Kirk is trying his darnedest -- well, at least, trying to understand Spock. Vulcans are impossible.

I think Kirk took Spock Prime very seriously indeed re: the friendship possible with Spock, perhaps because of the mindmeld. I wanted to, hm, bring some more of the aspects that make Kirk a good captain and a good friend out, here.

Someone...mecurtin, I think, pointed out that in ST:AOS Kirk is interrupted during sexytimes and ends up mostly-naked in a room with two mostly-naked women and pays attention to their conversation. Kirk Prime had lots of girlfriends, but he was also a very serious guy who paid a lot of attention to his people; I think this Kirk is wilder and angrier, but he's still got that serious-and-paying-attention streak in him. In this case, he just doesn't understand, you know?