"You're all about the need and nothing about the want," Kara yelled over her shoulder.
Kara pulled her car off the dirt road and into the driveway of the small house on the lake. She parked it half in the lawn, but only because she knew how much it would piss him off. Smiling to herself, she grabbed her bag off the front seat and hopped out of the car. Her boots dug into the grass, leaving small divots in her wake.
She managed to locate her keys by the time she climbed the million and a half stairs up to the porch, and the front door slid open with its characteristic creaking. Leaving her things on the table by the door, she made her way to the kitchen. The refrigerator was full, making Kara smile. He had finally gone shopping.
She grabbed a beer out of the back. Those were always the coldest.
"Kara, is that you?"
She smiled at the sound of his voice from somewhere in the house. She had had a feeling he would be home. "Yeah."
"All right. I'll be down in a minute."
Kara found herself nodding, even though he wasn't there to see it. Taking a long pull of her drink, she grabbed another bottle out of the refrigerator and then drifted back to the front hall. She set both drinks down and started rummaging around in her bag.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for something," Kara grumbled. "Got it!" She held up the piece of paper in triumph and when Lee didn't look all that impressed, she rolled her eyes. She held the unopened beer out to Lee, and they moved out onto the porch without a word.
Kara took a moment to look Lee over as she sat down on the first step. He was wearing a pair of cargo shorts, a white t-shirt, and a short-sleeved button down shirt, unbuttoned of course, simple clothes that they had to go years without, no shoes on his feet. He was always barefoot these days.
He looked happy.
"Going to keep staring at me or do you want to explain what's in your hand?"
Kara smiled. "The kids drew me a picture today."
Lee's eyes lit up. He loved hearing about her students down at the art school. He said they sounded like a whole herd of someday-Starbucks. She had to agree. They were little terrors.
"We were talking about the future, and they thought it would be cute to draw what I'm going to be doing when I get old." Kara held the picture out for Lee to look at.
His face scrunched up in confusion almost immediately, and Kara had to laugh. "What is this?"
"Well, that old women would obviously be me, and according to the kids, the man is Mr. Lee, and we're bickering because we're old and it's what we do."
Lee continued staring at the picture for a full minute before he burst out laughing. "Oh gods. That is priceless."
"Tell me about," Kara agreed, taking a swig of her drink.
"Are we arguing because we're old?"
"I asked the same questions. Turns out that although we are incredibly ornery people, the whole arguing thing is already prominent in our lives today. The kids demonstrated this by drawing me a follow-up picture of my current life."
"And where's that?"
"Hanging on the bulletin board. It was too priceless to take home."
Lee sighed and sat down next to her on the step. "I guess you're going to have to describe it to me then."
"Well, it featured a lot of profanity that I swear to the gods these kids did not learn from me."
"Kara, last week when I went to talk to the upper classes, some kid told me to frak off."
"They didn't get that word from me."
Lee raised his eyebrow but wisely chose to drop the subject and take a drink of his beer instead. "So the picture was of you yelling?"
"At you. It seems they like drawing Mr. Lee as much as they like drawing Miss Kara."
"Miss Starbuck didn't stick?"
"No," Kara said sadly. She turned in time to see Lee fighting back a laugh and realized all too late that he had been joking. "Frak you."
"And you tell me they didn't learn that word from you?"
Kara smacked Lee's arm as hard as she could. "They didn't." They sat in silence for a few seconds before she added, "I fraking hate you."
"Then why are you drinking my beer?"
"Because it's free."
"And it has nothing to do with the company?"
Kara felt the corner of her mouth lift in a smirk and nudged him lightly with her shoulder. "Maybe a little."
Lee took that to be as great of a victory as he could hope for and turned his attention back to the picture in his hand. "So what are we bickering about in this one?" He turned in time to see a slight blush spread across Kara's face. "Kara?"
"It's nothing. You know the silly things kids come up with. I'll save you the waste of time."
"Kara, I want to hear this."
"It's not important."
"Kara…"
"I told you it wasn't fraking important," she yelled, hopping to her feet. "Gods damnit. Why do you always have to push me?"
"Why do you always have to act like a child when it's completely not necessary?"
"If you weren't such an arrogant ass, I wouldn't have to stoop to your level," Kara shot back.
