A/N: Much thanks to those who reviewed.
ExplodedPen Malcolm's angst is for you, Hoshi will prevail !
character speaking aloud to themselves"/ indicates internal thoughts
Hoshi rolled over and opened her eyes to find a pair of gorgeous eyes looking at her. With a soft laugh she greeted her morning visitor, "Good Morning Lover" Hoshi leaned over and kissed him on the forehead, she received a soft mew and a head but in return.
As Hoshi reached over and scratched the large tabby ears, he started to purr and knead the blankets.
"How come human males couldn't be more like you, hmmm? You fell for Duchess and have never looked at another female since.
Hoshi continued to stroke the old tom until her bladder let itself be known in a rather insistent manner.
After finishing her morning absolutions, Hoshi wandered over to the family floor of the hotel with Lover at her heels. Duchess greeted Hoshi and Lover at the door with a lick and a soft woof. The Basset Hound led them through the foyer to the kitchen where Selea was sipping tea.
"Good Morning" Hoshi chirped as she poured herself a cuppa.
"You seem in awfully good spirits this morning for someone who was crying into their bubble bath last night." Selea noted wryly.
"Well you know how it is, find out sooner less hurt. It's not like he ever said anything, or I ever told him anything." Hoshi looked down at her tea, "we only necked a bit in the cab on the way over here. Malcolm and I have never been a 'couple', he never gave any indication he wanted as anything more than a friend." Hoshi grimaced, "I let my sisters convince me to come on this trip, I pushed myself on Malcolm at the airport. I fibbed and said that I had a presentation at the Uni."
Selea looked at her friend closely, she had known Hoshi for a long time, they had both been prodigies in their respective fields.
"Hoshi, I know and you know that you are lying to yourself. This is the first time since, Paul that you have even thought about a man in a romantic way. I know Paul is the reason you accepted that teaching position down in Brazil. I did not say anything at the time because you seemed so happy, but I thought Paul was an ass." Selea took a drink of her tea, "Who initiated the necking you or Malcolm?"
"Malcolm"
"How did you feel, toe curl or center of the sun?"
Hoshi couldn't lie to her friend taking a deep breath she answered, "Both" at Selea's hmm, Hoshi cried out "What"
"Nothing"
"No, I know you Selea, you have something thing to say, so say it."
"Hoshi I think you are lying to yourself, your scared of opening up your heart, your trying to put Malcolm back into that cupboard of, 'Friend who happens to be Male'. Only this time I don't think it's going to work." Selea held up a finger to forestall Hoshi's comment, "You never spoke about Paul the way you speak about Malcolm, I don't mean the "Oh he is so gorgeous and smart and funny" I mean, you talk about Malcolm the same way I speak about William. You don't even notice you do it, do you?"
Hoshi felt a blush creep up her face, Selea and William had been together since they were both fifteen, they were each others best friend, confidant and lover. They had a connection that there were no words to describe adequately.
"William and I almost got divorced four years ago," Selea dropped the bombshell into the middle of the table, without waiting for Hoshi to comment she continued. "Everyone seems to think that because we are so attuned to each other that we do not have any problems. We have to work at our relationship same as everyone else, but we became complacent and stopped listening to what the other person was trying to say. So a small problem became a huge mountain of difficulty." Taking a deep breath Selea continued, "It took a lot of courage for me to actually start to listen to what William was saying, and to not hear what I wanted because I was scared. Hoshi, I want you to look deep inside and decide if you want to put Malcolm back into the cupboard, or if you want to jump off the cliff with him beside you."
Selea rose from the table and left the kitchen; Hoshi knew she had to do a lot of soul searching, so she went to the one place where she could think.
Malcolm awoke the next morning with a pounding head and feeling as if Porthos had decided to use his mouth as a bathroom. He risked a glance at the clock on the wall, wrong move! Not only did it cause a lance of pain to shoot through his eyeballs, but it also showed him he only had ½ hour to get to the conference centre for his presentation.
Malcolm scrambled into the shower, the hot water woke him up enough to remember his actions from the night previous.
Bloody Hell! I can be such a Prat! Malcolm punched the shower wall in frustration cracking the decorative tile.
/Fuck/
What in the hell am I going to do now? I'm in love with Hoshi and I ran out on her. Hoshi is going to kill me, or worse she'll never speak to me again
Malcolm stumbled out of the bathroom, he shook his head at the sight of Billie and Judi wrapped around each other. Without waking the lovers Malcolm dressed and left the hotel room.
Leaving the zoo at 5:00 that evening Hoshi, still hadn't come to a decision on what to do about Malcolm. She knew that Malcolm was the man with whom she would like to take a chance on, but how exactly did he feel. Part of Hoshi was scared that he only saw her as another notch on his bedpost; another part hoped that he wanted the same things she did.
Gathering all her courage about her like a blanket, Hoshi decided she would just have to find out.
Hoshi literally ran into the blonde that had kissed Malcolm the night before,
"Oh, I'm sorry, wait your Ice's friend, umm Ho, Ho."
The small brunette from beside her spoke up, "Hoshi, her name is Hoshi Sato Billie. Please forgive her, she is a wonderful person once you get to know her, she just seems to be a calamity of nature when you first meet. I am Judi Spence and this is my life partner Billie Watson." Judi held out her hand, which Hoshi took automatically and shook.
