Pilot!Fic Round Robin #2: The Rumor
Title: The Rumor
Authors: somewhereapart, workerbee73, jenrosebsg, uberscribbler, helikedmyshoes, sci_fi_shipper, cynicalshadows, bonita_chica71
Spoilers: Season two AU, I guess
Rating: PG13
Summary: Lee and Kara have a secret, and a problem.
Author's Note: Written for the "Where the hell is everybody??" Pilot!Fic Round Robin.
"For frak's sake, what now?" Lee grumbled, flinging an arm over his eyes to block the light as Kara yanked back the curtain of his rack and plunked herself down on the edge.
"We have a problem," Kara began, ignoring the fact that he was still half asleep.
"Don't we always?" Lee sighed, lifting his arm just enough to squint at her.
Kara ignored him and went on. "Have you heard the newest rumors?"
"The ones about the President having a demigod love child, or about you going down on Racetrack in the showers, or me 'spearing' Helo with my 'arrow'?
"I went down on Racetrack in the showers? Was I any good?" Kara asked with a smirk.
Lee just rolled his eyes. "You actually woke me up for this?"
"No... not this," she began hesitatly, chewing on the edge of her lip. "It's about what happened a few years ago.... at the academy," she finished quietly.
She didn't have to say anymore; Lee knew exactly what she was talking about. Four years, six months and twenty-three days later and he could still remember every single second.
"Who's been talking about that?" Lee asked, sitting up finally so he could drop his voice to a whisper.
"More like who isn't!" Kara hissed. "I overheard Hot Dog and Kat talking about it, and if they know, everyone knows."
"I'm not even going to ask how those two found out," Lee sighed. "Have they gone into any *detail*? The sort that..."
"The, um, tattoo was mentioned." Kara looked especially aggrieved at this point.
"The tattoo?" Lee sputtered. "Frak!"
"Wait," he hissed, a burst of insane optimism hitting him. "*Both* of them?"
"At least one of them, Lee. You know, you can't even see mine, unless, well, you know. It's on my inner thigh, for frak's sake!"
"And just how many here have gotten a look at your inner thigh, Kara?" Lee questioned. "I mean, since that night?"
"I don't know the exact number offhand, but I'm sure I wrote it down in my diary," Kara snapped, pissed at what he was insinuating.
Lee gasped in horror. "You keep a diary?!?"
He shook his head clear and said "Okay, okay. Never mind. Did they get the, um, you know...description right?"
"I don't know, Lee. Why don't you take a look." Her tone was annoyed.
"Trust me, Kara, I *know* what it looks like." He'd been dreaming of the damned thing at regular intervals over the last several years. "I just want to confirme *they* don't know everything."
"You're sure you don't need a reminder, Apollo?" She trailed a finger down his chest and licked her lips.
"Um before I answer..." Kara drawled. "Where'd you get yours?"
"Kara..."
"*Remind* me, Lee," she breathed into his ear.
Lee stared at her for a moment. He hooked his thumbs into his shorts and pulled them down on one side, revealing black ink.
Kara traced the dark outline, her fingers were close and dangerous.
"I forgot..." she whispered, sounding almost reverent in the saying. "Just how frakking...*ugly*...that design is."
Lee burst out laughing, "I know, Kara. It really is. We were young, you know?"
"Now, what's this rumor, anyway?" He asked, batting her hand away.
"The rumor is that it didn't end there." She gave him a significant look.
Lee's mouth formed a little O. "It almost didn't end there." He held her eyes.
She cocks a brow, a challenge in her eyes. "And who's fault was that, Captain?"
Lee feigns shock. "And somehow it didn't matter that you'd drunk enough ambrosia to kill a caprican pony?"
"You still jealous that I can hold my liquor better than you?" she asks with a mischievous wink. "But seriously, Apollo, blame me all you want because we both know who really started things that night."
Lee sighed and shook his head. "Look, do we actually, really need to deal with this at all?" His voice took on a pleading tone. "Can't we ignore it and just let it go away?"
"Aww! Is little Leland afraid to take on a little gossip?" Kara all but coos at him.
That was it. He was done. Lee had reached the end of his patience.
