Overrated. Battlestar Galactica, Kara/Lee, PG-13. Pre-mini-series. During downtime, Kara tries to disprove the effectiveness of thinking. Written for tielan, for fandom_stocking 09 at LJ. I don't own, or pretend to own any characters or locations or objects that belong to the BSG universe. I'm just borrowing them for a little bit of fun!
Living up to expectations wasn't easy.
Lee had spent the better part of his adolescence and young adulthood attempting to emulate the feats of the Great William Adama; feats he felt everyone expected him to surmount at some point.
It wasn't that he didn't enjoy being a pilot – there was a certain thrill in piloting a Viper that he didn't think could be achieved doing anything else. But thrills were only one part of his life, and if anyone asked him for an honest answer, he wouldn't call it fulfilling.
He blinked away the deep thoughts as a shadow fell over him, a figure moving to blot out the brilliant sun he'd been sitting underneath on his day off. He didn't have many of those anymore and he had a tendency to savour them. A smile creased his face when he heard the familiar laughter of Kara Thrace.
"You look ridiculous, Lee," she proclaimed, moving out of his sunlight and crouching down beside him. For a self-proclaimed tomboy, Kara could be remarkable graceful – when she wanted to be.
He raised an eyebrow. "Exactly what about me looks ridiculous to you?"
She sat down, stretching out her legs. "For starters, that hat," she told him, bringing a palm down to slap the peak of his hat.
"I burn easy," he replied dryly.
"Dork." She sighed, bringing her hands behind her head. She waited almost a minute – a record, he figured – before speaking again. He wondered if she talked a lot just to break up the silence. "What're you doing out here anyway?"
He shrugged and leaned back. "Thinking."
"Thinking?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah," he said, "you should try it sometime."
That earned him a slap on the shoulder.
"Ow."
"You deserved it."
"For what? Telling the truth?"
She pouted. He couldn't believe that she actually pouted. "You're so mean."
He shook his head. "Consider it constructive criticism."
She smiled mockingly. "Yes, sir!"
Lee rolled his eyes.
Another short silence followed, shorter than the first. "What were you thinking about?"
He couldn't tell her. Kara already had enough ammunition to fire at him thanks to Zac, and he wasn't going to give her any himself. "Just… things."
"Things?" She snorted. "What kind of things?"
He looked over at her, sighing. "Boring things."
"Boring things? I could have told you that, Lee," she told him, grinning wickedly. "You need some imagination in your thoughts."
Her grin worried him, and after a moment of letting his eyes linger on her, he looked away. He shouldn't have looked away.
The moment he looked away, Kara was on him, hands tickling his sides relentlessly. He had a second to mentally curse his baby brother for providing his best friend with information that he was ticklish and then he couldn't stop himself from laughing.
Kara had control of the situation and it wasn't until he felt tears running down his cheeks and he could hear himself yelling, "Stop, stop!" that she eased up.
She looked down on him, millimetres from his face. He was breathing hard and holding her hands away from him.
"Sometimes, Lee," she told him, her face serious, "you just need to stop thinking."