This short scene just came to my head and I couldn't resist writing it. Set six months after Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant, Janeway and Chakotay are a couple and a certain topic resurfaces in conversation. This took me literally ten minutes so I'd love to know what you think!
Disclaimer – I don't own Voyager or anything you may recognise; they all belong to their respective owners.
"Oh, come on, Kathryn! I think it's only fair that since you have a pet name for me, I should have one for you!" Chakotay exclaimed, following Kathryn through the door of their San Francisco apartment and throwing himself down on the couch. She turned to face him, an exasperated expression on her face.
"It's hardly a 'pet name', Chakotay. It's merely a habit that I am yet to break." She said matter-of-factly, removing her coat and joining Chakotay on the couch. This discussion of pet names was, in her opinion, getting rather boring. She just wasn't a pet name kind of person and she had told him so months ago, but the topic kept on resurfacing in conversation, especially since she not dropped a certain Delta Quadrant habit.
"It's been six months; I think you rather enjoy still pulling rank on me." He smiled, and she gave him an innocent expression, but the light in her eyes betrayed her.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Commander. Anyway, what would you call me, if you had your way?" she leant forward with a bemused smile on her lips. Though they were no longer Captain and Commander, Kathryn still found herself calling Chakotay by his former rank without even thinking.
"What about, oh, I don't know… sweetheart? Darling?" Her lopsided smile trembled and unable to hold it in, she burst out laughing, the sound emitting around the room and it was so contagious a laughter that he soon joined her and they sat together laughing at the notion.
"Do I look like a sweetheart to you, darling?" She pursed her lips and cocked an eyebrow, as if to prove her point. He looked her up and down, from her crossed legs to the shimmer of copper in her hair. He didn't think she'd ever looked more like a sweetheart in her life; his sweetheart.
"You look like a sweetheart to me." He thought back to all the moments in the Delta Quadrant when Kathryn had let her Captain mask slip away and allowed herself to act like a human being. Over the last months, he had come to know Kathryn again and they had grown closer than he had ever dared hope.
She smirked. "Entirely out of the question."
"Well, what about Kathy? I quite lik-" he was cut off as Kathryn clamped her small hand over his mouth to prevent him from finishing his sentence.
Her voice was ice, "Don't call me, Kathy!" she shuddered, half expecting to hear Q mock her in some way from behind her. Mercifully, the only sound was Chakotay's muffled laughter from beneath her palm and her own relieved sigh.
"So I take it Madame Captain is also out of the question?" He asked innocently as she removed her hand, though his bemused smile betrayed his serious expression.
"Absolutely. But if you insist on a name, I prefer 'Captain.'" She said in her a command tone that Chakotay was beyond familiar with. He gave her a mock salute before pulling her into his arms and resting his forehead against her own.
"Aye, aye." He laughed, and bought his lips to meet hers.
