Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek Voyager, I do however own this plot and the original characters.

After the very interesting morning, the surprise reunion with her old friend and the very puzzling strain between them, Naomi finally finished her last class for the day.

As she arrived to her dorm that late afternoon, she sighed in relief. It wasn't as though her other classes had stressed her, it was just that it was all a little overwhelming all at once. Not to mention the number of times she had gotten lost already. She had run through the halls at least twice looking for the freshmen wing, apologizing as she bumped into a few students on her way. At one point she collided with Kav'ain again, who laughed at the coincidence and mercifully directed her to the right path.

Once she got there, she nudged the door open carefully, finding that true to the helpful adviser's words, her things were sitting next to one of the vacant beds. She observed that the room was not empty and found the two girls sitting on one of the couches in the common area familiar. "Hello," she greeted them. They turned and smiled to her. One of them was holding a cup with something hot in it, steam rising from it steadily, and the other, had what Naomi could only describe as Vulcan characteristics. She had black hair, pointed brows, and even pointier ears. What she wasn't familiar with though was the cranial ridges over her brows.

"Hi!" They said happily and Naomi had to pause. The one that looked Vulcan seemed just as cheerful as the human who greeted her too.

"My name is-"

"Naomi Wildman, we heard our new professor say your name," the human girl grinned. "My name is Hannah Moore, nice to meet you!" she said excitedly, standing to give her a hug. Naomi tensed for a second, not used to such a friendly welcome, but relaxed and did her best to hug the girl back. This girl had a rich mahogany hair color and bright hazel, almost caramel eyes.

"My name is T'Chea, pronounces T'Chee," the Vulcan-like girl informed her, stressing her name. "We are both in the Astrometrics class with you, in case you're wondering why we look familiar. No, I'm a touch telepath, I can't read your mind without touching you, I just figured that's why you gave us that look of confusion," she smiled.

"Right..." Naomi's face contorted into confusion once more.

"I'm Romulan," T'Chea explained. "You're wondering why I don't keep my emotions in check. That's why."

Well that certainly explained why she had familiar facial features common to that race, though Naomi had been under the impression that most Romulans didn't want anything to do with Starfleet. Obviously T'Chea either came from a more open-minded family, or she was rebellious and ambitious enough to follow her own path. "You sure you're not reading my thoughts?" Naomi raised a skeptical brow.

"Yeah Chea, even I'm a bit weirded-out," Hannah gave her friend a friendly smile as she sat back down.

"Honestly, I just get it a lot," T'Chea shrugged.

"I know what you mean, people have been mistaking me for a professor or senior. You don't know how many times I've had to explain my heritage to them," Naomi rolled her eyes.

"So..." Hannah grinned mischievously suddenly.

Naomi knew what the question was before she had to think about it. Of course they would ask this, they had both acknowledged being on the same ship, after all. "Yes, I know professor Icheb," she answered before the energetic girl could pounce, forgetting about his mysterious last name for a moment.

"Now who's the telepath? Where do you know him from? You two seemed kinda chummy after class," Hannah asked curiously, motioning Naomi to join them. It was then that the half-Ktarian realized she was still standing awkwardly at the entrance to the room. She shut the door, placed her belongings on her bed and sat down on the free couch. She kicked off her Starfleet issue boots and sighed contently.

"You all comfy now?" T'Chea teased.

"Yep," Naomi nodded, making herself at home and letting her eyes close, willing herself to relax from the hectic day and also from the slight, though natural, nervousness of meeting new people.

"So? Spill! How do you know our new and very attractive Astrometrics professor?" Hannah pressured. Naomi opened her eyes and peered over at her clearly eager new roommates and raised another brow. Honestly, sometimes she felt more Borg or Vulcan than Ktarian-Human hybrid. The girls were all but literally on the edge of their seats. Since they knew she had been on Voyager Naomi was more or less prepared for the onslaught of questions but sighed inwardly, not at all thrilled about getting into it again.

