[ CHAPTER ONE — FIRST KISSES. ]

SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2249 | 16 YEARS LATER

❝ she was my first kiss. i remember the taste of her mouth - cherry flavored - and i've loved cherries every since. ❞

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Faye held her the strap of her backpack on her shoulder as she nudged the potted plant by the door with her foot. She found the spare key of the Kirk household and picked it up, glancing over her shoulder once again to make sure Jim's stepdad wasn't home. His mother was off-planet, and regardless, Faye missed Winona more than anything. She stuck the key into the knob, unlocking the door, and slipped inside without a word. Shutting the door behind her, she locked it, and then put the key on the couch. She walked to the stairs and called out for Jim, her best friend ever since she could remember.

"Jim!" She yelled, her curly hair tumbling into her eyes. She pushed them away as her hand touched her velvet choker, before she heard him call from upstairs.

"I'm up here, Faye!" He yelled back, and she jogged up the stairs, turning the corner sharply and walking to his room. She pulled her shoes off out of habit, and knocked on his open door. His dark blonde hair peeked out from under his blanket as he sat up, his lips pulling in a wide smile. "Hey, Fairy."

"Hey, dork," She teased, a smile on the edge of her lips as he waved her closer before pulling her into a hug. He buried his nose on the side of her face, the smell of coconut oil in her hair hitting his nose. He nuzzled her cheek, enough to send heat to fill her face, before he pulled away, brushing the curls that had fallen astray in her eyes. Speaking of her eyes, they pulled him in like the mass pools of spilled, melted chocolate that they were, and she blinked them at him so innocently, that his heart stirred in his chest, making him hate what he was going to ask of her.

She sat on the edge of his bed as she has always done, pulling her backpack from her shoulders, before she gave a white teeth teenage grin, and he couldn't help but to return it to her. 

"How's your stepdad reacting to his car being at the bottom of a cliff?" She asked, pushing her glasses back on the bridge of her nose. He chuckled softly, before pulling them from her face and folding them neatly to return back to her pocket. Her eyes ferociously blinked, attempting to adjust to the change in sight and in light. Her smile grew teasingly and playful, as she reminisced on two days prior when he had taken his stepdad's car for a joyride, which led to them having to jump off the back of it to keep from falling in the cliff with it.

"He called my mom," Jim scoffed, a smile on his face. "He got so red, he couldn't breath!" Jim broke into laughter as did Faye, who fell back on his bed, her curls of hair falling like a halo around her head. Jim laid beside her as they settled down from their laughing fit, their fingers brushing and causing the somewhat innocent teens' faces to fill with red.

Their heads turned from the ceiling to face each other, as they both took a deep breath and smiled at their chosen companion.

"I can imagine it," Faye said slowly, batting her eyelashes. Jim had always liked the way she had done that, whether it was from fighting sleep or just her being herself. Her strawberry colored lips peeled to reveal the dimples in her cheeks,  a feature he had always found hard to resist, especially when she wanted him to do something for her. He had always jumped to her every need nearly, but that was only because she did the same for him.

He hoped this would be no different.

Faye took a deep breath, and Jim watched as she closed her eyes, before she peeked one open to look at him. At that, he took his fingers and dragged them across the soft flesh of her stomach, exposed by the slight rise of her shirt. She laughed instantly, her face scrunching upward as she giggled all too hard for her own good at his tickling. "Jim!" She yelled, throwing her head back in forced elation.

"That's my name, Fairy," He laughed, his fingers slowing to a halt on her skin as she took deep breaths, trying to force air into her lungs faster than it was going.

"What do you want?" She said each word individually as she attempted to breath a little better each time. He dragged his finger down her cheek, before she narrowed her eyes playfully at him. Suddenly, she had raised her body like a viper and straddled him, her fingers ferociously tickling his sides. Jim let out a loud shriek which caused Faye to laugh as he began to laugh, his body shaking with each one. She cleared her throat, clearly pronouncing each word individually again. "What. Do. You. Want?" She asked him, her eyes narrowed.

