Counting Stars
A fic in response to Prompt Day over at laura_lee_bsg with the title less-than-creatively taken directly from the prompt. Hope you enjoy :)
Title: Counting Stars
Rating: T
Pairings: Laura/Lee, Laura/Bill, Lee/Kara
Word Count: 4111
Disclaimer: Tragically not mine
Counting Stars:
Laura woke up in the middle of the night with a rock poking into her back and a cramp in her leg. Falling asleep under the stars on canvas sacks had seemed like a good idea hours earlier when she was still high and tipsy, but now one of the buttons on Bill’s uniform was digging into her cheek and the cramp in her leg wasn’t getting any better.
Deciding she ought to get up and move a bit if she didn’t want to be limping in the morning, Laura slowly eased her way off of Bill’s chest to stand up - wincing as she straightened her cramped leg. The night felt colder now that most of the partiers had found their way home, or passed out under a table somewhere, and she no longer had a blanket of intoxication to keep her warm.
Pulling her wrap tighter around her upper body Laura tried to decide the best direction to walk in order to stretch out her painfully tight leg muscle. Glancing down at Bill who was still snoring deeply she figured that she had at least a few hours before he so much as stirred, so at least that wasn’t a concern.
She looked back out into the darkness at the landscape illuminated only by starlight and the small sliver of the moon, and noticed all the discarded cups littering the dirt alleyways between the tents.
Shaking her head with a slight smile at the fun the colonists were having, and the fact that it was no longer her problem to organize a settlement wide clean up, Laura decided to walk out towards the edges of the settlement rather than deal with the aftermath of the festivities.
As she walked across the dirt and shrubs heading away from camp Laura knew that Bill would probably be annoyed at her for not waking him up…he’d be worrying about her safety away from the settlement at night…that she might fall and twist an ankle in the darkness, or that she’d run into some sort of dangerous wild animal, but she wasn’t worried.
Laura felt a sort of peace out here alone in the dark that she didn’t get at any other time. During the daylight Laura was constantly dealing with the roles of former-president, with all the odd looks and expectations that brought her, and New Caprican resident, with all the oh-so-exciting challenges and hardships that entailed.
Out here at night she could just be Laura…the Laura that she hadn’t been since the fall of the colonies, the one who enjoyed peaceful walks by herself, found starlight beautiful - something she hadn’t been able to enjoy while stranded in space - and loved the stillness that only the earliest hours of a new day could bring.
Resolving that she would simply return before Bill had the chance emerge from his stupor and notice she was missing, Laura continued on her path away from camp. She’d been walking for another fifteen minutes or so when she almost tripped across the pair of bodies that was hidden in a clump of shrubs.
Halting her step at the last minute so she didn’t deliver an unpleasant wake up call to the revelers in the form of a foot shaped bruise, Laura retreated slightly and turned to continue on her walk. Just as she was leaving, however, Laura heard a sleepy mumble from one of the pair and found herself involuntarily turning back around.
Even in a sleep-distorted mumble, Laura was certain she’d know that voice anywhere…after all they’d spent enough time sleeping in the same cramped space in the freezer ship when they were on the run, she could probably identify him from just his soft snore.
When she turned back to take a second look at the sleeping couple, Laura realized that she in fact recognized both of the entwined bodies. It was hard to mistake that swath of long, messy blonde hair…and if there had been any doubts as to the identity of Kara Thrace, her ridiculously muscled body - quite visible due to her current state of undress - would’ve quickly resolved them.
As her thoughts travelled this path, Laura’s brain caught up with her eyes and she realized that not only was Starbuck completely undressed, but so was her Captain Apollo…or Commander Adama as was his correct title these days.
Commander Adama…that certainly was a long way from the well-meaning, and sometimes even carefree, Captain Apollo she’d known so many months ago. Though if she was being completely honest with herself, she was definitely noticing that his well-muscled body wasn’t that different from the unused footage of the towel-covered Captain Apollo she’d seen from the Galactica documentary.
As Kara shifted and rested her cheek next to her hand on Apollo’s chest, Laura suddenly felt guilty for intruding on their moment. True it had originally been an accident, but the longer she stood watching them, the more Laura found herself envying Kara Thrace.
It wasn’t a feeling that Laura enjoyed. She’d always known that she had a slight crush on her handsome and gallant Captain Apollo, and she’d never really thought it would go anywhere…she was too busy, focused on the fleet, and had too short an expiration date to try and change anything, and he was all too young and rule-abiding.
She’d never gotten any signs that he reciprocated her crush, and she knew that as a hotshot pilot he was bound to have his pick of the women in the fleet, but to see first-hand his choice of a younger, blonder, and in-better-shape woman stung more than she would’ve anticipated.
