fanfic100: Besides the Golden Door: Weeks (BSG)
Title: Beside the Golden Door: Weeks
Prompt: Weeks
Author: ingrid_m
Fandom: BSG2003
Spoilers: Goes AU at the end of S4.0
Genre: Mostly gen (*gasp*) but Hoshi/Gaeta is canon. Other characters will pop in and out as we go along
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Earth isn't that bad. Sort of.
xXx
Felix sighed and squirmed to find a slightly more comfortable position on the lumpy bed mattress he shared with a blissfully snoring Louis. He couldn't help but grin at Louis' little buzzsaw noises. Others may have been annoyed at Louis' many quirks, but after all they'd been through together, Felix found them strangely endearing, most of the time.
"Gods bless you," he whispered against Louis' mussed hair. "I love you."
A loud 'snzrk' was the reply.
Felix rolled over and stared at the ceiling. He wanted to be happy now that they'd finally reached their destination but instead he found himself distracted and unsure. Such a primitive world, populated by people who lived in isolation except for those they shared a cultural bond with. A lone planet of warring tribes, barely out of a stone age, so backwards most of them didn't believe life could flourish anywhere else in the vast universe except on their own, tiny, world.
He wondered what would happen when they found out the truth. If they ever did.
It was depressing. Even with Hoshi and Dee beside him, he felt vulnerable with his disability, barely able to negotiate ordinary streets and steep stairs without Herculean effort. Their mission was to immerse themselves for a least a year, reporting back only to help the rest of the fleet assimilate quietly but he had no idea how difficult it would to live far back in time, an alien in an unfriendly land.
Felix wondered how the other teams were faring. He knew that Kara Thrace, Sam Anders and Lee Adama had been sent to the other coast of this continent, somewhere called California. A few of the other Cylons had drawn the short straw - they'd been sent far north to the colder areas, supposedly their tougher body structures would accommodate the frost more easily than any human. He'd heard that some of the pilots had been assigned to the large independent continent, an island so gigantic it took over a good portion of the southeastern hemisphere.
He wondered if it snowed there. Probably, just on an opposite time schedule than theirs. A glance out the window confirmed more snow had fallen, a thick blanket of white covered the opposite roofs. He used to love snow when he was a kid but now it just looked like one more obstacle to overcome.
Gods, you're getting old Felix he thought. Louis had made good-natured fun of the white hairs frosting his sideburns but it really wasn't that funny. Not even thirty and he was gray and broken, only good for figuring out computer pass-codes and ridiculous, guttural languages.
Speaking of languages ... "Good morning" he said aloud, in what was considered Standard in this part of the Earth, otherwise known as English. "How is I?"
How is I, that doesn't sound right. He scooped up the well-worn language guide from his nightstand and flipped through it. "How are yooooo" he said, drawling out the last sound.
Ugh, hideous. But he was learning it, despite Dee's constant needling. Little did she realize that she'd be learning it too, whether she wanted to or not. Sharing some obscure, bastardized Colonial dialect with an old lady and a few expatriates from a faraway island wasn't going to cut it.
"Are you in pain, Felix?" An awake Louis peered blearily at him.
"Good morning," Felix repeated, smirking at Louis' wince. "How are youooooo?"
Louis looked deeply confused. "Is that some kind of dog call?"
"That's the morning greeting here, my love." Felix put the guide back on the table and propped himself up on his elbow. "I have a feeling that Dee's hands are going to get just a little more dishpan."
"Did it snow?" Louis peered out the window and groaned. "Man, my back is going to break in half. You know that Dee's been stuffing all the money in her shirt. I haven't seen a cubit of it."
Felix laughed. "She's trying to save you from yourself."
"To hells with that. I'm keeping whatever I make today. And buying some food. The old lady's a good cook but I want some of those packaged things they sell," Louis said, his eyes gleaming. "Everything smells like sugar in the store. And they have those round things and stuff I can't even figure out. I want all of it."
"Just be careful. Some of this stuff might be poison to us. Or at least taste like crap."
"After two years of algae, it's going to taste great. Every bit of it," Louis declared, leaning over to kiss Felix on the nose. He made a pleased noise and did it again, then on his lips, with decided interest.
Nice, but ... "Don't you have to get to work?" Felix said, running a hand through Louis' tangled hair. "Don't want to get beat out by the kiddie shovel brigade, do you?"
