The Princess and The Frog: Galactica Version 1.0
Gift fic for safenthecity, who wanted some fluffy Gaeta/Hoshi.
Damn Dee for being the one to draw duty tonight. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy being around Hera, he just wasn’t particularly great with kids. Which always made babysitting interesting.
“I’m running out of ideas,” Louis whispered in his ear, after Hera had announced she was done coloring. “You got anything?”
“I look like some kind of expert to you?” Felix whispered back. “You’re the one who had younger siblings.”
“Who were very easily placated by reading fairy tales to them.”
“There’s an idea. You know any good ones?” asked Felix.
“Fairy tales aren’t any fun without pictures. And my hand is about to fall off from all that coloring. If she had one in a book…” Felix looked at the book collection stacked near the bed. A couple tech manuals, a very worn copy of Goodnight, Luna, an equally worn copy of The Runaway Daggit, and what may or may not have been the Kama Sutra. He really hoped Helo hadn’t been reading that one to Hera.
“Looks like that idea’s out.”
But it was too late. Hera had overheard, and like any three year old, was now insanely curious. “What’s a fairy tale? Is it a story? I wanna hear a story! Pleeeeease?”
Felix sighed, and let Louis be the one to let her down gently. “We don’t have any books to tell the story from, Hera,” he said.
“But you can make pretend, like Daddy does!” Hera exclaimed eagerly.
“Well,” said Louis, giving Felix one of his ‘you are not backing out now upon penalty of death’ looks. “I suppose we could. Felix and I aren’t as good at making pretend as your daddy though. You’re going to have to tell us if we’re not doing it right, okay?”
“Okay,” said Hera with a big grin.
Louis looked at Felix expectantly. “Your idea, you pick the story,” Felix told him. “Besides, the only fairy tale I remember is The Frog Prince, and only because I interrupted my mother to explain the scientific implausibility of a talking frog.”
“I remember that one too,” said Louis. “But because frogs were slimy and drove away girls, therefore cool.”
“Early dating strategy?” asked Felix with a smirk.
It looked like Louis was about to smack him, but had to settle for glaring instead, so as not to be a bad influence.
“By the way, Louis, I make a terrible princess.”
“Can I hear the story now?” asked Hera, who had, during their bantering, hopped up onto the bed, and now sat diligently with her hands folded in her lap.
Louis quit glaring at Felix and turned his attention to Hera. “Sure you can.” Louis cleared his throat and began telling the story. “Once upon a time, there a princess, that’s me-“
“You don’t look like a princess,” said Hera.
“Well, that’s because I’m not a princess,” replied Louis, lapsing out of story mode. “We’re pretending, remember?”
“But the story’s better if you look like a princess,” said Hera, flashing Louis a mischievous grin. Felix made a mental note to ask Sharon and Helo about that one later.
“The story’s better huh? Okay…” Louis began looking around the room for something that looked like it would suffice for princess wear. Felix thought maybe something metallic would do as a tiara, but Louis’ eyes came to rest on something else. “Felix, can you hand me that piece of pink construction paper?” Felix did so mildly suspiciously, suddenly questioning his boyfriend’s sanity. ‘Siblings,’ Louis lipped to him. Louis took the paper, rolled it into a cone, tore a piece of tape from a nearby dispenser, and taped the cone in place. He then daintily set the cone on top of his head.
“How’s that?” he asked. Felix tried to suppress a laugh, but failed.
“Okay!” said Hera.
“Okay. Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived in a big castle.” Louis waved his arms in a sweeping dramatic motion. “With a nearby pond. One day, the princess went out to the pond-“
“Why?” asked Hera.
“Why what?”
“Why did the princess go to the pond?” Felix began to wonder if this was such a good idea.
“Oh. Because she liked to watch the fish. So one day the princess went to the pond and she saw a frog sitting there.”
The room was silent for about a minute. “Felix, that’s you,” said Louis.
“Oh. Ribbit.”
“Oh come on Felix,” Louis chastised. “That wasn’t very enthusiastic.”
“Yeah,” Hera chimed in. “That wasn’t en…thu-sass-tic.” Felix highly doubted she knew what the word meant, but knew better than to ask.
“Okay okay,” Felix agreed. It didn’t look like there was any backing out now. Especially with Louis wearing a pink hat on his head. Felix crouched down on the floor. “Ribbit,” he croaked a little more convincingly. If only the Admiral could see them now.
“Oh!” exclaimed Louis in a high pitched voice. “It’s a frog! Hello little frog!” Louis did a terrible impression of a woman’s voice. It made the situation that much more amusing.
“Um,” said Felix. “Ribbit.”
Louis paused, then leaned down towards Felix. “I don’t remember what comes next,” he whispered.
