Orders, Part One - Stargate Atlantis, NC-17
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Title: Orders, Part One
Pairing/Characters: John Sheppard/Ronon Dex, Rodney, Teyla, Lorne, Weir
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~12000
Summary: Follows episode 2.05. John Sheppard has issues, particularly involving in the repression of part of his sexuality. When Ronon Dex challenges everything John believes is good and right, including his own choices about how he lives, John's love of command and his desire to be taken forcibly collide...because in Ronon he finds the perfect combination of savage sexuality and innate obedience to orders from a senior officer...even, maybe especially, when those orders are to ravage that senior officer.
A/Ns & warnings: For the incredible eboniorchid who bought me over at help_haiti. Warnings include violence & violent sex. Light bondage.
Ronon struggled, attempting to free himself from the bindings. "Well, eventually I will get free and when I do, he's gonna pay for this."
John swallowed around the leather that held his throat. "Now listen to me. When you get free, you get us free and we all get out of here. Let ‘em find out we're gone after we're gone."
"You're expecting me to let them get away with this?" Ronon asked, his face very clearly showing his displeasure with that idea.
"The operative words are “get away”."
"After I kill them." Ronon insisted, straining against the bar through his arms.
"That type of thinking will get us killed."
"Well, if you had returned fire ..."
John turned to look at him, annoyed. "The weapons systems were damaged."
"If you say so." Ronon said dismissively, still fighting to get free.
"I do say so, and right now I'm saying knock it off." John pulled at his own bindings, frustrated with the effort it was taking to integrate the big Satedan into his team.
Something about Ronon changed though, he stilled. "Is that an order, Sheppard?"
John laughed a little ruefully. "I am beat up, tied up, and couldn't order a pizza right now if I wanted to. But if you need it to be, yeah -- it's an order." He narrowed his eyes at Ronon, who stilled even further, the anger draining from his face.
"Okay."
And just like that, John was completely hot. The way Ronon just stopped, obeyed, it hit something inside of him and made him want.
Of course, things being what they were, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard filed the whole incident away and concentrated on getting them out of their current predicament. It was more than he was prepared to deal with while they were prisoners on some penal colony.
Besides, he told himself as they dashed for the gate later that day, that was a part of his life he had put away a long, long time ago when he had made the choice to join the military.
Sure, there were those who somehow managed to have relationships around the whole "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" thing, but it always felt dishonest to him. Besides, he wasn't ever strictly gay, so it wasn't a hardship to focus his desires on women.
Which was, all told, rationalizing away the drop in his stomach when Ronon came into a room, the sweat on his palms when they sparred…the way the big guy just seemed to fill a space with all that body and all that presence and John had little doubt that if Ronon were to ever decide he wanted John, there wouldn't be a chance in hell that John would say no.
He tried not to think about the scenario that played out in his head sometimes when he was alone. The one in which Ronon never gave him a chance to say no. Because that fantasy went back a lot longer than he'd known Ronon, with different men in the role of aggressor, back to a time when John was still at home, surrounded by nice things and craving escape.
He had known his father would never accept his son as a gay man and in some twisted attempt to make it okay, his mind had conjured up a situation in which he could get what he wanted and it wouldn't be his fault. Various men had played the role in his head…men his father would never approve of, men with dark skin, hard hands, men who worked for a living, with dirty knees and strong bodies.
It was always someone his father wouldn't accept as an equal. The first it was the Mexican guy who his father contracted to rebuild the library. He was a big man, broad at the shoulders and muscular in a way John would never be. John was sixteen and he would hang out watching the men work, practicing his high school Spanish, but mostly imagining all the ways Pablo could overpower him.
John had dreamed up scenarios from being bent over the workbench to slammed into the wall. Sometimes there was duct tape involved.
As he got older the fantasy grew, but he never acted on it, even when he found those who might be willing to play them out. The stakes were always too high. He couldn't compromise himself, couldn't take a chance his secret might be discovered, and so he hid it.
He learned to seek other outlets. Fighting, usually picking opponents that could beat him…that would beat him. The pain was a poor substitute, and often just led to him beating off by himself before nursing his wounds, but it kept his secret hidden.
He buried it and the only time it ever escaped was at night when he was asleep…or from time to time when he found himself tied up.
It wasn't his fault that his line of work led to being tied up a whole lot more often than a normal person.
"John?"
He blinked and looked up. "Oh, sorry. I…I didn't sleep very well."
Elizabeth looked at him with concern. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Just tired." He frowned and tried to remember what they'd been discussing. "I spaced out around the time you said something about ruins?"
She offered him a tight smile. "Major Lorne thinks that there might be something promising under all of the jungle growth. He thinks they should have enough cleared away in a few days for Dr. McKay to look at."
"As long as they don't touch anything." John said. "You know what happens with these things."
She smiled and nodded. "He knows." She folded her hands on her desk. "So, it's been a few weeks. How is Ronon working out for you?"
John felt his body tighten and forced himself to relax. "Good. He's resourceful. Hell of a fighter." The image of Ronon fighting filled his mind, muscles bulging, dreadlocks flying as he growled and put one of their best hand to hand guys on his back. He shook off the desire and looked back at Elizabeth. "He's still adjusting to being a part of a team."
She nodded. "He was on his own a long time." She stood and went to the door of her office, looking out on the gateroom. "It must be hard on him, to be so alone."
John stood, adjusting himself while her back was turned. "He isn't alone anymore, now, is he? If there isn't anything else, I have reports to get back to."
"I think we covered everything important. I'll let you know when Lorne's team is ready for you. In the meantime, get some rest."
John thought maybe it was the contradiction that kept him thinking about it. The idea that Ronon just submitted to his order when his every instinct told him to fight went up against everything the man represented in John's fantasy of him.
He found himself looking for times to test his new-found distraction.
"Don't hold back." John said, wiping at the sweat collecting on his forehead. "I can take it."
"Don't say it if you don't mean it." Ronon warned, circling John.
"Oh, I mean it." John countered, readying himself for the charge. Ronon was, hands down, the best hand to hand fighter he'd sparred with; fast, strong, with moves John had never seen.
It was going to hurt.
He blocked a few blows and landed a few of his own before Ronon swept his legs and dropped him to the floor, pouncing to pin him, wrenching John's arm up behind him sharp and fast.
John let him hold it long enough to really feel the sharp pain, and the weight of him, the strong thighs gripping John's sides. He tapped the floor in surrender and Ronon released him, easing back and giving John room to roll over.
He knew better to lay there too long, his body starting to hum with his response to pain and Ronon's hands and the threat that Ronon presented. He got up, cracking his neck. "Again."
"You sure?" Ronon asked, smirking.
"I'm sure. Come on." John held his own, even knocked Ronon down, but that only led to Ronon pulling him down, and boxing became wrestling, Ronon's bigger body quickly getting the advantage and John heard something in his left shoulder pop as Ronon pinned him.
Pain blossomed in the shoulder and spread down his back. John tapped out again and Ronon released him. "You had enough?" Ronon asked when John was a little slower in getting up.
"One more time." John said, despite the pain. He rotated the shoulder carefully and when nothing screamed at him he figured it would be fine. The arm was heavy though and he found it harder to block blows, taking one to the side of his face and landing flat on his back.
Ronon came to squat over him, grinning. "That hurt?"