Shaking her head at her own foolishness, Laura decided to give the couple their privacy and began to walk away from their little patch of shrubs. She’d only taken a couple small, tiptoeing steps when she heard the crunch of a branch under her boot. She flinched and immediately froze. She’d been trying so hard not to make any noise as she left the couple, but she’d somehow managed to miss the branch currently under her foot.
She heard shifting and a mumbled phrase from Apollo, but after a moment of silence she assumed he hadn’t fully woken and that it was safe for her to move again. As she lifted her foot to carefully continue moving away from the couple, the branch fell back to the ground in two pieces, making as much noise as the first snap, and she heard a “What, huh?” from Lee as he shifted again.
Flinching slightly, Laura knew it was too late to try and retreat any further…Lee Adama’s skills as a viper pilot gave him amazing reflexes, and now that he was awake there was no way he would miss the sounds of someone sneaking around his sleeping place. Shaking her head, Laura turned back to the couple and found herself looking straight into the wide-awake, glaring eyes of Lee Adama.
He startled slightly when he realized exactly who he was looking at, but he recovered fast enough to stop glaring at her like a threat and raised a finger to signal ‘one-moment’ as he started to feel around for his clothes.
Looking away from the couple and back up to the stars to give him a bit of privacy, Laura shook her head at the situation she’d gotten herself into. They hadn’t had a real conversation in who knows how long, and now they were about to have a chat about what she’d been doing sneaking around where he and his girlfriend were sleeping, and to top it all off he seemed to be having trouble finding his pants…well, this was going to be awkward.
Shaking her head and keeping her eyes glued to the starry landscape as he fumbled around for his clothing, Laura braced herself for the inevitably uncomfortable encounter that was about the take place.
It sounded like Lee had finally gotten himself in order…and as Laura glanced back at him, she saw him dressed in his uniform pants and tanks. He gently slipped his uniform jacket under Kara’s head as he eased himself out from under her and stood up. She had to keep herself from rolling her eyes…of course he would be chivalrous like that, why in the worlds would she suspect any different?
Walking quietly towards her so as not to wake Kara, Lee gently grasped Laura’s elbow and pointed to a small hill a little ways in the distance that didn’t seem to have too many noisy shrubs between here and there. Nodding her understanding to him, Laura started to slowly make her way to the hill away from the slumbering Kara with Lee walking - or perhaps more accurately trying to keep from stumbling…he appeared to still be slightly intoxicated from the party - to her left.
When they were finally far enough away that they could speak without worrying about waking Kara, Laura figured it was probably as good a time as any to try and diffuse the awkwardness she was feeling, “Look Lee I…”
Before she could get any further into her explanation of how stumbling across him and his naked partner had been a complete and total accident, however, Lee sat down on the slope and said, “Were you looking for me? Did something happen at the party?”
Somewhat confused by his train of thought Laura looked down at him and said, “What? No. Lee it’s shortly before four in the morning, the party died down a couple of hours ago…look, I was just out for a walk…”
Lee was staring at her rather intently and Laura was worried that for some reason he didn’t believe her. “Honestly Lee,” he was looking at her very intensely and she couldn’t understand what was wrong, “What? Would you prefer I call you Commander Adama? I know we haven’t really spoken in a while, but that seems a bit extreme. It’s not like I was trying to stumble across you and your naked girlfriend, I was just out for walk, so I don’t understand why you’re upset with me for that…”
“You look like starlight,” Lee said before she had the chance to finish her sentence. “I’m sorry? What?” was the only appropriate response Laura could think of as he continued to gaze up at her very intently. “Starlight” Lee repeated with a far away look on his face as he raised an arm and made a broad, sweeping gesture towards the sky.
“They’re all so pretty from down here, twinkling down on us with their white light. It’s got this kind of soft silvery glow…that’s what you’re skin looks like right now.” Clearly he was far drunker than she’d imagined.
“Ok Lee,” she said as she reached down to tug on his bicep to try and bring the Commander back to standing, “You’re clearly in no shape to be having this conversation right now, so why don’t we just leave it at I accidentally woke you when I saw you and Kara and now it’s time for you to get back to bed.”
“No seriously,” Lee said as he staggered back to a standing position, “You’re skin looks so pale and beautiful and it just makes that dress,” she was fairly certain he meant to brush his fingers across the sleeve of her wrap, but instead she felt more of a slow drunken pat to her shoulder, “look even better on you. It’s a nice color on you.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at him as it was the second time an Adama had used that exact same line on her in one day, “No, no.” Lee slurred, not realizing that she was laughing at him more than his words, “I really mean it. I was going to tell you earlier when I saw you that I thought you looked really nice, but then I ran into Kara and Sam, and there was some drinking and dancing, and time just sort of got away from me.”
