SGA Ficlet: Look (Rodney/Teyla)
Title: Look
Rating: G
Pairing: Rodney/Teyla
Disclaimer: So not mine...
Spoilers: None
Summary: A month later, still, Teyla likes knowing that she can make him feel off-balance.
Author's Note: Written mostly during my lunch hour yesterday. Unbeta'd. Some day I will again write something in this fandom that is not meant to be cute and slightly fluffy, and also might take place off world, but today is not that day. Just so you're warned. *g*
There are days still, even now, a month later, when Rodney will look at her and Teyla will see an expression resembling awe on his face. Awe, or possibly, she sometimes thinks, surprise. Surprise that she is with *him*, perhaps, as everyone in Atlantis assumed that she would be with Colonel Sheppard, or Ronon, or, before everything, Aiden.
Surprise that they have had a month together already, and that she seems to have no intention of leaving him.
The same surprise that she sometimes lets herself indulge in, too.
A month later, though, her surprise is beginning to fade, and as she steps into his lab, as he glances over his shoulder at her, away from his conversation with Dr. Zelenka, she can see that his is not, because the look is there again, in his wide, startled eyes and the slight upward curve of his lips. As she watches, though, the look morphs quickly into another, one that she has come to treasure. It starts slowly, with a smile that can only be described as shy, but then the spread of his lips grows ever wider until he is showing white teeth, until the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkles up.
When she sees *that* look on his face, she has no choice but to smile in return. So she does.
This is what she cherishes the most, though: for a single moment, just one, right after he sees her, he will stop. His hands will pause in the midst of whatever it is that they are doing, and he will say, haltingly, "Teyla, hi," as he says it even now.
It is just a moment, though, and right after, as they always do, his hands will pick up speed again, moving faster than before. Sometimes he will twist his fingers together into impossible seeming knots, but tonight he waves them around in front of his body at double-speed, as he only does when he is off-balance.
A month later, still, Teyla likes knowing that she can make him feel off-balance.
Dr. Zelenka is the one to speak next. He peers at her through his glasses and says, "Teyla, what can we do for you?" and that seems to jolt Rodney back to the lab, because he nods his head and stands up a little bit straighter and finally crosses his arms over his chest.
"Yes," Rodney says. "What can we help you with tonight?"
Before Teyla can answer, though, Dr. Zelenka rushes on. "He forgot important date, didn’t he?" he asks, winking at her. "Important anniversary, perhaps?"
And while Teyla does enjoy the increasingly stricken look that is rising on Rodney’s face as he tries to figure out if Dr. Zelenka is correct, if he did forget something important, she does not wish to be cruel. She says, "No, Dr. Zelenka. There is no anniversary, no important date."
"Which means that there was a date, though," Dr. Zelenka says, grinning, even as Rodney slaps at his forehead and says, "Oh, god, tonight was Sheppard’s movie night, wasn’t it? Am I late? Well, obviously I’m late if they sent you after me-not that they aren’t always welcome to send you after me, of course-" and Dr. Zelenka says, "Rodney, please shut up."
Amazingly enough, Rodney’s mouth snaps closed, and he’s frowning guiltily at Teyla, so she walks across the lab, over to where he and Dr. Zelenka are standing, and lays one of her hands on his still crossed arms, and squeezes. He looks down at her, a line between his eyebrows, and if they were not in the labs, if they did not have Dr. Zelenka as an audience, she might have kissed him. Instead, she just squeezes his arm again and steps back.
"It is okay," she says. "We did not expect you to be on time. In fact, I believe that Colonel Sheppard deliberately scheduled the movie for early in the evening so that we might have plenty of time to watch it after you did arrive."
She watches as Rodney’s mouth opens and closes, choice words about the Colonel obviously sitting heavy on his tongue, and he looks so indignant, she cannot help but laugh.
"Wise man, the Colonel," Dr. Zelenka says, so before Rodney can turn his choice words on his colleague, Teyla decides that the time has come to relay the Colonel’s message.
"He did send me to find you, yes," she says, "but while there is still plenty of time to watch the movie, he did tell me to warn you that the popcorn might be gone, if we did not hurry."
Again she smiles as Rodney’s eyes go wide with horror, and now, when he turns to Dr. Zelenka it is for permission to leave, to finish their conversation another time, and Dr. Zelenka nods, waves a hand in their direction in what Teyla supposes is meant to be a shooing motion.
