Fic: Ephemera (Gaeta/Baltar - PG)

[millarific]

Title: Ephemera
Author: millarific
Characters: Gaeta, Baltar, Athena, implied Helo
Pairing: Gaeta/Baltar
Wordcount: 2,365
Rating: PG (there be kissing)
SPOILERS: Um, it's totally AU, but I guess, through Season 3?
Warnings: none
Summary: This is a totally AU, possibly self-induglent fic set in a mythical Season 4 where Baltar and Gaeta are not trying to kill and/or betray each other, and Gaius hasn't been stolen by the Den Mothers of the Apocalypse. It may have also been influenced by too much viewing of "Dancing With the Stars" at the gym. :)
Beta: _usakeh_Thanks, usakeh!
Author's Note: This was intended to be written for gaeta_squee 's fic battle, which ended April 4, but I didn't make it on time. The prompt was ludicrous. Also, thanks to sphinxvictorian and fuschia for looking this over and encouraging me along the way.

 

 

Felix groaned at yet another pop song he hadn’t much liked back when it was hot on the wireless five years ago.

“You know,” he complained mildly, “with a practically inextinguishable black market, you’d think they’d have found some new songs to play in this bar by now.”

Gaius stared thoughtfully at the small dance floor over the rim of his own glass. After a moment, he sighed. “It’s all rubbish anyway. I don’t know why you made me come here.”

“Because no one wants us in their card games, there are only so many books you can read, and I won’t let you hide in quarters forever.” Felix gave him a tight-lipped smile.

Gaius nodded in resignation as the DJ shifted into the next track, this time, a traditional song which had been recorded over the years in dozens of different ways, but all featuring an undeniable beat.

“Oh,” Gaius rolled his eyes, “and it just got worse.” He watched the people on the floor quickly group themselves into bouncing and skipping pairs, linking arms and alternating partners. Noting Felix’s tapping foot, Gaius snorted. “Do you actually like this music? It’s so mechanical, no style or grace to it, so frakking…provincial.”

“Don’t be such a wet blanket, Gaius,” he retorted. “They’re simple dances, but that’s what makes them fun. They’re traditional; everybody knows them. What’s wrong with that?”

“I can think of plenty of better ways to have fun bouncing up and down like a jackrabbit, darling.” Gaius tousled his lover’s hair. Felix smiled at the flirtatious gesture but the music thumped in his bones, calling to him. He glanced across the room, saw Dee flitting about from partner to partner, a beaming smile on her face that was all too rare these days.

“Come on,” he said impulsively, “why don’t we go out there and show them how it’s done?”

“You must be joking,” Gaius scoffed, looking back out onto the dance floor.

“Don’t you know how?” Felix teased. “Come on, you must have learned these dances growing up on Arielon.”

“What?” he grimaced, annoyed, “because we were poor but happy farmers? Spare me the stereotypes, Felix.”  

“That’s not what I meant, Gaius, and you know it,” Felix chided him, but his partner was only half-listening. Felix noticed that despite his complaints, he couldn’t take his eyes off the dancing. “You know,” he teased, “I seem to remember a certain Colonial Day celebration where you were quite content to dance all night.”  

“Colonial Day?” His voice rose in pitch, confused a moment, then bent playfully. “Oh. Well. There were a lot of lovely ladies needing my attention that night, you must understand.”

Felix smirked at that. “I bet.”

The dancers began leaving the floor as the DJ shifted to yet another song from long ago. “Ah, now that’s more like it!” Gaius exclaimed. ”Now, this, you can dance to with some panache!”

Felix listened more carefully, his eyebrows rising in disbelief. “This is what you like?” he said, bemused. “Seriously? How do I not know this about you after three years? This is my parents’ music!”

“I’ll bet they danced to it too, didn’t they?” said Gaius.

“Yeah, they did, actually.”

