deep in my closet, loaded them with one of my favourite Klingon operas and went off to work.

It was much easier to work like this, being surrounded by the grand symphonies and the dramatic singing, not hearing anything of what was going on around me. I did get some weird looks from a few of the other officers, but I ignored it. They're just jealous, I thought to myself.

I was losing myself in my work, the insides of the sensor probe laid out around me on the floor and the desk, a few tools within reach. I was connecting my PADD to the sensor's computer to run some simulations when there was a tap on my shoulder. I started and nearly dropped the PADD, probably made a noise too, but I couldn't be sure, as the Klingon singer in my ears was reaching the height of the song.

Spinning around, I saw Jim standing there with an amused look on his face, the Coridanites behind him looking puzzled. I promptly removed the headphones and stood up. "Captain Kirk. Officers." I nodded in greeting. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"At ease, Lieutenant. Our visitors were just curious about the noise coming from this corner." He nodded towards the headphones on the desk.

"Oh, my apologies." I looked towards the Coridanites and spoke to them. "I'm working on something that requires my complete focus, and listening to my favourite music helps."

"It's Klingon opera," Jim explained with a slight shake of his head.

"Yes, I recognized the screaming," one of the Coridanite officers said. "How can you work in that noise?"

"Is it very audible to the rest of the room?" I was suddenly afraid I had bothered my fellow officers all day.

"We don't mind," Commander Kyle shot in as he walked past, balancing what looked like ten PADDs in his arms. I smiled at him in thanks.

"We should move on. Commander Scott promised to show us the warp core," Jim said, pointing towards Scotty, waiting by the door. As the Coridanites headed towards the Chief Engineer, Jim lingered. "I know they have some questions about the warp drive that I think you will be able to answer better than most, would you join us for lunch later?"

"Sure." I reached for my headphones, ready to get back to work.

"Also," he leaned in closer to whisper in my ear, "You're insane, but I love it." He kissed my cheek quickly, winked and was off.