13Disclaimer: I do not own the show nor it's characters.
It had been two days since their first date and Chakotay was the happiest he'd ever been. He walked into Astrometrics to find Seven working as usual. She whipped her head around at the sound of his footsteps entering the room.
"Are you here for my status report?" she asked knowing full well if did collect a status report that was not the reason he was visiting her. He walked up to her with a grin on his face. "Yes, I'd like a full report on your plans for this evening." he teased.
She blushed and looked down before meeting his gaze with her own playfully flirtatious grin "Well I had planned on playing kotis kot with Naomi Wild man, but if you have an assignment for me I'm sure I can postpone my plans."she couldn't help but feel proud that she had learned how to flirt with him very easily, though she knew that dating his holographic self had helped her a great deal.
He was surprised at how playful Seven was and how comfortable she seemed to be talking to him. It seemed so natural to close to her, so right. "As a matter of fact I do," he tried to look mockingly serious as he took her hand in his and looked into her eyes. "I need your expertise again on the holodeck, this time it's a theater simulation that's malfunctioning." he smiled with a twinkle in his eyes knowing she already knew what he was up to.
"I will assist you." she said with a matter of fact tone that she always used, but added,"what time?" in a more wistful tone than she generally used. He grinned at hearing her change of voice, she sounded almost shy when she sounded like that. "0800 hours?" he asked hopefully.
She gave him a small smile, "I'll be there" she she gave a small nod and he wanted to hold her like he had on the first date they'd had, in fact he thought about it every time he had alone to himself.
Somehow it seemed unnatural to not be that close with her and he wished he could have that again. Maybe to tonight he would get another chance if the time was right. He knew he should take it slow with Seven, she'd been through so much and he didn't want to push her into anything she wasn't ready for. He had already told himself he would let her make those decisions, he would let her initiate things and that way he wouldn't have to feel like he was going to fast for her.
She felt completely lightheaded and couldn't keep from smiling as she walked to the bridge. The Captain had requested her assistance with the sensor array. Seven was all but unaware that as she walked onto the bridge she had a smile on her face that grew as she saw Chakotay and she'd blushed slightly. Chakotay looked at her with obvious adoration but everyone was too busy looking at Seven to notice Chakotay's reaction.
The Captain looked somewhat amused, but obviously very curious at Seven's contented expression. "Seems you're in a good mood today.." she said with a huge smile of her own. She was excited that her protege was in such a good mood and had never seen Seven look so genuinely happy before. When she said this Seven immediately was drawn out of her daze and blinked it away. "I am well, Captain" she said with a nod trying to hold back how excited she was to see Chakotay who was still grinning at her.
The event was not missed by Tom Paris, who had already walked over to Harry Kim's post. "Wow, did you see that?" he asked his best friend in absolute shock and disbelief.
No one had ever actually seen Seven smile, save the Doctor who caught her once but no one else knew about that.
Harry smiled as he looked from Seven to Tom and put his hand on his shoulder, "Well, it's like I always said, there's a woman in there." he said proud of himself for calling that one. He also felt proud of Seven for coming so far and having gone through so much. He had once had a crush on her but it had since dissipated and he considered her to be one of his close friends.
Tom had to admit, this was the most human side of Seven he'd ever seen. He knew she was a good person and that he even considered her a close friend, though he wasn't sure how Seven felt about any of them. He knew B'Elanna had her tiffs with Seven, but he could tell deep down in spite of herself, she liked Seven and wanted to be her friend.
They were a lot alike in some ways, a bit more than either of them would admit, both stubborn, both reserved and both were very strong willed with a pinch of arrogance at times. In any case, he knew B'Elanna would think that Seven smiling so openly and on the bridge no less was just plain strange. This would definitely be the talk around the mess hall at dinner tonight.
A few hours later it was time for their second date. The scene was set, a dimly lit movie theater and a full array of chairs just like it had been when Tom had put on one of his many "B movies" except that this time he and Seven would have it all to themselves.
Chakotay had picked a movie that had been one of his grandfather's favorites that was very old, from the early 21st century. It was called "The Notebook". He thought it would be the perfect romantic movie for their date.
When she came in he couldn't help but tease her. "I think you're the talk of the ship tonight, everyone noticed your smile" he teased her gently as she sat down next to him. She blushed as the movie began and their attention focused on it.
Throughout the movie he would look to her for her reaction, and she seemed to really enjoy the movie, even crying at certain parts of it while almost laughing at others. Before he knew it the movie was over and he was walking her back to the cargo bay wishing that their date wasn't over. "I'll see you tomorrow?" he asked hoping she was as excited about it as he was.
She returned his smile, "I'd like that." It caught him by surprise when she put her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek softly, their faces lingered close to each other for a few seconds before Seven pulled away.
As they parted he wanted to kiss her, but he knew that he should wait and let her decide when they would kiss. He sensed there was something holding her back, and he wanted to respect her feelings.