“She drops a ball in the water,” Felix whispered back.
“Thanks.” Louis stood back up, causing the pink cone to fall off his head.
“You dropped your hat,” Hera pointed out to him.
Louis looked at the pink cone on the floor, completely aware that it had fallen off, but playing along for Hera’s sake. “So I did,” he said, picking the cone off the floor and setting it back atop his head. “There. So, the princess had brought a ball with her to the pond-“
“A Pyramid ball?” asked Hera.
“Yeah,” agreed Louis enthusiastically. “A Pyramid ball.”
Felix raised an eyebrow. His recollection of the story may not have been the greatest, but he was pretty sure there were no Pyramid balls in the original.
Louis looked at the stack of construction paper he’d grabbed the pink sheet from, took another piece, and crumpled it up. “She tossed the ball up and down-“ Louis tossed the crumpled piece of paper in the air- “but she forgot to catch it, and the ball fell in the water.” Louis tossed the paper in the air again and let it fall at Felix’s feet.
“Oh no!” Louis cried in his terrible girl voice, causing Felix to let out a snort. “My ball! Whatever will I do?”
Felix eyed the paper “ball”, then picked it up, following along what he was pretty sure was the plot. “Here you go princess,” he said, handing it to Louis.
“Oh hooray!” Louis said, throwing his arms in the air and knocking off his princess hat in the process. Then, Louis began skipping towards the door. Felix tried once again not to laugh at him, and once again, failed.
“She didn’t say thank you,” chided Hera.
“That’s right, she didn’t. And when the princess realized that she forgot to say thank you, she felt really bad and went back to the pond to tell the frog she was sorry.” Louis skipped back over to Felix, picking up his hat on the way. “Oh frog,” he said in his high-pitched voice. “I’m sorry I forgot to say thank you for rescuing my ball. How can I ever repay you?”
“Well, um,” Felix began. Louis glared at him, an indication that he needed to get more “in character.” Felix supposed, that since he wasn’t the one who had to wear the princess hat, that it wouldn’t be so bad to play it up a little. “Ribbit. You see, princess,” he croaked out, in a raspy voice that was quite possibly even worse than Louis’ princess voice, “I am not really a frog, but a prince. I was cursed by an evil witch, and only the kiss of a beautiful princess, such as yourself, could turn me into a prince again.”
“Well gosh, I don’t know,” said Louis. “Wouldn’t it be all slimy?”
“You owe me princess. Pucker up.” Felix stuck out his lips, making obnoxious smooching sounds. The more Felix thought about it, this play idea was turning out to be kind of fun.
“Well okay,” replied Louis. Louis held onto his hat with one hand to prevent it from falling off yet again and bent down to kiss Felix. Felix had intended it to be a sloppy “frog” kiss, but the taste of Louis’ lips on his own drew him in closer. There was something addicting about the taste of Louis, something-
“Ewwwwwwww,” declared Hera. “Kissing is gross!”
“Kissing isn’t gross,” said Louis. “I bet you’re your mommy and daddy kiss all the time.”
“It’s gross,” said Hera.
“Well, gross or not, the frog, after being kissed by the princess, turned out to be a handsome prince,” Louis narrated. Felix sprang up from the floor, puffed out his chest, and took his best “noble prince” stance.
Just then, Felix heard the door open. “Hey guys, how was…do I want to know what’s going on here?” asked Helo, entering the room. Sharon followed behind him, bursting out laughing upon seeing Louis with a pink cone on his head.
“Uncle Felix and Uncle Louis are telling me a story!” Hera declared proudly to her parents. “How does it end?” she asked Louis.
“Oh. Um,” said Louis, now flustered by the sight of Sharon still laughing at him. “The princess took the prince back to her castle, and the two of them lived happily ever after. The end.”
“I take it you’re the uh, princess?” Helo asked, gesturing towards Louis.
“Felix made me,” Louis replied.
“It was his idea,” said Felix, pointing at Louis.
“Uh huh,” said Helo suspiciously. “Well, thank guys. Hera, say goodbye to Felix and Louis.” Sharon had managed to contain her laughter now. Barely. Felix made a mental note to avoid any and all public places for the next few days.
“Bye!” exclaimed Hera. “Daddy, can you tell me another one?”
When they’d shut the door, Felix turned to Louis. “We’re not going to hear the end of this, you know that, right?”
Louis shrugged. “It was fun. Don’t lie to me, I know you were enjoying yourself towards the end.”
“Well okay. I guess it was. Although..” Felix paused. “I seem to remember the princess having to sleep with the frog before he turned into a prince?”
“I censured it,” replied Louis. The two of them began walking down the hall back to the racks. “You know,” Louis said a moment later. “There’s no reason why we can’t complete the story on our own.” Louis grinned.