"I'm fine." John responded, not actually answering the question.
"Colonel Sheppard, this is Weir."
John rolled up to his knees and let Ronon help him to his feet, then crossed to his jacket and radio. "Sheppard."
"Colonel, Major Lorne has indicated that his team has found what looks like Ancient technology that is still functional."
"Have him stand down and cease all operations until we get there."
"I already have, Colonel. He and his team have returned."
"Give me twenty minutes." He wiped his face on his towel. "Hit the showers, looks like we're up."
He grabbed his bag and headed for his quarters, pointedly not thinking about the smirk on Ronon's face or the way his arm muscles moved under the skin. He stripped down, trying to ignore how hard he was from not thinking and stepped into the shower.
"This is stupid." He told himself, taking his problem in hand after soaping up. He directed his thoughts to a pretty face and started to stroke, but it didn't take a full stroke and that pretty face dissolved into Ronon's face, and the sound of his own voice telling him to make it hurt.
John groaned as the Ronon in his head shoved him into a wall, one hand holding him there while the other moved to part his ass cheeks. John bowed his head into the stream of water and bit his lip as he imagined the burn, the stretching and the pain that would come with it. He flushed as Ronon's voice growled wordlessly in his mind and his cock spilled out into the water circling the drain.
He chastised himself as he got dressed. He needed to nip this and quickly. He wasn't going to jeopardize his career, not to mention the people who depended on him, over some passing fantasy.
And that's all that this was.
He nodded to his reflection in the mirror. Nothing more. Ronon was a teammate, more than that, John was his immediate supervisor. It was unethical on so many levels. He squared his shoulders and set off to meet the rest of his team and Lorne, determined that that would be the end of it.
Of course, that lasted about as long as it took Ronon to growl his name.
"Sheppard." Just the sound of his voice, the hard edge to get his attention, was enough to take him right back to the desire he was trying to bury.
John turned and Ronon was pointing at the path Lorne's team had cleared. John nodded to him, then turned to where Rodney was still fussing with his equipment. "Lorne said the important stuff is a ways from the gate, Rodney."
"Right, like Lorne would know the important stuff from a child's toy." Rodney said, though he looked up, changing his course.
Teyla shook her head as she followed. John brought up the rear, keeping Teyla and Rodney between him and Ronon for the moment while he got himself back under control. The path led them into a fairly thick forest, where ruins of once mammoth buildings were being taken over by the growth. They moved through the cleared area fairly quickly and as they passed through an arch into a room with a canopy of leaves for a roof, equipment all around them came to life.
"I guess this is the place." John commented, stopping just inside the archway.
Rodney bent over the sensor in his hand, circling the room and making clucking noises. John waited, leaning on the arch and watching. Eventually, Rodney came to a stop in the middle of the room in front of a console and looked up. "There has to be at least on ZPM here. The energy readings are…" He trailed off, his forehead creasing as he frowned down at his computer.
"Rodney?" John prompted when he was quiet for a minute.
"This is going to take some time." Rodney looked up. He unbuckled his pack and started pulling out cables. "It looks like some sort of control room, but I won't know what it's controlling until I can get into the interface and make some preliminary readings."
John nodded. "Okay, Teyla, you stay with Rodney. Ronon, and I will set up a perimeter." Lorne and his men hadn't encountered any problems, but a jungle like this was bound to have wildlife of some kind.
Ronon twirled his gun and re-holstered it with a grin, coming toward John and the archway. "Stay in radio contact." John said as they left the room. "Head east, I'll go west."
They set out in separate directions, giving John some time to concentrate on something other than Ronon.
"I got nothing." Ronon said over the radio a few minutes later.
"Me too." John replied. "No signs of any animals, birds…"
"Kinda strange, isn't it?"
"Kinda." John agreed. He circled around a tree and stopped to look up into the thick canopy of leaves. "Never heard of a jungle with no wild life."
He kept moving, tensing when he heard movement, then relaxing when he saw Ronon. More ruins jutted out of trees up ahead, out of the area that had been cleared. A break in the trees let the sunlight in, showing off silver-grey walls the were crumbling, and shiny objects inside.
John gestured toward it and Ronon grinned. "Let's check it out."
"Teyla, this is Sheppard. Ronon and I spotted some more ruins north of you. We're going to check them out."
"Understood, Colonel." Teyla acknowledged.
"Don't touch anything." Rodney added.
John shook his head. "We won't, Rodney." They set out toward the ruins. "Big honking weapons."
Ronon frowned at him. "Huh?"
"That's my bet." John said, hitching his thumb back toward Rodney and Teyla. "I'm betting we found weapons."
Ronon raised an eyebrow at him. "In the middle of a jungle, on a planet this far from anything?"
John shrugged. "Could be."
Ronon snorted but didn't respond. "Okay, Mr. Know-It-All, what do you think it is?"
He shrugged. "Don't know."
"You're no fun." John stopped at the break in the wall, peering into the building…that wasn't exactly a building. "That's odd."
"What?" Ronon leaned in around him. "Huh."
The other side of the wall was open space, no consoles, no walls, no stone floor…just a long stretch of space that ended in more trees. John pulled back and looked to the left. The wall stretched on through the trees, disappearing into the foliage some hundreds of yards away. It was the same to the right.
"So, were they keeping something in…or out…?" John asked, peeking back through the wall again.
"Whichever it was, looks like it failed." Ronon said.
"Rodney, Teyla, we found something. We're going to investigate a little."
"What kind of something?" Rodney asked, impatience clear in his voice.
"A wall." John responded. "It seems to be a boundary of some kind."
"Keeping something out, or in?" Rodney asked.
"Well, I don't know Rodney. That's why we're going to investigate."
"Just be careful. I haven't figured out what this place is."
"I'm always careful. Sheppard out." He shook his head in annoyance. "Let's go this way." He pointed east and they followed the wall, stepping around debris and finding at least three more breaches in the wall before they found what looked like the entrance to the area.
The archway stood a good five feet above the highest level of the wall and judging by the hinges set into the stone there had once been doors hanging there. A control panel set into the arch lit up as John got close to it. He touched his earpiece. "Teyla, Rodney."
"Go ahead, Colonel."
"We found a doorway into the contained area. There's a control pad, but the doors are gone. There's still power though. The controls are lit up."
"The controls probably operated the doors and a shield of some kind." Rodney's voice said.
"That sounds like you've figured out what this place is." John prompted.
"I have. I think." John could almost picture Rodney shaking his head. "I'm not positive yet, but I think it was being used as a prison of sorts. I'm just hacking into their database now, but judging on the controls and power output…that wall was the physical boundary between prisoners and guards, but what really kept them was the shield."
"Which I take it is turned off now?" John asked, leaning in the archway to peer around.
"Not so much turned off as not working." Rodney countered. "I'm still figuring things out."
"Any prisoners that were here must be long gone, just like the guards, right?"
"I don't know, I guess so."
"So how long before you figure out where the ZPM is?"
"A while. The configuration of this facility is vastly different-"
"Ronon and I are going to check this out. Let me know when you have something."
"Colonel, let me just-"
John cut him off and walked through the archway, pausing just inside, expecting something to happen. These places had ways of going bad spectacularly fast. Ronon followed him through the arch and there was a weird whirring sound from the stone.
Ronon's hand grabbed his shoulder and John whirled, just in time to see the world disappear.
