Chakotay, bound…
a drabble
vanhunks
[G]
Paramount owns Janeway and Chakotay
It had been different, all those years on Voyager. Then the thread that bound him to her had seemed tenable, desired, even. He could walk the corridors at night and thoughts of her accompanied him exactly as if they had been conversations in his mind.
He had never resented that intrusion even as he had known that she could never allow him as close as a hair's breadth in what would invade her privacy. He had known his boundaries as surely as if she had charted avenues, lanes and byways across the planes of his heart. While bound, he could live and love sublimely.
Some might say it was folly to live with such love, such intense devotion as part of his being. But those years on Voyager he had been happy just knowing that was how he felt while she had conducted herself in the manner decreed by her Federation: with decorum, the devotion to duty.
And so, after they returned home, when Kathryn said, "I love you, Chakotay. Share my life and my love forever," he was stunned, rendered mute for many minutes.
When he could finally speak, it was to say, "I have been bound too long…"
***
END