A/N: promptfic: boat,ostrich, pancakes
Really, who else could put those three words together but Murdock? LOL
"Look out belowww!"
The announcement rang out into open sea air, overwhelming the more peaceful sounds of seagulls and small waves lapping; at the intrusion, three curious heads slowly lifted from lounge chairs and turned toward the direction from which the yell ensued. The blond man pushing himself up onto tanned elbows lifted one eyebrow slowly, cautiously. The black man squinted against the sun and grunted in wordless, warning displeasure. The brunette woman across from both of them rolled from her back over to her stomach, then quickly jumped up from there to hands and knees on the shifting canvas, eyes widening with dramatic speed.
That, more than the warning called a moment before, had both her companions leaping up, reaching for weapons that weren't there as battle-quickened instincts lunged into high gear. Although she hadn't been through the same war, the last couple of years of surviving life-and-death alongside these men (and the physical strength and agility forced-trained into her body during those years) sent the brunette jump-rolling off her chair and to the side, out of the way of the -
Ostrich. Ostrich. Racing in a flurry of black-and-white feathers, flapping wings, and angry hisses across the deck of the private and formerly peaceful yacht.
If this team was any less used to the strange, bizarre, and at times downright incomprehensible, this departure from any semblance of normality might have frozen the three teammates in place just long enough to get trampled. Fortunately, they were entirely used to it. With varying-pitched but remarkably in-sync yells of "Murdock!", Templeton Peck, BA Baracus, and Amy Allen fled in three separate directions, taking less then six seconds to all end up - via different routes - atop the relative safety of the bridge cabin's roof. The ostrich uttered a loud squawk of its own as it flailed to avoid running off the other end of the boat into the water, finally scrabbling to a halt mid-deck, feathers ruffled and visibly breathing hard. Only after a few seconds of stillness did the startled trio take notice of the harness - halter - around the bird's head and neck, long straps dangling loosely about its naked legs. BA growled; the other two exchanged befuddled looks... only for the orchestrator of this (and so much other) chaos to come trotting cheerfully down the dock and jump lithely onto the deck, walking up to the flustered bird without concern to grab hold of the straps.
"Hey, Elmer," HM Murdock scolded and soothed at once. "See, I told ya not to go running off like that. You coulda met a bad end as the hood ornament of a semi, or a - oh hi guys." The disarming smile and little wave offered as cautious recompense for whatever-the-hell-just-happened did very little to cool off the rapidly rising tempers above.
"Murdock!" Baracus thundered, still on hands and knees against the rocking of the yacht. "Fool got hisself an ostrich!" he bellowed to his compatriots, a bare foot away. Peck winced, ducking his head half sideways at the volume. Amy rolled her eyes.
"Murdock," she attempted even an ounce of sanity. "Why is there an ostrich on this boat?"
Their usual pilot looked up with a more-cautious smile, attempting to be ingratiating, from half-under the brim of his baseball cap. He wrapped the bird's - reins? - tighter around his hand as it craned its head around and over his shoulder, eyeing his captor's clothing for edibility. "Elmer's hungry. I told him we might have pancakes."
The sounds of three foreheads thumping onto fiberglass roof and varying-pitched groans were almost drowned out by the holler when "Elmer" finally decided to try a bite of that tasty-looking hat.