Chakotay never asked Kathryn to meet for coffee after that first time, but the following day when he found his feet leading him back to the Academy's café she was already waiting for him.
Morning coffee turned into morning coffee and then lunch. Eventually they were back to coffee, lunch and then dinner twice a week.
He found himself rearranging his schedule to keep meetings with her that they never had to make. The highlight of his day was seeing her smiling face waiting for him, and the only time anything seemed to impede perfection was when they'd accidentally chosen to bring the same bottle of wine to dinner.
In other words, it was absolute perfection.
On some level he felt that he should be dissatisfied with the complacency of feeling like everything was right with the world as long as they still had what they had on Voyager, but he didn't.
The fact that he hadn't told her about Seven nagged at him though. The nonexistent relationship was both a convenient way to not push Kathryn into a romantic relationship and an overwhelming obstacle to any possible future.
"Have you decided whether or not you're going to stay in Starfleet?" he found himself asking.
The question seemed to quell her happiness for a moment, and he immediately regretted asking it.
"I don't know," she said after a moment. She uncrossed her legs, then crossed them again, fidgeting in another one of her beautiful silk pantsuits. "I don't know if I'm ready to leave Earth again just yet, but I don't know if my family in Indiana is enough to keep me in real gravity. It wasn't before."
"What do you think would make you stay?" he pushed a little, trying not to worry visibly about her possible answer.
She shrugged.
"I don't know," she said. "Maybe a dog!"
"Another Irish Setter?"
"No," she was sad again all of a sudden. "Maybe one of those little ankle biting ones."
Chakotay laughed.
"I'd give you a day before you threw it out the window," he said, still chuckling.
"Chakotay!" she admonished, then smiled. "You're probably right."
She got quiet again, and started pushing the food on her plate around with her fork.
"Mother's after me to start a family," she said quietly to her fork.
Chakotay wasn't sure how to reply. He waited to see if she'd change the subject.
"There were so few men I would ever even consider having children with though," she said. "I could probably count them on one hand… less than that I think."
"Would you still pursue any of them now?" he asked.
"Nope," she stabbed a piece of chicken. "They seem to be otherwise engaged."
"Well maybe your mother will still get her wish," he said. "It's not every day the long lost Amazon princess returns home, which reminds me, where did you get all of these silk suits you've been wearing?"
Her gratified smile made up for the awkward segue.
"Well, I don't know if you'd understand Chakotay, but suffice it to say, you simply cannot skate out of seven years of shopping sprees with your sister and not have a whole wardrobe within a week of coming home."
"I'll have to thank your sister then," he smiled. "You look absolutely breathtaking in all of them."
Kathryn blushed.
He wasn't kidding. Today's suit was a deep plum color, and when the blazer was off, the tank hugged her beautifully. The suit alone made her look ten years younger, and each color seemed to highlight a different beloved feature. It made him want, not for the first time, to simply get on with it; tell the Captain that he and Seven weren't together anymore and to inform her that he was in desperate need of a Command Level officer in his bed.
…immediately.
The threat of another few months without her company was enough to squash the impulse.
"What about you Chakotay?" Kathryn finally put the fork down, and held her hands in her lap. "Anyone badgering you about procreating now that we're back home?"
"No," he said, now eyeing his own fork.
She regretted asking, remembering suddenly that she had been there the first time he'd considered fatherhood.
"I find that I'd love to be a father," he said seriously. "I haven't found the right woman yet."
Kathryn was surprised by his answer. What did that mean? Was Seven not the right woman to have children with? She wanted to ask, but found that she couldn't.
"Anyway," he shook his head, as if to rid it of troubling thoughts. "We haven't even been home a year yet. What's the rush?"
"Tell that to my mother!"
Chakotay smiled, feeling the weight of the box in his right pocket.
Not now.
"Chakotay, I've been thinking," Kathryn began. "I found myself daydreaming about all of the things we used to do together on the holodeck."
Chakotay looked up at her, trying not to grin from ear to ear at her inadvertent choice of words.
"I was thinking that we should go to Lake George, the real Lake George."
Chakotay wasn't smiling anymore. He felt blood rush to his face.
Lake George was one of those few times when he got the chance to see the flawless ivory collarbone of Captain Janeway. She was escaping a brush with death, and invited him along for the journey. There was moonlight. There was champagne. She was wearing a tunic that bared her shoulders and décolletage, and as she dozed late in the evening, he found himself holding her. Her back was pressed against his chest, and her head rested on his shoulder.
Just before waking, he leaned his head into her neck, and gently kissed her collarbone, resting his lips on it for as long as he felt it was safe to. Even that wasn't enough. She didn't wake right away, and he regretted pulling away so soon. He groaned softly into the night in frustration, and just as he was going to tighten his hold on her and steal another one, she woke up and apologized for falling asleep on him.
It was the most wonderful torture he had that entire year.
"Chakotay?"
"Yes!" he said, maybe a little too enthusiastically. "I would love to go to Lake George with you. Just a day trip?"
"Well," she said, "if you want. If you don't have any plans though I was thinking we could stay at the Sagamore. I've never gotten to stay at the resort. Phoebe and I would camp nearby while Mom and Dad would stay at the hotel. Phoebe and I used to stay up late and look at the lights on the resort from our tents talking about how romantic it must be for our parents to want to keep us out with the bugs!" she laughed.
"Well that will be one disadvantage about the real thing," Chakotay said. "No way to program the bugs away."
"Still," said Kathryn, "there's something to be said for authenticity."
"Well I'll bring the bug repellent," he said.
"See that you do," Kathryn stood up, knowing that Chakotay needed to get back to his classes and knowing that he never stood up first. "Don't forget that we're supposed to have dinner with Tom and B'lanna tomorrow night."
"I won't," and he watched her leave.