What Happens Next Prizes
Aug. 30th, 2011 11:03 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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no_takebacksCongratulations to all of our winners from yesterday, collect your prizes here! Sorry for spamming people's f-lists, it wouldn't let me post out of order because it's not a personal journal :(
Round One - You Can't Go Home Again winner![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
word_vomity
“Hey, Kara...” Lee poked his head round the hatch into the head that serviced the inhabitants of sickbay, cautiously peering into the room, trying to see through the dense clouds of steam threatening to engulf him. “You- are you in here?”
He squinted into the mist, searching out her shape.
“You know, Lee, when I asked if you wanted to give me a bath,” Kara's cheerful voice called out to him from somewhere inside, “I was almost completely joking.”
He stepped fully into the head, letting the hatch clang shut behind him as he moved into the room.
“Yes, well, you've been in here forty-five minutes, people were starting to get worried.” He felt his way along the wall to the lockers, saw her tanks and pants strewn in a rough pile on the floor. “They uh-” his knee bashed into the corner of one of the benches and he winced. “They nominated me to come in and make sure you were still alive.”
“So you're telling me this wasn't a volunteer mission?” Lee could practically hear her eyebrow raise, her mouth pucker in a mock pout of disappointment, he smiled and shook his head, relief that he had the opportunity to be mocked by her again flooding his body. All of his muscles seemed to relax at once as he took a seat on the bench, content to just sit there and wait for her to emerge. If she ever did.
“Strict orders I'm afraid. Apparently I'm the only man in the fleet with a big enough dipstick for the job.”
Kara's exultant cackle floated across the tops of the cubicle walls and he pictured her, head tipped back in laughter, scalding hot water cascading down her pale throat, over her breasts and stomach as she attempted to raise a lather from the dry, starchy soap the fleet issued to its officers.
He coughed into his hand, trying to dispel the image from his mind, or at least push it away until some later time when she wasn't in the room.
“Now that I'd love to see.” She crooned and he stifled a groan.
“Hey, Lee?” She called out after a few moments, and her voice was different now, less sinful, more timid.
“Yeah, what is it?” He called back, suddenly remembering that she was injured and that he'd been sent in there for a reason.
There was a pause, he waited.
“Do you think you could come give me a hand?” He dropped his head again, laughing at himself for being taken in.
“C'mon Kara, stop messing around ok? You'll wash yourself away.” There was another pause, then a grunt of frustration and the sound of skin slipping on tiles. He was on his feet in a flash, waiting for some sound from her.
“Lee, I'm serious alright? I need – ugh, godsdamnit Lee I need help.”
Tentatively, he walked into the mist in the direction of her voice and the shower head that was spitting out water.
He rounded the corner of the wall separating the stalls from the locker section of the room and looked around for her, saw nothing but steam and tiles and spray.
“Kara?” He called out, confused.
“Down here Apollo.”
He turned to the left and looked towards the floor. There she was, sitting up against the corner of the stall underneath the shower, completely naked and pissed off.
“Kara, what are you-?” She huffed and rolled her eyes, tightening her arms around her body in defense.
“I couldn't stand up any longer, so I sat down.” She shrugged.
“And now you can't get up.” He asked, her curt nod and raised eyebrows his answer. “I'm surprised you managed to get yourself in here in the first place, Cottle says you wouldn't let him examine you until you had a shower, Kara what were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that I smelled like a latrine,” she said pointedly, “anyway, I'm clean now, and ready to be examined, if you would just stop asking stupid questions and help me up.”
Kara reached her arms up to him and he took hold of her hands in his, noted the way the pads of her fingers were wrinkled from too long in the water, the blotchy pink flush of her skin from the scalding heat. Unconsciously, Lee tutted under his breath and she rolled her eyes at him.
“Lords, Lee, stop clucking.” She grasped his hands tightly and started to pull herself up, moving too quickly and slipping back against the tiles with a thump and an undignified “oomf!”
“Alright, come here.” He stooped down on one knee and reached out to slip his arms around her. He expected protest, but was greeted with quiet acquiescence and a small grimace as she pushed up off the wall, leaning heavily on his arm. She must really be in pain, he thought, sparing a glance at her mangled knee – scarlet and blue and purple where the bruises were starting to show, torn skin with ragged edges – and wincing himself.
Pulling Kara to her feet, Lee tucked her against his side while he shut off the water and then started to guide her out of the shower area, trying all the while to ignore the fact that she was wet and completely naked, her soft skin slipping underneath his fingers as he held her up.
Setting her down on the long bench in front of the lockers, he reached for the towel she had placed there, ready. Lee shook out the towel and then wrapped it gently around Kara's shaking shoulders, she was shivering from the cold and he rubbed his hands over the soft cotton in a bid to warm her up.
She smiled up at him gently, a flush spreading across her cheeks. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, pressed her lips together. Lee was struck once more with the overwhelming horror of the fact that he had so very nearly lost her, and he could do little else but smile back and squeeze her shoulders weakly.
“Thanks.” She almost whispered, her wide eyes open, fearful, bottomless in the harsh lighting of the head.
He cleared his throat and pulled the towel further around her shoulders, tugging the edges tightly closed.
“Anytime.”
Round three - Colonial Day winnerkl_shipper1
“You enjoyed that a little bit too much, you know that right?”
Kara's looking at him sideways, her eyebrows two perfect arches, her lips a well-practiced curve.
“What do you mean?” Her tongue slips out along her lower lip like it does when she's taking the time to choose the absolutely perfect words.
“You know.” She says slowly, her elbow moving a gentle nudge against his. “Slamming the briefcase down on the table, yelling so close you could spit in his face. You liked playing bad cop!”
“Whatever, shut up.”
To Lee's surprise, she does. They walk in silence along the corridor to the room where they stashed their uniforms. It's hot down here on Cloud Nine's lower decks, obviously the luxury only extends as far as the upper levels, and the room they've been given to hold Valance might possibly be at the centre of a volcano or something.
