Fic: First Times
Disclamer: Don't own them. Just for fun.
Spoiler: Nothing much really. Beachhead, PU. It takes place somewhere in the S10.
Category: General
Rating: PG
Summary: Vala's first times. It's a Vala story, slightly Daniel&Vala. Blink, and you missed it.
A/N: This fic is based on the drabble 'Education' in Themes in the Key of B by thedeadparrot.
Special thanks to Milena_D for the beta and her great help.
The First Times
i. Kiss
The first time Vala kissed someone she was ten and he was a newcomer to her village. She showed him around and by noon they were sitting on the bank of the river, eating her mother’s special cake. At night when they were returning to their homes, in the back of her barn, she pulled him against her and kissed him. He smelled of fresh berries and vanilla and she smiled brightly at him. “I think we’re going to be great friends. But in order to do that, we needed to get over this attraction between us.” He was her best friend, and he smelled of vanilla and berries all the times but that was all she remembered of him now.
The tenth time Vala kissed someone it wasn’t about her, not at all. Trapped inside in her mind, she wished she was dead.
The nine-hundred-and-fiftieth time Vala kissed someone it was just a game. She pushed her knife against the man’s neck and whispered into his ear. “We’re going to play a game, darling. The Kissing Game, just one rule here, love.” She purred. “I’m going to ask you some questions and if I like your answer, I’ll kiss you. If not…” She pressed the knife into his flesh with more force and laughed throatily. “Isn’t it brilliant?”
The one million-and-somethingth time Vala kissed someone, she was beating the hell out of him. It was all sweaty and bitchy and if she was forced to admit it, a little foolish too. But he constantly refused to see things in her way, and didn’t really give her any other choice. They really should have had sex instead. She leaned down, and he leaned in slightly and she kissed him fully. He smelled of sweat but underneath she could smell summer peaches and vanilla. He smelled like her childhood memories. She pulled back, panting hard as she opened her eyes. He then called her fruitcake. Vala who didn’t know what “fruitcake” meant but she knew when she was being insulted so she head-butted him. As she stood up from his lap, she made a mental note to figure out what “fruitcake” meant.
ii. Fight
The first time Vala got into a fight, the jerks from the next farm were accusing her of being a girl. The tallest and, naturally, biggest of those jerks told her that she couldn’t be the pilot in their game because she was a girl…so she fisted her hands, and threw herself at him, punching him in the nose. At night, when she returned home, Adria lectured her for hours. Her father however had returned from his latest adventure and ruffled her hair saying: “That’s my girl.”
The first time Vala got into a real fight, she lost pathetically. They threw her out of the fine establishment and someone came out to dump a bucket of water on her. “Don’t pick fights you can’t win, bitch.”
The second time Vala got into a fight, she got a bloody nose, a bloody lip, a nearly dislocated jaw but she managed to last more than a minute and got a half-decent punch in. Later, she collapsed on the floor and water was again poured on her but it wasn’t as embarrassing as the first time.
The third time Vala got into a fight, she learned how to duck, block, and punch without hurting herself in process. She kicked, she hit, she bit and she still lost. But at least when she left, she was still on her feet and miraculously dry.
The fourth time Vala got into a fight, she won. He was still better than her and had heavy left hand but he made the mistake of thinking a broken nose, a bloody lip, and a few bruises on her sides were enough to make her quit. He never understood. You surrender when you’re dead.
iii. Locks
The first time Vala picked a lock, she failed pathetically. She was trying to escape from her room because Adria had locked her in. But she had promised Arlon that they would swim in the pool at midnight. She tried to unlock it with her shiny hair pin but she just couldn’t do it. She then sat shaking her head and she cried.
The second time Vala picked a lock, she failed again. She had a different hair clip and a pro looking over her shoulders but it didn’t make the act any easier but only more intimidating. She jabbed the clip in and twisted it around for a bit until it broke. The street-smart thief shook his head and handed her another clip. “You have to feel around the pins.”
