Fic: Finding Him & Finding Her
These can "technically" be cut into two stories so they count as two stories for this challenge but they should be read together. Sue me. I'm on the clock here.
Title: Finding Him
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Ronon/Amelia
Word Count: 874
Rating: PG
Prompt:
... scifiland I Love You Like Pancakes: 5/9 Repeat
... 5_prompts: Table 30 - 03. Hey, you
"Hey, you." Amelia set her tray down on the table, situating everything around to her liking before sitting down. "How was M1R-928? I heard there were some ferocious storms while you were on planet."
Ronon set the chicken leg down on his plate before answering. This was their second meal together since they'd woken up on the floor after Michael had come visiting and he still found himself short of words. She didn't seem to have that problem but Teyla had explained that Earth women had a tendency to talk even if there wasn't a conversation going on. Teyla had promised him that all he needed to do was nod his head to show that he was listening and make a sound from time to time. Not a grunt, though. That would mean that he was irritable or upset with her. If that was the mood he wanted to portray to her, he could grunt but not if he wanted her to stick around.
The problem was that she kept asking him questions. Nothing he could answer with yes or no, either. His tongue always tangled up in the answers so that, most of the time, he was grunting. This never happened around Teyla or Elizabeth.
"They were bad." He remembered the idea John had given him and picked up the chicken leg again, putting most of the meat into his mouth at one time. It was impolite to talk with a full mouth so he wouldn't be insulting her by not saying anything. When he looked up again, she was carefully picking through her salad. "You must like lettuce. You get it all the time."
She grimaced. "I hate it, actually, but my yearly fitness exam is coming up and this job at the desk is killing me. I'm getting to the gym as often as I can but all I do the rest of the day is sitting still, staring at the iris, hoping something happens and praying it doesn't. It's making me fat, is what it's doing."
It was normally amusing to listen to the Earth women talk about their curves as if they were a disease that they needed to get rid of but he wanted none of it from Amelia. "You're beautiful just the way you are. You shouldn't have to eat something you don't like just to fit in their rules."
"Unfortunately, those rules mean the difference between staying here on Atlantis and being sent back to Earth where I'll be forced to spend all day in a gray cubicle with five other guys who can only talk about their World of Warcraft missions from the night before. Let me tell you, it's not worth trying to bend the rules. I'll eat my salad and be happy for it." She used her fork to point at his plate. "You might think about the occasional green vegetable."
"Not going to happen," he muttered but not as fiercely as if it had been Teyla or Rodney pushing at him. He hoped it wasn’t a repeat of that experience.
"You know what I really miss being here on Atlantis? My dad's sourdough pancakes on Saturday mornings. The smell of them cooking was my cue to wake up when I was a teenager. If I didn't get in my seat, I'd lose out on the best breakfast ever. Always had to move fast at my house since there was so many of us around." He watched as she closed her eyes, imaging the pancakes and not the forkful of lettuce that still hung on her fork. "Nothing they make here compares to them, right out of the pan, dripping with butter and syrup."
As he watched the emotions play on her face, he saw how much she missed her family and even how little she liked eating like this. Ronon could understand the first but not the second. The food here was better than anything he had while on the run and more plentiful than those last years on Sateda as the war raged. It was nice that she had someone to miss that was waiting for her on the other side of the stargate. Somewhere out there was a life waiting for her that had nothing to do with Atlantis. He definitely couldn't say the same any longer.
"What are pancakes?" he asked, wanting to know about this food that made her so happy and yet so sad.
Her eyes opened quickly and she stared at him, one eyebrow quirked up. "I always forget that you may not know things like that. You seem so... well, I can't use normal there, can I? Knowing about pancakes doesn't make you normal, actually."
Amelia went on to explain, as best she could, how the food was made and what it tasted like. There were some similar foods that Ronon could think of but he knew he would need to taste them for himself before he came up with a decision of his own about how good they were. The discussion was shelved when John and Rodney joined them, the talk turning toward the latest sports scores that had come through on the last data burst and pancakes were forgotten for the time being.
