fic: Nessie [Stargate: Atlantis]
Title: Nessie
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Rodney, John
Summary: Filled for the prompt "Stargate Atlantis, Rodney McKay (/John Sheppard), Rodney is a cryptozoologist specializing in sea monsters"
"I - you - how - just - see that?"
The man with wet-slicked hair looked at him guilelessly, idly paddling his surfboard parallel to the shore bound waves. "Huh?"
Other than a faint resemblance in the hair, he doesn't look anything like the writhing mess of black tentacles Rodney could have sworn he'd seen a second ago, on the other side of a deep wave. But when it passed, the only thing there was a sun-baked surfer calmly floating along.
The man turns his torso, looking oceanward to where Rodney had gestured from his dinghy. "The water?" He says, in that slow you idiot questioning way.
"No," Rodney snaps and adds for good measure, "moron." Another large wave comes rolling towards them. "When the wave comes, look under the water!"
The wave comes and goes and Rodney shouts with frustration. The closest he's been and it just - !
"Maybe he just wanted to enjoy the waves," the surfer says, watching him with an amused glint in his eye. "To a sea creature, it must almost feel like flying."
Rodney isn't going to sit here and let a stranger mock him, not when he was so close to one of the creatures he's been trying to study his entire life. He picks a direction, throttles the motor, and sails away from the surfer, shouting insults as he goes.
But when Rodney looks back to deliver one last devastatingly poignant remark, the surfer has disappeared completely.