She can tell the second she's pushed him too far. It's in the set of his jaw and the hardness around his eyes. The CAG is so about to pull rank.
"Frak, Kara" Lee faultered. "Why is it that you always feel the need to push my buttons!?" "You sure like opening up old wounds don't you?"
Before she could utter a response she heard someone entering the bunkroom. Lee glanced toward the door, clearly the discussion was over. "Lt. Thrace, didn't Chief Tyrol need you for viper repairs or something? Dismissed."
THE NEXT DAY:
Lee figured that, before he even tried to talk to Kara again, he'd better get a clear idea about these "rumors" that had her so aflutter. At least that way he'd know how much everyone else knew (or *thought* they knew), and could better formulate a plan from there.
Unfortunately, no-one seemed in a talkative mood that morning.
Whenever he entered a room, all conversation seemed to abruptly halt. That was not a good sign. Maybe Kara was right to be worried.
Unfortunately, that sudden and uncomfortable silence was making it impossible for him to chase down the exact content of these 'rumors'. Without knowing that, Lee was flying blind with Kara (who was doubtless still pissed with him).
Speaking of whom...
Kara enters the mess and hesitates for only a fraction of a second before she breezes past him without a word, like he isn't standing there holding his breakfast tray with a welcoming smile on his face.
Yeah, she was definitely still pissed. Frak.
Well, that didn't work- Lee thought to himself.
Gods dammit, this dance had to stop and they had to talk, if only there was a way he could get Kara alone.
As if on cue, Lee heard the fimiliar siren and Gaeta's booming voice with the announcement of 'Action Stations' being called.
Personal problems would have to wait, survival came first.
He ditches his tray and takes off at a run and it only takes a couple seconds before Kara is sprinting at his side.
"Who needs breakfast when there are toasters to be shot, right Apollo?" she grins in full Starbuck mode when he glances at her out of the corner of his eye.
The battle, unfortunately, doesn't last that long. A small swarm of Raiders escorting a couple Heavies trying to crash onto 'Galactica'; just another half-assed boarding attack. The toasters must have been running short on tactics.
Needless to say, between Apollo and Starbuck, it was over quickly. Not that the rest of the pilots didn't contribute, but Starbuck was a force of nature that morning. A Fury of legend, and she tore through Raiders without hesitation or error. But the fact none of her kills included any trademark banter or cat-calls made the whole thing all the more unnerving.
Ironically, it was only when they landed that Lee got his first inkling of what had Kara so upset. He was passing Hot Dog's plan when he overhead Kat's voice saying "You sure she's got him tagged?"
"Totally," Kat smirks. "I hear that he's got 'Property of Starbuck' inked on him somewhere that would be pretty hard to miss if you were about to frak. And get this! She's got one too! They like match."
"So...why ain't we seen it before?" Trust Costanza to prove, once again, he wasn't nearly as dense as he pretended.
"I don't know," Kat admits, and Lee cannot help but let out a small sigh of relief. His reprieve is short lived however because the next words out of her mouth are worse than the truth. "Maybe you can only see it when he's at full salute."
Hot Dog's mouth drops open. "Holy frak! That would frakking hurt!" He pauses. "Wait, that can't be true. Apollo? Tattooing the arrow? No frakking way." Hot Dog rolls his eyes.
Kat shrugs. "Maybe he was really drunk," she muses aloud. Then she breaks into a conspiratorial grin. "Or maybe Starbuck offered to kiss it better!"
Hot Dog guffaws. "Yeah, I knew the two of them frakked before." Kat's retort is interrupted when she notices Apollo nearby. She gives him an appraising stare and drags her eyes pointedly down to his groin. When she meets his eyes, she smirks and steers Hot Dog away.
Lee simply stood there, mind racing through scenarios and measuring probability chains of just how far this...rumor...might have spread.
The results were anything but encouraging, and it took no real imagination to project the likely consequences once the volume of recipients reached 'critical mass' and his father finally heard it.
Probably just as well Kara was going to kill him, likely as not *long* before his father could.
Lee's anxiety increases as he walked down the corridor to his rack, enduring sidelong glances, hushed giggles and pointed stares at his crotch. He grips his hands into fists.
