Title: Dangerous Flirtation

Author: abelard

Rating: T

Spoilers: through Captain's Hand, beyond that is pure spec

Pairing: Apollo/Starbuck

Disclaimers: Not mine.

Summary: Some flirtations are harmless. They both know this one isn't.

A/N: Others, including Martha and TracyL, have done variations on the illicit-Apollo-Starbuck-affair theme, and I bow to their superiority. This is my humble contribution to the genre.

Some flirtations are harmless. Most of them are. They both know this one isn't.

It started after Anders was rescued from Caprica along with thirty-two other bedraggled former civilians. Anders fell into Kara's open arms and they'd been in a relationship ever since. Of course, Lee was several months into his relationship with Dee by that time.

The expected happened first. Lee hated Anders. Kara ignored it. She'd been putting up with Dee on Lee's arm for what felt like eternity already; he could at least return the favor of pretending to be approving.

Then the unexpected happened. They began flirting.

It wasn't like before. Hell, had they ever flirted before? They'd come dangerously close to consuming each other whole, but they'd never done...this.

It was casual. It was teasing. And it was most certainly physical.

Lee was visiting Galactica for a meeting with the Admiral and Kara called out to him in a corridor when the meeting was done and he was walking alone. She hadn't seen him in a week, maybe it was missing him that made her so reckless. "How's the Arrow of Apollo?" she yelled, catching him by surprise. But he more than surprised her back when he turned, gave chase, pinned her down two corridors later and tickled her to within half an inch of her sanity.

That night was a particularly vicious triad game, and Lee showed up unexpectedly. Everyone hated Starbuck when she was on a tear like she was then, taking everyone's private goodies stashes and then some, but no one had the guts to call her on it. No one, that is, until Apollo dragged Starbuck clean across his lap, positioned her till she was facing the floor, and smacked her on the bottom not once, not twice, but five times before he relented and let her up to her feet, where she stood blushing and stunned.

"Can't you stop frakking winning for once!" Apollo mock-chastised her, grinning widely. "Don't you know when enough is enough!"

She grinned back but kept right on blushing all through the next deal.

It went on and on, on both Battlestars. Starbuck was on Pegasus to plan an op and when they were done, Apollo said, "You look tired. And tense." And she rolled her neck around and said something about triple-shifts and not enough rack time, and before she knew what he was about, Lee was standing behind her giving her the backrub of her life.

That was...shocking but not out-of-line. Kara had been on the receiving end of some great backrubs before that never crossed the friendship mark. But then, then, on her next trip to Pegasus, their meeting ended with Lee locking the hatch to his office, stripping off his shirt, and coming to sit in the chair directly nearest her, presenting her with his broad, muscular back.

"Commander?" Kara asked, trying for amused but edging on aroused. "Is there something you want?"

He caught it, that little bit of lure in her voice, and tossed it right back at her. "I'm tired. And tense. Not enough rack time, you know. A man could use a good back rub."

Kara laid her hands on his body and he felt like he might explode from the pleasure. His low moans told her as much. She couldn't prevent the accusation: "Don't you have someone else to do this for you?"

"Do you see anyone else here, Captain?" was his retort. She made no answer to that. She massaged the length and breadth of his naked back and when she was done, they were both breathing so hard they could hear each other's every intake and exhale.

Impromptu wrestling matches when they caught sight of each other, playful words about the other's sexual prowess, sexual needs, "Got a boyfriend and still not satisfied, Captain? Have to find excuses to spar with me, huh?" A pretty frakking hilarious scene in the shower, with them in neighboring stalls and one bar of soap to share that kept - accidentally, of course - falling to the tiled floor. "You pick it up!" "No, you pick it up!" "What do you think I'll do to you if you pick it up?" "I'm sure you'd like to find out what you'll do to me, Commander."

The pilots started talking about them in wondering tones. Wondering, what the hell is up with Apollo and Starbuck? Their romances with Dee and Anders, respectively, were known to all, so...what the hell? Lee began to wonder if Anders noticed. If he minded.