"Please, go," the other scientist says, and then turns to Teyla, continuing: "I will never hear the end of the conversation if I am the reason he misses out on popcorn."
"Do not worry, Dr. Zelenka," she says, wrapping her hand around Rodney’s elbow and steering him towards the door to the lab. "We will hurry. And I would hope that both the Colonel and Ronon would be aware of the consequences should they choose not to leave him any."
"Yes," Dr. Zelenka says gravely, nodding. "It would be terrible."
"But let’s not tempt fate, shall we?" Rodney asks, and suddenly he is the one guiding her out of the lab, a hand hovering at the small of her back, and she can hear Dr. Zelenka’s laughter coming from behind her.
As soon as they are out in the hallway, though, Rodney’s hand drops back to his side, just for a moment, before he crosses his arms over his chest again, fingers wrapped tightly around his biceps. There will be no holding hands as they walk, Teyla knows, and Rodney will not put his arm around her waist.
Rodney, Teyla has discovered, does not feel comfortable displaying affection in public, and he has tried to cover it up by commenting about the other couples they’ve observed together-the ones that do hold hands, or kiss in corners, secluded and not-and remarking that he is glad that they are not like that. She knows the truth, though, and Teyla, quite frankly, is okay with it. She has her own reasons for being glad that they limit their affections when they are in the public eye. A touch here, a courteous gesture there do not matter and can only be expected, but a certain degree of caution, she believes, means that there will be less discussion about them behind the closed doors of the Pegasus Galaxy Gossip Mill, as Rodney calls it-or at least less *to* discuss-and that is a relief, too.
So, they walk side by side down the hallway, towards the Transporter that will take them close to Colonel Sheppard’s quarters, close together but not overt, and they do not speak until they are actually in the Transporter. Until he leans against one of the walls, looks down at her, and says, "Hi," again, and there is another look on his face now, she sees, but this one is not awed or surprised; it is just happy.
"Hi," she says, and then they are there, stepping out of the Transporter just a few doors away from Colonel Sheppard’s quarters. She can smell the scent of popcorn on the air, and from the slight increase in Rodney’s step, she is pretty sure that he can smell it, too. Then they are at the door and it is opening for them, and it is a sign, she thinks, that she has been with Rodney for too long when, first thing, her eyes immediately go to the bowl of popcorn sitting on the Colonel’s table.
And also that she finds herself breathing a small sigh of relief when she sees that it is full.
Beside her, Rodney nods at the Colonel and at Ronon, and Colonel Sheppard looks up and says, "We saved you two the couch."
Indeed they did, Teyla notices. When she left Sheppard’s room earlier, he was sprawled there, but now it is empty, and the pillows even look as if they have been refluffed. She looks at Rodney and he looks at her, and together, they make their way across the room, and settle down next to each other, not quite touching.
"So, what are we watching?" Rodney asks the Colonel as he leans forward and plucks the popcorn bowl off of the table in front of them, then courteously offers it to her first. She grabs a small handful and watches as he takes one large enough that more than a few kernels drop down onto his shirt, before he hands it over to Ronon.
Sheppard holds up a movie that she does not recognize, but Rodney rolls his eyes and says, "Oh, yes, *this* will be good," in a way that tells her she will be hearing complaints about the science for days. Which means, she thinks gladly, that she will be allowed to talk fighting techniques for hours on end at him, too.
Then, the Colonel pushes a button on the remote, and then the lights go out, and then the only light in the room is being provided by the television screen. Rodney talks all the way through the previews, making comments about movies and actors that she has never heard of, popping pieces of popcorn into his mouth every few words. By the time the movie actually starts, though, and both the Colonel and Ronon have told him to ‘shut the hell up already,’ Rodney is done with his popcorn and is shifting in his seat. She expects him to lean forward at any moment, to make a grab for the bowl again, but he doesn’t. Instead, he stretches his arms upwards, and when they come down again, one is along the back of the couch, around her shoulders.
She looks over at him, surprised, and finds that he is glancing over at her, a slightly tense, worried look on his face. Then she looks over at Ronon, who is watching the movie, and Colonel Sheppard, who is watching them, smiling, looking pleased, and thinks that really, this is not so public.
She waits for just a moment, then makes her decision, pulling her feet up onto the couch and curling up against Rodney’s side, and his arm tightens around her in a way that it’s only ever tightened when they were alone.
When she looks up at him again, he is apparently focused back on the movie already, but he must feel the weight of her gaze, because he glances back at her and the expression on his face is happier than before.
