: Posted by Captain Dante Knight (CO) in Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term on USS Saracen
: : Posted by Captain Dante Knight (CO) in Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term on USS Saracen
: : : Posted by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) in Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term on USS Saracen
: : : : Posted by Captain Dante Knight (CO) in Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term on USS Saracen
: : : : : Posted by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) in Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term on USS Saracen
: : : : : : Posted by Captain Dante Knight (CO) in Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term on USS Saracen
: : : : : : : Posted by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) in Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term on USS Saracen
: : : : : : : : Posted by Captain Dante Knight (CO) in Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term on USS Saracen
: : : : : : : : : Posted by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) in Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term on USS Saracen
: : : : : : : : : : Posted by Captain Dante Knight (CO) in Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term on USS Saracen
: : : : : : : : : : : Posted by Lieutenant Natasha Daye (Doctor) in Starfleet Academy - Daye's Fourth Class Flashback - Spring Term on USS Saracen
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: : : : : : Snip
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: : : : : : : : : “So was it the parade field or the gym,” Daye butted in as Dante’s lips were about to brush Ashley’s. “You seemed to get off topic very easily and never answered my question.” Okay so maybe she needed the last word and action.
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: : : : : : : : Dante froze, his eyes locking on Ashleys and recognizing the Ice that had appeared in them. It was the same look that she got if he forgot to take off his socks before hopping into bed, or took an intermission and ‘forgot’ where he put the key.
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: : : : : : : : : Ashley went stiff in Dante’s arms and the look in her eyes showed she was about to probably get a few demerits herself when she opened her mouth to address the cadet standing next to them. 
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: : : : : : : : :Cadet Daye, medical
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: : : : : : : : Working quickly, Dante swore under his breath and then stood up straight from his attempted kiss, made a show of kissing his fingers and then planting them on Ashleys lips to say goodbye. Of course he left his fingers there a moment longer than normal and squeezed slightly, hinting to her to keep her lips closed. “Your room, later, wine and dessert, alright love? I’ll do Tasia, I mean I’ll handle Cadet Daye!” He corrected himself quickly and gave Ash a stern look, “Later alright. Congratulations on your assignment, I love you.”
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: : : : : : : : Turning, Dante took Natasha by the arm and led her away, walking quickly and half dragging her with him. 
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: : : : : : : “If you’re interested in the former I have to tell you that I am a good girl. I mean I will require that you buy me dinner first but I know as a college guy you are on a budget,” Daye said in a flirty sarcastic tone. 
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: : : : : : : : He didn’t say a word until they were out the door and around the corner, out of sight of the direction Ashley would take before he dragged her behind a nearby tree and turned her to face him, pushing her against the bark gently enough and putting his hand just above her head, then looked at her with his best “you owe me” look. “What was that?” He asked her, “you just created a world of cold shoulder and ‘I’m fine’ comments for me tonight. Above and below her, get the heart pumping? Really Tasia? That’s all I need knowing that douche-knuckle is going to be on the same ship as her. And we are in the Gym, you know I said that, you just had to stir the pot didn’t you? Why would you do that?” His question wasn’t angry, but definitely pushing for an answer knowing that they only had minutes before they were due at class.
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: : : : : : : : Cadet Knight, Security
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: : : : : : : “Why don’t you stir the pot,” she looked at him inquisitively. The more she looked at Dante the more she began to realize that Ashley was not some girl toy he would discard after graduation. “You are in love with that girl,” Daye said as if this was an epiphany. “I can see why on the surface. She is beautiful. She is smart. She is driven but she is also a witch,” Daye searched his eyes as she spoke hoping for some flicker of confirmation. “Someone that loves you and I mean truly and utterly loves you will also give up everything for you and not look back. They take that leap of faith and travel with you to an out of the way space station because a career is not worth giving away a lifetime with someone you love.” Natasha’s inner voice warned her that she was treading on thin ice. While her words were meant to convince Dante to follow his dreams, they could also be interpreted as encouragement for him to follow Ashley. 
