A Serious Conversation
By Coral
Disclaimer: Star Trek… Paramount… Hands up if you haven't heard it all before…
Notes: Well, it started as a serious conversation inspired by the Carpenter's Song "Hurting Each Other". It took a U-turn at some traffic lights, though, and before I realised that the gears had changed, I'd already parked it…
"Can't we stop?"
"What?" Kathryn Janeway's head snapped up at Chaktay's unexpected question, coffee cup paused halfway to her mouth and her PADD forgotten.
"Hurting each other," Chakotay finished. "We're pathetic, Kathryn."
"I never knew you had such a high opinion of me," she said dryly. The coffee cup resumed its journey and she took a long sip, relishing the kick as she realised that this conversation was taking a serious tone.
Chakotay ignored the comment and continued, "We let others stand in the way of our happiness. Look at us… until a few months ago, you were dating a hologram. Before that, it was a Devore inspector."
"You're one to talk!" Janeway argued heatedly, annoyed at his criticism of her (admittedly deficient) love-life. "Species 8472, a woman no-one remembers, a former Borg..."
"My point precisely. Why do we persist in having doomed romances when we could have a perfectly happy one together?"
"I don't know," Kathryn mumbled before taking another sip of her coffee. The way this discussion was going, she was going to need another one very soon.
"Do you think we've got an anti-happiness complex? Are we doomed to being lonely forever?"
Janeway raised an eyebrow and slowly, deliberately, put her coffee cup down on the table. "I think you're just over-analysing this. There's probably a very simple reason."
Chakotay thought deeply for a few moments. "Perhaps the fact that we're both stubborn and pig-headed has something to do with it," he suggested at last.
"We can't admit it when the other is right," Janeway added.
"We're rigid-" Chakotay continued.
"Inflexible-"
"-Unable to adapt."
"Set in our ways."
"Protocol conscious."
"Strict."
"Unable to admit our true feelings."
The two fell silent and Janeway finished her coffee in a single gulp. "So why do I have an irresistible urge to kiss my first officer?"
"Damned if I know. Is he handsome?"
"He thinks he is."
"Is he kind?"
"He gives a mean back rub when you need it, and he can make bath tubs too," she replied, a playful light in her eyes, which were mere centimetres from his own serious ones.
"Is he a good kisser?"
"I don't know, but I'd be willing to find out," she whispered with a seductive smile.
"Uh, Kathryn, I don't think that would be a good idea," Chakotay murmured.
"Why not?" she challenged, slightly put out. He was the one who had started this conversation; surely he'd given some thought to the possible consequences.
"Well, we're in the messhall, being watched by about half the off-duty staff, who already have fuel for the rumour mill because you're practically sitting in my lap."
Kathryn considered this for a moment without drawing back. "I think we've waited long enough. Let's give them something to really talk about." One of her hands snaked behind his head and she pressed her lips to his in a searing kiss. Chakotay felt as though fire was spreading through his veins as he responded to her, all thoughts of the observers being blown away.
Silence fell over the messhall like a dead weight, punctuated only by a clattering and smashing sound as Neelix dropped an entire pile of pots and pans in his surprise. No one could move to pick them up, and pureed Leola Root started puddling around Neelix's feet, as he stood frozen in disbelief.
"Don't they need to breathe?" Harry asked incredulously.
Tom shrugged his shoulders in a 'who knows?' gesture, unable to utter a single word in reply.
Finally they did break apart, and Janeway looked around at their shocked expressions as she stood up, hands on hips. "What's wrong? Haven't you ever seen two people kiss before?" she asked sweetly, and the officers shook themselves out of their stupor with difficulty. "And as for you..." she continued, turning back to Chakotay and hauling him out of his seat, "I think that we need to continue this elsewhere." She lent towards him and whispered in his ear, "Do my quarters meet with your approval?"
"I don't think I can make it that far, he warned her teasingly, kissing her again.
"Too bad," she whispered, "Because I'm ordering you to-" She broke off with a shriek of surprise as Chakotay swept her off her feet and into his arms.
"Is that so, Captain? Then I suppose we'd better go."
"Sounds good to me, Commander," she said with a grin as he strode out of the messhall.
Paris smiled widely as the sound of their teasing dialogue was cut off from their hearing. "At last."