Three Couples and a Dinner Table - Part VI

Posted on Fri Nov 29th, 2024 @ 2:45am by Lieutenant JG Zai & Lieutenant Adrianna Baciami

1,115 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Stars Around the Well
Location: Zai and Sabastian's Quarters | USS Arcadia
Timeline: Current

ON:

"Question the first, writers get ready to write the answer you have one minute before we all start to respond. Lets make it easy. What is your partners favorite flower?"

Sabastian smiled and scribbled away.

Adrianna couldn't help but smile, she had this.

The minute passed. "Alright markers down. Let's start with Annabelle and Frankie. Annabelle what is your favorite flower?"

Annabelle smiled. "Purple Orchid!" Frankie turned the board over to reveal a match.

"Vance, what is your favorite flower?"

Vance started at Annabelle for a moment. He seemed lost in a memory.

"Vance?"

Vance shook his head. "The um...orchid."

Zai smiled. "Adri what did you write down?"

"Orchid," Adrianna spun her board around.

"Match! Okay mine is the lotus flower."

Sabastian smiled and turned the board around to reveal a match.

"Excellent one point each! Now we switch. Adri you ask the question."

Adrianna nodded, pulling a question from the box, "Alright, what would be an ideal vacation for your partner?" Adrianna had to think for a moment. What would her perfect vacation be? After a little while, she came to a conclusion based on a vacation Vance had taken her and the crew of the Pendragon a few times.

"Since you asked you and Vance go first."

"My ideal vacation would be to do a lot of nothing, perhaps Risa again?" She replied somewhat reluctantly.

Vance turned the board around and he'd written Risa, pool side,

Zai smiled. "Well take it." Again he and Sabastian matched Frankie and Annabelle didn't but it seemed to be intentional and Annabelle seemed to enjoy Frankie's Apology kisses and groveling.

"Annabelle you get to ask the next one."

Annabelle sighed. She handed the board over to Frankie. She looked down seeming to ask meekly. "If your partner could have dinner with anyone dead or alive who would you pick."

This time Sabastian matched with Zai in that Zai would want to have dinner with Bram Stoker being so fascinated with the book Dracula. Annabelle got Frankie's answer right too since he chose Surak.

"Alright. Adri who would Vance want to have dinner with?"

She looked at Vance and smiled softly. She didn't want to elude to the knowledge she had, "his sister, Ari."

Annabelle flinched.

Vance turned it around and it did indeed match.

Annabelle got up. "I think it's late we all have duty I need to go."

She was walking past Vance and quick as lightning he grabbed her arm forcing her to look at him. "Why?"

She looked confused. "Why what..."

"Why do you like the purple orchid?" His heard hammered in his chest.

Adrianna reached over and placed a hand on Vance's arm, offering a gentle warning, to not provoke Annabelle, "Vance." Adrianna knew that this was going to hurt him-- being so close but so far. The hope. She'd seen it all before, but in herself when he showed up.

She looked down. "It's a nice flower, is all." She pulled her arm away. "Can I go now Mr. Grabby?"

Vance gave a nod and watched as Frankie and she said their goodbye and left. He sighed seeming down. "We should go too."

Adrianna exchanged a look with Zai the second that she knew that the feeling of disappointed had leaked out. She could see the pain in Vance's eyes and it hurt to keep something from him. She looked back at Vance and took a breath, "si, we should all get an early night." She looked to Sabastian, "I'll see you in the morning to start mapping out the dead zone?"

He gave a nod. "Yup. I'll review what mister personality brought by earlier and see if we can use some of that."

Zai put an arm around Vance. "You alright?"

Vance shrugged. "She said she liked the flower it was a nice flower what I hoped she'd say was ... I have a birthmark on my right shoulder that's shaped like a purple Orchid. Am I wrong?"

Zai looked at Adri, a new bit of information. "No," he said to Vance. "You are projecting missing your sister onto Annabelle and that's okay. Sometime we meet people who remind us of someone we loved and we should treasure them as signs from those loved ones that we are still loved."

Vance smiled. "Makes sense."

"Vance--," Adrianna hesitated, her gaze fixed upon him. She wanted to scream what she knew, but she didn't have the proof. She knew that Vance knew that look, she'd given it every time she had wanted to tell him that she was Starfleet. She shook her head, subtly chastising herself. She knew how much of a tail spin she had gone through with him, when she was in his position, "let's go home. We can talk about your sister until you fall asleep, ok? It's been a long night."

He smiled. "Yeah. I'm good." He took her hand kissing the back of it.

Zai walked up with some food for them. "Take home munchies. I made a separate Chocolate cake for you two to ransack. "

Adrianna seemed to visibly relax at the kiss. She then looked around at Zai, switching to Italian to not embarrass Vance, "ah, you made spare? In that case, you are definitely forgiven for interrupting us. Do it again though and even cake will not rescue you."

He laughed. "Lucky at least you can do something," He countered in Italian. "We can't do anything until the soul weaving...but eat cake."

"Can't miss out on what I don't know--" she blushed realizing what she was saying before thinking.

Sabastian looked at Vance. "I hate secret languages. I fell left out."

Vance sighed dramatically. "Me too...but we have cake to make it better."

Zai looked at Adri and laughed.

"You want to talk secret languages," Adrianna chuckled, "I am funnier and smarter in my native tongue, yet I have to put up with speaking standard. I would love to be able to speak in my native language in my home, or during my down time, but alas-- here I am."

Vance snorted. "Well best I can do is put on a fake accent babe."

She smiled and kissed him softly, "you hired me as a translator for a reason. You, I can forgive. I know you tried."

"Alright sappy couple. Off to bed with you." Zai snickered.

"Madonna," she rolled her eyes, "not sappy-- although tomorrow, get Vance to tell you about the engineering chat up lines I wrote." She put her hand in Vance's and pulled at him to go home. She knew that he had spotted that look, but she had time to think of an excuse.

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