Driving Lessons
Characters: Kara/Lee
Rating: R
Disclaimer: It's all Ron D. Moore's world. We're just living in it.
Spoilers: None, set pre-Mini
Summary: "I'll work the thruster pedals, all you have to do is drive the stick."
"You're not doing it right, Apollo!"
"No kidding."
"Go left, just a little. Nope, too much. Ok, now, harder. HARDER"
Lee let out a sigh of frustration. "Could I just…maybe…oh, I don't know…have a little help here? Or are you just going to lay there laughing at me, Starbuck?
Kara rolled her eyes and shifted up on her knees. "Fine, fine. I should've known you'd be crap at this. You know what they say: never send a man to do a woman's job."
Rising from the floor next to the flight simulator where she'd been sprawling, she was about to speak again, when she thought she heard a noise near the doorway. It was nearly 0300 and even though she technically could access the sims whenever she wanted as a flight instructor, it would've been somewhat awkward to explain being here at this hour with a visitor, even if he was an alumni and fellow lieutenant. Especially since they were both more than a little hammered after a night of barhopping. At least Zak was out on a survival mission. Even Kara wouldn't have been able to explain her way out of being here drunk with a student. Of course, if Zak was around this weekend, she and Lee probably wouldn't…
Her thought was interrupted by a loud Frak from inside the sim. She poked her head and shoulders into the narrow entry just in time to get a better view of the white light washing over the screen. "Washed out again, Adama?" she chuckled gleefully. "What's that, the fifth time? Gods, Apollo, and here I thought you might give me a run for my money."
He glared at her wide smirk. "Don't go counting your cubits just yet, Thrace. I'll have you know I still hold the Academy record for fastest time in the Mark VII on the Geminon Crawl course."
"Well no danger of setting any records on this new one, if that asteroid you've wiped out on three times now is any indication. Besides," she grinned, leaning in close to poke a finger into his chest, "I only let you keep that last record," her finger slid down now, tracing the zipper on his hooded sweatshirt, "because I prefer to fly a real bird."
She paused, realizing her hand was now hovering only a few inches above his navel and pulled back abruptly. Too abruptly, she knew as she looked up into blue eyes that were watching her with something dangerously close to anticipation. Kara crossed her arms and leaned back against the door of the sim, shoving traitorous hands into her armpits.
She conjured up an insolent grin. "The Geminon Crawl is a walk in the park and the VII might as well be frakking autopiloted for all the challenge it offers. Now the Mark II, that's a challenge," she stroked the side of the simulator affectionately. "Fly this new course within 15 seconds of my time and maybe I'll be impressed," she grinned wickedly. "Although at the rate you're going, if you finish it at all before 0800 I might just pass out from the shock."
"Swooning over me already, Lieutenant?" Lee raised an eyebrow, backing down only when Kara leveled an angry glare at him. "Ok, since you're the old pro, show me how it's done." He sat back in the pilot seat, crossing his arms in a parody of her stance.
She shrugged. "Only if you promise not to cry when I'm done wiping the floor with your ass." Bad choice of words, Kara realized, as she tried very, very hard not to envision that ass. She reached out and smacked his shoulder. "Move out, flyboy."
He shook his head. "Uh uh. I want a front-row seat to see the downfall of the mighty Starbuck. Besides, you're so good at this, I'm sure you can do it from there."
"Oh, I'm not good, I'm great. But I can't exactly talk you through it." She pursed her lips and gave him a measuring stare. "You're wiping out because you're flying like you have the manual shoved down your jock. Textbook tactics aren't going to let you beat a course like this, Apollo." She winked at him. "You have to feel your way. Think you can handle that?"
Lee blinked, but recovered admirably, trying on a Starbuck-caliber smirk. "Who said anything about talking?" He leaned back in the seat. "C'mon Kara, I'll work the thruster pedals, all you have to do is drive the stick." He paused, fairly sure his ears were turning red, but bolstered by the amount of sheer alcohol consumed, he blustered on. "If you can handle that."
The spark of mischief in Kara's eyes flared and she darted forward to boot up the sim program again. "Oh, you want me to handle your stick, do you?" Her tongue poked the side of her cheek obscenely and she cocked an eyebrow at him. "Well, OK. Just remember, you asked for it, Lee."
