pywren:

I see a lot of Starfleet Academy AUs that take place in the AOS universe and that’s great and all, but…

CAN YOU IMAGINE 

A seventeen year old Jim, who returned from Tarsus IV alive, but scared, still dealing with the trauma and desperately trying to excel at everything he does. He is picked on a lot because of his eagerness to please and a certain gullibility that comes with his deeply romantic nature. He studies and works hard, soon he gets to be the top of his class and other students have very little love for him. He is a loner, but he is ambitious and someday people will look up to him. Nevertheless he is still so very very young.

Now just imagine a barely 20 year old Spock, who left his home planet after a big fallout with his father. Spock, who is so different that he is not only alien to both humans and Vulcans, but also a stranger to himself. Imagine him not taking Captain Pike up on his offer and staying to teach at the academy. 

Imagine Jim taking a fascination to Spock from the very beginning, eager to see things from a completely different perspective, one that is completely unique. He can’t help being awed by the seemingly endless facets that make up Spock. And Spock himself is curious about this particular human. A man who’s own emotions often enough get him into trouble, but he seems to always get back on his feet, laughing. Maybe after some time Spock is able to see that emotion and weakness are not synonymous, even if he still needs to learn what true strength really means. 

Think about the two of them sitting on the rooftop of their dorm staring up at the stars and talking about everything from Nietzsche to Surak, from the invention of the telescope to the latest warp core drive. Just talking and talking and through it gaining not only an entirely new perspective on the universe, but also themselves. 

Until one night Spock brings up Vulcan custom and what Vulcans are supposed to do and not to do. It’s as if a dam is breaking and although Spock will probably regret it, he tells Jim about the fallout with Sarek. 

And Jim is silent for a long time. It’s almost sunrise when he repays Spock’s trust and tells him about a madman and a forgotten colony with a hunted look in his eyes.