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: : : : : : Dante paused a moment to let her words sink in, with everything going on he wasn’t sure he understood what she was talking about. “You mean I should go with her? Not hold her to her word and expect her to come with me to the Outpost like she said she would? Like we planned together?” Leaning on the tree truck, Dante ran his hand through his hair a moment and looked up over Natasha’s head, which wasn’t hard with her being rather tiny anyway, and smiled slightly. “She can be rather, frustrating, can’t she, and I do love her, I think…” he said, then went to continue to speak but something happened to move his attention. 
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: : : : : : : Realizing that the situation needed to be clarified, Daye rose on her toes and kissed his lips. It was not long or passionate. It was more of an exploration of sorts bordering on the potential for more. Breaking it sooner than she wanted, Daye looked up at him. 
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: : : : : : Although surprised at the sudden kiss, Dante had not flinched away. It wasn’t hard, or longing, or even sensual, but it was a kiss that felt right and that he would remember. When Natasha moved away, Dante found himself looking down into her eyes and not at all displeased. Curious as to why she did it, certainly, but not unhappy. That surprised him, so did the feeling that he wanted to do it again, but he caught himself from moving his head forward in reaction to her moving away. He looked at her and raised his eyebrow slightly, nothing accusing in his eyes, just a question. “Why, Tasia?”
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: : : : : : : Her heart was beating faster than she noticed a second earlier. “That was a leap of faith. I have everything to lose and nothing to gain kissing you. I just wanted to. If I had a guy that loved me as much as you love her I would fight about transfers. I would stamp my foot and tell you no you are not going out with someone even platonically if I felt uncomfortable. I would have my moments of insanity as I was PMSing but I would never cross a line that would let you walk out on me. If I had a guy like you,” Daye said. “However my guy would have one striking difference compared to you. He would not be so scared of losing me that he would alter our long-term goal the first time I acted like I was worried about our future.” Again Daye’s words sounded like encouragement for Dante to repair things with Ashley instead of ending it.
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: : : : : : “What does that even mean?” Dante asked her, he had been with her right up until the weird bit about being scared of losing someone, “I’m not altering anything, she’s the one who decided to head off without me, that doesn’t help me.” He took a deep breath and looked at her again, trying to work out what exactly was going on. She had kissed him, but now she was saying that he was different to the guy she wanted to be with in some way and that she had just wanted to kiss him, and had nothing to gain from it. He couldn’t help but blink once or twice as he tried to make sense of it. Was she telling him to go back to Ashley or not? She certainly appeared to be telling him that if he loved Ashley he would be trying to make it work, but that kiss had felt different than he thought it would be, not that he had thought much about kissing Natasha really, but she said it herself, she had nothing to gain so she mustn’t have meant anything by it, just been trying to show him something. “So I should take a leap of faith that Ashley is right and go with her? is that it?” 
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: : : : : : : “You know what,” Natasha’s ire at herself for muddling this chance to tell Dante how she felt, “do what you want. It was just friendly advice,” she said in a more snippy tone than she meant. “I have class.” Ducking under his raised arm, she began to walk to the gym and class. 
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: : : : : : : Cadet Daye, medical
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: : : : : : Turning around and looking confused, Dante had to roll his eyes. Now what’s the problem he thought as he sighed and put his hands on his hips. Not even half an hour after lunch and two beautiful women were angry at him, and this time he was certain neither grump was his fault, he had been the one being told his Girlfriend wasn’t going with him like the planned, and the one to be kissed and get confused as to what the others advice meant, and now they were both grumpy at him.
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: : : : : : Dante watched her walk away for a few moments and then sighed louder. She was right, they did have class very shortly and if they were not careful, Horrible Hornsby would have them both doing extra work as punishment for being late. “Nat, wait” he called, and then broke into a jog to catch up with her, realizing she was very nearly at the doors to the gym. Try as he might, he couldn’t get that kiss out of her head, and he wondered if she did in fact have something to gain, because now he was thinking a whole lot of ‘what if’s’. What if Ashley didn’t love him like he thought she did. If she truly did, wouldn’t she make an effort to be with him? What If Natasha meant more by that simple, short and quick kiss. What if.. so many what if’s. What if he made the wrong choice? 
