Kiss Me Quick

By: Harlequinranger

 

A/N: This is not the first piece of fanfic I have ever written, but it is one of the very few I have actually finished and am reasonably pleased enough with to want to get it posted. As a result, it is very short, and I wrote it at eleven at night after watching way too many mushy ‘friends’ episodes, so I’m sorry if bits of it are just plain… weird. Reviews are always and forever appreciated, no flamers please. J

Summery: On a quest to answer some questions, Dana has a somewhat unusual request for Carter…

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"Carter, kiss me."

Carter stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of the aqua-base corridor at the completely out-of-the-blue request. "What?!"

Dana turned to look at him earnestly. "I’m serious. I have to find something out, and I really need to know, so please…"

"Dana," Carter wasn’t entirely sure whether to laugh or not, as he realised she meant it, "this is completely random, not to mention… weird!"

"You think I don’t know that?" She asked. "I just have to find this one thing out, Carter. Please, can’t you just grant me one favour?"

She gave him an appealing look. Carter could hardly believe this. Part of him was weirdly excited by it. The part of him that got a boyish thrill at this sort of stuff. The part of him that still made him feel nervous when he asked girls to dance. Not that that happened to often, but still…

But the sensible, rational, thinking part of him was screaming You can’t kiss her! She’s Dana! She’s your bosses daughter! She’s your best friend!

"You still owe me the packet of fruit pastels I bought you last month." He reminded her, with a grin.

Dana hardly blinked at this set back. "I’ll buy you two packets of fruit pastels, just kiss me!"

Carter looked about them. They were standing in the middle of a corridor on the way to their rooms in the aqua base. They could be interrupted at any time by anyone. "What, here?"

"No one’s coming." Dana pointed out, honestly.

"You don’t know that." Carter said.

Dana gave an exasperated sigh. "Come on, Carter, can we please get this over with?"

Carter quirked an eyebrow. "Well…"

"Please?"

"Okay…" Carter took one last look up and down the corridor, took a deep breath, then leaned in.

For a second it was weird. Really weird. For both of them. Because they were both perfectly aware of their surroundings, and each other. Then… something clicked. Or rather… melted. And it was nice. Sweet and gentle and warm.

Dana would never have admitted just how many times she had tried to imagine this moment in the months leading up to it. Of course, none of it was as good as the real thing, although she was surprised just how accurate her daydreams had been. She felt her stomach take a dive, and a hail of butterflies were loosed inside her. It was like being a teenager again. Heck, she was only just past being a teenager. What was wrong with reliving some of those memories in the arms of someone she had had a crush on for months?

Then they pulled apart, both a little out of breath, and a little bashful. The problem with kissing someone you had known for ages without sharing everything with, Dana reflected, was that it was so intimate. It was like sharing something incredibly personal with someone you weren’t entirely sure you wanted to know about it.

"I…" Carter scratched his ear, searching for something to say.

Dana rubbed the toe of her sneaker against the back of her leg, before suddenly remembering a blessed distraction. "Come on, I’ll buy you those packets of fruit pastels."

Carter smiled, feeling the awkwardness slip from the situation. "Yeah." He paused for a second, then pulled her back round to face him, "one question."
"Yes…?" Dana raised an eyebrow at him, hoping she didn’t look as close to collapsing as she felt.

He put a finger to her forehead. "What were you trying to find out, exactly?"

A smile danced over Dana’s face and sparkled in her eyes. "Whether you were a good kisser or not, of course." She watched the expression of complete shock wash over Carter’s face before adding, "Thanks. You are."

Carter blinked. Dana laughed and took off, racing down the hall.

"Hey!" Carter forced his legs to correspond with his reeling mind and broke into a run after her, "Wait!"
She turned round at the corner to jog backwards, still laughing. "Come on, Carter! I’ll race you to the cafeteria!"

"Oh, be prepared to loose!" Carter raced after her.

"In your dreams, fly boy!" She sprinted off ahead of him.

So Carter chased his best friend down the corridors towards the dining room, and Dana ran ahead of her secret crush. Nothing between them seemed to change, yet nothing was ever the same.

At least, not in their hearts…