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It’s no secret that Seven doesn’t care much for breakfast – or any other meal – but since smoothies are a perfectly acceptable breakfast and both of them have an affinity for them, Seven ends up having a lot of breakfasts with Naomi, actually, before they split for their daily tasks. Naomi goes to her educational programming, and Seven attends to her duties in astrometrics.
But before that, they share strawberry banana milkshakes. Naomi’s contain a good bit more sugar than Seven’s do.
Seven finds Naomi’s ability to slurp her breakfast amusing. Her research has shown her that there are certain foods and certain Earth subcultures that have considered this to be polite. But she is not sure if Naomi is being polite or if she really just enjoys her milkshake.
As Lieutenant Torres enters the mess hall, Naomi watches as Seven awkwardly meets her eyes, then returns to her milkshake.
“Did you guys have a fight?” asks Naomi.
Seven peers at Naomi. “Why do you ask, Naomi Wildman?”
“Well, that was kind of awkward just now.”
Seven shakes her head. “We did not fight. We do not spend much time together on this ship outside of work,” says Seven. “That is all.”
“Oh.” Naomi considers. “But there aren’t many people on this ship. Wouldn’t you want to spend time with as many people as possible so you don’t get bored? Like, uh, what do you both do outside of work?”
It strikes Seven that she doesn’t know.
It then strikes Seven that Naomi has a very, very curious look on her face.
B’Elanna looks up over her PADD to find a very earnest Naomi staring at her.
“What’s up, Naomi?” asks B’Elanna.
Naomi primly places her hands behind her back. “Do you want to hang out?”
A smile flickers across B’Elanna’s face. “Well, I have to get to Engineering soon. Did you mean in general? Or breakfast? Don’t you normally have breakfast with Seven, Neelix, or your mother?”
“In the holosuite. Seven and I are going. I think you should come too.”
B’Elanna looks past Naomi to Seven, who is still sitting at their table, neutral-faced.
And well, it can’t hurt, right?
The Adventures of Flotter is not a place where B’Elanna thought she’d find herself again, let alone with a precocious kid and her former Borg drone shipmate, but really have any of her Voyager experiences been on her bingo card?
Together, they traverse the forest, searching for clues.
Together, she and Seven attempt to hide that they already know the answers to the many questions the program is asking.
Naomi skips ahead, and they end up standing side-by-side next to a violet stream and a rather sparkly tree.
“This is a common game for Federation children,” says Seven. A statement that B’Elanna surmises could be a question.
B’Elanna shrugs. “Yeah. I’d call it a rite of passage, but I don’t know if I had the best example of a ‘normal’ Federation childhood.” She tries, tries to see the program from Seven’s perspective. “Does it seem dull to you?”
Seven looks around and shakes her head. “Learning by doing,” she says. “That’s how many humanoids learn. It makes sense that a program would be entertaining to accomplish this purpose.”
It’s always so ridiculously hard to talk to this woman. B’Elanna presses on, because if Naomi wants the three of them to hang out, she has to at least try, right? Every minute of this kid’s life deserves to be more rather than less present. “I guess it’s a little different than having all of the collective’s knowledge in your head— wait .”
B’Elanna can swear Seven looks uncomfortable, but that doesn’t make sense, because Seven always looks a little uncomfortable. The variation has to be in B’Elanna’s head, right? “I am waiting.”
“You find it interesting,” says B’Elanna. “Entertaining?”
And yeah, Seven definitely looks uncomfortable. B’Elanna feels a little like she’s stepped in it. It’s not that she means to accuse Seven of being weird or anything. She’s just pleasantly surprised. And maybe a little sad, because she forgets sometimes when Seven looks the way she does and acts the way she does that Seven was very much robbed of her childhood.
And well, B’Elanna kind of knows what that feels like.
“It is different,” says Seven stiffly.
B’Elanna considers her next course of action for a few moments, because she’s never fully sure how that kind of thing will be received, particularly from Seven. But shouldn’t Seven also be able to play, in her way?
Then she plucks a glittering leaf from the tree. This one shines a pale indigo.
“You can leave them on the ground,” offers B’Elanna. “Bread crumbs.”
“It is a leaf.”
“Uh right. That’s a reference to something—basically yes, you can leave the leaves on the ground to mark our trail.”
“Is that not bad for the forest’s ecosystem?”
“Hmm, maybe. But it’s not like a lot of people use this forest. Right now, it’s just us three.” Seven looks doubtful. “You can pick the ones that are about to fall off anyway? The ones that come off when you pull them gently?”
To B’Elanna’s amusement (something she did not expect to feel), Seven seems much more amenable to that idea. And about fifteen minutes later, when Naomi looks around to try to remember where they were last, they have a sparkling trail of leaves to guide them.
“We make a good team of forest detectives,” remarks Naomi, and B’Elanna actually has a very pleasant evening with the both of them until Naomi has to go for dinner with her mother.
The next morning, B’Elanna lowers her PADD again to find Naomi standing there with something very glittery in her hands.
“Replicated you a sparkly leaf crown,” says Naomi. She looks uneasy. “I know it is not uniform standard, but…”
B’Elanna looks behind her to see Seven calmly concentrating on forcing her milkshake into her digestive system, the mint green and blush pink leaf crown glittering nicely next to her facial implants in the light.
Seven’s not Starfleet, and B’Elanna is, but honestly, what’s the point of serving on a starship in the Delta Quadrant if they can’t harmlessly break the rules every now and then? They have morale to worry about, after all.
B’Elanna picks up the crown and places it decisively on her head. “Thank you,” she says. “This is exactly what Engineering needs to spice things up.”
“You’re welcome. When you’re free, maybe we can go do the program again!” Naomi skips away, and B’Elanna turns back to her reading, ignoring the inevitable Tom-and-Harry delighted grins that are surely being directed at her right now from their table.
And to her surprise, she finds it a comforting thought that it won’t be the last time she heads to the holosuite with Seven and Naomi.