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: : : : : : Cadet Knight, Security
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: : : : : In the academy gym
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: : : : : Daye made sure she was in the front row and had eyes locked on Dante. She was giving him a distinct stink eye with arms crossed over her chest to boot. Everything about her demeanor showed Natasha Daye was on about something as her father used to say. Hornsby’s words droned on in her ear. She wasn’t paying attention to the words. Herman Hornsby was blathering on about the same stuff just in a different manner. She was going to be a doctor for gods sake. This class was pretty pointless. She could take down ten men with a hypo full of sedatives. 
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: : : : Waiting on the mat, Dante watched Natasha as she glared at him, his hands behind his back in the standard at ease posture. Now and then his eyes travelled over the gathered recruits but always back to Natasha. To say he was slightly confused was like saying the sun was hot, her whole attitude had changed from almost the moment she had kissed him. 
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: : : : : “So who wants to,” 
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: : : : : “I do,” Daye said immediately stepping forward and forgoing the hand raising. 
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: : : : In response, Dante’s eyebrow rose in surprise at her interruption. 
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: : : : : “Jeepers jumping up crackers on a biscuit,” Hornsby strode over yelling at her. “Do you have any idea what I was going to ask Cadet Daye? I could have been ready to ask who wants to be the next one to volunteer for KP duty.”
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: : : : : “But you weren’t,” Daye finally took her gaze off of Dante for the first time. “You were going to say use blank blank move to try and take down him,” she gestured with a head nod in Dante’s direction. “I just saved you the effort.”
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: : : : : Hornsby looked Daye up and down before making a sweeping gesture towards the sparring mat. Following her to the mat, he then continuted to Dante’s side. “Son what did you do to her,” he said keeping a neutral expression with his eyes forward. 
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: : : : : Cadet Daye.
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: : : : Looking at Hornsby sideways for a moment, Dante lowered his voice just for the instructor and then shrugged slightly. “She kissed me” he said to the man, “while she was telling me to make things up with Ashley, I guess they do things differently in Russia because now she seems like she wants to eat a can of spinach and rip my arms off.” 
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: : : “What did I tell you about women Cadet Cassanova,” Herman said still staring forward. “They are bat-snot crazy and a career killer. They are needy, emotional vampires. Do not let her kick you in the arse,” Hornsby warned.
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: : : : Dante shrugged slightly and then stepped back, falling into the standard Starfleet Hand to Hand posture. “Remember your footwork Cadet Daye” he said to her, “this move requires timing, and I have reach, while you have flexibility. Remember to use that to your advantage, if you can. Did you really have nothing to gain?”
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: : : : Cadet Knight
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: : : “Oh honey you had your chance to touch this,” Daye said standing in front of him. She did not have a defensive stance at all. In fact, she would have appeared rather calm except for the firey look in her eyes. “See the thing is I am a risk taker. I don’t ever play it safe. Playing it safe never scored the winning run or came up with the next big idea. Everything in life is worth taking chances on which I did so did I have something to gain....I guess not,” she shrugged.”
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: : : “Are you two going to talk each other to death,” Hornsby bellowed. 
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: : : Cadet Daye
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: : “It’s your move Natasha” he told her, “you initiate the contact, I counter and then you counter my strike and pin me, right?”
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: : Stepping closer to Natasha, Dante motioned for her to come at him. “We’re you actually telling me to fix things with Ash?” He asked her quietly, “because when you kissed me, I couldn’t help but think you meant something else Tasia.”
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: : Cadet Knight
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“Oh I meant something alright but it went right over your head,” Natasha said attempting to leg swipe him. “You know Dante for being as smart as people claim you are you are pretty dumb.” Frustration with herself, Dante, and the entire situation was making her forget her training. Natasha took a swing at Dante not caring about blocks or any of the training she had learned. The punch was supposed to make her feel better. Men were so blind. They couldn’t even follow the horse that you were leading to water even if they were strapped to it.

“Why are you so enthralled by her. She is beautiful. I can see that but everything else is a mystery.”

Cadet Daye