"Are there oceans like this on Dorvan V?" Kathryn asked after a while, shielding her eyes to watch a passing sailboat.

"Only one, but it was too far away from where my family lived," Chakotay replied. "There are a number of lakes though, and I used to go swimming a lot when I was growing up. The first time I came to Earth, I was fascinated by how blue the planet looks from space. I would have liked to have spent all my time by the seaside, but my father had different plans."

Surprised, Kathryn turned to him. "Your father took you to Earth?"

"Yes, when I was about thirteen," he nodded. "He was on a quest to find direct descendants of the ancient ancestors of our tribe, the 'Rubber Tree People'. They were rumored to have lived in the Central American jungle, so that's where we went." He smiled ruefully. "I'm sure I didn't make great company though. There were bugs everywhere, the food was awful, and I felt that we were just wasting time which could have been better spent exploring different parts of Earth."

Kathryn chuckled at Chakotay's lament. "And did he find them? The Rubber Tree People, I mean."

"He did, much to my dismay. We didn't have a universal translator, but my father had studied the ancient language of the tribe elders, and it turned out that those jungle residents also spoke a variant of that. He spent long hours discoursing with various important people, whereas I felt even more isolated than at home. Our departure couldn't come soon enough for me. Before we left, my father was honored with the tribal mark, a signifier of his descent from the ancient elders, the Sky Spirits. As his son, they offered it to me, too, but I steadfastly refused. I could see that he was disappointed, but he didn't say a word."

"A tribal mark?" Kathryn asked curiously. "What does it look like?"

"It's a tattoo symbolizing the spread wing of an eagle." Chakotay explained. "And it's placed right here." He reached up to trace a pattern across Kathryn's left temple and part of her forehead – long, sweeping lines which ended in something of a flourish near the corner of her eye.

When his hand slid down to cup her cheek, she turned her head and pressed a kiss into his palm. "It must have been a great honor for your father."

"I suppose it was. I know he would have liked to stay longer, to learn even more about the Rubber Tree People's way of life and of their shared history. Instead, he took me to the coast, to a place where I'd wanted to go all along. It was his way of trying to appease me, but I kept on sulking. After our jungle expedition, I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me enjoy any part of this trip he'd forced me into taking."

"Sounds like you were quite the contrary," Kathryn observed with a light chuckle, but her eyes were searching his for confirmation or denial of her statement.

Chakotay brought his other hand up to frame her face. "I was, and in many ways still am. I know I will need to return to Dorvan someday to try and make things right with my father, but I just don't feel ready for that yet. Maybe living on Earth will allow me to become more grounded again. In the past fifteen years I've had all the spaceflight adventures I always dreamed of, and more. I just wish he could be happy for me, for what I've achieved."

"Like you were happy for him when he discovered the Rubber Tree People?" Kathryn pointed out, one eyebrow arching up.

Chakotay felt a jolt of surprise and dismay. With a simple, offhand comment, Kathryn had chipped away his main justification for keeping his distance from his home planet despite the number of years that had gone by since his departure. He'd always thought that if there was even the slightest chance of his father showing some sign of approval for his chosen path, he'd book the next passage to the border colonies. But the rare communications he received from his sister sadly kept discouraging that notion. In his father's eyes, Chakotay had become persona non grata for renouncing his origins and shunning the ways of the tribe. The way he had behaved on their joint trip to Earth more than twenty years ago had been only one example of his disrespect for his origins, but perhaps it had been the most blatant one.

Kathryn was still regarding him inquiringly. Chakotay wasn't quite ready to concede her point but gave a curt nod. "I may have to give that some thought." His hands were still framing her face and he guided her to him for another kiss before releasing her. "Enough about me, I want to hear about what you've been up to. All I've done in the past few weeks was setting up my apartment and office and drafting class schedules. You said you were doing some surveys. Did you make any exciting discoveries?"

