Hot chocolate

Corat Damar sighed. He rarely sighed. Usually, he would just growl or grunt or harrumph, but this time, it was a sigh. Sulkily and frustrated, he stood away from his position on Deep Space Nine. Prophets, was kicking Sisko out hard work. All he wanted right now was to sleep. And, of course, a nice, big bottle of Kanar. '29 vintage, obviously. Being a Gul certainly did have its advantages.

He made his way over to the room that was adjacent to Ops. Sat behind the desk was his commanding officer.

"Ah, Damar," Gul Dukat announced jovially. "I can't tell you how much I've missed this office," he declared, smiling madly at the hunk of Cardassian-designed metal that was set out before him.

"Yes…, sir," Damar said reproachfully. He started forward and gestured to the Kanar, where Dukat nodded, signalling for a glass of his own. Handing the drink over to the Gul, and keeping one for himself, Damar cleared his throat. "Weyoun said you wanted to talk," he announced gruffly.

Dukat nodded slowly, meditatively. Pursing his lips in thought, he amended Damar's statement. "Yes, well," he began softly. "In some respects, I suppose, he is right."

"I don't understand, sir," Damar let on, raising an eye-ridge in slight confusion.

"I've been trying to get a maintenance team down here," Dukat elaborated. "But, apparently, they're just too busy." He made a face, as if he could not really believe that his engineers were otherwise engaged.

Damar frowned, his eye-ridges almost coming together. "What for?" he quizzed.

The Gul too another sip of his drink and swirled it around in the glass, staring into it. "The damn replicator doesn't work," he replied simply.

"Ah," Damar exclaimed. "If you want, I'll call Maintenance Team Alpha down here right away."

Dukat shook his head in response, declining his friend's helpful suggestion. "Thank you for the offer, but I've already tried everything." For a short moment – a short, rare moment – he was silent.

"What did you need to replicate?" Damar asked him, getting a little perplexed. "You have food here, don't you?"

Dukat chuckled lowly and shook his head. "Unlike you, Damar, I cannot survive simply on Kanar." He grinned.

A muscle in Damar's jaw twitched ever so slightly. "Sir?" he said in a small voice.

"Oh, Damar," Dukat began, sobering up. "I didn't mean it like that." Sighing, he continued, "I have been attempting – for some time, to integrate human customs and ideologies into my leadership methodologies."

Damar winced and then frowned. "You have?"

"But, of course," Dukat iterated. "The Occupation, it ran so much more… efficiently, when the Bajorans were beginning to finally accept Cardassian domination."

Slowly, thoughtfully, Damar nodded. He wasn't sure exactly where Dukat was headed with this. "What does this have to do with the broken replicator?" he asked.

Dukat smiled through thin lips. "Human food is supposed to be rather… nice," he explained, with an empty gesture of his hands. "Or, so I have heard."

Damar lifted an eye-brow. "So, you… wanted to have it replicated?"

Dukat nodded approvingly. "Precisely."

Damar frowned lightly, before slowly started to slink off, away from the desk.

"Damar?" Dukat called after him. "I haven't told you what I wanted replicated."

Damar hurried back. "Yes, Dukat?" He was hovering in the doorway.

For a moment, Dukat appeared as though he were considering something. Nothing as important as battle plans or ship alignments, but something trivial. And, Damar's was correct. "Cocoa," Dukat replied readily.

"Cocoa?" Damar repeated, confused. He'd never heard of that before.

"Yes, Damar, that I what I said," Dukat said firmly. "Hot cocoa."

"You want… hot cocoa?" Damar said, not knowing whether he should feel alarmed or blatantly amused. As far as he knew, cocoa was a child's drink. Not something for a man. A man who was a Cardassian. A Gul. Commander of the Second Order.

Dukat nodded firmly. "Yes," he replied crisply.

Damar was just about to take the short step out of the Gul's office, when Dukat called out, "And, Damar? Don't have it replicated."

"But, I thought…" Damar began, confused, before his voice simply faded away from him.

"No, I would've had it replicated. I've assigned Gil Letek to cover you for today. This station must still have its kitchens," Dukat revealed.

