Title: Matchmaker, Matchmaker P1
Author: Cheryl Forbes
Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager
Pairing: Chakotay/Tom Paris
Rating: NC 17
Series: 1 of ?
Email for feedback: forbesc@skyia.com
Disclaimer: Voyager and her crew are the property of Paramount and
not me. Whatever.
 

Summary: How you mend a broken heart? You fix others.
 

"What you need is a man."

"I don't think so."

"Yeah sure you do." His friend leaned conspiratorially over their
table in the messhall and lowered his voice. "Have you ever thought
the reason you have trouble with women Har is because down deep
they're not what you want?"

"Or it could be that I just haven't found the right one. Have you
thought of that Tom?" Harry whispered back a little indignantly.

"Maybe, maybe not." Lieutenant said with a flash of devil's light in
his clear blue eyes.

It had been along time since Harry had seen that evil look and the
impish grin that came with it, too long and he missed it. Comments
at his expense he could do without, but this look was a welcomed
change from the dull defeated one his best friend had been sporting
since his break up with B'Elanna two months ago. Harry didn't want
to lose it so he played Tom's game.

"You really think so? I mean I've never considered dating another
guy. It feels kinda weird."

"Yeah I do and believe me it can feel kinda good too." The pilot's
eyes clouded over as he sat back in his chair still smiling. Now the
look his friend was projecting was making Harry feel uncomfortable.
This wasn't the Tom he was used to.

Tom didn't talk much about his experiences with men, although Harry
knew he had them. Since their unscheduled trip to the Delta quadrant
however, the pilot had dated women exclusively. His best friend was
a strong, virile man and Harry found it hard to picture him with
anything that wasn't soft and feminine. Granted B'Elanna wasn't
exactly lady like but then again maybe that was why their
relationship had hit the skids.

"Well how's about I take you word for it." Harry said starting to
lose his taste for the game.

"Oh you shouldn't really." Tom shot forward again. "I could fix you
up."

"Oh no you can't even manage your own love life, I'm not letting you
near mine!" Even as the words left his mouth, he knew they were a
mistake. Already he could see the dull, listless Tom starting to
return. "I didn't mean it that way." Harry said quickly.

"No, no you're right Har. I'm a loser."

Oh shit. "No Tom you're not. You've just made some bad choices."

"Yeah, twenty five years of them."

"OK, OK so you don't do so great for yourself but you're a great
judge of character." The blue eyes were starting to fire up
again. "I bet if you tried you could fix up the whole senior staff
successfully."

"You think?"

He was on the right track. The blond was smiling again.

"You're damn right I do."

"Starting with you?" Tom was back in full devil mode.

Oh shit again. All he had wanted to do is cheer up his perpetually
moping friend, not get himself a date with a guy. Not that there was
anything wrong with that. It was just that quite frankly, naked men
didn't turn him on.

"Who would you set Seven up with?" He said trying to avoid the
excited blond's question. Tom wasn't fooled but he was diverted.

"Oh that's easy. Neelix."

"Neelix? Oh you've got to be kidding. Neelix?"

"No Harry, it would be Beauty and the Beast kind of thing. She would
see the inner kindness under his crude exterior and fall in love."
The pilot said wistfully.

"Very romantic but how would you get them together? Over a steaming
bowl of nutritional supplement?"

"Good idea Har."

Before he knew what was happening, Tom was waving the colourful
Talaxian over to their table. Neelix left the breakfast buffet he
was manning and rushed over to them.

"Yes Tom? Was there something you wanted? More leola root
pancakes?"

"No I'm stuffed but they were good. I wondering if maybe later, say
around 1400 hours you could show me how to make them?"

"A cooking lesson? Of course!" The moral officer had been aware of
the pilot's recent funk and was more than willing to anything to
bring him out of it.

"Great we'll see you then Neelix."

Harry watched the Talaxian return to his smorgasbord of dubious
culinary delights and then turned back to his friend.

"OK now I'm confused."

"How's that?"

"Neelix has a date with you and not Seven."

"Au contraire my unimaginative friend. Neelix has a date with both
of us."

"Come again?"

"I'm suppose to take over one of Seven's social lessons for the Doc
this afternoon. The messhall just became my classroom."

"So while you're making pancakes.-"

"Seven will see Neelix's creative sensitive side and fall head over
implants in love. With a little coaching from me of course."

"Of course."

"Now back to you Ensign Kim."

Harry sighed hoping somebody somewhere was taking notes. This good
deed better count for something when his ticket came up.

"OK who?" He said in exasperation.

