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Vorik entered his quarters to the welcome sound of his sonic shower already in use. There was only one other person on this ship who could possibly be using his bathroom, and it was the person he most wished to see after a double shift with an increasingly irritated Lieutenant Torres.
He quickly stripped out of his uniform, leaving it in an untidy pile along with his boots, socks, and underwear, and went to join his girlfriend.
The shower was situated on the wall left of the bathroom door, and Juna had her back to him as he entered the bathroom. Vorik watched her for a moment, embracing the far from logical swell of affection he felt at the sight of her, before making his presence known.
"Certainly a pleasant sight to come home to," announced Vorik.
Juna startled slightly when he spoke, looking around quickly, and then relaxed when she realised it was him.
"Hey!" She smiled brightly at him, and again, he felt that surge of affection. "How was your day?"
"Unproductive," replied Vorik. He stepped into the shower cubicle with her, and slipped his arms around her waist. "What seemed like a simple repair task revealed several more issues that required immediate attention. It will likely be ongoing for the remainder of the week. B'elanna was most displeased."
"Let me guess, she told you all to sign off and get some rest, but she was still hunched over a console the last you saw of her?" asked Juna.
"Actually she was drinking raktajino while looking at a padd, but yes, she did elect to stay in engineering," replied Vorik. He lowered his head so he could kiss Juna's shoulder.
"She works too hard," said Juna. She tilted her head away when she felt his lips on her skin, granting him better access. "We should arrange another double date with her and Tom. Get her to relax a bit. And NO shop talk this time!"
"A fine idea. I will mention it to her tomorrow," said Vorik. He kissed further along her shoulder, following the faint smattering of freckles on her skin up her neck, and pressed his face against the soft orange waves of her hair. "What about your day?"
"Eh, same old. The never ending thrills of the airponics bay, and medication synthesis," said Juna. She leaned against him, the tension draining from her with a long sigh. "The doc gave me a sneak peek of his next opera recital. Well, I say 'gave me', it was more 'held me hostage'."
Vorik hummed against her skin, a low rumble of amusement that passed for laughter, and reluctantly dropped his arms, stepping alongside Juna to allow the sonic shower to dissolve the faint traces of dust and dirt from his body.
"I take it your roommate is once again using your shared bathroom for an extended length of time?" Vorik guessed.
"Actually, no. The bathroom is free, but Nessa has recently decided she likes Orion metal funk. Apparently, it's music, but it gives me a headache. I hope you don't mind." said Juna.
"You are always welcome here, Ashayam," replied Vorik.
It still surprised him how true that statement was. He could remember how strange it had felt to allow someone into his own private sanctuary from the noise and cold of the rest of the ship, the first time Juna had been to his quarters. Their relationship had still been platonic back then. They were simply two friends needing a quiet space to play kal-toh, and later, when Juna's patience for the Vulcan game ran out, a human word game named Scrabble.
Vorik had not foreseen then that one day he would find her presence so wanted in his life that he would feel incomplete without it. She was welcome. Very much so.
He held his first two fingers up and she brushed her own against them, sending a warm caress of energy through his telepathic receptors.
"Not to rush you, but I'd really like to wash my hair…" said Juna, gesturing at the shower controls.
"Of course. A moment," replied Vorik.
He adjusted the sonic shower to a more intense frequency and turned himself around a few times, feeling his skin refresh beneath the gently pulsing sound waves. As he turned his back to Juna, he felt her slap his rear. He raised an eyebrow at her, half a smile curving the corners of his mouth.
"You missed a spot," said Juna in mock defense.
"Well in that case, thank you for your assistance," he replied lightly.
Vorik leaned in to kiss her, and as Juna closed her eyes in anticipation, he tapped the shower controls, sending warm water raining down on both of them. Juna squealed in shock.
"Tease!" She scolded him playfully, and flicked her damp hand in his direction, the flung droplets lost in the shower spray.
"You missed a spot," Vorik replied with dry mirth.