As the program ran through its prep and countdown, Kara considered the simulator. It wasn't exactly built for spaciousness. There was only about a half-foot on either side of the chair. Great. Stretching into a very awkward position, half-draped over Lee's lap, she reached down between his legs to grasp the throttle. Her bicep pressed intimately against his inner thigh as she maneuvered through the first barrel roll, squinting at the slightly twisted view she had of the sim screen, and Kara felt a tingling heat racing up her arm. She never could've imagined she'd miss the thick rubber of a flight suit so much in her life.
Overcorrecting to narrowly miss a floating chunk of debris, she jerked back, her shoulder thudding into Lee's solid chest and Kara swore under her breath. She was just about to straighten and tell him how utterly stupid this idea was, when she felt his left hand settle on her lower back, his fingers resting on the hem of her black tank top and his palm warm and damp against the strip of skin her awkward positioning had exposed. A few seconds later she felt him shift forward, his breath hot against her right ear. "Having trouble concentrating, Instructor?"
Kara turned quickly, but the cocky retort about him referring to her as God escaped her as she realized just how close his lips were. For a moment there was silence. Then she heard the familiar alarm of a failed sim run sounding behind her.
Lee laughed, no, cackled really and she scrambled upright. "This was a really, really stupid idea."
"Now Kara, don't be a sore loser. Just because you failed even more miserably than I did, that's no reason to get pissy."
"Well, maybe if someone hadn't forgotten to hit the thruster pedal when we came around that last belt…
"Face it, Instructor, maybe you're just not as good as you say you are."
Kara Thrace never met a challenge she could resist, and just because it was Lee frakking Adama—Zak's brother, she reminded herself pointlessly—issuing this one, it didn't make a damn bit of difference. He was getting entirely too smug and it was time to call in the big guns. A little out-of-the-box thinking was going to be necessary to end this ridiculous cat-and-mouse game.
She looked at Lee coolly, turning on the Starbuck full force to distract him from the too much Kara she'd already shown tonight. "Look here, nugget," she sneered, "I already told you that half-assing it wasn't going to work on this course. So, unless you're ready to really let me show you how it's done, then you might as well shut your trap."
Lee smiled, shaking his head. "Fine." He started to stand so she could take his place but Starbuck leaned forward and planted a hand on his chest and pushed him back into the seat, shaking her head no.
"Close your eyes."
He stared at her quizzically and was that just a hint of fear she saw glinting in his eyes? Yes, it was and that was good. Fear was good. Perfect really.
"Close 'em and keep 'em closed. And yes, that's an order." Technically since they were both lieutenants, Kara had no real right to pull rank here, but she figured they'd left technicalities a few bars and several bottles behind them. She almost thought to wonder what else they left back there then thought better of it.
Lee closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat. She saw his Adam's Apple bob once and then he said in a not-so-steady voice. "Well alright, sir, but it's gonna be tough to fly the sim with my eyes closed."
He looked somehow younger, more vulnerable this way, and she couldn't resist. Kara leaned in and let her mouth nearly kiss his ear before she whispered in a low growl, "You're not gonna fly the sim, Lee. You're gonna fly me."
Before she could lose her nerve, Kara swung into the simulator and onto his lap. It was a tight fit in the small space. Contrary to legend, she'd never doubled up before in any kind of cockpit with anyone, whether for professional or…pleasurable…reasons. Part of her wondered idly which of those this classified as, before Lee started stuttering out questions.
"Kara…what the frak are you…"
"Shut it, nugget." OK maybe that was pushing it a little. "You wanna learn this course, you're going to have to feel it and I'm going to help you do that."
She shifted back, wriggling against him to make more room, and couldn't help grin as she heard a strangled noise emit from his throat. This was going to be fun.
"If you're gonna move like that, could you warn me first?"
"Uncomfortable?"
A long pause. "No." A shorter pause. "But isn't there a weight capacity in these—"
He let a loud "oof" as one of Kara's elbows happened to plant itself in his stomach not so gently.
She slid her thighs apart, straddling his legs and hooking her feet behind his calves. Then she reached down for his hands, threading her fingers through his momentarily and draping his arms around her waist. They were heavy and solid, his muscles bigger than Zak's and Kara felt a rush of warmth sitting enclosed there. A memory of huddling on her couch with a wool blanket on winter days when the heat was shut off at her crappy apartment popped into mind unbidden. She shrugged it away, scornfully thinking she'd be envisioning fluffy bunnies next, and dropped Lee's hands onto the throttle.