Suddenly it felt as if his entire body was being crushed, all but the place where Ronon's hand connected with him. Fire and ice crawled through his limbs and he couldn't tell which way was up as they were tumbled and dropped, rolling together as they hit the ground.
They landed with Ronon half on top of him, neither of them moving for a long minute. When Ronon lifted his head, he groaned and rolled to the side, landing beside John in the very long grass.
"That hurt." John muttered. He mentally checked himself over and decided he wasn't injured, just sore. "You okay?"
"Think so," came the grunted response.
John pushed himself up on his elbows and looked around them. They seemed to be in some clearing in the middles of trees, the grass grown up to nearly knee high. All around the clearing there were standing stones, like this was some sort of ceremonial place at one time.
He reached for his earpiece, only to find it gone. As was his P-90. And his glock. "I don't like this."
He sat up and patted himself down. The knife in his boot was still there, but his watch and any form of tech was gone. One glance at Ronon told him he was experiencing the same loss. "Okay, we need to figure out what happened."
He got to his feet a split second before Ronon and a voice filled the clearing. "Greetings, and welcome to Pelzing. Current population is 102 human beings. Current dangers are bessor beasts and compla monkeys in the woods, ga sharks in the ocean and several species of poisonous snakes in the fields. Current food supply includes ripening berries found in the brush in the woods, carron beans and wheat from the north fields."
"Isn't that helpful…" John said sarcastically.
"What the hell is a bessor beast?" Ronon asked.
"I say let's not find out." John responded. He headed toward one of the stones, figuring that they weren't just stones. "The Ancients used stones like these to hide their technology on other planets. Maybe we can find a way to contact Rodney."
"If we weren't transported to a different planet." Ronon countered, heading to the opposite side of the circle.
"There's that." John found no indication on the first stone that it was anything other than carved rock. The same with the next one. "So what do you think? Prison?"
Ronon was on his third stone. "Maybe. Effective."
"I suppose." John moved to another stone, and it opened when his hand touched it. "Aha. See." He waved a hand at the control drawer, then bit his lip.
"So, you know what to do with that?" Ronon asked, joining him.
"Not a clue." John confided. He touched a crystal and there was a shimmer, a woman appearing in miniature at the top of the stone. "Hello."
She inclined her head graciously. "Greetings, I am Anaia. How may I service you?"
John licked his lips and glanced up at Ronon. "Well, ah, how about tell us where we are?"
"You are in Pelzing."
"Not entirely helpful." John said. "How do we get back to where we came from?"
"The return crystal must be placed in the slot indicated below." She waved her little hand at the tray.
"Return crystal?" Ronon shrugged at him and John sighed. "We seem to have forgotten ours."
"There is no return without a crystal. The barrier brought you here. Here you will remain in Pelzing and live out your days as our forefathers did."
"Great. Not what I had in mind." He looked around them, then back at the hologram. "Can we communicate with where we came from?"
"All communication must be initiated from outside the barrier. I can relay a request for contact."
"Yes, do that." John agreed.
"Where is the barrier?" Ronon asked. "Maybe we can walk it?"
"Good question." John turned to look at her. "Where is the barrier from here?"
"You are in the center of Pelzing, the barrier surrounds Pelzing in all directions."
"Again, with the not exactly helpful" John said. "How far is it to the barrier?"
"The barrier lies three hundred units from the center."
"Units?" John sighed when she just looked at him. "What is a unit?" It was like talking to a child.
"A unit is the distance the average adult male can walk in a single cycle of the sun."
Too far to walk unless they had no other choice. The trees around them rustled and an animal growled somewhere in the undergrowth.
"What is Pelzing?" John asked, squinting at her as Ronon moved in front of the stone, a knife in his hand. "Is it a prison?"
"Pelzing is home to those who could not conform to society's growth and protested the embracing of the ways of the Ancestors over the ways of our forefathers. In the great wisdom of Kaala, it was decided to afford them a place where they could live in the ways of the forefathers, protected from the intrusion of all modern convenience and advancement."
"So, prison." Ronon confirmed, moving away. The noise coming from the trees was getting closer.
"There is a pack of bessors approaching," the hologram said.
"What exactly is a bessor?" John asked, pulling the knife from his boot. The hologram disappeared to be replaced by an image of rust colored, hairless beast on four legs, but as the voice started to extol the many attributes of the bessor, one of them charged through the brush at Ronon.
It was nearly waist high, charging at Ronon with its head lowered and nasty looking horns protruding from its face. Ronon squared off, watching it come, and jumping aside at the last minute, pouncing on it and sinking his knife into its neck.
The beast screamed and thrashed, dropping Ronon and dragging him before he let go. It took off running through the brush and Ronon rolled up to his knees with another knife in his hand. John grabbed at his shoulder and urged him up as three larger bessor beasts came charging through the brush, noses raised, smelling the blood on the air. A chorus of growling let him know that there was more than the three they could see.
"I think maybe we should go." John said softly, watching the nearest of them.
"The bessor is a formidable opponent in the forest where the leaves shield their sensitive eyes from the bright sun," the recorded voice said. "Bessor beasts do not like light and are unable to swim."
"That would be helpful if there was water anywhere close by." John said sarcastically.
"The nearest body of water is a lake east of the center, one quarter of a micro-unit." The beasts were starting to do more than staring.
"You heard her." John shoved Ronon toward the east and started running himself. The nearest of the monsters started to follow and by the time they trees were starting to thin around them, it sounded like a whole damn herd behind them.
John dared a glance behind them. They were coming fast, maybe faster than John and Ronon could out run. His toe caught on a rock or tree root and he stumbled forward, into Ronon, sending them both sprawling. Ronon recovered faster, his hands grabbing John and yanking him clear as two sets of teeth targeted his stomach.
"Water." Ronon growled into his ear, and this was not the time for his body to decide that that was sexy.
John dug his feet into the soft ground and pushed himself up, letting Ronon guide him as they moved and he tried to get himself turned around. Water splashed up around his ankles, then his calves and they both dove into the water, swimming out into deeper water as six of the beasts came out of the woods and stopped cold.
The big one pawed and the ground and snorted, pacing up and down the water's edge. "How long you figure we gotta tread water out here?" John asked, turning to look around them at the tree lined lake.
"Could be worse. At least it's warm." Ronon responded. "There's rocks over there." He pointed toward a pile of boulders. "I'll bet those things can't climb."
John nodded and started to swim. The water was cooler near the rocks, but still not cold. A ledge of dark gray stone hung out over the water. Ronon leapt up and grabbed the overhanging rock with one hand, then the other. His muscles bulged in his arms as he hauled himself up, then leaned over to help John.
Their hands clasped together and Ronon pulled until John could get his free hand on the rock and help. A few seconds later they both lay dripping on warm rock, staring up into a fading blue sky. John sat up once he'd caught his breath and turned to look back at the place where they'd entered the water. Only two of the bessors remained, nosing along the shore.
"You okay?" John asked as Ronon peeled off his wet shirt.
"Yeah, you?" John nodded and started to undo his vest.
"So what now?"
John considered that for a minute. "Now, we wait for Rodney to figure out what happened and how to get us back."
Ronon snorted. "You got a plan B?"
"Rodney is very capable." John insisted, laying out his vest on the rock to try to dry it out. "We got maybe another three hours of sunlight. We should find shelter for the night."
