Playing with Kara

Summary: What happens when you're so bored you don't know what to do?

Lee/Kara pairing - friendship, hints at more

ZZZZZZZZ

"I'm bored." Kara Thrace leaned over to whisper in Lee's ear.

"Shhh," was his reply.

They were sitting in a presidential briefing which was supposed to be about redistributing the fleet's resources, but seemed to be more about the president defending her decisions to avoid a coup by the strong group of Tom Zarek supporters.

"But I'm really bored!" she protested.

"Shhh, you'll get us into trouble!" Lee whispered back.

Fine, be that way. She grabbed a pen and paper from her clipboard (that she was supposed to be taking notes on) and hastily scribbled him a message.

You're no fun Lee.

She pushed the page across the armrest. He read it and glared at her.

Well it's true, you're not.

Lee grabbed the paper and pen and scrawled a message back.

I am so. Just not in long boring meetings.

Sure you are. You're just a tightass with no sense of humour.

She knew she was pushing him, but hey, it was one of her talents. Finding people's buttons and pushing them. And she was especially good with Lee.

He snatched the paper and pen and wrote back;

Wanna bet?

knowing she couldn't resist a dare. He knew she was pushing his buttons and that he was responding the way she had hoped he would. But he knew Kara inside out and backwards as well. And so he pushed back.

Name it.

He could almost hear her belligerent voice utter the words as she smiled her challenging smile. (Not to be confused with all her other myriad smiles, each with a purpose of it's own.)

Remember 'the question game' from the old show 'Who's Line Is It Anyway?'

Yeah, and ...?

Play it with me for the rest of the day.

You can't be serious!

Up till this point, he'd been trying to make it look like he was paying attention to the speech and taking notes. Now, he turned to look at her. She had exactly the look he'd predicted - the challenging smile that always said ' you can't beat me.'

Oh, but I am. Are you in?

What are the stakes?

Our Viper maintenance shifts. You do it - successfully of course - and I'll take your shifts for a week. You do it and screw up - you get my shifts for a week.

He turned to look at her again, his mouth a small 'o' of surprise. She was smiling sweetly (her 'come on, you know you want to' smile.) Frak! He felt his insides melt. He could never resist her when she turned on the charm. What man could?

You're on. How long?

Till bedtime.

That's 10 hours!

Don't think you can do it? You can still back out ...

There she was, pushing his buttons again. She knew his male pride wouldn't allow him to just forfeit.

Never

he wrote firmly.

Shake on it?

And he held out his hand to her. She smiled (gods! that was her radiantly happy smile - the one that caused a sparkle in her eye.) His knees went weak and he was glad the briefing wasn't over yet so he didn't have to stand and show how weak he was.

She was just a woman. A small woman at that. One of his pilots. One of his friends. But somehow she had the ability to turn him into a quivering mass of jelly with just a smile.

Score one for Starbuck - little did she know it, but she'd won without even playing the game.

ZZZZZZZZ

"Captain Apollo, may I see you for a moment?" President Roslin asked, as the briefing room began to empty out.

"Yes?" he answered, and received an elbow in the ribs.

"Only questions, remember?" Kara hissed in his ear.

"It WAS a question, wasn't it?" he retorted back.

"Do you want me to wait outside for you?"

"Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Don't make me wait long okay?" She jabbed him in the ribs one more time as she pushed past him out the door. This was going to be fun!

Lee sighed with relief as the President shut the door for privacy. Now he had a few moments of normalcy. It was definitely going to be an interesting day!

ZZZZZZZZ

"So, how'd it go?" Kara was leaning on the wall beside the briefing room door, looking like she'd been painted there. Lee had been half an hour, and she'd very nearly decided to ditch him. But then who knew when she'd find him again, and she didn't want to let him off that easy.

"How do you think?" He looked weary. This presidential advisor job was wearing him down. Perhaps if it had been his only job, but on top of the CAG's job, it was darn near impossible to ever have time for anything but work.

"Do you have work to do or do we fly now?"

"What do you think?" The tone of his voice was answer enough.

"Wouldn't you prefer to be flying with me?"

The look of longing in her eyes was almost too much for him to bear. Everyone knew she was an ace pilot, and a daredevil too, but no one else knew the sheer joy she experienced in the cockpit like he did. He'd always enjoyed flying too but it had taken on an adventurous and highly sensual quality since he'd begun to fly with her. In some ways Lee felt he was closer to her than anyone else - when they were flying - but the rest of the time she kept him at arm's length, preferring to be physically closer to other men. Sometimes it made him feel jealous, but he knew no one had ever been one with her in the sky the way he had.