Her fingers slowed their tickling, as he panted for air, shifting slightly to sit up on his elbows. Faye moved down on his lap, causing him to notice her tanned skin from the Ohio sun, exposed by the shorts she had undoubtedly worn to school and her job of three months. 

"You going to the homecoming dance?" He asked, exhaling a deep breath.

"Maybe," Phaedra said, rolling her shoulders back. "Why?"

Jim didn't want to tell her about he was interested in asking Nicole, a girl in their grade, to go with him. Really, he just knew he wanted to kiss Nicole's lips because of a bet he made, but unfortunately, he had zero experience in the kissing department. And because Phaedra had always been his friend, he didn't think that asking her this one favor would change anything.

Or at least he was hoping this wouldn't change anything.

"I need a favor." He started, causing her to flick a neat brow upward. 

"What do you need?" She asked, her facial features relaxing as she looked down at him, pushing her curls out of her eyes.

"I need you to teach me how to kiss," Jim said after a few moments of hesitation, sending Faye into a soft laughing fit.

"James Kirk needs me to teach him how to kiss? I thought you had your first kiss already." She told him, a smug smirk on her lips.

"That was a lie." Jim said, his ego deflating by the second.

"Thought so." Phaedra said, rolling her shoulders. She closed her eyes as if to meditate on his request. "What's in it for me?"

"What do you want?" Jim asked, willing to agree with her on nearly anything. He really wanted to impress Nicole.

"Dinner. My favorite food and dessert. Also, I'd like a movie." Phaedra said, looking down at her nails and then flicking her eyes up to look at his face. "Problem?"

"No," Jim said, sighing. "Does that mean you'll help me?"

"No, it means I'm going to ship you overseas in a box," Faye said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Yes, James, I'll help you. Sit up," She told him. She raised a brow, biting into his lip. 

Jim's heart did an uneven pitter-patter in his chest as she did so. He had never really liked it when other girls did it, but when Phaedra did it, she made it a totally different story. 

"Why did you ask me?" She asked, pulling her cherry chapstick out of her pocket and uncapping it. 

"Because I trust you, you're smart, and you're a girl." He said nervously, red creeping up on his face.

"All those things are correct, fortunately for you," Phaedra said, laying her chapstick on top of her bag. She patted his thighs, telling him to sit up. She sat comfortably on his lap as he sat up completely, his eyes looking down into hers now that their height was uneven again.

"What first, teach?" He grinned widely.

"Well, first, you lean in a little bit - not too fast or you'll scare whoever you're kissing off." She spoke, wrapping her arms around Jim's neck loosely. 

"Should I touch you?" He asked nervously, suddenly aware of his hair sticking up and the fact that he had just eaten an apple an hour prior and hoped his breath didn't taste too much like it. He hoped he didn't have apple in his teeth either, and flashed her a nervous smile.

"No," She said shortly, focusing her eyes on his. "Lean in," and he did so at her order, the tips of their noses barely brushing. "Now tilt your head a little," Faye added. Jim tilted his head all the way to the side and she laughed softly, before fixing his angle by cupping his cheeks. "Alright. Now, you can cup her chin, or not. But some girls like it when you guide them to what you want."

"Do you like being guided?" Jim asked curiously, only to get the shrug of her shoulders for an answer. He sighed softly, just as she added for him to do it gently.

"Now just try," Phaedra told him, her eyes slightly hooded by her eyelashes. Jim nodded once, his nose hooking underneath Faye's. His lips nearly brushed his, but he pulled his mouth away. He remembered to gently rest his fingers under her chin and let his thumb slip down to rest under her chin. He felt the warmth of her skin against his own pulse and shivered to himself. The cause of said shiver, however, he wasn't sure.

Their lips brushed once, both of them unsure as to who should move first, and their lips hovered over the others, Jim's warm breath tickling Faye's nose. She giggled softly, causing him to move away.

"I'm sorry," She laughed, before sobering up. "Your breath tickled a little. Try again."

