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Recent Babylon 5 ficlets from various places
1. Vir and Delenn
From the "Only One Bed" meme (which at the moment has gone the way of most of my attempts at memes, alas), for a request for Vir and anyone.
"Vir, have you traveled on a White Star before?"
Vir jumped. The voice was quiet, but he had been completely unaware of Delenn coming up behind him. Minbari, even half-Minbari, moved so very silently. It gave the whole ship a strange, ghostly feeling, nothing like any Centauri or human vessel he had ever been on.
"No," he replied in what felt like a too-loud whisper. "I was looking for the bedrooms, but, um ..."
He had managed to find the sleeping area, but now he was not sure what to do. The room was a large semicircle of Minbari beds, all of them, as far as he could tell, occupied by sleeping Minbari. Vir had more-or-less made the acquaintance of Minbari sleeping quarters during his time at his diplomatic post on Minbar, but at least there he'd had his own bedroom, and the Minbari had very kindly lowered and flattened the bed to make him more comfortable.
"Ah," Delenn said softly. She smiled at him. "It is the off shift, so perhaps not the best time to seek accommodations. There might be some free space in - yes, come with me."
She glided around the edge of the room, and Vir followed as quietly as possible, trying not to feel clumsy and loud (and failing). When she stopped, Vir was trying so hard not to make noise that he nearly bumped into her, having to catch himself on the wall.
There was indeed an unoccupied bed - a double-wide one. Otherwise it looked like a typical Minbari bed: blanketless, tilted, and uncomfortable. But there were two pillows and two pads.
"Is that meant for, uh ..." Vir tried to think of a way to ask respectfully. "... couples?"
"Oh ... I suppose it could be." Delenn placed a hand on the edge of it. "It is really more - I'm not sure how to express it. Perhaps the humans would say 'disabled accessible.' I don't know the Centauri equivalent. It is for those who need extra space or aid. But of course anyone can use it if there is nothing else available." She laid a hand on the nearest pillow. "As you see, there is room for us both."
Vir felt himself flush. "Is that ... all right? I mean, Sheridan wouldn't - you don't ... you know what, I can sleep on the floor."
She was smiling again, not in a mocking way, but indulgent, encouraging. "I know Centauri have different customs. I don't think I have ever seen you use communal sleeping quarters. But for us, there is nothing strange about it, and nothing inappropriate about sleeping next to a fellow crewmate, even on a shared bed." Delenn patted the pillow.
Vir still had some doubts. But he also was not prepared to argue with Delenn about it. The bed looked ... well ... not precisely comfortable, or rather, not comfortable in the slightest. But it looked like somewhere to sleep. And he'd had an exhausting day.
In fact, it had been such an exhausting day that he couldn't quite remember the technique for getting on one of these things, especially with an audience. He didn't want to flail around and fall off with Delenn watching, so in the end, he just ended up staring at it.
"Here." Delenn leaned down, did something to the underside of the bed, and abruptly it swiveled back until it was almost flat, just very slightly tilted so the head was a bit higher than the feet. "Is this better?"
"A lot," Vir said in relief. "Thank you."
He scrambled on. Yes, this was much easier. He tried not to feel too wistful for blankets, or soft pillows, and focused on appreciating how much effort she was making on his behalf. In fact, that made him wonder about something, and he pushed himself up to ask, "Will this be uncomfortable for you?"
"Not at all," Delenn said. She folded herself gracefully on the other side of the bed, and added with a playful air, "I admit, I am developing a fondness for human-style beds."
"I don't need to know any more about that," Vir said hastily. Especially when he was lying right next to her. He closed his eyes, then cracked one eye open to see what she was doing. The answer turned out to be giving him a fond smile.
"Sleep well, Vir," she said, and closed her eyes. Vir closed his again a moment later.
---
2. Basking Narns
Posted as commentfic as a result of a comment discussion about cool-blooded Narns. (Also posted on Tumblr.)
"When you said you were going to sunbathe, I thought you meant with your clothes on!"
"What is the point of that?" G'Kar had not yet stopped stripping off layers of armor and clothing, laying them neatly on an ornate wrought-metal bench. The sun-warmed rocks beside the bench, draped in flowers, looked absolutely delicious to bask upon.
