skip the light fandango

Title: Pyramid Scheme
Author: Zenstate (Maren)
Rating: PG
Friendship: Helo & Anders, mentions of Helo & Kara
Summary: It's the end of the worlds, he's in love with a machine, and he's buddies with a frakkin' sports celebrity. Did he mention it was the end of the worlds?
Note: Written for sabaceanbabe who requested Helo, Anders, and pyramid in the Why Can't We Be Friends Ficathon



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Helo stood with his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath.

He took care of his body, was in damn good shape compared to most people, but at the moment his opponent wasn’t most people, not by a long shot. Whatever possessed him to challenge a professional athlete to a one-on-one game of his own sport, well. . .

Yeah. Damn good shape, but maybe not so smart.

He felt Anders clap him against the shoulder and he looked up to see the man drinking down water from a plastic container in long gulps before offering it to him. Anders was sweating, breathing a little heavy himself and Helo was glad to see it wasn’t completely one-sided. He straightened up and grabbed the water, took a drink and swiped the back of his hand across his mouth to wipe away the dribble.

“Remind me to never challenge a professional pyramid player to a game again,” Helo said, eyeing the court. They were still a match away from finishing their game and that suddenly seemed like a lot.

Anders grinned at him. “I haven’t been paid for this in almost two years. I think I qualify for amateur status again.” He bent down, scooped up the ball, and hurtled it 20 yards through the small goal hard enough to shake the make-shift frame.

“Yeah, whatever,” Helo replied with a roll of his eyes and a shake of his head.

Anders somehow managed to skate the line between confidence and cockiness with his answering smile. “You ready to finish this, Helo, or are we going to stand around and braid each other’s hair in the balmy New Caprican air?”

That earned a bark of laughter, prompted a rub of his hand over his military regulation cut. “I’d like to see you try, Anders.” Helo clapped his hands together and rubbed, trying to work out the chill that had managed to take root in the short time his body had been at rest. Each trip he’d taken to the surface over the past eight months reinforced how much this settlement was no paradise. It was cold, windy, and largely barren. The happy, hopeful faces that greeted him the first time off his raptor transport were faded on his second trip and gone entirely by the third.

He wasn’t sorry he’d stayed with Sharon, up in the sky.

“Are we going to do this?” Anders called from the court, tossing the ball between his hands.

Helo shelved the thinking for later and jogged over to finish the game.

*


“How’s it going up there?” Anders voice was muffled as he pulled a sweatshirt over his head.


Helo took one last drink of water and shrugged. He wasn’t sure how to answer, doubted that Anders wanted to hear that they were running on a skeleton crew and that day passes to the planet like the one he was currently on were getting harder to come by. Not enough bodies to provide relief as it was; add in the fact that every month they seemed to lose even more planet-side and the Admiral just didn’t give out passes the way he used to.

The Admiral didn’t have to worry about him. Helo’s life was on the Galactica.

“Big metal box surrounded by empty space. You remember how that is.” But even as he spoke, Helo remembered that Anders hadn’t spent long on the ship. He’d gone from Caprica to Galactica to New Caprica in less than a month.

Anders grunted noncommittally and began stuffing his pads in an old military issue duffel bag. “Things with Sharon still okay?”

Helo glanced up quickly, scanned Anders for the hostility he was used to getting thrown at him when it came to Sharon. He didn’t find it.

“She’s good, better. The Admiral has been giving her a little more freedom.” Helo grinned. “Private XO quarters even come in handy every once in a while.”

The second it was out of his mouth he wished he could take it back. But then Anders raised an eyebrow and smiled, and Helo was reminded of the old days, back when he had friends with whom he could get together to watch a game, go to a bar, make suggestive comments about women, and he missed it.

He grabbed his own bag and fell in step with Anders, his transport back to the ship on the same path as the tent that Anders shared with Kara.

“How’s it going down here?” Helo glanced at Anders out of the corner of his eye, caught the barest flash of something across the other man’s face.

“Don’t you mean how’s Kara doing down here?”

“Hey. . .” Helo began to protest but Anders cut him off.

“Look, I know you don’t come here just to get your ass kicked by me.” He smirked and waved off Helo’s intended response. “Not that I don’t think you like that too. But we both know the reason Adama lets his XO take monthly trips down to the surface and that reason is my pain in the ass wife.”

Helo didn’t bother to contradict him. The Admiral had never been explicit about Helo checking in on Kara while he was planet-side but he hadn’t needed to be. They were both concerned about her, they both hoped she was happy. They also both knew that she’d be pissed if she realized Helo was coming down on her account, so it was easier to corner Anders, play a game and get what he needed.

Still, though it might have started that way, Helo had come to enjoy his time with Anders independent of everything else. He was the first regular friend he’d had since everything changed.

“Kara’s fine. Runs herself ragged with the school construction and she still watches the sky every night.” Anders looked at him with a trace of sadness and Helo wondered, not for the first time, if things between them were completely fine. Anders next words stoked his concern. “Man, sometimes I wonder if I’m going to wake up to find her gone, back up there with you guys.”

Helo shook his head in denial, even though he wasn’t sure Anders was wrong. “She loves you,” he said, and that at least wasn’t a lie or prevarication.

Anders was quiet for a few steps, and then he huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, she does.” He stopped and clasped Helo on the shoulder. “And she loves you too, although that’s clearly because she hasn’t seen you in action on the court. Come back with me and see her yourself, warm up with a little soup.”

Helo looked down the dirt path that would lead him to his raptor, to his home, to the woman he loved. Then he turned, nodded, and followed Anders the last few yards to his tent.

Home could wait for a little while longer. He had family, friends, to visit.