"Attention on deck, the CAG has finally gotten the stick out of his ass," Kara screamed when Lee showed up at the annual strip triad game she set up.


"Attention on deck, the CAG has finally gotten the stick out of his ass," Kara screamed when Lee showed up at the annual strip triad game she set up.

Everyone burst out laughing at the comment, and it only got louder when they saw the annoyed look on their CAG's face. The group was small. Besides Kara, it was only Helo, Racetrack, Showboat, and Stinger. Things were tense now that the two battlestars were attempting to work together, and so Kara decided it was time to bring out her ace in the hole.

Showboat leaned over to Helo. "I thought this thing was by invitation only, Karl."

Helo gave her a look of disbelief. "Come on, 'Boat. If you think for one second Lee Adama wasn't the first person Starbuck invited to this thing, you're completely oblivious."

"Did I miss anything?" Lee asked as he sat down.

"Just Stinger and Showboat losing a couple of shoes to me," Kara answered.

Lee nodded and motioned to be dealt it. The room got silent as everyone focused in on their cards, but eventually Kara felt the need to break the silence. "I thought you had somewhere to be, Captain."

"This is more tempting than a night of performance reviews with the XO."

Kara winced. "I think playing this game with the boys from the galley is better than spending quality time with Tigh."

"They're not nearly as cute," Lee said, smiling to Racetrack who sat across from him.

Racetrack laughed and threw her cards down. "Damn Adama charm. I fold." She pulled off her sweatshirt and threw it into the pile on the table.

"Nice table cloth," Lee said, fingering the dingy red material as the rest of the players made their bests.

"It was going to be part of the museum," Kara said. "I figured it might help set the atmosphere."

Lee nodded and threw in a handful of cubits. "I call."

Everyone laid down there hands, and it was rather apparent that Starbuck had them again with four on a run. Groaning, a chorus of shoes hit the table. Kara's eyes kept hold of Lee's so she was the only one to see the small smirk on his face when he slid the top black tank off his body. She raised her eyebrow at him, and he only shrugged. Kara fought back the urge to tell Showboat this was why she invited the CAG to their game. He wasn't afraid to use the gifts the gods gave him to gain an advantage. One more bad hand and the other tank would be off. Then it would be fun to see if Showboat and Racetrack could keep their heads in the game. She would have no problem, of course, seeing as how she had become immune to Lee years earlier.

Okay, if she was being honest with herself, she was only partially immune. But that was more than others, right?

"We need to pour the CAG a drink and welcome him properly to this game," Helo pointed out, reaching for the bottle of ambrosia in the middle of the table. Stinger got up to grab an empty glass.

"Isn't it against colonial law for CAGs to drink?" Showboat teased.

Kara spoke at the same moment Lee did.

"He can handle it."

"I can handle it."

The table laughed again, and the next hand begun.

Ten hands later, Kara was ready to admit this was one of the better strip triad games she had played. It was too bad Stinger had gotten called back to the Pegasus after the third hand. He missed the fact that Racetrack was down to her bra and underwear, and Showboat was even worse off. She had been playing the last two hands with her bare chest pressed against Helo. She said that her breasts seemed to be distracting the boys so it was only fair she kept them hidden behind Helo until she really needed them.

Kara's eyes scanned the two men still at the table and decided the women didn't have it that bad, either. Helo had gotten a few bad hands in a row and was now leaning back in only his skivvies and socks. Kara found it hilarious that he refused to give up the socks because his feet were cold.

Her focus turned to Lee as he raised the stakes yet again. He seemed to be the only one keeping up with her. Still wearing his pants and both his socks, he matched Kara with her two tanks and underwear. Kara was pretty sure he had been going shot for shot with her, too, because every time he caught her staring he gave her a smile. A smile was not the look of worry she usually received.

The phone in the pilot's break room started ringing, and Kara threw in her own handful of cubits before going to answer. The table watched her growl a few words, and then the handset was slammed down.