"The point is that we are in public." Londo sputtered when G'Kar shoved the next removed clothing item into his arms. If Londo could stand around offering his opinion, he could make himself useful.
"It's private enough." From a security standpoint, G'Kar found the design of the Centauri imperial gardens perilous, with their many winding paths and small courtyards. But for purposes of incidental privacy, it was quite nice. He supposed this was by design, as they'd passed a number of courtyards in which romantic trysts appeared to be taking place, or clandestine meetings with fully clothed Centauri leaning close and whispering to each other. "Here, put this with the others." He shoved another item into Londo's arms.
Londo dropped them carelessly on top of the rest. "Are you planning to leave anything on at all?"
"The more you complain about it, the more the answer is no."
Londo sat with a huff on the end of the bench, and watched with a look of mingled exasperation and amusement as G'Kar spread his mostly naked body on the rocks. "And what am I supposed to do while you do this?"
"Whatever you like. Read. Look at flowers. Do some paperwork." Oh yes, the rocks were wonderful. G'Kar stretched out, exposing as much of himself as possible to the sun.
"Great Maker, my eyes."
But the complaining faded after that, and when G'Kar cracked an eye open to see what Londo was up to now, he found the Centauri leaning back on the bench with his arms draped over the bench back, face tipped up to the sun and eyes half-closed. G'Kar smiled to himself. It was good for Londo to stop thinking for a little while and simply exist in the moment.
"Take some clothes off," he said, and Londo twitched a little. "Enjoy the sun on your entire body. It's good for you."
"Absolutely not," Londo said out of the corner of his mouth. But he didn't otherwise move.
---
3. Ta'Lon and Vir
From a request on Tumblr for anything about Ta'Lon which actually ended up being not that much about Ta'Lon and more about the new ambassadors post-canon.
With the fairly large Narn population on the station these days, good homeworld restaurants were easy to find, and Ta'Lon was enjoying lunch at his new favorite breen place when someone unexpected appeared at his table.
"Ambassador," he said, surprised. Vir Cotto never sought him outside of the council chambers, and they didn't have that much interaction there, either, since the Centauri remained stubbornly outside the Alliance, so Vir only attended meetings if there was business directly affecting his people.
"Ambassador," Vir returned. "Am I bothering you? Do you want me to come back later? I didn't want to interrupt your lunch, but I also didn't want to interrupt when you were talking to Narns on official business and that's usually, so --"
"No, sit, you aren't interrupting. I don't mind the company." That wasn't entirely truthful, but if Vir needed to talk to him, presumably it was some diplomatic business and he probably should listen.
Vir sat, cautiously. "I know relations between our people aren't great right now. I don't know how you feel about me, uh, personally." When Ta'Lon didn't answer (he honestly wasn't sure how to answer), Vir added, "I can order something, instead of just sitting here. I haven't eaten yet."
"Is there anything here you can eat?"
"Sure. That's breen, right? It's basically the same thing as roopo balls, and those are one of my favorites back on Homeworld. It's really hard to get decent ones here."
Ta'Lon raised a hand to get the waiter's attention and ordered another plate. "This is the best place on Babylon 5 for breen, so if it's similar, you might like it."
"That'd be great," Vir said. He smiled. "The Centauri food on the station isn't a lot like back home, the ingredients are so different." The smile dropped off his face and he looked down at his hands on the table. "Look, I'm sorry to invade your private time like this. I thought about coming by your quarters to talk, but I didn't know if I'd be welcome."
"You're making me nervous. The Centauri aren't declaring war on us again ...?"
"No!" Vir said. "No, no, nothing like that. Although Londo is still determined to keep us out of the Alliance, I don't know why, but I've never understood most of what he does anyway."
In Ta'Lon's view, the Alliance was doing just fine and possibly better without the Centauri, but he didn't say so. "If it's not about that ..."
"It's not really about anything," Vir said. "Honestly, I just wanted to talk. Look, I know our people are -- are everything that they are. But in the last year or so that Londo and G'Kar were on the station, they proved we could be something else. Not what we've always been. We could get along."
"From what I've heard about you," Ta'Lon said cautiously, "you proved that quite a while earlier."
Vir glanced up at him swiftly. A light blush colored his face; Ta'Lon had been around thinner-skinned races enough by now to decode it as embarrassment. "That was just -- what anyone would have done."
