say it back

"Bones was trying to tell me that...well, he said you did what you did because you loved me, hard as it was for him to admit. Now, I told him that that didn't sound very Spock-like to me. Wouldn't you agree?"

Hopeful denial gave simultaneously gently disarming and fiercely supplicating eyes. Of course, it didn't matter exactly what had been done. It never really did.

"On the contrary, Captain. I can find no pursuit or state more central to my being. Such a state of care has embedded itself, or rather has always been embedded, in my very essence."

"So you love me." A grin, perhaps.

"I did not say that, Jim."

"Well, why not?"

"I found my description to be..."

"More romantic? Now that seems to be the least Spock-like of all."

He was met with a highly characteristic eyebrow.

"On the contrary?"

"Affirmative."

"Love you too, Spock."