“Well in that case,” said Felix with a smirk. “Take me to bed...princess.”
Damn Dee for being the one to draw duty tonight. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy being around Hera, he just wasn’t particularly great with kids. Which always made babysitting interesting.
“I’m running out of ideas,” Louis whispered in his ear, after Hera had announced she was done coloring. “You got anything?”
“I look like some kind of expert to you?” Felix whispered back. “You’re the one who had younger siblings.”
“Who were very easily placated by reading fairy tales to them.”
“There’s an idea. You know any good ones?” asked Felix.
“Fairy tales aren’t any fun without pictures. And my hand is about to fall off from all that coloring. If she had one in a book…” Felix looked at the book collection stacked near the bed. A couple tech manuals, a very worn copy of Goodnight, Luna, an equally worn copy of The Runaway Daggit, and what may or may not have been the Kama Sutra. He really hoped Helo hadn’t been reading that one to Hera.
“Looks like that idea’s out.”
But it was too late. Hera had overheard, and like any three year old, was now insanely curious. “What’s a fairy tale? Is it a story? I wanna hear a story! Pleeeeease?”
Felix sighed, and let Louis be the one to let her down gently. “We don’t have any books to tell the story from, Hera,” he said.
“But you can make pretend, like Daddy does!” Hera exclaimed eagerly.
“Well,” said Louis, giving Felix one of his ‘you are not backing out now upon penalty of death’ looks. “I suppose we could. Felix and I aren’t as good at making pretend as your daddy though. You’re going to have to tell us if we’re not doing it right, okay?”
“Okay,” said Hera with a big grin.
Louis looked at Felix expectantly. “Your idea, you pick the story,” Felix told him. “Besides, the only fairy tale I remember is The Frog Prince, and only because I interrupted my mother to explain the scientific implausibility of a talking frog.”
“I remember that one too,” said Louis. “But because frogs were slimy and drove away girls, therefore cool.”
“Early dating strategy?” asked Felix with a smirk.
It looked like Louis was about to smack him, but had to settle for glaring instead, so as not to be a bad influence.
“By the way, Louis, I make a terrible princess.”
“Can I hear the story now?” asked Hera, who had, during their bantering, hopped up onto the bed, and now sat diligently with her hands folded in her lap.
Louis quit glaring at Felix and turned his attention to Hera. “Sure you can.” Louis cleared his throat and began telling the story. “Once upon a time, there a princess, that’s me-“
“You don’t look like a princess,” said Hera.
“Well, that’s because I’m not a princess,” replied Louis, lapsing out of story mode. “We’re pretending, remember?”
“But the story’s better if you look like a princess,” said Hera, flashing Louis a mischievous grin. Felix made a mental note to ask Sharon and Helo about that one later.
“The story’s better huh? Okay…” Louis began looking around the room for something that looked like it would suffice for princess wear. Felix thought maybe something metallic would do as a tiara, but Louis’ eyes came to rest on something else. “Felix, can you hand me that piece of pink construction paper?” Felix did so mildly suspiciously, suddenly questioning his boyfriend’s sanity. ‘Siblings,’ Louis lipped to him. Louis took the paper, rolled it into a cone, tore a piece of tape from a nearby dispenser, and taped the cone in place. He then daintily set the cone on top of his head.
“How’s that?” he asked. Felix tried to suppress a laugh, but failed.
“Okay!” said Hera.
“Okay. Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived in a big castle.” Louis waved his arms in a sweeping dramatic motion. “With a nearby pond. One day, the princess went out to the pond-“
“Why?” asked Hera.
“Why what?”
“Why did the princess go to the pond?” Felix began to wonder if this was such a good idea.
“Oh. Because she liked to watch the fish. So one day the princess went to the pond and she saw a frog sitting there.”
The room was silent for about a minute. “Felix, that’s you,” said Louis.
“Oh. Ribbit.”
“Oh come on Felix,” Louis chastised. “That wasn’t very enthusiastic.”
“Yeah,” Hera chimed in. “That wasn’t en…thu-sass-tic.” Felix highly doubted she knew what the word meant, but knew better than to ask.
“Okay okay,” Felix agreed. It didn’t look like there was any backing out now. Especially with Louis wearing a pink hat on his head. Felix crouched down on the floor. “Ribbit,” he croaked a little more convincingly. If only the Admiral could see them now.
“Oh!” exclaimed Louis in a high pitched voice. “It’s a frog! Hello little frog!” Louis did a terrible impression of a woman’s voice. It made the situation that much more amusing.
“Um,” said Felix. “Ribbit.”
Louis paused, then leaned down towards Felix. “I don’t remember what comes next,” he whispered.
“She drops a ball in the water,” Felix whispered back.
“Thanks.” Louis stood back up, causing the pink cone to fall off his head.