"But anyone didn't. You did."
Vir looked flustered. "I mean, that's all history now, right? I didn't come here to talk about me. And I know that the political situation is very tense right now. But that's all the more reason for us to, to ... I don't know, normalize -- that's a good human word, I like that word -- normalize getting along with each other. Maybe talk about some of the things that affect both of our worlds before they blow up into an even bigger problem, even though we don't have official diplomatic communication through the Alliance. That kind of thing?"
He fell silent, and Ta'Lon was quiet as the waiter brought the plate of breen, setting it in front of Vir with a look of slight distaste, but no other issue. A couple of years ago, any Centauri who showed his face in a Narn restaurant would be shown not so politely to the door, and he would be lucky to get out with his crest intact. Things really had changed.
Since G'Kar had left the station, and left the ambassadorial duties in his hands, Ta'Lon had been trying very hard to be a model ambassador, serving the Narn people to the best of his abilities, making no waves and doing nothing without consulting the Kha'Ri. He felt very acutely the responsibility of his position.
He was sure the Kha'Ri wouldn't approve of him having lunch with a Centauri, let alone establishing some kind of regular interaction outside the usual channels with their diplomatic outpost here.
But at some point he was going to have to start making his own decisions without relying on the Kha'Ri for guidance. He was going to have to decide what kind of ambassador he wanted to be -- what he wanted his legacy to be. And it made him smile a little to think that G'Kar, at least, wouldn't disapprove of this.
"Oh, this is good," Vir said indistinctly through a mouthful of breen. "This is amazing. It really is like roopo balls, the best ones I've ever had."
"If you like it, I have lunch here often," Ta'Lon said. "We could -- meet regularly, I expect. Discuss matters relevant to both of our worlds. As you say, catch small problems before they become large ones."
"Yes!" Vir said. He swallowed and put his fork down. "This is amazing. Really. I mean, the food. But also, you not just throwing me out, or refusing to talk to me. Which you could have."
"Well," Ta'Lon said, and he found himself groping inwardly for a quote from G'Kar's book, but nothing came to mind. Instead, he just said, "Everything has to start somewhere."
From the "Only One Bed" meme (which at the moment has gone the way of most of my attempts at memes, alas), for a request for Vir and anyone.
"Vir, have you traveled on a White Star before?"
Vir jumped. The voice was quiet, but he had been completely unaware of Delenn coming up behind him. Minbari, even half-Minbari, moved so very silently. It gave the whole ship a strange, ghostly feeling, nothing like any Centauri or human vessel he had ever been on.
"No," he replied in what felt like a too-loud whisper. "I was looking for the bedrooms, but, um ..."
He had managed to find the sleeping area, but now he was not sure what to do. The room was a large semicircle of Minbari beds, all of them, as far as he could tell, occupied by sleeping Minbari. Vir had more-or-less made the acquaintance of Minbari sleeping quarters during his time at his diplomatic post on Minbar, but at least there he'd had his own bedroom, and the Minbari had very kindly lowered and flattened the bed to make him more comfortable.
"Ah," Delenn said softly. She smiled at him. "It is the off shift, so perhaps not the best time to seek accommodations. There might be some free space in - yes, come with me."
She glided around the edge of the room, and Vir followed as quietly as possible, trying not to feel clumsy and loud (and failing). When she stopped, Vir was trying so hard not to make noise that he nearly bumped into her, having to catch himself on the wall.
There was indeed an unoccupied bed - a double-wide one. Otherwise it looked like a typical Minbari bed: blanketless, tilted, and uncomfortable. But there were two pillows and two pads.
"Is that meant for, uh ..." Vir tried to think of a way to ask respectfully. "... couples?"
"Oh ... I suppose it could be." Delenn placed a hand on the edge of it. "It is really more - I'm not sure how to express it. Perhaps the humans would say 'disabled accessible.' I don't know the Centauri equivalent. It is for those who need extra space or aid. But of course anyone can use it if there is nothing else available." She laid a hand on the nearest pillow. "As you see, there is room for us both."
Vir felt himself flush. "Is that ... all right? I mean, Sheridan wouldn't - you don't ... you know what, I can sleep on the floor."
