Tart Green Fruit
 

You remind me of a tart green fruit." Kathryn told her, "Like an apple maybe, or a lime."

Seven studied Kathryn watching her over the rim of her bath. "I do?"

"Yes."

Seven dropped the Captain's gaze and swirled her fingers through the bathwater. She smoothed it over her firm ripe breasts and let Kathryn watch the water taste her naked skin.

"Perhaps you should show me some of this fruit," said Seven. "I do not believe I have tried it before."

"I think I should..."

Suddenly Kathryn's hand was grasping hers. "Get out of the bath," Kathryn told her. She pushed a towel into Seven's arms, "Wait here."

Kathryn left Seven to drip on to the floor tiles with an amused half-grin until she returned with a fragrant lime in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other. First she stood on tiptoe to steal a kiss from Seven's lips. She did so slowly, coquettishly. Until Seven lifted her damp metallic hand and wrapped it pleadingly around Kathryn's wrist.

Kathryn took the towel away from Seven and showed her the lime. "Isn't it beautiful?"

Seven looked. Her first reaction was to raise her optical implant and say "No". However the way that Kathryn held her with her eyes made Seven stop and look again. Seven stroked two fingers over the green skin of the lime. It was smooth and puckered, with a waxy sheen. It held a fragrance too. A scent that promised a fusion of bitter and sweet, enticing Seven to prise away the cool soft flesh and drink the lime from Kathryn's palm.

"It has perfection in it." Seven said.

"It does. To me it's beautiful from the surface and inside." Kathryn's meaning was obvious, and Seven smiled.

Kathryn used the kitchen knife to cut the lime in halves. A clear bead of juice fell from the blade and traced a path down her wrist until it stopped at her elbow. The fruit's green scent was much stronger now. Seven was reminded of the awareness she had felt when she had first walked into Kathryn's room. The first time she had let Kathryn touch her. Not as a mentor, but as a woman whom Seven desired.

Seven remembered the nervous anticipation, standing in the shadows with Kathryn in front of her, breathing together in the dark. The unspoken agreement that particular date would be the one where they would move to the next level. She recalled their dinner on the holodeck in the corner of Sandrine's, dancing close together and then kissing in the turbolift between decks. She thought of Kathryn afterwards holding her hand tightly outside the door to Kathryn's quarters and asking her if she would like to come in.

"Shall we discuss philosophy?" Seven asked.

"No. I had something else in mind..."

"Here Seven. Taste it."

Kathryn holding the lime to Seven's parted lips pulled her from her reverie. Kathryn put the kitchen knife down on the bathroom counter with a click against the tile. Seven cupped her fingers around Kathryn's hand offering the fruit. She bit into the lime, not expecting the sour flavour that washed over her tongue. Kathryn curled her free hand around the back of Seven's head and blocked her retreat. She smiled at Seven lopsidedly.

"Wait." Said Kathryn, and she pulled their lips together to lick away the flavour with her tongue.

Seven exhaled heavily against Kathryn's ear after they pulled apart. She wondered what else Kathryn would teach her about this remarkable fruit. "The lime is somewhat deceptive in its scent Kathryn."

"Do you think so?"

"Yes. It reminded me of our first night."

"When I asked you to sleep with me?"

"Yes," Seven paused as Kathryn painted juice beneath her chin.

"I want you to tell me about it." Kathryn said. She traced the sine-wave patterns running from Seven's chin down to her chest. "Tell me what it felt like."

Seven experienced trouble thinking because Kathryn replaced her fingers with her tongue. Kathryn sucked hard enough to leave a mark. "But Kathryn," Protested Seven, "You were there."

Kathryn was busy. She took a moment to look up. "Tell me anyway."

"It was warm, and it was dark. I felt...anxious?"

"Anxious?" Kathryn prompted. Then she punctuated her interrogation with a nip.

"Good anxious. And wanting. I was afraid of how much I found myself wanting you. Wanting what you offered me."

Seven's confession won a smile. Kathryn released Seven's nipple from between her teeth. Dazed and disabled Seven remained there, until Kathryn pushed her tongue into her mouth. She tasted fruit ripened by sunshine on a planet that she had never seen. This did not worry Seven. She trusted Kathryn and likewise, Kathryn trusted her.

"It is love." Seven uttered.

Kathryn had her eyelids closed. "What?"

"Finding perfection. Finding love."

Kathryn welded her arms around Seven's body and the feeling pierced through her. Kathryn rubbed her cheek slowly over Seven's neck. She threw a sigh from her lungs as she kissed her lips down between Seven's breasts.

Kathryn said, "I love you."

Seven shifted slightly in Kathryn's arms. Her nipples rolled against Kathryn's chest and she placed her knee obtrusively between Kathryn's legs. Both the circle of lime against her back and Kathryn's heat against her leg were wet.

Seven pushed her thigh firmly against the heat and a lukewarm squeeze of lime juice fell along the metal rivets down her back Kathryn groaned against Seven's ear. The sound made Seven's insides turn into molten lead. Seven moved her thigh again. The lime crushed against her shoulder. Kathryn's heavy grip upon it made its light green and pucked skin split slowly in two. The lime's cool flesh was now exposed to Seven's shoulder. It warmed quickly. Whenever Seven jerked her thigh, the tear-drop compartments of flesh would rupture. Every movement Kathryn made created trickles of lime on Seven's flesh.

Kathryn tossed the broken lime onto the floor and reached to retrieve its other half. She touched it against Seven's crotch.

"Oh."

She crushed the lime against Seven harder. She slipped her fingers over Seven's clit. Seven said "oh!" again and forced her leg higher between Kathryn's thighs. They moved against each other until their voices shouted and argued and bounded from the bathroom walls and scratched deep gouges in the door. Eventually Kathryn discarded the second half of the lime and licked the sweat from Seven's shoulder.

She tasted of sex and tart green fruit.

Looking up at Seven from beneath her half closed eyelids, Kathryn smiled.

Breathing heavily, Seven scrutinised her.

"What?"

Seven ran her fingers through the warmth of Kathryn's folds. "You know what you remind me of, Kathryn?" She asked.

"No. Tell me."

Seven placed two fingers beneath Kathryn's chin. She kissed her. "Of strawberries,"

Kathryn grinned lopsidedly.

"blood oranges,"

Kathryn's tongue danced with Seven's in an insane waltz. Seven stole her breath way, and then she stole her soul. Seven pushed her fingers against Kathryn one more time. She thought of Kathryn's lips stained red and pretty. Like cranberries. The ones they ate on their second date. Seven licked at Kathryn's lips, imagining she could taste the berries there. Kathryn's lashes fluttered. Seven squeezed one small breast under her hand.

"You remind me," said Seven, "of crushed red fruit."