"He's perfect for you. He's handsome, built like a tritanium hull
and likes rules and regulations all most as much as you do."

"Who!" Harry screamed not being able to stand the tension. A few
crewmen looked up distractedly up from their breakfasts.

"Chakotay."

********

"He's going to kill me."

"No he won't, he's a professional. Now get your ass back in there
and listen carefully to what Boothby tells you."

"If he doesn't kill me Paris, you're a dead man." Harry scowled at
him and returned to face Chakotay in the ring.

Watching his friend and the commander spar from ringside, Tom
realized that for the first time in months, he was having fun. It
felt good.

After his break up with B'Elanna Tom had gone over and over in his
mind what he could have done to prevent it. It had been a useless
exercise that did nothing but drag him down further into the depths
of despair. It wasn't until this morning did find a way back out.
He'd been lost and now he was found. So what if he couldn't find a
soul mate? He didn't need one.

Romance for him, was not in the cards but that didn't mean he didn't
believe in it. He did. He wasn't that bad of a hard-edged cynic,
not yet. Just because he couldn't have the love affair of his
dreams, didn't mean he didn't want others not to. Tom smiled a real
smile as he watched Chakotay knock Harry to the mat and Boothby come
to the fallen ensign's aid.

He had a purpose to his life once again and it felt good, damn good.

********

"Are you going to get in here?"

Chakotay leaning over the buckle in his corner wiped the sweat out
his eyes with his shoulder and peered under his arm at Voyager's
chief pilot. The pretty blond looked up at him, his blue eyes
laughing.

"Ah no Commander, I like my physical sports to be a tad less
physical."

"Oh really? Tell me how you do like to get physical then,
Lieutenant."

Chakotay flinched inwardly at his flirtatious remark but kept his
smile steady. It wasn't what he had meant to say. What he had
wanted to say was something a little less crass and obvious and
little more provocative and witty.

Second chances and found dreams is what the long lanky lieutenant
represented to him now that he'd left B'Elanna. Chakotay hadn't
realized how badly he had wanted Tom until he had come off the
market.

With detachment he had watched the younger man flit from lover to
lover, thinking that one of these days he would get tired of all the
bed hopping and finally be ready for something serious. He had been
shocked when the blond had finally ended up in relationship with one
his best friends and that he was jealous of her.

Every day Tom had spent with B'Elanna he'd hated it. All of a sudden
little things like the way the corners of Tom's eyes crinkled when he
smiled or the way he lovingly played the controls of the helm as he
flew Voyager, were enough to send Chakotay running to his office or
his quarters to stroke out his desire.

But now things had changed. Tom was single again and Chakotay was
not about waste his reprieve.

"I'm not your type Commander. Harry however." The pilot nodded his
head in the direction of the opposite side of the ring. "Shows real
potential. Don't you think so?"

Chakotay followed his gaze to where Boothby was trying to get the
stunned ensign to count his fingers.

"Harry?"

"Yeah sure. He's cute in a puppy dog kind of way."

"I suppose." Chakotay admitted reluctantly.

"And he likes you." Tom looked back up at him and winked. "A lot."

Oh spirits, Ensign Kim had a crush on him and the man of his
fantasies was trying to fix them up.

Do you like me? That was what he wanted to ask but instead
said, "So he's fighting me to get close to me? Why didn't he just
ask me out?"

"Harry's shy. It's sweet, don't you think?"

"I don't know I think there's a lot to be said for bold and brassy."

Tom gave him an odd look and then continued on to spout the ensign's
attributes. Chakotay was glad when the bell sounded for the second
round.

********

He was being a brute.

Gerron loved his former captain to death but Chakotay was taking
unfair advantage. The match was obviously uneven and the complicated
combinations he was throwing at Harry were completely over the top.
If Boothby didn't throw the white towel into the ring soon, he
would. He stepped up beside Lieutenant Paris ringside to voice his
concerns.

"Harry's not good at this."

"It's his first time in the ring." His superior officer said
somewhat distractedly, his eyes not leaving the fighters.

"He's getting hurt."

"No, the safeties are on. Harry's getting pushed around but he's not
getting seriously injured."

"It's embarrassing for him. Chakotay is too big and strong for
Ensign Kim."

"He 'is' big and strong and.-" Mr Paris shook his head and
turned. "I'm sorry what did you say crewman?"

"We should stop the fight."

"Look I've got to get to the messhall. If I throw in the towel will
you make sure Harry gets home OK?"

"Yes sir!" He said with more enthusiasm than he intended but
couldn't help it.