She was smiling again, not in a mocking way, but indulgent, encouraging. "I know Centauri have different customs. I don't think I have ever seen you use communal sleeping quarters. But for us, there is nothing strange about it, and nothing inappropriate about sleeping next to a fellow crewmate, even on a shared bed." Delenn patted the pillow.
Vir still had some doubts. But he also was not prepared to argue with Delenn about it. The bed looked ... well ... not precisely comfortable, or rather, not comfortable in the slightest. But it looked like somewhere to sleep. And he'd had an exhausting day.
In fact, it had been such an exhausting day that he couldn't quite remember the technique for getting on one of these things, especially with an audience. He didn't want to flail around and fall off with Delenn watching, so in the end, he just ended up staring at it.
"Here." Delenn leaned down, did something to the underside of the bed, and abruptly it swiveled back until it was almost flat, just very slightly tilted so the head was a bit higher than the feet. "Is this better?"
"A lot," Vir said in relief. "Thank you."
He scrambled on. Yes, this was much easier. He tried not to feel too wistful for blankets, or soft pillows, and focused on appreciating how much effort she was making on his behalf. In fact, that made him wonder about something, and he pushed himself up to ask, "Will this be uncomfortable for you?"
"Not at all," Delenn said. She folded herself gracefully on the other side of the bed, and added with a playful air, "I admit, I am developing a fondness for human-style beds."
"I don't need to know any more about that," Vir said hastily. Especially when he was lying right next to her. He closed his eyes, then cracked one eye open to see what she was doing. The answer turned out to be giving him a fond smile.
"Sleep well, Vir," she said, and closed her eyes. Vir closed his again a moment later.
---
2. Basking Narns
Posted as commentfic as a result of a comment discussion about cool-blooded Narns. (Also posted on Tumblr.)
"When you said you were going to sunbathe, I thought you meant with your clothes on!"
"What is the point of that?" G'Kar had not yet stopped stripping off layers of armor and clothing, laying them neatly on an ornate wrought-metal bench. The sun-warmed rocks beside the bench, draped in flowers, looked absolutely delicious to bask upon.
"The point is that we are in public." Londo sputtered when G'Kar shoved the next removed clothing item into his arms. If Londo could stand around offering his opinion, he could make himself useful.
"It's private enough." From a security standpoint, G'Kar found the design of the Centauri imperial gardens perilous, with their many winding paths and small courtyards. But for purposes of incidental privacy, it was quite nice. He supposed this was by design, as they'd passed a number of courtyards in which romantic trysts appeared to be taking place, or clandestine meetings with fully clothed Centauri leaning close and whispering to each other. "Here, put this with the others." He shoved another item into Londo's arms.
Londo dropped them carelessly on top of the rest. "Are you planning to leave anything on at all?"
"The more you complain about it, the more the answer is no."
Londo sat with a huff on the end of the bench, and watched with a look of mingled exasperation and amusement as G'Kar spread his mostly naked body on the rocks. "And what am I supposed to do while you do this?"
"Whatever you like. Read. Look at flowers. Do some paperwork." Oh yes, the rocks were wonderful. G'Kar stretched out, exposing as much of himself as possible to the sun.
"Great Maker, my eyes."
But the complaining faded after that, and when G'Kar cracked an eye open to see what Londo was up to now, he found the Centauri leaning back on the bench with his arms draped over the bench back, face tipped up to the sun and eyes half-closed. G'Kar smiled to himself. It was good for Londo to stop thinking for a little while and simply exist in the moment.
"Take some clothes off," he said, and Londo twitched a little. "Enjoy the sun on your entire body. It's good for you."
"Absolutely not," Londo said out of the corner of his mouth. But he didn't otherwise move.
---
3. Ta'Lon and Vir
From a request on Tumblr for anything about Ta'Lon which actually ended up being not that much about Ta'Lon and more about the new ambassadors post-canon.
With the fairly large Narn population on the station these days, good homeworld restaurants were easy to find, and Ta'Lon was enjoying lunch at his new favorite breen place when someone unexpected appeared at his table.
"Ambassador," he said, surprised. Vir Cotto never sought him outside of the council chambers, and they didn't have that much interaction there, either, since the Centauri remained stubbornly outside the Alliance, so Vir only attended meetings if there was business directly affecting his people.
