Raffi’s research...
“Oh no you don’t Raffi”, Seven backed steadily away, holding her hands out defensively, “Don’t you even dare”.
“Come on babe I just wanna carry out a little research, y’know, test a little theory...”, Raffi continued to approach the clearly apprehensive former Borg.
This current situation had continued for some time, having started the previous evening when Raffi had noticed how Seven had flinched when touched lightly on her side just above her waist.
“No Raffi, no”, Seven pleaded, holding Raffi’s gaze the entire time as if watching for a foe to make a move.
Raffi took another step forward, her expression one of playful delight.
This hadn’t meant to develop into a shipwide chase but the first attempt to research this theory of hers had failed more than once already this morning.
On their way to the crew mess for breakfast, walking closely side by side, Raffi’s fingers had made another attempt to dance quickly against Seven’s side, only to be thwarted by Seven subtly taking a tight hold of and keeping a tight hold of the offending fingers as if to say ‘nice try’.
She tried once more at breakfast while sat side by side with Seven at the table only for the Fenris Ranger to feel the creeping approach of Raffi’s hand from around her back and as a result stabbed her breakfast knife into Raffi’s croissant as a warning.
Raffi’s next plan had been to try again once whilst leaving the mess.
There had been an hour within which to return to quarters before coming on duty and Raffi had decided that would be the moment to pounce, strike at her opponent and prove her theory.
Until, that was, Seven foiled Raffi’s otherwise perfect plan and took off as they walked.
For a small ship La Sirena had more than its fair share of walkways, crawl spaces, ladders etc but after a concerted effort, and asking Ian the EHH if he had seen her, Raffi had soon tracked her prey to a dimly lit box filled cargo bay.
There was to be no escape this time.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, I’ve taken down bigger people than you Raffi!”, Seven warned, her back finally making contact with the bulkhead as she ran out of space to retreat further.
“Oh babe”, Raffi laughed, “getting a little defensive there? Maybe you’ve got something to hide after all”.
Seven’s eyes darted around the cargo bay, searching for possible exit routes via the piles of boxes that littered the area.
“Oh no no no”, Raffi stepped forward again and held her arms out wide so as to block any possible sudden escape Seven might be tempted to take.
“Raffi please...”, Seven urged, her tone beginning to morph from stern warning to desperately imploring.
“Not until I test my theory!”, Raffi smiled the biggest and most teasing smile she could summon as she again took another step closer and now well within reach to box Seven fully in with her arms.
Like lightning Seven made her move, darting to Raffi’s left having analysed her escape route with Borg precision.
Borg precision allowed Seven to calculate that Raffi’s arm would not be capable of reacting quickly enough to grab her.
Borg precision it would seem had never met Raffi Musiker and Seven’s tactical analysis had failed to notice Raffi’s booted foot now planted firmly between her own pair.
Seven tripped as she made her move, giving Raffi the moment she needed to spin and grab hold of her left arm with both hands.
With the tangle of feet and grabbing of arms both women soon lost thier balance, creating a loud crash as they fell into the pile of boxes which spilled various tools and bolts all over the cargo bay.
Both heads looked around once silence was reclaimed and the cascade of noise caused by boxes knocking over even more boxes finally ceased.
Raffi lay in a heap, looking down at Seven who lay beneath her amongst a carpet of approximately 4000 spilled 10ml bolts.
“Errm...Ooops?”, was the best Raffi could come up with as she surveyed the scene.
Seven also looked around at what she could see of the mess from her position and then turned her head to Raffi. She raised an eyebrow and nodded directly at Raffi, “your fault”.
“My fault? I was engaged in vital research”, Raffi protested, moving to secure her legs around one of Seven’s - her plan damaged but not yet beaten.
“Don’t even think about it!”, Seven protested, realising that Raffi’s intent was still to block her escape.
“What babe, you mean this?”.
