DISCLAIMER: All characters are owned and copyrighted by Paramount. No profit is intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to my beta-readers Sara and Elizabeth Crusade.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
To Date or Not to Date
By Skye
Seven of Nine was at a loss. Tom Paris had been able to persuade her to accompany him to one of his infamous holodeck programs. After his divorce from Lt. Torres he was chasing after every woman aboard Voyager and somehow Seven became his latest victim. In the beginning she had been very reluctant. But after her failed dating endeavor with Chakotay, she had decided that it might be worth to give it another try. Although she knew without a doubt, that Tom Paris was no suitable partner for her, she was under the impression that she needed more dating experience. So, in a weird way, Tom was her dating victim as well. After all, her previous attempts had been desastrous. And now she wondered why that was.
Due to her previous experiences and the Doctor's dating lessons, she had some ideas of what was expected of her. Tom had told her, that she should wear something casual for their date and because of his well known interest in the 20th century on earth, she was fairly certain, that the holoprogram they would visit, was somehow connected with his obsession.
That was, why she was at a loss at the moment. Besides her biosuits she owned almost no other clothes. She was looking through her closet in her newly assigned quarters, but there was little hope, that she would find something in there.
Her next idea was to ask the computer to show her casual clothes from this period. She then replicated some things and tried them on. But again she was at a loss. She had now idea what to wear. She definitely needed some advice.
Under other circumstances she would have asked Sam or Naomi Wildman for advice. But neither of them thought that she should go out with Tom, so they probably won't give her a good advice. Naomi didn't like the helmsman at all and for some reason called him a cauliflower. Seven had no idea why Tom would be named after a vegetable and assumed that it must be one of those strange human customs, of which she knew little or nothing.
Because of that Seven decided to ask Lt. Torres for advice. She had been married with the helmsman and therefor should know his tastes best. Considering their history of adversarity, Seven first was reluctant to call B'Elanna, but since her divorce from Tom the two had gotten along pretty well and she was quite confident that B'Elanna wouldn't rip her apart.
So she tapped her commbadge. "Seven of Nine to B'Elanna Torres."
"Torres here. What's up?" B'Elanna answered instantly.
"B'Elanna, I need some advice and would like to ask you for your help." Seven decided to be vague about her inquiry.
"Sure. My place or yours." Something in the Lieutenant's voice was telling Seven, that she was grinning from ear to ear.
"My place." Seven answered.
"Okay, see you in five minutes. Torres out." With that the channel was closed and Seven waited for.
Four minutes later the chime to her quarters announced B'Elanna's arrival. When Seven opened her, standing in her usual ramrod straight stance, she was wearing a loose cargo jeans and an even looser green and yellow T-Shirt, that somehow looked as if it had been worn by a grizzly bear. To say that B'Elanna was stunned, would be an understatement.
"You are early" Seven stated and turned around to let B'Elanna enter.
"Brazil?" B'Elanna exclaimed instead of a greeting.
"Excuse me?" Seven wondered.
"It's written on the back of your shirt." B'Elanna pointed on the writing.
"Oh, yes. I forgot about that." Seven was a little distracted and had no idea, why it was of any concern that the word "Brazil" was written on the back of her shirt.
"Why are you wearing that anyway?" B'Elanna looked Seven up and down, still somewhat speechless. It was quite rare that Seven wore something else than her biosuits. But what she was wearing now was certainly out of taste. Weird as it was, Seven looked quite sexy in it. On the other hand, there was nothing she wouldn't look sexy in.
"You know, that Tom and I are going out on a date." It was more a question than a statement.
"Yeah, he told me so." B'Elanna replied somewhat grumpily. Tom had told her a day before and although she wasn't against him dating other woman, she certainly despised the idea of him dating Seven of Nine. She wasn't quite sure why, because she actually liked the blonde Astrometrics officer.
"He said, I should wear something casual. I asked the computer for casual clothes in the late 20th century. This was one of the outfits he showed me and I decided to try it on, because I never wore something like that."
"Well, I think now I know why I'm here. And I would strongly recommend to wear something else." But then, B'Elanne mused, would Seven wear it, Tom certainly would reconsider taking her out again. Nay, she couldn't do that, could she?
"Precisely. I wanted to ask you to help me finding an outfit. And then I hoped, you would help me with the date itself. I found, that I have some problems showing interest in Tom's hobbies. The 20th is quite confusing."
"Tell me something about it. I always tried to show interest in his hobbies, even built him that damned TV. But this period is still a mystery to me. I for one never understood why the Queen of England advised the french people to build the Eiffel tower." B'Elanna found herself babbling. The thought of Tom and Seven dating bothered her in and of itself and that she now should help her, didn't help at all.
"I believe the Queen did no such thing." Seven said, wondering why B'Elanna would say that in the first place.
"Maybe she didn't. I don't really know. I mean, I never understood Tom's obsession with that period. Can you believe, that he likes to dance the 'Moonwalk'?"
"The 'Moonwalk'? I have no idea what that is." Seven tried to imagine a dance on the moon, but came up with nothing.