Title: Finding Her
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Ronon/Amelia
Word Count: 555
Rating: PG
Prompt:
... scifiland I Love You Like Pancakes: 6/9 I Love You Like Pancakes
... 5_prompts Amnesty in January: Connect 3 Graph 1 coming back
His sleep had been troubled of late but Ronon refused any of the sleeping medication that Keller pushed on him. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the Wraith looming over him again, that hand resting on his chest, ready to take away his life just as readily as he’d given it back. When he’d tried sleeping with the help of medication, it only made the dreams worse because he couldn’t wake himself out it but had to suffer through until the end. Dying once had been bad enough but doing it over and over again in his sleep was making him mental.
The infirmary at night had not a happy place to be. There were a lot of machines around and they all emitted a faint hum that gave off a false sense of quiet but there had always been people roaming in and out of the room so that he could be reminded that he was alive if he drifted off and forgot once again.
A whisper of movement caught his attention just as the door opened and Amelia came in the room. She paused, ready to leave if he was asleep or otherwise occupied. He lifted a hand that felt like it was wearing a glove of lead and waved her in.
“Hey, you,” she whispered. “Didn’t know if you’d be up for company or not.”
“Sure. Don’t feel like sleeping right now.”
She stood, still and pale for a bit before coming forward. After her bravado only a few hours before, it seemed odd to see her looking like she wasn’t sure of her welcome. It was always her coming to see him, he realized. She sought him whenever she wasn’t working, not pushing but just being there. Friendly, but with a smile that told him she was willing for there to be more. It was up to him to make that next step forward.
“Pancakes.”
The only word he seemed to be able to get out made her eyebrow quirk up as if she was trying to figure out what medication he was on that was making his brain a bit addled. He waved her over again, waiting until she’d settled in next to him on the bed, her head pillowed on his shoulder in a way that made him ache, before he started talking once again.
“Remember when you told me about how you like pancakes? They remind you of home. They taste good. They only happen from time to time.” She nodded, her fingers twining with his. “You’re my pancakes.”
“I still don’t think I understand,” she said softly but he knew that she did. The words were important. They were always important. Why did women always need to hear the words?
“I… I love you like pancakes.”
She turned to look at him, her lips grazing his chin. “How long have you been thinking of that line?”
“Long enough that it sounds stupid in my head now.”
This silence wasn’t as bad as the silence before she’d come in the room. The important thing was that she was still here. He’d said the stupid words to her and she was still here. That was important, Teyla had reminded him earlier. What he said wasn’t stupid if she stayed.
She was still here. It was a start.
Title: Finding Him
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Ronon/Amelia
Word Count: 874
Rating: PG
Prompt:
... scifiland I Love You Like Pancakes: 5/9 Repeat
... 5_prompts: Table 30 - 03. Hey, you
"Hey, you." Amelia set her tray down on the table, situating everything around to her liking before sitting down. "How was M1R-928? I heard there were some ferocious storms while you were on planet."
Ronon set the chicken leg down on his plate before answering. This was their second meal together since they'd woken up on the floor after Michael had come visiting and he still found himself short of words. She didn't seem to have that problem but Teyla had explained that Earth women had a tendency to talk even if there wasn't a conversation going on. Teyla had promised him that all he needed to do was nod his head to show that he was listening and make a sound from time to time. Not a grunt, though. That would mean that he was irritable or upset with her. If that was the mood he wanted to portray to her, he could grunt but not if he wanted her to stick around.
The problem was that she kept asking him questions. Nothing he could answer with yes or no, either. His tongue always tangled up in the answers so that, most of the time, he was grunting. This never happened around Teyla or Elizabeth.
"They were bad." He remembered the idea John had given him and picked up the chicken leg again, putting most of the meat into his mouth at one time. It was impolite to talk with a full mouth so he wouldn't be insulting her by not saying anything. When he looked up again, she was carefully picking through her salad. "You must like lettuce. You get it all the time."
She grimaced. "I hate it, actually, but my yearly fitness exam is coming up and this job at the desk is killing me. I'm getting to the gym as often as I can but all I do the rest of the day is sitting still, staring at the iris, hoping something happens and praying it doesn't. It's making me fat, is what it's doing."
It was normally amusing to listen to the Earth women talk about their curves as if they were a disease that they needed to get rid of but he wanted none of it from Amelia. "You're beautiful just the way you are. You shouldn't have to eat something you don't like just to fit in their rules."
"Unfortunately, those rules mean the difference between staying here on Atlantis and being sent back to Earth where I'll be forced to spend all day in a gray cubicle with five other guys who can only talk about their World of Warcraft missions from the night before. Let me tell you, it's not worth trying to bend the rules. I'll eat my salad and be happy for it." She used her fork to point at his plate. "You might think about the occasional green vegetable."