"Enjoying being ogled like a circus freak Captain?" Kara inquires in a scathing tone as he enters the bunk room.
Lee ignores her, ferociously jamming his clothes into his locker. She stands there, hands on hips, waiting for a response.
After several seconds of his silence, Kara sighs in disgust. "Oh I see how it is. You could care less yesterday when the rumor centered more on me, but now that it's shifted focus onto you, you're gonna play the martyr? This isn't a time to stew, Sir. It is a time to be proactive and get to the bottom of this!"
She narrows her eyes then, a taunting gleam reflected in those hazel depths. "Unless you want everyone to think you're my property?"
"In your dreams, Starbuck," Apollo shot back. "And from what I hear, *your* ink is across your ass."
He practically slammed his locker shut.
"As for 'getting to the bottom of this', quote unquote?" He turned and faced her for the first time that morning. "I'm all ears as to how we can do *anything* to quell this little tidbit by now."
"Across my ass?" she repeats. "How unoriginal. I'm disappointed."
He shoots her a look of incredulity. "Only you would be upset that a rumor wasn't more scandalous, Kara."
"What?" she snaps back. "At least people think your dick is long enough to write 'property of Starbuck' on it!"
Lee winced, then winced again when Kara saw fit to ask "What, exactly, is supposed to be tattooed on my ass anyway?"
Lee gives her a measured look, "Well, Captain, I believe the rumor is 'Property of Apollo.' Which, clearly, could not be further from the truth." He snorts and brushes past her with mounting frustration.
Her fingers close over his arm, stopping him in his tracks, and forcing him to look at her. Her expression is just shy of furious.
"What is your godsdamn problem? We've both been dragged into this mess. I didn't tell anyone about the tattoos and it isn't like it's my fault people think we've frakked! This is a battlestar Sir. Gossip abounds. Or maybe that's the problem. Maybe you're just worried that my reputation is going to sully yours."
"Starbuck," he sputters. "Kara, it's not like that." He doesn't know how to explain the rush of conflicted feelings he has when he think about that night. Things hadn't worked out the way he'd wanted them to -- and it was his fault. She'd dared him to get that frakking tattoo and he'd stupidly agreed. At least he insisted that she get one, too. The flirtations that night could have led to more, but too much ambrosia made it feel cheap and he couldn't do it. His feelings for her, even then, were too strong.
"Then what is it like Lee? Huh? Enlighten me," she demands, and if he didn't know her so well, we wouldn't be able to catch the thread of insecurity hidden behind her Starbuck glare.
Lee turned fully to face her. His voice caught in his throat. "Kara, the tattoos, they...uh...mean a lot to me. I hate that other people know about them, too" He couldn't meet her eyes. "I thought it was something just between us." His words hung in the air.
"Yeah?" she blurts out before she can quell the impulse, and inwardly she curses herself for sounding so frakking needy. She isn't needy, godsdamnit! She's Starbuck, scourge of the cylon raider.
Her tone surprises him and he looks up. "Yeah, Kara." He holds her eyes and feels something pass between them. He can feel her desire to bolt, the tension she holds in her shoulders and the way she chews her lip.
She can't hold his gaze. Something in it stirs something in her and it frakking terrifies her, makes her want to run.
"Oh," she breathes looking away, looking anywhere but at him.
With his heart thudding in his chest, Lee puts a finger under her chin and tips her head up to look at him. He sees the fear now and the longing. He waits a beat then bends down to kiss her.
His lips touch hers and it's like that night at the academy years ago, only this time she isn't drunk and neither is he and they can't use the excuse of too much ambrosia for why they are suddenly entangled in each other's embrace.
Only this time, Lee doesn't intend to let the moment slip away.
"Dog the hatch," he manages to gasp into her mouth, and she pulls back just enough for him to see the desire blazing in her eyes.
"What about the - "
"Frak the rumors Kara. Just dog the damned hatch."
And for probably the first time in their entire relationship, she obeys his order without question.
----
Outside in the hallway, Helo smirks as Hot Dog tries to open the hatch and finds it locked. "Take a load off," he suggests, gesturing towards the floor with his lollipop. "It's gonna be a while."
"Are they...?"
