I don't know how many of these there will be yet. They probably come out of me being forced to cook for myself for the first time, so don't read if you're really hungry!

Spock stepped back to appraise his handiwork. A vanilla layer cake, perfectly covered with an even, 0.25 centimeter coating of blue icing. At first the substance had been challenging to work with, but once he began thinking of it as a type of electronics paste, the process became easier. He surveyed the rec room around him, observing his crew mates at their respective tasks. Uhura was almost finished setting out the cutlery. Sulu and Chekov were putting up one last line of streamers. The doors opened and Scotty entered the room, taking slow, awkward steps, balancing a large bowl of some sort of beverage. There was a certain efficiency to their work that Spock found agreeable.

"I knew you would make this a flawless job, Mr. Spock." A familiar hand clapped him briefly on the shoulder, and Spock turned around to face the captain, who was examining the cake. "Clearly you've missed your calling as a pastry decorator."

Spock raised an eyebrow. "That is quite the exaggeration."

The captain looked up at Spock, and his smile widened. "Hold still – you've got some icing on your face." Most likely from when he had scratched his forehead approximately two minutes ago, knife still in hand, he thought.

But before Spock could react, the captain reached up and stroked his index finger along Spock's cheek, pulling back to reveal a dab of blue icing. He popped the finger in his mouth, then once again too fast and unexpected for Spock to protest, he scrubbed over the spot again to remove any traces. At the same time he pressed his other hand briefly against the back of Spock's neck, as though to prevent him from pulling away.

"There we are. Not so flawless after all, hmm?"

He shot Spock a mischievous smile, and then he was gone, hurrying off to check on something else before Spock could come up with a response.

Spock knew that as a Vulcan, he should be offended by the unwarranted physical contact, yet he had permitted it. He always seemed to permit things with Jim. The man was a walking extenuating circumstance.

He was still busy contemplating the issue few minutes later, so he was just as startled as Dr. McCoy when the CMO was greeted by a loud chorus of "Surprise!"

Spock shook his head before he joined the festivities, trying to clear a particular image out of his mind. There was no way the captain could have known that to Vulcans, licking one's finger is an obscenely erotic gesture.

Fluff fluffity fluff… XD

Also, Spock's P.O.V. is freaking hard. But I'm trying to practice for a longer fic I've been messing around with, so we'll see.