Pixie Ships | Icheb and Naomi Wildman

[pixiedane]

Scenario
I love the trope “Grew Up Together", ships where the characters met as children. And as much as I wanted Voyager to get home by the end of the series, I also love stories where they don’t.

Now, I don’t want them to get together simply due to lack of options. But I firmly believe that if the journey home took 30-70 more years, Naomi would not remain the only baby born on Voyager. I mean, we already get Miral, and the longer they are out the more people are going to hook up and settle down and start a family. I’m going to say there are about 20 second gen Voyagers by the time the above picture is taken. There can also be some more refugees, like Icheb. But! Icheb and Naomi have history.

They are good friends from childhood. They are both close to Seven, and the three form an unconventional family unit. As they grow up the boundaries and feelings shift. They go through an awkward teen “I considered you my sibling but now I am kind of attracted to you” phase that eventually settles into best friends who choose not to act on any attraction because it’s too much to lose.

Voyager arrives at random DQ planet number 217. Naomi in on the away team, she is particularly good at negotiations, and she meets a young man. They are assigned to work together on whatever it is they are doing there, and over the course of the 2-3 weeks of the project, they enter into a whirlwind romance. Naomi thinks she’s in love. It’s exciting, a little bit dangerous, a little bit tragic. She’s overwhelmed. When it’s time to go, she doesn’t want to say goodbye. Can’t they stay longer? Can’t he come with them? All the adults say no, as compassionately as possible. Naomi shouts they don’t understand and she sobs for a week. She won’t talk to anyone. Not her mother, not the captain, not counselor Chakotay, not even Seven. But she lets Icheb hold her.

The underlying attraction grows. They each have a few more short term relationships. Naomi tries to keep it casual because serious hurts too much. Icheb tries to fall in love with someone other than Naomi (thinking that’s what she wants) but fails. This goes on for a while.

Then something happens. Maybe one or the other is injured. Maybe Naomi has another traumatic relationship. Maybe they are trapped in a life-threatening situation. Maybe Tom finally convinces Icheb to lay it all out for her. Maybe Sam convinces Naomi to stop running away from what’s right in front of her. Maybe Icheb goes missing on a planet and when he’s found days later and Naomi beams him up, her eyes meet his and they are full of all the love he ever wanted to see there. And they decide to take a chance.