Midnight Snack
By Ralkana

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Chakotay bolted upright in bed, slightly disoriented. He quickly took stock of his surroundings, as he always did upon awakening. Thrum of Voyager’s engines, viewport where it should be, warm slumbering body beside him… He was in Kathryn’s quarters, where he was supposed to be, so what was bothering him? And then he remembered the dream.

“Huh?”

His confused murmur woke the woman next to him, and she stirred and sat up, blinking several times and pushing the hair out of her eyes.

“Chakotay?” she asked, her voice raspy with sleep. “What is it?”

“I’m sorry, Kathryn. I didn’t mean to wake you. Go back to sleep. I just had the strangest dream, that’s all.”

“What did you dream?” she asked, waking up a bit more fully.

He shook his head, trying to clear it of the strange image. “I… You and I were… standing in the shuttlebay. And we were talking about the time Neelix died and Seven brought him back to life. And there was this strange woman there in a huge hat. And she kept staring at us with this weird little smile…”

She looked at him expectantly. “And…?”

“And nothing. That’s it. Told you it was strange…”

She rolled her eyes and patted his chest. “You, my dear, need to stop eating Neelix’s food in the middle of the night. I told you it would do more harm than good. Now go back to sleep.”

He looked down to where her hand rested on his bare chest. When he looked back up at her there was fire in his dark eyes.

“Oh no… now that we’re both awake, we might as well do something about it…” He pushed her onto her back with a wicked grin and began kissing a trail down from her neck.

She laughed and the sound became a moan as his lips quickly found a sensitive spot. Her hands came up to tangle in his hair and anchor him to her. “Ohhh. I’ve changed my mind. You’re allowed to eat Neelix’s food before bed any night of the week.”