Holiday Ficlet #16: "Because It's My Birthday" [BSG]
Title: Because It's My Birthday
Characters: Gaeta, Helo
Wordcount: ~ 340 words
Summary: Helo, Gaeta, candy and jump calculations.
AN: For rebelliousrose. I wish you a wonderful birthday full of presents and cake. :)
Because It's My Birthday
A couple of months before their first jump beyond the red line, Helo had plopped down on a chair at Felix' table in the mess. Felix hadn't known Helo that well, or so he'd thought - they barely ever interacted with each other. CIC and CAP had rarely ever interacted in those days. Now, however, he reached into his pocket to produce two lollipops - the expensive kind, the kind they only made in Mykonos. Popping one into his mouth, he offered the other one to Felix.
“What's that?” Felix had asked, who was still seven days and 238 jump plots away from getting over the way boys like Helo had shoved boys like Felix into lockers in school. It tended to make you suspicious.
But Helo had just shrugged, sucking on his candy toy.
“Birthday gift,” he'd said.
“It's not my birthday,” Felix had pointed out and Helo had smiled.
“No,” he'd said. “It's mine.”
That's how Felix would remember Helo: as a man who showed kindness to others as a way of giving himself a gift. Except for how the Cylons came to kill them all, and when Helo and Boomer set their Raptor down on Caprica during the Attacks, only Boomer returned. Felix took a breath when he heard, and continued calculating their next move, because there was nothing else left they could do.
One year and 587 jumps after that, CIC received word about how Helo and a Cylon looking like Boomer had survived down there, somehow, and returned.
Out of a whim, Felix took three cigarettes that night and traded them for one of Racetrack's candy bars. Walking over to the pilots' quarters, he placed it on the newly requisitioned pillow of Helo's new bunk and turned to leave.
“It's not my birthday,” a voice said mildly. Felix looked up to see Helo standing in the doorway, drawn face telling a story of a life on the run, and 587 jumps missed.
“Yes,” Felix said after a moment of pause. “Yes, it is.”
Startled, Helo snorted a laugh, and Felix' lips twitched into a smile.
A lot more jumps to come, he thought.
Characters: Gaeta, Helo
Wordcount: ~ 340 words
Summary: Helo, Gaeta, candy and jump calculations.
AN: For rebelliousrose. I wish you a wonderful birthday full of presents and cake. :)
Because It's My Birthday
A couple of months before their first jump beyond the red line, Helo had plopped down on a chair at Felix' table in the mess. Felix hadn't known Helo that well, or so he'd thought - they barely ever interacted with each other. CIC and CAP had rarely ever interacted in those days. Now, however, he reached into his pocket to produce two lollipops - the expensive kind, the kind they only made in Mykonos. Popping one into his mouth, he offered the other one to Felix.
“What's that?” Felix had asked, who was still seven days and 238 jump plots away from getting over the way boys like Helo had shoved boys like Felix into lockers in school. It tended to make you suspicious.
But Helo had just shrugged, sucking on his candy toy.
“Birthday gift,” he'd said.
“It's not my birthday,” Felix had pointed out and Helo had smiled.
“No,” he'd said. “It's mine.”
That's how Felix would remember Helo: as a man who showed kindness to others as a way of giving himself a gift. Except for how the Cylons came to kill them all, and when Helo and Boomer set their Raptor down on Caprica during the Attacks, only Boomer returned. Felix took a breath when he heard, and continued calculating their next move, because there was nothing else left they could do.
One year and 587 jumps after that, CIC received word about how Helo and a Cylon looking like Boomer had survived down there, somehow, and returned.
Out of a whim, Felix took three cigarettes that night and traded them for one of Racetrack's candy bars. Walking over to the pilots' quarters, he placed it on the newly requisitioned pillow of Helo's new bunk and turned to leave.
“It's not my birthday,” a voice said mildly. Felix looked up to see Helo standing in the doorway, drawn face telling a story of a life on the run, and 587 jumps missed.
“Yes,” Felix said after a moment of pause. “Yes, it is.”
Startled, Helo snorted a laugh, and Felix' lips twitched into a smile.
A lot more jumps to come, he thought.