Wistfulness crept into Gaius’ voice. “When I was a child, I used to get two cubits at the end of every month if I did all my chores. For years, I spent half my monthly allowance going to the movie theatre thirty klicks away. They didn’t have modern movies, of course, just old films no one was interested in. But those old movies, they were so…so glamorous." He smiled at the memory. "I loved when a movie opened up with the the Caprica City skyline. And there was always at least one scene with all these beautiful, cultured people dancing the night away to this kind of music.

“The minute I got to University,” he sipped at his drink, “I signed up for lessons.”

“You know, you are full of surprises.” Felix felt bad for having teased him now. “I never learned how to dance like this,” he said. “I always thought I couldn't. But I remember my parents putting on their old records every now and then after dinner and spending half the night dancing. My sister and I used to shake our heads at how embarrassing they were." He shook his head, nostalgic.

"The only dances I know how to do are the traditional ones we learned in school. Those were easy," he concluded. "This kind of stuff?” His hand gestured vaguely towards the dance floor. “It’s totally out of my league.”

“You could pick up the rudiments quite quickly,” Gaius began. “I’m sure someone with your intelligence…”

“No way,” Felix cut off the idea in mid-formation. “I’m not going to be able to do that, no matter how many times you try to teach me.” But he was chagrined to see Gaius warming up to the challenge. “I won’t live up to all your great movie memories,” he warned. “I’ll step all over your feet. It’ll just be disappointing.”

“Oh don’t be ludicrous.” Gaius waved a dismissive hand at him. “You’ll be fine.”

“I’m going to the bar,” he insisted. “I need another drink.”

“But by the time you get back, the song will be over,” he protested.

“You can teach me when the next one comes on,” he said easily.

“You are a coward, Felix Gaeta,” Gaius accused, but Felix was already moving towards the other end of the room.

“I’ve been called worse,” Felix called over his shoulder.

 

                                                                          ************

This had been one of Felix’s stupider ideas. But he was even stupider for having agreed to it. The last place in the universe he wanted to be was in this crass bar with all these drunk screeching people, who were obligated by their military oaths to leave him alone, but not prevented from openly glaring at him; that is, when they weren’t simply pretending he didn’t exist.

Gaius wasn’t sure which was worse.

He looked over with a restless eye, wondering where Felix was, so he could begin a campaign to get them the hell out of this place. He wasn’t at the bar. He wasn’t walking back across the room. Where the hell was he?

“May I have this dance, Doctor?”

Gaius blinked in surprise, whirled around at the unfamiliar female voice.

“You?” he said in amazement.

Sharon Agathon stood before him with pursed lips. “What?” she challenged.

His arms crossed over his chest. “But you’re a…” He trailed off in embarrassment and confusion.

“A Cylon?” she finished for him. “I would have thought that you of all people around here would be beyond those kinds of prejudices.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s not that,” he said. “It’s just...” he searched for the right words and failed. “Honestly, I’m bewildered,” he admitted. “How do you even know how to dance to music made by humans over forty years ago?”

“What, you think you’re the only poor kid from Arielon who tried to learn some social graces, Doctor?”

He gaped at her.

“Or at least, that’s what Boomer thought she’d done.” She shrugged, giving him a wan smile. “Helo can’t dance to save his life either. So this was one of the least useful skills I got from her. Until now.”

His eyes drifted again, through the smoky haze throughout the bar, and he finally caught a flash of Felix squirreled away in a corner, chatting with Karl Agathon. Felix had made friends with the man in the last few months, working together in the CIC. The man was civil to Gaius, even friendly, in an unobtrusive, assumed way that Gaius found as mystifying as he found it a relief.

He made a surprised, percussive sound of realization in the back of his throat. “Felix put you up to this.”

“Songs from this era were a lot shorter than songs today, Doctor,” she said pointedly. “You want that dance or not?”

He looked across the hazy room again. He was sure Felix was willfully avoiding his gaze. He looked back at Lieutenant Agathon, her posture so very straight in her military uniform, like she was struggling against the entire world, and she couldn’t afford to let her guard down even for a moment. The only soft part of her were those deep brown eyes; they’d always made her look like a lost child.

