Fic: Elemental Contradictions
Title: Elemental Contradictions
Author: trixiesfic
Recipient: riverlight
Summary: Atlantis is surrounded by water.
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Rain and wind batter against the city's shield and occasionally a flash of lightning causes a ripple of energy to travel across the shield, lighting it up with a strangely harmonic sizzle. John can feel a faint echo of that energy against his back and legs, everywhere his body touches the floor and the wall he's sitting against. He takes a sip of his beer and watches a wave crash against the shield, only about fifteen feet from where he sits.
It's only a category 3 hurricane, small compared to the giant storm they had when Kolya tried to take over the city. And now they have a ZPM, a fully functioning shield, and a group of visiting scientists, here to study the storm and its interaction with the shield. There haven't been any Wraith attacks lately- or Replicators or Genii or anyone else in the Pegasus Galaxy who wants to kill them- and John's taken himself off duty for a little well-earned peace and quiet.
"There you are." Rodney steps out onto the landing and John sighs. This landing is about as far from Stargate Operations as John could get without flying a puddlejumper, so it's unlikely Rodney just happened to find him. "Is your radio not working? Hey, is that beer?"
"My radio's working fine. It's turned off."
John finds he manage to be annoyed at Rodney's intrusion, so he hands over one of the three beers he has left. Rodney checks the label and nods with apparent approval. He takes a long drink of his beer and turns away from John to stare out at the storm.
"I thought you'd be off bossing the xeno-meterologists around." John grins when the term makes Rodney snort. It's apparently what they decided to call themselves when they found out they were going to another galaxy, and Rodney's been completely unable to hide his disdain for two days.
"Please." Rodney glares at John and sits down next to him. "The shield's working fine. I have much more important things to do then sit around and watch the weathergeeks stare at rain on a monitor."
"Like sitting around with a beer, watching the rain?"
Rodney snorts again, but doesn't reply. He just relaxes back into the wall and watches the storm rage in front of them.
*
Atlantis is surrounded by water. It sits on a vast ocean and water runs through the city in the giant visible pipes that are part of the desalinization system. The majority of the planets John's visited in the Pegasus galaxy have been lush and green, with plenty of water. Sometimes that feels just as alien as life-sucking alien bugs.
John's spent most of his life in deserts of one kind or another. His dad had moved them from one desolate Air Force town to another, from Texas to New Mexico to California and then to North Dakota. When he grew up and joined the Air Force, they sent him to Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Even Antarctica was barren.
The planet where they found the crashed supply ship and the superwraith had felt a little like home to John. Not in that "home is where the heart is" way, but in the sense that the hot sun on his skin and dry sand under his feet had felt familiar. Normal. Even when he was fighting for his life against the wraith, the dust in his throat and gritty sand sticking to his skin had felt like a place he'd been before. Like getting lost in the dunes at White Sands National Park when he was seven and had wandered away from his mother. Like the parking lot of Witchita Falls Junior High School, where John broke the nose of a kid who'd called him a fairy one too many times. Like the feel of hot Mojave desert sand under his knees and palms as Tony Ramirez fucked him for the first time when he was seventeen. Like Captain Holland, propped against his side, dying fifteen minutes before rescue came.
But this time rescue had come. As unlikely as it had seemed, Rodney had shown up against orders and saved his life, given them both the time they needed to survive. Back in the jumper, Rodney had pulled out the emergency supplies and handed John a fresh bottle of water. It had tasted clean, tinged with the particular sharpness of the water that came out of the city's filters. John finished that bottle and a second one while he watched Rodney mutter as he worked on the jumper console, knowing that Ford and Teyla and the second jumper would be there soon.
*
After John's mom died when he was nine, the Air Force sent his dad to South Korea and he left John with his grandmother in North Carolina. He lived with her for three years and as angry as he was at his dad for leaving him, it was pretty great. He got to know a few kids well and started playing football. He and Hannah Davis spent most of their free hours in those three summers following the creek on his grandma's property up into the woods and building forts.
John loved living there, but the thing he remembers the most was the smell of his grandma's house. She raised African Violets and they were all over the house, in trays under warming lamps, and her house smelled like a combination of that rich, loamy soil and the perfume of the flowers themselves.
P9X-438 smelled exactly like John's grandma's house. It was warm and damp and had the same dark, exotic scent as those African Violets. It surprised John so much that he stopped in his tracks, breathing in the air, remembering the house that had been the most like home during his childhood.