Raffi moved fast, pinning Seven’s right hand down amongst the spilled bolts with her left while moving her right hand in for the kill.
Raffi’s face light up as her fingers moved to Seven’s side and up inside her now dishevelled and untucked shirt, quickly dancing along the soft skin and pestering this sensitive area with sheer glee.
Her research was complete.
Raffi had been right.
Seven squirmed beneath Raffi, twisting and turning to try and throw this merciless aggressor off.
She shut her eyes tight, trying hard to hold in her reaction but a squeal came, and then another and then a laugh as Raffi continued.
“Raff... No... Stop... Geddoff!”, she pleaded between desperate squeals and twists of her body, kicking out with her well worn boots as best she could.
The only other sound was Raffi’s satisfied laughter becoming more outrageous with each reaction.
Suddenly the sound of the cargo bay door opening broke through the mixture of squeals and laughter and both women froze, Seven with a sigh of relief.
“What in God’s name has gone on here?!”, came a familiar voice but with a strong Scottish accent.
Straightening both clothing and hair Raffi and Seven scrambled to thier feet, standing amongst broken boxes and several thousand spilled bolts.
It was Ian the emergency engineering hologram.
“Umm, err, we can explain”, Raffi began stood side by side with Seven.
“We fell”, Seven cut in.
“Yes, yes, we fell”, Raffi agreed, “onto a box”.
“Lots of boxes”, Seven agreed, both women nodding.
“Many boxes”, Raffi nodded faster.
“And some boxes spilled”, Seven looked at the carnage.
“Very spilled”, Raffi bit her lip.
Ian stepped forward, taking in the sight of the mess.
“This a wee bit more than a simple spillage ladies”, he began in his strong Scottish accent, “and d’you know what?”.
Raffi and Seven looked to each other and then back to Ian shaking their heads.
Ian picked up a bolt and looked at it before looking back to the two miscreants before him.
“These were sorted into boxes of 8ml, 10ml and 12ml and someone’s gonna need to put them all back and guess what? It’s not going to be me, jog on, I’ve got power couplings to realign”, he said with a smug smile that itself almost seemed to have an accent.
Raffi and Seven momentarily glared at each other as their job for the day began to dawn on them.
“There’s two brooms over there ladies, I suggest ye get cracking”, Ian pointed and then turned, leaving the cargo bay with what Raffi swore was a chuckle.
Both women stood in silence for several moments, each looking around and wondering just where to begin.
“Well I hope your research was worth it”, Seven spoke, distinctly unimpressed.
“Oh honey it was”, Raffi chuckled, the absurd situation beginning to appeal to her sense of humour clearly more than it was to Seven’s.
Seven moved away, muttering something under her breath as she trudged through the bolts to fetch the brooms.
“Raffi just one thing”, she stopped and looked back to Raffi as she picked up the brooms, “Nobody finds out. Nobody. Ever.”
“Oh I dunno babe”, Raffi thought out loud as she watched Seven stepping over broken boxes to return, “I quite like the term Seven of Nine, the EXTREMELY TICKLISH....yeah they’d have to put that in all caps too.... Seven of Nine, the EXTREMELY TICKLISH ex-Borg Fenris Ranger from the Delta quadrant... it’s got a good ring to it don’t ya think babe?”.
Seven shoved a broom into Raffi’s hands, “Shut up and start sweeping”.
Raffi laughed as she picked a spot and began to sweep, as far as she was concerned this had all been worth it. She would file this little gem of information away for future use, most likely an occasion when Seven would least expect it.
Seven moved away and began to sweep another pile of spilled bolts.
She wasn’t yet accustomed to fun.
She glanced at Raffi and then turned away, hiding her own smirk with her hair. She didn’t want Raffi to see her amusement just yet.
“Just you wait Musiker”.
Seven muttered quietly to herself, considering wether to conduct a similar study into Raffi tonight behind the closed doors of her quarters.
It would be of course all in the name of research... and possibly a little fun?