The third time Vala picked a lock, it took her fifteen minutes. She tried to do that feeling thing and it took her five minutes to get what he was really saying but she still had no idea what to do. She poked and prodded at them but that didn’t do anything to help either. “Lift each one.” said the pro behind her, irritated, and Vala tried for a few moments to get it right. It took her ages to actually lift each of the pins to the correct position then everything rolled into absolute rightness and the lock sprang open. She grinned like a fool but her teacher just shook his head.
The tenth time Vala picked a lock, she got it done quickly and but she still needed to remind herself of every step, each pin, each bolt, the feeling. She huffed and turned to her teacher, pouting at him. She asked him when he was going to give her a proper tool that could make her life a lot easier but the wise thief just shook his head and told Vala that she needed to learn it the hard way before being allowed to do it the easy way. He fastened a shiny hair clip to her hair and laughed. “You’ve got lovely hair. Always decorate it with pretty things like these. A girl must use whatever she’s got.”
The six-hundred-seventy-one time Vala picked a lock, she got it done without even thinking. She then moved aside to make room for Daniel in front of the door to his house. Daniel looked at the hair clip and sighed but got down to business. He pulled, pushed and lifted each of the pins and sometimes Vala smacked the back of his head playfully, saying: “Feel the pins around your fingers. Each of them.” When he got it done after twenty minutes, he turned back to her smiling sheepishly but she just shook her head. One day he asked her irately why she wasn’t giving him a proper tool, but she shook her head and smiled knowingly. “Darling,” she purred as she looped her arm around his as they walked over to his couch. “One needs to master the hard way before being allowed to learn the easy one.”
iv. Seduction
The first time Vala used her charm to affect a man, she wasn’t completely sure that it was going to work but Arlon had decided that someone had to distract Mardin as the rest of them entered his house to steal back the golden necklace that he had borrowed from Marlene last week. Later, Arlon had added, in a way that didn’t leave any room argument, that that someone was going to be sixteen years old Vala. She wasn't sure when it had happened, but if there was any leader in their little gang, she was quite certain that it was Arlon. He had said it was because of natural selection, but she wasn’t sure about that either.
She had huffed and pouted for a day but the next morning she reluctantly said ‘okay’. While they were walking towards Mardin’s house, Vala asked: “Why me?” But Arlon laughed airily as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Quite frankly, doll, you’ve got the natural talent.”
The second time Vala used her charm to affect a man, she didn’t even have to try. After all, there had to be some benefits to being an ex-host to a sex-goddess. Completely aware of the effect she left on people, she paced the streets of a nameless city, swinging her hips, feeling quite happy as she thought about the goodies in her bag that she had just liberated from their former owner who was currently sprawled on his bed, unconscious, robbed and humiliated. She had finally done it. This time she won. It was her time. Her time to take back everything that was stolen from her, one by one. There was a gliding scoreboard in her mind, announcing to the world: Destiny: 0, Vala: 1
The one hundred-and-somethingth time Vala had used her charm had also been the first time she had failed. Still, despite the terrible semi-truths and so-close-to-truth-accusations being exchanged between them, there was a silent smile on her lips as she walked to her room at SGC base. But frankly, she had known from the start that there was something special about that Ta’uri. The one hundred-and-somethingth time was the first time that she was ever glad that she had actually failed.
v. Scars
The first time Vala got a scar, she wasn’t paying any attention to the warnings. Her mother -while she had been alive- had continuously warned her about fire, but Adria had always held the belief that the experience was the best teacher. One day, her hand hovered a few inches above the stove with the innate curiousity of all children and a challenging look from her step-mother. Her hand stopped a few inches away from the stove and she looked at Adria with defiance. Adria kept looking at her without saying anything, maybe waiting; she then touched the hot stove. It was the time that Vala learnt ‘fire burns.’ The old white scar on her palm had vanished long ago during one of her session in a sarcophagus, and she later realized that she didn’t really remember the accident except for the burning sensation and Adria’s silent gaze. Maybe it wasn’t how it had happened, but it was how she remembered it. Always.