"Hey!" Rodney had yelled, bumping into John's back and promptly sneezing on John's shoulder. "Warn a guy!"
"Hey, McKay, there's a fully grown man in front of you," John responded sarcastically. "You might want to watch where you're going."
The mission continued in much the same vein. There were no signs of a settlement and Rodney alternated between trying to explain curling to Ronon and Teyla and grumbling about all the wasted walking, right up until he fell off a cliff.
It wasn't a cliff so much as a high embankment, softened by the river below it. It gave under Rodney's weight and with an indignant screech he tumbled and slid down the embankment and into the swift current of the river. John tried to go after him and immediately slipped and fell head over heels down the embankment and into the river with Rodney. The water was moving fast, but John managed to catch up with Rodney and grab him by his tac vest. They struggled together out of the middle of the river and caught themselves against a large boulder.
"Jesus, McKay."
Rodney's eyes were big and he had dark mud in his hair and water running down his face and the water was pushing them against the rock and Rodney completely surprised John by grabbing him by the neck and kissing him. John sputtered and when Rodney didn't let go, John kissed him back. He had no idea where it was coming from, but he wasn't about to argue when Rodney was wet and tasted like water and iron-rich mud and his kiss was as single minded and intense as Rodney could be when he was trying to save their lives.
They heard Ronon shouting just before he and Teyla crashed through the bushes. John pulled back and yelled, "down here!" He looked back at Rodney, but Rodney was already pushing away from John and refusing to look at him. He just said, "sorry" and reached out to grab Ronon's hand.
*
A giant ball of lightning crashes against the shield and a blinding ripple of energy lights up the landing.
"Whoa." Rodney stands up and goes to the railing, looking up at the shield above them.
"Cool, huh?"
Rodney immediately starts in on a technical explanation of the effect, but John tunes him out and just says, "Rodney."
Rodney turns around and grins at John. "Yeah. Cool."
The kiss was a week ago and neither of them has said a word about it to the other. John's still not sure what to make of it, but he's pretty certain that he wants to do it again. He's always had a strict policy of keeping his sex life far away from his job, not only because it could lose him his career, but also because relationships get messy and he just doesn't need that. But there's something about Rodney and about the Pegasus Galaxy that makes him want to break his own rule.
A gust of wind blows water against the shield in a swirl and it reminds John of a sandstorm he got caught in once in Saudi Arabia. He and his crew had hunkered down in his chopper for five hours, stuffing everything they could find into any crevice sand could get into. They breathed through their t-shirts and still breathed sand. It had taken days to get all the sand out of the helicopter and John had been grateful when transfer papers came through a month later, sending him to Kosovo. But John has never forgotten the feel of choking on sand.
The thing about Rodney is: as arrogant and annoying as he can be, he also never stops thinking in that brilliant outside-of-the-box way and he's braver than he knows. Rodney's a force of nature and as predictable as he can be most of the time, he still manages to completely surprise John on occasion. The thing about John is: he really likes contradictions and grown men who still think lightning is cool.
Setting down his beer, John stands up and walks up behind Rodney, putting his hands on Rodney's hips tentatively. Rodney freezes for an instant and then leans back just enough that it could be taken as intent or accident. So, John thinks, the kiss wasn't just an aberration.
"Are we going to talk about this?" John asks.
"God, no."
John smiles into the back of Rodney's neck, relieved, and whispers, "good."
He licks Rodney's neck and feels Rodney shiver against him. Even with the shield, the air is heavy with sea water and Rodney's skin is damp and salty. John wraps an arm around Rodney and pulls until Rodney is tight against John's chest. Rodney leans shamelessly against him, then pushes back hard and turns around in John's arms, letting John push him up against the railing.
There's no taste of mud in their second kiss, only Rodney and the slightest hint of Atlantis's ocean. Rodney's mouth is wet and soft and nothing at all like sand. John takes his time, slowing Rodney down and savoring the taste and feel of him. By the time Rodney gets both hands up inside John's shirt and John tucks a hand down into the back of Rodney's pants, Rodney shivers and pulls away.
"Are you through watching the storm?"
John nods and grins. "What storm?"
"Good answer." Rodney pushes John away and starts to walk out. "Let's go, Sheppard. I don't have all day. God knows what those weather morons might do to my city."
