For @thenizu who requested:Â What about a mckirk au where they live for a while in the same hostel or something because they both are too busy to look for an actual apartment and also too lazy for cleaning/go grocery shopping/cooking for themselves. But then, after some months, they realize that it is a too expensive of a lifestyle so they awkwardly look for a flat to share. A pretty tiny one. And for the first time they are actually going to take care of themselves if they don't want to live in a dump: it's way worse than during the college years at the dorm and there is no one that does most of the boring but pressing home stuff for them anymore. They are on their own. In the meantime they also work/look for a job (I'd love if Bones could still be a doctor) AND realize to have certain feelings for each other. Life is hard. Ten points if they happen to find themselves sitting on a carpet in a completely empty apartment, eating stuff directly from the packaging, but still feeling somehow at home.
Graduating is great. Bones gets to call himself a medical practitioner, and Jim graduates criminal psychology almost at the same time. The days that follow their graduation is a blur of alcohol, different pubs and clubs, and many different partners (mostly on Jim's side, but Bones has definitely gotten his share of one night stands, too). After their celebration week(s) ended, they road trip from San Francisco to Iowa, and then Georgia, to visit their families. They get mistaken as partners on both occasions, but really, they're just friends. They're drinking together as friends. They're road tripping as friends. They sleep in shady motels as friends. They bicker and make up as friends. There's a night where they're both drunk and making out in one of those motels, ending in a mutual handjob - but they're still just friends, because they never mention any of that happening ever again.Â
But then that prolonged graduation celebration comes to an end, and they need to get their lives together before they run out of savings. Rather than actually finding an apartment, though, both of them just end up sharing a room in a hostel for a while. Bones works as a medical practitioner during the day. Jim is archiving in a high security psychiatric hospital during the day, and he's a bartender two nights a week  just because he can. Also because then Bones comes in for cheap drinks and they end up chatting most of the night while Jim's serving drinks to customers. It's expensive to live in a hostel, but it works so far. Because the room is cleaned for them and they don't have to do groceries. Most nights they either heat up their food in the kitchen microwaves, or they eat Chinese or pizza in nearby fast food restaurants. It works, but they end up spending more than they're earning, so eventually, they're gonna have to find a real place to live.Â
Bones isn't there when Jim visits multiple flats they can rent. Two bedroom ones. There are multiple furnished apartments ready to move in, but Jim picks the one that has absolutely zero furniture and isn't even in the best neighborhood. To be fair, the main reason he picked it was because it's immediately above the best pizza place in town, and it's the one they would often visit back in college. Bones is less than pleased when he finds out their apartment has absolutely zero furniture, and neither have a lot of funds available to buy them because they spent a lot of it in their hostel days.
"I wonder what that stain on the ceiling is," Bones says when Jim returns from his dinner run. He was supposed to do groceries, but he doesn't have more than beer and pizza from the restaurant downstairs. And cereal, but no milk. Jim slides down against the wall, sitting down on the floor next to Bones and hands him his pizza box and a beer. "Who cares? We have our own place, Bones. We made it. We're adults now. We have food, we have jobs, and we have internet. What else do we need?" "Shower gel, furniture, breakfast-" Bones starts, but Jim pats Bones' shoulder and grins. "We'll be fine, Bones. I'll go to a thrift store after work tomorrow and find cheap furniture."
And so when Bones returns home from work, he does find a bunch of furniture lying around. One queen sized mattress is dumped in the living room (which beats sleeping on the floor like they did last night). There's the ugliest brown chair Bones has ever seen, and a messy assortment of cutlery and plates are all thrown on that mattress. "What is this shit?" Bones calls out. Jim walks out of their tiny kitchen in a tank top and his old baggy jeans, and that shouldn't look as good as it does. "It's furniture." Jim says. "This isn't furniture," Bones says. "Sure it is. We have one bed, a chair, and plates. What else do we need?" Jim asks. Bones grits his teeth, vouching to go out himself come weekend.