Lee was spending a few days on Galactica for a series of chats with civilian leaders, and one morning, Anders jogged right up to him, fell into step beside him, and made conversation. Lee grudgingly applauded the man's fearlessness. Anders wasn't one to be intimidated by the looks Lee had sent his way the first couple of weeks the man had been reunited with Kara. And Anders grew more fearless still in Lee's eyes when he asked, "So, you and Kara. How come you two were never an item?"

Lee felt winded suddenly, but no way was he backing down from this guy. "Well," he said, defaulting to the standard response, "of course you know about Zak..."

"Yeah," Anders said, sounding untroubled. "That's true, you and Kara are more like brother and sister than anything. I hear what the pilots say, about you horsing around in the rec room, pulling crazy stunts when you fly together. You two have some serious sibling rivalry going on."

Anders chattered on and eventually dropped off, leaving Lee to contemplate his words for the rest of his jog. Horsing around? Is that what Anders heard? If you called "horsing around" the most sensual bout of hand-to-hand combat Lee had ever experienced. And "crazy stunts?" Lee had missed his viper so much he'd commandeered one from the Pegasus and promptly challenged Kara to fly with him. They did a series of maneuvers so deft and close it was obvious to everyone on any observation deck anywhere that they were frakking in space.

Lee was pleased that Anders hadn't the slightest clue how things really were between Apollo and Starbuck. Of course, Apollo didn't know how things really were, either, but it was nice not to even be suspected of wrongdoing.

He wasn't so lucky when it came to Dee. Dee was canny and listened more closely to the observation deck gossip. "Don't tell me it's nothing," she said, having broached the topic of his newfound playfulness with his oldest friend.

"You know it's nothing," Lee said, trying to placate. "She's with Sam, and I'm with you. End of story."

Dee's eyes got wider with something like insight, and she said, "You're both hiding behind us, behind these relationships with Sam, and with me. We're your screens. You've got permission, now."

"What?" Apollo's pretty smart, but he's never comprehended girl-speak.

But Kara asked the next day why Dee was suddenly much, much colder to her, and Lee repeated the argument for her benefit.

"Oh," Kara said quietly. "Permission. Yeah, maybe that's true."

"Permission to what?" Lee asked, still dumbfounded.

"Remember when we played that drinking game yesterday? The one where you said I to sit on your lap to do the shots, or else I didn't get any points?"

Lee understood. "Oh. Permission to do that."

"Yeah," said Kara, nodding. "Dee's not stupid, you know."

"Anders is, a bit," Lee said. "He hasn't caught onto a thing."

Kara sighed and refused to be baited into insulting her own boyfriend.

"I still don't really get how us being in relationships gives us permission...," Lee said. He got that they were "getting away" with some things they shouldn't, perhaps, but he didn't get why.

"It's because now we know that nothing will happen between us," Kara answered. "Now we're...safe for each other. And from each other," she added.

Lee instantly felt his chest collapse slightly. "Is that right? So...nothing will ever happen between us?"

Kara wished she could shove a mirror in front of Lee's face so he'd see how he looked right then. Like a beautiful puppy, kicked in the stomach. "Do you want something to happen between us, Lee?"

There wasn't an answer to that, because there were too many answers. Lee fell back on the position that had been working for them for a while, now. The flirt. The tease. "Maybe," he said with a wink. He reached out a hand and pushed a loose strand of golden hair behind Kara's ear, let his fingers rest on the soft curve of her cheek, let his gaze fall on her bright eyes and hold there. No more of that sliding his focus away from her, the half-hearted, half-guilty shameful evasion. He'd always hated that.

Kara actually laughed. They'd never been like this with each other before, forward and light-hearted and openly excited. She lifted her hand to Lee's face and gave him a wink in return. "Maybe," she echoed.

The dangerous flirtation continued.