She turned away from him, grasping his hand as she resumed walking along the waterline. "It wasn't all that spectacular. A couple of nebulae, a white dwarf, and a whole lot of space dust. I was actually pretty bored by the time we entered the Berussian Cluster, and the electromagnetic interference there made continuing scans almost impossible. I spent most of my time in the lab analyzing rock samples." She smiled up at him. "And missing you."

He smiled back. "I missed you, too, especially during those times when I couldn't reach you. What about your away mission? You were gone for so long, I was almost getting worried."

"Nothing too exciting there, either. Just routine, really." She had let go of his hand and had moved ahead several quick steps, casually tossing out her answer while bending down to collect a sea shell.

Chakotay couldn't see her face, but something about her reply bothered him. It was too quick, too smooth. Had her mission been classified? Given what he knew of her service record, he doubted it, but he also knew that any mission could be deemed classified if Starfleet so decided, no matter the people involved.

Kathryn turned back to him, a red and white striped shell in her outstretched palm and an overly cheerful smile on her face. "Have you ever seen one like this?"

He wasn't fooled by her attempt to change the subject, but decided to humor her. Reaching out to trace his fingertips over the shell's ridges, he said, "I haven't, but it reminds me of you."

"Of me?" Kathryn laughed. "How so?"

"White and red." He moved closer and trailed one hand down her back, fingering the clasp of her bikini top through her thin dress. "White skin, red bikini. A very tantalizing combination."

Her eyes flashing, Kathryn tossed the shell into the bag Chakotay was still carrying. Then she pulled the dress over her head in one quick motion and dropped it at his feet.

He raked his eyes up and down her form, not bothering to hide his hungry gaze. Only when she spoke again did he notice that she had begun to move away, into the water.

"You can either keep standing there admiring the view, or you can join me for a swim." The laughter in her voice was unmistakable.

Chakotay grinned wolfishly. "Who says I can't do both?" He quickly divested himself of his shirt and shorts, revealing a pair of dark green swimming trunks. Then he went splashing through the surf, attempting to catch up with her as she tried to elude him.

Kathryn turned out to be a very good and fast swimmer; it was only when she slowed down that Chakotay was able to pull up alongside her. She rolled over and floated on her back, occasionally moving her feet to stay beside him as he drifted. "Isn't it beautiful here?" she sighed contentedly.

"It is," Chakotay agreed, dreamily watching small waves lap at her contours. When she splashed him in the face, he yelped. "What was that for?"

"For ogling me," Kathryn smirked.

Chakotay reached out to tickle her ribcage, and then caught her when the unexpected spasm almost sent her under water. "You provoked me," he grinned when she spit out a mouthful of ocean.

"That I did," she confirmed amicably. They were floating together now, holding on to each other as the currents slowly carried them along. "I figured you could use some cooling off."

"No use as long as you're within reach." With his left arm around her shoulders and his right hand at her waist, he managed to kiss her despite their buoyant surroundings.

Kathryn clung to him, deepening the kiss beyond what he'd intended, until they both ended up with their heads under water. Even then they didn't let go at once and only surfaced when the need for oxygen surpassed their passion.

"Maybe we should go home," she said breathlessly, wiping water from her eyes and pushing back her wet hair.

"We should," he agreed just as breathless. He couldn't wait to be back in the privacy of his apartment, where he could lose himself in her without feeling the watchful eyes of a dozen strangers at his back. He'd planned to take her out for dinner, but after spending the afternoon on a crowded public beach, another evening at home with just the two of them seemed a lot more appealing.

But first, they had to make it home, clothes and all. Kathryn almost collapsed with laughter when Chakotay realized that in his haste to join her at the beach he'd forgotten to bring dry underwear and would have to go commando on the way home. Her hand kept straying to his rear until he firmly clasped it in his own and gave her a warning look. She responded by smiling sweetly and whispering a few words into his ear which made him grasp her hand even tighter, mind and body reeling from the mental image she conjured up. Oh yes, they definitely would be eating in again tonight!

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