She said they were going to play a game of chess. She meant it too. Just chess, nothing else, and a bit of alone time with Pavel. They got in the lift together with a petty officer who was very interested in his shoes as soon as he looked at them.

"Good afternoon, Officer Williams."

He blushed, "Good afternoon Captain. Ambassador." His shoes remained very interesting until he got off the lift on D Deck. "Have a good day, Captain."

"You too, Williams." The doors closed, and she turned to Pavel, "So, are we going to play chess, or do you want to play that Risk game I got when we were on Earth? I think it would take a while, but …"

"Okay, that sounds fine. You rotate back when?" He was staring intently at the door,his w hard, like when he was thinking hard about something.

"Whenever I want, but I was thinking about 15:00, to give Taggart enough time to clean up. He got enough sleep last night though, he'll probably just putter around the bridge anyway." He still was staring at the door. "Pavel? What's wrong? Am I embarrassing you by calling you that in front of your old captain? I mean, I'll call you Ambassador Chekov if it makes you uncomfortable."

"No, it's not that." He had worked on control of his accent in past years, but suddenly his t's were sounding like z's and blending in together. "It's not you at all." The door opened, and he stalked towards her cabin. He'd never acted like this before unless he was upset about something, so she rushed after him. He stood tapping his foot outside of her cabin, and she slid the last few steps and tapped on the lock.

"It's me. Open up, please." She said to the software, and it chirped in compliance, the door sliding open quickly. He gestured for her to enter first, and he followed quickly on her heels, the door sliding closed behind her. "Pavel, what is wrong with -"

He cut her off by shoving her up against the wall, his hands tightly attached to her hips, and kissing her. Her legs wrapped around his hips automatically, her hand to the bottom of his neck where his hair was getting long and curly. He attacked her mouth, biting her lips until they opened and licking the berry juice out of the crevices of her mouth, tasting it on her tongue. The sweetness was almost unbearable, but he could take it. As it mixed with the sugar from his churro, it became sugary and sticky, like a raspberry lollipop. Eventually he pulled back to get a little air, as she flicked her head to get her bangs out of her face. As she breathed in and out calmly, he wondered how she managed to be both flustered and commanding at the same time.

"How do you do that?" he asked, his accent thick and he made no attempts to mask it. She raised an eyebrow in question.

"Do what?"

"You look beautiful even when you've been confounded. It's the weirdest thing." She rolled her eyes. "It is."

"Okay then, Ambassador Chekov."

"Don't call me that!" he exclaimed, and she laughed. With that, he picked her up and shook her. "Do not!"

"Alright alright. Sir." He shook her some more, and her laughter rippled as she grabbed onto him, her arms around his neck as he carried her.

"I don't like when you call me that. Especially when we're alone. It's like calling me your superior officer."

"You are my superior officer. You always have been."

"From where I stand, we're on an equal playing field."

"Alright with me. Now, may I ask a question?"

"Yes." His s was like a z, but she continued toying with him. He normally shut her up before this point, but as he as acquiesced, she continued with her questions. She was very curious, or she too would be taking advantage of this precious alone time.

"Why are you so hot and bothered? I've never seen you this aggressive with me when we've been together every minute we could. You normally only get this slick when we've been apart for a while."

"Admiral Kirk, he was checking you out. I couldn't take it, you were so nice and kind and he just acted like it was all for him. Like you're normally a mean person or something. But you're not. He was flirting and you were just responding and it made me want to … to ..."

"To go against regulation?"

"Exactly. But now, I can. And I will." They had reached her bed, he released her waist, and she stepped back onto the bed. Though she had had visitors on the ship, she was still wearing her regulation jersey yellow shirt, which she then slowly pulled over her head. She was a naturally warm blooded woman, so instead of the regular undershirt, she was now standing there in her bra and regulation pants. He too had pulled off his uniform gray shirt, but had been quicker with his pants, as she reached down he pushed her hands away. He bit at her stomach lightingly, circling her belly button while putting his hands at the small of her back. As he messed around with her stomach, his fingers walked themselves towards the latch of her pants, and as he kissed the circle in her belly button, he unbuttoned and unzipped her pants. She stepped out of them slowly, her pink brief style underwear in no way matching her white bra, but he didn't care. He picked up her pants and threw them in the general direction of her chair and jumped onto the bed, taking her down with him as she giggled.

