Happy birthday Evermore and Micandra!  Hope this will suit both of you.
	No angst (gasp), no graphic sex or violence (double gasp), just a prequel
	to a first time.

	rita


	Wouldn't Want You To

	by rita (mommacita1@juno.com)

	M/M prequel for Appy and SB

	PG (for brief nudity)

	"What are you doing on my computer?" Apollo asked, walking into his
	quarters to find Starbuck busily typing away.  "For that matter, what are
	you doing in my quarters? And how did you get in?"

	Starbuck smiled.  "Oh, come *on*, Apollo!  Do you think mere entry codes
	could stop me?  Now computer codes - that's a different matter!"  He
	glared at the screen.  "Never could find my way around a computer."

	Apollo looked at him skeptically.  "Right," he said.  "Must have been
	someone else changing your personnel file when Cree went down on that ice
	planet."

	Starbuck looked up at Apollo.  His blue eyes shone with complete
	innocence.  "You can just check my computer course scores from the
	Academy, Captain," he offered.  "You'll find I just barely passed the
	minimum course requirements."

	"As if you couldn't doctor those, too," Apollo returned.  He went to the
	bar.  "Ambrosa?" he asked.

	"I wouldn't want you to drink alone."  Starbuck accepted the glass
	without looking away from the computer screen.

	Apollo shook his head and turned toward the fooder.  "Have you eaten?"

	"Yah. When I got off patrol."

	"Which was at 1350?"

	"Right.  How'd you know."

	"That's when the fooder was last accessed."

	"Oh."

	"So you're not hungry?" Apollo sounded hopeful.

	"I wouldn't want you to eat alone," Starbuck responded.

	Apollo shook his head and placed a request for dinner for two, then
	picked up a technical journal and sat down on the couch to wait. A few
	centons later the fooder's alarm sounded to announce the completion of
	the request.  Apollo rose and took the steaming plates out.  He looked
	over at the computer console where his wing mate was still working away.

	"I don't suppose those are the back reports you owe me?"

	"Hmm?" Starbuck looked up, his eyes slightly unfocused from staring at
	the screen so long.  "Oh, nope, not reports.  Been surfin'"

	"I beg your pardon?"

	"Sorry.  'Surfing'.  You know, just going from place to place on the
	various computer sites around the Fleet."

	"Oh.  'Surfing', huh?  I'll have to remember that."

	Starbuck grunted, his mind back on whatever he was doing on the computer
	screen."

	"Do you expect me to serve you, too?" Apollo asked, annoyed.

	Starbuck looked up with his most beguiling expression.  "Would you,
	Apollo?  I'm kinda in the middle of things here, and you know how bad I
	am with computers."

	'I don't believe I'm doing this,' Apollo thought as he grabbed a napkin
	and utensils and placed them with one of the plates of food on a tray.
	He brought it over to Starbuck.  "I am *not* feeding you!" he declared.

	"What?"  Starbuck looked up. "Oh, no, 'course not, Apollo." He laughed.

	Apollo thought his eyes became even more beautiful when he laughed. 'More
	beautiful?' he questioned himself.  'When did I start thinking of
	Starbuck's eyes as beautiful?  Of course they are...' He remained
	standing in front of Starbuck, holding the tray.

	"Here, let me take that from you.  Thanks.  You're the best.  Mmm, good
	stuff!"  Starbuck said around a mouthful of food.

	Apollo went back to the table and ate his own dinner, his nose in the
	journal article he'd been reading.  After a while, he realized Starbuck
	was still there.  "Don't you have a Pyramid game or a lady waiting?" he
	asked.

	"Nah.  Athena told me Boxey was spending the night at her place, so I
	cleared my calendar.  Wouldn't want you to spend the evening alone."

	"Uh, thanks," Apollo muttered, his brow furrowed.  He was suspicious, but
	Starbuck was the picture of innocence.  Of course, Apollo noted, that was
	when Starbuck was at his most dangerous.  ."I think."

	"Welcome," Starbuck replied absently.

	Two centars passed.  Apollo stood up from the couch, where he'd been
	lounging, eyes closed, feet up, while he listened to soft music.  And
	Starbuck hadn't even complained about the string quartet.  Apollo arched
	an eyebrow, but interrupted his own thoughts with a yawn.  "I'm bushed,
	Bucko.  Time for bed."

	"Wouldn't want you to sleep alone," came the murmured response.

	"What!?"  Startled, Apollo turned to look at the computer console.

	Starbuck wasn't there.  Apollo stalked over to the computer, as it
	repeated in Starbuck's voice, "Wouldn't want you to drink alone. Wouldn't
	want you to eat alone. Wouldn't want you to sleep alone."

	"It's voice-activated.," came Starbuck's voice from behind Apollo.

	Apollo walked around to view the monitor. The screen was blank.  The
	computer was silent.  "It is, huh?' Apollo teased.  "I think you were
	right after all Bucko: you can't use a computer."

	"Wouldn't want you to be alone," the computer said.

	"Ah, attuned to *your* voice, I should have said," Starbuck clarified.

	Apollo glanced over his shoulder, but whatever he was about to say was
	lost.  "Starbuck?" he breathed as his gaze swept up and down the naked,
	figure in his bedroom doorway.

	"Wouldn't want you to be with anyone else either," the computer and
	Starbuck replied together.

	A small part of Apollo wondered when he had become attracted to Starbuck
	- and when Starbuck had become attracted to him.  The rest of Apollo told
	that small part to go to 'Hades; he had better things to wonder about,
	like when Starbuck had turned into an angel,  a golden angel haloed by
	the light coming from the open bedroom door. "Neither would I," Apollo
	murmured, crossing the space between them in less than a micron.