"Something wrong, Starbuck?" Showboat asked.

"Yeah. That was Hot Dog. He says that word about our little game has gotten around to the XO. Tigh might be paying the bunkrooms a little visit to see who's not accounted for."

"Frak," Helo said, slamming down his cards. He grabbed his tanks from the middle of the table and slid them on before handing Racetrack hers.

"I know. It was just getting good," Racetrack laughed.

Showboat moved to retrieve her clothing. "I should be getting back to the Pegasus anyway. I think the last Raptor shuttle is leaving in a few minutes. It was a good game, Thrace."

"I don't know how to throw a bad one," Kara quipped. She gave the others a small wink as they stepped into the corridor before turning back to Lee. He hadn't moved. "Lee?"

"Let's finish the hand."

Kara's eyes went wide as a smile teased the corners of her mouth. She was happy to see Lee acting like his old self. She hadn't seen him smile since before the Blackbird incident. "Awfully cocky there. Think you have me beat?"

"I know I have you beat."

Kara slipped into the chair next to him and grabbed her cards. "Fine then. What are you planning on betting me seeing as you already have all your money in the pot?"

"You name it, Kara," Lee said. He honestly didn't care. Queens high yellow was one of the better hands in triad. She'd have to pull a miracle to beat it.

Kara watched her opponent for a moment as she tried to think what he had to offer her. Seeing as how he was the CAG and she was just the flight instructor, there wasn't a lot of things he could do for her professionally. And personally she felt like she was doing just fine on her own. There was only one real thing she took joy in these days, which was why she felt the urge to make him blush as it fought to overtake her sensibility. Or maybe that was just the ambrosia. "How about a kiss?"

Lee's eyebrows raised in surprise. "That's what you want from me?"

Kara let her eyes run over his bare chest before meeting his gaze. "At the moment."

"Fine," Lee agreed. He watched Kara throw the last of her cigars into the pile before laying down his cards. "Queens high yellow."

Kara let him sit there for a moment before letting out a laugh. "Full colors!" she squealed, slapping her cards down to do a little dance.

Lee's mouth dropped open. "That's not possible."

"Oh it is," Kara sang as she got to her feet to continue the victory dance. She was halfway through it when she felt Lee's hands around her waist. Before she could blink, he had yanked her down to sit on his lap. Kara yelped slightly as he shifted his knees to settle her in. His hands came up around her waist and stayed there.

It took her a moment to realize what he was doing and by then it was too late to tell him that he didn't really have to kiss her.

Kara had always thought of Lee as a good boy. He did what you asked of him and took his responsibilities very seriously. He was top of his class in both the Academy and War College. He was one of the youngest captains in the Fleet.

But a good boy did not kiss like this.

She had expected a playful melding of lips, something that would make her giggle because she was Kara kissing Lee. She did not expect to feel his teeth lightly nibbling on her bottom lip until she opened her mouth to him. She did not expect the urge to run her fingers through his hair as the kiss turned a little more feral. It was like Lee was trying to consume every bit of who she was. A moan slipped from her lips as his tongue began a teasing dance with hers. It sounded dangerously like his name.

Just as Kara decided she was going to pass out from the heat between them, it was over. Lee pulled back from her but not before dropping a few, chaste kisses onto her now closed lips.

Smiling, he reached out to tuck a loose hair behind her ears. "Was that good enough for you, Kara?"

The sudden reminder that it had all been part of the hand she won made Kara snap back. Her back bumped the table, and she heard a small clatter as cubits hit the floor. "Frak," she hissed, dropping down to start picking them up. She could feel Lee's eyes firmly on her ass as she gathered the small pieces of metal. He was most definitely drunk if he was opening gawking at her, she decided. Her hands closed around a tank that had fallen along with the cubits, and she realized it was Lee's. "Put this back on," she growled, throwing it in his face.