Ronon stretched and stood, looking around them. "Cave?" He pointed upward.
John looked up at him, but couldn't look past the water dripping off his dreadlocks onto his skin. Ronon cleared his throat and John could feel himself flushing, his eyes flicking to Ronon's.
The big man looked amused, his eyebrow raised. John followed the line of his arm with his eyes and spotted the dark spot. "Let's just make sure we aren't party crashing."
Ronon chuckled and lifted his shirt from the rock, squeezing out the water he could before he headed up the pile of rocks.
"Cool, John. Real cool." He exhaled and concentrated on not watching Ronon's back, or ass, or his broad shoulders, as he climbed up behind him. He did fine with that too. Right up until Ronon reached out a big hand to grab his wrist when his foot slipped.
Suddenly, John's brain slammed into full on fantasy mode, Ronon's hand on his wrist becoming the leverage his head needed to drop him into that hand curling his wrist up behind his back, shoving him into the wall. His eyes closed and he swallowed hard, pushing himself past the rush of desire.
When he opened his eyes, Ronon was still holding his wrist, watching him. That eyebrow lifted again and John shook his head. "Thanks."
"You sure?" Ronon asked, looking at his hand and slowly uncurling his fingers.
John nodded. "Yeah. Slipped."
"Noticed."
John could feel his eyes and the responding flush of want through his body. "Can we just…" he waved at the climb still ahead of them.
Ronon leaned in slow, his mouth hovering near John's ear. "I notice lots of things."
By the time John had processed the words, Ronon was climbing and nearly to the cave. He pressed the heel of one palm against his half hard cock, willing it to subside. He exhaled again and started climbing again.
Ronon was sitting on the rock outside the cave when John finally got there, his chest bare, his shirt spread out to dry in the last of the sunlight. "Cave's empty. Small, but empty."
John spread his vest out beside Ronon's shirt, then unzipped his jacket and laid that out too. He ducked into the cave. Ronon wasn't wrong, there was barely room for the two of them inside. It was going to make it an interesting night.
"Okay, we need to get dry. I don't know how cold it gets here at night, but I'm betting we'll both sleep more comfortably if we're not wet." John said as he ducked back out of the cave, only to find Ronon already ahead of him. And naked.
Naked.
John stopped, staring at Ronon's naked ass as he spread out his pants on the rocks. Forcefully, John made himself turn away. He was not going to embarrass himself any more than he already had. He was not going to fantasize about his team mate. He was going to be professional.
"Your clothes will dry faster if you take them off." Ronon's voice said behind him.
"I know that." John said, still not moving to disrobe any further than he had.
"You need help with that?" Ronon asked, just a touch of humor in his voice.
John huffed. "No." And he sounded far too petulant. His hand hovered at the hem of his t-shirt, but still he hesitated.
Suddenly Ronon was behind him, his hands on John's hips. "You sure?" Ronon asked in his ear, his voice deep and low.
"Stop." John said, though his voice didn't sound very sure.
Ronon's hands fell away and he took a step back. "Okay."
John couldn't breathe with the wanting Ronon not to stop…with the way Ronon did just as he was told…with the knowledge that Ronon would do whatever he was told…whatever John commanded. He was hard and he turned toward the rock face as he tried to pull himself together.
"Ronon." He couldn't make himself say more though. Exhaling deeply, John knelt to untie his boots and get his socks off. He didn't let himself think about it as he stripped down to his boxer-briefs. He busied himself with laying out his clothes to dry, keeping his back to Ronon, hiding the bulge in his underwear, the aching need revealed in the taught line of his cock.
When he couldn't prevent it anymore, John dropped his hand to cover himself and sat beside Ronon, looking out at the land around them, not at the smirk on Ronon's face.
"Stupid." Ronon said after a while.
"Excuse me?" John asked, glancing at him.
"Your rules. They're stupid." Ronon replied. He leaned back, letting the long, graceful line of his body catch the light of the sun now starting to set. John couldn't help but look, his eyes widening as he realized that Ronon was also hard. "On Sateda, it's expected."
"What is?" John asked, though his head was screaming warnings that this was not the proper conversation to be having with the man he was about to spend a very close quartered night with.
"Sex." Ronon supplied. "Good for loyalty, builds morale. A satisfied soldier isn't distracted."
John shook his head. There was so much more to it. "That isn't what the rule is about."
"Maybe not, but it's stupid." Ronon's hand moved over his cock, slow and completely distracting.
John tried not to watch, but didn't succeed very well. "There are reasons."
Ronon snorted. "Right. Like what?"
John shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something, but had nothing to say.
"On Sateda, when your commander gave you an order, you obeyed."
John knew better. He knew this was wrong. He knew. And yet, when he opened his mouth that didn't seem to matter. "So if I ordered you to kiss me…"
Ronon moved closer. "I would have no choice." He leaned in, his lips hovering over John's jaw line. "Is that an order, Sheppard?"
John couldn't move, his eyes flicking up to Ronon's. "Yes," he breathed and before the word was complete, Ronon's mouth covered his, tongue surging past John's lips as Ronon pressed him back. John whimpered as his back touched rock and Ronon's body covered his, but when Ronon would have pulled away, John grabbed his dreads and pulled him back, teeth and tongues crashing together as they kissed.
Ronon's hard cock pressed into the tight cotton of his boxer-briefs, rubbing against John's cock. It was more stimulation than he'd had from anything but his own hand in recent months and it was rapidly becoming more than he could keep still under. Ronon rolled his hips and John gasped, arching under him and making Ronon chuckle.
"Like that?"
John clutched at him. "Don't stop."
"Yes, sir." Ronon responded, snapping his hips forward to drag his leaking cock over John's cotton covered one. John moaned and reached for his cock, grabbing it through the underwear just as he came. Ronon reached for his own, stroking it a couple of times before he too was coming.
John closed his eyes as Ronon moved, his stomach twisting.
"See, not so bad." Ronon said, tapping John's shoulder as he sat up.
"We shouldn't…it was wrong…I shouldn't have told you to do that."
Ronon made a face at him. "Did it feel good?"
"Well…" Hell, it had been better than he'd had in a long time, maybe not the way he'd fantasized, but… "Yes, okay? It felt good."
"Then how can it be wrong?" Ronon leaned back. "You need to loosen up."
"I need my head examined." John countered. "I'm your commanding officer. I shouldn't be…"
"Having sex?" Ronon supplied.
"With you. It's wrong." John stood, his underwear now wet with more than lake water. "We have rules."
"Stupid ones." Ronon said, laying back, pillowing his head on his hands.
"Maybe…but they're still rules that I have to obey." The sky was turning a deep indigo blue, all but a strip at the horizon line which was flaming red.
"Look, I'm not stupid." Ronon looked up at him. "You've been looking at me since we met. You wanted it. I wanted it. If you never want to do it again, that's fine."
John honestly didn't know what he wanted. Other than to get off this planet and back to Atlantis where at least he understood how to make the rules work for him and keep him from giving in to his desire.
"We should get some sleep."
"I'll sit watch." Ronon offered. "You sleep. I'll wake you in a few hours."
John didn't answer, just crawled into the cave and laid down on the hard, warm rock. He was sure he wouldn't sleep. Almost hoped he wouldn't, because he was sure if he did, he'd dream about the big Satedan taking orders all too well.