“That it did” Laura laughed as he swayed a little bit in place, “Now why don’t we get you back to Captain Thrace before you fall and injure yourself out here.” “Kara’s not a Captain anymore,” was Lee’s brilliant response as they began slowly walking back to where she was sleeping, “She quit being a Captain when she decided to leave the Colonial fleet and move down here. She showed me the floor plans for her house.”
“Hmm,” was Laura’s only response as she tried to focus on the fact that she needed to help Apollo get safely back to his sleeping area rather than the fact that he was leaning on her and his incredibly toned arms were now bare and pressing against her side.
They’d made it a few more steps when Lee plopped down on the ground again and leaned back on his hands, “Do you ever just sit back and look at the stars, Laura?” Lee asked in such a dreamy voice that she had to wonder what else he and Starbuck had been taking earlier in the evening.
“Sometimes” she said softly as she sat down next to him. There was really no point in trying to move him again until he was ready to stand up on his own, since there was no way she was strong enough to drag him all the way back to where he’d been sleeping.
“I’ve never really taken the time to look when I’m in space,” Lee continued as he stared up at the sky, “There are a lot of things I never took the time to look at in space.” Glancing over at her where she was seated with her legs stretched out and her neck craned towards the sky Lee continued, “Like Kara…I never really told her how beautiful she was when we were together in space, but now down here I had the chance to tell her and we can be happy,”
“Hmm,” Laura responded a slight nod of her head as she tightened her wrap around her to keep out the night’s cold and wished he would talk about anything else. She might not have ever thought she’d really be with Lee Adama in any romantic sense beyond the occasional day dream, but she really didn’t want to sit here and listen to him go on about how much he loved another woman either.
It was, however, her fault that he was out here sitting in the cold, drunk, with no shirt on, rather than sleeping it off with Captain Thrace, so she wouldn’t feel right getting up and leaving him to fend for himself. “I mean there’s always been something there, but I just never took the chance to acknowledge it,” Lee was continuing as she decided to try and zone him out and just enjoy the look of these new constellations from the ground.
“I thought I was too late when she came back from the rescue mission with Sam, but now I think we really have a chance…” Laura got the feeling that he could probably go on all night if she let him, so with a sigh she turned to him and said, “I’m very happy for you Lee. Now it’s probably time to keep walking towards…”
“It’s a lot like you actually,” Lee interjected as though he hadn’t heard a word she’d said - which given his level of intoxication seemed probable - “We spent all that time together when we were in space and I never once told you how beautiful you were, and then it was just way too late after everything that happened.”
Despite feeling flattered that he’d admit he’d thought of her as beautiful…even if his inebriated state lessened the believability admission somewhat, Laura knew he was in no state to be revealing inner secrets or discussing whatever events he felt had happened between them in the last months. “Ok Lee,” she tried again to get him moving, as he again interrupted her, “It’s like these stars,”
Laura huffed a laugh at his fixation with the star analogy while he was drunk, “You just don’t appreciate them until you’re not seeing them up close everyday. I always knew you were pretty, and you’re lovely when you’re sleeping peacefully…like all those times we were on the run on the freezer ship,” she wondered just how drunk he was and if he’d have any recollection at all of this conversation in the morning, “but you never really miss the stars until they’re gone.”
Laughing again at how he’d slipped back into the star analogy without even managing to finish his sentence, Laura missed him moving closer. “But really, it’s true. It’s like you’re laugh…I never realized how much I loved your laugh until I wasn’t spending time with you anymore.”
When did he get so close? Laura was surprised to see him looking at her from only a few inches away, “And you’re hair,” Lee said as he lifted a hand to run it through her hair and push the strands behind her ear, “it looked pretty on the ships, but down here in natural light it’s so much…better.”
“Lee,” Laura said as he began to stroke her cheek with the thumb of the hand whose fingers were entwined in her hair, “You’re not thinking clearly. You can’t even find the proper word to try and describe my hair, which is something that you’d never do in the first place if you were sober, so maybe this isn’t the best time to…”
And then he was kissing her. Not the soft, tentative kiss she’d always imagined Captain Apollo would begin with if he were ever to make a move, but the confident, sensual kind of kiss that gave her butterflies in her stomach. She knew it was wrong to let him kiss her in this state, knew that she should stop him as his hands slid to cup her neck and her hip, but the languid slide of his tongue against hers just felt too good to think about anything else.
He continued to kiss her, and soon she found herself sliding beneath him as one of his hands came to undo the red wrap she’d pulled around her body earlier. Her hands were sliding through his hair and down the exposed skin of his muscular arms as one of his slid under her tank top. She moaned into the kiss when she felt his thumb brush against her nipple, and gasped as he broke the kiss to nibble his way down her neck.
