I expected to have trouble with this one, but it just sort of fell together. Just a little silliness. Crossing my fingers on the LJ cut.
Regards,
Patricia
Title: Unexpected Gifts
Author: Cibolo/ Seawillow
Rating: G
Warnings: Cute Kid Alert. A/S, sort of. It's up to you if it's slash or pre-slash or neither.
( Unexpected GiftsCollapse )
Athena pitched her voice to carry over the sound of her father and brother's bick-- er, discussion. Both men turned to look at Athena and then at the child in question, who was diligently picking the diced root vegetables out of the legumes on his plate in preparation for mashing the latter into a sticky green mass suitable for covertly flicking across the table at his partner in crime. Seeing heads starting to turn toward their end of the table, Starbuck quickly set his fork down on top of his own munitions stockpile as camouflage.
Athena nudged the boy.
"Huh?"
"You have something to show us, son?" Apollo asked.
Boxey's face lit up at the reminder.
"Oh, yeah! I have a present for Starbuck!"
He jumped out of his chair and started digging through the school bag he'd left on his grandfather's couch.
"Something for me?" Starbuck asked. He glanced around the table and caught Apollo's baleful stare. "What?"
"You launch that stuff, you'll be washing his hair tonight," Apollo warned quietly.
"What?" Starbuck repeated innocently and took advantage of Boxey's return to avoid any further comments. He took the ribbon-decorated tube of paper happily. He always loved surprises.
"Before you open that, Starbuck, I think Boxey should tell us what this present is all about. There's a story behind it," Athena said.
Apollo turned his stare on his sister, suddenly suspicious. She smirked at him and gave Boxey a little pat.
"Go ahead, sweetie."
"Yeah, kid," Starbuck said encouragingly. "Tell me all about it."
"Siress Yvarne -- she's my teacher," Boxey explained. "Siress Yvarne says it's important to tell people when we like 'em a lot. Today, we were supposed to make pictures 'specially for our mothers."
Starbuck blinked at the little boy's expectant grin. "Well, that's a nice idea, I guess," he said.
Apollo leaned forward.
"Boxey, I thought you said you had something for Starbuck."
"Uh-huh. Siress said if we don't have a mother, we should make something for someone who's special to us and our dads, like Starbuck is. Go on, open it, Starbuck."
At the end of the table, Adama choked softly and reached for his glass of water. Apollo's face heated under his father's fixed attention.
Starbuck hesitated for a moment, then pulled the end of the ribbon.
A gaily painted picture uncurled in his hands. Boxey leaned in excitedly.
"Remember? This is when me and you and Dad went to the Agro ship and you and Dad swung me all the way around the garden. See, that's you," he said, pointing to a yellow-haired figure with a brown and tan body. "And that's Dad and me and Muffit."
The three human figures, one tall and black-haired, one brown-haired and short and the yellow-haired one Boxey had first pointed out -- stood holding hands, the little one suspended in the air between the taller figures. A brown, vaguely dagget-shaped blob looked up at them adoringly. There was a stretch of green grass under their feet and a lolly-pop tree on either side of them. Progressively smaller trees lined either side of a path that started under the figures' feet and tapered off to one side in a childish attempt at perspective. A narrow expanse of black dotted with white stars topped the scene.
He looked over at Apollo, who was doing a pretty bad job of hiding his amusement.
"Yeah, I remember. Wow. This is-- this is really something, kid." Starbuck looked down into Boxey's expectant face, then grinned. "It's great, Boxey. It's a really great present. Thanks."
"Boxey wanted to give it to you in the Rejuvenation Center after school today," Athena added. "But I told him this would be better."
Starbuck winced at the idea of what his fellow warriors would have done with this kind of ammunition. "Ah, yeah. Much better. This is a special kind of thing, Boxey. Not something for the unwashed masses to witness."
Boxey pressed up against Starbuck's side. "Aunt Athena said this is what family dinners are for."
"It is getting to be a habit where your father's concerned," Adama said mildly.
"What?" Apollo lost his grin. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Son, I think you and Starbuck and I have something to discuss later this evening."
"Father, Starbuck and I--"
Adama held up a quelling hand. "Later," he said with a tone so soft with benign understanding that it made Apollo's head ache.
"Oh, by the way, Starbuck?"
All three men turned to Athena, who preened visibly under their attention.
"Siress Yvarne asked, so I gave her your contact information."
Starbuck stared at her, mystified. As he recalled, Siress Yvarne was pushing well into her fifth score of yahrens. She wasn't the sort of woman that typically wanted to contact him. "Why?"
"Apparently, she's been trying to pin Apollo down to a parent-teacher conference -- something about Boxey's behavior during meal time -- but he's been too busy to meet with her. She says she understands that the Strike Captain is a busy man," she said with a tilt of her head to her shocked and seething brother. "She trusts that you'll be able to fit her into your schedule at an appropriate time."
"Me? Parent-teach-- w-wait just a centon!"
"Later," Adama repeated more firmly. The look he gave Starbuck was considerably cooler than the one he'd given Apollo.
Apollo let his head drop into his hand as Athena delivered her coup de grace:
"Happy Mother's Day, Starbuck."
</div>
