"Check mate," Jim announced, placing his piece down with a satisfied flourish.

Spock's eyebrow rose as he examined the board. "It would appear so."

"Is that jealousy I detect?" McCoy teased from the other side of Jim's quarters. He reclined in a chair, a bottle of bourbon beside him and a glass in his hand.

"Jealousy is a human emotion," Spock countered. "It is merely a rare occurrence that Jim should defeat me in a game of chess."

"I wouldn't say rare, exactly-" Jim protested.

"It has been ten years, two months, one week, three days, two hours, thirty-eight minutes, and five-point-two-three seconds since you last defeated me," Spock reported.

"I'd call that rare, Jim," McCoy agreed with Spock for once.

"We didn't play that much," Jim muttered half-heartedly.

"On average, we play at least one game every week," Spock corrected him.

McCoy produced another glass, filled it, and placed it in front of Jim. "Spock's right, Jim. I say you let it go and have a drink to celebrate your first victory in ten years and blah blah blah."

"Fine," Jim agreed, shooting a petulant glance at Spock.

Had he been fully human, Spock would have shaken his head, laughed victoriously, and taken a drink as well. Instead, he sat there with his eyebrow slightly raised, cleaning up the chess board and reflecting upon his relationship with these two humans.

They perplexed him endlessly with their emotions. McCoy's taunting, to phrase it as a human would, grated on his nerves, as did Jim's constant disregard for regulations. And yet, he could not deny he felt a bond with them, a bond he was nearly certain humans termed "friendship." It was not a concept he entirely understood, even though he had served with Jim and McCoy for several decades now, and humans in general even longer.

"You want to play him, Bones?" Jim inquired.

"God no. I'm a doctor, not a chess player."

"Come on," Jim coaxed.

As they devolved into a childish argument, Spock allowed himself the tiniest shake of his head.

He was clueless as to how he, a logical, practical Vulcan-human hybrid, had formed a bond with the sarcastic Georgian doctor and the enterprising captain. And yet, it was the one part of his life that he had never regretted.

And even now, lying on his deathbed over a century later, long after they had left his life, it remained the one part he had never regretted.