Archive of Our Own

FIC: And I have sins, Lord, but not today (Battlestar Galactica, Kara/Lee, Kara/Zak, R)
Title: And I have sins, Lord, but not today
Author: olaf47
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Characters/Pairing: Kara/Lee, Kara/Zak
Rating: R
Spoilers: None
Word count: 3030
Disclaimer: The characters are not mine. The words are.

“You know, guys, I could drive if you wanted to make out in the backseat,” Lee says, mostly serious.

Zak and Kara’s lips separate with a pop, and she smirks at Lee before her eyes finally settle back on the road.

“C’mon, I didn’t even leave the lane,” she laughs.

“I just don’t want to die before we get there.”

Zak chuckles, plops back into his seat. “He’s right, Kare—I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

Kara rolls her eyes good-naturedly. “You Adama boys are no fun at all. Guess I’ll have to make my own.”

Lee knows that means he better hold on, and, indeed, Kara hits the gas. They get to the beach house a good hour before they expected.

--

“Lee, why don’t you go for a walk?” Zak suggests as soon as they’ve unpacked the car. Kara cackles.

Lee didn’t expect much less, so he just throws his hand up, half a see-you-later, half a white flag, and heads to the beach.

He drags his feet through the sand and smiles to himself. A weekend with Kara and his brother at the beach house is exactly what he needs. He had midterms just before spring break, and he’s pretty sure he barely passed Theory, regardless of the fact that he spent literally weeks in the library studying.

But he doesn’t have to think about that now. He can just stroll up the beach, watch the way the sun glints off the top of the waves, and think about nothing.

He can’t blame them for sending him on a walk. He prefers it really—than them sneaking to some secluded part of the house where he’ll hear them anyway. Kara’s never exactly been quiet. Though really, he can’t blame them for sneaking away either—Kara likes sex, and Lee thinks any guy who wouldn’t want to have sex with her as much as she wants is crazy.

It’s not that he wants his brother’s girlfriend. She’s frakking hot, yeah, but Lee tries not to think about her that way. It works, most of the time. He knows she tells him things she doesn’t tell anyone else, not even Zak, and that makes it easier to think of her as a best friend than as a gorgeous woman.

She tells him things about flying, things about her mom, what she can remember of her dad. He just gets her. And so when Zak the lightweight passes out on them, Lee and Kara sit around and talk. The tradition started the first night he met her; talking to her wore down his natural protectiveness of his little brother. When he wasn’t wary of the many ways she could break Zak’s heart, he realized that she gets him, too.

Lee walks for about an hour, figures that better be enough time, and heads back.

Kara’s lounging on a chair on the deck wearing a tiny red bikini. Lee reminds himself to think of her as a best friend.

“Where’s my brother?” he says by way of greeting.

She looks up at him, blocking the sun with her hand, and smirks. “Sleeping.”

Lee rolls his eyes. “You did a number on him, huh?”

“He can handle himself.”

“I’m more worried about him trying to handle you,” he chuckles. “You hungry?”

“As long as I don’t have to make it.”

--

Zak wakes up just in time for an early dinner of burgers off the grill. He grins.

“Just what I needed, brother. You’re the best.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome.”

They eat on the deck, burgers and beers, sun still high in the sky. Kara’s still in that damn bikini, and Zak’s hands keep finding her skin while Lee tries to focus on the horizon.

Lee drains the last of his beer and doesn’t even bother clearing his dishes; he just takes off toward the water. Kara shrieks with laughter and he knows she is behind him, Zak’s chair scraping along the deck a moment later.

The ocean is calm and cool and they waste time doing handstands and underwater flips. Every once in a while, one of them will disappear underwater and the other two will glance around worriedly, until a hand wraps around one of their ankles.

“You bastard!” Kara yells, sputtering, as Lee surfaces after pulling her under for the fifth time.

He laughs and she flicks water into his eyes.

Like this, when she’s just Kara instead of a gorgeous girl who sometimes lets her eyes linger, the three of them fall into their roles of best friends. It lasts the rest of the night, through swimming and s’mores off the grill because they’re too lazy to build a bonfire. They’re drinking throughout, beers and sometimes a shot of ambrosia. Zak suggests a movie, but, as expected, is lights out on the couch before they can even decide on which one to watch.

Kara and Lee escape his snores and sit in the dark on the deck, sipping beers.

“This is going to be the perfect spring break,” Lee says.

He knows Kara’s silence means she’s taking time to let herself smile before responding.

“I don’t need anything else but the beach and some booze and my boys.”

“We both know you’d die without the occasional Viper.”

“As though you’re any better, Apollo,” she laughs.

The moon’s not risen yet, and he can barely see her under the stars. She runs a hand through her hair.

“So maybe you’re right, but not this week. This week’s going to be perfect.”

Lee yawns and stretches.

“Tired?” Kara asks.

“Yeah.”

They sit silently for another hour.

--

Zak wakes them up the next day with waffles and bacon.

“Kara, this means you gotta make lunch. Lee got dinner and I got breakfast. You’re next.”

