'Circle of Fantasies'
A friendly game of triad gets interesting when people no longer have material things to lose.
Humour/Romance
Early season 1
Lee/Kara pairing
M+
ZZZZZZZZZZThe air was thick with smoke, the atmosphere loose. The ambrosia was almost gone, but no one wanted the game to end yet.
"Has anyone got anything left to bet?" Apollo asked.
"Nah, Starbuck's won it all already," Crashdown answered, and Starbuck's face split in a wide grin.
"You win some, you lose some people."
"You ALWAYS win Starbuck," Cally griped.
"She's got to lose eventually," Tyrol comforted her.
"And boy do I want to be around when that happens!" Apollo chimed in. "You've taken all my money, half my clothes and my last bar of soap!"
"At least I'll smell nice," Starbuck said, leaning over towards him and smiling smugly.
"I guess we'll have to call it a night then," Gaeta said shrugging.
"No wait, I've got an idea," Crash said, a sly grin spreading across his face.
"Let's have it then," Apollo said reluctantly, eyebrows raised. After polishing off several bottles of ambrosia, he really wasn't sure any suggestion made now would be in good taste. Then again, no one else at the table was sober enough to care, himself included. The vague thought that he had the first CAP shift in the morning went through his head and then disappeared completely.
"Instead of a prize for the winner, how 'bout a punishment for the loser? Whoever has the worst cards gets it."
Heads nodded - it sounded okay so far.
"So what punishment were you thinking of? Doing each other's chores?"
"Better," Crash grinned. "The loser has to tell the table his or her secret sexual fantasy."
Apollo rolled his eyes and groaned. He knew it - by this point in the evening it was always about sex.
"I like it," Starbuck sang out, grinning furiously. She would. She rarely ever lost. And she'd have ammo against the others, including himself, to use for weeks.
"Whoa, the stakes are getting high," the Chief said.
"Too high for you?" Gaeta said slyly.
"You wanna play with the big dogs ..." Crash began.
"I'm in," Gaeta said.
"I'm in." Starbuck.
Apollo's gaze flicked quickly to her face and then back to the table. If it was even remotely possible that she'd be sharing her sexual fantasies, he wanted to be here. "I'm in," he said next, feeling slightly aroused already.
"I'm in," Tyrol said, rather reluctantly Apollo thought.
"I dunno about this," Cally began , but Starbuck wouldn't let her get out of it that easily.
"Come on Cally, you can't let me be the ONLY woman at the table," she pleaded.
"You're a woman?" Crash asked, looking at her as though he'd never seen her before. "Ow!"
"Serves you right, you ... you ... you man, you." Starbuck said after punching him. She just couldn't think of a proper insult - definitely too much ambrosia!
Crash nudged her and winked, and then began to deal the cards. Despite the friendly tone of the game, there was an undercurrent of tension in the room - no one wanted to be the first to lose.
"And you have to be honest, no making it up," Crashdown reminded everyone.
"But what if it involves ... people we all know?" Tyrol reddened as he spoke.
"No names. Anonymous fantasies only," Apollo suggested.
"Good idea." The rest of the table agreed.
Gaeta was the first loser. "Two women at the same time," he said, not seeming embarrassed in the slightest. Crashdown applauded and pushed the cards to Starbuck on his left. She cut and dealt them expertly.
Cally was the next loser. She blushed redder than her hair. "Strawberries and cream for foreplay." There were many cheers at that one.
Tyrol deal next. Apollo lost. "I've always wanted to do it on top of my Viper." He smiled provocatively, but the blush on his cheeks told the one who knew him best just how embarrassed he was.
"You haven't, how could you...?"
"Whoa, wouldn't that be hard?"
Apollo held up his hands in surrender. "I didn't say HOW, just that it was my fantasy, okay?"
"Wouldn't be THAT hard," Starbuck blurted out, then coloured as the rest of the table turned to stare at her. "I mean, not if you know what you're doing," she smiled, looked over at Apollo and winked, causing his flush to deepen.
Apollo dealt next. He lost again. "Second worst hand," Crashdown called out. "You're boring already Captain. Aw crap, it's me," he said, as he checked his cards against the others.
"Someone to pour chocolate sauce on my cock and lick it all off."
There was dead silence at the table. Then Starbuck spoke, her eyes wide and a small smile on her face. "Well, that was graphic." Everyone laughed as Cally dealt the cards. Somehow they all felt the stakes had just gone that little bit higher.