"Can it wait till I've finished?"

"How long will you be?" Her eyes sparkled again and it turned him to jello once more. She couldn't wait to be out there with him!

"Maybe an hour or so?"

"Shall I have the Vipers ready then?"

He nodded, unable to think of a question.

"Did you know that's cheating?" She poked a finger in his face.

"Forgive me?"

"Do I have to?"

"Do you want to keep playing?"

She nodded.

"So how the hell do you say yes in the form of a question?" Lee asked, frustrated.

"Should we allow nodding?" She was willing to concede this small point if it meant the game would continue. This was the most fun she'd had in weeks!

Lee nodded. "We have to have some way to say ' yes sir' in case we run into my father or Tigh don't we?"

"Can we just nod or is that disrespectful?"

"How the hell should I know?" Lee shrugged.

"You're the CAG aren't you?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Aren't you supposed to know everything?"

"Who led you to believe that?"

"Isn't it part of the job description?" Now she was really being cheeky.

"Is that why YOU didn't take it?" Lee had a smug look on his face. Score one for him.

She steamed for a moment. "Would anyone really want ME as the CAG?"

Lee just looked at her and smiled. "Is there any doubt about that?"

She stopped and put her hands on her hips, an outraged expression on her face. "Why Lee Adama! Aren't you just the most ...?" she began, spluttering to find the right words.

Just then Tigh turned into their corridor, read their body language and shook his head muttering, "always fighting."

Lee and Kara nodded briskly, neither knowing whether or not he would take that as agreement to his statement or a silent salute. They really didn't care either.

"So, Kara, what were you going to say about me?" Lee asked sweetly.

"Are you sure you really want to know?"

"How bad could it be?"

"You really have no idea, do you?"

"Do you want to fly or not?" Lee demanded.

"Do you need to ask?"

"Then you're going to have to let me get my work done aren't you?"

She saw reason in that and nodded. "Can I kill you if you're longer than an hour?"

"Will it make you happy?"

She burst out laughing. He was doing well. Much better than she'd ever expected. Seems there were some hidden depths to Lee Adama that she had yet to probe. And probe she would! "Don't keep me waiting, okay?" And with that last question, she turned and headed away from his office, allowing him to get to work.

Lee smiled at her retreating back. He had no intention of keeping her waiting - he knew how badly she would get him for that!

This was turning out to be fun, he thought as he headed for his office to get his work out of the way so he could play. With Kara. That was always fun.

ZZZZZZZZ

Exactly an hour later, Lee left his office, smiling. He was really looking forward to this. He would put it on his daily report as a recon mission, but in reality it was just him and Kara blowing off some steam and having fun.

"Aw, I don't get to kill you now do I?" a mocking voice said, as he rounded the corner and nearly ran Kara into the ground.

"Are you disappointed?"

The challenging smile reappeared on her face. "Should I wipe you up on the stars instead?"

"Don't you wish you could?" he challenged back.

Chief Tyrol suddenly appeared in front of them, interrupting their bantering.

"Captain, I regret to report that one of my people made an error while fixing Raptor 2. The engine is blown and it's unusable for a few days." He looked seriously chagrined.

"So what do you want me to do about it?" Lee asked him.

"What do you mean sir? Don't you want to know who it was?"

"Do I need to know?"

"I suppose not sir," Tyrol said, beginning to look confused. "But shouldn't you punish the guilty party?"

"Can't you take care of that yourself?"

"I guess so sir." Now Tyrol was looking at Lee with open disbelief. It was obvious he thought Lee was short a few marbles. It was much the same sort of look most people gave Baltar, Kara noticed, and the revelation sent her into a fit of giggles.

"Don't you have to get back to work?" Lee asked helplessly. He couldn't wait to get this conversation over with! Talking in circles with Kara was one thing, but he didn't need the rest of the ship thinking he'd gone nuts.

"I'm off duty. I was headed to my bunk actually."

"Well, why don't you get moving then?"

Kara nearly choked as her giggle fit intensified. Boy, this was incredibly fun! And well worth a week of maintenance if she got to watch Lee in compromising situations like this!

"Yes sir." Tyrol threw him one more wary look, then headed past them both, shaking his head in disbelief.

"You think this is funny don't you?" Lee demanded, once he was out of earshot.

"Don't you?" She barely managed to get the words out before the giggles overcame her again.

Lee smiled. He had to admit that it probably did look pretty funny from where she stood.

ZZZZZZZZ

TBC