"Oh, I'm the arrogant ass?" Lee screamed, getting to his feet as Kara stomped down the stairs. "Well, at least I'm not a stubborn bitch."
That got Kara to turn around and glare at him. They stood locked in the staredown that they had quickly become famous for since the first second those Cylons attacked the Twelve Colonies.
This time it was Kara who broke first.
Her eyes lit up with understanding, and she shook her head with a laugh. "Frak me. The kids were right. You and I are going to be fighting until we're old and grey." She slowly made her way back up to the porch.
Lee bent down to pick up her half-finished beer and held it out to her. "So are you going to tell me what those kids thought we'd be arguing about fifty years down the line?"
"It's stupid."
"You've already made that clear."
"Well, you're not getting the point." Kara sighed. "I just don't want you to get upset."
"I won't."
"Yes, you will. You're like a whiny little bitch that way."
Lee narrowed his eyes. "Do not start with me again." Kara grinned broadly at him. "Seriously, Kara, don't start."
"Bitch."
Lee slammed his beer down on the porch railing and, before Kara could blink, she was up in the air and slung over his back. "Put me down, Lee."
"Not until you stop avoiding my question!"
Kara started punching his back and screaming bloody murder, but after a few minutes, the only thing that changed was she was out of breath and Lee was seriously pissed off again. "Fine. The kids said that you were yelling at me because you asked me to marry you for the, and I quote, million kagillion billionth time but I said no, and I was yelling because I like to say frak a lot."
"Gods, Kara. What was so hard about that?"
Kara thought it over for a minute. "I didn't want to admit they learned the word frak from me. Now put me down."
"No," Lee growled, tightening his hold on her thighs.
"Lee, I'm warning you." Kara shut her eyes, counted to three, and then when she still wasn't set on the ground, bit into his back as hard as she could. Lee practically threw her to the ground.
"Fraking hell, Kara. What was that for?"
Kara looked up at him from the floor of the porch. "You wouldn't put me down."
"You didn't have to bite me."
Kara thought it over for a minute and then shook her head. "Nope. Nothing else has ever worked."
Lee glared at her as he continued to rub the sore spot on his back. "This is going to bruise, you know."
"Wait a second. What was that?" Kara started looking around her before smacking her head. "That was the sound of you being a whiny bitch. I knew I heard it before."
"You really need to grow up, Kara."
"I need to grow up? That's all you have to say to me? I need to grow up?"
"Yeah, you do."
Kara shook her head and grabbed Lee's beer off the railing. She finished it off in a few seconds and tossed the empty bottle to him. "See, that was always your problem, Lee." She held his gaze for a minute before rolling her eyes and turning her back to him. "You're all about the need and nothing about the want," Kara yelled over her shoulder.
Kara could practically hear the steam coming out of his ears as she made her way to the front door. She was a few steps away from her goal when she heard a loud clunk. She turned in time to see the empty beer bottle rolling across the porch and then the only thing in her line of sight was Lee. He grabbed hold of her and pushed her back into the wall of the house. "I'll give you want," he growled.
Kara's mouth had dropped open in surprise at being pushed so it made it quite easy for him to plant a rather presumptuous kiss on her. His tongue teased her lips for a second and then slipped into her mouth without hesitation. Kara felt her nails digging into his shoulders and told herself she was just trying to stay upright. She wasn't encouraging.
Then the moan fell off her tongue and she felt her hips grind harshly against his. Okay, maybe she was encouraging just a little bit.
She felt his hands come down to grab her ass and then she was being lifted off the ground. The wall dug into her back as he pushed harder against her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kept the kiss going. She locked her legs around his waist and, even though she was pretty sure she shouldn't be helping him decide whether he wanted this, she ground her body against his already tight pants. He groaned and then she felt him whisper her name against her lips before pulling away.
His lips trailed down her neck, and Kara silently thanked the gods that she had had the foresight to leave her button-up work shirt in the car. The tanks gave Lee easy access to that super sensitive spot right along her collar bone which he was currently enjoying. She tightened her grip as he slowly licked a line across the soft skin.
He used his body and the wall of the house to hold her up while reaching his hands down to grab the bottom of her tanks. "Lee, we can't," she whispered. The words seemed to surprise him. Hell, they even surprised her. She was pretty sure she had never used that particular phrase before.