He stopped short. She’s not that one, he reminded himself, suddenly discomfited. This one had no history with him. She wasn’t the one that brought him to Galactica. She wasn’t the one whom he’d told to…

“I’m not exactly good for one’s social status, in case you hadn’t noticed,” he blurted out.

She actually laughed at that. In his face. “You think I’m good for yours?”

There was something both cynical and innocent about it that for a moment gave him one last glimpse of the other one, and he felt another tiny twinge of guilt. But her laughter was contagious, distracting.

“Yeah, all right then,” he said eventually. “Thanks.” He formally extended his hand to her. She took it.

They walked onto the dance floor alone, the song shifting into a sultry, swinging rhythm. It had been about three to four years since he’d done this, but muscle memory immediately took over, and his body knew exactly what to do. Hers did too, and the two of them glided across the dance in easy unison, their bodies jerking, swaying, and bending in perfect call and response. She flawlessly obeyed every subtle push and pull of his hand. He kept up with the turns of her hips. Gaius could tell that they looked absolutely stunning together. He was sure he felt the weight of the bar patrons' awestruck stares. For the next two minutes, he was back on Caprica; he was the next bright thing at University; he was President Adar’s guest of honor;  he was the newly elected Vice-President of the Colonies. He saw himself waving graciously to the adoring throngs.

As the song entered its final throes, he dipped her low and she laughed in girlish surprise. He snapped her body back up and glanced out at the bar patrons around them.

Who were still screeching drunk, chattering, and utterly involved in themselves. It took him by surprise. “Oh,” he exhaled with a touch of disappointment.

“You okay, Doctor?”

He was startled back into the moment. “What? Oh. Yes, yes,” he said, chagrined, nodding more frantically than he’d intended. “I’m fine. More than fine, really. I just thought I saw...I thought they were…”

The music change interrupted his ramblings. A smile broke out on his face. “They’re playing another one,” he said in pleased surprise.

“I requested two songs,” she said, curving her foot around his, silently telegraphing that their next dance would begin with a turn and glide. “I wasn’t sure how long it would take to convince you.”

He sighed. “Thank you, Lieutenant Agathon.” It didn’t feel right somehow to call her Sharon. He didn’t know her all that well yet, and anyway, it made him think of the other one.

“You’re welcome, Doctor Baltar,” she said matter-of-factly, but Gaius could hear gentleness buried underneath. They danced in silence, both having learned the quirks of each other’s moves by now.

Once the question occurred to him, Gaius couldn’t stop himself from asking:

“What made you come over here?” He wasn’t even sure why he wanted to know. He suspected the truth would embarrass him and if she lied to him, well, that would possibly be more embarrassing. "I mean, I know why you came over here, but what made you do it?"

She let him pull her into a twirl. When she was facing him again, those deep brown eyes looked steadily into his. “Because you stopped them.”

He blanched, irrationally worried that she was accusing him of something. “I’m sorry. Er, what?”

“Hera,” she said simply. “You stopped them from killing my unborn child. Hera’s alive today because you fought for her.”

Oh.He stumbled into the good will, floored by it. “I see.”

She pushed them into another spin, and then the song was ending. He twisted her with a final flourish, and they ended the song with her spun into his arms.

A moment later, she glided out of the embrace, then gave him a small formal nod, which he returned in an equally formal manner.

“That was wonderful and utterly unexpected, Lieutentant Agathon,” he said. “Thank you.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” she said simply, and walked off through the haze of cigarette smoke, returning to the other side of the room. Gaius watched how her husband lit up at the sight of her, how she smiled back at him. He felt strangely ebullient just watching them.

 “So you’re suddenly having a good time.” He felt Felix’s hand on his back, heard his amiable tone behind him. “You weren’t lying about those dance moves, were you?”

Without speaking, Gaius curled his fingers tightly into the locks of Felix’s hair, bringing Felix’s lips into a long, confident kiss.

