#rashes

During shore leave McCoy excepted little to no injuries that would need attention. But still, he stayed aboard the Enterprise- just in case. Both for the skeleton crew still working, and if something dire happened- and the medical help on the planet wasn't enough to take care of it- he would be there. Prepared. Just like always. Or, like he always tried to be.

So it came to him as a surprise when the sickbay doors whooshed open and the familiar sound of heavy footsteps and an echo of claws against the metal floor rang in his ears.

Turning around, the doctor was immediately about to scold Scotty for whatever ridiculous danger he'd gotten himself in now, but the man stopped when he saw the sight of the engineer.

Scotty had been practically kicked out the door by Kirk, put on mandatory shore leave due to excessive work. Whatever happened to him wasn't some ploy to get out. No, the Scotsman looked genuinely uncomfortable.

“Chris, Scotty. You're not looking so hot.” McCoy got up from his chair to come closer to the Firth, inspecting the damage. He got to see the man’s tail, and the sight made him gasp. “Shit, Monty! The hell did you do?”

“Spa lotion.” He grit out carefully.

Lotion… McCoy had to think for a few seconds before it clicked. Scotty’s skin was highly sensitive to anything non-natural. That included lotions, body rubs, so on and so forth. The man had to use a very special and ridiculously complicated soap to wash his own body, or else he'd break out into a rash. Just like now.

His whole tail was puffed up, each scale flared out from the inflamed skin underneath. If you looked the right way you could see the redness of it all- even more so that his scales had lost some color from the lack of nourishment the lotion oh so helpfully provided.

“Scotty, you know how sensitive you are.” The human had been through this rodeo before, so he carefully led him into a more secluded room where tubs were. They were mostly for regen, but they could be used for a full body soak to help with a rash.

“Ah ken,” Scotty nodded, looking heavily ashamed as he was given a sign to stop in his tracks, watching as McCoy walked away to grab some scissors. “But I dennea want ta’ be rude.”

“Avoiding a breakout is rude. Noted.” McCoy replied with some edge, frustrated how Scotty once again stuck out his own neck to make someone happy. He understood the whole “I don't want to piss off some alien race!” because that's a genuine and acceptable fear everyone had when around a new species, but these aliens weren't new. They've been partners with the Federation for a while now.

The Firth huffed. “That's not wha-”

“Just stay still.”

Scotty frowned but shut his mouth as the doctor carefully pulled away his shirt, and started to cut it away. They'd both learned the hard way that trying to remove clothing when flared up like this just resulted in discomfort and some scales flaking off. As the shirt was sliced, it gracefully fell off and reached the floor in a pile.

Then came the pants. Scotty stayed still as they were cut away, ignoring some embarrassment he felt. “Well it looks like you at least wore a towel.” McCoy said aloud as he saw the inflammation lessened around the edges of the engineer’s knees.

“Course I did. I know better than to show myself off when I've got a perfectly good grumpy doc’tr on the ship.”

That made the southern man lock eyes with Scotty. His brows furrowed. “Almost your entire body is covered in a rash, yet you think this is prime time to butter me up.” The Firth smiled just a little, his eyes looking hopeful. McCoy ignored him and instead walked over to a large storage container, pulling open a cabinet and retrieving a tub of… Something. Then came a smaller container, and the cabinet was closed. “Get in.”

Deciding to not poke anymore, Scotty obeyed. He carefully lowered himself into the bathtub, hissing softly as his scales and skin screamed at the discomfort of touching the cold hardness of the bathtub. Thankfully the doctor was close behind, uncapping the larger of the two containers and started to pour it in.

It was cold, smelt something like aloe, but it needed to happen. It spilled out for a while longer until it was replaced with the other chemical, which smelt much better. Instead of the usual regen green most people would see, the slushy chemicals Scotty was laying in shifted to a soft blue hue from the reactant. Feeling the relief, Scotty mumbled an ashamed yet thankful “thank you” as McCoy walked away to put the contents back into the cabinet.

When McCoy came back he hunkered down close to the tub. “Feel better now?”

Scotty gave a nod. “Aye. Sorry ye had to do this. I know it's a hassle, n I should've-”

He was cut off by a pair of hands cupping his face, and lips against his own. Being silenced by a kiss wasn't the most unpleasant thing, in fact Scotty found himself relaxing. When McCoy pulled away he was still glaring, but his cheeks were flushed ever so slightly. “Don't apologize. Yes, you're an idiot for letting this happen, but then I wouldn't have the alone time with you. I should be thankful for your stupidity.”

“It's nea stupidity, it's trying ta b-” He was cut off again by another kiss, this one hungry. Scotty felt a slight yank of his hair, which made him gasp in surprise. It was obviously planned as McCoy used it to his advantage to deepen the kiss. The engineer was reeling, dragged along by the ferocity of the human. Before he could reach up and touch McCoy back, the doctor pulled away from the kiss.

“Touch me with your gel covered hands and I'll cut them off.”

Scotty happily let his hands fall back into the gel, the inflamed scales cooling back off. “I cannea tell if ye love or hate me right now, Len.”

“Both. God, both. You're such a selfless man that you'll allow yourself to develop a rash just because you don't want to seem impolite. But I'm happy because now you're here with me, alone in sickbay. Hiding this relationship is killing me, not seeing you is killing me.”

“Ye could've come down to the planet with us, ye know.”

“And miss seeing you stripped to your boxers in a tub of rash gel? No, I'm glad I stayed on the Enterprise.”

The Firth huffed, feeling his own cheeks heat up. “Sometimes I wonder why I put up with this abuse.”

“Stockholm syndrome.” McCoy replied calmly.

Scotty snorted, and then laughed more openly when the joke registered. “Christ, love. What am I gonna do with ye?”

The doctor snickered too. “I should be asking the same thing.” He said before leaning in to give the Scotsman a kiss on the forehead. “You get to feeling better. But not 100%, because I want a good excuse to keep you here with me.”

“I'm due for a physical, aren't I?”