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dark_sinestra) wrote2010-01-30 02:37 am
Standing Oration
Standing Oration
by Dark Sinestra
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Pairing: Jadzia Dax/Worf
Rating: G
Category: Gen
Disclaimer:None of the characters are mine. They belong to Paramount, the Great and Terrible! Kneel before Paramount!! And please tell them I'm not profiting by writing my puny little fics using their awesome characters. KTHXBAI!
Author's Note: This was written for the talented Idanianspice who responded to my response to this challenge http://lady-drace.livejournal.com/304817.html I hope you like it! :-D
Dax saw Kira in the corridor ahead of her and lengthened her stride to catch up with the shorter woman. “Good morning,” she said cheerfully, offering her a mischievous, closed lipped smile.
The Bajoran officer rolled her dark eyes. “Not before I've had a raktajino it isn't,” she said. “What has you so chipper before oh-seven-hundred, anyway?”
“Oh, nothing,” Dax replied, shifting her PADD to her other arm and still smiling.
“Uh huh,” Kira said skeptically. “Riiight. I'm sure it has nothing at all to do with a certain tall, dark brand new strategic operations officer who will be in the meeting this morning.”
“Nerys!” she said, her blue eyes dancing.
“Thought so,” the woman nodded. “What is it with you and Klingons, anyway?”
“I admire their culture and values,” Dax said, drawing herself up a little taller.
“You like the way he looks in that uniform,” Kira retorted, her dark eyes twinkling.
“OK, fine, that too,” Dax agreed with a smirk. “You have to admit, he wears it well.”
“I have one word for you,” Kira said as they stepped into the wardroom. “Hopeless.”
“What's hopeless?” Chief O'Brien asked with a worried look at the two of them. He was already seated at the table and going over a PADD.
“Nothing,” Dax said, favoring Kira with a pointed though playful glare.
“Uh huh, nothing,” Kira said, shaking her head and taking a seat. She eyed O'Brien. “Is it just a thing with you that you have to get here before everybody else?”
“What?” he asked, his brows lifting in surprise. “No. I just like to get here a little early, settle in, be prepared.”
“It's public speaking,” Dax said sotto voice, leaning close to Kira. “He has to work up to it.”
“I heard that!” O'Brien said.
Worf strode into the room next, his dark eyes sweeping the gathered automatically. He gave a terse nod seemingly meant for all of them and headed to take a seat near the Chief. He sat ramrod straight, both hands clasped on the tabletop in front of him.
“What about you?” Dax asked, looking directly at Worf.
“What about me?” he retorted with a frown.
She loved that little flare of his nostrils and the way the hair of his mustache bristled slightly when he made that face. “How do you feel about public speaking?”
O'Brien rolled his eyes and shook his head. Kira lifted her PADD high enough in front of her face to hide her smile of amusement. Worf eyed the lot of them before answering. “I do not feel any particular way about it,” he said with particular emphasis on the word “feel”. “When it is necessary, I do it. Why?”
She loved that he was so suspicious, too. It made it entirely too fun to poke at him. “No reason really. I was just trying to figure out why the Chief is so averse.”
“I'm not bloody averse to it,” O'Brien sputtered. “It's just not my favorite thing, all right?”
“What isn't your favorite thing?” Julian asked, walking into the room and fixing O'Brien with an amused smile.
“Public speaking,” chimed three voices, O'Brien's, Dax's, and Kira's. Dax shot Kira a quick grin, and O'Brien shot both women a sour look.
“It is a useful skill,” Worf said gravely, turning to look at Miles. “If it truly gives you problems, I would be willing to work with you on it.”
“Bloody hell,” O'Brien said, his cheeks growing red, “it's not a problem for me! What is this? Pick on the engineer day?”
“And no one told me,” Julian said saucily, grinning and taking a seat on the other side of O'Brien.
Dax couldn't have been more pleased. It was fun to stir a little trouble now and then, even more fun now that she had a new target whose red uniform just happened to complement his skin tone perfectly. She leaned back comfortably in her seat and winked at Kira.
“No one was 'picking on you', as you say,” Worf said stiffly.
“I was,” Dax chimed up. She met Worf's glare with a playful little grin.
“I would've had I been here,” Julian said, more than happy to rib his friend.
“You'll get used to this bunch,” Kira tried to reassure Worf, whose disapproval of the entire environment seemed to be growing by leaps and bounds.