Juna laughed, and kissed him, her lips warm and soft against his. He rested his forehead against hers afterwards, the contact strengthening the light mental link between them. It was not a bond, not truly, just a telepathic byproduct of the intimacy they shared, but he treasured it nonetheless. Moreso, in a way. This psychic closeness wasn't something that had been consciously put into place, but a natural formation with a mate he had chosen for himself. He cherished it, and cherished her, more than he could put into words.
"Turn around," Vorik instructed her softly.
"Why?" Juna asked, suspicious of further playful tricks.
"Please?" requested Vorik, his earnest tone free from any mischief.
Juna continued to look slightly suspicious, but did as he asked, turning round to face away from him. Vorik gently nudged her a little further away so she was no longer directly beneath the falling water.
The vivid ginger curls of her hair were now dark and flat, hanging wet against her back. Vorik reached for the small bottle of hair cleanser Juna kept in his quarters, and squeezed a small amount of the cool gel-like substance into his palm.
"Oh! Oh, that's nice…" Juna sighed happily as Vorik worked his hands down her sodden tresses, soaping them into a bubbly lather.
He combed his fingers through her hair and untangled what few knots he could find, before guiding Juna back under the spray of the shower and massaging her scalp as the water rinsed the cleanser away.
"You keep that up, I'm going to make you do this every time," said Juna.
"I would be agreeable to such an arrangement," replied Vorik.
Satisfied that Juna's hair was sufficiently clean, Vorik shut the water off.
"I'm sure you'd get bored of being my personal hair washer," said Juna as they stepped out of the cubicle together.
"We shall see," said Vorik, privately doubting that he would ever tire of the privilege.
He handed her the towel that was hanging on the rack and retrieved another for himself from the small cupboard beside the sink. Before he could wrap it around himself, Juna's arms encircled his torso and he felt her press herself against his back, her head resting between his shoulders.
"I love you," murmured Juna before kissing his back.
"Taluhk nash-veh k'dular, Juna," replied Vorik. He knew the universal translator would convert the endearment for her, but perhaps somewhat illogically, he felt it meant more in his native tongue. Felt right .
Juna kissed his back again and nuzzled her face against him before she let go. She gave his bum another playful swat before disappearing through the door to the main room of his quarters.
"I'm sure this preoccupation with my posterior cannot be healthy," Vorik teased her lightly as she left.
"It's totally healthy. Good for me, even. All the best doctors recommend getting a handful of a great bum at least three times a day," Juna called back.
"Surely your own would suffice?" replied Vorik. He wrapped his towel around his lower half and picked up his sonic tooth cleaner.
Juna's laughter was contagious in its joy, and Vorik allowed himself to smile lightly, although she couldn't see it.
"Hey, Babe?" She called out a few minutes later as he finished his hygiene routine.
Rather than answer her verbally, he exited the bathroom to join her. She was kneeling in front of the dresser in just her knickers, rummaging through the drawer Vorik had emptied for her things. Her damp hair was drying rapidly in the high heat of Vorik's room, curling up to her shoulders in messy waves the colour of Vulcan's skies.
"Can I stay, or do you need some space?" asked Juna. She held a light, loose vest in one hand, and a pair of leggings in the other, waiting for his answer.
"Please stay," Vorik said immediately.
Juna put the leggings back in the drawer.
It was routine of her to ask, knowing that as a telepathic species, even one whose abilities were mostly touch-orientated, Vorik could sometimes become overwhelmed by the minds around him and needed solitude to decompress. In the early days of their relationship, Juna had rarely spent the night.
As Vorik toweled himself dry and shook his hair back into its neat, flat, arrangement, he tried to remember the last time he'd asked Juna to leave. 17 weeks, 4 days, his mind supplied the answer. That was the last instance of him asking Juna to return to her own quarters after spending the evening together.
He dressed himself in a loose pair of Vulcan sleeping pants, and deposited his and Juna's damp towels in the refresher, as he thought about their relationship.
Somewhere along the way, Juna had ceased to be another one of the minds that pecked at his mental shields as he went about his day, and became the opposite. Her presence made him feel revitalised and soothed. The result of their telepathic link, no doubt.