“You dropped your hat,” Hera pointed out to him.
Louis looked at the pink cone on the floor, completely aware that it had fallen off, but playing along for Hera’s sake. “So I did,” he said, picking the cone off the floor and setting it back atop his head. “There. So, the princess had brought a ball with her to the pond-“
“A Pyramid ball?” asked Hera.
“Yeah,” agreed Louis enthusiastically. “A Pyramid ball.”
Felix raised an eyebrow. His recollection of the story may not have been the greatest, but he was pretty sure there were no Pyramid balls in the original.
Louis looked at the stack of construction paper he’d grabbed the pink sheet from, took another piece, and crumpled it up. “She tossed the ball up and down-“ Louis tossed the crumpled piece of paper in the air- “but she forgot to catch it, and the ball fell in the water.” Louis tossed the paper in the air again and let it fall at Felix’s feet.
“Oh no!” Louis cried in his terrible girl voice, causing Felix to let out a snort. “My ball! Whatever will I do?”
Felix eyed the paper “ball”, then picked it up, following along what he was pretty sure was the plot. “Here you go princess,” he said, handing it to Louis.
“Oh hooray!” Louis said, throwing his arms in the air and knocking off his princess hat in the process. Then, Louis began skipping towards the door. Felix tried once again not to laugh at him, and once again, failed.
“She didn’t say thank you,” chided Hera.
“That’s right, she didn’t. And when the princess realized that she forgot to say thank you, she felt really bad and went back to the pond to tell the frog she was sorry.” Louis skipped back over to Felix, picking up his hat on the way. “Oh frog,” he said in his high-pitched voice. “I’m sorry I forgot to say thank you for rescuing my ball. How can I ever repay you?”
“Well, um,” Felix began. Louis glared at him, an indication that he needed to get more “in character.” Felix supposed, that since he wasn’t the one who had to wear the princess hat, that it wouldn’t be so bad to play it up a little. “Ribbit. You see, princess,” he croaked out, in a raspy voice that was quite possibly even worse than Louis’ princess voice, “I am not really a frog, but a prince. I was cursed by an evil witch, and only the kiss of a beautiful princess, such as yourself, could turn me into a prince again.”
“Well gosh, I don’t know,” said Louis. “Wouldn’t it be all slimy?”
“You owe me princess. Pucker up.” Felix stuck out his lips, making obnoxious smooching sounds. The more Felix thought about it, this play idea was turning out to be kind of fun.
“Well okay,” replied Louis. Louis held onto his hat with one hand to prevent it from falling off yet again and bent down to kiss Felix. Felix had intended it to be a sloppy “frog” kiss, but the taste of Louis’ lips on his own drew him in closer. There was something addicting about the taste of Louis, something-
“Ewwwwwwww,” declared Hera. “Kissing is gross!”
“Kissing isn’t gross,” said Louis. “I bet you’re your mommy and daddy kiss all the time.”
“It’s gross,” said Hera.
“Well, gross or not, the frog, after being kissed by the princess, turned out to be a handsome prince,” Louis narrated. Felix sprang up from the floor, puffed out his chest, and took his best “noble prince” stance.
Just then, Felix heard the door open. “Hey guys, how was…do I want to know what’s going on here?” asked Helo, entering the room. Sharon followed behind him, bursting out laughing upon seeing Louis with a pink cone on his head.
“Uncle Felix and Uncle Louis are telling me a story!” Hera declared proudly to her parents. “How does it end?” she asked Louis.
“Oh. Um,” said Louis, now flustered by the sight of Sharon still laughing at him. “The princess took the prince back to her castle, and the two of them lived happily ever after. The end.”
“I take it you’re the uh, princess?” Helo asked, gesturing towards Louis.
“Felix made me,” Louis replied.
“It was his idea,” said Felix, pointing at Louis.
“Uh huh,” said Helo suspiciously. “Well, thank guys. Hera, say goodbye to Felix and Louis.” Sharon had managed to contain her laughter now. Barely. Felix made a mental note to avoid any and all public places for the next few days.
“Bye!” exclaimed Hera. “Daddy, can you tell me another one?”
When they’d shut the door, Felix turned to Louis. “We’re not going to hear the end of this, you know that, right?”
Louis shrugged. “It was fun. Don’t lie to me, I know you were enjoying yourself towards the end.”
“Well okay. I guess it was. Although..” Felix paused. “I seem to remember the princess having to sleep with the frog before he turned into a prince?”
“I censured it,” replied Louis. The two of them began walking down the hall back to the racks. “You know,” Louis said a moment later. “There’s no reason why we can’t complete the story on our own.” Louis grinned.
“Well in that case,” said Felix with a smirk. “Take me to bed...princess.”