Prompt 2: Her body was littered with scars from old hunts, a living tapestry of near-misses and fights.
"Trip," she glanced away from him, covering her stomach as best she could. Gently, cautiously he gripped her hands and pulled them away gazing with a new found respect at her. Her body was littered with scars from old hunts, a living tapestry of near-misses and fights. He himself had his fair share of battle-wounds and burns, but he never guessed that she would have this many. "Trip," she said more forcefully this time, causing his eyes to snap to hers. They lacked the pity and revulsion she expected to see there, instead gazing at her with a mixture of awe and respect. He released her hands and she quickly turned away from him, eyes scanning the benches to find her top.
It had been two months since he'd asked her if she wanted to spar with him. Always up for a challenge she'd readily agreed, not quite catching the excitement and happiness that flashed through his sparkling blue eyes. Twice a week they'd meet in the gym, and every second Saturday of the month, both scheduled for down time. It had started off gentle, but more serious and had grown to be both of their favourite activity's, not that they'd tell anyone that. Due to a slight variation in the warp core, the environmental systems were slightly out of whack, making the temperature higher than usual. Normally Trip would fix it himself, but had been assured by his SIC that she had it all under control and it would be fixed by that evening. Due to the increased heat both officers had removed their tops leaving Trip in knee-length synthetic shorts, and Hoshi in black tights and work-out bra. Everything had been going fine until Trip had pinned her to the ground and his hand had brushed a raised scar running down the left side of her waist. Immediately he'd pulled her to her feet, concern filling his usually calm eyes.
"Hoshi," His voice did nothing to calm her frazzled nerves, eyes still searching everywhere for the ever illusive top. "Hoshi," His voice much firmer now, but still she refused to make eye-contact with him. He reached out and grabbed her waist pulling them together, her back flat against his toned chest, arms still covering her stomach. "Hoshi." He whispered into her ear, his arms turning her so they stood flush in the middle of the room. Placing two fingers under her chin he forced her to look at him. "Sweetheart, we've all got our scars, they're nothing to be ashamed of. They show just how much we've survived and been through." His words finally penetrating the armour she'd put up, her whole body began to shake.
"I-It's not,... not se-sexy for a woman to look like,... this!" She exclaimed, gesturing to her body, disgust marring her face. Trip stood in utter shock for a moment unable to believe she thought that. He pulled her closer to him, bringing their foreheads to touch.
"Hoshi, darlin', I don't ever want to hear you speak about yourself like that ever again. You hear me?" He looked down at her but she refused to meet his gaze. "Hosh-"
"I don't need someone to baby sit me, Commander" she placed emphasis on the last word, looking him dead in the eye as she tried to push out of his grip, but he was not giving up so easily.
"Using ranks are we now, Lieutenant?" A hard edge to his voice, he continued, "Well then, I order you to never speak about yourself like that again." His triumphant smirk lasted only a second.
"You can't order me to do something that preposterous." She exclaimed, outraged at his childish behaviour, despite knowing that he was only mimicking her. "Why do you care anyway?" She dared to look him right in the eyes and saw a flicker of hurt flash across them.
"You really haven't figured it out yet, have you?" he looked imploringly into her eyes, willing her to understand. It seemed he was going to have to spell it out for her. "Hoshi, I'm in love with you." Silence rang through the empty room.
"Trip, that's not very fun-" she was cut off mid-sentence as he placed his lips over hers. She stood stock still. He pulled back a little to gauge her reaction. "Who put you up to-" Again she was cut off by his lips. This time she pushed him off, he pulled back slightly but didn't release her body from his grip. "Trip! Let me go!"
"No, not until you realise that I'm not joking, that no one put me up to this. That I'm being one hundred percent serious." She sagged unexpectedly in his arms, causing him to lower them both to the floor. Her eyes filled with unshed tears. "Hoshi, are you okay? Did I hurt you?" His demeanour completely changed to one of concern, he began checking over her arms for signs of bruising, but she stopped him, pulling his face to hers and locking their lips together.
"Why?" she asked after pulling away from him, panting slightly.
"Why what?" He looked at her confused.
"Why me?" He chuckled, which only emphasised the unamused expression on her face.
"Because," he began pulling her closer to him, "You're perfect." And with that pulled her onto his lap and kissed her passionately. She responded this time, enthusiastically pulling his lips between her own and allowing his tongue entry into her mouth. After several minutes they both pulled away barely a micron to breath in the much needed oxygen. Trip took this opportunity to flip Hoshi over, so she now lay on her back, her arms still around his neck and her legs automatically linking around his back. They proceeded to kiss and explore each other like it was their first time and they were still teenagers. Neither noticed when the environmental systems restored to normal, as they were to focused on each other.
To this day officers still claim the conduits throughout the ship ring at the roar of the captain walking in to the gym to find his chief engineer and linguist acting like horny teenagers.