Together with the practiced ease of a couple who'd been through a lot, they pushed up closer to the pillows, wiggling and squirming on top of each other. Her skin, tanner where her shirt had been on from a week at messing around on her farm in Kentucky, was sprinkled with freckles, each one winking up at him as he went down for a kiss, her hands back up to his neck. They battled for control for a few minutes, her teeth against his lips, his tongue trying to make a resurgence against her attempt to regain control. Eventually, he left her mouth to find freckles, and squeezed her breasts as he went down her neck.

"Pavel. Pavel Pavel Pavel Pavel." she breathed out as he went down her body. "No marks, no marks, no marks." He stopped halfway between her breasts and her navel, looking up at her with puppy dog eyes. She glanced down, and rolled her eyes. "Visible marks." she acquiesced, and he gave her a devilish grin as he reached her belly button again, which already had tiny marks encircling it. Satisfied with his interpretation of a sun on her stomach, he headed towards her briefs, which meant that she had not planned for him to get into her pants. Soft and practical, they were her everyday panties, which meant that she didn't want anything to distract her from being comfortable. He began to inch down the briefs, starting on the left side of her hips and nipping every centimeter from corner to corner as they went down, lower and lower until he had to stop and throw them near her pants.

Then, to catch his breath and decide what his next move was, he stood up. He loathed being teased, especially when she knew all of his secrets, so he took a breath. She sat up on her elbows, hair messily tied back in it's braid, left hand tapping impatient beats into her bed. He, with his hands on his hips and his breaths coming in and out quickly, thought what he always thought when he got a chance to get a good look at her – that she was beautiful. She'd been beautiful that day seven years ago, her hair cropped around her ears, brightly beaming at Captain Whoever and then turning her smile to him. They had locked gazes, and from that moment on, he'd known she was someone special.

Seven years later, and she was getting a bit impatient with him. He always did this – paused and thought. Their first time had taken an hour, and though sometimes it was slow, she always enjoyed it. She just hated waiting. "Pavel … Joanna to Pavel."

He focused on her, and he cracked a grin, "Pavel speaking."

"Pavel, when are you going to be returning to Planet Bed? It's very cold here without you."

Laughing at that, he sheered his boxers and sat on the edge of the bed, starting on her left leg and working his way up to it's pinnacle, then going up further to her hip, her waist, and then he was faced with the fact he had left her bra on. "This needs to get off." he grunted, and pulled playfully at the strap until she sat up. With ease, he unhooked it and instead of aiming, threw it away from him. He took her right breast in his hand and worked it, while licking her left nipple. After a minute or two, he switched, and that's when her moaning began. It started out softly, little mumbles of "oh," or "yes oh yes," and by the time he'd finished with her right breast, her nails were lightly digging into his shoulders. As he pulled his lips up to her face, she fell back and he advanced, taking her lips onto his and grabbing her waist roughly.

"Guess what?" he said between kisses, lining himself up.

"What?" she attempted to mumble as they kissed.

"You're not going anywhere," he said roughly, simultaneously plunging into her and gripping her breasts softly, causing her to erupt in a large moan right next to his ear. He'd been ready for that sound since Kirk had checked out her ass when they were walking into the mess hall, and as they moved together, he kissed the base of her neck up to her ear, a smirk on his face. "Pavel Pavel Pavel" she mumbled, her braid next to his face.

"Joanna." he sighed right into her ear, and as he did that her world exploded into colors and lights that she only experienced every so often. Her moans went directly into his ear, her nails on his back, her body as close as physically possible to hers.

"Oh my God, oh my God." she repeated as eventually he climaxed, her warmth surrounding him, his mind racing with things he shouldn't say like , "beautiful" "angel" "perfect", and the one thing he had yet to tell her, "i love you". As the pace fell and slowly stopped, he pulled out but hovered over her as she breathed in and out heavily, as if she'd been racing her horse on a blustery day, and though his breath was matching hers, he was quieter about it, strong breaths in and out. Once he regained control of his movements, he took his hand and cupped her chin softly. Knowing his habits, she propelled herself up and kissed him gently, slowly, promising things she never would admit out loud. Their eyes met, and they had a conversation without words, with touches and eye motions and mouths.

After a few minutes of talking, he rolled next to her, pulling down the covers a little and attempting to get under. She pushed at his back, little scratches from where her nails had been across it, and laughed as he raised and wiggled his eyebrows.

"I like how competitive you get around other men."

"I am not competitive around other people." He stated, his voice back to a repressed accent.

"Okay. Nap time?"

"Why not? Chess would be a hard task now that my concentration's broken."

"Oh, well then."