Title: Adagio
Author: Cait N.
Series: AU Voyager
Codes: J/C
Rating: G
Copyright: 2002/2004
Feedback: caitn at mindspring dot com
Paramount owns the characters, I just take 'em out for a
spin every now and then.

Summary: If Janeway and Chakotay had met at the 
Academy...

Author's Note: Adagio is a musical term which means -
slow, leisurely; a slow movement.
===============

- - - - - - - - - -
Starfleet Academy
summer, 2357
Armstrong Dormitory
- - - - - - - - - - 

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The discordant noise continued.

He tried banging on the door again.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Mercifully the racket from within stopped.

The door was jerked open by a petite cadet. She stood in
the doorway, auburn hair disheveled, cheeks flushed,
tapping her foot impatiently. "What?" Her voice was
breathy, as if she'd just ran a marathon.

"What are you doing in there? Torturing an animal?"

"I'm playing the flute."

"If that's how you normally sound, I'd hate to hear you on
an off day."

"I've only been playing for two weeks, and besides, I
don't recall asking for your opinion," she replied
defensively. As if it just occurred to her she added, "Who
are you?"

"Oh, sorry," he said, "I'm across the hall from you. Well,
at least for a few months." His cheeks turned pink as he
confessed, "I didn't quite pass my piloting final. Once I
take some remedial lessons, and retry, I can finally
graduate -- like I was supposed to."

"Interesting, but that still doesn't tell me your name."

"Are you always so abrupt?"

"Yes."

"Fine, it's Chakotay. Yours?"

"Kathryn Janeway."

They stood there for a few moments, awkward silence
settling around them.  He decided to speak first. "Don't
you have anywhere to go for the summer? Family to visit?"

"Do you?"

"No."

"No."

He sighed in frustration and ran a hand through his short
hair. "Listen, I'm sorry to just bang on your door like
that, but I trying to study. " At her look of disbelief, he
said, "Honestly."

"I'm sorry my practicing is bothering you, but, well," she
shrugged, "you know what they say about practice."

"Can't you go outside?" he suggested.

She bit her bottom lip and shook her head. "No, tried that
already. Boothby promptly told me in no uncertain terms
that I was *not* musically inclined."

He could hear the hurt in her voice. She probably knew she
sounded terrible, but was unwilling to concede defeat. He
admired her for that. "Listen, I was about to take a break
anyway. Care to go to O'Malley's down the street and get
something to eat?"

"I was supposed to go to the library this evening with my
roommate..."

"Please," he coaxed, suddenly wanting  to spend more time
with Kathryn Janeway. A lot more time.

A slow smile spread across her face. "I don't have to
meet her until nineteen hundred. I guess I have time for a
bite."

They walked down the corridor together out into the
afternoon sun...


EPILOGUE:

And Kathryn, did she ever master the flute? Nah, she gave
up practicing a few days later. She'd found a much better
way to spend her summer.

FINI