He does, and Bones has a surprising good eye for style. Bones makes Jim carry up most of the furniture he finds. It's all second hand stuff, but by Sunday, they have a comfortable black couch and a recliner chair Jim immediately claims as his (mostly because he spills spaghetti on it on day one). There's a coffee table that quickly becomes a storage of old plates, magazines, and other trash because neither of them clean up at first. There's a dining table and enough chairs to have some friends over for dinner if either of them ever bothered cooking, but so far most their meals are microwave dishes straight from the supermarket, or pizza from downstairs. There's still only one mattress, and both sleep on it together.
Jim wakes up on a Saturday to a sound that feels unfamiliar, but it turns out Bones is just vacuuming. He's not wearing any more than his underwear, and there's something oddly attractive about him being strangely... domestic. "What are you doing?" Jim asks. "Cleaning," Bones says, "we haven't done the dishes once since we moved in. Go do them." Normally, Jim would protest, but he climbs up from their shared mattress and does as he's told.
After cleaning up the entire (tiny) flat, they have lunch outside on their tiny balcony. They can barely squeeze on that balcony together, but it works. Bones has warmed up their last night's pasta and they eat it while watching people pass by. "D'you sometimes think it's odd, that we live together?" Jim asks. "No, what I think is odd is that you haven't brought home a one night stand since we moved in," Bones says, and Jim laughs. "We only have one bed. I'm not gonna do the dirty on our bed," Jim says. He leans back against the glass door, plate on his lap. "I also haven't really found anyone, as of late..." Jim admits, and Bones raises an eyebrow. "Are you sick?" He asks, "because remember what I told you about leaving that itch untreated-" "No, Bones. Jesus," Jim laughs, "I'm not sick or anything, I don't think." "Good," Bones says, resting his hand on Jim's leg, "because I need you healthy. We're painting the ceiling tonight." "What? It's perfect as it is." "There's a leak stain. We're painting." Bones says, ignoring Jim's groans of protest.
It ends up not being such a bad thing at all, because Jim gets to watch Bones in sweatpants and his tight Starfleet Academy shirt. It's always been a nice sight, but somehow better when he's balancing on a ladder and straining his arms while painting the ceiling. Jim doesn't actually do anything himself until Bones makes him paint the walls of their living room in a clean white color, to get rid of those old smoke stains from previous tenants. Their cramped apartment smells like paint for three days, but slowly but surely, this place starts feeling like home. Especially when Uhura and Sulu come over and they bring stuff like plants and a modern bookcase for in the living room. They don't have many books at all, but at least two shelves are filled with Bones' DVDs.
And even though they make it routine to clean up regularly now, Sundays are still lazy days that are mostly spent on their mattress to watch TV or play video games. "D'you think it's weird that we sleep in the same bed?" Jim asks, and Bones shrugs. "A little. But I haven't really made an attempt to change it," he replies, and Jim smiles lightly. "It's because we're basically dating." "Excuse me?" Bones turns to look at Jim, "what would you know about dating? The longest relationship you've ever had was a week." Jim huffs, leaning back against the wall behind him and he turns to look at Bones. "Not true. My longest relationship has been five years," he says, his hand finding Bones' leg under the sheets and he smiles. "Are you referring to me?" Bones asks. He puts down his book to put his attention to Jim, too, and Jim grins. "I mean, kind of." "I'm the boyfriend without the benefits," Bones concludes from that, and Jim laughs, his hand traveling up to grab Bones' shirt. He pulls him in closer, lips pressing to Bones for a firm kiss. "It doesn't have to be without benefits anymore," he says, voice soft against Bones' lips. Bones kisses him back, the sigh coming from him sounds like relief and that just makes him want Bones even more. Bones nudges Jim's legs apart and settles between them, hands sliding under his shirt, and he grins against Jim's lips. "Let's make up for lost time." "Five years is a long time," Jim replies, dragging Bones' shirt up over his back. Bones pulls away from him long enough to get both their shirts off, and then Jim wraps his arms around those naked shoulders to pull him in close again. "Good thing we have nothing planned to do today," he adds, and Bones huffs. "I'm planning on doing you."