"Would you believe we grew up together?" Naomi began. T'Chea was the one to lift a skeptical eyebrow this time. "Well technically we sort of did. Icheb was a Borg when he was brought on Voyager. I don't know the specific details, only that he spent most of his life in a sort of room that matured children assimilated at a young age into fully adult Borg. They had rescued him before he would fully mature into a drone and de-assimilated him. I was only six years old at the time, and it was all sort of fuzzy. I had grown pretty attached to Seven of Nine, our other former-Borg resident aboard Voyager, who instructed me and then Icheb. There were a few other Borg children with him, but they didn't stay very long, all picked up by their families. Icheb was the only one to stay with us. Throughout the year we grew close. He was my tutor for biology and math, and Seven was our instructor on ...well, pretty much everything else.

"Biology?" Hannah grinned, leaning forward. T'Chea rolled her eyes and smacked her friend's arm.

Naomi didn't even bat an eye as she went on, getting into the story. She may had been tired of telling it, but it really was a story close to her heart. "It was mostly genetics really, since he had an aptitude for it, but when the doctor was busy he tutored me on what he could. Since we were the only children aboard the ship, we spent quite a lot of time together. Icheb was always striving to better himself, to learn all he could, and tried to integrate himself in the daily activities of the ship as much as possible. It sort of left me trailing behind him and looking over his shoulder while he worked. He didn't seem to mind so much, even tried teaching me the things he was learning. I might have been matured much more than the average human my age, but I gotta say, most of what he tried to teach me went right over my head." Naomi smiled fondly at the pleasant memories of the fun times together with him and Seven on Voyager.

Hannah and T'Chea glanced at each other knowingly. Oh yeah, this year was going to be very interesting for them with Naomi as their roommate and Icheb as their professor. "So, what was he like before? He's sort of a mystery to everyone," T'Chea explained, eager to hear more.

"Well, he was… well I don't really have a basis to compare him since we haven't really seen each other in a decade…" Naomi explained with an apologetic smile. The two girls seemed disappointed. She sat back and thought about it. "I suppose I can tell you what I remember though," she mentioned.

"Was he as concerned with "perfection" back when you knew him? Wait, that may be a dumb question?" Hannah said, leaning over to the coffee table before them to pick up what now looked like some sort of tea.

Naomi decided to answer that question anyway however. "Oh, he was more concerned with it then, after all, the doctor had recently de-assimilated him. Having had the Borg ways drilled into him since he was assimilated as a child... probably literally...-" Naomi and the girls grimaced at the thought, "-he only knew what he was taught growing up, like most of us do as children. I would say he was naïve, but I'm not much one to speak, since I was only a child and naïve as well then," Naomi said and smiled at the flash-back of memories that suddenly hit her. "I mentioned he tutored me on genetics, one time we were putting together an educational jigsaw-puzzle and he tried to teach me to "recognize the complementary base pair" as he put it… but I was just putting the puzzle together by color and shape…" Naomi said chuckling. Naomi then noticed the knowing smiles from her roommates and gave them a wary look. "What?" she questioned slowly.

T'Chea rubbed her chin thoughtfully and arched an eyebrow. "Would I be far off if I guessed that you like him?" T'Chea asked. Hannah leaned in closer in anticipation.

Naomi straightened, not exactly liking where the girl was going with that line of question and crossed her arms defiantly. "To answer your question, yes I like him."

"Really now?" T'Chea grinned.

"Sure. So far I believe he will be a good professor and he was my friend- is my friend," she corrected. "I have no reason to dislike him," Naomi answered calmly with a shrug. Hannah almost fell off the couch from being on the edge from the disappointment.

T'Chea glanced at their clumsy friend and then back at Naomi; she would not let her off the hook so easily. "That is not what I meant and you know it," she stated, crossing her own arms.

Naomi smirked and leaned back against her seat in a smug sort of way. "It's what you asked," she stated simply.