End.
Rating: G
Pairing: Rodney/Teyla
Disclaimer: So not mine...
Spoilers: None
Summary: A month later, still, Teyla likes knowing that she can make him feel off-balance.
Author's Note: Written mostly during my lunch hour yesterday. Unbeta'd. Some day I will again write something in this fandom that is not meant to be cute and slightly fluffy, and also might take place off world, but today is not that day. Just so you're warned. *g*
There are days still, even now, a month later, when Rodney will look at her and Teyla will see an expression resembling awe on his face. Awe, or possibly, she sometimes thinks, surprise. Surprise that she is with *him*, perhaps, as everyone in Atlantis assumed that she would be with Colonel Sheppard, or Ronon, or, before everything, Aiden.
Surprise that they have had a month together already, and that she seems to have no intention of leaving him.
The same surprise that she sometimes lets herself indulge in, too.
A month later, though, her surprise is beginning to fade, and as she steps into his lab, as he glances over his shoulder at her, away from his conversation with Dr. Zelenka, she can see that his is not, because the look is there again, in his wide, startled eyes and the slight upward curve of his lips. As she watches, though, the look morphs quickly into another, one that she has come to treasure. It starts slowly, with a smile that can only be described as shy, but then the spread of his lips grows ever wider until he is showing white teeth, until the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkles up.
When she sees *that* look on his face, she has no choice but to smile in return. So she does.
This is what she cherishes the most, though: for a single moment, just one, right after he sees her, he will stop. His hands will pause in the midst of whatever it is that they are doing, and he will say, haltingly, "Teyla, hi," as he says it even now.
It is just a moment, though, and right after, as they always do, his hands will pick up speed again, moving faster than before. Sometimes he will twist his fingers together into impossible seeming knots, but tonight he waves them around in front of his body at double-speed, as he only does when he is off-balance.
A month later, still, Teyla likes knowing that she can make him feel off-balance.
Dr. Zelenka is the one to speak next. He peers at her through his glasses and says, "Teyla, what can we do for you?" and that seems to jolt Rodney back to the lab, because he nods his head and stands up a little bit straighter and finally crosses his arms over his chest.
"Yes," Rodney says. "What can we help you with tonight?"
Before Teyla can answer, though, Dr. Zelenka rushes on. "He forgot important date, didn’t he?" he asks, winking at her. "Important anniversary, perhaps?"
And while Teyla does enjoy the increasingly stricken look that is rising on Rodney’s face as he tries to figure out if Dr. Zelenka is correct, if he did forget something important, she does not wish to be cruel. She says, "No, Dr. Zelenka. There is no anniversary, no important date."
"Which means that there was a date, though," Dr. Zelenka says, grinning, even as Rodney slaps at his forehead and says, "Oh, god, tonight was Sheppard’s movie night, wasn’t it? Am I late? Well, obviously I’m late if they sent you after me-not that they aren’t always welcome to send you after me, of course-" and Dr. Zelenka says, "Rodney, please shut up."
Amazingly enough, Rodney’s mouth snaps closed, and he’s frowning guiltily at Teyla, so she walks across the lab, over to where he and Dr. Zelenka are standing, and lays one of her hands on his still crossed arms, and squeezes. He looks down at her, a line between his eyebrows, and if they were not in the labs, if they did not have Dr. Zelenka as an audience, she might have kissed him. Instead, she just squeezes his arm again and steps back.
"It is okay," she says. "We did not expect you to be on time. In fact, I believe that Colonel Sheppard deliberately scheduled the movie for early in the evening so that we might have plenty of time to watch it after you did arrive."
She watches as Rodney’s mouth opens and closes, choice words about the Colonel obviously sitting heavy on his tongue, and he looks so indignant, she cannot help but laugh.
"Wise man, the Colonel," Dr. Zelenka says, so before Rodney can turn his choice words on his colleague, Teyla decides that the time has come to relay the Colonel’s message.
"He did send me to find you, yes," she says, "but while there is still plenty of time to watch the movie, he did tell me to warn you that the popcorn might be gone, if we did not hurry."
Again she smiles as Rodney’s eyes go wide with horror, and now, when he turns to Dr. Zelenka it is for permission to leave, to finish their conversation another time, and Dr. Zelenka nods, waves a hand in their direction in what Teyla supposes is meant to be a shooing motion.
"Please, go," the other scientist says, and then turns to Teyla, continuing: "I will never hear the end of the conversation if I am the reason he misses out on popcorn."
