"Do you know what day it is?"

Apollo, taken by surprise by Starbuck's sudden and stealthy appearance in the dimly lit storeroom, managed not to shriek and drop his clipboard.  How in Hades did Starbuck do that?  He was perpetually creeping up on Apollo when the Captain was least expecting it.

Heart hammering, Apollo considered the question.  He looked it in the face, noting its innocent and inoffensive expression, and thought about it.  He walked round behind it, considering it from all angles, carefully scanning every surface, eyes narrowed in concentration, looking for even the slightest, microscopic sign of trouble.  And then he picked it up and shook it vigorously to see what sort of scam and trap could possibly fall out of it. 

Nothing.  It seemed harmless enough.  But then, he'd been caught by Starbuck's seemingly harmless questions before.  More than once and far too often.

"Er – Firstday?" he said tentatively, when he could be certain that his voice wouldn’t shake too much.

"Well of course it's Firstday!"  The 'you idiot!' was unspoken, but so loud it was deafening.  "But what else?"

Apollo shook his head.  He dropped the clipboard onto a handy crate, and straightened, stretching his back.

"You got me there," he admitted. 

"That's very bad of you, Apollo.  It's not very enlightened, this ignorance about the other tribes.  In this dreadful time following the Destruction, we should all be working together to understand each other, join in each other's celebrations and share our cultural heritage."

Apollo sighed.  It hadn’t been a harmless question after all.  "All right," he said with the deep fatalism that came from too many yahrens as Starbuck's favourite fall guy.  "Enlighten my ignorance.  What day is it?"

"It's Health and Sports Day on Gemini," said Starbuck, and smiled.

"Health and Sports Day."

"Yes!"

"On Gemini."

"That's what I said."

"Starbuck," said Apollo gently.  "We're both Caprican."

"We're also both off duty, as of one centon ago.  So think about it.  Ever since the Destruction, we've had pilots from all the other Colonies here on the ship with us.  We were mainly Caprican before, but now we're a real mix.  I kinda like it.  So I vote we start celebrating everyone's holidays."

"We'd never get any work done!"

"I didn’t say that we should have the day off.  Just that we should celebrate the holidays."

Another jolt of suspicion from a sense of self preservation that was screaming at Apollo to be careful.  To be very, very careful.  "If this celebration involves me paying for all the drinks in the OC tonight, or sponsoring your next Pyramid system or…"

"My, aren't we the suspicious one!  Nothing like that.  It's more fun than that."

"Uh-huh," said Apollo, unconvinced.

"What do you think about when someone says Health and Sports to you?"

Apollo crushed down the memories of humiliating Sports Days at school where his brilliant academic record hadn't done much to stop him from coming last in the 400 metres relay every yahren.  He hadn’t been one to shine at games.  All except Triad, which needed as much strategic thinking as brawn and skill.  He'd done well in Triad.

"Triad," he offered.

"Good!" applauded Starbuck.  "Very good!  We're getting there.  Close, and here's a clue.  Try thinking about physical activity and exercise, Apollo."

"Physical activity and exercise," repeated Apollo.

"Will you stop repeating everything I say?  It’s beginning to get to me.  Physical activity."  Starbuck smiled, and reached over to the door mechanism, locking it tight shut.  "Physical.  Activity."

"Ah," said Apollo, understanding at last.  He glanced around the storeroom, noting the large pile of military issue blankets on one shelf.  He walked over to them and pulled them down onto the floor.  "Physical.  Activity."

"And exercise."  This time Starbuck didn’t complain about his words being repeated, right down the significant pauses between them.  "Slow but sure, that's my Apollo." 

He was beside Apollo so fast that his feet blurred.  One casual and tricky manoeuvre taught to them by the drill sergeant for infinitely different purposes, and he'd hooked Apollo's feet out from under him so that the Captain fell, laughing, onto the conveniently piled blankets. 

Starbuck landed on him, making all the breath whoosh out of his body, and before Apollo could try and draw breath again, Starbuck's mouth closed over his and cut off air and sense and higher cerebral functions.  Instead he gave himself up to physical activity in its highest and purest form, and blessed Starbuck's fertile and creative imagination with the tiny part of his brain that was still functioning. 

He may even have screamed with pleasure when Starbuck's heavy cock pushed up into him.  He couldn't remember afterwards, but as Starbuck said, complacent, it wasn't entirely unlikely.

