sga_saturday | Amnesty 201205: The things that matter (slash, John/Rodney, PG-13) (Reply)

Week #52 Amnesty/Anniversary / Week #1 Coffee

Title: The things that matter
Author: selenic76
Pairing: John/Rodney
Rating: PG-13
Words: ~950
Disclaimer: Don't own or profit from them
Warnings:unbetad, and just a bit mushy maybe...

A/N: I joined

sga_saturday just in time for the anniversary/amnesty week, so here's a little fic to commemorate the event :) I really wish I'd had more time to improve this, where did my week go! For now it's unbetad, and for a still relatively new writer, feedback would be most welcomed and appreciated.

Anyways, happy anniversary sga_saturday! ^_^

The things that matter

John brought him coffee.

Sometimes—when things weren’t life-threateningly hectic—John would appear with a steaming mug to wherever Rodney was working at the time.

Rodney in turn would try to take a break from whatever he was doing, ignoring the scientist side of him for a moment and enjoying the gift, and the company. They exchanged a few words, talking of things of no particular importance, before returning to their respective duties.

It never ceased to amaze Rodney how the coffee always seemed freshly brewed and made exactly to his taste, even when delivered to the more obscure corners of Atlantis. John wasn’t always good with words, but ever since they’d been together, he’d learned to be good with coffee.

And right now the heavenly scent of it drifted along the grimy corridor, mercifully interrupting the tedious task of finding and cataloguing any rooms of interest in a formerly sunken part of the city with a bunch of newly arrived expedition members.

“Hey,” John greeted quietly from behind Rodney’s back and stopping him in mid-sentence, much to the relief of the young woman he was in the middle of scolding.

“Oh thank god!” Rodney exclaimed as he turned around, just in time to see John wave his free hand and dismiss her and the other underlings. “I hope you brought something to eat too, haven’t had a bite since...” The sound of hasty footsteps disappearing behind the corner went totally unheard, as Rodney could only stare at the mug in John’s hand.

It was one of those basic metal kinds they were supplied with when they’d left Earth, but this had something drawn on the side; wavering slightly, clearly engraved with a machine but guided by hand, the lines formed a simple “J + R”, surrounded by a noticeably asymmetric heart.

It wasn’t often that Rodney was left speechless, but now his mind drew a blank.

“For the, uh, anniversary,” John explained, as he proffered the mug. “I know it’s not much, but I was in a hurry.”

“The what?” Rodney blinked and looked up from the mug at John’s slightly uncomfortable expression. It was the one John wore whenever certain emotions were involved. “It’s already been a year?”

“A year and a week actually,” John corrected apologetically. “I forgot, what with the incident we just had with the—“

“—please don’t remind me of that,” Rodney cut in, shuddering at the memory. “or the following problems we had with—“

“—right, which took days to sort out, even with Zelenka’s help,” John continued “And then the new recruits arrived and—“

“I completely forgot too! And I even made plans for that day...” Rodney groaned. “We really suck at this relationship stuff, don’t we,” he concluded ruefully. Rodney wasn’t the most romantic of people, but even he knew the importance of letting the other know how happy you were that they’d stuck around.

“Nah, we get right the things that matter,” John said with a sure voice. “Like coffee.” He held out the mug again. “It’s getting cold.” Rodney took it and sipped at the contents. It was perfect. John’s coffee always would be, and in the end, taste and temperature had nothing to do with it.

“So, you had plans?” John enquired in a low voice, shifting from unease to tease in a second. “Any of it doable tonight perhaps?” And if there was another thing John was good at, it was using those suggestive tones that bypassed Rodney’s brain altogether and hit a lower part of his anatomy.

“Maybe,” he replied, smiling. “If you wear those low-cut jeans I like and nothing else.”

“I think I can manage that,” John whispered before leaning in to kiss Rodney, softly, sweetly, intimately. And right then, it made no difference if the day was wrong, because everything else felt right.

A quiet sigh and a giggle echoed in the hallway.

“We’re being watched,” John noted as he broke the kiss. “I think she likes you.”

“Great,” Rodney grumbled as he glanced over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of what’s-her-name disappearing behind the corner again. A murmur of voices began. “Now they’re going to be useless for the rest of the day.”

“Better let you get back to training your minions,” John grinned, but then he became more serious. “And happy anniversary, and... you know.”

“Me too, happy anniversary,” Rodney said softly, not any better at those three little words than John was. A high-pitched ‘eeeee, they’re so cute!’ from their recently acquired fan made Rodney frown and roll his eyes. “Now leave, before I lose any remnants of authority I may still hold over them.”

John fished a chocolate bar from his pocket, and tucked it into one of Rodney’s. “This should help for now. I’ll go grab a few MRE’s for us, you’re gonna need your strength later.”

With another brief kiss John left, and Rodney went back to upholding his reputation as the resident annoying genius. After spending a quiet moment banishing the thought of John in the jeans from his head, and completely failing. How lucky he had his laptop with him.

“All right, you can come out now, and not so much as a sigh, smile, snicker, or a single dewy-eyed stare, or I’ll have your asses back through the Gate so fast you’ll be home in time to meet yourself packing to come here, and can tell them not to bother.”

But while drinking his coffee—as the sufficiently intimidated pack returned to work—all Rodney could think about was how tonight he would tell John how much he really loved him, and loved the mug.

~~~ End ~~~