Kara reaches the hatch first and holds it open for him, gesturing him through with a broad sweep of her arm and a wide smile. He rolls his eyes as he steps into the room.
“You enjoyed it too.” He tells her when they're both shrugging into their jackets, watches her fasten her buttons. Kara smiles and tips her head from side to side, like that much is obvious.
“Yeah,” she runs a grimy hand through her slightly damp hair, “but you enjoyed it a lot. Right?”
Her smile widens as she waggles her eyebrows at him, Lee shakes his head and goes back to his own buttons.
“You got to throw your weight around, raise your voice, flex your muscles. I mean, you might as well have torn off your shirt and started banging your chest.” Her fingers fumble and she stops fastening, frowning down at her chest as she realises that she's missed a button somewhere, and starts unbuttoning.
Kara's focusing on her buttons, counting up and starting again from the bottom. Finished with his own apparel, Lee turns to face her and leans on his shoulder against the wall.
“I'm not saying it wasn't fun to watch,” she continues, she's missed a button again, he doesn't tell her. “I just think it was an awful lot of effort to impress some lowlife like Valance.”
She reaches the top of her jacket and realises her mistake, throws her arms up in frustration and Lee smiles. She moves so fast, like static on a shiny surface, bouncing and crackling from one thing to the next.
Moving to undo her jacket again, Kara pulls at her bottom lip with her teeth. With a smile and a gentle brush of his fingers on hers, he pushes her hands aside, takes the jacket in his own and begins unfastening. Methodically, he closes each button, right up to the top, the backs of his fingers stroking along the smooth skin at her collarbone, her neck.
She's looking at him from under pale eyelashes, eyes narrowed just slightly, like she's trying to figure him out. He meets her gaze as he finishes the last button, holds on to the material for just a fraction longer, clears his throat, steps back.
“Maybe that's not who I was trying to impress.” Lee's voice is low, husky, he clears his throat again and steps back, not waiting for her to answer.
He reaches the hatch first and holds it open for her, motioning her through with an arm and a smile. She salutes him as she hops over the threshold, and smiles back at him as he pulls the door closed.
They're quiet for the rest of the walk up to the top level.
Round four - Tigh me up, Tigh me down winnertaragel
Between the three of them, Lee, his father and the President clear the dinner table and clear up the commander's quarters.
It's another awkward twenty minutes of drinking coffee and making small talk before he's able to escape. There's something happening with his father and Roslin that he doesn't quite get, but it seems like both of them are trying to keep secrets and not let the other know, and it's pretty tiring being around it.
He trudges through the hatch to the senior officer's quarters to find drawn curtains, low lights, and Starbuck, sitting at the table in the centre of the room going over some papers. Her fingers twiddle a pencil in her left hand, her top teeth worry her bottom lip, her eyes close, and open, and close again. She doesn't notice him.
“A little late to be working isn't it?” He keeps his voice low, closes the hatch as quietly as is possible. Kara looks up, offering him a smile and the incline of her head just so.
“Couldn't sleep.” As if on cue, her mouth opens wide in a yawn, her fist clenching to cover it up.
“Did you try?” She rolls her eyes.
“Yes mom.” Lee fights the urge to poke his tongue at her, marvels at her ability to make him act like a twelve year old boy and a forty year old woman at the same time. He strips wearily out of his clothing and flops onto his bed in just his boxers, a heavy sigh escaping from his lips.
When he glances back at Kara her head is down, eyes on the paper. But he doesn't miss the way they flicker in his direction ever eleven seconds. He smiles and closes his eyes.
“How was your dinner with the happy couple?”
“Gods,” He chuckles, “awful.” He grimaces, remembering the press of Ellen's foot against his calf, her surprisingly flexible toes straying past his knees. “Tigh's wife made a pass at me.”
There is silence for a moment before a low, warm cackle comes flying from her mouth. She doesn't stop for a full three minutes.
“Alright.” He says finally. Kara smoothes her lips together and then purses them, holding the laughter in for a few moments before it escapes again.
Lee rolls his eyes and sighs heavily, raising his arms to pillow them beneath his head, shutting his eyes on Kara's quieting giggles. She finally gets herself under control, and the room is quiet for several minutes. When he opens his eyes she is reading again, a gleeful smile gracing her lips.
He takes a moment to study her, her pale skin paper thin and translucent, dark shadows lining her eyes. She looks tired. He supposes he does too.
“You know, you really should sleep.”
Her glare is pointed, and momentary. For what feels like the thousandth time that night, Lee sighs. He sits up and slides his legs over the side of his rack to place his feet on the floor. The metal is cold and startles him a little. Would it kill them to get a rug in here or something?
He stands slowly and steps over to the table, tugs the pencil out of Kara's hand and pushes at her shoulder until she stands, pushes again to get her to move to her rack. She clambers in with less resistance than he'd expected, and lets him pull the covers up over her. He turns to head back to his own bunk, but her hand, cold and smaller than he imagines they are, grasps his, pulls him back, off-balance until he falls practically on top of her.
And then he's there, in bed with her as she manoeuvres the covers over his legs and up to his chest. He sighs again, lifts his arm so that it goes around her, her head pillowed on his bicep, and smiles softly to himself as she snuggles into him. Her nose is cold where it presses against his side. She must have really poor circulation.
Lee is drifting slowly into a pleasant sleep when he feels her start to shake, her whole body moving in infinitesimal jerks, and he shifts his head to look at her. Kara's mouth is spread wide in a barely controlled smile, she's biting down on one knuckle, her eyes are scrunched tightly shut.
“What is wrong with you?” He asks incredulously and she shakes her head a little before drawing in a long breath.
“I just- Ellen Tigh!” She exclaims once she catches her breath. “You should be careful there Lee, you might have to fight the XO!” Her giggles bubble up again, seemingly uncontrollable, he has the sudden urge to pinch her in the soft skin at the back of her upper arm. She squeals a little in surprise when he actually does it. “Ouch!”
