Paramount owns them.  I just write about them.
 Dedicated to Summer and all the members of the Resistance is Futile list
 
 Heart Shapes
 A Voyager Valentine
 By Lesa L.
 
 
 Harry tried to straighten his aching back.  Almost an hour spent bent
 into the inner workings of the Astrometric sensors had left him tired and
 irritable.  He heard his coworker's voice behind him, "Ensign Kim, my tricorder
 is reading a point zero, zero, two variance from the bridge sensors. 
 Rotate the hydrospanner to the left, I will--"
 
 "Damn it Seven, a point zero, zero, two variance is well within
 Federation standards," he responded standing straight and wincing
 slightly.  He placed the spanner on the console and pushed his hair off
 his face.
 
 "The Borg require perfection apparently the Federation does not,"
 Seven replied coldly.
 
 Knowing it was useless to argue with her Harry handed her the spanner,
 "If you want the variance fixed do it yourself.  As you've pointed out,
 I'm an imperfect person."
 
 "Very well," the former drone replied with an arched eyebrow and quickly
 turned to bend into the opened console.
 
 Harry stretched and leaned back against a work station to admire the
 view.   In the interests of helping her he picked up the Tricorder and
 gave directions when needed.  Admittedly, his attention did waver
 between the instrument in his hand and the shapely, blue clad posterior
 in front of him.
 
 After almost half an hour Seven conceded defeat.  "It would appear that
 trying to get below a point zero, zero, one variance is--"
 
 "Futile?" Harry suggested innocently.
 
 Her lips curled slightly, "An inefficient use of time."
 
 "Looks that way," Harry said, trying to hide a smirk.  Admitting failure,
 no matter how slight was no small task for the woman in front of him. 
 Suddenly he grimaced and touched his stomach.
 
 "Ensign, that sound, it came from your abdomen, are you ill?" 
 Something, almost concern came through in her voice.
 
 "I'm not ill, I'm hungry.  That was my stomach growling," Harry
 explained, trying not to roll his eyes.  "We've been working on this 
 since 0700 and it's almost one now.  I'm going to get some lunch."
 
 "I will accompany you," Seven said decisively.
 
 "Suit yourself," Harry replied, smiling inwardly.  He'd learned from experience
 it was never good to act too eager around his stoic companion.
 
 They talked about other projects the Captain wanted them to work on
 until they entered the Messhall.
 
 "Wow," Harry said looking around.
 
 "Wow indeed," Seven said as they surveyed the Messhall.
 
 Red, white and pink streamers and bows festooned the walls.  Pink heart
 shaped balloons fluttered in all the corners.  A large red foil cupid
 pointed his bow at the newcomers and each table was decorated with a
 small white glass vase containing one perfect red rose surrounded by
 pink carnations.
 
 "Harry, Seven," Neelix greeted them, beaming jovially.
 
 "Neelix, what's going on?" Harry said as a smile lit his face.  The
 Talaxian's good humor was as always, infectious.
 
 "Isn't it wonderful?" Neelix said.  "It's Valentine's Day!" The morale
 officer exclaimed.
 
 "Valentine's Day," Harry said.  "I'd forgotten about it.  We've never
 celebrated it on Voyager."
 
 "Well, its high time we did!" Neelix proclaimed.  "A holiday that
 celebrates romance and love, what a wonderful idea!  The Captain is
 going to let us have a little party tonight in Holodeck two.  A
 "Sweethearts Dance."  Neelix noticed several newcomers enter the room. 
 "Welcome!  Harry, Seven you go get yourself some lunch, I'll be by to
 talk to you later."
 
 They helped themselves to Neelix lunch specials, which in keeping with
 the holiday all appeared to be in shades of red and pink.  The crew
 seemed to be enjoying the change in decor as well.  Excited bits of
 conversation could be heard though out the room.  Also, they observed
 that many crew members appeared to be carrying small flat objects that
 seemed to engender great excitement.
 
 "I wonder if the food was originally this color or if Neelix tinted it to go
 with the decorations?" Harry said as they found a table.
 
 Seven examined a spoonful of a pink mixture closely.  "There are times I
 believe that Voyager would be better served by Neelix working in
 Tactical full time."
 
 "He means well.  And actually, even though he's gone a little over the
 edge into tacky, I think its kind of fun to celebrate Valentine's Day
 again."
 
 "Ensign, explain the customs and rituals involved in this celebration."
 
 Harry smiled, he knew that as adverse as Seven was to frivolous 
 conversation during working hours she was quite interested in 
 interpersonal conversation during their times away from work.  Which
 unfortunately had not been very often.
 
 Seven listened carefully as Harry endeavored to explain the significance
 of hearts, cupids, red roses and anything else associated with the
 holiday.  Several times he lost his train of thought, so distracted was he
 by the clear, blue eyes fixed almost unblinkingly on him.  

To show that she understood, Seven summed up his comments, "This holiday
 celebrates love, which is represented by the oddly shaped balloons. 
 Humans believe that a muscle that pumps blood somehow influences
 emotion.  Cupid is a god from an archaic religion that damages people
 by shooting arrows at them to make them fall in love.  What are those
 pasteboard objects that I see being exchanged among the crew?"
 
 "Those are Valentine's cards," Harry explained retrieving one from
 another table.  "Neelix must have left these out for people to give each
 other."  He showed her a pink open-faced card that displayed a red
 heart and under it the words:
 

 Be My Valentine
 
 "You see you give these to...special people and it shows that you care
 about them and that you want to..." Harry struggled trying to find the
 right words.
 
 "Copulate with them," Seven pronounced.
 
 "No!  Well, maybe, but not exactly.  'Be my Valentine,' is a way of saying
 that you have special feelings for that person and that you hope that they
 are returned."
 