Title: Orders, Part One
Pairing/Characters: John Sheppard/Ronon Dex, Rodney, Teyla, Lorne, Weir
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~12000
Summary: Follows episode 2.05. John Sheppard has issues, particularly involving in the repression of part of his sexuality. When Ronon Dex challenges everything John believes is good and right, including his own choices about how he lives, John's love of command and his desire to be taken forcibly collide...because in Ronon he finds the perfect combination of savage sexuality and innate obedience to orders from a senior officer...even, maybe especially, when those orders are to ravage that senior officer.
A/Ns & warnings: For the incredible eboniorchid who bought me over at help_haiti. Warnings include violence & violent sex. Light bondage.
Ronon struggled, attempting to free himself from the bindings. "Well, eventually I will get free and when I do, he's gonna pay for this."
John swallowed around the leather that held his throat. "Now listen to me. When you get free, you get us free and we all get out of here. Let ‘em find out we're gone after we're gone."
"You're expecting me to let them get away with this?" Ronon asked, his face very clearly showing his displeasure with that idea.
"The operative words are “get away”."
"After I kill them." Ronon insisted, straining against the bar through his arms.
"That type of thinking will get us killed."
"Well, if you had returned fire ..."
John turned to look at him, annoyed. "The weapons systems were damaged."
"If you say so." Ronon said dismissively, still fighting to get free.
"I do say so, and right now I'm saying knock it off." John pulled at his own bindings, frustrated with the effort it was taking to integrate the big Satedan into his team.
Something about Ronon changed though, he stilled. "Is that an order, Sheppard?"
John laughed a little ruefully. "I am beat up, tied up, and couldn't order a pizza right now if I wanted to. But if you need it to be, yeah -- it's an order." He narrowed his eyes at Ronon, who stilled even further, the anger draining from his face.
"Okay."
And just like that, John was completely hot. The way Ronon just stopped, obeyed, it hit something inside of him and made him want.
Of course, things being what they were, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard filed the whole incident away and concentrated on getting them out of their current predicament. It was more than he was prepared to deal with while they were prisoners on some penal colony.
Besides, he told himself as they dashed for the gate later that day, that was a part of his life he had put away a long, long time ago when he had made the choice to join the military.
Sure, there were those who somehow managed to have relationships around the whole "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" thing, but it always felt dishonest to him. Besides, he wasn't ever strictly gay, so it wasn't a hardship to focus his desires on women.
Which was, all told, rationalizing away the drop in his stomach when Ronon came into a room, the sweat on his palms when they sparred…the way the big guy just seemed to fill a space with all that body and all that presence and John had little doubt that if Ronon were to ever decide he wanted John, there wouldn't be a chance in hell that John would say no.
He tried not to think about the scenario that played out in his head sometimes when he was alone. The one in which Ronon never gave him a chance to say no. Because that fantasy went back a lot longer than he'd known Ronon, with different men in the role of aggressor, back to a time when John was still at home, surrounded by nice things and craving escape.
He had known his father would never accept his son as a gay man and in some twisted attempt to make it okay, his mind had conjured up a situation in which he could get what he wanted and it wouldn't be his fault. Various men had played the role in his head…men his father would never approve of, men with dark skin, hard hands, men who worked for a living, with dirty knees and strong bodies.
It was always someone his father wouldn't accept as an equal. The first it was the Mexican guy who his father contracted to rebuild the library. He was a big man, broad at the shoulders and muscular in a way John would never be. John was sixteen and he would hang out watching the men work, practicing his high school Spanish, but mostly imagining all the ways Pablo could overpower him.
John had dreamed up scenarios from being bent over the workbench to slammed into the wall. Sometimes there was duct tape involved.
As he got older the fantasy grew, but he never acted on it, even when he found those who might be willing to play them out. The stakes were always too high. He couldn't compromise himself, couldn't take a chance his secret might be discovered, and so he hid it.
He learned to seek other outlets. Fighting, usually picking opponents that could beat him…that would beat him. The pain was a poor substitute, and often just led to him beating off by himself before nursing his wounds, but it kept his secret hidden.
He buried it and the only time it ever escaped was at night when he was asleep…or from time to time when he found himself tied up.
It wasn't his fault that his line of work led to being tied up a whole lot more often than a normal person.
"John?"
He blinked and looked up. "Oh, sorry. I…I didn't sleep very well."
Elizabeth looked at him with concern. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Just tired." He frowned and tried to remember what they'd been discussing. "I spaced out around the time you said something about ruins?"
She offered him a tight smile. "Major Lorne thinks that there might be something promising under all of the jungle growth. He thinks they should have enough cleared away in a few days for Dr. McKay to look at."
"As long as they don't touch anything." John said. "You know what happens with these things."
She smiled and nodded. "He knows." She folded her hands on her desk. "So, it's been a few weeks. How is Ronon working out for you?"
John felt his body tighten and forced himself to relax. "Good. He's resourceful. Hell of a fighter." The image of Ronon fighting filled his mind, muscles bulging, dreadlocks flying as he growled and put one of their best hand to hand guys on his back. He shook off the desire and looked back at Elizabeth. "He's still adjusting to being a part of a team."
She nodded. "He was on his own a long time." She stood and went to the door of her office, looking out on the gateroom. "It must be hard on him, to be so alone."
John stood, adjusting himself while her back was turned. "He isn't alone anymore, now, is he? If there isn't anything else, I have reports to get back to."
"I think we covered everything important. I'll let you know when Lorne's team is ready for you. In the meantime, get some rest."
John thought maybe it was the contradiction that kept him thinking about it. The idea that Ronon just submitted to his order when his every instinct told him to fight went up against everything the man represented in John's fantasy of him.
He found himself looking for times to test his new-found distraction.
"Don't hold back." John said, wiping at the sweat collecting on his forehead. "I can take it."
"Don't say it if you don't mean it." Ronon warned, circling John.
"Oh, I mean it." John countered, readying himself for the charge. Ronon was, hands down, the best hand to hand fighter he'd sparred with; fast, strong, with moves John had never seen.
It was going to hurt.
He blocked a few blows and landed a few of his own before Ronon swept his legs and dropped him to the floor, pouncing to pin him, wrenching John's arm up behind him sharp and fast.
John let him hold it long enough to really feel the sharp pain, and the weight of him, the strong thighs gripping John's sides. He tapped the floor in surrender and Ronon released him, easing back and giving John room to roll over.
He knew better to lay there too long, his body starting to hum with his response to pain and Ronon's hands and the threat that Ronon presented. He got up, cracking his neck. "Again."
"You sure?" Ronon asked, smirking.
"I'm sure. Come on." John held his own, even knocked Ronon down, but that only led to Ronon pulling him down, and boxing became wrestling, Ronon's bigger body quickly getting the advantage and John heard something in his left shoulder pop as Ronon pinned him.
Pain blossomed in the shoulder and spread down his back. John tapped out again and Ronon released him. "You had enough?" Ronon asked when John was a little slower in getting up.
"One more time." John said, despite the pain. He rotated the shoulder carefully and when nothing screamed at him he figured it would be fine. The arm was heavy though and he found it harder to block blows, taking one to the side of his face and landing flat on his back.
Ronon came to squat over him, grinning. "That hurt?"
"I'm fine." John responded, not actually answering the question.