Tyrol lost. "In a launch tube just before Viper launch."
"Ooh, he likes it dangerous folks," Crash joked, and the Chief blushed. "Last hand everyone, and it's Starbuck's turn."
"Hey, what if I don't lose?"
"Don't matter, everyone else here has shared - your turn."
"No fair," she said, slightly ticked at this new rule. Miracle do happen though, and she lost, now legitimately having to tell the table her fantasy.
Apollo's heart began to pound and the flush appeared on his cheeks again as he pictured Starbuck being part of his fantasy. Not that that was unusual; he'd recently started seeing her face on the nameless body he'd imagined playing along in his fantasies. But as much as he knew it was wrong, he couldn't seem to stop thinking about her.
Starbuck, for her part, spend a few moments thinking, a 'smile, it makes people wonder what you've been up to' smile on her face.
"Well... " she began but was interrupted.
"Unfair, she doesn't want to tell us so she's making another one up," Gaeta said, pointing at her.
Starbuck laughed, a low throaty chucke. "Trust me, nothing I could make up would be as good as the real thing."
"So, give then," Crash said, nudging her again.
"Fine. Just one word. Domination." She smiled.
The rest of the table seemed shocked, but finally someone found a voice. "Were you thinking of being on the giving or receiving end of that?" Tyrol asked slyly.
"Receiving." She smirked, knowing that answer would astound them. Starbuck ... being dominated? That was something pretty difficult for them to wrap their brains around. If it had been a contest to see who had the most shocking fantasy, she'd have won for sure. The looks on their faces was priceless.
Apollo suddenly stood up, looking uncomfortable. "Well, I've gotta go - got the early shift tomorrow. Good game folks." He forced a smile and headed towards his rack. As he hurried down the hall, he heard the rest of the group breaking it up and laughing. He debated stopping for a cold shower, but given the lateness of the hour, decided to pass and just head for bed as quickly as he could. If he was lucky, he could be changed, in , and curtains closed before anyone came back and saw how uptight the night's game had made him.
Starbuck swaggered back to the bunkroom with Crashdown and Kat, happy that she'd gotten the final word of the night. She was nothing if not a shit disturber, and nothing made her happier than shocking people. Especially THESE people, who thought they'd seen everything from her already.
Crashdown was talking at length about certain aspects of the game, but she wasn't really listening. She was busy replaying the expressions on Apollo's face, firstly when he talked about his fantasy, but more importantly, when she told hers. Outwardly, his face had registered shock, just like everyone else's, but the look in his eyes - it was hungry, full of desire. He'd been surprised, but pleased to hear of her fantasy. She wondered if he had any idea that he was the one she fantasized about dominating her. Probably not, men were notoriously blind that way.
Then again, there had never been even the vague suggestion of anything sexual between them in all the time they'd known each other. They'd always teased each other about their flying, about Lee's upright attitude and her more loose morals, about her liking for Zack - but even now that they were stranded here on Galactica together, no advances were ever made. They had fallen back into the old patterns, forgotten since Zack's death, but resurrected now that they had no choice but to be together nearly twenty-four hours a day.
In recent weeks however, Kara had found herself thinking about Lee even during the few hours they didn't spend together. Watching him in the showers and bunkroom for longer than the split second that was demanded for at least a small measure of privacy. Dreaming about him and waking to find him facing her across the room. Something was changing between them, but she didn't know if he felt it too.
They finished in the washroom and quickly headed to bed, undressing hastily and climbing in.
"Night Crashdown," Starbuck said loudly.
"Night Starbuck, night Kat."
"Night Crashdown."
"Night Kat."
"Night Starbuck."
"Night Apollo."
"Shut up Starbuck."
"Love you too."
"Some of us are trying to sleep."
"Trying?"
"Shut up Starbuck."
"Night Apollo." Crashdown decided to play along as well.
"Shut up Crashdown."
"Don't you think he's a little testy?" Starbuck asked no one in particular.
Apollo whipped open his curtain. "I'm on CAP in six hours, now everyone shut up and let me get some sleep. That's an order!" And he shut his curtain again.
"Night Apollo, sleep well." Lee chuckled quietly. He could hear the smile in Kara's voice and knew she was enjoying this.
"Shut up Starbuck." And he closed his eyes, imagining the two of them together on top of his Viper canopy.
TBC