Helo grins. "Told you spreading that rumor would win me the pool."
Authors: somewhereapart, workerbee73, jenrosebsg, uberscribbler, helikedmyshoes, sci_fi_shipper, cynicalshadows, bonita_chica71
Spoilers: Season two AU, I guess
Rating: PG13
Summary: Lee and Kara have a secret, and a problem.
Author's Note: Written for the "Where the hell is everybody??" Pilot!Fic Round Robin.
"For frak's sake, what now?" Lee grumbled, flinging an arm over his eyes to block the light as Kara yanked back the curtain of his rack and plunked herself down on the edge.
"We have a problem," Kara began, ignoring the fact that he was still half asleep.
"Don't we always?" Lee sighed, lifting his arm just enough to squint at her.
Kara ignored him and went on. "Have you heard the newest rumors?"
"The ones about the President having a demigod love child, or about you going down on Racetrack in the showers, or me 'spearing' Helo with my 'arrow'?
"I went down on Racetrack in the showers? Was I any good?" Kara asked with a smirk.
Lee just rolled his eyes. "You actually woke me up for this?"
"No... not this," she began hesitatly, chewing on the edge of her lip. "It's about what happened a few years ago.... at the academy," she finished quietly.
She didn't have to say anymore; Lee knew exactly what she was talking about. Four years, six months and twenty-three days later and he could still remember every single second.
"Who's been talking about that?" Lee asked, sitting up finally so he could drop his voice to a whisper.
"More like who isn't!" Kara hissed. "I overheard Hot Dog and Kat talking about it, and if they know, everyone knows."
"I'm not even going to ask how those two found out," Lee sighed. "Have they gone into any *detail*? The sort that..."
"The, um, tattoo was mentioned." Kara looked especially aggrieved at this point.
"The tattoo?" Lee sputtered. "Frak!"
"Wait," he hissed, a burst of insane optimism hitting him. "*Both* of them?"
"At least one of them, Lee. You know, you can't even see mine, unless, well, you know. It's on my inner thigh, for frak's sake!"
"And just how many here have gotten a look at your inner thigh, Kara?" Lee questioned. "I mean, since that night?"
"I don't know the exact number offhand, but I'm sure I wrote it down in my diary," Kara snapped, pissed at what he was insinuating.
Lee gasped in horror. "You keep a diary?!?"
He shook his head clear and said "Okay, okay. Never mind. Did they get the, um, you know...description right?"
"I don't know, Lee. Why don't you take a look." Her tone was annoyed.
"Trust me, Kara, I *know* what it looks like." He'd been dreaming of the damned thing at regular intervals over the last several years. "I just want to confirme *they* don't know everything."
"You're sure you don't need a reminder, Apollo?" She trailed a finger down his chest and licked her lips.
"Um before I answer..." Kara drawled. "Where'd you get yours?"
"Kara..."
"*Remind* me, Lee," she breathed into his ear.
Lee stared at her for a moment. He hooked his thumbs into his shorts and pulled them down on one side, revealing black ink.
Kara traced the dark outline, her fingers were close and dangerous.
"I forgot..." she whispered, sounding almost reverent in the saying. "Just how frakking...*ugly*...that design is."
Lee burst out laughing, "I know, Kara. It really is. We were young, you know?"
"Now, what's this rumor, anyway?" He asked, batting her hand away.
"The rumor is that it didn't end there." She gave him a significant look.
Lee's mouth formed a little O. "It almost didn't end there." He held her eyes.
She cocks a brow, a challenge in her eyes. "And who's fault was that, Captain?"
Lee feigns shock. "And somehow it didn't matter that you'd drunk enough ambrosia to kill a caprican pony?"
"You still jealous that I can hold my liquor better than you?" she asks with a mischievous wink. "But seriously, Apollo, blame me all you want because we both know who really started things that night."
Lee sighed and shook his head. "Look, do we actually, really need to deal with this at all?" His voice took on a pleading tone. "Can't we ignore it and just let it go away?"
"Aww! Is little Leland afraid to take on a little gossip?" Kara all but coos at him.
That was it. He was done. Lee had reached the end of his patience.
She can tell the second she's pushed him too far. It's in the set of his jaw and the hardness around his eyes. The CAG is so about to pull rank.
