Doesn't like dice games with sharpies and frauds

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

((Occurs sometime the week after Bad Fanon Day and the subsequent fallout. Closed to Una and Starbuck.))

Despite occasional temptations to do so, Una had still not cracked open the bottle of moonshine that John Crichton had sent to her back when she'd first arrived.

Given events of the last several days, the temptation was now overwhelming.

She hated drinking alone, though, and being in one of those moods where she wanted to blame the entire male gender for everything that was wrong with the universe, she had absolutely no desire to drink with any of the men or male beings of her acquaintance.

She'd done a fairly crap job of making female friends in this place. She liked Psyche, but there was something eerily not quite right about boozing up with a goddess, especially one who could see through a person with alarming accuracy. Which—

Of course. Starbuck. They'd scarcely seen each other at all since Una had arrived, more was the pity, and that needed to be remedied. And this was as good an excuse as any.

Starbuck,

So I'm not at all sure why I haven't written or visited sooner, as I did enjoy talking to you when I arrived here. Can I make that up to you by offering a drink? I'm afraid it's only the local moonshine, but it's better than nothing. Your place or mine?

-Una Persson

((ETA: Rated PG-13 to R for not especially moderately explicit, but and pretty unmistakable femmeslashiness.))

Comments

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

While Sam and Dean Winchester did have their own measure of girly tendencies (for which they were constantly having to defend themselves of late), Starbuck couldn't help but notice that her company in the park tended to be more male dominated than she was used to. It was starting to wear on her nerves a bit.

So when the letter came from Una, she was surprised, and frankly a little relieved.

Una,

You can always make anything up to me by offering me a drink. Why don't you come over here? That way I'm not completely imposing. I live in Space Mountain. And there's a funny joke to make about that somewhere, but I've run out of them.

-Starbuck

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Starbuck,

Superb. I'll be along this evening. If you can round up something to mix the alcohol with—a course of action strongly recommended—we'll make an evening of it.

-Una

Suiting action to the word, Una arrived at Space Mountain shortly after sundown, the bottle of moonshine in hand.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

Starbuck knew Una had arrived because Sador went out to greet her immediately. "Come on in," she called. She had put all the gear for the pyramid court inside Space Mountain, so it didn't get cleaned up or wreck or misused. It was shoved off to the side, where it was clearly visible, but not in the way. She tossed the ball back and forth between her hands, waiting.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

The dog brought a smile to Una's face; it had been too long, she realised, since she'd seen any animals. She paused to greet Sador and gently ruffle her ears in greeting before going inside.

"Starbuck! Good to see you again."

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

She raised her eyebrows a bit at the mention of the Master not waiting. So perhaps more than a little crazy....

"I don't think anyone would know what to do, if they've known each other as long as you said. I mean, can't even fathom living for 900 years, let alone knowing one specific person that long." She had always assumed she'd die pretty soon, anyway. No loss to anyone there. "How do they know each other, anyway?"

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"They were students together, I think the Doctor said." She really needed another cigarette. And another drink. She took care of both as she continued talking. "Somewhere along the line they fell out, and it's been war across the galaxies and Time ever since. And now here they are, tossed together through no design of their own, still at war, but..." She paused, considered a moment. "But they seem to need each other, somehow. Perhaps it's something about being the only two of their kind here. People who know each other from before do seem to stick together, and I can't blame them. God knows I'd do the same, if I had Jerry or Catherine or Oswald or any of the others here."

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

Starbuck cringed a little. "I dunno, there are a few people from my area who I wouldn't be happy to see at all. You probably couldn't pay... well, not pay me, but barter or beg me either, to spend more time with them." One had already showed up, but that was neither here nor there, and she really couldn't bring herself to talk about it just then.

"'Course if they were friends, I guess...." She frowned. And she was very good at lying to herself and pretending that she wasn't seeing Sharon's face right then. "There's always the redemption thing. And the 'good old days' thing. And the 'needing whatever you had there back' thing. I'm not a 900 year old alien, though, so who knows."

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"Nor am I, which the Master does not hesitate to point out to me at every opportunity," Una said, with a sardonic snort. "But you're probably on to something, anyway. I expect it's a little of all of those things, mixed in with—" an expansive gesture that startled Sador and elicited a concerned little whuff, "everything else. Sorry, girl." She scratched the dog behind her ears.

"Someone asked me once who I'd wish to have with me here. I said I couldn't make such a wish in good conscience, because I wouldn't want any of my friends trapped here as well. Wouldn't wish it on my enemies either. And naturally not wanting to see hide or hair of them again is part of that. But still, some days..." She trailed off, gaze somewhere in middle distance.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"Oh, now that's not fair," Una said good-humouredly. "If you're going to get yourself in a hopeless mess, it ought to at least be a little enjoyable." What happened to her last cigarette? She must have finished it some time ago. She took out another one and offered one to Starbuck. "God knows why we do any of this. Perverse creatures, we humans."

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

"The only time I seem to enjoy myself is when I fly or fight or drink," Starbuck muttered, almost under her breath, taking another cigarette with a nod. "That has to say something about me, but I'm not sure I wanna know what."

She snorted. "I think some of us are noble. Or I like to think that. But most of us are pretty frakking perverse, yeah.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"Probably something similar to what it says about me that I'm practicaclly only ever enjoying myself when I'm in a state of crisis," Una replied. She lit Starbuck's cigarette for her (cupping the other woman's hand lightly in her own as she did so) and then lit her own.