Gerron had been waiting to take Harry home for weeks, about 364 of
them. Those big brown eyes had captured him from the day he'd been
beamed over from the Crazy Horse to Voyager. It was only recently
that he felt confident enough to act on his feelings.

Tuvok's Fleet training had made him stronger and Captain Janeway's
unwavering support had help to boost his self esteem but neither had
made him feel as alive as Harry Kim.

Most people noticed his friend Tom first but it hadn't been that way
for Tem. Loud and flashy might be fine for some but he was drawn to
the operations officer's quiet sensitivity and innocence.

It had been nice to find someone his age that hadn't been scarred by
the Cardassian occupation. Harry still possessed the unspoiled
enthusiasm he had so many years ago. It was so clean that Tem felt
refreshed just being in the same room as the young ensign but now it
wasn't enough.

Now he wanted to touch more than Harry's aura, much more.

********

"I'll be in Sickbay."

After Seven left, Tom and Neelix both sunk to the floor of the galley
and leaned back against the kitchen island exasperated.

"Do you think she'll be OK Tom?"

"Neelix, if that cast-iron bitch experienced burns to ninety percent
to her body, she'd be OK." The pilot slung an arm over his
shoulder. "You only burned her fingertips."

"She be fine?"

"She'll be fine." Tom assured him with a gentle smile.

"Sorry about ruining your date."

"Shit Neelix, I'm the one that should be sorry. She was here for you
not me."

"Me?" He wasn't sure he'd heard the pilot correctly.

"Yeah I thought that maybe you and her might." The pilot shrugged his
shoulders. "You know hit it off. I know you like blondes sooo.-"

Tom was thinking of Kes, something Neelix did on a daily basis. He
missed her terribly and there would always be a part of him that
would always be hers. Kes warmed the same space in his heart that
the Wildmans and a certain Vulcan now shared. There wasn't room for
anyone else.

"Tom, I'm honoured." And he was, truly. It wasn't often the crew
thought of him as someone who needed physical companionship.

"Well you could have been more if I didn't screw up the pancakes."
The pilot slumped further down the island, oh damn. Some moral
officer he was.

"I did that remember Tom, but really it wasn't necessary."

"Why?" His dejected friend sat up a little straighter. "Are you
already seeing someone?"

If Neelix said yes, it would make the pilot happy but if he did, it
would be a lie. Neelix didn't like deceit even if it was for the
greater good, as Voyager's security officer would say.

"Yes." He said anyway knowing now he would have to act on his
feelings to make good.

"Oh that's great Neelix! Who is she?" He said excitedly. The Tom
he grown to love and respect was back.

"I'd rather not say."

"Oh I get it. The relationship is too new."

"Yes." Now that was the understatement of the century since
the 'relationship' hadn't as yet happened, if it would at all. There
were some barriers that needed overcoming first.

"I understand Neelix." Tom rose, and offered him a hand up. "My
lips are sealed."

"Thank you Lieutenant." Taking the proffered hand, he stood. "I'd
appreciate that."

"No problem Neelix. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment
with a holodeck panel."

"What do you mean?"

Tom brushed down his uniform with a quirky smile on his lips. "Ah
believe me Neelix you're better off not knowing."

"All right but you be careful."

"Always. Catch you later."

With a bounce in his step that hadn't been there when he entered, the
lieutenant left the messhall. The dashing pilot was up to something,
Neelix was sure and what ever it was, he hoped it wouldn't lead to
trouble. The young man had done him a tremendous favour no matter
how unknowingly and he wished him well.

After brushing down his own clothing, Neelix opened a comm channel
and took his first step towards what he hoped would be happiness.

********

"Challenge accepted B'Elanna Torres."

It was the standard response the computer gave to the captain's
tennis program.

"Thank you computer. Now log the time in my personal itinerary to
remind me."

"Time logged as 1800 hours." Came the acknowledgment.

"Great now end simulation."

When he'd arrived in holodeck two, the boxing program was still
running. The gym appeared empty, so Tom had in the name of energy
conservation decided to terminate the program.

"Unable to comply Lieutenant Torres."

"Why the hell not?" He said with his hands on his hips.

"The program is still in use."

Oh shit someone was still here. Quickly Tom scanned the run down gym
for its other occupant. He had no compunction about breaking access
codes but he did about getting caught at it.

Stepping away from the arch, he walked around the empty ring that
dominated the room, to the back of the holodeck looking his fellow
crewmate. The various antiquated exercise machines that populated
the program were idle and vacant. Perplexed, he stood still and
listened. Except for his shallow breathing the only other thing he
heard was emanating from an open doorway in one corner of the big
room. It was the showers running.