The twenty second time Vala got a scar, she lay flat on her stomach, naked, cold, and terrified. She didn’t know what it was but she knew that something terrible was about to happen. There was something crawling up along her back, something sticky and so cold against her flesh. She never gave up fighting, she pulled her chains frantically, she kicked, she screamed but it was futile. She felt the creature above her neck she heard its piercing evil shrieks as it struck her flesh, entering her body. At first there was terror, then pain, so much pain, and there was nothing, nothing at all. Years, years later, when she figured out to operate the healing device, she considered using it on her old scar. She looked at the mirror for hours before shaking her head and walking over to her bed. There wasn’t any device that could erase the scars left on her by the Goa’uld.
The thirty first time Vala got a scar, she decided that it was finally time to learn how to operate the healing device. She knew she wouldn't possess the necessary strength to heal this wound but she also knew she had to be ready for the next one so for two weeks she rested and used natural remedies to fix the blooding hole in her arm, trying to gain back every ounce of strength in her body to deal with the alien device. The third week, she sat on the bed of the inn where she was staying and cut a thin slash on her hand. She then put the device on her other hand and waited. Everything regarding the device was in her mind, right there for her to reach out and catch it. She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to remember how Qetesh had done it.
The device began to glow slowly, and she moved it over her cut. It felt cold against her flesh, and she got all tingles just under her skin. She breathed deeply and tried to focus as the erratic memories were let loose inside her head, running freely. She felt her whole body become damp with perspiration and the reasonable part of her kept screaming at her to stop torturing herself but she didn’t let the flow die until the darkness claimed her entirely. Hours later when she came around, she looked at her hand and saw no cuts. Smiling at herself happily, she cut a deeper slash on her forearm. As the blood ran down her arm, she reactivated the device.
vi. Ships
The first time Vala tried to hijack a ship, it was her father’s ship and she didn’t really want to steal it. She just wanted to stow away on it and see with her own eyes all those wonders her father had told her about at her bedside those nights he’d actually been home. The fairies, the angels, the people that lived among the stars. Her father found her behind some cargo and brought her back home. “You can’t come with me, pumpkin.” She pouted at him. “You’re still too young, sweetheart.” He said slowly, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Once you’re big girl, we’re going to see the angels together, kay?” She peered at him through a curtain of dark curls. “And the people that lives among the stars too?” Her father nodded and clicked his tongue and then pointed at her. After a pause, looking uncertain with big sad eyes, she sighed and imitated their special gesture.
The second time Vala hijacked a ship, she’d had a detailed plan locked in her mind. It was a flawless plan really, there had just been a tiny snag at the end but it wasn’t her fault. She knew everything there was to be known about cargo ships courtesy of Qetesh’s genetic memory but knowing something and being able to use that knowledge in practice were two very different things. She could hear her associates cursing colorfully behind her as she tried to clear her mind from the unnecessary images and instinctively punched one of the buttons in front of her that made the cargo ship jump to hyper drive. It had really been luck more anything else but her associates looked stunned at the feat as she turned her head and smirked at them. “You see, ships love me.”
The sixty seventh time Vala hijacked a ship, she had just escaped one of her few failed endeavours. She had ringed herself onto the Al’kesh after she had gotten herself out of the cell and getting the ship up and running again was as easy as taking candy from a baby. But it still took some effort to stay focused on her calculations though because one part of her mind was quickly becoming obsessed with the mysterious Tau’ri man who had the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen.
The sixty eighth time Vala hijacked a ship, it was a rather good plan of hers. She took the place of the last link at the Supergate and got herself thrown into another galaxy but at least she managed to save the people she’d come to care for. It was nothing, really. As a child she’d been asked what she was going to be once she grew up. Arms folded under her chest, chin lifted with pride. Vala Mal Doran had said that she was going to be a hero.
