Title: Sadie's Day

Author: Britta

Series: VOY

Codes: C/P

Rating: R

Archive: Fine with me, just tell me where.

Disclaimer: Someone else owns these folks. I just let them do whatever they want. Money being made? You have got to be kidding. It's a labor of love--theirs. May contain m/m sex, if you don't
like, take a hike.

B'Elanna's loud voice carried the length of the Jeffries tube, "Chakotay?"

"Shhh! Turn that light off."

She scrambled over to sit beside him and whispered, "What are you doing here in the dark?"

He whispered back, "Hiding."

"Why?"

Chakotay sighed. "Tom informed me it was Leap Year on some planet I've never heard of and he claims it counts as Sadie Hawkins Day."

"So?"

"So that means if he can catch me and drag me in front of the captain, I've got to marry him." Chakotay paused while B'Elanna snorted softly and punched his upper arm.

He continued, "At least he gave me a ten-minute head start after dinner."

"Hmm, I wondered why you left the messhall so quickly."

"Now you know. All I have to do is stay out of his clutches until midnight and I'm a free man." Which would be a good thing since divorce was not an option for his people. It was so like Tom just to decide to get married. What Chakotay needed was time to think this through.

B'Elanna shifted restlessly and said, "All he has to do is ask the computer to locate you. Why hasn't he carried you off yet?"

Chakotay grinned in the dim, cramped space. "Tom is a stickler for tradition on really important stuff; he refused to use modern technology to find me." He thought back to when Tom had explained the 'rules' for today, in between licks and nibbles culminating in an early morning blowjob. He smiled at the memory.

B'Elanna brought him back to the present abruptly by asking, "Do you love Tom?"

He squirmed on the hard surface they were sitting on and wondered how he could possibly explain to another person what Tom meant to him. Tom filled every hole in Chakotay's soul and then some. His life would be a vacuum without Tom. "Yes."

She stared at him. He could feel her eyes boring through the gloom with Klingon impatience. "You should let him catch you."

"Why?"

"He loves you so much it's pathetic." B'Elanna sounded mildly disgusted.

"How do you know that?"

She scooted closer to him and stated, "Who do you think he comes to when he wants to talk about your relationship?"

"You?"

He had trouble believing it, but she convinced him. "Yes. Me. The one who has known you for years and who knows how you think."

She had a point. He also had a feeling that he was missing something. "Have you spoken with Tom since dinner?"

"I-I really can't remember."

That was her 'I don't want to lie to you' voice. Hell. "Did he ask you where I might go if I didn't want to be disturbed?"

"Maybe...." B'Elanna started moving away. "I've got to go now."

He let her leave without protest. In a way this whole thing was funny. Tom was very clever and Chakotay wouldn't be surprised if he was touring every Jeffries tube in sequence until he found him.

He sat for a while longer and contemplated married life with Tom. It would be a big commitment for both of them. Suddenly, he wanted to do it. He crawled toward the exit determined to make it easy for Tom to find him.

As he eased out into the corridor backwards, he felt arms come around him and heard a half-Klingon giggle in the background. Shushing noises made him realize there were more people present. He turned and saw Kim and Ayala, Neelix, and a half dozen others smiling at him.

Tom leaned forward and kissed him. "I caught you, Chakotay. Will you come quietly?"

He put up a token struggle and said, "No! Never!"

"Never?" Tom demanded dramatically.

He shook his head and Tom replied, "Then we'll do it the hard way." And with that, Tom picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

Their audience clapped and cheered, then to his consternation, followed them. He began to feel ridiculous and whispered, "Put me down, Tom. I'll go willingly."

"No way, Chakotay. You had your chance."

"But, there are all these people!"

As they neared the captain's door, Tom set him on his feet and grinned. "I think they'd make great witnesses, don't you?"

Heat rose in his face and, giving in to the inevitable, he nodded. Tom pressed the door chime and a moment later they walked together toward their future.

THE END