"Frak, Kara" Lee faultered. "Why is it that you always feel the need to push my buttons!?" "You sure like opening up old wounds don't you?"
Before she could utter a response she heard someone entering the bunkroom. Lee glanced toward the door, clearly the discussion was over. "Lt. Thrace, didn't Chief Tyrol need you for viper repairs or something? Dismissed."
THE NEXT DAY:
Lee figured that, before he even tried to talk to Kara again, he'd better get a clear idea about these "rumors" that had her so aflutter. At least that way he'd know how much everyone else knew (or *thought* they knew), and could better formulate a plan from there.
Unfortunately, no-one seemed in a talkative mood that morning.
Whenever he entered a room, all conversation seemed to abruptly halt. That was not a good sign. Maybe Kara was right to be worried.
Unfortunately, that sudden and uncomfortable silence was making it impossible for him to chase down the exact content of these 'rumors'. Without knowing that, Lee was flying blind with Kara (who was doubtless still pissed with him).
Speaking of whom...
Kara enters the mess and hesitates for only a fraction of a second before she breezes past him without a word, like he isn't standing there holding his breakfast tray with a welcoming smile on his face.
Yeah, she was definitely still pissed. Frak.
Well, that didn't work- Lee thought to himself.
Gods dammit, this dance had to stop and they had to talk, if only there was a way he could get Kara alone.
As if on cue, Lee heard the fimiliar siren and Gaeta's booming voice with the announcement of 'Action Stations' being called.
Personal problems would have to wait, survival came first.
He ditches his tray and takes off at a run and it only takes a couple seconds before Kara is sprinting at his side.
"Who needs breakfast when there are toasters to be shot, right Apollo?" she grins in full Starbuck mode when he glances at her out of the corner of his eye.
The battle, unfortunately, doesn't last that long. A small swarm of Raiders escorting a couple Heavies trying to crash onto 'Galactica'; just another half-assed boarding attack. The toasters must have been running short on tactics.
Needless to say, between Apollo and Starbuck, it was over quickly. Not that the rest of the pilots didn't contribute, but Starbuck was a force of nature that morning. A Fury of legend, and she tore through Raiders without hesitation or error. But the fact none of her kills included any trademark banter or cat-calls made the whole thing all the more unnerving.
Ironically, it was only when they landed that Lee got his first inkling of what had Kara so upset. He was passing Hot Dog's plan when he overhead Kat's voice saying "You sure she's got him tagged?"
"Totally," Kat smirks. "I hear that he's got 'Property of Starbuck' inked on him somewhere that would be pretty hard to miss if you were about to frak. And get this! She's got one too! They like match."
"So...why ain't we seen it before?" Trust Costanza to prove, once again, he wasn't nearly as dense as he pretended.
"I don't know," Kat admits, and Lee cannot help but let out a small sigh of relief. His reprieve is short lived however because the next words out of her mouth are worse than the truth. "Maybe you can only see it when he's at full salute."
Hot Dog's mouth drops open. "Holy frak! That would frakking hurt!" He pauses. "Wait, that can't be true. Apollo? Tattooing the arrow? No frakking way." Hot Dog rolls his eyes.
Kat shrugs. "Maybe he was really drunk," she muses aloud. Then she breaks into a conspiratorial grin. "Or maybe Starbuck offered to kiss it better!"
Hot Dog guffaws. "Yeah, I knew the two of them frakked before." Kat's retort is interrupted when she notices Apollo nearby. She gives him an appraising stare and drags her eyes pointedly down to his groin. When she meets his eyes, she smirks and steers Hot Dog away.
Lee simply stood there, mind racing through scenarios and measuring probability chains of just how far this...rumor...might have spread.
The results were anything but encouraging, and it took no real imagination to project the likely consequences once the volume of recipients reached 'critical mass' and his father finally heard it.
Probably just as well Kara was going to kill him, likely as not *long* before his father could.
Lee's anxiety increases as he walked down the corridor to his rack, enduring sidelong glances, hushed giggles and pointed stares at his crotch. He grips his hands into fists.
"Enjoying being ogled like a circus freak Captain?" Kara inquires in a scathing tone as he enters the bunk room.