 "Would it not be easier to simply express what you desire precisely,
 instead of relying on the vagueness of this expression?"
 
 "I guess it would," Harry admitted, stymied for a moment as how to get
 through to the extremely literal but lovely young woman across from
 him.
 
 "Enjoying yourselves?" Neelix asked as he joined them at their table.
 
 Seven was in the middle of chewing a rather dense piece of bread,
 otherwise Harry was sure that "Enjoyment is irrelevant" would have
 been her response.
 
 "Everything is really nice Neelix.  You've done a great job."
 
 "Thank you.  Didn't the decorations turn out well?  Did you notice I cut
 the cava bread into heart shaped pieces?  Isn't it delicious?  The soured
 grain really brings out the taste of the oshure spice.  Let me get you
 some more."
 
 Seven shook her head slightly, pointed at the slice of bread and began,
 "That is not--"
 
 "The word that she would used to describe it," Harry said quickly, sure
 that her words would damage the Talaxian's feelings.
 
 "That is not what I was going to say," Seven said coldly, holding up a
 piece of bread.  "This is not heart--"
 
 "Hardly enough!" Harry interjected.  "Hold your horses, Seven.  Neelix
 is getting us more bread."
 
 "Here we go," Neelix said.  "Two more pieces of fresh, hot cava bread."
 
 Harry smothered a smile at Seven's look of distaste, them ventured,
 "Neelix what was it you said about a dance?"
 
 "Oh the 'Sweethearts Dance.'  Yes, yes, Tom is handling all the
 programming for the party."
 
 "Sweethearts.  That implies more than one heart.  Is this dance for
 couples only?" Seven asked.
 
 "Well, not really, but it would be nice if everyone came with a special
 friend," Neelix said with a delighted smile.  "Are you two planning on
 coming?"
 
 "I guess I will," Harry said reluctantly.  "What about you, Seven?"
 
 "I had planned on regenerating this evening.  However, I suppose I
 could attend the festivities."
 
 "Wonderful!" Neelix exclaimed, "And both of you are special friends,
 you could come together!"
 
 Harry's eyes widened at Neelix's audacity.  "Is that all right with you
 Seven?"
 
 "Attending the festivity with you is acceptable," she said.
 
 "Wonderful," Neelix said again as he moved to greet more of the lunch
 crowd.  "See you two tonight."
 
 Harry and Seven watched the Talaxian move away and then looked at
 each other.  Harry swallowed as he felt her eyes seem to bore into his
 soul.  "Are you sure that you don't mind going with me to the dance?"
 he asked hesitantly.  "Neelix kind of pushed you into it."
 
 "I would not do anything I did not want to do," Seven said.  "Do you
 not wish to attend with me?"
 
 "No, no.  I mean yes, I want to go with you," Harry stammered.
 
 "Very well.  Ensign, I have to take our sensor data to Engineering to
 check against their sensors.  And then I will have to regenerate for a few
 hours since I will be otherwise occupied this evening," Seven said rising
 gracefully from the table.
 
 Harry watched her leave.  He noticed that she glanced down at some of
 the tables as she passed.  Her gaze appearing to linger on some of the
 cards that the crew members had exchanged with one another. 
 Suddenly, Harry had a wild thought, one that normally he would have
 dismissed as crazy, but something about the day, or the way Seven had
 looked at him made him act impulsively for the first time that he could
 remember.  He stood up squarely, deposited his tray and left the
 Messhall.  His eyes gleamed with fierce determination.  He was a man
 with a mission.
 
                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Seven returned to Cargo Bay two later that afternoon.  Her eyes fell on
 two items on her work station.  Items that were not there when she had
 left this morning.  She approached the station and looked down at a
 single red rose, and a pink card similar to the cards that she had seen
 exchanged at lunch and even during her time in Engineering today.  She
 picked up the rose and inhaled its lovely fragrance.  Her lips curved into
 a smile.  Then she examined the card.  The heart symbol of pasteboard
 had been replaced by another piece of pasteboard in a fleshy red color. 
 It was a pear shaped object with two ventricles coming out of the top. 
 Underneath were written the words:
 
 Be my partner in a romantic affiliation
 Harry
 
 Seven considered the meaning of the words.
 
                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Harry stood at his workstation in silent agony.  Cursing himself for his 
 impetuous behavior.  What in the hell had possessed him to send Seven that Valentine?  Wait a
minute, possessed him.  He would tell her that an
 alien has taken control of his body and forced him to do it.  If it could
 happen to anyone on Voyager, it would happen to him, right?  Damn,
 damn, damn, why couldn't he have left well enough alone?  There was
 no personal interest on her part was there?  God, he was an idiot.  She
 was going to come to the bridge and throw the card and the rose in his face. 
 Or worse, she would act like it had never happened.  He wouldn't be
 able to even look at her for days.  Was it possible to actually die from
 embarrassment?  He'd find out soon enough.
 
 He looked around the bridge, all the usual crew was there.  The silence
 was deafening.  He was sure that everyone could hear his heart beating a
 panic stricken tattoo in his chest.  He wished Tom would crack a joke or
 Chakotay and the Captain would start one of their little conversations
 about sumo wrestling or holonovels or the best kind of coffee.  Anything
 so that he wouldn't have to think about the incredibly stupid thing he
 had done.
 
 Suddenly his computer flashed to signal an incoming message from
 Cargo Bay two.  He stared frozen at the blinking light.  He was sure that his stomach was going
to collapse into itself like a black hole.  Finally he forced
 himself to press the 'read' button.  The message consisted of just one word:
 
 Affirmative
 
 "YES!"  The silence of the bridge was jolted.  The crew turned as one to
 see a jubilant Harry Kim standing with a fist held triumphantly in the air.  
 
 THE END