“I couldn’t bear to think of what might be happening to you. And then I… thought you were dead.” An astonishing wall of grief and loss hit Kirk – submerged him completely – then as abruptly passed. He looked down, suddenly aware that Spock had clasped both of his hands – a looser, gentler grasp than the desperate way Spock had clutched at him in that mountain cabin when Kirk had first found him – and somehow more astonishing.
Adult, post-TOS novel “Ishmael”. I used to read a lot of TOS novels, and “Ishmael”, in which Spock loses his memory and is stranded in Earth’s past, was a favourite. This fic doesn’t require foreknowledge. It deals beautifully with Kirk and Spock having to face certain home truths about their feelings for one another.