"Nobility and perversity aren't necessarily mutually exclusive," she said. "I've seen men and women act in extraordinary ways in the darkest, bleakest days; and many are just as capable of terrible behaviour in times of light. It's the human condition, I suppose."

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

She wondered if that was sort of the case for her too, or if it was only that she expected crisis so much that she didn't know what to do when it wasn't there. (The contact was unexpected, and she's kind of needed it here since she is used to getting it where she's from. She cocked her head to the side after her cigarette was lit, and gave Una a tip-tilted smile.)

"So Say We All to that," she agreed. "I don't think I've ever known a person who I could trust to do the 'right thing' even most of the time." Except maybe Adama. But she was always worried about how that might fail her one day too.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Well, that signal was pretty clear, wasn't it?

The hand on Starbuck's shoulder moved up to her jaw, more assurance in the touch now, and Una leaned forward, her lips just brushing the other woman's cheek.

Considering they were neither of them entirely sober, this was perhaps not a terribly good idea. Except for the part where it really was. Just one thing that could be uncomplicated. God only knew she needed that.

"Have you ever—?" Quietly, almost a whisper.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

No, they weren't entirely sober. And Starbuck had made some recent bad decisions when not entirely sober. But that was because it had been Lee, and Lee was just--

Not who she needed to think about right now at all.

"Not like this," she confessed, turning her head so that Una's lips were closer to her own instead of her cheek. "But I usually catch on pretty quick."

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"Thought you might." She smiled, brushed back a few stray strands of blonde hair and moved in for a gentle, undemanding kiss.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

She normally raced into things like this. It meant you had to think it through less. What made it funny was that she had sort of thought it through this time, and she still thought it was a good idea, so it there was no pressure to move it along. They both could use the attention.

With that in mind, it was easy to kiss back just as gently, to close her eyes after a moment and relax into it. Her hands seemed to thread into Una's hair of their own will (much more hair than she's used to and it's really nice, actually, though maybe a strange thing to think of just then) and she figures it's as good a place as any for them to be for now.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Una chuckled kindly. "I'd ask if you were all right, but I think I know the answer to that already, don't I?" She stroked Starbuck's hair lightly and kissed her cheek.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

"If you didn't, I'd start to get worried that your universe was very different from mine," Starbuck replied, sliding her fingertips inward from the hipbone and down a little. She leaned forward and licked a light path along Una's jaw.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Una stretched a little, catlike, relaxing her shoulders and wrists. "At least some things are constant no matter where in the multiverse a girl goes," she said. The last word was half-lost on a sigh, and she shifted a little, pressing into Starbuck's touch.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

The next morning Starbuck was... really surprised she didn't have a hangover.

But she didn't. In fact, she felt better than she had in a long time. Calmer, really. And thirsty. Yeah, water was in order. But she was a bit too tangled to get at it, and she felt like jostling Una awake would kind of defeat the purpose of everything that had happened last night.

Whoa. Something happened last night. Okay, she'd almost forgotten that, despite her current position. That was how relaxed she was. And by that token, it couldn't have been a bad thing, so why should she been worried about it?

Because Una wasn't awake yet. It was typical Starbuck in that sense. She brushed some hair out of the other woman's face and spoke softly without whispering. "Una. Una, it's morning. Or maybe sometime after morning. I can't really tell."

Well, no one had ever accused her of being a romantic.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Una was deep in a dream of a world Starbuck would have scarcely recognised. It was the palace of Gloriana of Albion, and Una dreamed she was in the cell she'd shared with Thomas Perrott, deep within the palace's labyrinthine walls. Centuries of corridors lay over and through centuries more, inhabited by men, women, children, unknown to Gloriana and her Court. And they'd captured Una, locked her away.

But in the dream, she opened the door to her cell and stepped out into silent tangled corridors; and she walked and walked without stopping, searching for a way out as each hallway turned onto yet another, and each doorway opened onto another twisted passage.

Una. Una, it's morning.

She followed the voice, certain with dream-certainty that doing so would lead her out, and then she pushed open a door and bright light spilled in—

—And she blinked hazily at Starbuck. For the space of a breath she didn't recognise her, couldn't remember where she was, how she'd gotten here. Then memory snapped into place like the turning of a dial, and she smiled. "Good morning. Or whatever it is."

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

Starbuck smiled back, looking just a little devious, though she didn't know it. "How're you doing?" She could really go for a complicated breakfast right at that moment, but that could wait a while.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"'Put her here'. You mean, created, or summoned?" Wasn't that an interesting new wrinkle, and it was both intriguing and not a little discomfiting. "Might I inquire as to who the suspect is?"

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

"Adam?" Starbuck wasn't sure who Una had met, so she figured a little description was in order. "You'd remember him if you met him. Blond and kind of ridiculously good-looking? Always happy, even when everything is shit? I think he brought her here, or made her, or something. I mentioned their weren't any animal besides ducks when he got here, and he mentioned doing something about it, and Sador showed up really soon after."

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"Adam." She frowned, and then the lightbulb went on. "Adam Young. He was the first person I met here, in fact. Good-looking, yes. And he exudes stability." And had seemed quite perfectly normal. Exceptionally so, unusual good looks notwithstanding. "So he's ... something else." She couldn't decide if this worried her or not.