"Guess not," Louis sighed.
He rose, pulling on an over-sized sweater that once belonged to the dearly departed former tenant. It had been washed, repeatedly, but it was still a droopy mess. It was warm nonetheless and beggars couldn't choosers, this much Felix knew. He motioned for another kiss which Louis gladly supplied. "By the way, I told you I love you, right?"
"I think so, but let's hear it again."
Felix picked up the guide and read from it. "I love yoooooooo."
Louis grimaced. "How romantic."
xXx
Dee was already up, the pullout bed neatly folded back into the sofa. The mattress was actually of better quality than Felix and Hoshi's due to relative lack of use. Elen dug up some extra linens for them, a quaint mismatched pile of flowers, sail boats and geometric designs Dee couldn't quite understand.
She did her best with them, washing everything by hand and drying it wherever convenient, much to Felix's annoyance. He was constantly ducking wet sheets and drippy socks, grumbling with every step. Dee then offered to let him wash and dry them which effectively silenced him.
Elen had mentioned something about a laundry machine, but it supposedly took money and Dee found herself being more frugal than usual, not to mention nervous around this world's rickety appliances. She found herself constantly worried about things blowing up, especially the gas-powered stove that looked like something out of a history book. Even Felix backed away a little every time it was turned on and Hoshi had to be reminded constantly to turn it off once he was done making whatever terrifying experimental concoction he was enamoured of that day.
Her job was nice, but exhausting. Elen had suddenly become adventurous with Dee by her side, insisting on shopping and cooking huge dishes of homemade food, most of which she gave to them. Dee simply followed her orders, which came at a rapid Tigh-like pace. Her job in the Galactica's CIC during a war had been good practice for chasing after a wily octogenarian who'd magically dropped twenty years from her age with Dee by her side.
Elen hadn't asked much about their unusual living arrangement, one apartment for two men and a woman who were obviously not related. Dee was grateful for this small favor, even when certain noises upstairs were embarassingly loud one afternoon.
"As long as they keep it down during my stories, who cares?" Elen said, waving off Dee's mortification. "Bring me that spoon, sweetheart. No, the big wooden one."
"You should get yourself your own man," Elen said to her a few hours later. "Sharing like that is all right but only for a little while. Men like that, they fool around with girls but when it comes down to having a family, that's not what interests them. You need a real husband, not two sort of-maybe-kinda ones."
Dee felt herself flush. Deeply. "Oh, it's not like that, Mrs. Costakis."
"Uh-huh. Fill that pot with cold water, almost to the top. That's it." The old woman popped open a box of pasta. "If you're not joining in, that's even worse. At least you're getting a little the other way. You're too pretty to waste yourself. You should get a man before your boobs droop."
"This water is supposed to be hot or cold?" Dee interjected hurriedly.
"Cold. When I was your age I once slept with this fellow who had the biggest ..."
That's when the phone rang and Dee spent the rest of the day thanking the gods for timely interruptions. When her day was finally done, she spent a good half-hour chewing out Felix and Hoshi who simply stared at her.
"And then she started on the 'wild frakcapades of the past' stories. Thanks a lot," Dee said, glaring. "I hope you're both happy."
"Nana had wild frakcapades?" Hoshi asked through a mouthful of spinach pie. Louis had taken to calling Elen "Nana", something she didn't discourage. "I'm a little shocked. Was it with girls or guys?"
Felix winced around his food. "For the love of the gods, Louis!"
"And both of you are doing the dishes tonight. I don't know when I became the maid," Dee grouched. "Cleaning and cooking."
"Hey, I made dessert," Hoshi said. He pointed to a batch of long yellow cakes with a white 'something' oozing out of both ends. "They're called "twankies". I fried them in butter."
"The dishes no I do," Felix said in English. "Done they will be by you."
Dee's mouth fell open. "Are you having some kind of fit, Felix? What is that horrible sound?"
"That's English for kiss my ass, we made a bet," he replied, punctuating his words with little stabs of his fork. "As you can see, my progress is extraordinary."
Dee rubbed her temples slowly. "How many more weeks before we go back to avoiding the Cylon faction blowing us out of the sky for good?"
"Fifty," Gaeta replied. He took another bite of spinach. "And by the way, this needs more salt."
