Kiss Me

Kiss me…  Kathryn…


The words echo through my mind, haunting me.
I know that she didn't mean them.  Did she?  Of course not.  She couldn't have.  
I try to sleep, to read, to work, to live, and I can't.  All I think about are those words.  

She was regenerating in her alcove.  I don't know why I was there.  It was late and I couldn't sleep, so I went to check on her.  She looked so beautiful standing there against the green glow from the alcove, that I just couldn't leave.  She must have been dreaming, because she started mumbling. I couldn't make out most of the words, and she smiled, a full smile that lit up her normally passive features.  It was then that the words slipped out of her mouth.  

I practically ran out of the Cargo bay at that point.   She wasn't even awake for god's sake, and yet her words inspire all kinds of errant thoughts.  I think about how much I want to kiss her, just like she asked.  Soft but demanding.  I think that she would surrender to me, and let my tongue pass her lips, and taste her.

I have to stop this.  Its been three days.  I have avoided her at all costs since then.  I even canceled our velocity game.  I couldn't even do that face to face, just a short note in the computer was all I sent.  I have to stop thinking like this, I have reports that need to get done, and I swear that I have read this last sentence hundreds of times.  

The chime at my door sounds and I can hear my voice say "Enter".  It sounds hollow and tired.  It surprises me, but not as much as who has just walked into my ready room.  There she stood, just as beautiful as ever.

"I wish to know your reasoning behind canceling our velocity match."  She states, with no preamble, in her normal even tones.  I force my face into not betraying my emotions and point to my desk.  

"Seven, I am extremely busy."
She is angry, I can tell by the slight flexing of the muscle in her left cheek.

"That is unacceptable. You have been avoiding me, have you not?"

"No Seven, I just have been busy."  I say knowing that it must sound just as lame to her as it does to my own ears.
She looks at me, and then appears to come to some sort of decision about me.

"You are unsettled because I desire for you to kiss me."
I am stunned.  So stunned that my mask slips.

"You were asleep, dreaming. . ."  She interrupts my ramblings with her cool logic.

"Borg do not sleep, nor do they dream.  I knew that you were there, even though I was regenerating. I simply wish for you to kiss me."
I can't look at her, she will see right through me.  So I reply while looking at my desk.  

"Seven, it is inappropriate for the captain of a starship to get involved with a member of her crew…"  I was fully prepared to give her the entire speech that I had told myself so many times, when I felt her fingers on my chin, guiding my eyes to hers.  

She leaned over the desk and whispered  "Kiss me, Kathryn"  Before lowering her lips to mine.  The kiss was soft, everything that I ever imagined, and over entirely too soon.  My eyes were still closed as she left; the doors marking her departure with their customary swoosh.