"Colonel Sheppard, this is Weir."
John rolled up to his knees and let Ronon help him to his feet, then crossed to his jacket and radio. "Sheppard."
"Colonel, Major Lorne has indicated that his team has found what looks like Ancient technology that is still functional."
"Have him stand down and cease all operations until we get there."
"I already have, Colonel. He and his team have returned."
"Give me twenty minutes." He wiped his face on his towel. "Hit the showers, looks like we're up."
He grabbed his bag and headed for his quarters, pointedly not thinking about the smirk on Ronon's face or the way his arm muscles moved under the skin. He stripped down, trying to ignore how hard he was from not thinking and stepped into the shower.
"This is stupid." He told himself, taking his problem in hand after soaping up. He directed his thoughts to a pretty face and started to stroke, but it didn't take a full stroke and that pretty face dissolved into Ronon's face, and the sound of his own voice telling him to make it hurt.
John groaned as the Ronon in his head shoved him into a wall, one hand holding him there while the other moved to part his ass cheeks. John bowed his head into the stream of water and bit his lip as he imagined the burn, the stretching and the pain that would come with it. He flushed as Ronon's voice growled wordlessly in his mind and his cock spilled out into the water circling the drain.
He chastised himself as he got dressed. He needed to nip this and quickly. He wasn't going to jeopardize his career, not to mention the people who depended on him, over some passing fantasy.
And that's all that this was.
He nodded to his reflection in the mirror. Nothing more. Ronon was a teammate, more than that, John was his immediate supervisor. It was unethical on so many levels. He squared his shoulders and set off to meet the rest of his team and Lorne, determined that that would be the end of it.
Of course, that lasted about as long as it took Ronon to growl his name.
"Sheppard." Just the sound of his voice, the hard edge to get his attention, was enough to take him right back to the desire he was trying to bury.
John turned and Ronon was pointing at the path Lorne's team had cleared. John nodded to him, then turned to where Rodney was still fussing with his equipment. "Lorne said the important stuff is a ways from the gate, Rodney."
"Right, like Lorne would know the important stuff from a child's toy." Rodney said, though he looked up, changing his course.
Teyla shook her head as she followed. John brought up the rear, keeping Teyla and Rodney between him and Ronon for the moment while he got himself back under control. The path led them into a fairly thick forest, where ruins of once mammoth buildings were being taken over by the growth. They moved through the cleared area fairly quickly and as they passed through an arch into a room with a canopy of leaves for a roof, equipment all around them came to life.
"I guess this is the place." John commented, stopping just inside the archway.
Rodney bent over the sensor in his hand, circling the room and making clucking noises. John waited, leaning on the arch and watching. Eventually, Rodney came to a stop in the middle of the room in front of a console and looked up. "There has to be at least on ZPM here. The energy readings are…" He trailed off, his forehead creasing as he frowned down at his computer.
"Rodney?" John prompted when he was quiet for a minute.
"This is going to take some time." Rodney looked up. He unbuckled his pack and started pulling out cables. "It looks like some sort of control room, but I won't know what it's controlling until I can get into the interface and make some preliminary readings."
John nodded. "Okay, Teyla, you stay with Rodney. Ronon, and I will set up a perimeter." Lorne and his men hadn't encountered any problems, but a jungle like this was bound to have wildlife of some kind.
Ronon twirled his gun and re-holstered it with a grin, coming toward John and the archway. "Stay in radio contact." John said as they left the room. "Head east, I'll go west."
They set out in separate directions, giving John some time to concentrate on something other than Ronon.
"I got nothing." Ronon said over the radio a few minutes later.
"Me too." John replied. "No signs of any animals, birds…"
"Kinda strange, isn't it?"
"Kinda." John agreed. He circled around a tree and stopped to look up into the thick canopy of leaves. "Never heard of a jungle with no wild life."
He kept moving, tensing when he heard movement, then relaxing when he saw Ronon. More ruins jutted out of trees up ahead, out of the area that had been cleared. A break in the trees let the sunlight in, showing off silver-grey walls the were crumbling, and shiny objects inside.
John gestured toward it and Ronon grinned. "Let's check it out."
"Teyla, this is Sheppard. Ronon and I spotted some more ruins north of you. We're going to check them out."
"Understood, Colonel." Teyla acknowledged.
"Don't touch anything." Rodney added.
John shook his head. "We won't, Rodney." They set out toward the ruins. "Big honking weapons."
Ronon frowned at him. "Huh?"
"That's my bet." John said, hitching his thumb back toward Rodney and Teyla. "I'm betting we found weapons."
Ronon raised an eyebrow at him. "In the middle of a jungle, on a planet this far from anything?"
John shrugged. "Could be."
Ronon snorted but didn't respond. "Okay, Mr. Know-It-All, what do you think it is?"
He shrugged. "Don't know."
"You're no fun." John stopped at the break in the wall, peering into the building…that wasn't exactly a building. "That's odd."
"What?" Ronon leaned in around him. "Huh."
The other side of the wall was open space, no consoles, no walls, no stone floor…just a long stretch of space that ended in more trees. John pulled back and looked to the left. The wall stretched on through the trees, disappearing into the foliage some hundreds of yards away. It was the same to the right.
"So, were they keeping something in…or out…?" John asked, peeking back through the wall again.
"Whichever it was, looks like it failed." Ronon said.
"Rodney, Teyla, we found something. We're going to investigate a little."
"What kind of something?" Rodney asked, impatience clear in his voice.
"A wall." John responded. "It seems to be a boundary of some kind."
"Keeping something out, or in?" Rodney asked.
"Well, I don't know Rodney. That's why we're going to investigate."
"Just be careful. I haven't figured out what this place is."
"I'm always careful. Sheppard out." He shook his head in annoyance. "Let's go this way." He pointed east and they followed the wall, stepping around debris and finding at least three more breaches in the wall before they found what looked like the entrance to the area.
The archway stood a good five feet above the highest level of the wall and judging by the hinges set into the stone there had once been doors hanging there. A control panel set into the arch lit up as John got close to it. He touched his earpiece. "Teyla, Rodney."
"Go ahead, Colonel."
"We found a doorway into the contained area. There's a control pad, but the doors are gone. There's still power though. The controls are lit up."
"The controls probably operated the doors and a shield of some kind." Rodney's voice said.
"That sounds like you've figured out what this place is." John prompted.
"I have. I think." John could almost picture Rodney shaking his head. "I'm not positive yet, but I think it was being used as a prison of sorts. I'm just hacking into their database now, but judging on the controls and power output…that wall was the physical boundary between prisoners and guards, but what really kept them was the shield."
"Which I take it is turned off now?" John asked, leaning in the archway to peer around.
"Not so much turned off as not working." Rodney countered. "I'm still figuring things out."
"Any prisoners that were here must be long gone, just like the guards, right?"
"I don't know, I guess so."
"So how long before you figure out where the ZPM is?"
"A while. The configuration of this facility is vastly different-"
"Ronon and I are going to check this out. Let me know when you have something."
"Colonel, let me just-"
John cut him off and walked through the archway, pausing just inside, expecting something to happen. These places had ways of going bad spectacularly fast. Ronon followed him through the arch and there was a weird whirring sound from the stone.
Ronon's hand grabbed his shoulder and John whirled, just in time to see the world disappear.
