Date Part 2, After Dinner

Posted on Wed Jun 25th, 2025 @ 12:28pm by Ensign Charlotte Dawes & Lieutenant JG Kasper Andersen M.D

2,030 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: The Menagerie II
Location: The Arboretum
Timeline: After Part 1

Charlotte knew he was flirting with her, but she had no intentions of making it easy for him. Not at this point. With a hint of mischief in her eyes she stood up from the table and carried her plate to the recycler and then walked back toward the table. She leaned against the short partition that separated the kitchen from the living room and let her hands hang down by her side.

"Well, maybe we should get out of here? Go for a walk?" She suggested, a very subtle smile starting on her lips.

What he wouldn't have given to wrap his hands around her waist, to pull her in close and kiss her again, but he resisted. Instead, he clenched a fist under the table and grimaced before he too got up and scraped his remains into the recycler as well before heading back to where she was. "Go for a walk? Sure, where to? I hear there's something going on at the arboretum?"

"Great. Sounds perfect. Let's go then?" Charlotte said as she bounced herself off of the wall she'd been leaning on and took a couple of quick steps to the center of the room. "You ready?"

"Yep." He replied as he walked back toward the center of the room where she was, taking her by the hand and spinning her around as he grinned and she laughed. Still, he was being as respectful as possible.

Five minutes later and they had just reached the arboretum, the silence and the peacefulness of it was astounding. Trees, flowers, everything was in bloom and it looked beautiful. There were a few crew monitoring the plants and trees and a few other crew just walking around.

"This is the first time I've been to the arboretum on this ship, it's quite different here but it's still really pretty." Kasper admitted as they walked in.

"Seriously?" Charlotte asked surprised. "I mean, I know you haven't been on board for that long, but how do you not make a point to walk by here? It's like... the closest thing to outside when we've been in space for weeks, or months." She stopped to crouch down and gently rubbed her hand over a batch of clover and grasses and turned to look up at him. "Some people don't like the big ships, but at least they give you stuff like this for the long deployments."

Kasper shrugged in response, "I don't know, I just haven't really had much of a need or want to come by here yet." He watched as she felt the grasses, admitting to himself that it did look really soft. "Back at my previous posting, and you'll find this funny, I actually fell asleep in the arboretum a number of times. I wasn't drunk or anything, it was just super peaceful, and it was always the same person that woke me up each time to tell me to go back to my quarters too." He missed Ch'var and made a mental note to arrange a call with him.

"Fell asleep where?" Charlotte turned to face him as she stood back up. "Did your arboretum have hammocks or something?" She asked with a playful grin, but then turned and started walking ahead before he answered. She didn't suppose that they did, she was just having fun with him as she teased him on their stroll.

"Oh yeah, they totally did," Kasper teased back. "You know the blue and white striped ones you see at beaches? There were like five of them tucked away in amongst some of the trees... it all had a nice tropical feel to it too. Super easy to fall asleep on, even easier with someone else there too." If she could tease him, he could do it right back to her.

"Seriously?" Charlotte slowed down and walked in a side step so she could see Kasper as he caught up to her. "It would seem a lot of people would go there to nap. A tropical arboretum?"

"Yeah, palm trees, hibiscus and all." He put his hands in his pockets and grinned. "I'm surprised they didn't have a luau happening every so often."

"I guess you'll have to find another special spot to take all your lady friends, then." Charlotte was having too much fun poking at him. "No hammocks here, and the kids have claim on the treehouse."

If she could poke fun at him, he could poke fun at her. "Who said it was just ladies?" Walking over to some of the taller plants, he looked at them and then back at her, "I remember back when Eirly and I were kids, I convinced her to help me build a treehouse out of some sticks and old wood laying around, and we got as far as the base platform before we gave up and our dad finished it off." Fun times. "I caught Leif smoking in it when we were all last back home, so who says treehouses are just for kids?" Kasper gave Charlotte a suggestive and daring look. "You keen?"

"I'm always up for checking out a treehouse," Charlotte said with a wide grin. "It's a little late for the kids to be out tonight anyway."

"Lead the way then," Kasper said with a sweep of his arm outward for her to take the lead.

"All right then." Charlotte grabbed Kasper by the hand and urged him forward, slowly at first, but then into a slow jog through a narrow path toward the section of trees in the center of the arboretum that also included a cutaway section of the deck above that allowed for taller trees and plants to grow.

Very soon they had reached the large structure that the Chief Science Officer had built around and between two trees. The two main treehouse cabins were accessible through a number of different climbing options and connected together by a simple suspension bridge made of rope and wooden planks.