T'Chea's jaw tensed and she glared in a mock fashion while Hannah grinned childishly at T'Chea's expense. "I meant - do you like him like him… as in crush like?" T'Chea asked.

Naomi smiled finally and shook her head. "I couldn't tell you. I've only just reunited with him after ten or so years. It's been a long time! Yeah, I'm not blind, he is attractive, always sort of thought so, but," she shrugged again. "I can't say I have a crush on him." Naomi certainly hoped that wasn't the case, things were a little strange between them that morning, but it could be that it was just strange to see each other as adults suddenly, nothing more. Surely they would eventually adjust to that, wouldn't they?

"Ah you're no fun," Hannah sighed, hoping for something juicier.

"Why don't we go to the mess-hall for some dinner?" T'Chea suggested. "If you're not too tired?"

"Sounds good to me," Naomi said while Hannah nodded. They gathered their keycards and left. Fortunately, as they walked the busy campus to the cafeteria, they kept their questions civil and friendly, asking Naomi about her parents, and about how she liked it on Earth so far. "Honestly," she told them, "I wasn't looking forward to Earth. I was born on Voyager, it was my home and all I knew. The closer we got, the more excited everyone was and the more isolated I felt."

"You and the professor?" Hannah suggested with a knowing smile.

"Yes-," Naomi relented, "-me and the professor," she rolled her eyes playfully. When they sat down, they continued chatting, talking about a bit of each of their backgrounds, their goals in the academy, their parents, whatever they could to make transitioning from strangers to friendly roommates easier. They were lost in their chat until Naomi felt like someone was staring at her and paused. Glancing around she didn't notice anyone looking her way though, making her frown thoughtfully.

"Professor hot-pants is looking your way," Hannah told her in a whisper teasingly.

"What?" Naomi resisted whipping her head around to see where he was, instead looking over to the direction Hannah gestured with a nod.

"Right, not crushing on him at all," T'Chea smirked.

"Stop," Naomi scolded softly and then caught Icheb's gaze. He was standing at the meal line with another professor, listening to what the older man was telling him and nodding every now and then. Naomi gave him a small smile when he noticed her looking his way and he smiled back, nodding at her before turning back to the professor who had been speaking with him.

"And what was that?" T'Chea asked, her teasing smile returning ten-folds.

Naomi raised her brow. "I believe it's called a smile," she answered shortly; she liked her new friends but they were starting to annoy her a little. They were looking into this way too deeply and it was frankly making her uncomfortable.

Thankfully Hannah seemed to notice Naomi's distress and came to the rescue. "Okay, okay, enough T'Chea. We're sorry we're being so pushy, Naomi. You're like a new toy to us but we may be wearing you out."

"Kind of," Naomi answered candidly. "I don't exactly like being attacked with questions of a personal nature with people I just met."

"We're very sorry," T'Chea said, her shoulders dropping slightly.

"It's just, I don't want to be identified as only a member of that famous ship and having some sort of unrealistic and honestly inappropriate thing with our new professor. That's how rumors are started. I just want to fit in and relax as much as I can before all hell breaks loose, you know?" Naomi explained.

"We totally get it. We'll try to behave," Hannah nodded. "Don't worry, you can come to us whenever you feel the stress getting to you, okay?"

"Thanks. I appreciate that," Naomi nodded and stood from the table smiling at her new friends. They continued their meal and chatted a bit more for a little while longer before they day's events finally caught up to Naomi. "If you two don't mind I'm going to head back now. I guess I'm more tired than I thought," she said.

"I hope we didn't upset you?" T'Chea asked in a subdued tone.

"No, no, I really am just tired. I promise," Naomi tried to reassure them.

"In that case, we'll see you later," Hannah smiled.

As Naomi slowly made her way down a hurriedly memorized path to her dorm she felt a presence behind her and turned to see Icheb walking up to her. His wide strides from his long legs caught up with her smaller strides quickly, but Naomi stopped to let him catch up and smiled at him. "Prof-" she was stopped by a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Please, just Icheb, we aren't in class – you don't have to use honorifics," Icheb said in a soft tone. He stood before her in the mostly empty hall, his arms relaxed at his side.