"Ambassador," Vir returned. "Am I bothering you? Do you want me to come back later? I didn't want to interrupt your lunch, but I also didn't want to interrupt when you were talking to Narns on official business and that's usually, so --"
"No, sit, you aren't interrupting. I don't mind the company." That wasn't entirely truthful, but if Vir needed to talk to him, presumably it was some diplomatic business and he probably should listen.
Vir sat, cautiously. "I know relations between our people aren't great right now. I don't know how you feel about me, uh, personally." When Ta'Lon didn't answer (he honestly wasn't sure how to answer), Vir added, "I can order something, instead of just sitting here. I haven't eaten yet."
"Is there anything here you can eat?"
"Sure. That's breen, right? It's basically the same thing as roopo balls, and those are one of my favorites back on Homeworld. It's really hard to get decent ones here."
Ta'Lon raised a hand to get the waiter's attention and ordered another plate. "This is the best place on Babylon 5 for breen, so if it's similar, you might like it."
"That'd be great," Vir said. He smiled. "The Centauri food on the station isn't a lot like back home, the ingredients are so different." The smile dropped off his face and he looked down at his hands on the table. "Look, I'm sorry to invade your private time like this. I thought about coming by your quarters to talk, but I didn't know if I'd be welcome."
"You're making me nervous. The Centauri aren't declaring war on us again ...?"
"No!" Vir said. "No, no, nothing like that. Although Londo is still determined to keep us out of the Alliance, I don't know why, but I've never understood most of what he does anyway."
In Ta'Lon's view, the Alliance was doing just fine and possibly better without the Centauri, but he didn't say so. "If it's not about that ..."
"It's not really about anything," Vir said. "Honestly, I just wanted to talk. Look, I know our people are -- are everything that they are. But in the last year or so that Londo and G'Kar were on the station, they proved we could be something else. Not what we've always been. We could get along."
"From what I've heard about you," Ta'Lon said cautiously, "you proved that quite a while earlier."
Vir glanced up at him swiftly. A light blush colored his face; Ta'Lon had been around thinner-skinned races enough by now to decode it as embarrassment. "That was just -- what anyone would have done."
"But anyone didn't. You did."
Vir looked flustered. "I mean, that's all history now, right? I didn't come here to talk about me. And I know that the political situation is very tense right now. But that's all the more reason for us to, to ... I don't know, normalize -- that's a good human word, I like that word -- normalize getting along with each other. Maybe talk about some of the things that affect both of our worlds before they blow up into an even bigger problem, even though we don't have official diplomatic communication through the Alliance. That kind of thing?"
He fell silent, and Ta'Lon was quiet as the waiter brought the plate of breen, setting it in front of Vir with a look of slight distaste, but no other issue. A couple of years ago, any Centauri who showed his face in a Narn restaurant would be shown not so politely to the door, and he would be lucky to get out with his crest intact. Things really had changed.
Since G'Kar had left the station, and left the ambassadorial duties in his hands, Ta'Lon had been trying very hard to be a model ambassador, serving the Narn people to the best of his abilities, making no waves and doing nothing without consulting the Kha'Ri. He felt very acutely the responsibility of his position.
He was sure the Kha'Ri wouldn't approve of him having lunch with a Centauri, let alone establishing some kind of regular interaction outside the usual channels with their diplomatic outpost here.
But at some point he was going to have to start making his own decisions without relying on the Kha'Ri for guidance. He was going to have to decide what kind of ambassador he wanted to be -- what he wanted his legacy to be. And it made him smile a little to think that G'Kar, at least, wouldn't disapprove of this.
"Oh, this is good," Vir said indistinctly through a mouthful of breen. "This is amazing. It really is like roopo balls, the best ones I've ever had."
"If you like it, I have lunch here often," Ta'Lon said. "We could -- meet regularly, I expect. Discuss matters relevant to both of our worlds. As you say, catch small problems before they become large ones."
"Yes!" Vir said. He swallowed and put his fork down. "This is amazing. Really. I mean, the food. But also, you not just throwing me out, or refusing to talk to me. Which you could have."
"Well," Ta'Lon said, and he found himself groping inwardly for a quote from G'Kar's book, but nothing came to mind. Instead, he just said, "Everything has to start somewhere."