Felix’s eyes widened, and he licked his bottom lip with newfound interest. “By the way,” he said, making his voice a low growl, “did I mention how sexy you looked out on that dance floor?”

He grabbed Gaius’ hand and traced a suggestive index finger around his palm. “I’ve changed my mind,” he announced. “I’ve decided I want a dance lesson after all.” He let a beat pass. “A very private one. Back in our room. Now, please.”

Gaius chuckled. “I think that could be arranged.” He took one last look at the people around them, accidentally catching the glance of a pretty blonde, who immediately assaulted him a cold glare. He blinked and regained his composure a moment, then turned away to kiss Felix full on the lips again, not caring. He pulled their bodies into motion and towards the exit.

“Yes, why don’t we?” he smiled. “I have some moves to show you that I think you’ll quite like.”

Comments

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Ooh, how romantic! Why didn't they have some guys dancing with each on NC? That would have been so inspiring. I like the banter here and how they seem so healed and mature in their relationship. Kinda like Tigh and Ellen were on NC. But look how that ended. That's BSG for you.

I love the image of Sharon and Gaius dancing. The two outcasts connecting. I'm sure they would make a surprising yet strking pair.

The moment when she mentions Hera was very affecting too.

For the next two minutes, he was back on Caprica; he was the next bright thing at University; he was President Adar’s guest of honor; he was the newly elected Vice-President of the Colonies. He saw himself waving graciously to the adoring throngs.

It is so hard to see the good in Gaius Baltar sometimes. But in this story, I do.

[demonqueen666.livejournal.com]

Hee hee, Gaius is such a dancing snob.

I love that Felix went the extra effort to do something that would make him happy (aww) and find it very interesting and cool that it would involve the Agathons, especially Sharon. I also find it neat that it employed their "connected" origin (although, being nit-picky, moon thereof for her, not the planet proper, and, since this has recently reached claw-my-own-eyes-out pet peeve level for me: A-E-R-E-L-O-N. Say it with me now).

I particularly like the part about him just *assuming* everyone had to be watching them, impressed, only to be brought back down to reality rather quickly when he realized they weren't. That is just SO Gaius, and it makes me feel simulataneously annoyed with and sorry for him.

[millari.livejournal.com]

Hee hee, Gaius is such a dancing snob.
Well the minute I thought about it, I was like, "Oh, he so would be."

I picture the traditional dances they refer to in this story as being like the ones in "Unfinished Business", which seem to me like the kind of dancing Gaius would despise in a snobbish way because he associates them with his humble origins.

Glad that you liked it and thanks for reading it. I felt a little presumptuous pimping it to you (although, clearly not enough to *not* do it ;D), but I wanted to show it to you because I think that Gaius and Felix's much more evolved, healthy vibe was inspired by your "Five Times" fic with them from way back, which was the first time I'd seen them written that way, and clearly, it got under my skin. So thanks!

You know, the whole Aerelon/Arielon thing is something that I did a rather nerdy amount of research on the net about after "Dirty Hands" was first aired. There seemed to be a lot of confusion on the net about how to spell it. I saw it spelled both ways various times, and I could never find out anything definitive, nothing from the Sci Fi website, since in the scripts, that planet hardly ever came up, and frustratingly, they did not include that tidbit about Baltar in his bio. So in the end, I decided to go with what made logical sense, which is that since the planets are named after the signs of the zodiac, they would follow the root spellings of those signs. So I spelled it the way it would be spelled coming from the word "Aries". Made sense to me.

Now I'm sort of stuck with it in my brain. If you've got some definitive source to link me to, I guess I'd have to reconsider my spelling, although the stubborn part of me might not, and then to preserve your eyes, you'd just have stop reading my Baltar fics. ;)

As for Sharon, yeah, I know she "comes from" Troy, one of its moons. I remember that from the Cylon detector test scene. In the fic, I did at first try saying something like, "You think you're the only one from a backwater planet who tried to learn some social graces" and it just didn't flow as nicely as that one simple word did. Also, I wanted to make sure that the interesting fact of Sharon and Baltar's "connected origins" didn't pass notice for those who don't pay such close attention to character backgrounds as we do.

