who dresses up as a frakkin' toaster all incognito-like? THIS GIRL

[polychromatic]

Battlestar Galactica
hide and seek; lost and found
Sharon "Athena" Agathon/Karl "Helo" Agathon, Hera Agathon
Written for comment_fic
Posted here.
Prompt: Battlestar Galactica, Helo/Athena, find me.
696 words

When Hera first learns the concept of Hide-and-Seek and insists on playing it with her parents, Athena is less than receptive. She is still too fragile, too shattered from having suffered her baby being taken away over and over again. Her anxiety is so heightened that she can only sleep when holding Hera close in their makeshift tent, her daughter’s steady, rhythmic breathing reminding Athena that she is here, she is real, and she is safe. She will not – cannot – let Hera out of her sight again.

But they slowly wear her down together; Hera with her bright, upturned face pleading Mommy, Mommy, come play with me and Daddy! Helo – warm and kind and reassuring – saying that everything will be fine, he’ll be there to protect them, it’s only a game, haven’t you ever played it before? And she remembers climbing into dark, cramped spaces, clamping both hands over her mouth and trying not to breathe, her heart hammering in her chest, and shrieking in delight when cousins and friends that never existed finally pounced upon her yelling, We found you, Sharon!

(It’s Sharon they found. Not Boomer. Not Athena. And to her, that makes all the difference.)

So she limits the boundaries of the playing field and designates herself the Seeker. She cheats – just a little – peeking under the crook of her arm to see which direction her baby girl goes in. She ignores the look of mock disapproval from Helo when she accidentally catches his eye, and he throws his arms up in the air as if saying, I’m her daddy! You think I’m not watching to see where she goes too?

After Hera starts complaining that Mommy finds her too fast, Helo volunteers himself as the new Seeker before Athena can even protest. But she is so in love with this view of her baby girl, her Hera smiling so sweetly in the sun that she can’t bring herself to deny her daughter this bit of happiness and begrudgingly agrees. Still, when Helo leans against a tree and counts down from thirty Athena can’t help but pause to watch Hera crash through the foliage, leaving trampled plants in her wake, before stopping to scrutinize a possible hiding place between a thick, leafy bush and a rock with a quizzical tilt of her curly-haired head. As soon as Hera squeezes herself in her chosen spot, Athena’s training takes over and she moves as noiselessly as she can until she finds a suitable hollow nestled against a log. She hears Helo call out that he’s coming to get them in his gruff bear voice that makes Hera giggle and calculates that he should be able to find Hera in under a minute with all the visual clues available to him. Hunkering down closer to the log into a more comfortable position and breathing in the scent of moss and dirt, Athena thinks that she might miss these intermingling smells of life and decay when they finally finish building their little cabin, although she won’t miss the insects that cluster thickly in the air above them at night.

And in that brief moment of distraction, Helo sneaks up and whispers I found you, Sharon! in her ear and laughter unexpectedly bubbles up inside her and spills out as he wraps her in a bear-hug and kisses her cheek with a victorious grin. They can hear rustling from Hera’s hiding spot, probably squirming with delight that Mommy got found first, and Helo mimes out their plan of approach using tactical signals with a wry smile of, Can you believe we’re using this for Hide-and-Seek?

They sneak quietly through the forest while holding hands, and Helo counts down silently to her Three, two, one--!! before they push back the leaves together to reveal their daughter announcing We found you, Hera! and launching into a tickle attack that leaves them all breathless and laughing.

Later that night in their tent as Athena holds Hera, Helo holds them both close and murmurs sleepily into her hair, “No matter what, we always find each other.” And she drifts to sleep feeling the steady beat of his heart against her palm.

Comments

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

This is adorable. But of course playing hide-and-seek would be scary for them after all that, too. And this part is my favorite: (It’s Sharon they found. Not Boomer. Not Athena. And to her, that makes all the difference.)

[mikomichan.livejournal.com]

Haha yeah, I think Athena will always have deep-seated mother-bear issues underneath it all, but who could blame her? But I do love the Agathons especially when they're being a cute, loving, family unit!

I've always loved the dichotomy of Boomer and Athena! Although I was always so sad for Boomer because I really loved her in the beginning, and I'd imagine Athena did too at some point because she's an Eight and they were all about the love.