Spoiler: Nothing much really. Beachhead, PU. It takes place somewhere in the S10.
Category: General
Rating: PG
Summary: Vala's first times. It's a Vala story, slightly Daniel&Vala. Blink, and you missed it.
A/N: This fic is based on the drabble 'Education' in Themes in the Key of B by thedeadparrot.
Special thanks to Milena_D for the beta and her great help.
The First Times
i. Kiss
The first time Vala kissed someone she was ten and he was a newcomer to her village. She showed him around and by noon they were sitting on the bank of the river, eating her mother’s special cake. At night when they were returning to their homes, in the back of her barn, she pulled him against her and kissed him. He smelled of fresh berries and vanilla and she smiled brightly at him. “I think we’re going to be great friends. But in order to do that, we needed to get over this attraction between us.” He was her best friend, and he smelled of vanilla and berries all the times but that was all she remembered of him now.
The tenth time Vala kissed someone it wasn’t about her, not at all. Trapped inside in her mind, she wished she was dead.
The nine-hundred-and-fiftieth time Vala kissed someone it was just a game. She pushed her knife against the man’s neck and whispered into his ear. “We’re going to play a game, darling. The Kissing Game, just one rule here, love.” She purred. “I’m going to ask you some questions and if I like your answer, I’ll kiss you. If not…” She pressed the knife into his flesh with more force and laughed throatily. “Isn’t it brilliant?”
The one million-and-somethingth time Vala kissed someone, she was beating the hell out of him. It was all sweaty and bitchy and if she was forced to admit it, a little foolish too. But he constantly refused to see things in her way, and didn’t really give her any other choice. They really should have had sex instead. She leaned down, and he leaned in slightly and she kissed him fully. He smelled of sweat but underneath she could smell summer peaches and vanilla. He smelled like her childhood memories. She pulled back, panting hard as she opened her eyes. He then called her fruitcake. Vala who didn’t know what “fruitcake” meant but she knew when she was being insulted so she head-butted him. As she stood up from his lap, she made a mental note to figure out what “fruitcake” meant.
ii. Fight
The first time Vala got into a fight, the jerks from the next farm were accusing her of being a girl. The tallest and, naturally, biggest of those jerks told her that she couldn’t be the pilot in their game because she was a girl…so she fisted her hands, and threw herself at him, punching him in the nose. At night, when she returned home, Adria lectured her for hours. Her father however had returned from his latest adventure and ruffled her hair saying: “That’s my girl.”
The first time Vala got into a real fight, she lost pathetically. They threw her out of the fine establishment and someone came out to dump a bucket of water on her. “Don’t pick fights you can’t win, bitch.”
The second time Vala got into a fight, she got a bloody nose, a bloody lip, a nearly dislocated jaw but she managed to last more than a minute and got a half-decent punch in. Later, she collapsed on the floor and water was again poured on her but it wasn’t as embarrassing as the first time.
The third time Vala got into a fight, she learned how to duck, block, and punch without hurting herself in process. She kicked, she hit, she bit and she still lost. But at least when she left, she was still on her feet and miraculously dry.
The fourth time Vala got into a fight, she won. He was still better than her and had heavy left hand but he made the mistake of thinking a broken nose, a bloody lip, and a few bruises on her sides were enough to make her quit. He never understood. You surrender when you’re dead.
iii. Locks
The first time Vala picked a lock, she failed pathetically. She was trying to escape from her room because Adria had locked her in. But she had promised Arlon that they would swim in the pool at midnight. She tried to unlock it with her shiny hair pin but she just couldn’t do it. She then sat shaking her head and she cried.
The second time Vala picked a lock, she failed again. She had a different hair clip and a pro looking over her shoulders but it didn’t make the act any easier but only more intimidating. She jabbed the clip in and twisted it around for a bit until it broke. The street-smart thief shook his head and handed her another clip. “You have to feel around the pins.”
