Disclaimer: I don't own Voyager and this has femslash content. No reason for a disclaimer longer than the story.

Genre: Prose, Angst, Romance
Rating: M
Codes: B/7
Feedback: Always appreciated.

Notes: This is prose. Once a songfic, I edited it to be more of a poetic piece. It worked better with the lyrics, but I still wanted to add it, so I removed them.

Why Inside

Seven walked the cold corridors at night, wondering why humans created false nights aboard starships. It was supposed to make things more like planetside. But how could they be... they were so far away. The Borg provided only enough light to function and it never altered.

Every moment away from the collective had been hell. Disorganized, chaotic, cruel, no one ever noticed. Seven, alone, always alone. The Omega taken from her. But a cold emptiness told her that it was reflexive--did she even care?

A fight, again. Hot fury scalding her cold shell. Men were weak, hurt too easily, no fight... But then she belongs to another. She hides in her work, her alcove, her very alien being. Whispers, names, unforgiving stares. The crew hates her as much as she hates herself.

B'Elanna, always fighting, always angry. Why does she hide? Why does she stay with him when she hides from him?

They sit together, passing instruments between warm hands, pain in every breath, hope lost in the vacuum...

Seven smiling, parading her humanity like a show. Dating, losing, hurting, lying. Lies are antithetical, how can she cope? She does as she's taught. Obeying etiquette when she remembers. Just a joke.

B'Elanna found Seven suffering, crying from the hate of the crew. She walks away.

Stop. B'Elanna turns back. She looks for a moment, then walks towards Seven... A hand reaches out...

...touches soft, blonde hair.

Seven jumps and spins around, staring at B'Elanna, braced and hopeless. They meet eyes, stare silently...

A touch.

A breath.

A moment alone, where the doors open...

...becoming less alone.

Lips meet in the darkness. An understanding finally burns across the fire to the ice, melting both. They melt into each other, found. Swallow the hate, betrayal and lies, find each other. Lose the rest of the world. Lose the weight of the world. Things can't move too fast now. They are together, banishing the lies, feeling skin beneath skin, tasting life and love in one breath.

Breathing, moaning, feeling...

No guilt, no judgment, just warm brown hair, cool bulkheads beneath their bodies, moving in time to an inner music.

Lying in each other's arms, listening to alien heartbeats, finding perfection, B'Elanna and Seven finally find peace.