I've been having this stint of writer's block where all my writing just feels wicked forced, so I went and checked out the Mirrorverse kink meme. I don't know if I'm cured, but at least I wrote something.

Title: Until I Drown
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy, Kirk/McCoy/OFC
Word Count: 2,641
Warnings: Mirrorverse, threesome, murder, Orion slaves
Summary: For this prompt at the ISS Enterprise Kink Meme 2.0: McCoy realizes he'll do anything for Kirk.

+++

Risa is hell in a pretty package, so it's no wonder that Kirk brings his crew there for their first official shore leave.

Two weeks of sand and sun and sin. McCoy likes the way the esses roll off his tongue.

He likes even more the way the Orion slave's tongue slides along his cock, her lips looking even more green as she swallows him down.

"I knew you'd like her, Bones," comes Kirk's voice. He's in an armchair facing the bed, drinking McCoy's bourbon while casually giving commands to the Orion. Kirk's the one that found her, bought her for the evening, had decided that McCoy needed to relax. He rises, stretching languidly, pulling off his clothes one by one, and McCoy can't help but roll his eyes when he sees that Kirk's hard. McCoy thinks he gets off on control more than anything else.

McCoy's laid out on the bed, the Orion straddling his knees, working his cock the way Kirk had ordered - enough to keep McCoy interested but not enough to get him off. Kirk's hands look so bright against her murky skin as he raises her hips to fuck her, the Orion's moans sending vibrations through McCoy's cock.

"Make him come." Kirk's voice is low. "Make him come and swallow every last drop."

McCoy's eyes screw shut as the Orion starts doing this thing with her tongue that has him arching off the bed, his movement pushing Kirk deeper into her, making her groan again, the combination so intense that McCoy registers Kirk talking but doesn't know what he's told the slave until McCoy feels a slender finger pushing into his ass, massaging his prostate. McCoy opens his eyes, a protest on his lips, bending his knees to kick Kirk away for giving the command, but McCoy's too entranced by the roll of Kirk's hips, the sheen of sweat on his skin, the way his eyes look with his pupils dilated with lust.

Kirk smirks down at him, that cocky bastard, the Orion between them nearly forgotten, and that's when McCoy comes with a grunt, thoughts melting away as the Orion's cheeks hollow out to swallow his orgasm, perfectly obeying Kirk's order.

Kirk comes like he does everything else in life - loud and obnoxious, yet perfect, and if McCoy wasn't too blissed out and satisfied, he would wonder what that means.

Instead he drifts to sleep, knowing that Kirk won't kill him, and trusting him to get rid of the Orion before her pheromone levels get too high.

+

McCoy wakes up to what sounds like dead meat being thrown into the wall. His first conscious thought is that he's more or less right as an Orion male pulls himself out of the hole in the wall. His second is that there's two other Orion males crowding Kirk into a corner, and they haven't seemed to notice McCoy yet.

His medkit is across the room, too far for him to get to it and load a hypospray without being noticed, but he can see Kirk's phaser sticking out from under the bed.

He slides quietly to the floor, crouching low with his weight on the balls of his feet. McCoy stays still for a few breaths, watching the third Orion join the other two before raising a fist, bringing it down on Kirk's clavicle, and based on the crack, breaking it, rendering his left arm useless, but Kirk doesn't make a sound. This seems to anger the Orions, who bark at each other in their own tongue before taking turns pummeling Kirk, so distracted by trying to get a response that they don't notice the whine of the phaser powering up until McCoy's shot one in the back, killing him instantly, but only hitting the second in the shoulder as the Orion turns when McCoy fires. He charges and McCoy shoots, hitting him three times before the Orion falls dead, but that gives the third one plenty of time to get to McCoy, knocking the phaser out of his hand, and throwing McCoy into the wall.

He's dazed, seeing lights after the back of his head connected, but all he can think about is how Kirk's slumped on the floor, not moving.

McCoy sees blue out of the corner of his eye, glancing to see his uniform still laying in the heap he had left it in earlier when Kirk had shown up with the Orion slave girl. The remaining Orion is advancing on him, and McCoy knows he has to move quickly, reaching for his crumpled uniform, smiling darkly when his hand wraps around the handle of the knife that's usually strapped to his leg.

He stands with all the speed he can muster, trying to ignore the vertigo as McCoy brings the blade up, plunging it into the soft underside of the Orion's jaw, angling it just so to severe the spinal cord, and the Orion collapses bonelessly to the floor.