She was in heaven. It had been far too long since anyone had touched her like this…she’d hoped that Bill might earlier this evening, but instead he’d passed out on the canvas behind her tent. Bill. Lee. Oh Gods, this was all going far too fast.
What was she thinking, Lee was too drunk to be making any sort of decision like this, and they had far too many issues between them to let some kissing - alright some amazingly hot kissing - lead them to do something stupid that they’d both regret in the morning.
Grabbing his wrist to remove his hand from beneath her shirt and pushing at his shoulder to get some space Laura said, “Lee. Lee!” He slowly looked up at her with swollen lips and a bleary expression, releasing his wrist and scooting back she went on, “We can’t do this Lee. You’re far too drunk, and I’m…well I don’t know exactly what I am, but I know I’m confused and I’m not thinking clearly.”
Standing up to further emphasize to both herself and to him that this wasn’t going to go any further she continued, “It’s that’s odd witching hour of the morning when a lot of really stupid ideas seem like good ones and then you wake up the next morning in a married man’s bed wondering how the hell you got there…”
Stopping herself as she realized that she was merely ranting at herself aloud and that Lee was too drunk to do anything other than slowly nod his head as if he was following her, Laura sighed, “The point is, this is a bad decision and neither of us would be very happy with it in the morning, no matter how much we might like the idea right now.”
Extending her hand to help him up off the ground so they could continue on the way back to where he’d been sleeping, Laura said, more for her own benefit than for his, “Besides didn’t you just tell me that you’ve been wanting to tell Kara how beautiful she is for a long time and that now you think you ‘really have the chance to be together’?”
“I do love Kara.” Lee said with a decisive nod as he accepted her hand and stood up, and Laura wondered if he even remembered any of what they’d been doing just a couple minutes ago, “I Love Kara Thrace!” Lee yelled rather loudly causing Laura to laugh and shake her head at him as she tried to get him to quiet down, “Shh! Lee, be quiet or you’ll wake her up.”
“Right” he said as he stumbled slightly and she had to quickly reach out and grab his arm to steady him. “Ok Lee,” she said as if talking to one of her younger students, “We’re going to walk very slowly the rest of the way back, alright?”
“Alright” he said with a slight yawn as he continued to lean on her as they walked. Taking a deep breath to try and calm the hormones coursing through her body Laura looked up at the sky and shook her head, who’d have imagined a drunken conversation about stars would’ve led to her and Captain Apollo making out like teenagers? And who’d have imagined an early morning walk to get rid of a leg cramp would’ve led to a run in with a drunken Apollo.
Oh well, she thought as they approached the collection of shrubs where he and Captain Thrace had been sleeping, at least she hadn’t done anything really stupid.
This time as she let go of Lee’s arm and watched him stumble over to lie down beside Kara Thrace, remove his tank tops, and shove them under his head as a pillow, Laura didn’t feel the same stab of jealousy. She also didn’t feel nearly as guilty about taking a last few minutes to admire his once again uncovered chest.
Smirking slightly at the thought of her unpredicted evening with Apollo, Laura turned to walk back to camp and heard Lee mumble sleepily under his breath, “Thanks for walking with me Laura.” Smiling and looking back at the couple one more time, Laura wondered exactly how much, if any, of this he’d remember in the morning.
As she leisurely walked back to camp, Laura couldn’t bring herself to regret what had happened, if nothing else she’d finally gotten the answer her long wondered question ‘what would it be like to kiss Captain Apollo’…and damn the answer was satisfying.
Besides, while he’d said that he loved Captain Thrace and he’d clearly spent the evening sleeping with her, he’d also told Laura that he thought she was beautiful and he had been the one who kissed her, whatever his inebriation level, so maybe her little crush hadn’t been that far off base after all.
Smiling as she saw the very beginnings of light creeping over the edge of the horizon as she neared the settlement, Laura knew that it was now time for her to simply file the events of the morning under ‘past adventures’ and move on.
There was certainly no need to tell Bill about it - she snorted as she considered the possible outcomes of that situation. Now she just honestly hoped that Lee didn’t get his heart broken. For as long as she’d known him he’d been far too idealistic for his own good, whereas Starbuck had always been more of the impulsive sort…she just hoped he knew what he was getting himself into when he declared his love for her.
But honestly, she thought as she rounded a corner and began to walk down the alleyway back to her tent - where she could already make out Bill sleeping soundly in the distance, it really wasn’t her issue to worry about. For now it was the morning after the groundbreaking festivities, and she was going to lie down and get an hour or two more shuteye before everyone else around the settlement began to stir…and who knows, maybe she could dream about a kiss or two in her sleep.