Suddenly it felt as if his entire body was being crushed, all but the place where Ronon's hand connected with him. Fire and ice crawled through his limbs and he couldn't tell which way was up as they were tumbled and dropped, rolling together as they hit the ground.
They landed with Ronon half on top of him, neither of them moving for a long minute. When Ronon lifted his head, he groaned and rolled to the side, landing beside John in the very long grass.
"That hurt." John muttered. He mentally checked himself over and decided he wasn't injured, just sore. "You okay?"
"Think so," came the grunted response.
John pushed himself up on his elbows and looked around them. They seemed to be in some clearing in the middles of trees, the grass grown up to nearly knee high. All around the clearing there were standing stones, like this was some sort of ceremonial place at one time.
He reached for his earpiece, only to find it gone. As was his P-90. And his glock. "I don't like this."
He sat up and patted himself down. The knife in his boot was still there, but his watch and any form of tech was gone. One glance at Ronon told him he was experiencing the same loss. "Okay, we need to figure out what happened."
He got to his feet a split second before Ronon and a voice filled the clearing. "Greetings, and welcome to Pelzing. Current population is 102 human beings. Current dangers are bessor beasts and compla monkeys in the woods, ga sharks in the ocean and several species of poisonous snakes in the fields. Current food supply includes ripening berries found in the brush in the woods, carron beans and wheat from the north fields."
"Isn't that helpful…" John said sarcastically.
"What the hell is a bessor beast?" Ronon asked.
"I say let's not find out." John responded. He headed toward one of the stones, figuring that they weren't just stones. "The Ancients used stones like these to hide their technology on other planets. Maybe we can find a way to contact Rodney."
"If we weren't transported to a different planet." Ronon countered, heading to the opposite side of the circle.
"There's that." John found no indication on the first stone that it was anything other than carved rock. The same with the next one. "So what do you think? Prison?"
Ronon was on his third stone. "Maybe. Effective."
"I suppose." John moved to another stone, and it opened when his hand touched it. "Aha. See." He waved a hand at the control drawer, then bit his lip.
"So, you know what to do with that?" Ronon asked, joining him.
"Not a clue." John confided. He touched a crystal and there was a shimmer, a woman appearing in miniature at the top of the stone. "Hello."
She inclined her head graciously. "Greetings, I am Anaia. How may I service you?"
John licked his lips and glanced up at Ronon. "Well, ah, how about tell us where we are?"
"You are in Pelzing."
"Not entirely helpful." John said. "How do we get back to where we came from?"
"The return crystal must be placed in the slot indicated below." She waved her little hand at the tray.
"Return crystal?" Ronon shrugged at him and John sighed. "We seem to have forgotten ours."
"There is no return without a crystal. The barrier brought you here. Here you will remain in Pelzing and live out your days as our forefathers did."
"Great. Not what I had in mind." He looked around them, then back at the hologram. "Can we communicate with where we came from?"
"All communication must be initiated from outside the barrier. I can relay a request for contact."
"Yes, do that." John agreed.
"Where is the barrier?" Ronon asked. "Maybe we can walk it?"
"Good question." John turned to look at her. "Where is the barrier from here?"
"You are in the center of Pelzing, the barrier surrounds Pelzing in all directions."
"Again, with the not exactly helpful" John said. "How far is it to the barrier?"
"The barrier lies three hundred units from the center."
"Units?" John sighed when she just looked at him. "What is a unit?" It was like talking to a child.
"A unit is the distance the average adult male can walk in a single cycle of the sun."
Too far to walk unless they had no other choice. The trees around them rustled and an animal growled somewhere in the undergrowth.
"What is Pelzing?" John asked, squinting at her as Ronon moved in front of the stone, a knife in his hand. "Is it a prison?"
"Pelzing is home to those who could not conform to society's growth and protested the embracing of the ways of the Ancestors over the ways of our forefathers. In the great wisdom of Kaala, it was decided to afford them a place where they could live in the ways of the forefathers, protected from the intrusion of all modern convenience and advancement."
"So, prison." Ronon confirmed, moving away. The noise coming from the trees was getting closer.
"There is a pack of bessors approaching," the hologram said.
"What exactly is a bessor?" John asked, pulling the knife from his boot. The hologram disappeared to be replaced by an image of rust colored, hairless beast on four legs, but as the voice started to extol the many attributes of the bessor, one of them charged through the brush at Ronon.
It was nearly waist high, charging at Ronon with its head lowered and nasty looking horns protruding from its face. Ronon squared off, watching it come, and jumping aside at the last minute, pouncing on it and sinking his knife into its neck.
The beast screamed and thrashed, dropping Ronon and dragging him before he let go. It took off running through the brush and Ronon rolled up to his knees with another knife in his hand. John grabbed at his shoulder and urged him up as three larger bessor beasts came charging through the brush, noses raised, smelling the blood on the air. A chorus of growling let him know that there was more than the three they could see.
"I think maybe we should go." John said softly, watching the nearest of them.
"The bessor is a formidable opponent in the forest where the leaves shield their sensitive eyes from the bright sun," the recorded voice said. "Bessor beasts do not like light and are unable to swim."
"That would be helpful if there was water anywhere close by." John said sarcastically.
"The nearest body of water is a lake east of the center, one quarter of a micro-unit." The beasts were starting to do more than staring.
"You heard her." John shoved Ronon toward the east and started running himself. The nearest of the monsters started to follow and by the time they trees were starting to thin around them, it sounded like a whole damn herd behind them.
John dared a glance behind them. They were coming fast, maybe faster than John and Ronon could out run. His toe caught on a rock or tree root and he stumbled forward, into Ronon, sending them both sprawling. Ronon recovered faster, his hands grabbing John and yanking him clear as two sets of teeth targeted his stomach.
"Water." Ronon growled into his ear, and this was not the time for his body to decide that that was sexy.
John dug his feet into the soft ground and pushed himself up, letting Ronon guide him as they moved and he tried to get himself turned around. Water splashed up around his ankles, then his calves and they both dove into the water, swimming out into deeper water as six of the beasts came out of the woods and stopped cold.
The big one pawed and the ground and snorted, pacing up and down the water's edge. "How long you figure we gotta tread water out here?" John asked, turning to look around them at the tree lined lake.
"Could be worse. At least it's warm." Ronon responded. "There's rocks over there." He pointed toward a pile of boulders. "I'll bet those things can't climb."
John nodded and started to swim. The water was cooler near the rocks, but still not cold. A ledge of dark gray stone hung out over the water. Ronon leapt up and grabbed the overhanging rock with one hand, then the other. His muscles bulged in his arms as he hauled himself up, then leaned over to help John.
Their hands clasped together and Ronon pulled until John could get his free hand on the rock and help. A few seconds later they both lay dripping on warm rock, staring up into a fading blue sky. John sat up once he'd caught his breath and turned to look back at the place where they'd entered the water. Only two of the bessors remained, nosing along the shore.
"You okay?" John asked as Ronon peeled off his wet shirt.
"Yeah, you?" John nodded and started to undo his vest.
"So what now?"
John considered that for a minute. "Now, we wait for Rodney to figure out what happened and how to get us back."
Ronon snorted. "You got a plan B?"
"Rodney is very capable." John insisted, laying out his vest on the rock to try to dry it out. "We got maybe another three hours of sunlight. We should find shelter for the night."