So I thought about whether I could get away with blurring the distinction between the two, and decided that Troy (a mining colony) sounded like enough of a shithole that a lot of people in the Colonies not from there probably would often refer to Troy as Arielon (Aerelon) in that sort of careless way because it was considered to be a subordinate colony to the main planet and that it was too poor and insignificant to bother with remembering its own proper name. Kind of the way people might refer to the nearby town of Roxbury as "Boston" (even though it's not) or the borough of Queens as "New York City".

I know just what you mean about feeling simultaneously annoyed with and sorry for Baltar at his assumptions about how people will react to him. The show manages to provoke that dual feeling well (and often) with him, and I really wanted to reproduce it in this fic. I'm glad it came through!

Thanks again for taking the time to comment.

[demonqueen666.livejournal.com]

If you've got some definitive source to link me to, I guess I'd have to reconsider my spelling, although the stubborn part of me might not

Well, Battlestar Wiki, which has always been a fairly accurate souce in my experience, has Aerelon. So does my core book for the BSG role-playing game (don't judge!); the few times I've seen "Aerelon" in actual official-ish print, that's how it's spelled (the comics use both spellings, of course, which only further proves to me just how much crap they are).
...And as far as roots go, I think if one was to get inanely scholarly, the actual alliterative "from the greek" spelling of Aries is probably more like "Ares" or "Aeres" anyway. :P

[cerebel.livejournal.com]

I *really* like this - it's a fantastic way to break my BSG fanfic hiatus :D

I guess what I really like about it is how it took a left turn from the direction it looked to be taking. Like, stories about lovers teaching each other dancing is sweet, but it's not really all that individually character-based. You can transplant that kind of story formula onto pretty much any fandom and it'll be about the same.

But here, you made it a weird, incredibly interesting character moment between Sharon and Baltar - and, from a distance, without showing it, a really interesting character moment from Felix. Just, the interactions between Sharon and Baltar were really well-done.

Anyhow. I liked it. :)

[millari.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading, and I'm glad you liked it!

Well, I'll admit that in my brain, the seed for the story was the idea of them dancing, but yeah, I didn't really want to make it about that, because it felt sort of like a cute dead end, narratively speaking. Plus, even though it's totally an AU fic, fanon seems to have definitively established that Felix really isn't a very good dancer, so I *just* couldn't make him one, especially after Gaius teaching him for five minutes. ;)

I sat on the story for a while trying to figure out, well then, who else would dance with him, given that everybody on ship hates him? (This question is probably why I was late making the challenge deadline.) Then I saw an interview with Grace Park talking about how she has to write outlines to keep all the different Sharons straight and what they've experienced, given the semi-shared programming. As an example, she cited the fact that Athena has no history with Baltar, that she's not the one that watched Helo give up his seat for Baltar, etc. Then everything, as they say, clicked.

Also, thanks for validating the decision to show Felix's character moment from a distance. I had started to write a conversation between him and the Agathons showing how Athena made her decision, but then I trashed it, thinking it worked much better as a surprise. Also, I liked the idea that there's some ambiguity about whether Athena going over to Baltar was the result of Felix asking for the favor or simply him mentioning the situation and her taking the initiative.

Anyway, thanks again for the comment. I'll be looking out for your fic!

[falafel-musings.livejournal.com]

Yay! Still loving your fic!

You know, I love the Joe's bar setting. Your AU verse feels like S1 Baltar/Gaeta have been transported to the end of S3 and have remained cuddly friends. Well, a little more than friends actually (hoorah! So say we all)

I like that they are still outsiders with the crew, but are happy to be adrift with each other. It was a great idea for them to make a connection with the Agathons, seeing as Sharon knows what it's like to be the ships scapegoat and Baltar did indeed save her childs life. Yeah, they would make hot dancing partners. LMAO at Gaeta getting frisky.