“Hope you like mac and cheese,” she says around a bite of waffle smothered in syrup.

--

They spend the morning in town, grocery shopping—mac and cheese for lunch, the fixings for steak fajitas for dinner—and taking the traditional photo with the statue of Benedict Saltry, the founder of the town. The statue is bronze and completely ridiculous, Saltry’s mustache reached his shoulders and he never went anywhere without his dog, who is, of course, part of the statue as well.

Kara, never shy, approaches a stranger to take a picture of the three of them with the statue, and then makes rude gestures at the camera. Lee and Zak look sheepish but happy—the picture’s almost identical to the one taken the last time they visited.

--

When they get back, they go for a run. Kara’s the fastest but Lee has more endurance. They chase each other like the rabbit and the hare while Zak lopes easily along behind them. When they finally get back to the house, sweat covers them, and Lee just gets his shirt off before he hurls himself into the waves. Kara and Zak follow suit.

It’s the perfect level of rough, waves strong enough to bodysurf but not enough to drag you under.

“Bet I can ride a wave farther than you,” Kara challenges Lee.

He laughs. “You’re just saying that because you lost the race.”

“I did not!”

“Zak?”

“Hate to break it to you, Kara, but I think you did,” Zak says, absently, watching the horizon for the right wave.

“Oh, you are so not getting any tonight.”

Zak takes his eyes off the water and laughs at her. “Please, I know running gets you going. I’ll get some as soon as we’re out of the water.”

She narrows her eyes at him right as a wave surprises him and knocks him over. When he comes up spitting salt water, she laughs.

“Karma!”

He shakes his head at her, sending water droplets everywhere, and takes the next wave.

“Running gets you going, does it?” Lee asks, suddenly right next to her. “Even when you lose?”

“That’s it,” she says and lunges at him.

Zak laughs at them from the distance as they wrestle, with each other and the water. Just when one of them gets the advantage, a wave sends them both tumbling. They circle each other, grinning.

“Last wave, then I’m going in, guys. Get started on the lunch Kara’s supposed to be making. I’m starving,” Zak says. “Try not to drown each other.”

“No guarantees,” Kara calls. She attacks again.

She’s strong, but in jumping first, feet off the ground, she loses advantage. Lee’s trying not to laugh because last time he did that he swallowed a mouthful of ocean water. Kara tries to push his arms behind his back, holding tight to each bicep, but he stays steady, pushes back, sending her underwater. She resurfaces by wrapping her legs around his waist and leveraging herself up. Her fingernails dig into his arms and he swallows.

His body is reacting in a way that is really not appropriate for it to be reacting to his brother’s girlfriend while play-wrestling. He tries to pry her off before she realizes anything, but her thighs are strong and her legs are tight around him and he suddenly thinks of other parts of her that are tight and has to bite back a groan that would have given him away.

She wriggles against him then stills, and he realizes the charade’s up. She can feel him, hard against her.

His skin heats up, and he knows he’s bright red, can’t look at her.

But then she squirms again, and, breathless, says, “Lee.”

He swallows hard again, and dares eye contact. Her eyes are wide and serious, and she grinds her hips into his.

He can see Zak behind her, his back as he walks out of the water and up the beach. It’s risky and wrong and Lee wants to stop except he doesn’t and she’s wearing the bikini and pushing into him and godsdammit, he doesn’t want to stop.

“So running does get you going,” he teases, fingers finding the edge of her bikini bottoms.

Her eyes darken and she scrapes her fingernails along his arms to his shoulders. He shivers.

It’s hard, in the waves, but he plants his feet and holds her up as she bites at his skin and licks the salt off his collarbones. He thinks of body shots and feels drunker on her than he’s ever been on alcohol. Zak’s inside, making lunch for his girlfriend and brother, who are about to frak in the ocean, but Lee’s head is swimming more than his body is, and he can’t stop.

They leave her bikini on, because taking it off would require separating their bodies, and he’s pretty sure he never wants to do that ever. Instead, he pulls it aside and she fumbles with his swim trunks and suddenly he’s pushing into her.

The water washes away some of the lubrication, but none of their sins as he works inside of her. He was right, she’s tight, and Gods, it feels good.

He finally kisses her, once he’s buried all the way in. It’s not the first time they’ve kissed; there’ve been hello kisses and goodbye kisses and sloppy drunken kisses while she’s exclaimed how she loves her boys.

But never like this. Never with her tongue sliding, certain, against his and her hands clutching at his shoulders. Never behind Zak’s back.

They kiss and she grinds down and he pushes up and she tastes like the sea—salt and water and dangerous fun. He worries, knows how stupid this is; even if the house is far away, what if Zak can see them? She breaks away and bites a line up his jaw to his ear.

“Gods, Lee,” she breathes and he can’t help it, he’s coming, with barely enough brainpower to slide a hand around to her front, tweak a nipple and bring her over the edge with him. She stays quiet this time, whispers a moan into his shoulder.