Lee laughed but did as she asked. Kara had to be awfully drunk if she was still parading around the room in her tanks and skivvies now that the game was over. Not that he didn't appreciate her little lapse in memory.

Kara slid under the table to grab the last few cubits just as the hatch slid open. Her body froze as she heard the voice of the XO.

"Captain Adama, what do you think you are doing?"

"I'm off-shift, Colonel," Lee said calmly. "I was just unwinding a little."

"Did you forget the evaluations we are supposed to be doing?"

Kara slapped her hand over her mouth as she heard Lee lie and say he completely forgot. Giggling would not help the situation.

"Well, I have been working on them for hours now. There's only a few left and when one of your pilots mentioned you were down here, I figured I'd hand them over to you."

"Yes, sir."

"Now that I'm here though and see from the looks of this table that you've been playing triad and are probably extremely tired, I've decided to help you finish them."

Kara winced. She hoped to gods Lee could get through those evaluations fast. She did not want to be hiding under this table in her underwear all night. Her knee would start to cramp. Tigh and Lee started discussing what she could only assume was the paperwork he had been handed, but after only a minute, she heard the familiar sound of frustration in Tigh's voice. "Is there something wrong, Captain?"

"No, sir. Why do you ask?"

"You keep shifting around like you're uncomfortable or something."

Kara watched Lee's legs tense, and it was then that she finally saw the problem. Lee had gotten rather excited during the little kiss they shared, and now he has a rather big problem.

"I'm fine, sir," Lee insisted.

A deliciously wicked idea popped into Kara's head. She would have just shrugged it off if it wasn't accompanied with the realization that the kiss they had shared had benefited Lee just as much as Kara. That wasn't exactly fair.

Smiling to herself, Kara carefully moved to sit between Lee's feet. She slid her hands up the legs of his pants and stifled a giggle as she felt him tense. Her fingers slowly slid his zipper down, taking the time to really let him adjust to what she was about to do. When she heard a few stuttering noises from outside the tablecloth, she decided she might as well see how far she could push this. Reaching into his open fly, she pulled his cock into her hand. She could practically see his face as he fought the urge to scream at her. This was going to be oh so fun.

She waited until Tigh asked Lee his opinion on a particular pilot's aptitude before she leaned in to lightly lick the tip of his erection. She waited a second before continuing on down his shaft. His hand came down to push her head away, and she ducked to the right just in time.

"Captain?"

"I'm fine. The knee that got banged up when the Blackbird exploded has been acting up all day. It's making me twitchy."

I'll give him twitchy. She slid her hands around the base of his erection, making a circle with her thumb and index finger on both hands, and slowly pumped up and down a few times. This time she knew he wasn't going to push her away. He couldn't 'twitch' again for at least a few seconds.

Kara leaned her mouth in and let her breath hit his already hot skin. She could feel him tensing and wondered if maybe she was asking for more trouble than she could handle. Then again, Starbuck had never backed down from a challenge in her life.

Licking her lips, she started at the bottom of his shaft and began to lick upwards. She let her tongue take a leisurely inventory of his skin as her hands reached into his pants to cup his balls. A small hissing noise made her pause a second to smile.

"Another twitch?"

Kara didn't hear Lee respond so she could only assume he had nodded. She finished her teasing journey up and down the length of his cock. It was time to start the main event. She ran her tongue in a few small circles around the tip before taking it into her mouth.

Lee's knees jerked to hit the bottom of the table, and he did his best to cover it up. "How many more pilots do we have, Colonel?"

"Only two."

"And how long will that take?"

"Antsy to get somewhere?"

"I told you I was unwinding, sir. I was about to go hit my rack when you came in."

"We'll only be a few more minutes."

Kara heard Lee thank the gods under his breath, and she chuckled. The sensation made Lee's cock twitch slightly in her mouth, and Kara focused back on torturing him some more. She took the full length of him into her throat and wasn't surprised to feel his hand on her head again. What did surprise her was the fact that his hand laced in her hair instead of pushing her away. She really didn't know how to take that, so she just sped up her rhythm.