"What?"
Kara loosened her hold on him, and he let her legs slid to the floor. "We are on your front porch. This isn't decent."
"So we'll move inside," Lee said with a shrug. He leaned in to start nibbling at her neck again, but Kara managed to slap his hands away before they started trying to take her top off again. "What now?" he whined.
Kara chose to ignore the urge to call him a whiny bitch for a third time that day and instead focused on the real problem in front of them. Pushing out from where he still had her pinned to the wall, she crossed her arms and turned to face him, narrowing her eyes. "Are you trying to prove a point to me?"
"I think I am," Lee said, crossing his arms to mirror her posture.
"That's fraked up. You realize that right? There's not a lot left for me in my life now, and you're willing to frak up the one good friendship I still have after this damn war because you want to prove a point." Kara bit her lip to hold the tears in, and when she realized that wasn't happening, she turned her back to Lee. "Well, you proved your point, I guess. You have that whole want, take, have thing down. Congratulations."
Kara waited for him to start celebrating his victory, but it didn't happen. Instead, she felt his hands come around her shoulders to pull her back a few inches. His arms circled around her, and she felt the small pressure of his chin laying on her shoulder. "That wasn't the point I was trying to make."
"Oh really?" Kara hated that her voice came out so shaky. Lee definitely knew she was crying.
"Really."
Kara turned her head to look at him, and she was surprised to find she had no clue what he was thinking. She had always been able to figure out what he was feeling by the look in his eyes, and yet now, when she really needed to know, they were just an icy blue slate of blankness. "Lee?"
"I wanted to prove to you that your kids have no idea what they're talking about."
"What?" The small laugh escaped Kara's lips before she could stop.
"Well, I was hoping that kiss might help me wear you down so that when we're old and grey, I won't still be yelling about you saying no to the idea of marriage."
Kara shrugged out of his arms as quickly as she could. She really wasn't in the mood for this game anymore. Right now, she just wanted to drive back to her apartment in the city, change into some sweats that had never belonged to Lee which really left her with only one pair, and surrender herself to a night of mindless television that would keep her from thinking about how fraked up her life still was after everything that had happened.
She was halfway down the stairs when his voice stopped her cold. "Please marry me, Kara." She stayed frozen as she heard his footsteps move across the porch and down the stairs. She didn't flinch when he stopped on the stair next to her and turned her body to face him. "You were wrong, Kara."
"About what?"
"I understand that there's a big difference between needing and wanting."
Her eyes drifted up to the porch. "So you do."
"But you see there's something you don't get." Lee reached out to grasp her hand. "There's a difference between needing and wanting, but in the end, that difference doesn't matter one fraking bit. Because in the end, need and want become the same thing in a way." Lee smiled at her. "I'll give you an example. I clearly want you to marry me, but I need you not to walk down those porch steps. See? They're practically the same thing."
Kara gave him an incredulous look. Those two things were nothing alike.
"All right. Let's try this one. I want you to marry me, but I need you to be in my life until we're old and grey."
"Better," Kara whispered, tightening her grip on his hand.
Lee smiled. "So, what do you say?"
"I say we're going to kill each other if we get married."
"We're going to kill each other even if we're not."
"Good point."
"Anyone could see that."
Kara let out a deep sigh. "Okay, then. Let's get married."
Lee let out a huge whoop and picked her up in his arms. Kara thought for a second that she might die as he swung her around on the step, but she figured there were worse ways to go so she just pushed the nagging thought out of her head.
When her feet were back on the ground, she pushed Lee away from her and pulled the rubber band from her wrist to tie her hair back. The second that was done, she reached down to slid her hand into Lee's again. "I want another beer."
"I just went shopping," Lee pointed out as they started walking up the stairs.
"I noticed." Lee dropped her hand to open the front door for her, and she shook her head. She hated his stupid archaic shows of being a gentleman, but she was willing to let it go this time considering he had just asked her to be his wife. "Tomorrow's show and tell at the school."
"Really? The kids rope you into participating?"
"Yeah." Kara paused to look over her shoulder at him. "Can I show you?"
Lee shook his head and let out a laugh as the front door slammed shut behind them.