Lee ignores her, ferociously jamming his clothes into his locker. She stands there, hands on hips, waiting for a response.
After several seconds of his silence, Kara sighs in disgust. "Oh I see how it is. You could care less yesterday when the rumor centered more on me, but now that it's shifted focus onto you, you're gonna play the martyr? This isn't a time to stew, Sir. It is a time to be proactive and get to the bottom of this!"
She narrows her eyes then, a taunting gleam reflected in those hazel depths. "Unless you want everyone to think you're my property?"
"In your dreams, Starbuck," Apollo shot back. "And from what I hear, *your* ink is across your ass."
He practically slammed his locker shut.
"As for 'getting to the bottom of this', quote unquote?" He turned and faced her for the first time that morning. "I'm all ears as to how we can do *anything* to quell this little tidbit by now."
"Across my ass?" she repeats. "How unoriginal. I'm disappointed."
He shoots her a look of incredulity. "Only you would be upset that a rumor wasn't more scandalous, Kara."
"What?" she snaps back. "At least people think your dick is long enough to write 'property of Starbuck' on it!"
Lee winced, then winced again when Kara saw fit to ask "What, exactly, is supposed to be tattooed on my ass anyway?"
Lee gives her a measured look, "Well, Captain, I believe the rumor is 'Property of Apollo.' Which, clearly, could not be further from the truth." He snorts and brushes past her with mounting frustration.
Her fingers close over his arm, stopping him in his tracks, and forcing him to look at her. Her expression is just shy of furious.
"What is your godsdamn problem? We've both been dragged into this mess. I didn't tell anyone about the tattoos and it isn't like it's my fault people think we've frakked! This is a battlestar Sir. Gossip abounds. Or maybe that's the problem. Maybe you're just worried that my reputation is going to sully yours."
"Starbuck," he sputters. "Kara, it's not like that." He doesn't know how to explain the rush of conflicted feelings he has when he think about that night. Things hadn't worked out the way he'd wanted them to -- and it was his fault. She'd dared him to get that frakking tattoo and he'd stupidly agreed. At least he insisted that she get one, too. The flirtations that night could have led to more, but too much ambrosia made it feel cheap and he couldn't do it. His feelings for her, even then, were too strong.
"Then what is it like Lee? Huh? Enlighten me," she demands, and if he didn't know her so well, we wouldn't be able to catch the thread of insecurity hidden behind her Starbuck glare.
Lee turned fully to face her. His voice caught in his throat. "Kara, the tattoos, they...uh...mean a lot to me. I hate that other people know about them, too" He couldn't meet her eyes. "I thought it was something just between us." His words hung in the air.
"Yeah?" she blurts out before she can quell the impulse, and inwardly she curses herself for sounding so frakking needy. She isn't needy, godsdamnit! She's Starbuck, scourge of the cylon raider.
Her tone surprises him and he looks up. "Yeah, Kara." He holds her eyes and feels something pass between them. He can feel her desire to bolt, the tension she holds in her shoulders and the way she chews her lip.
She can't hold his gaze. Something in it stirs something in her and it frakking terrifies her, makes her want to run.
"Oh," she breathes looking away, looking anywhere but at him.
With his heart thudding in his chest, Lee puts a finger under her chin and tips her head up to look at him. He sees the fear now and the longing. He waits a beat then bends down to kiss her.
His lips touch hers and it's like that night at the academy years ago, only this time she isn't drunk and neither is he and they can't use the excuse of too much ambrosia for why they are suddenly entangled in each other's embrace.
Only this time, Lee doesn't intend to let the moment slip away.
"Dog the hatch," he manages to gasp into her mouth, and she pulls back just enough for him to see the desire blazing in her eyes.
"What about the - "
"Frak the rumors Kara. Just dog the damned hatch."
And for probably the first time in their entire relationship, she obeys his order without question.
----
Outside in the hallway, Helo smirks as Hot Dog tries to open the hatch and finds it locked. "Take a load off," he suggests, gesturing towards the floor with his lollipop. "It's gonna be a while."
"Are they...?"
Helo grins. "Told you spreading that rumor would win me the pool."