“Just shut up and go to sleep Kara.”
Her sharp fingers pinch him in the side and he winces.
“Sir, yes sir!”
Round five - 33 winnertrappermcintyre
“So lieutenant, do I have to smack you in the mouth?”
Kara's smile is tight and borne of the near mania of too much stress and too little sleep rather than actual enjoyment of the situation. Her hair is thick with dried sweat and grime, strands staying separated where she has run her fingers through it in frustration. Her skin is pale, almost gray in the harsh lighting of the hangar deck. Lee wonders if he looks as awful as she does.
Still, as she meets his eyes and agrees to take the stims he gives her, he can't help but marvel at her inescapable beauty. Her lips purse as she chomps down on the pills and his eyes are drawn to them, strips of dusky pink, dried and cracked and raw from where her top teeth worry at them. He wants to taste them, soothe them, wants to chase away all her ills with his lips and his tongue and his hands on her skin.
But they're at war just at present, so it's probably not the best time. Even if she wasn't his dead brother's fiance and his father's favourite child, his inferior officer and a royal pain in his ass. They're on the hangar deck in front of about twenty people, and he's fairly certain the Chief is watching them.
So he walks away.
*
Kara finishes her pre-flight check-list with Cally and sends the kid packing. It feels like she hasn't had a single second to herself since they left Ragnar, and she needs a moment, just one moment to stop and breathe and calm the panic that's slowly swelling in her chest.
She takes a slow stroll around her viper, trailing her damp palm flat along its cool surface. Rounding the corner she stops and leans her forehead against the side of the wing. She huffs several breaths, short pants, the stims starting to take action, her blood pumping faster, her eyes itching to open. She fights it for a few moments, exercising whatever little control over her own body she can manage to retain.
The hand on her shoulder takes her by surprise, the pressure it exerts to turn her around even more so, and she finds herself face to face with Lee, slightly out of breath and gazing down at her unfocused, lips parted, breath fanning across her skin.
“Lee?” She attempts a smile, he's clearly delirious from the combination of fatigue and drugs and doesn't quite know what he's doing. She knows the feeling.
His eyes snap to hers, searching, questioning, and she really wishes she knew the answer, but then his palm is at her jaw and his lips are on hers and she thinks that maybe she was the answer. She squeaks a little but Lee's kiss is unrelenting. He pushes at her lips with his own, probing with his tongue, gentle but firm, and she parts her lips at his insistence. He tastes like stale sweat and recycled air but it barely registers as she lets him devour her, she's sure she must taste almost exactly the same.
Lee pulls back and drops his head into the space between them, breathing heavily, both palms hot against her own flushed cheeks.
“Kara.” He breathes and looks back up at her, she's struggling to control her own breath, forces her mouth closed as she meets his eyes. “Be careful out there.”
Round six - Hand of God winnerkl_shipper1
The Old Man leaves her in the gym head, taping up her knee and fuming silently – a first for her, for sure, but deep down she knows he's right.
Lee strolls in just as she drops her roll of tape, her fingers are shaking from the exertion she'd just forced her body through.
“Frak.” She exhales, clenches and unclenches her fists, tries to get the blood flowing through her hands again.
“You alright?” Lee asks as he kneels in front of her and holds out the tape. The concern clearly written on his face pisses her off. She's fine. When is everyone going to start getting that?
“I'm fine.” She snaps. Draws a breath and lets it out. She meets his eyes and he still looks concerned. She just wants to smack him, is all, just smack him right in the mouth for being healthy and able to fly, for the fact that he gets to go out there and do his job and make the Old Man proud, for the fact that she can't.
Her fingers pinch at the bridge of her nose, she gets her breathing under control.
“I'm fine.” She says again, more gently this time, and tries her hardest to smile. Lee cocks an eyebrow like he knows what's going on inside her head and she scrunches her nose at him and grabs the tape. “Whatever, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be prepping your mission, Captain?”
Gods, she hates herself when she's like this, cranky and petty and just so obvious, she presses her mouth closed and just tries to concentrate on fixing up her leg. She jerks her knee too hard and winces, sucking in a harsh breath.
Lee's fingers are cold on top of her own, he pulls the roll of tape from her and positions her leg so that her foot is on his knee. The pads of his fingers are gentle, but rough, they slide along her skin, she wants to shiver, holds her breath instead.
“Everything's ready, I was looking for you.” He is slowly winding the tape around the bandage, placing it carefully, holding her still when she jerks uncomfortably. He looks up into her eyes and Kara's breath stops, sometimes she remembers just exactly how breathtaking he is, how the faintest hint of a smile and the light crease of his brow can make her completely lose her shit.
“I thought you might want to go through the plan with me again.”
He finishes the job and taps his fingers on the skin of her outer thigh, hands her back the tape and stands up. He's looking at her expectantly and she feels like such an idiot, she's going to have to just get over this at some point, she can't keep thinking about how beautiful he is every time they have a conversation.
Reaching out her hands for him to help her up, Kara pushes to her feet and grabs her gear.
“Sure Lee, let's go through the plan.” He offers her his arm to lean on, she forges ahead instead. But she can feel the shape of his careful hand hovering at her back just in case.
Round eight - Kobol's Last Gleaming winner -sugarhaven
The second after she jumps, she wants to go back.
She wants to jump back to Lee and tell him it was just a joke. Tell him that she just wanted to give him a taste of what he'd feel like if he actually lost her.
But then she thinks that if she did that he'd just look her in the eyes with that same cold glare he used this morning and tell her that he hadn't even noticed that she was gone, and she decides against it.
She's looked too many people in the eyes and watched them tell her that she doesn't mean anything to them, she doesn't think she could take it from him.
So she stays her course, finds her way through jump after jump and eventually makes the final leap. The leap home.
For half a minute, she thinks she's made a mistake. But then the she takes a sweep of the area and there it is. Caprica. Home. She is good. She is very, very good.