The third time Vala picked a lock, it took her fifteen minutes. She tried to do that feeling thing and it took her five minutes to get what he was really saying but she still had no idea what to do. She poked and prodded at them but that didn’t do anything to help either. “Lift each one.” said the pro behind her, irritated, and Vala tried for a few moments to get it right. It took her ages to actually lift each of the pins to the correct position then everything rolled into absolute rightness and the lock sprang open. She grinned like a fool but her teacher just shook his head.
The tenth time Vala picked a lock, she got it done quickly and but she still needed to remind herself of every step, each pin, each bolt, the feeling. She huffed and turned to her teacher, pouting at him. She asked him when he was going to give her a proper tool that could make her life a lot easier but the wise thief just shook his head and told Vala that she needed to learn it the hard way before being allowed to do it the easy way. He fastened a shiny hair clip to her hair and laughed. “You’ve got lovely hair. Always decorate it with pretty things like these. A girl must use whatever she’s got.”
The six-hundred-seventy-one time Vala picked a lock, she got it done without even thinking. She then moved aside to make room for Daniel in front of the door to his house. Daniel looked at the hair clip and sighed but got down to business. He pulled, pushed and lifted each of the pins and sometimes Vala smacked the back of his head playfully, saying: “Feel the pins around your fingers. Each of them.” When he got it done after twenty minutes, he turned back to her smiling sheepishly but she just shook her head. One day he asked her irately why she wasn’t giving him a proper tool, but she shook her head and smiled knowingly. “Darling,” she purred as she looped her arm around his as they walked over to his couch. “One needs to master the hard way before being allowed to learn the easy one.”
iv. Seduction
The first time Vala used her charm to affect a man, she wasn’t completely sure that it was going to work but Arlon had decided that someone had to distract Mardin as the rest of them entered his house to steal back the golden necklace that he had borrowed from Marlene last week. Later, Arlon had added, in a way that didn’t leave any room argument, that that someone was going to be sixteen years old Vala. She wasn't sure when it had happened, but if there was any leader in their little gang, she was quite certain that it was Arlon. He had said it was because of natural selection, but she wasn’t sure about that either.
She had huffed and pouted for a day but the next morning she reluctantly said ‘okay’. While they were walking towards Mardin’s house, Vala asked: “Why me?” But Arlon laughed airily as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Quite frankly, doll, you’ve got the natural talent.”
The second time Vala used her charm to affect a man, she didn’t even have to try. After all, there had to be some benefits to being an ex-host to a sex-goddess. Completely aware of the effect she left on people, she paced the streets of a nameless city, swinging her hips, feeling quite happy as she thought about the goodies in her bag that she had just liberated from their former owner who was currently sprawled on his bed, unconscious, robbed and humiliated. She had finally done it. This time she won. It was her time. Her time to take back everything that was stolen from her, one by one. There was a gliding scoreboard in her mind, announcing to the world: Destiny: 0, Vala: 1
The one hundred-and-somethingth time Vala had used her charm had also been the first time she had failed. Still, despite the terrible semi-truths and so-close-to-truth-accusations being exchanged between them, there was a silent smile on her lips as she walked to her room at SGC base. But frankly, she had known from the start that there was something special about that Ta’uri. The one hundred-and-somethingth time was the first time that she was ever glad that she had actually failed.
v. Scars
The first time Vala got a scar, she wasn’t paying any attention to the warnings. Her mother -while she had been alive- had continuously warned her about fire, but Adria had always held the belief that the experience was the best teacher. One day, her hand hovered a few inches above the stove with the innate curiousity of all children and a challenging look from her step-mother. Her hand stopped a few inches away from the stove and she looked at Adria with defiance. Adria kept looking at her without saying anything, maybe waiting; she then touched the hot stove. It was the time that Vala learnt ‘fire burns.’ The old white scar on her palm had vanished long ago during one of her session in a sarcophagus, and she later realized that she didn’t really remember the accident except for the burning sensation and Adria’s silent gaze. Maybe it wasn’t how it had happened, but it was how she remembered it. Always.