Hmm. With two of them in here there wasn't going to be quite as much room to pull the stick back and force the simulated viper upwards. In fact, his hands were going to be dangerously close to some no-fly zones indeed. Well, too late to cut and run now. Kara punched the reboot and wrapped her hands around Lee's on the stick.
"Kara?" Lee asked, as the sim program started counting down. "Can I open my eyes now?"
"Nope, keep 'em closed. You don't need to see the course to beat it. You move when I move." She exhaled and muttered almost to herself, "Now, get ready for the ride of your life, flyboy."
Lee heard the countdown hit zero and felt Kara pitch the throttle forward as her foot nudged his right calf. He pushed the thruster to the floor. She was heading the viper down through the first canyon, and the sim tilted to emulate the proper angle of acceleration. Lee was leaning forward, his weight pushing Kara to bend at the waist.
The combination of the acceleration, his blindness, and having Kara pressing against him inch for inch disoriented Lee completely for a minute. He felt her foot pressing against his leg again and belatedly he punched the pedal.
He felt the laughter rumble through her back and into his chest. "Who's having trouble concentrating now, Apollo? You're going to have to do better than that."
His mouth was open to respond when Kara yanked the stick to the left and she shifted just a few seconds faster than he could anticipate. Lee felt the silky ends of her hair brush his cheeks just before the soft cool skin of her neck smacked into his lips. The shock of impact instinctively made him try to close his mouth and his teeth grazed her skin for just a second before he felt Kara jerk forward.
"Hey! No biting, you bastard."
"Sorry, that wasn't my—it's not like I can see anything back here you know. Can I open my eyes yet?"
"No." Her tone brooked no disagreement. "Just sit back and relax and let your body take over. It knows what to do. Flying's instinctual Lee. Just like…breathing."
Somehow he didn't think that's what she originally meant to say.
"Lee?"
"Yeah" His voice sounded gravelly.
"Breathe." He inhaled deeply, feeling her rise with his intake and settle back on his exhale.
Suddenly, she pulled back on the throttle to climb. Lee's knuckles grazed soft denim and he realized that his hands were very, very close to a part of Kara's anatomy he was not supposed to be thinking about. But that didn't stop him from flexing slightly under her fingers, pushing outwards so the backs of his hands pressed harder against her inner thighs. So warm, he thought. All he could feel was heat and curves.
She was softer than he expected in his arms. When he thought of—allowed himself to think of—Kara, Lee always envisioned sharpness and shifting angles, bright glints of steel and cutting edges, like a dagger. But pressed together like this, he was shocked to find only yielding flesh against him.
He wondered idly if Kara used this method of teaching before. With Zak, his mind flashed guiltily. Then even more guiltily he realized, No, with this kind of tutoring, there's no way Zak would be such a crap pilot.
She shifted against him, her hips pressing his down. War college was brutal and it'd been a long time since he'd felt the slide and press of skin on skin. Half-hearted lap dances at a friend's bachelor party didn't begin to compare to this. Even fully clothed, it was starting to be too much for him, he realized as an acceleration coiled low in his groin that had nothing to do with the simulated G-forces they were maneuvering through.
Biting his cheek, he tried desperately to dull his brain, running through motion equations and the laws of physics. It wasn't really working though, and when Kara moved the stick, sending them into a roll and pushing his right hand hard against the flexing muscles of her thigh, he cursed to find his own throttle responding in kind.
As they pulled out of the roll and leveled out, Kara said, "Cursing at me now? I'm not that heavy. Besides," she lifted one hand off the throttle and reached back to pat his leg, "you've got all these nice hard muscles, Apollo. You can take it."
He bit back a groan as her hand stroked his leg. He locked his arms tightly around Kara's torso, lifting her slightly so he could reposition himself underneath her in a way so as to not completely embarrass himself. He heard her gasp and clutch the throttle in surprise as he lifted her. But it was no use, there wasn't any room and when he pulled her back down against him, her backside molded to his body like it was made to fit there permanently.
Kara cleared her throat and he knew he was busted. "Ahem, speaking of nice, hard muscles…" He could hear the amusement in her husky voice and figured he would never live this down. "Lee, you know, when I agreed to drive your stick, I didn't exactly mean…"
"Shut up, Kara," he ground out, jaw clenching as her teasing words sent spirals of heat through his belly. "Just give me a minute here, alright?"
"A minute?" Her voice was light, teasing, and he wondered how the hell she was able to not feel anything. "How disappointing. I always thought you'd have a little more stamina than that."