She chuckles to herself, raises her arm to the comm button, can't wait to tell Lee exactly how brilliant she really is. But then she remembers where she is, what she's done, he finger stalls on the button and her laugh dries up in her throat. He probably wouldn't even be impressed anyway.
Kara spends about ten minutes searching for a landing strip or an air base to touch down on, before realising that everyone there is dead, she could park on top of the Buccaneers' stadium if she wanted and no one would bat an eyelid. She's actually kind of tempted, but then she's flying over Delphi and she sees the familiar dome of the museum's vaulted roof and figures that it's probably easier just to park right outside.
In and out, no muss, no fuss.
Jumping down from the cockpit, she notes the way it feels to back planetside. The smell of the air, the strange quality of the light. Did it always look this way? Were the buildings always this beige? Did the glass always shine like that? She can't remember, and there's no one here to ask. She's alone.
Except not really, because there's a cylon kicking her ass and Helo holding her up and Sharon, frakking Sharon telling her what they should and shouldn't do. She thinks she'd rather be alone. Or at least with someone she can rely on.
Not that she doesn't trust Helo, but he's been down here a while with Sharon the cylon and she's not entirely certain where his head's at. For now at least she's on her own.
After Sharon takes her raider and leaves them basically stranded, she and Helo make for her apartment. The old familiar things serving only to piss her off rather than comfort. She closes her eyes, listens to the sounds of her father's practised fingers moving across the keys, and tries hard not to wish that she had stayed on the Galactica. Stayed with her family, her friends. Stayed with Lee.
Her mind wanders, fixes on his face, so fierce, so bright this morning in his anger and hurt. She remembers the way she felt when she was in bed with Baltar, how she'd pictured him, touching her, holding her, loving her. Wanting her.
At least now she knows that whatever else he felt for her, wanting her wasn't really a problem. As for the other stuff, well, she threw that fairly well down the latrine. It's not like she deserved for him to love her anyway, like she deserved anything but his contempt and the thwack of his fist against her face.
When she opens her eyes Karl is watching her, studying her, his smile a welcome comfort in this place that she knows so well, but that feels so incredibly foreign to her now.
She's alone, no Lee, no Old Man, no Galactica. But she has Karl. And in the pocket of her old painting jacket, she has a set of keys to a car that can get them where they're going. So maybe the situation's not so bad after all.
Round nine - Colonial Day winnerwinegums
When they were kids, his parents employed gardeners. They had a house with a great big lawn and his dad was never around and his mom didn't know how to work the lawn mower, so they hired gardeners. They'd come every Friday during the summer and mow the lawns, weed the beds, trim the hedges.
They had sprinklers too. Great big streams of water spraying in all directions for hours on end. He and Zak would play all day long, jumping in and out of the jets, pressing their feet down on the spouts until the water pressure hurt their skin.
When Kara pulls the hose out from behind her back, for an instant he sees Zak's face. Six years old, gap-toothed and beaming. So he doesn't quite get out of her way before she manages to catch him with the spray.
Lee is soaked before he knows it, and he should probably be pissed. He didn't bring extra fatigues with him in the raptor and they're on duty in an hour. But Kara's gleeful squeals and painfully wide smile are so joyful, and there's something so incredibly Zak about her in that moment that he can't.
He manages to wrangle the hose from her and accomplishes a certain amount of retribution before they hear a grumpy cough and look up to find a stern looking gardener staring down at them.
“You're gonna make my lawn into a marsh.” He grumbles. Lee feels almost like he's back at school again, and Kara's giggling apology doesn't help the feeling. They stumble away from the gardener, leaving the hose on the floor in a patch of soggy fake grass, and try not to burst into laughter as they attempt to maintain their integrity.
They reach the door to the main building, round the corner into the maintenance hallway, and then collapse together against a wall into hysterics.
Between Kara's periodic repetitions of the old guy's admonitions, and Lee's pathetic attempts at his pissed off face, it's ten minutes before they get themselves under control. Finally, breathless and elated, slumped against the wall on the floor.
“We should uh-” he looks over at her and quickly away when the smile on her face threatens to make him laugh again. “We should probably get to work.”
Kara nods, but makes no move to get up, so he stays put as well, rests his head on the crown of hers, blows the stray strands out of his face where they fall when she moves, making herself comfortable.
They stay there until his ass starts to go numb and he absolutely has to move. Kara bumps him with her hip as they stroll down the corridor. He smiles and thinks about sprinklers and sunshine and summers with his little brother.
Hope you all enjoy your prizes, don't forget to check out today's challenges for more opportunities to win!
<3
Round One - You Can't Go Home Again winner
word_vomity“Hey, Kara...” Lee poked his head round the hatch into the head that serviced the inhabitants of sickbay, cautiously peering into the room, trying to see through the dense clouds of steam threatening to engulf him. “You- are you in here?”
He squinted into the mist, searching out her shape.
“You know, Lee, when I asked if you wanted to give me a bath,” Kara's cheerful voice called out to him from somewhere inside, “I was almost completely joking.”
He stepped fully into the head, letting the hatch clang shut behind him as he moved into the room.
“Yes, well, you've been in here forty-five minutes, people were starting to get worried.” He felt his way along the wall to the lockers, saw her tanks and pants strewn in a rough pile on the floor. “They uh-” his knee bashed into the corner of one of the benches and he winced. “They nominated me to come in and make sure you were still alive.”
“So you're telling me this wasn't a volunteer mission?” Lee could practically hear her eyebrow raise, her mouth pucker in a mock pout of disappointment, he smiled and shook his head, relief that he had the opportunity to be mocked by her again flooding his body. All of his muscles seemed to relax at once as he took a seat on the bench, content to just sit there and wait for her to emerge. If she ever did.
“Strict orders I'm afraid. Apparently I'm the only man in the fleet with a big enough dipstick for the job.”
Kara's exultant cackle floated across the tops of the cubicle walls and he pictured her, head tipped back in laughter, scalding hot water cascading down her pale throat, over her breasts and stomach as she attempted to raise a lather from the dry, starchy soap the fleet issued to its officers.