Title: Counting Stars
Rating: T
Pairings: Laura/Lee, Laura/Bill, Lee/Kara
Word Count: 4111
Disclaimer: Tragically not mine
Counting Stars:
Laura woke up in the middle of the night with a rock poking into her back and a cramp in her leg. Falling asleep under the stars on canvas sacks had seemed like a good idea hours earlier when she was still high and tipsy, but now one of the buttons on Bill’s uniform was digging into her cheek and the cramp in her leg wasn’t getting any better.
Deciding she ought to get up and move a bit if she didn’t want to be limping in the morning, Laura slowly eased her way off of Bill’s chest to stand up - wincing as she straightened her cramped leg. The night felt colder now that most of the partiers had found their way home, or passed out under a table somewhere, and she no longer had a blanket of intoxication to keep her warm.
Pulling her wrap tighter around her upper body Laura tried to decide the best direction to walk in order to stretch out her painfully tight leg muscle. Glancing down at Bill who was still snoring deeply she figured that she had at least a few hours before he so much as stirred, so at least that wasn’t a concern.
She looked back out into the darkness at the landscape illuminated only by starlight and the small sliver of the moon, and noticed all the discarded cups littering the dirt alleyways between the tents.
Shaking her head with a slight smile at the fun the colonists were having, and the fact that it was no longer her problem to organize a settlement wide clean up, Laura decided to walk out towards the edges of the settlement rather than deal with the aftermath of the festivities.
As she walked across the dirt and shrubs heading away from camp Laura knew that Bill would probably be annoyed at her for not waking him up…he’d be worrying about her safety away from the settlement at night…that she might fall and twist an ankle in the darkness, or that she’d run into some sort of dangerous wild animal, but she wasn’t worried.
Laura felt a sort of peace out here alone in the dark that she didn’t get at any other time. During the daylight Laura was constantly dealing with the roles of former-president, with all the odd looks and expectations that brought her, and New Caprican resident, with all the oh-so-exciting challenges and hardships that entailed.
Out here at night she could just be Laura…the Laura that she hadn’t been since the fall of the colonies, the one who enjoyed peaceful walks by herself, found starlight beautiful - something she hadn’t been able to enjoy while stranded in space - and loved the stillness that only the earliest hours of a new day could bring.
Resolving that she would simply return before Bill had the chance emerge from his stupor and notice she was missing, Laura continued on her path away from camp. She’d been walking for another fifteen minutes or so when she almost tripped across the pair of bodies that was hidden in a clump of shrubs.
Halting her step at the last minute so she didn’t deliver an unpleasant wake up call to the revelers in the form of a foot shaped bruise, Laura retreated slightly and turned to continue on her walk. Just as she was leaving, however, Laura heard a sleepy mumble from one of the pair and found herself involuntarily turning back around.
Even in a sleep-distorted mumble, Laura was certain she’d know that voice anywhere…after all they’d spent enough time sleeping in the same cramped space in the freezer ship when they were on the run, she could probably identify him from just his soft snore.
When she turned back to take a second look at the sleeping couple, Laura realized that she in fact recognized both of the entwined bodies. It was hard to mistake that swath of long, messy blonde hair…and if there had been any doubts as to the identity of Kara Thrace, her ridiculously muscled body - quite visible due to her current state of undress - would’ve quickly resolved them.
As her thoughts travelled this path, Laura’s brain caught up with her eyes and she realized that not only was Starbuck completely undressed, but so was her Captain Apollo…or Commander Adama as was his correct title these days.
Commander Adama…that certainly was a long way from the well-meaning, and sometimes even carefree, Captain Apollo she’d known so many months ago. Though if she was being completely honest with herself, she was definitely noticing that his well-muscled body wasn’t that different from the unused footage of the towel-covered Captain Apollo she’d seen from the Galactica documentary.
As Kara shifted and rested her cheek next to her hand on Apollo’s chest, Laura suddenly felt guilty for intruding on their moment. True it had originally been an accident, but the longer she stood watching them, the more Laura found herself envying Kara Thrace.
It wasn’t a feeling that Laura enjoyed. She’d always known that she had a slight crush on her handsome and gallant Captain Apollo, and she’d never really thought it would go anywhere…she was too busy, focused on the fleet, and had too short an expiration date to try and change anything, and he was all too young and rule-abiding.
She’d never gotten any signs that he reciprocated her crush, and she knew that as a hotshot pilot he was bound to have his pick of the women in the fleet, but to see first-hand his choice of a younger, blonder, and in-better-shape woman stung more than she would’ve anticipated.
