A Little Mishap
By Ralkana

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"Are you sure you’re okay in there?" Chakotay called, staring nervously at the door to Kathryn’s sleeping area. A growl was the only reply, and he shifted his weight to his other foot. "Kathryn?"

"I cannot believe this, Chakotay."

"It was an accident, Kathryn! Are you okay? Do you need to go to Sickbay?"

She snorted. "I’m fine. Neelix is going to need the Doctor’s services soon, though. I’m going to kill him."

"How is this his fault?" Chakotay asked, truly perplexed.

"It was his idea for the damn party! He was holding the damn thing when it happened!"

"How was he supposed to know that the ship would jolt at that exact moment?"

"It wasn’t really a big deal, honest! Hardly anyone—"

She cut him off abruptly, sticking her head through the doorway.

"I set my hair on fire, Chakotay. With the candles to my own birthday ca—are you laughing at me?!" she demanded, entering the room with her head turned away from him and her hands on her hips.

Chakotay tried desperately to stifle his laughter. "No… not at all…" His mirth vanished abruptly when he remembered how heartwrenchingly terrified he’d been when it had happened. "Are you sure you’re okay?"

"Will you stop asking me that?! I’m fine. My dignity is in tatters all over the holodeck floor, but I’m fine! Tom Paris is going to tease me about this for the next sixty years."

He sighed. "No he won’t. Everyone’s just glad you’re okay."

Kathryn smiled wryly. "Yeah, so they can smirk at me in the corridors." She saw his frown and sighed. "I’m fine, Chakotay. Thanks to you," she said with a soft smile.

He shuddered. "Spirits, Kathryn. When I saw that…" He pushed away the image of Kathryn with flames racing up her hair toward her beautiful face.

"Thank you," she said again. "For… putting me out," she said with a smile. He tried his best not to laugh, and she rolled her eyes. "It is pretty funny, isn’t it?"

"Only because you’re okay," he said solemnly. Then he chuckled. "Something new to put on my résumé. ‘First Officer of the USS Voyager: duties include getting shot at, beaten up, and kidnapped, crashing shuttlecraft, keeping my captain fed and well rested, making sure she gets her coffee, and beating out her hair with my bare hands when she sets it on fire with her own birthday cake.’ Oof," he added when she socked him in the stomach.

"Quiet, Mister," she ordered, laughing. "How ‘bout we keep that on the résumé of best friend, instead?"

"What are best friends for?" he responded with a dimpled smile.

She smiled, and then her grin turned wry. "After all," she said coyly, "We know from past experience how... flammable my hair is."

Chakotay grimaced. "What if we make a truce? No more comments about the flammability of your hair, from either of us, okay?"

Kathryn nodded, but her smile disappeared as she raised her hand self-consciously to touch the side of her head. Chakotay sighed, his good mood fading again. "Let me see," he demanded.

She clapped her hand back over her ear. "I’m fine." Then she bit her lip and took her hand away slowly as she came toward him. "Is it bad?"

Chakotay gathered a swatch of auburn hair in his hand, trying desperately to control his body’s response at being so close to her. He carefully scrutinized the delicate skin of her cheek and ear, resisting with great effort the urge to stroke her face with his fingertips. Her skin was slightly pinker than normal, but he was pretty sure that was from embarrassment, not any burns the fire might have inflicted.

"It looks fine," he pronounced. "You’re not even burned."

"What about my hair?" she asked apprehensively.

It’s beautiful, as always. You’re beautiful. "You can’t even tell, honestly, Kathryn." When she glared up at him, he said, "Honestly. I wouldn’t lie to you. Besides, even if it were burnt, the Doctor could fix it."

She nodded, and the slight movement made him realize he was still holding her hair, unconsciously rubbing the silky strands between his fingers. He froze, and although she noticed, she didn’t say anything. He released her hair and turned away abruptly as unwanted images cascaded through his mind.