As they come back down, endorphins setting in before panic and guilt can take over, Lee relaxes a bit and suddenly they are tumbling—they’re underwater and bubbles are everywhere and Kara’s grabbing at his shoulder but then her hand slips away and he almost takes a gulp of the ocean. His feet find the ground and he pushes, hard, launches himself to the surface as the wave finally passes. Kara resurfaces a few feet away.

“You okay?” he immediately asks.

He meant it to be about the wave, about being knocked over, but she glances at him once, turns red and looks away.

“I mean—”

“Fine. Good. Yeah. Hungry,” she says all at once. “Let’s go see if Zak actually made lunch.”

She catches the next wave toward shore, leaves him to chase after her. He tries to catch her, wants to say he’s sorry or actually make sure she’s okay, or something, but she’s fast, gets to shore quickly, grabs her clothes, and races to the house.

By the time he reaches the house, she’s toweled dry and is pulling one of Zak’s shirts over her head. Lee looks at her for a moment too long and she does not look back.

“Who won?” Zak asks, hands Lee a bowl of macaroni and cheese with hot dogs in it.

Lee’s still looking at Kara. He shrugs.

“Aw,” his brother laughs. “You didn’t let her beat you since you won the race, did you?”

Lee shakes his head, tries for a smile, and changes the subject. “What do you guys want to drink?”

“The good stuff,” Kara says immediately.

“Babe, it’s barely lunch and you want ambrosia?” Zak laughs again and slings an arm around her shoulder. He kisses her, sloppily and Lee looks at his macaroni.

“It’s spring break,” Kara says like it’s the only explanation she needs.

She grabs three tumblers and the ambrosia from the freezer and heads to the deck. Zak hasn’t stopped grinning. He slugs Lee in the arm good-naturedly.

“This is the best spring break. Thanks for coming.”

Lee tries a smile again. “As if I’d miss it.”

--

Kara and Lee drink and brood and drink and brood and try to laugh with Zak. He drinks, too, doesn’t seem to notice that they are acting a bit off.

Lee claims exhaustion and goes upstairs after lunch, puts on headphones in case the other two decide to frak. He falls asleep trying not to think about her face as she came.

Kara passes out lying on her stomach on a chair on the deck, sleeps for three hours and wakes up bright red.

--

They get pretty good at avoiding each other without Zak noticing. He likes all the attention, since they focus it on him instead of each other. When they are alone, they never quite make eye contact, but it’s always hard for Lee to breathe and he swears he feels Kara shiver when he accidentally brushes against her while reaching for a fork in the kitchen.

It’s hard. Lee feels like a complete tool—frakked not only his brother’s girlfriend, but his best friend. He doesn’t know how things got so frakked so quickly but they are and he doesn’t know how to fix it, either. He thinks Kara’s taking the path of ignore it until it gets less awkward, figures he might as well follow suit.

It works until he walks in on her in her bikini trying to put aloe on the sunburn on her back.

“Frak,” he says under his breath, almost just turns and walks out. But she looks at him, finally makes eye contact, and he stays.

They just stare at each other for a minute. Lee is focusing on looking at her, keeping eye contact, not looking at the bikini or the expanse of skin, and certainly not getting hard.

“A little help?” she says finally, holding out the aloe.

He squeezes his hands into fists and then takes the bottle.

“I can’t reach.” Her voice sounds like it’s about to break. He just hmms and squirts some aloe into his palm.

This is in no way a good idea. Lee can’t focus on her eyes anymore. She’s making him focus on her skin and touch her skin and how does she think this is a good idea?

He doesn’t warm up the gel before smoothing it over her shoulder blades, and she gasps at its coolness.

“Sorry.”

“No. Feels good.”

He barely manages not to groan.

That’s what it’s like for the next few minutes: Lee rubbing aloe into her red skin and trying not to touch any more than is necessary while Kara gasps and twitches and whimpers. It’s like she’s encouraging him, but he kills that thought right there, refuses to consider the possibility that she feels anything other than guilty and stupid.

When he finishes, he just stands there with his hands at his sides.

“Thanks,” she murmurs, and slips out of the room.

It takes five minutes to will his erection away.

--

After dinner that night, Kara runs upstairs for something as Zak cleans the kitchen. Lee goes up, too; spring break or no, he’s got some reading to do.

But when he goes into his room for the book, Kara’s standing there, looking nervous and wringing her hands. He opens his mouth, not sure what he’s going to say, but she talks first, quickly, without taking a breath.

“Look, I love you, and I love Zak, and you and I frakked up. But besides that, my life is finally good for once, so if we could just get past it and I could have my best friend back, I’d really appreciate it.”

She looks like she’s going to cry and he’s never seen her cry, not ever, and so he gives her the Adama grin and punches her in the shoulder.

“C’mon, I’ll race you to the water.”

He takes off and she bursts out laughing and chases him. When they pass Zak in the kitchen, he, too, leaps up and heads for the ocean. They’re all laughing and none of it is forced and Lee thinks maybe, maybe they’re all going to be okay.