Shaking her head at her own foolishness, Laura decided to give the couple their privacy and began to walk away from their little patch of shrubs. She’d only taken a couple small, tiptoeing steps when she heard the crunch of a branch under her boot. She flinched and immediately froze. She’d been trying so hard not to make any noise as she left the couple, but she’d somehow managed to miss the branch currently under her foot.
She heard shifting and a mumbled phrase from Apollo, but after a moment of silence she assumed he hadn’t fully woken and that it was safe for her to move again. As she lifted her foot to carefully continue moving away from the couple, the branch fell back to the ground in two pieces, making as much noise as the first snap, and she heard a “What, huh?” from Lee as he shifted again.
Flinching slightly, Laura knew it was too late to try and retreat any further…Lee Adama’s skills as a viper pilot gave him amazing reflexes, and now that he was awake there was no way he would miss the sounds of someone sneaking around his sleeping place. Shaking her head, Laura turned back to the couple and found herself looking straight into the wide-awake, glaring eyes of Lee Adama.
He startled slightly when he realized exactly who he was looking at, but he recovered fast enough to stop glaring at her like a threat and raised a finger to signal ‘one-moment’ as he started to feel around for his clothes.
Looking away from the couple and back up to the stars to give him a bit of privacy, Laura shook her head at the situation she’d gotten herself into. They hadn’t had a real conversation in who knows how long, and now they were about to have a chat about what she’d been doing sneaking around where he and his girlfriend were sleeping, and to top it all off he seemed to be having trouble finding his pants…well, this was going to be awkward.
Shaking her head and keeping her eyes glued to the starry landscape as he fumbled around for his clothing, Laura braced herself for the inevitably uncomfortable encounter that was about the take place.
It sounded like Lee had finally gotten himself in order…and as Laura glanced back at him, she saw him dressed in his uniform pants and tanks. He gently slipped his uniform jacket under Kara’s head as he eased himself out from under her and stood up. She had to keep herself from rolling her eyes…of course he would be chivalrous like that, why in the worlds would she suspect any different?
Walking quietly towards her so as not to wake Kara, Lee gently grasped Laura’s elbow and pointed to a small hill a little ways in the distance that didn’t seem to have too many noisy shrubs between here and there. Nodding her understanding to him, Laura started to slowly make her way to the hill away from the slumbering Kara with Lee walking - or perhaps more accurately trying to keep from stumbling…he appeared to still be slightly intoxicated from the party - to her left.
When they were finally far enough away that they could speak without worrying about waking Kara, Laura figured it was probably as good a time as any to try and diffuse the awkwardness she was feeling, “Look Lee I…”
Before she could get any further into her explanation of how stumbling across him and his naked partner had been a complete and total accident, however, Lee sat down on the slope and said, “Were you looking for me? Did something happen at the party?”
Somewhat confused by his train of thought Laura looked down at him and said, “What? No. Lee it’s shortly before four in the morning, the party died down a couple of hours ago…look, I was just out for a walk…”
Lee was staring at her rather intently and Laura was worried that for some reason he didn’t believe her. “Honestly Lee,” he was looking at her very intensely and she couldn’t understand what was wrong, “What? Would you prefer I call you Commander Adama? I know we haven’t really spoken in a while, but that seems a bit extreme. It’s not like I was trying to stumble across you and your naked girlfriend, I was just out for walk, so I don’t understand why you’re upset with me for that…”
“You look like starlight,” Lee said before she had the chance to finish her sentence. “I’m sorry? What?” was the only appropriate response Laura could think of as he continued to gaze up at her very intently. “Starlight” Lee repeated with a far away look on his face as he raised an arm and made a broad, sweeping gesture towards the sky.
“They’re all so pretty from down here, twinkling down on us with their white light. It’s got this kind of soft silvery glow…that’s what you’re skin looks like right now.” Clearly he was far drunker than she’d imagined.
“Ok Lee,” she said as she reached down to tug on his bicep to try and bring the Commander back to standing, “You’re clearly in no shape to be having this conversation right now, so why don’t we just leave it at I accidentally woke you when I saw you and Kara and now it’s time for you to get back to bed.”
“No seriously,” Lee said as he staggered back to a standing position, “You’re skin looks so pale and beautiful and it just makes that dress,” she was fairly certain he meant to brush his fingers across the sleeve of her wrap, but instead she felt more of a slow drunken pat to her shoulder, “look even better on you. It’s a nice color on you.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at him as it was the second time an Adama had used that exact same line on her in one day, “No, no.” Lee slurred, not realizing that she was laughing at him more than his words, “I really mean it. I was going to tell you earlier when I saw you that I thought you looked really nice, but then I ran into Kara and Sam, and there was some drinking and dancing, and time just sort of got away from me.”