"Not going to happen," he muttered but not as fiercely as if it had been Teyla or Rodney pushing at him. He hoped it wasn’t a repeat of that experience.
"You know what I really miss being here on Atlantis? My dad's sourdough pancakes on Saturday mornings. The smell of them cooking was my cue to wake up when I was a teenager. If I didn't get in my seat, I'd lose out on the best breakfast ever. Always had to move fast at my house since there was so many of us around." He watched as she closed her eyes, imaging the pancakes and not the forkful of lettuce that still hung on her fork. "Nothing they make here compares to them, right out of the pan, dripping with butter and syrup."
As he watched the emotions play on her face, he saw how much she missed her family and even how little she liked eating like this. Ronon could understand the first but not the second. The food here was better than anything he had while on the run and more plentiful than those last years on Sateda as the war raged. It was nice that she had someone to miss that was waiting for her on the other side of the stargate. Somewhere out there was a life waiting for her that had nothing to do with Atlantis. He definitely couldn't say the same any longer.
"What are pancakes?" he asked, wanting to know about this food that made her so happy and yet so sad.
Her eyes opened quickly and she stared at him, one eyebrow quirked up. "I always forget that you may not know things like that. You seem so... well, I can't use normal there, can I? Knowing about pancakes doesn't make you normal, actually."
Amelia went on to explain, as best she could, how the food was made and what it tasted like. There were some similar foods that Ronon could think of but he knew he would need to taste them for himself before he came up with a decision of his own about how good they were. The discussion was shelved when John and Rodney joined them, the talk turning toward the latest sports scores that had come through on the last data burst and pancakes were forgotten for the time being.
Title: Finding Her
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Ronon/Amelia
Word Count: 555
Rating: PG
Prompt:
... scifiland I Love You Like Pancakes: 6/9 I Love You Like Pancakes
... 5_prompts Amnesty in January: Connect 3 Graph 1 coming back
His sleep had been troubled of late but Ronon refused any of the sleeping medication that Keller pushed on him. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the Wraith looming over him again, that hand resting on his chest, ready to take away his life just as readily as he’d given it back. When he’d tried sleeping with the help of medication, it only made the dreams worse because he couldn’t wake himself out it but had to suffer through until the end. Dying once had been bad enough but doing it over and over again in his sleep was making him mental.
The infirmary at night had not a happy place to be. There were a lot of machines around and they all emitted a faint hum that gave off a false sense of quiet but there had always been people roaming in and out of the room so that he could be reminded that he was alive if he drifted off and forgot once again.
A whisper of movement caught his attention just as the door opened and Amelia came in the room. She paused, ready to leave if he was asleep or otherwise occupied. He lifted a hand that felt like it was wearing a glove of lead and waved her in.
“Hey, you,” she whispered. “Didn’t know if you’d be up for company or not.”
“Sure. Don’t feel like sleeping right now.”
She stood, still and pale for a bit before coming forward. After her bravado only a few hours before, it seemed odd to see her looking like she wasn’t sure of her welcome. It was always her coming to see him, he realized. She sought him whenever she wasn’t working, not pushing but just being there. Friendly, but with a smile that told him she was willing for there to be more. It was up to him to make that next step forward.
“Pancakes.”
The only word he seemed to be able to get out made her eyebrow quirk up as if she was trying to figure out what medication he was on that was making his brain a bit addled. He waved her over again, waiting until she’d settled in next to him on the bed, her head pillowed on his shoulder in a way that made him ache, before he started talking once again.
“Remember when you told me about how you like pancakes? They remind you of home. They taste good. They only happen from time to time.” She nodded, her fingers twining with his. “You’re my pancakes.”
“I still don’t think I understand,” she said softly but he knew that she did. The words were important. They were always important. Why did women always need to hear the words?
“I… I love you like pancakes.”
She turned to look at him, her lips grazing his chin. “How long have you been thinking of that line?”
“Long enough that it sounds stupid in my head now.”
This silence wasn’t as bad as the silence before she’d come in the room. The important thing was that she was still here. He’d said the stupid words to her and she was still here. That was important, Teyla had reminded him earlier. What he said wasn’t stupid if she stayed.
She was still here. It was a start.