Tom relaxed. Odds were that who ever it was cleaning up after his
work out wasn't aware of his entrance let alone his tampering. He'd
been about to leave, when he stopped remembering that he and the odds
weren't exactly buddy, buddy lately and with his luck, the mystery
crewman had entered the showers after he had illegally accessed the
arch. Damn. He had to make sure or he ran the possibility of his
plan being foiled and him taking an extended vacation in the brig.
So turning on his charm Tom reversed his trajectory and entered the
locker room to find out.

Who ever it was would be telling him their deepest, darkest secrets
when he was done with them.

********

"Lieutenant?"

Chakotay stopped in his tracks by his locker pulling the white terry
cloth towel tighter around his hips fighting down his embarrassment
at being caught. It was after the fact but his cheeks still burned.
Only moments before he had masturbated to the image of this man's
blue eyes and he was afraid those same beautiful orbs had seen that.

"How long have you been here?" As he asked the lieutenant stook
stock-still and another less than comforting thought hit him. Had he
screamed the pilot's name as he came? He might have, he usually did.

"I, I just got here."

"Good. I mean really?" Calm be calm Chakotay. The pilot hadn't
heard or seen anything.

"Yeah. So you've been in the shower." The pilot's gaze flicked down
the length of his mostly exposed body.

The redundancy of the question confused him until he saw the flush on
the pilot's pale cheeks. Tom was fighting his own battle.
Amazingly the brash young man was more affected by his near nudity
than he was. The revelation gave Chakotay back his composure.

"Did you want me?" The question was laden with crude innuendo and
Chakotay accepted that he wasn't a poet. Charming and witty were
beyond his reach so he would have to make do with being himself and
hope the pilot wouldn't be scared off.

"Want you?" Came the whispered reply.

Tom stumbled forward until there was only the wooden bench that ran
the length of the locker room between them. His expressive blue eyes
were darkening under hooded lids and the nostrils of his fine
patrician nose were flaring. Oh spirits he hadn't expected this.
The lieutenant was aroused.

"I want you." Chakotay loosened the edge of the towel and let it
fall to the tiled floor. His proud, now exposed erection jutted
upwards along the curve of his belly seconding the motion.

"Oh fuck Commander." Tom's voice jumped but he didn't. He remained
so close to him that Chakotay could feel his heated breath on his
face. He followed the trail of warmth with his mouth and let his
lips touch Tom's.

At the first moment of contact, the pilot's lips parted slightly
allowing for a gentle kiss. Being careful not to spook the skittish
man, Chakotay kept the caress light letting Tom control the depth of
the kiss. He was raging inside but projected calmness as best he
could. That veneer shattered when he felt damp fingers envelop his
cock.

"Yes." He cried into the lieutenant's mouth. With his eyes closed
Tom pressed his sweating forehead into his.

"Do me too." The grip on his cock went away and Chakotay heard a
rustling of clothing. "Please Commander. Please."

Looking down between their bodies, he saw that Tom had peeled back
his trousers to reveal an engorged penis with a glistening pink
head. Letting his hands touch his fantasy intimately for the first
time, Chakotay wrapped his fingers around the weeping beauty and
began to stroke.

"Oh yeah." The pilot moaned and buried his head into his bare
shoulder.

"Touch me Poocuh." He said relishing the sound of the endearment on
his lips. After this Chakotay doubted he would ever be able to call
the man anything else when they were alone. The pilot complied.

With the wooden bench still between them, heads side by side and
hands working furiously at the others groin, they formed an erotic
version of the first letter in the terran alphabet.

Bringing his free hand up, Chakotay gripped the back of his lover's
neck and lowered his teeth down on the pale throat. The bites
weren't hard enough to break the skin but they would leave marks.
Tom cried out at the small hurts but didn't pull away. Instead he
beat his hips forward harder into Chakotay's hand and pumped his arm
with renewed vigor.

It was all too much. He was fast approaching sensory overload as the
burning in his heart traveled downward to center between his hips.

"Oh god, oh god, ohhh.-" Tom prayed into his shoulder as his pent up
semen spilled over the back of the pilot's hand and then mingled
between his long digits. "I'm coming, I'm, I'm, oh yeah, oh yeah!"

In a shudder, the pilot let go, his screams reverberating off the
walls of the holodeck. Wanting to fall to his knees to catch his
Poocuh's release but not willing to relinquish the feel of the
younger man's cheek against his, Chakotay milked Tom's cock dry with
his hand. It was a close second.

"Oh shit."