Author: trixiesfic
Recipient: riverlight
Summary: Atlantis is surrounded by water.
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Rain and wind batter against the city's shield and occasionally a flash of lightning causes a ripple of energy to travel across the shield, lighting it up with a strangely harmonic sizzle. John can feel a faint echo of that energy against his back and legs, everywhere his body touches the floor and the wall he's sitting against. He takes a sip of his beer and watches a wave crash against the shield, only about fifteen feet from where he sits.
It's only a category 3 hurricane, small compared to the giant storm they had when Kolya tried to take over the city. And now they have a ZPM, a fully functioning shield, and a group of visiting scientists, here to study the storm and its interaction with the shield. There haven't been any Wraith attacks lately- or Replicators or Genii or anyone else in the Pegasus Galaxy who wants to kill them- and John's taken himself off duty for a little well-earned peace and quiet.
"There you are." Rodney steps out onto the landing and John sighs. This landing is about as far from Stargate Operations as John could get without flying a puddlejumper, so it's unlikely Rodney just happened to find him. "Is your radio not working? Hey, is that beer?"
"My radio's working fine. It's turned off."
John finds he manage to be annoyed at Rodney's intrusion, so he hands over one of the three beers he has left. Rodney checks the label and nods with apparent approval. He takes a long drink of his beer and turns away from John to stare out at the storm.
"I thought you'd be off bossing the xeno-meterologists around." John grins when the term makes Rodney snort. It's apparently what they decided to call themselves when they found out they were going to another galaxy, and Rodney's been completely unable to hide his disdain for two days.
"Please." Rodney glares at John and sits down next to him. "The shield's working fine. I have much more important things to do then sit around and watch the weathergeeks stare at rain on a monitor."
"Like sitting around with a beer, watching the rain?"
Rodney snorts again, but doesn't reply. He just relaxes back into the wall and watches the storm rage in front of them.
*
Atlantis is surrounded by water. It sits on a vast ocean and water runs through the city in the giant visible pipes that are part of the desalinization system. The majority of the planets John's visited in the Pegasus galaxy have been lush and green, with plenty of water. Sometimes that feels just as alien as life-sucking alien bugs.
John's spent most of his life in deserts of one kind or another. His dad had moved them from one desolate Air Force town to another, from Texas to New Mexico to California and then to North Dakota. When he grew up and joined the Air Force, they sent him to Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Even Antarctica was barren.
The planet where they found the crashed supply ship and the superwraith had felt a little like home to John. Not in that "home is where the heart is" way, but in the sense that the hot sun on his skin and dry sand under his feet had felt familiar. Normal. Even when he was fighting for his life against the wraith, the dust in his throat and gritty sand sticking to his skin had felt like a place he'd been before. Like getting lost in the dunes at White Sands National Park when he was seven and had wandered away from his mother. Like the parking lot of Witchita Falls Junior High School, where John broke the nose of a kid who'd called him a fairy one too many times. Like the feel of hot Mojave desert sand under his knees and palms as Tony Ramirez fucked him for the first time when he was seventeen. Like Captain Holland, propped against his side, dying fifteen minutes before rescue came.
But this time rescue had come. As unlikely as it had seemed, Rodney had shown up against orders and saved his life, given them both the time they needed to survive. Back in the jumper, Rodney had pulled out the emergency supplies and handed John a fresh bottle of water. It had tasted clean, tinged with the particular sharpness of the water that came out of the city's filters. John finished that bottle and a second one while he watched Rodney mutter as he worked on the jumper console, knowing that Ford and Teyla and the second jumper would be there soon.
*
After John's mom died when he was nine, the Air Force sent his dad to South Korea and he left John with his grandmother in North Carolina. He lived with her for three years and as angry as he was at his dad for leaving him, it was pretty great. He got to know a few kids well and started playing football. He and Hannah Davis spent most of their free hours in those three summers following the creek on his grandma's property up into the woods and building forts.
John loved living there, but the thing he remembers the most was the smell of his grandma's house. She raised African Violets and they were all over the house, in trays under warming lamps, and her house smelled like a combination of that rich, loamy soil and the perfume of the flowers themselves.
P9X-438 smelled exactly like John's grandma's house. It was warm and damp and had the same dark, exotic scent as those African Violets. It surprised John so much that he stopped in his tracks, breathing in the air, remembering the house that had been the most like home during his childhood.