He coughed into his hand, trying to dispel the image from his mind, or at least push it away until some later time when she wasn't in the room.
“Now that I'd love to see.” She crooned and he stifled a groan.
“Hey, Lee?” She called out after a few moments, and her voice was different now, less sinful, more timid.
“Yeah, what is it?” He called back, suddenly remembering that she was injured and that he'd been sent in there for a reason.
There was a pause, he waited.
“Do you think you could come give me a hand?” He dropped his head again, laughing at himself for being taken in.
“C'mon Kara, stop messing around ok? You'll wash yourself away.” There was another pause, then a grunt of frustration and the sound of skin slipping on tiles. He was on his feet in a flash, waiting for some sound from her.
“Lee, I'm serious alright? I need – ugh, godsdamnit Lee I need help.”
Tentatively, he walked into the mist in the direction of her voice and the shower head that was spitting out water.
He rounded the corner of the wall separating the stalls from the locker section of the room and looked around for her, saw nothing but steam and tiles and spray.
“Kara?” He called out, confused.
“Down here Apollo.”
He turned to the left and looked towards the floor. There she was, sitting up against the corner of the stall underneath the shower, completely naked and pissed off.
“Kara, what are you-?” She huffed and rolled her eyes, tightening her arms around her body in defense.
“I couldn't stand up any longer, so I sat down.” She shrugged.
“And now you can't get up.” He asked, her curt nod and raised eyebrows his answer. “I'm surprised you managed to get yourself in here in the first place, Cottle says you wouldn't let him examine you until you had a shower, Kara what were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that I smelled like a latrine,” she said pointedly, “anyway, I'm clean now, and ready to be examined, if you would just stop asking stupid questions and help me up.”
Kara reached her arms up to him and he took hold of her hands in his, noted the way the pads of her fingers were wrinkled from too long in the water, the blotchy pink flush of her skin from the scalding heat. Unconsciously, Lee tutted under his breath and she rolled her eyes at him.
“Lords, Lee, stop clucking.” She grasped his hands tightly and started to pull herself up, moving too quickly and slipping back against the tiles with a thump and an undignified “oomf!”
“Alright, come here.” He stooped down on one knee and reached out to slip his arms around her. He expected protest, but was greeted with quiet acquiescence and a small grimace as she pushed up off the wall, leaning heavily on his arm. She must really be in pain, he thought, sparing a glance at her mangled knee – scarlet and blue and purple where the bruises were starting to show, torn skin with ragged edges – and wincing himself.
Pulling Kara to her feet, Lee tucked her against his side while he shut off the water and then started to guide her out of the shower area, trying all the while to ignore the fact that she was wet and completely naked, her soft skin slipping underneath his fingers as he held her up.
Setting her down on the long bench in front of the lockers, he reached for the towel she had placed there, ready. Lee shook out the towel and then wrapped it gently around Kara's shaking shoulders, she was shivering from the cold and he rubbed his hands over the soft cotton in a bid to warm her up.
She smiled up at him gently, a flush spreading across her cheeks. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, pressed her lips together. Lee was struck once more with the overwhelming horror of the fact that he had so very nearly lost her, and he could do little else but smile back and squeeze her shoulders weakly.
“Thanks.” She almost whispered, her wide eyes open, fearful, bottomless in the harsh lighting of the head.
He cleared his throat and pulled the towel further around her shoulders, tugging the edges tightly closed.
“Anytime.”
Round three - Colonial Day winner
kl_shipper1“You enjoyed that a little bit too much, you know that right?”
Kara's looking at him sideways, her eyebrows two perfect arches, her lips a well-practiced curve.
“What do you mean?” Her tongue slips out along her lower lip like it does when she's taking the time to choose the absolutely perfect words.
“You know.” She says slowly, her elbow moving a gentle nudge against his. “Slamming the briefcase down on the table, yelling so close you could spit in his face. You liked playing bad cop!”
“Whatever, shut up.”
To Lee's surprise, she does. They walk in silence along the corridor to the room where they stashed their uniforms. It's hot down here on Cloud Nine's lower decks, obviously the luxury only extends as far as the upper levels, and the room they've been given to hold Valance might possibly be at the centre of a volcano or something.
Kara reaches the hatch first and holds it open for him, gesturing him through with a broad sweep of her arm and a wide smile. He rolls his eyes as he steps into the room.
“You enjoyed it too.” He tells her when they're both shrugging into their jackets, watches her fasten her buttons. Kara smiles and tips her head from side to side, like that much is obvious.
“Yeah,” she runs a grimy hand through her slightly damp hair, “but you enjoyed it a lot. Right?”
Her smile widens as she waggles her eyebrows at him, Lee shakes his head and goes back to his own buttons.
“You got to throw your weight around, raise your voice, flex your muscles. I mean, you might as well have torn off your shirt and started banging your chest.” Her fingers fumble and she stops fastening, frowning down at her chest as she realises that she's missed a button somewhere, and starts unbuttoning.
Kara's focusing on her buttons, counting up and starting again from the bottom. Finished with his own apparel, Lee turns to face her and leans on his shoulder against the wall.
“I'm not saying it wasn't fun to watch,” she continues, she's missed a button again, he doesn't tell her. “I just think it was an awful lot of effort to impress some lowlife like Valance.”
She reaches the top of her jacket and realises her mistake, throws her arms up in frustration and Lee smiles. She moves so fast, like static on a shiny surface, bouncing and crackling from one thing to the next.
Moving to undo her jacket again, Kara pulls at her bottom lip with her teeth. With a smile and a gentle brush of his fingers on hers, he pushes her hands aside, takes the jacket in his own and begins unfastening. Methodically, he closes each button, right up to the top, the backs of his fingers stroking along the smooth skin at her collarbone, her neck.
She's looking at him from under pale eyelashes, eyes narrowed just slightly, like she's trying to figure him out. He meets her gaze as he finishes the last button, holds on to the material for just a fraction longer, clears his throat, steps back.