 

********

 

"Do you know what day it is?"

Apollo jumped, startled, looking up from his hand-held computer in surprise, taking a micron or two to switch from the report on Viper spares that he was putting together for Colonel Tigh.

"Huh?"  He got his heart rate back under control and stared at the Lieutenant, wondering why in hell Starbuck had appeared, unexpected and unlooked for, in the Beta Deck aft storeroom.

"I said, do you know what day it is?"

Apollo considered the question.  He looked it in the face, noting its innocent and inoffensive expression, and thought about it.  He walked round behind it, considering it from all angles, carefully scanning every surface, eyes narrowed in concentration, looking for even the slightest, microscopic sign of trouble.  And then he picked it up and shook it vigorously to see … hey!  Wait a centon. 

Last time Starbuck asked this question it led to some very enjoyable physical activity and exercise.  It couldn't possibly be Health and Sports Day on Gemini again, but it was all too probable that Starbuck had something up his sleeve…

"Er – Fourth-day," said Apollo, tentatively.

"Of course it's Fourth Day, but it's also Cry of Liberation Day on Leo."

"Cry of Liberation Day."

"Yup."

"On Leo."

"We aren’t going through all that again, are we?" asked Starbuck uneasily.

"You're making it up.  No-one could have a holiday called Cry of Liberation Day."

"They do on Leo."

"And how do you propose to celebrate that?"  Apollo glanced at his chronometer.  "Now we're off duty, that is."

"Me?"  said Starbuck, and grinned.  He reached over and locked the storeroom door and headed for the shelf of blankets.  "You're the noisy one.  I intend to liberate you outa that uniform, and if I don’t have you crying out loud with delight, then my name ain't Starbuck."

Apollo smiled.  "I love a challenge," he said, provocative.  "I don't cry out loud, for Sagan's sake!"

"That a bet?" asked Starbuck, eyes gleaming as he tossed the blankets onto the floor and beckoned his Captain over to join him.

"It is.  What is your name, anyway?"

It only took a mere half centar to prove that it was Starbuck, of course. 

The man won his bet.  As always.

Apollo didn’t mind.  He didn't even protest at the time it took.  He liked slow and deep.

 

*****

 

"Do you know what day it is?"

Apollo, head down and grumbling in a storage bin, cursing long and fluently about &*(&^£ Colonels and their unreasonable ways, straightened convulsively at the sound of Starbuck's voice behind him.

Rubbing his head where it had come into unexpected and painful contact with the storage bin lid, Apollo considered the question.  He looked it in the face, noting its innocent and inoffensive expression, and thought about it.  He walked round behind it, considering it from all angles, carefully scanning every surface…  Mmn.  There was a pattern here, he was sure of it.

"Third-day?" he said, glancing over to the shelving to locate the pile of military issue blankets, just in case they'd be needed..

Starbuck nodded.  "Yeah, it's Third-day.  Sheesh you have no imagination!  It’s also the Day of the Union of Eastern Romalia with the Bulga on Sagittera."

"Day of the Union of Eastern Romalia with the Bulga."

"Yeah."

"On Sagittera."

"Apollo!" said Starbuck warningly.

"And you intend to celebrate this how, exactly?"

Starbuck pulled a tube of lubricant out of his pocket and put it gently and carefully onto the top of a nearby crate.  "I thought a bit of union might be in order here."

Apollo looked down at the tube, and up at Starbuck, and licked his lips salaciously.  "Only the one union?"

"Oh my, no.  I've a few future reunions in mind, as it happens."  And Starbuck pulled another half dozen tubes from his pocket.  "If I remember right, Boxey's on a school trip to the Agri-ships today.  We have centars."

Apollo smiled and turned towards the shelf of blankets.  "Do you want to be Eastern Romalia or the Bulga?" he asked.

Starbuck indicated his bulging groin.  "Hey, what do you think?"

 

*******

 

"Do you know what day it is?"

Apollo didn’t even jump this time.  He considered Starbuck's question, and looked it in the face, noting its innocent and inoffensive expression and answering it with an innocent and inoffensive expression of his own.  He marched over the blanket store, pulled it down onto the floor, and started getting out of his clothes. 

"Second-day," he said, tossing his jacket over a storage bin.

"Second-day."  Starbuck stared.  "What in Hades do you think you're doing?"

"Every time you've asked me that question lately, I've ended up over here in this corner with no clothes on, celebrating..  I'm slow but trainable, Starbuck."

