Work Text:
It was supposed to be a respectful, calm, dinner in Sisko’s quarters, Ezri reflected, but this was way more interesting. It had started as Ezri sipped on champagne (2309, Ben must’ve pulled some strings to get this), and in one of her more Jadzia-inspired moments they suggested spin the bottle. No one knew was it was, except Ben, who sighed, murmuring about Risa, and ushered the boys out of the room.
The group waddled over to sit on the floor, said group comprising of Julian, Nerys, Quark, Odo, Garak and of course Ben and Kassidy who were talking quietly near the dinner table. Worf had thankfully declined due to a celebration of some sort with Martok overlapping, thank you wormhole aliens.
The empty 2309 champagne was set on the ground as Ezri recounted the rules, Starfleet had something very similar but done with rations (lame) and Cardassians had something similar, "less... intimate" as Garak had put it, and probably involving more scheming.
Enough thinking. The game was set, mostly everyone was tipsy, and Ezri wanted to see if Jadzia was right about these sorts of things. Except that... no one had gotten her. No one.
Of course, she had that thing going on with Julian but... if she could be honest with herself she didn’t enjoy it much. Julian’s nice and Jadzia definitely really liked him (as a friend) maybe she was confusing Jadzia’s emotions for her own. God. Maybe she wasn’t tipsy enough.
She looked up at Julian quickly and then looked away, hopefully looking flirtatious. He smiled back distractedly, but her eyes weren’t on him... someone was rigging the game. Garak had his tail wrapped around him with just the end poking out so it would land on him. Cheeky man.
She leaned in. "Garak, what are you doing?"
He whispered back, eyes concentrated on the bottle, “Taking advantage of human intimacy, unless you don’t approve?" He tapped his tail against the bottle to slow it down.
"Well sure, just remember-"
"I can handle myself, Dax."
Tapping the bottle to a stop, Garak innocently looked up at Julian who she guessed already knew it was rigged. Without a second glance Julian was making out with Garak- it was quite the site to see.
No one else seemed to be paying attention, with Quark yammering on about something or rather, so she slipped away into the hallway. It was blessedly quiet in the hallway, she really needed to stop going to these sorts of things, they always gave her a headache.
"You alright Ezri?
Ezri did not squeak at that, nope. Blushing the slightest she turned to meet Nerys’s eyes. She seemed to be grimacing at the noise too.
"Yeah, it’s just a bit overstimulating, and well, Garak and Julian were really going at it."
Nery’s eyes widened "you saw that too? Everyone was completely ignoring it like it was normal."
"Well, maybe it was? I think it was a long time coming" Nerys raised an eyebrow at that.
"Well I’m going off Jadzia here, but they definitely had something going on before I got here. It’s a bit cynical, but maybe Julian just wanted another chance at Jadzia. It seems that everyone’s wanting that lately." Kira’s face tightened just a smidge
Leaning against the hallway wall, Ezri gestured with her champagne. "What about you and Odo, how’s that going?"
Kira sighed and took a sip of her wine. "We talked about it a couple of days ago, I’ve known him for a long time but we’re both too…”
“Stiff?”
“Stiff.” God. Everything that happened on Terok Nor," Another sigh "And don’t get me started on our political beliefs"
Ezri chuckled awkwardly, "So, did you break up?"
"Well we were both neutral about it, I guess we are just really close now, not that I mind."
"Explains why quark was so happy tonight..." Nerys mumbled.
"Huh?"
"They aren’t as obvious as those two," she gestured at the door. "But they’ve had a thing going on for a decade or so."
"A thing?" She sipped on her champagne, now this was interesting.
"They argue a lot, but in a kind of married couple way. No offense to Odo but he can be a bit... oblivious with this stuff, I don’t think he’s fully realized that Quark is really into him, probably has been for a while."
"Wow"
"Yeah"
A pause.
"So where does that leave us" she gestured between them with her glass.
“Hm?”
"Well, my boyfriend is making out with a tailor and yours is flirting with a bartender, what happens now."
Nerys settled her hand near Ezri’s, an invitation.
“We could…?”
Grasping at Nerys’s hand Ezri rubbed at the back of her neck.
“I really do like you Nerys its just….” She looked down at the ground.
“You have to think about it?” Nerys asked while meeting her eye.
“Yeah… I’m just confused, about everything really. Just give me a little while okay?”
Rubbing the back of Ezri’s hand Kira smiled, “We have all the time in the world, I’ll be waiting.”