“That it did” Laura laughed as he swayed a little bit in place, “Now why don’t we get you back to Captain Thrace before you fall and injure yourself out here.” “Kara’s not a Captain anymore,” was Lee’s brilliant response as they began slowly walking back to where she was sleeping, “She quit being a Captain when she decided to leave the Colonial fleet and move down here. She showed me the floor plans for her house.”
“Hmm,” was Laura’s only response as she tried to focus on the fact that she needed to help Apollo get safely back to his sleeping area rather than the fact that he was leaning on her and his incredibly toned arms were now bare and pressing against her side.
They’d made it a few more steps when Lee plopped down on the ground again and leaned back on his hands, “Do you ever just sit back and look at the stars, Laura?” Lee asked in such a dreamy voice that she had to wonder what else he and Starbuck had been taking earlier in the evening.
“Sometimes” she said softly as she sat down next to him. There was really no point in trying to move him again until he was ready to stand up on his own, since there was no way she was strong enough to drag him all the way back to where he’d been sleeping.
“I’ve never really taken the time to look when I’m in space,” Lee continued as he stared up at the sky, “There are a lot of things I never took the time to look at in space.” Glancing over at her where she was seated with her legs stretched out and her neck craned towards the sky Lee continued, “Like Kara…I never really told her how beautiful she was when we were together in space, but now down here I had the chance to tell her and we can be happy,”
“Hmm,” Laura responded a slight nod of her head as she tightened her wrap around her to keep out the night’s cold and wished he would talk about anything else. She might not have ever thought she’d really be with Lee Adama in any romantic sense beyond the occasional day dream, but she really didn’t want to sit here and listen to him go on about how much he loved another woman either.
It was, however, her fault that he was out here sitting in the cold, drunk, with no shirt on, rather than sleeping it off with Captain Thrace, so she wouldn’t feel right getting up and leaving him to fend for himself. “I mean there’s always been something there, but I just never took the chance to acknowledge it,” Lee was continuing as she decided to try and zone him out and just enjoy the look of these new constellations from the ground.
“I thought I was too late when she came back from the rescue mission with Sam, but now I think we really have a chance…” Laura got the feeling that he could probably go on all night if she let him, so with a sigh she turned to him and said, “I’m very happy for you Lee. Now it’s probably time to keep walking towards…”
“It’s a lot like you actually,” Lee interjected as though he hadn’t heard a word she’d said - which given his level of intoxication seemed probable - “We spent all that time together when we were in space and I never once told you how beautiful you were, and then it was just way too late after everything that happened.”
Despite feeling flattered that he’d admit he’d thought of her as beautiful…even if his inebriated state lessened the believability admission somewhat, Laura knew he was in no state to be revealing inner secrets or discussing whatever events he felt had happened between them in the last months. “Ok Lee,” she tried again to get him moving, as he again interrupted her, “It’s like these stars,”
Laura huffed a laugh at his fixation with the star analogy while he was drunk, “You just don’t appreciate them until you’re not seeing them up close everyday. I always knew you were pretty, and you’re lovely when you’re sleeping peacefully…like all those times we were on the run on the freezer ship,” she wondered just how drunk he was and if he’d have any recollection at all of this conversation in the morning, “but you never really miss the stars until they’re gone.”
Laughing again at how he’d slipped back into the star analogy without even managing to finish his sentence, Laura missed him moving closer. “But really, it’s true. It’s like you’re laugh…I never realized how much I loved your laugh until I wasn’t spending time with you anymore.”
When did he get so close? Laura was surprised to see him looking at her from only a few inches away, “And you’re hair,” Lee said as he lifted a hand to run it through her hair and push the strands behind her ear, “it looked pretty on the ships, but down here in natural light it’s so much…better.”
“Lee,” Laura said as he began to stroke her cheek with the thumb of the hand whose fingers were entwined in her hair, “You’re not thinking clearly. You can’t even find the proper word to try and describe my hair, which is something that you’d never do in the first place if you were sober, so maybe this isn’t the best time to…”
And then he was kissing her. Not the soft, tentative kiss she’d always imagined Captain Apollo would begin with if he were ever to make a move, but the confident, sensual kind of kiss that gave her butterflies in her stomach. She knew it was wrong to let him kiss her in this state, knew that she should stop him as his hands slid to cup her neck and her hip, but the languid slide of his tongue against hers just felt too good to think about anything else.
He continued to kiss her, and soon she found herself sliding beneath him as one of his hands came to undo the red wrap she’d pulled around her body earlier. Her hands were sliding through his hair and down the exposed skin of his muscular arms as one of his slid under her tank top. She moaned into the kiss when she felt his thumb brush against her nipple, and gasped as he broke the kiss to nibble his way down her neck.