"Hey!" Rodney had yelled, bumping into John's back and promptly sneezing on John's shoulder. "Warn a guy!"
"Hey, McKay, there's a fully grown man in front of you," John responded sarcastically. "You might want to watch where you're going."
The mission continued in much the same vein. There were no signs of a settlement and Rodney alternated between trying to explain curling to Ronon and Teyla and grumbling about all the wasted walking, right up until he fell off a cliff.
It wasn't a cliff so much as a high embankment, softened by the river below it. It gave under Rodney's weight and with an indignant screech he tumbled and slid down the embankment and into the swift current of the river. John tried to go after him and immediately slipped and fell head over heels down the embankment and into the river with Rodney. The water was moving fast, but John managed to catch up with Rodney and grab him by his tac vest. They struggled together out of the middle of the river and caught themselves against a large boulder.
"Jesus, McKay."
Rodney's eyes were big and he had dark mud in his hair and water running down his face and the water was pushing them against the rock and Rodney completely surprised John by grabbing him by the neck and kissing him. John sputtered and when Rodney didn't let go, John kissed him back. He had no idea where it was coming from, but he wasn't about to argue when Rodney was wet and tasted like water and iron-rich mud and his kiss was as single minded and intense as Rodney could be when he was trying to save their lives.
They heard Ronon shouting just before he and Teyla crashed through the bushes. John pulled back and yelled, "down here!" He looked back at Rodney, but Rodney was already pushing away from John and refusing to look at him. He just said, "sorry" and reached out to grab Ronon's hand.
*
A giant ball of lightning crashes against the shield and a blinding ripple of energy lights up the landing.
"Whoa." Rodney stands up and goes to the railing, looking up at the shield above them.
"Cool, huh?"
Rodney immediately starts in on a technical explanation of the effect, but John tunes him out and just says, "Rodney."
Rodney turns around and grins at John. "Yeah. Cool."
The kiss was a week ago and neither of them has said a word about it to the other. John's still not sure what to make of it, but he's pretty certain that he wants to do it again. He's always had a strict policy of keeping his sex life far away from his job, not only because it could lose him his career, but also because relationships get messy and he just doesn't need that. But there's something about Rodney and about the Pegasus Galaxy that makes him want to break his own rule.
A gust of wind blows water against the shield in a swirl and it reminds John of a sandstorm he got caught in once in Saudi Arabia. He and his crew had hunkered down in his chopper for five hours, stuffing everything they could find into any crevice sand could get into. They breathed through their t-shirts and still breathed sand. It had taken days to get all the sand out of the helicopter and John had been grateful when transfer papers came through a month later, sending him to Kosovo. But John has never forgotten the feel of choking on sand.
The thing about Rodney is: as arrogant and annoying as he can be, he also never stops thinking in that brilliant outside-of-the-box way and he's braver than he knows. Rodney's a force of nature and as predictable as he can be most of the time, he still manages to completely surprise John on occasion. The thing about John is: he really likes contradictions and grown men who still think lightning is cool.
Setting down his beer, John stands up and walks up behind Rodney, putting his hands on Rodney's hips tentatively. Rodney freezes for an instant and then leans back just enough that it could be taken as intent or accident. So, John thinks, the kiss wasn't just an aberration.
"Are we going to talk about this?" John asks.
"God, no."
John smiles into the back of Rodney's neck, relieved, and whispers, "good."
He licks Rodney's neck and feels Rodney shiver against him. Even with the shield, the air is heavy with sea water and Rodney's skin is damp and salty. John wraps an arm around Rodney and pulls until Rodney is tight against John's chest. Rodney leans shamelessly against him, then pushes back hard and turns around in John's arms, letting John push him up against the railing.
There's no taste of mud in their second kiss, only Rodney and the slightest hint of Atlantis's ocean. Rodney's mouth is wet and soft and nothing at all like sand. John takes his time, slowing Rodney down and savoring the taste and feel of him. By the time Rodney gets both hands up inside John's shirt and John tucks a hand down into the back of Rodney's pants, Rodney shivers and pulls away.
"Are you through watching the storm?"
John nods and grins. "What storm?"
"Good answer." Rodney pushes John away and starts to walk out. "Let's go, Sheppard. I don't have all day. God knows what those weather morons might do to my city."