"What about Shotgun?"

"I… um… I'm really not sure about his… landing abilities. The last time I talked with Captain Thrace, she said…" Lee's hand tightened on her head. "She thinks that a few more turns at it should iron out the last… um… kinks in his system."

"Kinks in his system?"

Kara could hear the suspicion in Tigh's tone and took the moment to suck her way slowly up his shaft. She could feel his knees begin to shake under where her hands lay and knew he didn't have much longer in him.

"It's a phrase the nuggets use," Lee spit out in answer to Tigh's question. Kara could practically hear his teeth grinding from her position down on her knees.

Tigh was halfway through this evaluation of the last pilot when Kara felt his cock swell in her mouth. Lee let out a loud groan that ended in something like "Oh gods my knee."

She pulled back a little and did her best to swallow as much of his orgasm as she could. She smiled as she realized Lee had managed to keep up the ruse about his knee even as he was coming into her mouth. Knowing she should probably just leave him alone, she shifted her mouth to lick the length of him, making sure he was clean before sliding him back into his pants. She watched his hand come down to check that he was covered before his finger turned up in an obscene gesture that told Kara she was in a little bit of trouble.

She pushed herself to the other end of the makeshift tent and tried to shake the haze from her head. She knew that she had had a little too much ambrosia, but that had never made her drop her guard like she just did. What was it about Lee that made her so vulnerable to fraking up?

Kara was still trying to figure out what came over her when she heard Tigh walk to the hatch and exit into the corridor. Lee's hands immediately came under the table to yank her out. "What the frak did you think you were doing?"

"I figured I'd return the kiss," Kara teased. She hoped putting on her Starbuck mask would keep Lee from strangling her.

"Kara," Lee warned. "That was out of line."

Kara narrowed her eyes at him. "Excuse me, Captain, but from where I was sitting, it looked like you enjoyed it."

Lee gave her an incredulous look. "Of course I enjoyed it."

"You enjoyed the kiss before it, too," Kara whispered. Her eyes dropped to the ground as the shame suddenly started kicking in. Why did Lee have the power to make her feel like a foolish little girl all the time?

Lee sighed. She had a point. He had started this little mess. "I did."

"So what's your problem, Lee? We're just two pilots looking to let off a little steam. It's nothing new."

"I don't know about that. The whole releasing steam while the XO's in the room has probably never been done before." Lee kept himself serious as long as possible, and then a giant smirk lit up his face.

Kara chuckled. "You've got me there."

Lee waited until Kara had gathered up her winnings before speaking again. "I wasn't lying when I said I was going to hit my bunk. I've got to fly CAP in six hours."

"Good call," Kara agreed. She was trying to figure out where the extra tank in the pot came from when she felt Lee's hand grab her wrist and push her back into the wall. Her eyes went wide as she watched him lower his mouth to her ear.

"You know, it doesn't really seem fair. The way things turned out, you'd think I won the pot."

Kara felt a smile creep up on her. "Really?"

"I'm thinking that I should do something to fix that."

"But you need to get your rest," Kara pointed out. She dropped her armful of cubits and cigars to wrap her arms around him as he nuzzled her neck.

"I've flown CAP before on no sleep. I can do it again," Lee whispered against her skin.

Kara felt a bolt of desire strike and had to hold on to him a little tighter. "You don't have to fly for six hours, Lee."

"Well you did have full colors. That should be rewarded." Lee pulled back to wink at her.

Kara hesitated a moment before pushing him away from her. She grabbed his hand and started dragging him down the corridor towards their bunkroom.

"What about your winnings?" Lee asked.

"I think I got the only thing I really wanted from that game," Kara said before shoving him into the bunkroom and slamming the hatch shut.

She loved how these annual strip triad games always turned out to pleasantly surprise her every year.