I loved the idea of Aerlon!Baltar seeking refuge from his family and farm life in the cinema and being drawn to the glamour of the old movies and the Caprican skyline. That seemed very in character.

Oooh, there was lots of Gaius foddling Felix's hair here. You know my kink without having to ask. Great fic! If only they could kiss and make up like this...

[millari.livejournal.com]

I'm so pleased you liked this. It's one of my less-read stories, probably because its AU and because the dancing references in the header scared people away.

I liked the way you described them as "happy to be adrift with each other". That's a great way of putting it. And I'd like to think that the playfulness and recurring interest in sex we've seen Gaeta exhibit in S1 and S2 points to him being an endearingly frisky partner in bed, who would know how to keep hypersexed Gaius' interest.

Yeah, the Agathons are about the only people amongst the Galaticans that I could imagine possibly giving Baltar even an ounce of slack. I imagine them doing it mostly for Felix's sake, but the Hera connection would make it easier too. Plus, as you said, Athena knows what it's like to be the scapegoat, and might feel some sympathy for Baltar's position. As for Helo, well, he's not really a character I pay much attention to, but it's clear that he's awfully big hearted. Given that Baltar fought for Hera, I could see him not becoming particularly close friends with Baltar, but letting bygones be bygones enough to be civil and friendly when it came up.

If there's one thing you can count on in my stories with these two is that at least *one* of them will be fondling the other one's hair. It's such a kink of mien, and they both have such the perfect hair for it. :D

Thanks so much for reading!

[leiascully.livejournal.com]

It's nice to see them both happy for a moment!

[millari.livejournal.com]

Yes, this was much my motivation for writing it. :)

Thanks for reading and commenting! Oh, and cute icon btw.

[coffeesuperhero.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this! It made me smile. :D

[millari.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks! Thanks for reading it and taking the time to leave a comment! I'm glad it made you smile.

[theastolat.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've read anything quite so emotionally stirring as this scene between Gaius and Athena.

You don't really encounter many moments like this in bsg fic and now I find myself longing for some similar acknowledgement of the characters on the show. I'm not sure there has been one. If there has I can't remember it.

So I appreciate this fic for that (if it isn't for the Felix/Gaius cuteness) ^_^

[millari.livejournal.com]

Wow, another really lovely comment. Thank you!

Yes, the fic got started out as a fluffy fic that I realized quickly needed to have a point, and Felix/Gaius cuteness wasn't it. Luckily, I refused to turn Felix into a good dancer, so I was forced to ask myself who else might even deign to dance with Gaius on Galactica, given that he was so hated. Otherwise, I might not have thought to insert this part with Athena that I think became the heart (and the point) of the story.

Ever since Gaius injected the Chief with a knockout drug in front of Boomer to frighten her into telling him about Cylons in the Fleet, Baltar and the Eights have had virtually no direct interaction that we've seen on screen, and there's certainly been no scene of acknowledgement between them like you mention. This was one of my great pet peeves of New Caprica: Baltar and Boomer never, ever spoke to each other there or even acknowledged each other, despite the fact that they knew each other on Galactica. They both traveled together from the basestar to Galactica in "The Eye of Jupiter" and you'd think they'd have PLENTY to hash out on a long, boring shuttle ride. I mean, the whole Cylon detector green light! (I wrote a fic about that too in 2007, it so frustrated me.)

Baltar and Athena have never had a conversation about Hera. Nor have Baltar and Helo, even though they were on the basestar together in Season 4. I would really like to see that kind of conversation happen. But seeing as I'll never probably see anything about Baltar and the Eights on screen, I guess I'll just keep writing fic every now and then. :)

Thanks again for the comment!

[irradiatedsoup.livejournal.com]

Adorable! I liked the stuff between Sharon and Gaius, too.

[millari.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. Every now and then I give in and have to write my boys all fluffy and cute like this, but with a few exceptions, I do try and give it some sort of larger point. :)