McCoy grabs the nearest communicator, running to Kirk, putting a hand to his neck to feel Kirk's pulse running steady beneath his fingertips. "McCoy to Enterprise - two to beam to sickbay, now!"

+

McCoy doesn't even register that he's still naked until Kirk's been stabilized. He pulls on clean scrubs that he finds in his office, mind racing over Kirk's concussion and the possibility that his left arm won't return to full mobility even after all the bone and tissue and nerve regenerators have done their jobs.

It's not difficult for McCoy to figure out what happened. The Enterprise isn't the only Imperial ship taking leave on Risa right now, and Kirk has a lot of enemies, too many captains and commanders that think they deserve the Enterprise more than a once proven kid. The Orion girl just needed to let one of them know that she had information worth paying a lot of credits for, offer to take care of Kirk for an additional fee, and no one would know who paid her.

Well, McCoy has ways of finding out.

He leaves sickbay for his own quarters, orders the skeleton staff out, and puts it on complete lockdown. McCoy's not going to risk anyone getting in to try and assassinate Kirk while McCoy's not there. The lockdown also keeps Kirk from leaving should he wake up before McCoy returns, but he's supposed to stay sedated until the regenerators have finished working, which should be longer than McCoy will take.

McCoy changes into regulation black pants but instead of the blue vest or shirt, he pulls on a black one that doesn't boast any insignia. He'll attract attention of his own if he looks important, and he doesn't want that.

He pulls a safe out of his closet, entering his authorization code to reveal the hypospray vials inside. McCoy takes the two he needs, sticking them in a medical bag.

He heads to the transporter room, asking to be beamed back to the hotel room, which the ensign does without question. McCoy only notices the Orion blood streaking the side of his face when he passes the room's mirror as he goes to grab Kirk's phaser and his own knife. He considers leaving it, but McCoy doesn't want to attract too much attention, so he scrubs his face clean before heading to the bar he had left Kirk at earlier in the evening.

The Orion girl's still there, stupid enough to still be cruising the same bar, but between Kirk and whoever wanted him dead, McCoy thinks this bar's earned her a lot of money for the evening. Or she's waiting for her thugs to come back and hasn't realized yet that something's gone wrong. It's only been an hour since McCoy woke up to the struggle.

McCoy watches from the shadows, waiting for her to leave or at least go somewhere that's quieter. He doesn't need an audience for what he has planned.

+

Eventually she heads to the bathroom, which is enough for McCoy, who follows her a minute later, loads a hypospray as he walks, and kicks open a stall to see her clutching a comm, leaving a message that sounds angry even though McCoy can't understand the words.

"I remember you," she says smoothly, leaning against the divider and spreading her legs, staring at McCoy through her eyelashes. "I do not give discounts if you want another fuck."

McCoy puts a hand on her neck, forcing her to look up as he crowds her space, pressing the hypospray for her to feel against her neck, but not releasing the drug. "The three of your kind that you sent to kill us are dead." McCoy can practically feel her pheromone levels rising, but he's already in a dangerous mood, so her attempt to spike his adrenaline isn't affecting him. He keeps his voice cold, flat. "I know how you Orions work; the females are sold into slavery, but it's just a matter of time before you gain control of the males who bought you. That's three down. How many do you have left?"

"Why should that matter?"

"It matters because the drug I have against your neck will block pheromone production. Not permanently, but long enough for any remaining males you control to lose the effects, and only one of them needs to be pissed off enough to kill you." McCoy tightens his grip slightly, enough to keep her from getting enough oxygen to struggle, but he doesn't need her passing out. "I'm going to ask you once. Who paid you to kill Captain Kirk?"

One of the few intelligent things, McCoy thinks, about Orions is that they are willing to do anything to survive. "Commander Harris," is her ground out reply.

McCoy releases her, putting away the serum while she's gasping on her feet, and she doesn't notice him reloading the hypospray until she makes a sound of protest when the drug is released into her system. She falls unconscious, long enough for him to get away without her following.

McCoy knows that Harris is the first officer of the ISS Excalibur. The man had probably expected his own ship after Pike's promotion to admiral, had his sights set on the Enterprise, and like so many others in the Empire, was embittered by Kirk's promotion.

He leaves the bar, thinking Harris couldn't have gone far if he's still waiting to hear from the Orion if Kirk's actually dead or not.