Vorik ran through some quick facts in his head as he settled into bed - the highest number of consecutive days Juna had stayed over in his quarters; the number of hours a week Juna was working or otherwise occupied by social engagements that offered him the complete solitude he preferred for satisfactory meditation; the increasing frequency with which Juna complained about her roommate's undesirable habits - and reached a logical conclusion.
Juna slipped into bed beside him and snuggled up against him, her head on his shoulder and one leg curled over his thigh. Vorik waited until she was comfortable before broaching the subject.
"We should cohabitate."
Juna raised her head and stared at him, eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Are you asking me to move in with you?" She asked.
"Yes," confirmed Vorik. "It is the next step in a human courtship, is it not?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I suppose it is," nodded Juna.
This close to her, Vorik didn't need to see the wide smile on her face to feel the happiness that lit her up from the inside, but he still enjoyed the visual.
"Are you sure, though? It's a big step. I know you need space sometimes," said Juna, caution dampening her enthusiasm.
"I calculate that I should have the room to myself for an adequate amount of time each week, given our work schedules and your social activities," answered Vorik. His left eyebrow twitched upwards slightly. "And if I require more, I shall simply tell the EMH that you have been praising his operatic performances. That should gain me at least 3 hours of solitude."
"You wouldn't dare!" laughed Juna.
She rolled further onto him, nearly straddling him, and kissed him. One hand trailed down his arm to press her fingers against his as their tongues brushed together, sharing the intimacy of both their species.
"So is that a yes?" asked Vorik when they drew apart.
"Yes, that's a yes," grinned Juna. "I'd love to move in with you."
"I shall submit the quarter reassignment notice in the morning," said Vorik. "We will have to requisition a second dresser, but there is adequate closet space available for your hanging garments. Are there any other changes necessary to facilitate our cohabitation?"
"If I think of any, I'll let you know," said Juna. She let out a tiny giggle, as if something had amused her.
"May I inquire as to what you are thinking?" Vorik asked.
"Just wondered if you're breaking any big Vulcan taboos. Living together before marriage?" teased Juna.
"It is slightly unorthodox, but I've not had any notice from my clan that they disapprove, so I shall assume it is permitted," said Vorik lightly.
The joke was somewhat muted by the ever-present longing for home that lived aboard Voyager.
"What would they make of us?" Juna wondered aloud, breaking the heavy silence.
"My clan?" asked Vorik. Juna nodded, her head shifting against his shoulder. "Some of my more traditional relatives may not be pleased, but they are distant relatives. My immediate family would be satisfied that I had found a mate so far from home, I expect."
He traced idle patterns against her back as he spoke. The warmth and weight of her body against his was a pleasurable comfort against the homesick ache in his heart.
"Is it selfish of me to say that sometimes I'm glad we're stuck here?" said Juna quietly. Vorik raised an eyebrow at her. "Not the entire situation. It sucks that we can't see our families, and little Naomi has never met her father, and we get attacked by a new unknown species every other week, but...if we'd never come to the delta quadrant, our only interactions would have been 2 brief conversations on that first mission. We wouldn't be here, like this…" she splayed her fingers against his bare chest to demonstrate her point. "We wouldn't be 'Us'. And I like 'us' a whole lot."
"I am also rather fond of 'us'," replied Vorik. He brushed her hair back from her face, his dark eyes locked on her pale blue ones. "We cannot change the circumstances we find ourselves in. There is no shame in finding positives among the negatives."
"Every cloud has a silver lining," said Juna. It sounded as though she was agreeing with him, although what clouds and silver had to do with it, Vorik didn't know.
"I believe my life here, with you, is far more satisfying than the life I would have had, should things have gone according to plan," Vorik admitted softly.
"I am pretty satisfying," grinned Juna, her tone laced with innuendo. Her lazy attempt at seduction was cut short by the yawn that escaped her. She blinked sleepily. "Although maybe not tonight."
"We are both off work tomorrow. There will be plenty of time for 'satisfaction' in the morning," promised Vorik.
"I'll hold you to that," murmured Juna. Her eyes were already closed.
"Sweet dreams, Ashayam," whispered Vorik.