“No doubt,” Worf said, although he looked doubtful.
“MaH yImev chop,” Dax said, paused and added, “hard.”
“WejpuH,” Worf retorted with a hard stare.
Kira leaned in close. “You've got to stop doing that,” she whispered to Dax. “It's very annoying. What did you say to him?”
Still looking at Worf, Dax whispered back, “I said we don't bite hard.”
“And what did he say?” Kira asked.
Smirking, Dax raised her voice so that Worf would hear it, too. “He said I was charming, but somehow, I don't think he meant it.”
Further banter died down when Captain Sisko entered the room. Worf immediately stood at attention. “As you were, Lieutenant Commander,” Sisko said. “We conduct most of our staff meetings fairly informally.”
“So I gathered,” Worf said, shooting a glance at Dax.
She smiled very innocently at Benjamin's questioning look, the smile widening at the skepticism that met her innocence. Still eying her and shaking his head very slightly, he started the meeting. “Let's go ahead and get the status reports out of the way, so we can focus on our plans for the drills this next month.”
“Shouldn't Odo be here?” Kira asked.
“He's tied up in security at the moment,” Sisko said. “I'll be certain he receives any pertinent information.”
She nodded, and for a little while in the meeting, it was very much business as usual, each officer in turn standing to deliver a report on his or her area of responsibility. Dax noted that Worf really was very good at speaking, obviously trained and comfortable. His voice carried well—such a voice! He didn't use any place holders such as, “uh” or “um”, and even though he paced some while he spoke, he didn't do it in a distracting way. He simply commanded the eye to follow him. Kira elbowed her, and she realized that perhaps she had been staring, just a tad.
When it was Chief O'Brien's turn, he clutched his PADD in both hands, glanced around nervously, and eventually fixed his eyes on a point on the wall somewhere to the left of Sisko's shoulder. Dax felt a little guilty, for he stumbled all over his words, growing redder by the minute. Finally he stopped altogether and looked at the captain. “Sir,” he said, “I'm sorry. I came prepared. I don't know what's come over me.”
“It's all right, Chief,” Sisko said with an understanding look. “Just take a deep breath, and take your time. There's no rush.”
“Yes, Sir,” he said. “Thank you, Sir.” He shot Dax another sour look and tried again, doing a little better this time. When he finished giving his report, he sat down heavily in his seat and wiped his hands on his trousers. Dax decided that she'd buy him a round of drinks next time she saw him in Quark's. She truly hadn't intended to throw his concentration off so completely, and she wondered if it had to do with the fact that Worf was there. They had served together on the Enterprise. Maybe he felt a vested interest in impressing his former co-worker.
The drill planning went very quickly and efficiently. Kira and Worf both had very similar ideas of how to carry them out, and everyone agreed to follow their proposed schedule. “Unless anyone has anything else?” Sisko asked and waited a few moments. When no one spoke up, he said, “Then meeting adjourned. Everybody to your stations.”
She took her time gathering her PADD and standing, lingering to hear the conversation between Worf and O'Brien. Although he was trying to speak quietly, the Klingon's voice carried with ridiculous ease. “There is no shame in acknowledging an area of weakness,” he said. “The only shame comes from not attempting to improve. Oration is a skill like any other. It can be learned, and I can teach you.”
Smiling, she stepped closer and leaned a hip against the back of a now empty chair. “Would you be willing to teach me...oration?” she asked, lifting a brow.
O'Brien smirked and used the opening to beat a hasty retreat. “I need to get to work,” he said, glancing back at Worf. “I'll think about your offer, but I'm usually not this bad. Somebody,” and here he shot a significant look at Dax, “distracted me today.” With that he left before either of them had a chance to respond.
His lips pursing slightly, Worf folded his arms and eyed her. “Why do I get the feeling that's one of your better talents, distraction?”
Dax widened her eyes as wide as they would go. “I have no idea,” she said very innocently, “but I think you might have fun finding out for sure.” She turned away from his flummoxed look and caught up with Benjamin on his way out. Yes, she thought, things around here are about to get a lot more fun. She could hardly wait.
The End
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And I laughed out loud when Dax told Kira that Worf said she was "charming," because I could see the exact look on his face when he said that. Thank you so much for this - after getting my ASS handed to me at the casinos in Atlantic City this weekend, I was glad to come back to this piece of wonderfulness written just for me! <33
no subject
Casinos can be brutal. Luck is a harsh mistress!