“Maybe that's not who I was trying to impress.” Lee's voice is low, husky, he clears his throat again and steps back, not waiting for her to answer.
He reaches the hatch first and holds it open for her, motioning her through with an arm and a smile. She salutes him as she hops over the threshold, and smiles back at him as he pulls the door closed.
They're quiet for the rest of the walk up to the top level.
Round four - Tigh me up, Tigh me down winner
taragelBetween the three of them, Lee, his father and the President clear the dinner table and clear up the commander's quarters.
It's another awkward twenty minutes of drinking coffee and making small talk before he's able to escape. There's something happening with his father and Roslin that he doesn't quite get, but it seems like both of them are trying to keep secrets and not let the other know, and it's pretty tiring being around it.
He trudges through the hatch to the senior officer's quarters to find drawn curtains, low lights, and Starbuck, sitting at the table in the centre of the room going over some papers. Her fingers twiddle a pencil in her left hand, her top teeth worry her bottom lip, her eyes close, and open, and close again. She doesn't notice him.
“A little late to be working isn't it?” He keeps his voice low, closes the hatch as quietly as is possible. Kara looks up, offering him a smile and the incline of her head just so.
“Couldn't sleep.” As if on cue, her mouth opens wide in a yawn, her fist clenching to cover it up.
“Did you try?” She rolls her eyes.
“Yes mom.” Lee fights the urge to poke his tongue at her, marvels at her ability to make him act like a twelve year old boy and a forty year old woman at the same time. He strips wearily out of his clothing and flops onto his bed in just his boxers, a heavy sigh escaping from his lips.
When he glances back at Kara her head is down, eyes on the paper. But he doesn't miss the way they flicker in his direction ever eleven seconds. He smiles and closes his eyes.
“How was your dinner with the happy couple?”
“Gods,” He chuckles, “awful.” He grimaces, remembering the press of Ellen's foot against his calf, her surprisingly flexible toes straying past his knees. “Tigh's wife made a pass at me.”
There is silence for a moment before a low, warm cackle comes flying from her mouth. She doesn't stop for a full three minutes.
“Alright.” He says finally. Kara smoothes her lips together and then purses them, holding the laughter in for a few moments before it escapes again.
Lee rolls his eyes and sighs heavily, raising his arms to pillow them beneath his head, shutting his eyes on Kara's quieting giggles. She finally gets herself under control, and the room is quiet for several minutes. When he opens his eyes she is reading again, a gleeful smile gracing her lips.
He takes a moment to study her, her pale skin paper thin and translucent, dark shadows lining her eyes. She looks tired. He supposes he does too.
“You know, you really should sleep.”
Her glare is pointed, and momentary. For what feels like the thousandth time that night, Lee sighs. He sits up and slides his legs over the side of his rack to place his feet on the floor. The metal is cold and startles him a little. Would it kill them to get a rug in here or something?
He stands slowly and steps over to the table, tugs the pencil out of Kara's hand and pushes at her shoulder until she stands, pushes again to get her to move to her rack. She clambers in with less resistance than he'd expected, and lets him pull the covers up over her. He turns to head back to his own bunk, but her hand, cold and smaller than he imagines they are, grasps his, pulls him back, off-balance until he falls practically on top of her.
And then he's there, in bed with her as she manoeuvres the covers over his legs and up to his chest. He sighs again, lifts his arm so that it goes around her, her head pillowed on his bicep, and smiles softly to himself as she snuggles into him. Her nose is cold where it presses against his side. She must have really poor circulation.
Lee is drifting slowly into a pleasant sleep when he feels her start to shake, her whole body moving in infinitesimal jerks, and he shifts his head to look at her. Kara's mouth is spread wide in a barely controlled smile, she's biting down on one knuckle, her eyes are scrunched tightly shut.
“What is wrong with you?” He asks incredulously and she shakes her head a little before drawing in a long breath.
“I just- Ellen Tigh!” She exclaims once she catches her breath. “You should be careful there Lee, you might have to fight the XO!” Her giggles bubble up again, seemingly uncontrollable, he has the sudden urge to pinch her in the soft skin at the back of her upper arm. She squeals a little in surprise when he actually does it. “Ouch!”
“Just shut up and go to sleep Kara.”
Her sharp fingers pinch him in the side and he winces.
“Sir, yes sir!”
Round five - 33 winner
trappermcintyre“So lieutenant, do I have to smack you in the mouth?”
Kara's smile is tight and borne of the near mania of too much stress and too little sleep rather than actual enjoyment of the situation. Her hair is thick with dried sweat and grime, strands staying separated where she has run her fingers through it in frustration. Her skin is pale, almost gray in the harsh lighting of the hangar deck. Lee wonders if he looks as awful as she does.
Still, as she meets his eyes and agrees to take the stims he gives her, he can't help but marvel at her inescapable beauty. Her lips purse as she chomps down on the pills and his eyes are drawn to them, strips of dusky pink, dried and cracked and raw from where her top teeth worry at them. He wants to taste them, soothe them, wants to chase away all her ills with his lips and his tongue and his hands on her skin.
But they're at war just at present, so it's probably not the best time. Even if she wasn't his dead brother's fiance and his father's favourite child, his inferior officer and a royal pain in his ass. They're on the hangar deck in front of about twenty people, and he's fairly certain the Chief is watching them.
So he walks away.
*
Kara finishes her pre-flight check-list with Cally and sends the kid packing. It feels like she hasn't had a single second to herself since they left Ragnar, and she needs a moment, just one moment to stop and breathe and calm the panic that's slowly swelling in her chest.
She takes a slow stroll around her viper, trailing her damp palm flat along its cool surface. Rounding the corner she stops and leans her forehead against the side of the wing. She huffs several breaths, short pants, the stims starting to take action, her blood pumping faster, her eyes itching to open. She fights it for a few moments, exercising whatever little control over her own body she can manage to retain.