Naomi smiled, nodding in understanding. "Nice to see you again, Icheb," she told him. "How'd your other classes go?" she asked, honestly curious over how he was doing an a professor. She had no idea he had taken a job teaching, as she had mentioned to him, it was surprising. She had expected him to be off doing dangerous covert-ops missions or whatever other ridiculously thing her still over-active imagination could come up with.

"They went well, thank you. And yourself? How has your first day gone?" He asked curiously.

"I never knew how much work this could be, and it's only the first day!" Naomi exclaimed, though not at all as troubled by it as she made herself sound.

Fortunately, Icheb caught on. "Yes, the first day can be tough," he said and smiled, nodding knowingly, placing his hands behind his back. Naomi remembered him doing so, many times before, only this time, he didn't seem to slouch like he had before, he stood straight, towering over her more than she remembered. "Even so, I expect you to be one of my top students," Icheb said half-serious, half-teasingly.

Naomi grinned and crossed her arms, prepared to fall back into the familiar playful kinship they had had on Voyager. "I suppose your lessons will be a bit more challenging than putting a puzzle together?" she asked just as teasingly. She jerked in surprise a little when he smiled slyly and leaned forward slightly, she could practically smell his aftershave as his lips twisted into a brilliant smile that made her wonder where it had come from, where he learned to smile like that. It occurred to Naomi then that Icheb seemed a lot more relaxed than when she remembered. He seemed to have regained most of his individuality already. It made sense, him being younger when he was de-assimilated unlike Seven, it was only natural that he would adapt to society as rapidly as he seemed to have done.

"You would be correct Naomi Wildman," Icheb whispered playfully.

Naomi nudged away her reverie and smiled back just as playfully. "Don't worry Icheb, you can count on me," she told him seriously.

Icheb leaned in slightly more, making Naomi blink, feel like she should move away, but resisted doing so. If he was challenging her, she would not back down! No matter how cute he was or how good he smelled. Darn her sudden hypersensitive alertness for noticing, too. "I don't doubt it," he told her, once more using that soft tone. Was it her imagination, or were his eyes shining? He cleared his throat, and for a moment Naomi was all-but hypnotized by his throat working. She didn't notice Icheb lose control of his senses and look her over, marveling at how much she had grown. He knew once again that it was completely inappropriate to basically ogle his students, no matter their history together, but he was still very obviously a male, after all. To his dismay, Naomi's attention had returned quickly and she started in surprise at him. Naomi could have sworn he was checking her out, but that had to be her imagination, right?

Icheb straightened and smiled tensely, sensing something had changed. And it was probably his fault, too. "If you're good, maybe one day I'll tell you about my first experiences," he said as a weak joke.

"I'd like that," Naomi smiled back.

Icheb nodded and stepped back slightly. "I should let you go, it's late and you're probably tired." Icheb fought himself, wanting to stay and talk some more, but suddenly needing the solitude of his apartment.

Naomi frowned in confusion for a moment, not understanding why he suddenly seemed uncomfortable, but noticed he looked just about as tired as she felt. Maybe it was just fatigue from a long first day? She nodded in understanding, figuring that must be it. "Yeah, sure. G'night, Icheb," she said softly. Still, Naomi couldn't shake the feeling that something had just happened between them, but she couldn't place what it was.

"Goodnight, Ms. Wildman," he smiled gently before turning and leaving her feeling slightly at a loss. Why were things so weird between them now? It didn't make any sense! Shaking her head, Naomi continued on her way, reaching her room and unlocking it. She glanced around the room, taking stock of what she had to work with that year. Three beds on three corners of the room, a small kitchenette at the spare corner, an arrangement of couches in the middle of the room, and a couple doors. One door was probably the bathroom and the other was most likely a closet.