Looking back and forth between the two women, Hoshi noticed the matching wedding bands, "A pleasure to meet you." Hoshi felt like she was two feet tall, she had been calling Malcolm and Billie every horrible name she could think of the night before, she felt like a heel.
"I think I should apologize to you Billie, I um,"
Billie threw back her head and laughed, "let me guess you thought Ice and I were slobbering all over each other am I right." At Hoshi's blush, Billie threw her arm around the smaller woman's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, in fact Judi and I were just about to have dinner, why don't you join us?"
Hoshi was undecided and glanced at Judi.
"Yes, please do join us. You can tell us about all the trouble Malcolm got into on Enterprise and we can tell you all about his misadventures with us."
Giggling gleefully the three women left the lobby arm in arm.
Malcolm sighed, as he exited the cab in front of the Bellwether, even though his presentation had received good feedback, he still felt that the day had been shit. He had tried throughout the day to contact Hoshi but every time he had called the hotel he had received the same answer, "Ms Sato is not in her room".
Malcolm had begun to worry that Hoshi had checked out of the hotel and gone back to Seattle. A little computer hacking had shown that Hoshi was still checked into the hotel in the penthouse suite. Malcolm decided to try and make up for his actions the night before, so on his way back to the hotel he had stopped by a florists.
Arms full of various flowers Malcolm made his way into the lobby, as he waited in the elevator, he heard Hoshi's distinctive giggle, as the doors closed he saw Hoshi flanked by Judi and Billie leaving the hotel.
Oh bloody hell, I'm dead
Still apprehensive about what his old friends would be telling Hoshi about him, Malcolm decided to go ahead with 'Operation Apologize for Being a Complete Ass'.
Malcolm stopped off on his floor and grabbed a few necessities out of his luggage, getting back on the elevator he popped off the control panel. A few twisted wires later and he was getting off in the penthouse suite.
Malcolm distributed the flowers throughout the rooms, he laid the lavender, rosemary and freesia on the pillow in the bedroom that Hoshi had her things laid out in. He quickly placed candles around the sitting area and lit them, the scent of beeswax quickly filled the air, and placing a music disk into the player, the strains of Veyla came out of the audio system.
He heard the elevator ping as it arrived at the penthouse floor; looking around quickly Malcolm hid himself behind an Asian harem screen. He hoped it was a cleaning person coming into put chocolates on Hoshi's pillow, Malcolm felt a crinkle of paper in his pocket, damn he forgot to put out his apology. Risking a quick glance around the screen, he moved across the sitting room to Hoshi's bedroom, where he placed his apology under the flowers.
Malcolm heard the voices of Hoshi and Billie and realized he was trapped in Hoshi's bedroom like some kind of pervert. Panicking he dived into the closet just as Hoshi opened the door.
"I really don't know who would do this, it is lovely. Oh, they left a note." Hoshi read over the note and crumpled the paper before throwing it into the trash, "Well Malcolm Reed you are just going to have to think again." She huffed before leaving the room.
Malcolm groaned he had spent the whole afternoon drafting and redrafting that apology for Hoshi. Letting his head fall back against the wall Malcolm realized he could hear the conversation going on in the next room.
"As I said at earlier Hoshi, these folks have a very different system than we are used to. The women do run things and are in charge of their own lives, but are considered owned by masters." Judi laughed, "I can teach you about the customs and Billie can teach you the language, but neither of us has the temperament to do the job."
The conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door; there was a muted discussion as their dinner was delivered.
"I just have one question, why can't someone from your organization do it?"
"I'll field this one Judi, frankly nobody has the linguistic skills to pull this off. The trade agreement is a top priority for Starfleet but they will only negotiate with someone who is willing to follow their traditions. We know from your logs that you have been involved in several negotiations that required you to, well"
Hoshi cut in, "Be a little less Starfleet and a lot more native."
The women laughed, as Billie continued, "Exactly, now we went over the type of dress you will be required to wear, now you will be submissive to the males around you up to a point. You are allowed to defend yourself and will not be held in any way accountable if you injure or kill your attacker. No one, and I mean no one has the right to lay a hand on you other than your owner, and then only if you have a contract that allows for it."
Billie stopped to take a bite to eat and Judi took up the narrative, "For this we will make you a five band, meaning you have ankle, wrist and throat bands. With your linguistic skills it will be obvious why you are so costly. Your master is an operative that we have already on the planet his name is Brandon Ives. He has been on planet for approximately six months, he will"
Malcolm came storming into the sitting area, "There is no way in hell I am going to allow that absolute wanker any where near Hoshi." He yelled, pointing his finger at Billie he announced, "If anybody is going to watch Hoshi's back it's going to be me."
With that announcement Malcolm sat down on the sofa beside Hoshi and reaching over he slipped her wine glass out of her hand and asked, "So where are we going?" taking a sip of the wine, Malcolm made a face.
He looked expectantly at all three women who were regarding him with various looks of astonishment on their faces.
Malcolm held up his hand in a surrendering motion, "I know it was bad form to be hiding in the closet, but when I was about to leave you lot all came waltzing in. What else was I to do?" He appealed to Hoshi, who without so much as a word walloped Malcolm up the side of the head. With that she got up and went into her bedroom, the click of the lock made everyone jump.
Billie and Judi yelled goodnight Hoshi and left quickly. Malcolm stared at the closed bedroom door and wondered how he got himself in these situations.