"Fun right?" Charlotte asked with a grin.

Kasper let out a low whistle as he took in the impressive strutcture before him. He flexed his fingers slightly as he continued to hold Charlotte's hand. "This looks amazing. I'm keen to go up, I don't think anyone will really care too much if they take notice."

"That's why we're here isn't it?" Charlotte dropped his hand and looked at him expectantly before jogging to the treehouse and making her way to one of the ladders. Once she had scaled that one, she was on a platform and in one of the larger cabins, but a hole in the ceiling and another ladder led further up, so she kept going, until she finally made her way into a little lookout tower near the top of the tree.

She looked down the ladder and watched as Kasper climbed up behind her.

Once he had climbed up and was on the same platform as Charlotte, Kasper took a look around. "You know, this is actually quite a neat set up, I'm jealous us adults don't have anything like this. Or do we?" He leaned back against the railing, conscious that any wrong move or the bar giving out could send him falling.

"Do you not like heights?" Charlotte asked. She had a wide grin on her face as she noticed him tentatively looking at the guardrails. Charlotte took a few steps toward him, stopping just short of brushing up against him.

"I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan of them," Kasper replied with a slight laugh to cover up the nervousness he was feeling. He pushed off from the rail and stopped so that he was almost flush with her, "Solid ground is where I prefer to be, if I'm being honest. But now we're here, should it be me saying what do you want to do?"

She giggled softly and shook her head as she reached over and put her hands around his waist. "Do you need my assistance?" She asked coyly, laughter dancing in her eyes as her gaze met his.

Kasper kept the soft grin on his face as his head tilted to the side and his right hand moved to her lower back, pulling her in closer. He reached up with his left hand and gently moved the strands of hair out of her face and pushed them back behind her ear, "Yeah I do. But I don't know how to say what I actually need."

Charlotte leaned into him as he pulled her closer, "What you need, huh?" Charlotte said softly, teasing. "I don't know how I can help you then."

"Hmmm." Kasper responded as he looked down and moved one hand to brush the stray hair from her face. "I think your lips on mine and a yes to me asking you to be my girlfriend? How about that for helping me out?"

"You. Are. Incorrigible." Charlotte shook her head slowly, a soft smile on her face as she leaned in a little more and let her lips brush up against his. "Like this?" She whispered as she closed her eyes, pressing her lips against his more forcefully this time.

She grabbed a hold of his shirt just below his rib cage with her right hand and used that to pull him towards her just before she broke away from the kiss. She looked up at him as if she were searching his eyes for something.

"That's still not a yes though, love." Kasper replied with his signature grin and a soft, low chuckle as he looked down at her. "What are you thinking about?" He made no further remarks as he watched the light dancing and sparkling in her eyes.

"I'm thinking about it," Charlotte replied, laughter threatening to break through her voice as she continued to tease him. "Very seriously, too. If I say yes, then that sort of means when I step down from the treehouse I will no longer be a single woman. Is that what you're after?"

Now she put it like that, Kasper felt kind of bad. "Is that something you want though? To remain single and break my heart again?" He kept the grin on his face to let her know he wasn't being serious.

Charlotte started to worry that she might have pushed the teasing a little too far. "Break your heart!? Kasper, I have no intention of breaking any hearts tonight..."

"I guess I was just surprised to hear you ask me that," she admitted a pink flush rising to her cheeks. "To be your girlfriend, I mean. It sounds so committed -- I'm not, I'm not saying that's a bad thing." Charlotte felt her face grow even more hot as she stumbled over her words. "I mean, it's a good thing. I'm glad you asked me that. If you're sure that's what you really want."

If there had been a hole to crawl into or a blanket to hide under Charlotte would have disappeared immediately.

Chuckling softly again at Charlotte getting so flustered, Kasper said, "I don't think I can be any more serious about something like this, I just know I'm sure this is what I want. I just want to make sure it's something you want as well before anything is made official." He pulled her into a hug.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead after pulling back and grinning like the idiot he was, he added, "If you promise to put up with me, that is."

Charlotte let out a sigh of relief that the pressure was finally off of her. "Put up with you?" Charlotte repeated. "Why do I have a feeling that I have no idea what I'm agreeing to, really?" She was smiling as she shook her head at him.

"You'll find out soon enough, don't worry." Kasper chuckled again.

"As long as it isn't boring," she laughed back.

"You think time spent with me is boring?" Kasper raised an eyebrow at the mention of it. "That just means I'll have to step my game up then, doesn't it?"

Charlotte laughed, "Oh no, I never said that. Not in the least."

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