AN: Here we are, another chapter here. Not much more to go in this little short story.

I hope that you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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When Kathryn heard the light tapping at the door, her stomach flipped and she smiled to herself. She was nervous. The presence of a man was making her nervous and that was something that hadn't happened for some time.

"Come in," Kathryn said, her voice barely loud enough for her caller to hear.

Chakotay didn't hesitate to come inside with the two mugs that he was carrying. He crossed the room to the spot where Kathryn stood. She didn't even have to move a step to meet him. He immediately handed her one of the mugs.

"Coffee," he said, seeming to anticipate her need for an explanation. "I know how much you love it. I've noticed how you save your replicator rations for it and I had quite a few extra. I didn't want to come empty handed and I thought you might like it even more than something like wine. At least you know it won't interfere with your judgement. You can drink it and still think clearly."

Kathryn accepted the mug and studied the contents for just a moment. She was far more moved by the gesture than she should have been over a simple cup of coffee.

"A man who uses his replicator rations to get me coffee may already be interfering with my judgement and affecting my thinking more than any intoxicating drink ever could," Kathryn teased.

Chakotay smiled at her and brushed her cheek with his hand. It was the first tender touch between them since he'd entered the room, but Kathryn was sure it wouldn't be the last.

"If I had known that replicator rations were the best way to woo you," Chakotay said, "I'd never have spent a single one in any other way."

Kathryn smiled at his flattery, but she did her best to cover over how entirely smitten she felt—because that was the only way she could describe the feeling—by quickly turning her attention to the mug for a moment. She felt that she should somehow try to mask her enthusiasm a little. She smelled the coffee, but she didn't taste it.

"Thank you," Kathryn said. "But the caffeine will keep us both up all night."

"I may be able to think of a few ways we could burn off some excess energy," Chakotay responded. "But—it's decaf. All of the flavor and none of the energy."

"Do you just think of everything?" Kathryn asked.

"I don't always," Chakotay said. "But I do try. Especially when it comes to you." Kathryn swallowed. Once again, with a few soft words and that damned way he had of looking at her, Chakotay had her heart behaving badly inside her chest. He might have been able to hear it thundering away, because a hint of a smile tripped across his lips. He brought his hand back to her face and then dropped it to her neck, his fingers massaging the skin there. Kathryn felt the electricity of the touch jolt through her entire body and she shivered involuntarily with the pleasure of the fairly innocent contact. If he could do that to her by simply rubbing her neck, she wasn't sure she'd survive whatever else it seemed it he had in mind. "You look—beautiful," Chakotay said. He laughed to himself. "And if you don't say something soon? I'm going to believe I've stumbled into the wrong room and you're not interested."

Kathryn brought her hand up and wrapped it around Chakotay's wrist while he maintained his position with his hand on the back of her neck. She rubbed her thumb over his skin.

"I am interested," Kathryn said. "But sometimes when I'm with you? I don't know what to say. You do that to me. You take away—some of my words." Now it was Kathryn's turn to laugh to herself. "But it never seems to matter because it's like you can read my mind. You know my thoughts."

Chakotay kissed her, pulling her into him, the same way he had in her Ready Room. She had to move quickly to move the mug she was holding out of the way so that neither of them ended up wearing its contents. This time Chakotay let the kiss play out longer than before. It was slow and delicious. There was no need to rush for either of them. They decided how long this lasted. Nobody else was even aware that it was taking place.

Kathryn practically felt drunk when the kiss finished. She touched her lips with her fingertips and then she sucked in a breath and let it out as a sigh.

"You wish I hadn't done that?" Chakotay asked.

"I think we need to talk," Kathryn said. "I just—I need to talk. But I certainly don't wish you hadn't done that."

"Of course," Chakotay said. He gestured toward the sitting area of her quarters. "Let's talk. We'll talk about whatever you want to talk about. Anything that's on your mind."

"We'd be here all night if we talked about everything that's on my mind," Kathryn said, sitting. Chakotay sat beside her and she was glad that he felt comfortable enough to do so. She didn't want him to think that she was rejecting him just because she needed to give voice to her thoughts.

"I can't say I'd necessarily mind that," Chakotay responded.

"What is the crew going to say?" Kathryn asked.

"I don't know," Chakotay admitted. "But if you want me to go and survey every one of them, I'll go get started. Will that help you?"

Kathryn laughed at his teasing.

"It might," she said. "But I'll save you the trouble for tonight. I just mean—it's not appropriate for me to enter into a relationship as captain. Not with one of my crew. If it were an established relationship then maybe..."

"Things are going to have to be different," Chakotay said, "on a ship that's going to be a generational ship. It's reasonable to expect that a captain would have no personal life on a three week mission, but it's hardly even humane to think that a captain would remain isolated for the better part of seventy five years. Besides, Starfleet is hesitant to regulate matters of relationships. I think the same would extend to the captain."

"Unless it means I'm unable to perform my duties," Kathryn said.

Chakotay laughed.

"Drink your coffee," he said. To remind her that she still held the mug, he drank from his own. "It's already cold."

Kathryn tasted it.

"I never minded cold coffee," she said.

"Do you really think you'd be unable to do your duties?" Chakotay asked.

"Someone could accuse me of it," Kathryn said.

"They could do that anyway," Chakotay said. "And whether they did it now or later, it would be the same thing—entirely ridiculous and quickly overthrown by the rest of the crew."

"People may not like it because they'll say I'm showing favoritism," Kathryn said.