He ducked just in time.
xXx
next prompt: Years
Prompt: Weeks
Author: ingrid_m
Fandom: BSG2003
Spoilers: Goes AU at the end of S4.0
Genre: Mostly gen (*gasp*) but Hoshi/Gaeta is canon. Other characters will pop in and out as we go along
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Earth isn't that bad. Sort of.
xXx
Felix sighed and squirmed to find a slightly more comfortable position on the lumpy bed mattress he shared with a blissfully snoring Louis. He couldn't help but grin at Louis' little buzzsaw noises. Others may have been annoyed at Louis' many quirks, but after all they'd been through together, Felix found them strangely endearing, most of the time.
"Gods bless you," he whispered against Louis' mussed hair. "I love you."
A loud 'snzrk' was the reply.
Felix rolled over and stared at the ceiling. He wanted to be happy now that they'd finally reached their destination but instead he found himself distracted and unsure. Such a primitive world, populated by people who lived in isolation except for those they shared a cultural bond with. A lone planet of warring tribes, barely out of a stone age, so backwards most of them didn't believe life could flourish anywhere else in the vast universe except on their own, tiny, world.
He wondered what would happen when they found out the truth. If they ever did.
It was depressing. Even with Hoshi and Dee beside him, he felt vulnerable with his disability, barely able to negotiate ordinary streets and steep stairs without Herculean effort. Their mission was to immerse themselves for a least a year, reporting back only to help the rest of the fleet assimilate quietly but he had no idea how difficult it would to live far back in time, an alien in an unfriendly land.
Felix wondered how the other teams were faring. He knew that Kara Thrace, Sam Anders and Lee Adama had been sent to the other coast of this continent, somewhere called California. A few of the other Cylons had drawn the short straw - they'd been sent far north to the colder areas, supposedly their tougher body structures would accommodate the frost more easily than any human. He'd heard that some of the pilots had been assigned to the large independent continent, an island so gigantic it took over a good portion of the southeastern hemisphere.
He wondered if it snowed there. Probably, just on an opposite time schedule than theirs. A glance out the window confirmed more snow had fallen, a thick blanket of white covered the opposite roofs. He used to love snow when he was a kid but now it just looked like one more obstacle to overcome.
Gods, you're getting old Felix he thought. Louis had made good-natured fun of the white hairs frosting his sideburns but it really wasn't that funny. Not even thirty and he was gray and broken, only good for figuring out computer pass-codes and ridiculous, guttural languages.
Speaking of languages ... "Good morning" he said aloud, in what was considered Standard in this part of the Earth, otherwise known as English. "How is I?"
How is I, that doesn't sound right. He scooped up the well-worn language guide from his nightstand and flipped through it. "How are yooooo" he said, drawling out the last sound.
Ugh, hideous. But he was learning it, despite Dee's constant needling. Little did she realize that she'd be learning it too, whether she wanted to or not. Sharing some obscure, bastardized Colonial dialect with an old lady and a few expatriates from a faraway island wasn't going to cut it.
"Are you in pain, Felix?" An awake Louis peered blearily at him.
"Good morning," Felix repeated, smirking at Louis' wince. "How are youooooo?"
Louis looked deeply confused. "Is that some kind of dog call?"
"That's the morning greeting here, my love." Felix put the guide back on the table and propped himself up on his elbow. "I have a feeling that Dee's hands are going to get just a little more dishpan."
"Did it snow?" Louis peered out the window and groaned. "Man, my back is going to break in half. You know that Dee's been stuffing all the money in her shirt. I haven't seen a cubit of it."
Felix laughed. "She's trying to save you from yourself."
"To hells with that. I'm keeping whatever I make today. And buying some food. The old lady's a good cook but I want some of those packaged things they sell," Louis said, his eyes gleaming. "Everything smells like sugar in the store. And they have those round things and stuff I can't even figure out. I want all of it."
"Just be careful. Some of this stuff might be poison to us. Or at least taste like crap."
"After two years of algae, it's going to taste great. Every bit of it," Louis declared, leaning over to kiss Felix on the nose. He made a pleased noise and did it again, then on his lips, with decided interest.
Nice, but ... "Don't you have to get to work?" Felix said, running a hand through Louis' tangled hair. "Don't want to get beat out by the kiddie shovel brigade, do you?"