Always? What the frak did that mean? Had she been thinking about— Lee's frantic thoughts came to a halt when he felt the tip of her right boot glide slowly down his calf, the touch completely different than the hard nudges of pressure she'd used before to goad his thrusting, and he flexed his leg, slamming down on the pedal and grinding it into the sim floor.
She jumped a little, surprised by the force, and then chuckled and again Lee wondered how she managed to remain so unaffected. Maybe Starbuck really did have balls of steel. God knows his own weren't holding up as well. He was thinking about the really cold shower he was going to have to take at 0400 in the frakking morning, when he heard her purr, "Hold it together, flyboy. We're almost done. Just an end-to-end flip and then we've got a straight shot home."
Thank the gods, Lee thought. End-to-end meant serious g-forces. An idea on how to get a little of his own revenge on the impervious Starbuck came to mind and he wasted no time in executing it. He slid his palms out from under her grip and closed his hands on top of the stick, his thick fingers sliding in between her slimmer digits and grasping the head of the throttle firmly.
"Lee, what are you doing?" He couldn't help but thrill a bit at the now slightly shrill tone of her voice.
"Graduating." Lee opened his eyes and surveyed the screen. They were coming up faster than he thought on the hulking asteroid he'd wiped out on the first three times he'd run the course. Moving quickly, he pulled back hard on the throttle, their hands wedging hard into the apex between Kara's legs, and he heard her let out a very undignified moan. The G-forces kicked in a second later and he snapped back, their bodies slamming against the seat without the cushioning of flight suits to help equalize the pressure.
Kara's head rolled back against his shoulder and when he dared a glance down at her, he was surprised to find her eyes closed. She was biting her bottom lip while an expression that almost looked like pain, but not quite, stretched over her face. Lee tightened his grip on the throttle, the thumbs of his knuckles dragging hard down either side of the seam in Kara's jeans, as he struggled to maintain control and equalize the ship. Lee realized to his shock that the soft denim-clad flesh he was pushing against was burning hot and surprisingly damp.
A low-pitched groan rolled out from Kara's lips and he felt her hips buck forward once, then twice, and then her body shuddered against him. Frak, did she just…? Her eyes flew open and surprisingly she smiled at him. It wasn't any of her usual smiles, not dangerous nor mischievous nor smirking or challenging. It was just pure light and that was what convinced Lee that his baby brother's girlfriend just had an orgasm on his lap.
The thought forced him into action and he ripped his eyes back to the sim screen just in time to jam the pedal once more and finish the course. Lee felt his heartbeat stutter as he tried to catch his breath, but he could feel her eyes locked on him and he had trouble. He panted, his breath coming heavy and uneven, unsure how to process this. He took his hands off the stick and Kara did the same. She was going to get up now and he would be left sitting there with a raging hard-on and breathing like an obscene phone caller. He couldn't let that happen. He had to pull it together.
Instinctively he tightened his arms around her and splayed his hands on her stomach trapping her as he worked to control his breathing. He felt her stomach rising and falling under his palms and realized she was still breathing rapidly as well. That made him feel a little better.
"Frak, Lee." She still sounded breathless. "That was…"
He grinned, waiting.
"…pathetic."
"What?!"
She let her left hand drift to lay on top of his which were still threaded over her stomach and pointed to the screen with her other. He squinted at the score displayed on the stats screen. Forty-five seconds behind Kara's record.
"That's pitiful. You should be ashamed nugget." He could hear the laughter in her voice and surprisingly that was what finally helped him pull himself together. "You are clearly in need of more lessons."
"Well, I may not be as good as the almighty Starbuck just yet, but you have to admit I'm no longer flying with the…how did you so charmingly put it? Oh yeah, 'manual shoved down my jock'." He grinned, shifting slightly to look down at her, head still resting on his shoulder. "I would say I definitely felt my way through that, wouldn't you?"
She rolled her eyes and jammed a pointy elbow into his gut again. Lee let out a soft grunt and drew back a hand to rub his side. He knew what would happen next. Whenever things got just a little weird like this (well, not exactly like this before ever, and maybe this was more than just a little weird), Kara would bolt. But to his surprise, Kara locked her own hands around his other one, keeping it pressed into her stomach. He sat back again and silence enveloped them as their breathing evened out and fell into a matching rhythm. One minute stretched into five and then more.
"Kara?"
A pause. "Yes, Lee?"
"Best out of three?"
--fin--