McCoy nearly laughs as he walks back to his room and realizes he's being shadowed. He stops, pretending to read the menu in a restaurant window, silently urging the man following him to get within arm's reach, and it's all too easy when he reuses the hypospray, tranquilizing none other than the commander himself.

+

McCoy's sitting in the armchair that Kirk had been in just hours earlier, twirling the knife in his hands as he waits for Harris to wake up. The man comes to with a pathetic groan, his attempt to sit up halted by the leather belts that McCoy had taken off the dead Orions to tie Harris down.

Harris stares dumbly at the three dead Orions before taking in McCoy, recognition dawning in his eyes. "You're the doctor who spent eight days in an agony booth for getting Kirk on the Enterprise." He narrows his eyes, like he's trying to see McCoy better in the low light. "The talk amongst the fleet is that there's something wrong with you, how you'd do anything for Kirk, like you're in love with him or something." Harris snorts out the word love like it's the best joke he's ever heard.

He's baiting, McCoy knows, trying to get a reaction out of him, any reaction, because it would mean a loss of control where Harris would gain an edge. But McCoy knows the game he's trying to play, and it isn't working. Mostly because, though, McCoy realizes it's true. He would do anything for Kirk and not just because of the power he could gain by staying at his side.

He's killed for Kirk. He would die for Kirk. He's obsessed with, addicted to the man, and now McCoy isn't just going to kill Harris for trying to have Kirk killed but also because he knows McCoy's weakness, and McCoy can't have that.

McCoy stands, having nothing to say as Harris knows what he's done, and McCoy feels like he's already wasted enough air for the both of them.

"No, wait, I can make you a deal!" Harris yells, thrashing against the restraints.

"You have nothing I want," McCoy responds, slitting Harris' throat quickly, expertly, watching the blood and breath bubble out of the cut as Harris chokes, gasps, before going still.

He grabs everything of his and Kirk's that was left in the room, finding the two duffles that had comprised of everything they'd need for two weeks of shore leave, and stuffs their discarded uniforms into the bags before once more hailing the ship to be beamed back.

He leaves the four bodies in the room as a warning that he knows Starfleet will receive when the Excalibur's captain has to claim the body of his first officer.

McCoy goes to his quarters instead of straight to sickbay, cleaning himself off with the sonics first.

+

It's three weeks of healing and physical therapy before McCoy believes that Kirk can handle himself.

McCoy's just returned to his quarters after finishing beta shift when he notices that Kirk is there waiting for him. McCoy catches the PADD thrown at him, looking at the message from Admiral Pike on the screen that Kirk seems to want him to read.

The message has been received. Thought you might want to know.

Attached were stills of the hotel room when the cops arrived, the scene gruesome in the light of day with the dead Orion males on the floor and the exsanguinated Starfleet commander on the bed.

"Something you want to tell me, Bones?" The use of his nickname for McCoy doesn't take the edge off Kirk's tone. It makes it more dangerous, somehow, how nonchalant he is trying to come across when really the worst thing to Kirk is a secret, those held against him by members of his crew and especially any McCoy might dare to keep from him.

"I killed the Orions and Commander Harris," he responds, which just seems to infuriate Kirk more.

"I know that! I want to know about the message Pike thinks I sent when it was really you."

McCoy steels himself. He can't lie; Kirk will be able to tell. So he has to tell the truth and hope that Kirk accepts it. "The message was…" he starts, pausing when Kirk rises from McCoy's desk to cross the room to the doorway McCoy has yet to step away from. Kirk doesn't stop until they're breathing each other's air, and McCoy hates how close they are in height, how it means he can't even be physically imposing during his confession. "The message was that I'll do anything to keep you safe."

"Anything?" Kirk asks, his mouth stretching into a smirk as his eyes have a dangerous shine to them.

"Anything," McCoy affirms, because he has no other choice. He'll even stand here and let Kirk kill him without a fight if that's what Kirk wants.

"Good," Kirk says, his tone suddenly light, and then he's backing McCoy into the wall, putting his hands on either side of McCoy's face before leaning forward to kiss him.

McCoy's lost in lips and teeth and tongue, wondering how long it's really been this he's been wanting instead of their shared fucks and threesomes. "Jim," he gasps, his body curling into Kirk's.

"I'm right here, Bones," Kirk says, pulling away to drop to his knees. "And it's all because of you."