#sometimes it just hits me all over again out of nowhere: jim gave bones a name #one that only jim can use #every time he calls him bones he’s saying ”mine”
#if you want to make me cry with a single word that’d be it #i don’t think mccoy even thinks of HIMSELF as bones #like maybe if it’d been a nickname he’d gotten during his childhood/adolescence when his identity was still this evolving malleable thing #but at 28 i think the lines are already drawn and his own stubborn individualism would resist internalizing that stupid nickname #so even when he slips and thinks ”bones” in his own head it’s invariably in jim’s voice #almost like the little shit knew almost like he’d deliberately equalized the risk #”bones” is jim ‘abandonment issues’ kirk attaching himself to someone on - literally - his own terms #subsequently attaching them right back ©