The hand on her shoulder takes her by surprise, the pressure it exerts to turn her around even more so, and she finds herself face to face with Lee, slightly out of breath and gazing down at her unfocused, lips parted, breath fanning across her skin.
“Lee?” She attempts a smile, he's clearly delirious from the combination of fatigue and drugs and doesn't quite know what he's doing. She knows the feeling.
His eyes snap to hers, searching, questioning, and she really wishes she knew the answer, but then his palm is at her jaw and his lips are on hers and she thinks that maybe she was the answer. She squeaks a little but Lee's kiss is unrelenting. He pushes at her lips with his own, probing with his tongue, gentle but firm, and she parts her lips at his insistence. He tastes like stale sweat and recycled air but it barely registers as she lets him devour her, she's sure she must taste almost exactly the same.
Lee pulls back and drops his head into the space between them, breathing heavily, both palms hot against her own flushed cheeks.
“Kara.” He breathes and looks back up at her, she's struggling to control her own breath, forces her mouth closed as she meets his eyes. “Be careful out there.”
Round six - Hand of God winner
kl_shipper1The Old Man leaves her in the gym head, taping up her knee and fuming silently – a first for her, for sure, but deep down she knows he's right.
Lee strolls in just as she drops her roll of tape, her fingers are shaking from the exertion she'd just forced her body through.
“Frak.” She exhales, clenches and unclenches her fists, tries to get the blood flowing through her hands again.
“You alright?” Lee asks as he kneels in front of her and holds out the tape. The concern clearly written on his face pisses her off. She's fine. When is everyone going to start getting that?
“I'm fine.” She snaps. Draws a breath and lets it out. She meets his eyes and he still looks concerned. She just wants to smack him, is all, just smack him right in the mouth for being healthy and able to fly, for the fact that he gets to go out there and do his job and make the Old Man proud, for the fact that she can't.
Her fingers pinch at the bridge of her nose, she gets her breathing under control.
“I'm fine.” She says again, more gently this time, and tries her hardest to smile. Lee cocks an eyebrow like he knows what's going on inside her head and she scrunches her nose at him and grabs the tape. “Whatever, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be prepping your mission, Captain?”
Gods, she hates herself when she's like this, cranky and petty and just so obvious, she presses her mouth closed and just tries to concentrate on fixing up her leg. She jerks her knee too hard and winces, sucking in a harsh breath.
Lee's fingers are cold on top of her own, he pulls the roll of tape from her and positions her leg so that her foot is on his knee. The pads of his fingers are gentle, but rough, they slide along her skin, she wants to shiver, holds her breath instead.
“Everything's ready, I was looking for you.” He is slowly winding the tape around the bandage, placing it carefully, holding her still when she jerks uncomfortably. He looks up into her eyes and Kara's breath stops, sometimes she remembers just exactly how breathtaking he is, how the faintest hint of a smile and the light crease of his brow can make her completely lose her shit.
“I thought you might want to go through the plan with me again.”
He finishes the job and taps his fingers on the skin of her outer thigh, hands her back the tape and stands up. He's looking at her expectantly and she feels like such an idiot, she's going to have to just get over this at some point, she can't keep thinking about how beautiful he is every time they have a conversation.
Reaching out her hands for him to help her up, Kara pushes to her feet and grabs her gear.
“Sure Lee, let's go through the plan.” He offers her his arm to lean on, she forges ahead instead. But she can feel the shape of his careful hand hovering at her back just in case.
Round eight - Kobol's Last Gleaming winner -
sugarhavenThe second after she jumps, she wants to go back.
She wants to jump back to Lee and tell him it was just a joke. Tell him that she just wanted to give him a taste of what he'd feel like if he actually lost her.
But then she thinks that if she did that he'd just look her in the eyes with that same cold glare he used this morning and tell her that he hadn't even noticed that she was gone, and she decides against it.
She's looked too many people in the eyes and watched them tell her that she doesn't mean anything to them, she doesn't think she could take it from him.
So she stays her course, finds her way through jump after jump and eventually makes the final leap. The leap home.
For half a minute, she thinks she's made a mistake. But then the she takes a sweep of the area and there it is. Caprica. Home. She is good. She is very, very good.
She chuckles to herself, raises her arm to the comm button, can't wait to tell Lee exactly how brilliant she really is. But then she remembers where she is, what she's done, he finger stalls on the button and her laugh dries up in her throat. He probably wouldn't even be impressed anyway.
Kara spends about ten minutes searching for a landing strip or an air base to touch down on, before realising that everyone there is dead, she could park on top of the Buccaneers' stadium if she wanted and no one would bat an eyelid. She's actually kind of tempted, but then she's flying over Delphi and she sees the familiar dome of the museum's vaulted roof and figures that it's probably easier just to park right outside.
In and out, no muss, no fuss.
Jumping down from the cockpit, she notes the way it feels to back planetside. The smell of the air, the strange quality of the light. Did it always look this way? Were the buildings always this beige? Did the glass always shine like that? She can't remember, and there's no one here to ask. She's alone.
Except not really, because there's a cylon kicking her ass and Helo holding her up and Sharon, frakking Sharon telling her what they should and shouldn't do. She thinks she'd rather be alone. Or at least with someone she can rely on.
Not that she doesn't trust Helo, but he's been down here a while with Sharon the cylon and she's not entirely certain where his head's at. For now at least she's on her own.
After Sharon takes her raider and leaves them basically stranded, she and Helo make for her apartment. The old familiar things serving only to piss her off rather than comfort. She closes her eyes, listens to the sounds of her father's practised fingers moving across the keys, and tries hard not to wish that she had stayed on the Galactica. Stayed with her family, her friends. Stayed with Lee.
Her mind wanders, fixes on his face, so fierce, so bright this morning in his anger and hurt. She remembers the way she felt when she was in bed with Baltar, how she'd pictured him, touching her, holding her, loving her. Wanting her.