"Oh," said Starbuck, nonplussed.  "I mean, I was just asking what day it was, but if you're offering -"

Apollo stopped what he was doing and scowled at his lover.

"Okay," said Starbuck.  "I lied.  It’s Motherhood and Beauty Day on Taurus."

"Motherhood and Beauty Day."

"You've got it."

"On Taurus."

"Stop that!"

Apollo considered it.  "No.  I don't see how you can celebrate that one."

"I thought that we could strike a blow for men's liberation and pretend that it's Fatherhood and Beauty.  You're a father."  Starbuck smiled complacently.  "And I'm beautiful."

Apollo's scowl deepened.  "On your own, Starbuck," he said, and started getting back into his clothes.

"Hey!" protested Starbuck.  "I was kidding.  If you don’t like that one, we could celebrate another one.  Today's also Landing Day of the 33 Orientales on Virgo."

"Landing Day of the 33 Orientales."

"Yes," said Starbuck, through gritted teeth.

"On Virgo."

"I'm going to kill you," Starbuck threatened.

Apollo sighed and allowed his pants to drop again..  "Come over here and celebrate with me instead."

Well, he knew his Starbuck.  He wasn't really in danger of death, although injury was another matter.  The worst he could expect would be that Starbuck would make pretty damned certain that both of them walked around pretty carefully for a couple of days.

Wonderful, it was, too.  He might not be able to walk, but he sure as hell was smiling a lot.

 

*******

 

"Do you know what day it is?"

Apollo waved goodbye one more time as Boxey disappeared down the corridor, off for a sleep-over with Dillon.  It wasn't that he was glad to be rid of his energetic young son for the night, exactly, but it did give him the rare opportunity for some quality time with Starbuck.

He closed the door of his quarters and locked them, leaning back against the cold steel and looking at Starbuck, lounging nonchalantly on the sofa.  Starbuck was smiling as he posed the question.

Apollo considered his answer.  "It's the Day of the Autonomous Community on Scorpia."

Starbuck's jaw dropped.  "The Day of the Autonomous Community."

"Yes."

"On Scorpia."

"That's the one."

"Oh," said Starbuck.  "No.  I wasn't meaning that one."

Apollo joined him on the sofa.  "Ah, then you have to be referring to Upswing of the Revolution Day on Aries."

"Upswing of the Revolution Day."

"Yup."

"On Aries."

Apollo had a sudden realization about why Starbuck had threatened to kill him.  It was a bloody annoying reaction.  His mouth tightened.  "Yes," he said, coldly.

Starbuck shook his head.  "Nope, it wasn't that one, either."

"Okay.  How about the Day of Accord and Reconciliation on Canceria?  The Day of the Nationalization of the Oil Industry on Aquaria?  National Salvation Revolution Day on Aries?"

"They like revolutions on Aries," noted Starbuck.  He added, sadly, "You've found the website."

"I have," Apollo nodded.  "So which one is it, Bucko?"

Starbuck shrugged.  "Well, I was going for Svetitskhovloba on Libra."

“Sevetits-what?”

“Svetitskhovloba.”

“Svetitskhovloba.”

“You’ve got it.”

“On Libra.”

“I swear I’ll kill you,” said Starbuck, glowering.

"What the hell does it mean?"

"I dunno.  I just thought it made a brilliant excuse to have sex with you."

Apollo grinned at him.  "Bucko, you never need an excuse."

Starbuck looked suddenly very shy.  "No, but I never want it to be just ordinary for you, Apollo.  I know we've been together longer than I've ever been with anyone before – "

"Four whole yahrens," Apollo said, and smiled.  Almost of its own volition, his hand lifted to play with Starbuck's thick blond hair.  He loved Starbuck's hair.

"Four great yahrens," Starbuck nodded.  "I want it always to be fun and exciting and just wonderful for you."

"Oh, it is, Bucko.  It is."  Apollo smiled, and leaned forward to kiss Starbuck.  That took up a few gratifyingly moan-filled centons.  When he pulled back, Starbuck no longer looked shy, but disgustingly complacent.  Apollo didn’t care.  "You're always wonderful for me.  Let's go celebrate."

"You bet!" said Starbuck with unfeigned enthusiasm.  "I've quite the revolutionary upswing going here!"

Apollo grinned.  He knew just the man to take care of that.

And he did.