The BLTS Archive - Tu/T Fru/T
by Zeborah (zeborah@gmail.com)

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Disclaimer:

Paramount, which art in Hollywood,
Hallowed be thy name;
Thy profits come, thy will be done in New Zealand as in America.
Give us this week our hebdominal Star Trek fix,
And forgive us our fanfics as we forgive the really horrific
science-writing you--  Uh...
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from lawsuits,
For thine are the profits, the power and the glory,
Forever and ever, amen.

Author's Note:  Thanks to Sasscat Bu-to-y for the title, which she
very kindly gave me for my own use.  Also for reminding of the great
Tuvok/Torres scenes in "Resistance".  And thanks again to Mosca for
being a great beta-reader.

I'm using the term 'kiwifruit', because that's what it's called here
in NZ and the rest of the world's confused me, with their 'kiwi's.
Here, 'kiwi' refers to the protected bird, our national symbol, or
someone born in NZ.  'Kiwifruit' is the fruit.  It used to be called
'chinese gooseberry' until the Chinese became unpopular.  It's now
being marketed as 'zespri', for some obscure reason, but no-one
calls it that.

(c) Zeborah 1998

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She sat down at Tuvok's table and gestured at the giant bowl of fruit
that had been placed in front of him.  "Is that all for you, or can I
help myself?" she asked, putting her elbows on the table.

Eyes looked up from a padd, and a single eyebrow raised.  "You are
quite welcome to share them, Lieutenant Torres.  I fear that Mister
Neelix has overestimated my appetite."

"Xenophobe," B'Elanna teased.  "Just because they're not from Vulcan
doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them."  She looked over the
bowl of fruit, filled to overflowing with apples, bananas, assorted
berries and even two small honeydew melons.  "Where did he get all
this Earth fruit?"  She picked up a peach and stroked at the soft down
on its skin.  "I haven't seen so much at once since I left the
Academy."

"I believe that he replicated them from some of Lieutenant Paris'
templates."

She tossed the peach back in the bowl, and glared at the pile of
fruit.  Suddenly her eyes lit up.  "Oh my," she said, reaching
towards the bowl again, and slowly pushing aside an apple.  "Do you
know how long it's been since I've had a kiwifruit?"

Finding it miraculously unbruised, she held it cupped in her hands
then brought it to her nose and inhaled deeply.  Her eyes shut
involuntarily.  "I've always loved that smell," she said, then bit
into it and sighed as she rolled the flesh around her mouth.  "And
that taste... and that skin.  I've always loved the texture of its
skin."  She bit into it again, but only a nibble this time, barely
enough to take both brown skin and green flesh in her mouth.

Usually Tuvok would have nodded, made some noncommittal remark, and
turned back to the report he was reading.  But now he put down his
padd and clasped his hands on top of it, watching B'Elanna.  "How does
it taste?"

Newly-formed drops of green juice fell from her chin to the table as
she finished the kiwifruit and sighed, opening her eyes again.  "Every
bit as delicious as I'd hoped," she said.  "You should try some,
Tuvok."

"While I appreciate the... enjoyment you seem to have derived,
Lieutenant," he said, "I have already had sufficient nutritional
intake for the day."  But, despite his words, his hand drifted to the
fruit bowl and hovered above, then rested on, the smooth almost-white
skin of a honey-dew melon.

"I haven't finished 'deriving enjoyment' yet," B'Elanna said, reaching
to take a small handful of peanuts.  She took one, then another, into
her mouth and sucked them thoughtfully, occasionally letting the end
of one or the other peep through her lips.  Her eyes glinted then, and
she threw a peanut at Tuvok, who ducked.  In the noise of the crowded
mess room, no-one noticed the peanut, nor the one that followed it, as
they rolled together under a table.

Their eyes met and locked fast.  Slowly Tuvok's lips opened again and
he said, "'A piece of fruit is more than nourishment; it is a dish, a
meal, and a replicator.  It is this that makes it the most fulfilled,
and fulfilling, of all foods.'"

His hand drifted over the melon and down into the fruit bowl, emerging
a moment later with a cherry between his fingers.  He brought it to
his lips and touched the sleek skin once, lightly, with his tongue,
still gazing at B'Elanna.  As her smile widened Tuvok became bolder,
until he was nibbling at the soft hard redness, and a slow trickle of
juice was running down his chin.

For long moments B'Elanna watched as he slowly ate the fruit from the
cherry stone, then licked that, and then his fingers, clean.  The hum
of the warp core grew louder as the voices of the people around them
receded into the distance.

Reluctantly Tuvok put down the cherry stone and started to reach for
his padd again, but a movement of B'Elanna stopped him.  She reached
for a banana, pulled it from the bunch and gently tore it open.

Unpeeling it, stripping it of every thread, she held it in one hand
as a finger from the other ran slowly from its base to its tip.  It
was still a little green, and stood straight and hard in her hand,
pointing towards her mouth.  Without taking her eyes from Tuvok's,
B'Elanna bent her head a little to take the tip of the banana between
her teeth.  A corner of his lips twitched as the banana was drawn into
her mouth, centimetre by centimetre.  He swallowed with her when her
lips surrounded the very base and that, too, disappeared.  A smile was
all that remained once she had licked every trace of the banana from
her lips and fingers.

"It would be a pity to let the rest of these go to waste," she said,
watching Tuvok pick up his padd again with carefully steady fingers.
"Maybe we should finish them off tomorrow evening."

Tuvok nodded slightly.  "That would be quite agreeable, Lieutenant,"
he said, and pretended to read the report on his padd as B'Elanna
stood and walked, hips swaying, out of the room.

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The End