Posted by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) in Starfleet Academy - Daye’s Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term

Posted by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) in Starfleet Academy - Daye’s Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term

Posted by Captain Dante Knight (Commanding Officer) in Starfleet Academy - Daye’s Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Snip

----------------------- At that moment, across town--------------------------

John, the hulking, burly Security Cadet and arch nemesis of Dante rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling, his own heart pounding, and looked at the time. “That was fun” he told the beautiful red headed woman that had been lying with him, “and to think we’ve been assigned the same ship, what luck is that, that we can keep on doing this when we graduate.”

He reached down and took his trousers from the floor, not looking back as he started to dress. “I wondered why you called earlier, we don’t normally catch up like this until tomorrow, but I’m glad you did” he said and glanced back at her now that he had his trousers on and was reaching for his shirt. “I thought you had lunch planned with that guy earlier today, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you at all until tonight. I need to go though, I have something to do. Call me if your free later or tomorrow, and we can do round two.” John stood and smirked at Ashley, and watched the shape of her figure through the light blanket, then leaned down to give her a kiss.

Cadet Knight

“Yeah, tomorrow is probably not going to work. Dante will be over his huff and I need to talk to him. John,” Ashley said sitting up as he leaned down to kiss her. “Dante is a good man. I need to do this my way okay. I don’t want to hurt him.”

----------------------- Three hours later, across town--------------------------

“Enough about me,” Daye said taking a large sip of her vanilla milkshake. “Tell me a secret you have told no one. I want to know all about the great Dante Aligheri Knight.” This was not entirely a fluff statement. Natasha did want to know about the man but she also wanted just wanted to spend time with him. After their escapades in the ladies locker room, Knight did do the gentlemanly thing and take her out to dinner. So maybe the order of events was wrong, the person she was with was right. Natasha did not lack for attention from men. What she lacked from men was any interest to keep them after about three dates. In high school, it was men with big dreams and little ambition. When she entered the Academy is was huge ambitions with egos to match but little thought to anything but their career. In Dante, she had found a combination of both. The man had a drive. Like most people here, he wanted his own ship one day and wasn’t afraid to do the hard work that came with it. Like most people here, Dante excelled at his coursework and had the extracurriculars to match. What set him apart was Dante’s approachability. The only people that complained about him were the cadets that did not give him their full one hundred percent.

“All about me?” Dante grinned at the request and raised his eyebrow slightly as he sipped his own milkshake, letting the pause make it look like he was considering her request. “How am I supposed to maintain my sense of mysterious, dashing adventure if I tell you all about me and you find out how boring I really am? Hmm, let me think a moment.”

As Daye set the milkshake down and picked up a fry, she mulled over the events that had gotten them to this spot. Initially, she had flirted with him simply because he was cute. The disastrous first sparring match landed her a few private lessons on the parade field to help her refine her skills for the self-defense class. As the weeks and months progressed, Daye discovered she genuinely wanted to know more about him. Now she was sitting across from him getting her wish.

“Before you start though I want to say something. I don’t sleep around. What we did was great and I don’t regret it but I want you to know that is not the typical me. I know you have someone. I am not going to say I respect that because clearly if I did I would not have been with you in the locker room.” Natasha looked down at her food before sighing and continuing with her confession. “You are just so....special. You are smart and kind with a great sense of humor but you are also don’t take crap from anyone or compromise your principals to get ahead.” Daye knew she was stumbling around her words. This was far harder to verbalize out loud than it was to say it in her head. “What I am trying to say is I hope what we did a few hours ago didn’t change your opinion of me. I know you have a girlfriend. Rumor on the street says you love her and plan to marry her. The other side of the street says I am a fool for even looking at you but sometimes you have to take a chance. Throw it all out there and say I am going for broke. I don’t love you. Not yet anyway but I need to know if there is a chance for us. I get you are with Ashley. What I need to know is am I just a fling? You can say yes. I’d rather you say no,” she gave him shy smile, “but I will respect the truth a hella lot more than some placating reply meant to make me feel good before you return to Madison.”

There it was. The ultimatum. Natasha hoped Dante understood she was not asking him to pick her over Madison. She was only asking for the chance to get to know him.

Cadet Natasha Daye

He nodded as she spoke, he knew what she meant and was glad she hadn’t begun with the ‘I respect you are with Ashley’ line because as she said, the fact he was with Ash didn’t come into her line of thinking at the time, and that wasn’t her fault, because Ash hadn’t been in his line of thinking either. What they had done was amazing, fantastic and intimate, but right now both of them needed to understand what that meant for them. For Dante, that meant he had to understand what it meant for he and Ashley.

He smiled at her and put down his milkshake, leaning forward across the table and placing his arms on it, his finger gently tracing a random pattern on the top of her hand. He wanted to touch her, more, really, but they needed to talk. Before things got too deep and too far and people got hurt. Only thing was he really had no idea what to say, so he bit his lip softy in thought before he said what he felt.

“If I said Yes, Tasia, that you were just a fling, then I would be utterly, completely lying” he told her, speaking quietly. “You are so much more than that. You deserve more, and your worth so much more to me. Maybe I only realize it now, and not just because of the locker room.” He grinned wider at her, she was so easy to be with, to talk to. When Dante had been able to spend time with her he found time seemed to blink out of existence as if it didn’t exist. They could spend an hour or two together, but it had always felt like minutes and their conversations were never finished.

“If I say No” he told her, and now his face frowned slightly in thought, “I don’t want to make you think I don’t respect you or expect more when I walk out that door and head back to my room, I mean, right now I don’t even want to walk out that door and head back to my room. I want to see you again, Natasha. I want to get to know you better and talk about your day, but I don’t love you either. Not yet, but I do like you, a lot if you hadn’t guessed already. I do love Ashley and I don’t know exactly what I am feeling anymore. Things with Ash have been, odd. We’re not like we used to be, not as close.” Dante was sure in himself that if he truly loved Ashley, he wouldn’t have ended up naked with Nat in the women’s locker room. That kind of accident didn’t just happen, you didn’t just go from hand to hand combat training to ‘was it as good for you as it was for me’ my random chance. The intent had to be there, and Dante had definitely had intent where Natasha was concerned. That meant Dante now felt very uncomfortable about what he had done to Ashley and he had to get his head around that.

“I can’t say there is a chance for us, not yet.” He admitted to Nat, looking at her directly. “It wouldn’t be fair to you, but I do want to get to know you and see you again, I just need to sort out where I am with Ash. Does that make sense, or am I rambling like a 13 year old on his first date?”

Cadet Knight