"Do not worry, Dr. Zelenka," she says, wrapping her hand around Rodney’s elbow and steering him towards the door to the lab. "We will hurry. And I would hope that both the Colonel and Ronon would be aware of the consequences should they choose not to leave him any."
"Yes," Dr. Zelenka says gravely, nodding. "It would be terrible."
"But let’s not tempt fate, shall we?" Rodney asks, and suddenly he is the one guiding her out of the lab, a hand hovering at the small of her back, and she can hear Dr. Zelenka’s laughter coming from behind her.
As soon as they are out in the hallway, though, Rodney’s hand drops back to his side, just for a moment, before he crosses his arms over his chest again, fingers wrapped tightly around his biceps. There will be no holding hands as they walk, Teyla knows, and Rodney will not put his arm around her waist.
Rodney, Teyla has discovered, does not feel comfortable displaying affection in public, and he has tried to cover it up by commenting about the other couples they’ve observed together-the ones that do hold hands, or kiss in corners, secluded and not-and remarking that he is glad that they are not like that. She knows the truth, though, and Teyla, quite frankly, is okay with it. She has her own reasons for being glad that they limit their affections when they are in the public eye. A touch here, a courteous gesture there do not matter and can only be expected, but a certain degree of caution, she believes, means that there will be less discussion about them behind the closed doors of the Pegasus Galaxy Gossip Mill, as Rodney calls it-or at least less *to* discuss-and that is a relief, too.
So, they walk side by side down the hallway, towards the Transporter that will take them close to Colonel Sheppard’s quarters, close together but not overt, and they do not speak until they are actually in the Transporter. Until he leans against one of the walls, looks down at her, and says, "Hi," again, and there is another look on his face now, she sees, but this one is not awed or surprised; it is just happy.
"Hi," she says, and then they are there, stepping out of the Transporter just a few doors away from Colonel Sheppard’s quarters. She can smell the scent of popcorn on the air, and from the slight increase in Rodney’s step, she is pretty sure that he can smell it, too. Then they are at the door and it is opening for them, and it is a sign, she thinks, that she has been with Rodney for too long when, first thing, her eyes immediately go to the bowl of popcorn sitting on the Colonel’s table.
And also that she finds herself breathing a small sigh of relief when she sees that it is full.
Beside her, Rodney nods at the Colonel and at Ronon, and Colonel Sheppard looks up and says, "We saved you two the couch."
Indeed they did, Teyla notices. When she left Sheppard’s room earlier, he was sprawled there, but now it is empty, and the pillows even look as if they have been refluffed. She looks at Rodney and he looks at her, and together, they make their way across the room, and settle down next to each other, not quite touching.
"So, what are we watching?" Rodney asks the Colonel as he leans forward and plucks the popcorn bowl off of the table in front of them, then courteously offers it to her first. She grabs a small handful and watches as he takes one large enough that more than a few kernels drop down onto his shirt, before he hands it over to Ronon.
Sheppard holds up a movie that she does not recognize, but Rodney rolls his eyes and says, "Oh, yes, *this* will be good," in a way that tells her she will be hearing complaints about the science for days. Which means, she thinks gladly, that she will be allowed to talk fighting techniques for hours on end at him, too.
Then, the Colonel pushes a button on the remote, and then the lights go out, and then the only light in the room is being provided by the television screen. Rodney talks all the way through the previews, making comments about movies and actors that she has never heard of, popping pieces of popcorn into his mouth every few words. By the time the movie actually starts, though, and both the Colonel and Ronon have told him to ‘shut the hell up already,’ Rodney is done with his popcorn and is shifting in his seat. She expects him to lean forward at any moment, to make a grab for the bowl again, but he doesn’t. Instead, he stretches his arms upwards, and when they come down again, one is along the back of the couch, around her shoulders.
She looks over at him, surprised, and finds that he is glancing over at her, a slightly tense, worried look on his face. Then she looks over at Ronon, who is watching the movie, and Colonel Sheppard, who is watching them, smiling, looking pleased, and thinks that really, this is not so public.
She waits for just a moment, then makes her decision, pulling her feet up onto the couch and curling up against Rodney’s side, and his arm tightens around her in a way that it’s only ever tightened when they were alone.
When she looks up at him again, he is apparently focused back on the movie already, but he must feel the weight of her gaze, because he glances back at her and the expression on his face is happier than before.
End.