Ronon stretched and stood, looking around them. "Cave?" He pointed upward.
John looked up at him, but couldn't look past the water dripping off his dreadlocks onto his skin. Ronon cleared his throat and John could feel himself flushing, his eyes flicking to Ronon's.
The big man looked amused, his eyebrow raised. John followed the line of his arm with his eyes and spotted the dark spot. "Let's just make sure we aren't party crashing."
Ronon chuckled and lifted his shirt from the rock, squeezing out the water he could before he headed up the pile of rocks.
"Cool, John. Real cool." He exhaled and concentrated on not watching Ronon's back, or ass, or his broad shoulders, as he climbed up behind him. He did fine with that too. Right up until Ronon reached out a big hand to grab his wrist when his foot slipped.
Suddenly, John's brain slammed into full on fantasy mode, Ronon's hand on his wrist becoming the leverage his head needed to drop him into that hand curling his wrist up behind his back, shoving him into the wall. His eyes closed and he swallowed hard, pushing himself past the rush of desire.
When he opened his eyes, Ronon was still holding his wrist, watching him. That eyebrow lifted again and John shook his head. "Thanks."
"You sure?" Ronon asked, looking at his hand and slowly uncurling his fingers.
John nodded. "Yeah. Slipped."
"Noticed."
John could feel his eyes and the responding flush of want through his body. "Can we just…" he waved at the climb still ahead of them.
Ronon leaned in slow, his mouth hovering near John's ear. "I notice lots of things."
By the time John had processed the words, Ronon was climbing and nearly to the cave. He pressed the heel of one palm against his half hard cock, willing it to subside. He exhaled again and started climbing again.
Ronon was sitting on the rock outside the cave when John finally got there, his chest bare, his shirt spread out to dry in the last of the sunlight. "Cave's empty. Small, but empty."
John spread his vest out beside Ronon's shirt, then unzipped his jacket and laid that out too. He ducked into the cave. Ronon wasn't wrong, there was barely room for the two of them inside. It was going to make it an interesting night.
"Okay, we need to get dry. I don't know how cold it gets here at night, but I'm betting we'll both sleep more comfortably if we're not wet." John said as he ducked back out of the cave, only to find Ronon already ahead of him. And naked.
Naked.
John stopped, staring at Ronon's naked ass as he spread out his pants on the rocks. Forcefully, John made himself turn away. He was not going to embarrass himself any more than he already had. He was not going to fantasize about his team mate. He was going to be professional.
"Your clothes will dry faster if you take them off." Ronon's voice said behind him.
"I know that." John said, still not moving to disrobe any further than he had.
"You need help with that?" Ronon asked, just a touch of humor in his voice.
John huffed. "No." And he sounded far too petulant. His hand hovered at the hem of his t-shirt, but still he hesitated.
Suddenly Ronon was behind him, his hands on John's hips. "You sure?" Ronon asked in his ear, his voice deep and low.
"Stop." John said, though his voice didn't sound very sure.
Ronon's hands fell away and he took a step back. "Okay."
John couldn't breathe with the wanting Ronon not to stop…with the way Ronon did just as he was told…with the knowledge that Ronon would do whatever he was told…whatever John commanded. He was hard and he turned toward the rock face as he tried to pull himself together.
"Ronon." He couldn't make himself say more though. Exhaling deeply, John knelt to untie his boots and get his socks off. He didn't let himself think about it as he stripped down to his boxer-briefs. He busied himself with laying out his clothes to dry, keeping his back to Ronon, hiding the bulge in his underwear, the aching need revealed in the taught line of his cock.
When he couldn't prevent it anymore, John dropped his hand to cover himself and sat beside Ronon, looking out at the land around them, not at the smirk on Ronon's face.
"Stupid." Ronon said after a while.
"Excuse me?" John asked, glancing at him.
"Your rules. They're stupid." Ronon replied. He leaned back, letting the long, graceful line of his body catch the light of the sun now starting to set. John couldn't help but look, his eyes widening as he realized that Ronon was also hard. "On Sateda, it's expected."
"What is?" John asked, though his head was screaming warnings that this was not the proper conversation to be having with the man he was about to spend a very close quartered night with.
"Sex." Ronon supplied. "Good for loyalty, builds morale. A satisfied soldier isn't distracted."
John shook his head. There was so much more to it. "That isn't what the rule is about."
"Maybe not, but it's stupid." Ronon's hand moved over his cock, slow and completely distracting.
John tried not to watch, but didn't succeed very well. "There are reasons."
Ronon snorted. "Right. Like what?"
John shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something, but had nothing to say.
"On Sateda, when your commander gave you an order, you obeyed."
John knew better. He knew this was wrong. He knew. And yet, when he opened his mouth that didn't seem to matter. "So if I ordered you to kiss me…"
Ronon moved closer. "I would have no choice." He leaned in, his lips hovering over John's jaw line. "Is that an order, Sheppard?"
John couldn't move, his eyes flicking up to Ronon's. "Yes," he breathed and before the word was complete, Ronon's mouth covered his, tongue surging past John's lips as Ronon pressed him back. John whimpered as his back touched rock and Ronon's body covered his, but when Ronon would have pulled away, John grabbed his dreads and pulled him back, teeth and tongues crashing together as they kissed.
Ronon's hard cock pressed into the tight cotton of his boxer-briefs, rubbing against John's cock. It was more stimulation than he'd had from anything but his own hand in recent months and it was rapidly becoming more than he could keep still under. Ronon rolled his hips and John gasped, arching under him and making Ronon chuckle.
"Like that?"
John clutched at him. "Don't stop."
"Yes, sir." Ronon responded, snapping his hips forward to drag his leaking cock over John's cotton covered one. John moaned and reached for his cock, grabbing it through the underwear just as he came. Ronon reached for his own, stroking it a couple of times before he too was coming.
John closed his eyes as Ronon moved, his stomach twisting.
"See, not so bad." Ronon said, tapping John's shoulder as he sat up.
"We shouldn't…it was wrong…I shouldn't have told you to do that."
Ronon made a face at him. "Did it feel good?"
"Well…" Hell, it had been better than he'd had in a long time, maybe not the way he'd fantasized, but… "Yes, okay? It felt good."
"Then how can it be wrong?" Ronon leaned back. "You need to loosen up."
"I need my head examined." John countered. "I'm your commanding officer. I shouldn't be…"
"Having sex?" Ronon supplied.
"With you. It's wrong." John stood, his underwear now wet with more than lake water. "We have rules."
"Stupid ones." Ronon said, laying back, pillowing his head on his hands.
"Maybe…but they're still rules that I have to obey." The sky was turning a deep indigo blue, all but a strip at the horizon line which was flaming red.
"Look, I'm not stupid." Ronon looked up at him. "You've been looking at me since we met. You wanted it. I wanted it. If you never want to do it again, that's fine."
John honestly didn't know what he wanted. Other than to get off this planet and back to Atlantis where at least he understood how to make the rules work for him and keep him from giving in to his desire.
"We should get some sleep."
"I'll sit watch." Ronon offered. "You sleep. I'll wake you in a few hours."
John didn't answer, just crawled into the cave and laid down on the hard, warm rock. He was sure he wouldn't sleep. Almost hoped he wouldn't, because he was sure if he did, he'd dream about the big Satedan taking orders all too well.