Damar simply moaned. "Sir?" he asked. "You want me to make you it?" He frowned. Heavily.

"That's correct," Dukat announced. "And, to make things easier, I've also told Weyoun to come along with you."

Damar slapped his own face in annoyance and skulked off into Ops, where he glared at the officers who had the guts to look him in the eye. He was thankful that he'd had that little glass of Kanar not that long ago. Still, there were very few things in the galaxy that could numb the pain that Weyoun's droning, irritatingly calm voice could inflict upon others, especially Damar.

Later on in the day, Damar returned to Gul Dukat's office. Dukat snapped off his computer screen and regarded his second in command. Beside Damar stood Weyoun, who, as always, was grinning inanely for no apparent reason. "I trust you've been successful?" Dukat queried, looking the pair of them over. Damar looked like he would rather be having tea with the Founder than be where he was right now. Weyoun, on the other hand, was positively beaming.

Dukat smiled thinly. Damar proffered the requested drink to him and Dukat took it gratefully. He studied it with curious eyes. "I hope you two have reconciled your… differences?"

Damar did nothing but grimace.

"It has been quite illuminating," Weyoun announced happily. He smiled up at Damar, who shuddered in barely concealed contempt.

Dukat nodded. "Good." He looked down at the mug of cocoa. "Where are the marshmallows?" he asked of them.

The Vorta and the other Cardassian exchanged rather puzzled looks. "The marshmallows?" Damar quizzed.

"Yes, Damar, the marshmallows," Gul Dukat repeated. "Where are they?"

"Damar didn't say you wanted anything more on your drink," Weyoun added, perplexed.

Damar just stood there, struggling to maintain his nonplussed look.

Disapprovingly, Dukat shook his head briskly. "I shouldn't have had to tell you, Damar," he explained. "It was obvious."

"It was not," Damar countered hotly.

"Still," Dukat said defiantly, putting an end to the little spat. "I need my marshmallows."

After having successfully carried out Dukat's irritating, ridiculous request, Damar and Weyoun returned to the Gul's office. Stepping into the room, Damar handed Gul Dukat the cocoa with the marshmallows sitting on top of the now almost melted whipped-cream layer.

Dukat grinned at it appreciatively and took a sip. For a short while, his sharply-featured face was calm, but then, a frown creased his grey features. "What on Cardassia is this?" he demanded, pulling out a circular-shaped fruit and showing it to the two men.

Unable to resist a smirk, Damar shrank back a little. It was Weyoun's turn now to answer the Gul's out-of-character, ridiculous, childish questions.

Happily, Weyoun informed Dukat of the seemingly odd object. "To be honest, Dukat," he elaborated. "Your… request was a little dull. I decided it best if I added something of a speciality from my homeworld."

Dukat scoffed. "You're a clone. A genetically engineered diplomat, Weyoun," he stated bluntly. "How can your homeworld possibly have a speciality? I thought Vorta couldn't taste and such." He frowned.

Weyoun let out a short chuckle. "Yes, well…" he began softly, nonchalantly. "The wonderful Founders have been so gracious as to allow my people to keep their love for ripple berries and kava nuts."

"You put nuts in my cocoa?" Dukat said, alarmed. He glared at the Vorta – and Damar – the glinn would not be getting away from this easily, either.

"Of course not, Dukat," Weyoun said, still giggling. "I really am starting to wonder if our decision to let Cardassia join the Dominion was a wise one." Sobering up, and noticing the steadfast scowls of both Damar and Dukat, he quietened down – a little. "Only a few ripple berries."

Dukat continued to glare at him, but then his expression managed to slowly regain its neutrality. He bit into the berry and instantly pulled a face. He grimaced and winced, sticking his tongue out in obvious disgust. "Oh, Prophets!" he exclaimed. "This is revolting!" He thrust the mug away from himself and watched in slight contempt and annoyance and relief as Weyoun sauntered out of his office space.

"Sorry about that, sir," Damar apologised, hating the fact that he was even speaking on Weyoun's behalf. It was, though, to be true, Dukat's fault to have sent Weyoun along with him.

"Don't be, Damar," Dukat replied softly, sighing. "I think I share you dream of having that irritable Vorta thrown out of the nearest airlock."