After familiarizing herself with the mysterious doors, what was in the cabinets, the entertainment center, and what she could work with to her advantage, she set out to unpack her things. She didn't have too much, trusting her father when he said Starfleet would provide all that she would need. She only had a few keep-sakes, her favorite Kadis-Kots board, her beloved Flotter doll she took everywhere – adulthood be damned – the brush Mizoty had left her before she went with Azan and Rebi to their home, a few other things, and her portable computer. It was then she noticed a message on her computer and sat down on her bed with it, opening it up. She smiled to herself, seeing that it was from Icheb. He had sent it an hour ago... had she really been that busy since she got back to the room?

"Naomi Wildman," the e-mail began and Naomi could practically hear the way Icheb habitually combined her two names in one through the message and smiled. It seemed to be a Borg trait, as none of the other crewmembers seemed to do that.

"I hope this email finds you well and before your day starts again. I checked my schedule when I left you. I won't be free to convene every day this week, but every other day will work. Mondays and every other day after I will be busy. However, this Wednesday is the exception. I was to meet with a colleague but he couldn't make it and had to postpone. Lucky for us, hm?"

Naomi leaned back on her bed and smiled fondly at the email. Lucky indeed! That just meant more time for them to get reacquainted!

"I look forward to spending more time with you 'catching up' and reminiscing over old times. I hope our meetings will also have some productive outcomes, however. You asked if we could work together and I thought that was a clever idea. I know I'm not supposed to show favoritism, but who needs to know?"

Naomi found herself laughing softly. Who knew Icheb had sense of humor? She remembered the many times he had tried to make a joke but not many people caught on. As a little girl, Naomi had found him funny, but mostly when he wasn't trying to be. She had to wonder if this was one of those cases? Maybe she'd get a chance to see if he had improved any this week.

"I'll help you adjust to your first year as a Cadet, if you'll help me adjust to being a new teacher to so many students. Deal? This is my first year as a teacher since returning from my five year mission, so any input will be most welcome."

Naomi was surprised, though she should have known. A little more than five years ago or so was when she first saw him and Tuvok talking about his impending mission.

"Attached is the directions to the diner. I hope 07:00 hours is not too early? I looked forward to seeing you there, until then.

-Icheb."

Naomi smiled once more, anticipating seeing him the next morning, and closed her computer. She leaned back against her bed, her thoughts on how nice it was to reunite with him, what a surprise it was to find him here too at the same time she started at the Academy. It was nice to know she would have an ally while there and hoped they'd get along as well as they had as kids. That thought in mind, Naomi fell asleep just like that, a content smile still lingering on her lips.

Elsewhere, Icheb sat at his computer at his apartment, staring at the email he had sent an hour ago, trying to identify the strange signals he had been getting from the young woman and how he seemed to react to her. No, that wasn't exactly right... he seemed to be the one sending her signal, not her. Clearly his body knew more than his mind did about what was going on.

Icheb let a frustrated breath leave him, he wasn't blind, he knew why he was behaving this way. The first day of their reunion and he was acting like some teenager with a crush. He had even told her that she had grown up beautifully. It wasn't like it was beyond protocol to compliment someone, but somehow the observation had been more than an innocent compliment between friends.

Icheb glared at his screen, struggling to come to terms with the fact that Naomi Wildman was no longer the little girl he had befriended, had tutored, and played Kadis-Kots with. No, she was his biological equal. Icheb knew about Ktarians and the half breeds produced between different species, having assimilated the knowledge from his time at the maturation chamber... but he hadn't realized cute little Naomi would grow into a woman so quickly! Perhaps he should not try to treat her like the little Naomi Wildman he used to tutor, and instead treat her like the young woman who was entering a new and very adult phase in her life. But to do so might... complicate things.

One thing was for sure, things were certainly going to be interesting.

TBC...

Shout-Outs

Star Jelly: Thank you, darl'n! Just wait until you see what I have written this time around!