Chakotay saw Kathryn’s beautiful smile as Neelix presented her with her birthday cake, and he heard the laughter and appreciative comments of their friends. He remembered watching with horrified fascination as the ship lurched gently and her hair fell forward to be caught by the hungry flame of the candle. He recalled the laughter becoming shouts and gasps, and he felt again the split second of frozen terror that kept him from moving before he leapt at her with a hoarse cry. He shuddered with the memories, and she placed a hand on his back.

"Chakotay…"

"I’m sorry, Kathryn," he said gruffly.

"For what?" she asked, confused.

"I wasn’t fast enough… I should have been—"

"Chakotay, you were faster than anyone else! If it hadn’t been for your fast reflexes, I could have been seriously injured! Instead, I’m perfectly okay, just a little embarrassed."

She reached out and took his hand as she turned him back toward her. Chakotay drew a breath in sharply. Her face was inches from his.

Kathryn stretched up and pressed her lips to his cheek. She’d meant it to be a gesture of gratitude, but at the contact his eyes closed and she was sure she felt his body tremble. She realized with a start that she was trembling too. It wasn’t the closest they had ever been physically, but the contact was more intimate than any they had ever before shared. She backed up slightly so she could study his face, and as she did, she was assaulted by her own memories.

She felt again the strange warmth that seemed so near to her, heard the crew’s cheerful comments stop as they gasped in horror. She remembered Chakotay yelling her name and she saw again the movement out of the corner of her eye as he jumped at her. She relived the split second of overwhelming fear that had gripped her as she’d seen the flames and recognized that it was their heat licking at her. Then Chakotay’s hands had been on her, gently but rapidly beating out the fire, and she’d looked into his eyes to see her own fear mirrored there. She remembered him frantically checking her over to see if she was injured, recalled his staunch unwillingness to leave her side during the short time she’d remained at the party after the accident.

She saw him now, with his eyes still closed and his brow slightly furrowed, and she knew that his reaction to her chaste kiss—and his reactions to that quick moment of danger—were more than the reactions of a best friend. He still loved her, was still her devoted warrior, and she was suddenly unwilling to make either of them wait any longer. She wondered fleetingly why this strange incident would change her mind, especially since they’d had much more dangerous, closer calls, and she decided she didn’t care why. It would finish—the waiting would end, now.

With a slight readjustment, she moved in and kissed him again, on the lips this time, silently thanking every deity she could think of that he was too contrary to give up easily on her. His lips were soft and warm under hers, and he grunted softly in surprise when she nibbled lightly at his lower lip. When she slid her hands behind his head and tried to deepen the kiss, Chakotay stiffened and moved back, taking her hands in his.

"Kathryn?" he asked softly, and when she didn’t respond, unsure of what to say, he sighed and released her hands. "I’d better go," he murmured, turning away from her.

She grabbed his hand, stopping him. "Don’t go, please." She watched in delighted fascination as his face lit up with a joy more intense than any she had ever seen, and then in horrified fascination as the look of joy faded, to be replaced by a hooded, wary expression. "Stay tonight, Chakotay," she said, stroking the back of his hand with her thumb.

"Kathryn," he said in a warning voice, "If I stay tonight, I can’t just leave in the morning. I won’t."

"I know that you wouldn’t, Chakotay, and I would never ask you to. If you stay tonight, you’d better not ever leave me."

The joy was back in his eyes, and she laughed, pulling him back to her. His lips found hers again and he crushed her to him as her arms found their way back around his neck. They groaned into each other’s mouths as the kiss grew more urgent and lips and hands explored familiar yet new territory.

After a few moments, they broke apart, having run out of air. Chakotay rested his chin on her head, simply holding her and breathing in deeply. His nose wrinkled at the faint scent of burnt hair, and he chuckled. She shifted in his arms, and he just knew she was glaring up at him.

"What?"

He snorted softly in laughter. "If I’d known that this was what it would take, I would have had Neelix set your hair on fire your first birthday out here!"

Her laughter rang out and echoed his as she pulled his unresisting form toward the bedroom.