"What?" It wasn't the response he'd been hoping for to their loving
making.

Tom pulled away from his chest and then stumbled over the other set
of lockers that lined the alley. Bracing himself against their metal
doors with his outstretched arms, he muttered into his left
shoulder. "You're not for me."

"Not for you?" Chakotay picked up the towel at his feet and wiped
his hands then dropped it again. "I just came for you."

"I know but it was wrong. You're Harry's."

"I don't want Harry Kim." He stepped over the bench to stand
directly behind the remorseful pilot. "I told you." He placed his
hands tenderly on Tom shoulders and whispered. "I want you Poocuh."

Spinning around the pilot shook off his hold and slammed himself back
against the lockers. "Don't call me that!"

"But what we just did was special and I thought.-"

"I don't give a flying fuck what you think Commander! I don't do
special!" Tom gulped down his anger in huge heaving breaths and then
said in a much calmer almost sad voice. "I can't, it's not in me."

"You can't know that."

"I do, Commander. Believe me I do." The blue eyes that a moment ago
burned with passion blazed with something Chakotay couldn't quite
identify. It might have been fear.

"No Poocuh."

"Tom, my name is Tom." The pilot said fiercely. "And what just
happened between us was a mistake. Harry is special, not me."

"You want me to date Harry?"

"Yes."

"To fuck him?"

"Yes."

"To love him?"

Tom looked away a moment and then brought his blue eyes back down.
They were filled with unshed tears. "Yes, I want you to love him.
He deserves it."

"And if I do so, that will make you happy?" Chakotay couldn't
believe he was entertaining this whacked out request. This
tempestuous blond must have captured more of his heart than he'd
originally thought.

"Yes Commander, that will make me ecstatic."

"All right."

"Fine."

Tom lifted his body from the metal lockers and made to leave but
Chakotay knocked him back with the flat of his hand on his chest.

"But know this Thomas Eugene Paris. If it turns out that Ensign Kim
does not want me, I will come looking for you and I will not take no
for an answer." He let his hand curl up under the pilot's
chin. "Agreed?"

As his fingers neared his lover's sweet pink lips, Tom pulled his
head back. "Agreed." He conceded as removed the rest of his body
from his reach and strode out of the locker room.

Holding nothing, Chakotay stared at the hands that had not very long
ago held the most precious thing in the universe.

Thomas Eugene Paris.

********

He could fix this. He had fixed this. Hadn't he? Yes dammit, he
had.

Years from now when they were celebrating Harry and Chakotay's
twentieth anniversary, this would be an racy story he could tell
after he'd had too much to drink and nothing more. They would all
laugh at the foolishness of his misdirected feelings back then and
order another round.

Tom pulled himself into a tighter ball and stared out the viewport in
his cabin.

Rebound man that's what Chakotay was to him. He'd been feeling a bit
lonely and the commander had been a bit naked that's all. Naked, wet
and glistening and oh fuck. Who the hell was he trying to kid here.
There wasn't anybody else in the room.

White terry cloth had never so good as it did slung low around the
handsome first officer's waist. He didn't even have to close his
eyes to remember the flat stomach and the small tantalizing dips
around his hipbones. The commander's beauty had struck him dumb the
moment he'd seen him emerge from the shower stalls.

He was going to be cool, he was going to be charming. Of course he
didn't know it would be the commander he would find at the back of
the holodeck. If he had he would have left running and taken his
chances with the odds.

During the fight with Harry, he had become aware of the commander's
interest and knew then it was dangerous. Chakotay was a straight up
kind of a guy. Somebody who believed in happily ever afters and
fell in love forever. Definitely no way, no how his type. Tom
didn't at that point want to have sex with anybody other than Mr Hand
let alone embark into a real honest to god relationship, which by the
way, was all he was sure the first officer would settle for. That's
why he was good for Harry and not him.

Oh fuck Harry. If he loved anybody it was Voyager's operations
officer. OK so it wasn't that kind of love but it was probably the
closest he was ever going to experience. Even at his most enamored
point with B'Elanna, Tom would have left her in an instant to be with
his best friend if he'd asked. That man is my friend, Ensign Harry
Kim had once said about him and that was the greatest thing in his
less than perfect life. It was even more important than flying
Voyager.

So he would get over his sudden infatuation with the first officer
and let his best friend be happy. He owed him that much. Trembling,
he let a sliver of selfishness weed its way into his good
intentions. The commander had said he would come after him if it
didn't work out with Harry.

"Fuck you Chakotay!" He screamed at the stars whizzing past his
window. "I will never be yours!"

TBC