"It's a dance invented by a singer called Michael Jackson. He was quite a guy, who managed to be declared the King of Pop, although in his later years he somehow turned into some kind of Queen of Pop."
"How was that possible?" Seven inquired. Although it didn't matter in any way. For some reason she just wanted to hear B'Elanna's voice.
"I don't really know. Maybe plastical surgery, but it wasn't not as developed as nowadays. He was born as a kinda sweet, dark-skinned boy and after twenty years or so, her was an ugly, white-skinned woman. Despite that his music was loved around the planet."
"I see" Seven said, although she didn't. "Can you show it to me?"
"Show you what?" B'Elanna asked slightly confused.
"This dance, the Moonwalk." Seven was slightly confused herself. Although it didn't help with her current predicament, she wanted to see B'Elanna do that dance.
"What? Are you crazy? I'm not the one with that obession and I certainly won't dance. I mean, I never tried it." B'Elanna couldn't believe her ears and had absolutely no idea, why Seven would ask her to dance for her.r
"But you must know the move. Maybe Tom will ask me to dance the Moonwalk with him. I would like to be prepared for that case." Seven tried to be logical in hope she could make B'Elanna dance for her.
"No way, no" B'Elanna was adamant. She might help Seven with her outfit, but she was not going to dance.
"Please, I would really like to see it" Seven now pleaded.
Again B'Elanna wasn't sure, whether she could trust her ears or not. Seven of Nine was pleading with her, just because of a stupid old fashioned dance. Suddenly, she had an idea.
"Tell me, why you're going out with him, then I may consider your request, but even then I have a condition."
Seven pondered B'Elanna's request. There was no reason not to tell the engineer about her motivations.
"Well, after my failed dating attempt with Lt. Chapman, I first decided that there are no suitable males for me aboard Voyager. After a while I thought, that I might give it another try, after all, I am more developed now in my humanity. But again my object of choice, Commander Chakotay, turned out to be unsuitable, although this attempt worked better. I now wonder, why I am always failing with my dating attempts. I do not know, whether it is my choice in men, or if it is me."
"Err, I see" B'Elanna said and rushed forward with what was on her mind. "Did you ever considered to date a woman?"
"No. I was not aware, that I can do that." Seven said, somewhat astonished. Considering it for a few seconds she came to the conclusion, that this very well might be an explanation why she felt no attraction towards the male crewmembers.
"Well, you can. It's pretty common." B'Elanna said as casual as possible, although she was nervous as hell.
"I will consider it. Now, that I told you why I want to go out with Tom, will you do the dance for me?" The ghost of a smile appeared on Seven's face.
"Yeah, sure" B'Elanna replied distracted, but remembered what she'd said earlier. "Wait, I said under one condition."
"Proceed."
"I'll show you, but then we'll do it together, on a date." B'Elanna blurted out.
"Acceptable" was all, what Seven said. "Now we should look for a better outfit for my date with Tom."
Now that B'Elanna had her own date with Seven, she might as well help her. The sooner it was over, the sooner she could look forward to their date.
She entered some new parameters into the computer and seconds later it showed her some new outfits. They went through them and Seven finally decided on dark grey pants together with a light blue blouse that matched her eyes. She replicated the outfit and went into her bedroom to change.
When she returned, B'Elanna was stunned for a second time, now in a much more positive way. She decided then and there, that her ex-husband didn't deserve a woman like Seven. Maybe she herself didn't either, but that should be upon Seven to decide.
"You look wonderful." She finally said and meant it.
"Thank you." Seven suddenly felt very self-concious. Somehow B'Elanna's appreciative looks made her want to go out with her instantly without first going with Tom. She wondered if it would be possible to cancel their date.
Coming to a decision she tapped her commbadge.
"Seven of Nine to Tom Paris."
B'Elanna, who still stood besides the ex-drone, wondered what she was up to now.
"Paris here, what's up Sev." Seven frowned upon hearing her name shortened in that way, but let it pass for now.
"Tom, I regret to inform you, that I will not be able to attend our date."
"What? Why?" Tom cried through the commchannel.
"I have found someone more suitable to date." Seven stated. B'Elanna had the grace to blush.
"What? Who? Seven, you can't just cancel the date." Tom now whined.
"I believe I can. And I will certainly not show up, because I will be occupied otherwise." That said she closed the channel without further ado. Turning around to B'Elanna she asked. "And where will you take me out?"
"Err, I…I…maybe we could've dinner in my quarters. Or if you prefer, we can go to the messhall." B'Elanna suggested slightly overwhelmed.
"Your quarters will be fine." Seven said now really smiling. "Will you change your clothes?"
"Yeah, after all you changed too." B'Elanna grinned looking at the beautiful woman infront of her.
"I am very pleased to hear that. I believe this time I will not fail." Seven stated somewhat confidentally, smiling shyly.
B'Elanna made a step towards her and brought her hands up to the taller womans face. Pulling her down she smiled and said: "We will not fail. May I?"
"You may" Seven whispered.
B'Elanna closed the distance between them and kissed the woman she had a date with, the woman who hopefully will soon be more than just her date.
The End