The twenty second time Vala got a scar, she lay flat on her stomach, naked, cold, and terrified. She didn’t know what it was but she knew that something terrible was about to happen. There was something crawling up along her back, something sticky and so cold against her flesh. She never gave up fighting, she pulled her chains frantically, she kicked, she screamed but it was futile. She felt the creature above her neck she heard its piercing evil shrieks as it struck her flesh, entering her body. At first there was terror, then pain, so much pain, and there was nothing, nothing at all. Years, years later, when she figured out to operate the healing device, she considered using it on her old scar. She looked at the mirror for hours before shaking her head and walking over to her bed. There wasn’t any device that could erase the scars left on her by the Goa’uld.
The thirty first time Vala got a scar, she decided that it was finally time to learn how to operate the healing device. She knew she wouldn't possess the necessary strength to heal this wound but she also knew she had to be ready for the next one so for two weeks she rested and used natural remedies to fix the blooding hole in her arm, trying to gain back every ounce of strength in her body to deal with the alien device. The third week, she sat on the bed of the inn where she was staying and cut a thin slash on her hand. She then put the device on her other hand and waited. Everything regarding the device was in her mind, right there for her to reach out and catch it. She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to remember how Qetesh had done it.
The device began to glow slowly, and she moved it over her cut. It felt cold against her flesh, and she got all tingles just under her skin. She breathed deeply and tried to focus as the erratic memories were let loose inside her head, running freely. She felt her whole body become damp with perspiration and the reasonable part of her kept screaming at her to stop torturing herself but she didn’t let the flow die until the darkness claimed her entirely. Hours later when she came around, she looked at her hand and saw no cuts. Smiling at herself happily, she cut a deeper slash on her forearm. As the blood ran down her arm, she reactivated the device.
vi. Ships
The first time Vala tried to hijack a ship, it was her father’s ship and she didn’t really want to steal it. She just wanted to stow away on it and see with her own eyes all those wonders her father had told her about at her bedside those nights he’d actually been home. The fairies, the angels, the people that lived among the stars. Her father found her behind some cargo and brought her back home. “You can’t come with me, pumpkin.” She pouted at him. “You’re still too young, sweetheart.” He said slowly, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Once you’re big girl, we’re going to see the angels together, kay?” She peered at him through a curtain of dark curls. “And the people that lives among the stars too?” Her father nodded and clicked his tongue and then pointed at her. After a pause, looking uncertain with big sad eyes, she sighed and imitated their special gesture.
The second time Vala hijacked a ship, she’d had a detailed plan locked in her mind. It was a flawless plan really, there had just been a tiny snag at the end but it wasn’t her fault. She knew everything there was to be known about cargo ships courtesy of Qetesh’s genetic memory but knowing something and being able to use that knowledge in practice were two very different things. She could hear her associates cursing colorfully behind her as she tried to clear her mind from the unnecessary images and instinctively punched one of the buttons in front of her that made the cargo ship jump to hyper drive. It had really been luck more anything else but her associates looked stunned at the feat as she turned her head and smirked at them. “You see, ships love me.”
The sixty seventh time Vala hijacked a ship, she had just escaped one of her few failed endeavours. She had ringed herself onto the Al’kesh after she had gotten herself out of the cell and getting the ship up and running again was as easy as taking candy from a baby. But it still took some effort to stay focused on her calculations though because one part of her mind was quickly becoming obsessed with the mysterious Tau’ri man who had the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen.
The sixty eighth time Vala hijacked a ship, it was a rather good plan of hers. She took the place of the last link at the Supergate and got herself thrown into another galaxy but at least she managed to save the people she’d come to care for. It was nothing, really. As a child she’d been asked what she was going to be once she grew up. Arms folded under her chest, chin lifted with pride. Vala Mal Doran had said that she was going to be a hero.