"If that's really a concern of yours then we'll go the other way," Chakotay said. "We'll strive to make it clear that you absolutely never show any favoritism toward me. We'll make sure that we're strictly business outside of private quarters if that's what you want."

"You have to call me Captain out there," Kathryn said. "But...in here..."

"Kath?" Chakotay asked, not requiring Kathryn to finish her thought. "In private?"

Kathryn shook her head.

"That's what Mark used to call me and—to tell you the truth? I never really cared for it," Kathryn said. "Not if I can be honest about it."

Chakotay laughed to himself.

"Kathryn?" He asked. "Or is it too formal?"

Kathryn shook her head.

"It's perfect," she said. "Though I haven't heard it in a while. At least not when it wasn't being used for introductions."

"Not with affection?" Chakotay asked.

"Certainly not with affection," Kathryn said.

Chakotay leaned closer to her. He rested his face against the side of her head. She heard him inhale like he was trying to breathe her in. She closed her eyes and another of the shivers that he could produce in her ran through her body.

"Kathryn," he said softly, practically breathing it out as he let of go of the breath that he'd inhaled. Kathryn had never heard her name said quite the same way before or with quite the same feeling behind it.

"It sounds nice," Kathryn admitted, "when you say it like that."

"Kathryn," Chakotay repeated. "It's a beautiful name. It would have to be, though. It belongs to you."

"You're trying to flatter me," Kathryn said. She couldn't keep the smile away from her lips, though, no matter how hard she tried to pretend that she was scolding Chakotay. He moved away from her to study her face. With something of a smirk he drank the cold coffee from his mug. Kathryn followed suit. Chakotay clearly didn't enjoy the cooled coffee, but it didn't bother Kathryn and it gave her something to occupy her hands.

"Is it working?" Chakotay asked.

"It is," Kathryn admitted.

"What else do you want to talk about?" Chakotay asked.

Kathryn considered the question. She studied Chakotay's face. His eyes were so warm. They were so inviting. They were comfortable.

His hands, when they touched her, made her feel like she hadn't felt in quite a long time. Mark had been a good match for her on paper, and she'd cared for him enough that she'd said she didn't miss some things that simply weren't there between them, but there was something to be said for the almost electric feeling that Chakotay's touch brought to her skin.

His lips were soft and the way that he kissed her made her hungry for more. She wanted to keep coming back to them.

But more than any of the physical aspects of Chakotay, Kathryn felt herself drawn to the man himself. She felt herself drawn to his spirit and to his heart. He was yin and yang all in one body. He followed rules well, but believed in rebellion. He was tough, but there was a softness to him that he wore unashamed and unapologetically.

The feelings she knew she felt for him were far stronger than she'd be willing to give name to at the moment.

"I want to know—what you want," Kathryn said. "I feel like all I've done is talk about what I want, but I want to know what you want."

"Do you really want to know what I want?" Chakotay asked.

"Absolutely," Kathryn assured him. She put down the mug that she'd finally emptied on the table near them. Then she sat with her hands in her lap, watching him intently, to let him know that he'd have her complete attention.

He nodded to himself and put his own mug down.

"I want what I've wanted since—almost the first moment I saw you," Chakotay said. "And I told you before that I'll be forward about it, so I will. I want you. And whatever it's going to take to get you? I'm willing to do it. So if there's something you need to make you feel more—at ease? I want to know what it is so I can make it happen. Kathryn."

Kathryn smiled to herself. He added her name as an afterthought. He said it with the same determination and force that he used when he called her "Captain". The same affection, though, was also there that she'd often felt behind his use of her title.

"Surely you must have some concerns, Chakotay," Kathryn said, testing out how it sounded to say his name entirely without a title and seeped in affection that she usually held back on. "Won't you let me help you with them?"

Kathryn anticipated the kiss that he moved to offer her and she came to him, accepting the kiss and kissing him back so that he knew she wanted the kiss every bit as much as he wanted to offer it. The same electricity that she'd felt earlier pulsed through her body and she didn't try to fight her desire. Kathryn moved, shifting herself closer to Chakotay. She brought her hand up and ran it through his hair, catching as many of the locks as possible and tugging at them with her fingers. Chakotay responded by wrapping his hands around her rib cage and pulling her until Kathryn almost felt like he might simply pick her up and sit her down directly in his lap to get her closer to him.

He stopped short of doing that, though, and pulled away from the kiss before Kathryn was ready to let it go. A sound of disappointment escaped her lips as soon as his were off of hers.

"The only thing I want is you," Chakotay said sincerely, his breathing just a little ragged. "And my only concern is that, any minute now, you're going to send me back to my quarters."

Kathryn smiled softly at him and touched his cheek.

"Then you've got nothing to worry about," Kathryn said. "Because—I was just going to suggest that, as long as you're here, you might like to see if the first officer and the captain were issued the same mattress. That is, as long as you're interested in knowing."

Chakotay stood up. He held his hand out to Kathryn. She slipped her hand in his and helped her to her feet. He surprised her, though, when he simply lifted her off her feet the moment that she was standing. Normally Kathryn might have scolded any man who picked her up like that for the indignity of it, but she didn't feel like scolding Chakotay for it. Instead, she discovered that she liked being completely under his control for the moment—especially since she knew that he would give her back the reins at any time that she might request them.

"There's a great deal I want to know, Kathryn," Chakotay said, carrying her toward the bed. "But that's as good a place to start as any."