She was in heaven. It had been far too long since anyone had touched her like this…she’d hoped that Bill might earlier this evening, but instead he’d passed out on the canvas behind her tent. Bill. Lee. Oh Gods, this was all going far too fast.
What was she thinking, Lee was too drunk to be making any sort of decision like this, and they had far too many issues between them to let some kissing - alright some amazingly hot kissing - lead them to do something stupid that they’d both regret in the morning.
Grabbing his wrist to remove his hand from beneath her shirt and pushing at his shoulder to get some space Laura said, “Lee. Lee!” He slowly looked up at her with swollen lips and a bleary expression, releasing his wrist and scooting back she went on, “We can’t do this Lee. You’re far too drunk, and I’m…well I don’t know exactly what I am, but I know I’m confused and I’m not thinking clearly.”
Standing up to further emphasize to both herself and to him that this wasn’t going to go any further she continued, “It’s that’s odd witching hour of the morning when a lot of really stupid ideas seem like good ones and then you wake up the next morning in a married man’s bed wondering how the hell you got there…”
Stopping herself as she realized that she was merely ranting at herself aloud and that Lee was too drunk to do anything other than slowly nod his head as if he was following her, Laura sighed, “The point is, this is a bad decision and neither of us would be very happy with it in the morning, no matter how much we might like the idea right now.”
Extending her hand to help him up off the ground so they could continue on the way back to where he’d been sleeping, Laura said, more for her own benefit than for his, “Besides didn’t you just tell me that you’ve been wanting to tell Kara how beautiful she is for a long time and that now you think you ‘really have the chance to be together’?”
“I do love Kara.” Lee said with a decisive nod as he accepted her hand and stood up, and Laura wondered if he even remembered any of what they’d been doing just a couple minutes ago, “I Love Kara Thrace!” Lee yelled rather loudly causing Laura to laugh and shake her head at him as she tried to get him to quiet down, “Shh! Lee, be quiet or you’ll wake her up.”
“Right” he said as he stumbled slightly and she had to quickly reach out and grab his arm to steady him. “Ok Lee,” she said as if talking to one of her younger students, “We’re going to walk very slowly the rest of the way back, alright?”
“Alright” he said with a slight yawn as he continued to lean on her as they walked. Taking a deep breath to try and calm the hormones coursing through her body Laura looked up at the sky and shook her head, who’d have imagined a drunken conversation about stars would’ve led to her and Captain Apollo making out like teenagers? And who’d have imagined an early morning walk to get rid of a leg cramp would’ve led to a run in with a drunken Apollo.
Oh well, she thought as they approached the collection of shrubs where he and Captain Thrace had been sleeping, at least she hadn’t done anything really stupid.
This time as she let go of Lee’s arm and watched him stumble over to lie down beside Kara Thrace, remove his tank tops, and shove them under his head as a pillow, Laura didn’t feel the same stab of jealousy. She also didn’t feel nearly as guilty about taking a last few minutes to admire his once again uncovered chest.
Smirking slightly at the thought of her unpredicted evening with Apollo, Laura turned to walk back to camp and heard Lee mumble sleepily under his breath, “Thanks for walking with me Laura.” Smiling and looking back at the couple one more time, Laura wondered exactly how much, if any, of this he’d remember in the morning.
As she leisurely walked back to camp, Laura couldn’t bring herself to regret what had happened, if nothing else she’d finally gotten the answer her long wondered question ‘what would it be like to kiss Captain Apollo’…and damn the answer was satisfying.
Besides, while he’d said that he loved Captain Thrace and he’d clearly spent the evening sleeping with her, he’d also told Laura that he thought she was beautiful and he had been the one who kissed her, whatever his inebriation level, so maybe her little crush hadn’t been that far off base after all.
Smiling as she saw the very beginnings of light creeping over the edge of the horizon as she neared the settlement, Laura knew that it was now time for her to simply file the events of the morning under ‘past adventures’ and move on.
There was certainly no need to tell Bill about it - she snorted as she considered the possible outcomes of that situation. Now she just honestly hoped that Lee didn’t get his heart broken. For as long as she’d known him he’d been far too idealistic for his own good, whereas Starbuck had always been more of the impulsive sort…she just hoped he knew what he was getting himself into when he declared his love for her.
But honestly, she thought as she rounded a corner and began to walk down the alleyway back to her tent - where she could already make out Bill sleeping soundly in the distance, it really wasn’t her issue to worry about. For now it was the morning after the groundbreaking festivities, and she was going to lie down and get an hour or two more shuteye before everyone else around the settlement began to stir…and who knows, maybe she could dream about a kiss or two in her sleep.