"Fairy," He grumbled, before she relaxed, causing him to lean in a little more, before their lips finally touched. Her nose dipped  under his and her fingers instinctively brushed the nape of his neck, sending shivers down his spine. Jim was suddenly aware that Phaedra's lips were on his, and that they were soft as pillows and that she tasted of cherries. He had always liked cherry pie, and she was a reminder of that. His hands after a second slid to her waist, and she pulled him closer by the front of his shirt, before they pulled away to catch their breath.

"You kiss like tha-" Faye started, interrupted by Jim's lips back on hers. Her fingers traveled to his hair, her body sliding back as he leaned up more, before she fell on her back, her pupils dilated and her cheeks burning as if they were scorched by the sun. 

Jim wasn't sure if he was fueled by confidence or hormones, but maybe it was a little bit of both. He leaned down and hovered his mouth over hers, her lips trembling in uncertainty as he did so. He kissed her again, trying to get the last of the cherry taste of her lips. When he was done, he looked down at the flustered girl, who stared at him with dilated eyes.

"You taste like cherries," He remarked, causing her to turn away to blush.

Phaedra's head was pounding in thought, as she rubbed her cheek with the back of her knuckles. She thought it was insane what she would do for a friend, and began to ponder how in the hell she allowed herself to get so exposed to let him kiss her beyond the point of teaching and causing her to actually enjoy it.

He was her best friend!

She shouldn't have liked it as much as she did, but she grabbed the front of his shirt again and pulled him down, not noticing him grabbing her cherry chapstick and stuffing it in his pocket when they kissed again. Jim didn't want her to have to share the same cherry flavored he had began to love all over again with anyone else. He wanted to keep it selfishly to himself.

But the teenage girl noticed when he kissed Nicole the following weekend, just like Faye had taught him, after he had asked Faye to keep practicing with him for the rest of the week; after he asked Phaedra to go to the homecoming dance with him. She tried not to take it to heart, but she felt her heart break behind her sternum.  She should've been dancing happily with her best friend in her nice silver dress but instead, she had taken to the nearest bathroom stall with tears in her eyes as she called for Kitra to pick her up. She had told Kitra that she felt sick instead of the truth. Her fingers had clinched into fists, and when she returned home early that night, refusing to cry over a broken heart, instead, letting it wallow in her shattered chest, she glanced to the letter from the Starfleet Academy that she was going to decline going to early because of him and started to pack her bags.

And Jim had the nerve to wonder Monday morning where was his best friend. He wanted to tell her, thank her even for helping him to snag Nicole as his girlfriend, but when she was a no show, Nicole threw a fit when he wanted to stay outside and wait longer for Faye to show up. She eventually threatened to break up with him, and carried out her promise when he didn't budge from his and Phaedra's meeting place under the tree in the back of the school.  

Little did he know his best friend was 2,114 miles away, refusing to think about him, but that didn't mean she wasn't carrying their picture in the bottom of her bag. The sheer thought of Jim made her heart ache all the way to her toes. She didn't want to think about him, or even take his worried calls, sticking to listening to his desperate voicemails. 

Jim had to find out from his mother and Kitra that Phaedra was gone.  Gone off to Starfleet Academy, where she was nearly one of the youngest cadets there, where she was taking the basic classes of xenolinguistics and command while she was working and writing essays to get into the medical school at Starfleet. 

She had expected Jim of all people not to break her heart, but she realized her expectations were too high. She figured she should have seen it coming of all things. Faye only hated herself for not seeing it coming and leaving herself too vulnerable to shield her heart. She hated herself for bringing the picture of him along with her to remind her every second that she saw it of how he had broken her heart.

He didn't know it was all his fault. He didn't understand that he was the reason why she wouldn't take his calls. He didn't know that Phaedra had felt discarded when he chose a girl that dumped him two days later over her. But he would soon learn to regret it when he saw Faye again and realized what he had done.

NOTES ¬ 

Young Phaedra is played by Amandla Stenberg. Comment and send me love, I live on that! Next chapter, we will get into the beginning of Star Trek where Uhura meets Jim, and Faye will be meeting Jim again, after some serious time away. I'm excited for this next chapter.