"Guess not," Louis sighed.
He rose, pulling on an over-sized sweater that once belonged to the dearly departed former tenant. It had been washed, repeatedly, but it was still a droopy mess. It was warm nonetheless and beggars couldn't choosers, this much Felix knew. He motioned for another kiss which Louis gladly supplied. "By the way, I told you I love you, right?"
"I think so, but let's hear it again."
Felix picked up the guide and read from it. "I love yoooooooo."
Louis grimaced. "How romantic."
xXx
Dee was already up, the pullout bed neatly folded back into the sofa. The mattress was actually of better quality than Felix and Hoshi's due to relative lack of use. Elen dug up some extra linens for them, a quaint mismatched pile of flowers, sail boats and geometric designs Dee couldn't quite understand.
She did her best with them, washing everything by hand and drying it wherever convenient, much to Felix's annoyance. He was constantly ducking wet sheets and drippy socks, grumbling with every step. Dee then offered to let him wash and dry them which effectively silenced him.
Elen had mentioned something about a laundry machine, but it supposedly took money and Dee found herself being more frugal than usual, not to mention nervous around this world's rickety appliances. She found herself constantly worried about things blowing up, especially the gas-powered stove that looked like something out of a history book. Even Felix backed away a little every time it was turned on and Hoshi had to be reminded constantly to turn it off once he was done making whatever terrifying experimental concoction he was enamoured of that day.
Her job was nice, but exhausting. Elen had suddenly become adventurous with Dee by her side, insisting on shopping and cooking huge dishes of homemade food, most of which she gave to them. Dee simply followed her orders, which came at a rapid Tigh-like pace. Her job in the Galactica's CIC during a war had been good practice for chasing after a wily octogenarian who'd magically dropped twenty years from her age with Dee by her side.
Elen hadn't asked much about their unusual living arrangement, one apartment for two men and a woman who were obviously not related. Dee was grateful for this small favor, even when certain noises upstairs were embarassingly loud one afternoon.
"As long as they keep it down during my stories, who cares?" Elen said, waving off Dee's mortification. "Bring me that spoon, sweetheart. No, the big wooden one."
"You should get yourself your own man," Elen said to her a few hours later. "Sharing like that is all right but only for a little while. Men like that, they fool around with girls but when it comes down to having a family, that's not what interests them. You need a real husband, not two sort of-maybe-kinda ones."
Dee felt herself flush. Deeply. "Oh, it's not like that, Mrs. Costakis."
"Uh-huh. Fill that pot with cold water, almost to the top. That's it." The old woman popped open a box of pasta. "If you're not joining in, that's even worse. At least you're getting a little the other way. You're too pretty to waste yourself. You should get a man before your boobs droop."
"This water is supposed to be hot or cold?" Dee interjected hurriedly.
"Cold. When I was your age I once slept with this fellow who had the biggest ..."
That's when the phone rang and Dee spent the rest of the day thanking the gods for timely interruptions. When her day was finally done, she spent a good half-hour chewing out Felix and Hoshi who simply stared at her.
"And then she started on the 'wild frakcapades of the past' stories. Thanks a lot," Dee said, glaring. "I hope you're both happy."
"Nana had wild frakcapades?" Hoshi asked through a mouthful of spinach pie. Louis had taken to calling Elen "Nana", something she didn't discourage. "I'm a little shocked. Was it with girls or guys?"
Felix winced around his food. "For the love of the gods, Louis!"
"And both of you are doing the dishes tonight. I don't know when I became the maid," Dee grouched. "Cleaning and cooking."
"Hey, I made dessert," Hoshi said. He pointed to a batch of long yellow cakes with a white 'something' oozing out of both ends. "They're called "twankies". I fried them in butter."
"The dishes no I do," Felix said in English. "Done they will be by you."
Dee's mouth fell open. "Are you having some kind of fit, Felix? What is that horrible sound?"
"That's English for kiss my ass, we made a bet," he replied, punctuating his words with little stabs of his fork. "As you can see, my progress is extraordinary."
Dee rubbed her temples slowly. "How many more weeks before we go back to avoiding the Cylon faction blowing us out of the sky for good?"
"Fifty," Gaeta replied. He took another bite of spinach. "And by the way, this needs more salt."
He ducked just in time.
xXx
next prompt: Years