At least now she knows that whatever else he felt for her, wanting her wasn't really a problem. As for the other stuff, well, she threw that fairly well down the latrine. It's not like she deserved for him to love her anyway, like she deserved anything but his contempt and the thwack of his fist against her face.
When she opens her eyes Karl is watching her, studying her, his smile a welcome comfort in this place that she knows so well, but that feels so incredibly foreign to her now.
She's alone, no Lee, no Old Man, no Galactica. But she has Karl. And in the pocket of her old painting jacket, she has a set of keys to a car that can get them where they're going. So maybe the situation's not so bad after all.
Round nine - Colonial Day winner
winegumsWhen they were kids, his parents employed gardeners. They had a house with a great big lawn and his dad was never around and his mom didn't know how to work the lawn mower, so they hired gardeners. They'd come every Friday during the summer and mow the lawns, weed the beds, trim the hedges.
They had sprinklers too. Great big streams of water spraying in all directions for hours on end. He and Zak would play all day long, jumping in and out of the jets, pressing their feet down on the spouts until the water pressure hurt their skin.
When Kara pulls the hose out from behind her back, for an instant he sees Zak's face. Six years old, gap-toothed and beaming. So he doesn't quite get out of her way before she manages to catch him with the spray.
Lee is soaked before he knows it, and he should probably be pissed. He didn't bring extra fatigues with him in the raptor and they're on duty in an hour. But Kara's gleeful squeals and painfully wide smile are so joyful, and there's something so incredibly Zak about her in that moment that he can't.
He manages to wrangle the hose from her and accomplishes a certain amount of retribution before they hear a grumpy cough and look up to find a stern looking gardener staring down at them.
“You're gonna make my lawn into a marsh.” He grumbles. Lee feels almost like he's back at school again, and Kara's giggling apology doesn't help the feeling. They stumble away from the gardener, leaving the hose on the floor in a patch of soggy fake grass, and try not to burst into laughter as they attempt to maintain their integrity.
They reach the door to the main building, round the corner into the maintenance hallway, and then collapse together against a wall into hysterics.
Between Kara's periodic repetitions of the old guy's admonitions, and Lee's pathetic attempts at his pissed off face, it's ten minutes before they get themselves under control. Finally, breathless and elated, slumped against the wall on the floor.
“We should uh-” he looks over at her and quickly away when the smile on her face threatens to make him laugh again. “We should probably get to work.”
Kara nods, but makes no move to get up, so he stays put as well, rests his head on the crown of hers, blows the stray strands out of his face where they fall when she moves, making herself comfortable.
They stay there until his ass starts to go numb and he absolutely has to move. Kara bumps him with her hip as they stroll down the corridor. He smiles and thinks about sprinklers and sunshine and summers with his little brother.
Hope you all enjoy your prizes, don't forget to check out today's challenges for more opportunities to win!
<3
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-30 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 12:33 am (UTC)I was in a frivolous early-series-pilots-so-anything-could-still-happen-fic kind of mood today, so it all just came out like this!
♥
no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 12:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-30 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 12:35 am (UTC)Giggly-messing-around-pilots are the bestest :D
no subject
Date: 2011-08-30 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 02:28 am (UTC)And I especially loved the image of his hand supporting her as she walks away in Hand Of God. So very Lee.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 02:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 03:16 am (UTC)I keep starting to say which one is my fave but I love them all so much. I really enjoyed the hose playing one a lot. Somehow it's the bit where he blows her hair away from his face that makes the whole thing.
The Tigh Me Up Cuddle fic was beautiful. I love intimately friendly pilots. Familiar and loving and bantery. That's probably my favorite flavor of fic and you captured it so well.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-01 02:25 am (UTC)That's my favourite part! :D Which is stupid. But it is. I'm so glad you liked them!
I just love me some cuddle fic, and we don't get enough of it around here, understandably since ALL THE THINGS happened and there's not really a lot of cuddle opportunities later on in the series, but I just think it would be nice if we had some more :)
Thanks for your comments.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-01 02:26 am (UTC)Ellen Tigh, indeed! I would have found it hilarious, that's all I'm saying.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-01 08:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-01 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-01 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-01 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-02 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-02 09:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 04:09 am (UTC)In any case, I just want to give you kudos for your beautiful, detailed storytelling and AGAIN encourage you to jump into mid-length or longfic. Your Kepela (SP???) is truly one of my favorite fics EVER so I cannot WAIT to see what else you come up with.
*cheers*
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 09:37 am (UTC)I was just in this funny mood that day, I wanted to try and write as though I was only just watching the first two seasons, when people would write all this frivolous, optimistic, kind of throw-away post-ep fic that you just don't get in later seasons. It happens with every show as canon develops, the story becomes more specific, the possibilities get less and the fic gets more serious, I just wanted to do something light-hearted :)
hee! Bless you :) I am writing some longer things, they will never be KAG!long, but they're obviously longer than these. Thing is longer things, for me, take aages because I don't have that natural kind of narrative foresight, I can't see the whole thing right from the beginning and I have to wait for it all to click together. You will see longer things from me at some point, I swear.
Ha! I think that's how you spell it...I'm not entirely certain myself, it's a made up word, I just really like it :S And also, :D :D :D Thank you. I know you've said it before, but literally every time you say something like that I get all smiley and gushy. *HUGS* And thank you for your awesome comment :)
♥
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 02:02 pm (UTC)I am so very excited for this! I just love your storytelling approach and the details you include. Anyhow - more gushing from ME over here (and actually I need to go dig up your Dirty Dancing cross) but I just need you to know what a fabulous addition to fandom you are. AND your nice. Not necessarily the same thing, but FABULOUS in tandem.
*throws glitter* You go, girl!
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 04:02 pm (UTC)*twirls around in the glitter* Thank you, I happen to think YOU are pretty fabulous yourself :)
And, because I know you are a busy lady, you can find Dirty Dancing!Pilots Here (http://pilots-presents.livejournal.com/23541.html) whenever you have the chance.
*HUGS*