Preexisting Conditions by darkrose & telesilla
Preexisting Conditions
Author: darkrosetiger & telesilla
Pairing Rodney/Ronon
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4,889
Disclaimer: The SGA characters do not belong to us. Duh.
Summary: Ronon and Rodney's Big Gay Atlantis Courtship continues with their second date.
Notes: This is a sequel to Reasonable and Customary and will only make sense if you read that one first. Many thanks to cesperanza for extending the deadline of the sga_flashfic Background challenge for us; we really appreciate it. And yes, the title is another common insurance term; why break a streak?
Rodney didn't really have to make much of an effort to smile more than usual on the morning after his date with Ronon. They'd walked back to Rodney's quarters and really, Rodney thought he was the very model of restraint for not hauling Ronon into his room and having his way with him right there. There was, of course, the fact that it was doubtful that Rodney could do anything of the kind if Ronon didn't want it, but that was beside the point. Rodney hadn't tried, and while it made for one hell of a frantic jerking off session less than five minutes after the door closed with Ronon on the wrong side, Rodney still felt rather virtuous about the whole thing.
That didn't stop him from taking the time to jerk off that morning in the shower, which, as much as the date, put him in a good mood. If he radiated smugness on his way to the mess hall for breakfast, it was only to be expected.
After a quick glance around the room, he decided that the safest table was a small one off to the side--and all the way across the room from the table Cadman was sharing with several other Marines--and he smiled at Teyla as he sat down opposite her.
"You seem to be in an excellent mood this morning," she said as he savored his first sip of coffee. "Your date with Ronon went well?"
"Yeah," he said, and while the question would have been annoying from Cadman and bizarre from anyone else, Teyla managed it with ease. "It was...really nice."
"I am glad," Teyla said. "Please pass the salt."
They spent the rest of breakfast talking about their next mission and if Teyla knew that Rodney was using her to keep certain blonde marines at bay, she was polite enough not to mention it. He didn't see Ronon, but he didn't expect to; both of them were early risers, but Ronon ran with Sheppard every morning that he could, while Rodney ate and then made his way to the labs.
As he finished eating and said goodbye to Teyla, he couldn't help wondering just how Ronon's run with Sheppard had gone. Better him than me, he thought with a certain degree of amusement. Maybe he'll get Sheppard to flail more.
* * *
Ronon waited until they'd started back to see if Sheppard was going to work up the nerve to ask about the date. When it became clear that although he was dying to know, he wasn't going to say anything, Ronon decided to give him a break. Sort of.
"So maybe you can tell me...on Earth, how many dates do you have to go on before you can have sex?"
Sheppard stopped running so abruptly that he almost fell over. Ronon fought to keep his own face blank, but the way Sheppard was turning bright red made him wish he'd brought a camera so he could show Rodney later.
"Didn't we already cover the part where I'm not supposed to be having this conversation with someone on my team?" Sheppard said when he could breathe again.
Ronon shrugged. "I'm not gonna be sleeping with you; does that "don't tell" stuff still apply?"
"No, but I don't want to know! I take it that oversharing is part of the process?"
"You asked me before--that day Beckett almost got killed," Ronon pointed out.
"Uh...yeah, right. Look, it's not that I have a problem, it's just that with you, and then Rodney, it's like how you don't like to think about your parents having sex..."
Ronon folded his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow.
"Not that I'm saying you're like my parents! It's weird, but not that weird. I take it things went okay, then?"
Ronon closed his eyes for a moment and wondered why he'd ever thought Rodney was hard to follow when he started babbling.
"It went okay," he told Sheppard. "I think." He stopped running again, "You didn't answer my question, though."
Sheppard ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up even more, and at odd angles. "Honestly, I don't really know," he said, sounding apologetic. "I was a military brat, so I usually didn't have enough time to get to know girls and do the whole dating/borrow the car/take her to prom thing, and then at the Academy, I was too busy to really date."
Ronon sighed. "Don't know who to ask. I got the feeling Rodney doesn't want me talking to Cadman about it."
"Uh, no--that would be bad...oh, I know--Elizabeth."
"You want me to ask Dr. Weir how many dates before sex?" Ronon figured Sheppard was yanking his chain, and under the circumstances it was only fair, but he was curious to see how long Sheppard could keep a straight face.
"Well, I know she was seeing someone before the expedition left, and you know, women have a better sense of these things, so..."
"'kay. I'll tell her you said to ask her." Ronon glanced over at Sheppard, who opened his mouth and closed it again. Ronon grinned at him. Point to me.
* * *
"Can you get Ronon to stop asking me for dating advice?" Sheppard was carefully looking at the box of "unimportant Ancient artifacts we haven't figured out yet;" he hadn't really looked at Rodney since he came into Rodney's small private lab.
Rodney gave him a look. "Do I look like I can stop Ronon from doing anything?" He frowned. "Although honestly, why he'd go to you...." Actually Rodney knew perfectly well why Ronon would go to Sheppard and he wished like hell he'd been there to see the look on Sheppard's face.
"He's just trying to do things the right way," he continued and, wow yeah, that was still pretty amazing. And flattering.
"Yeah well," Sheppard scratched as the back of his neck, "the ins and outs of gay dating are something I'm not all that up on." He finally looked up at Rodney. "Didn't know you were either."
"Not something I make a big deal about for obvious reasons," Rodney said, trying to figure out Sheppard's expression. "Um...it's not a problem is it? Me being on the team and all?"
"I'm the last to know?" Sheppard said and Rodney nodded.
"Yeah, Teyla caught me...well it's not important and anyway it's not like anyone else was sleeping alone on Trantia." Sheppard scratched the back of his neck again and Rodney remembered the girl Sheppard had spent the night with and how surprised he'd looked when she settled next to him at dinner.
"Well yeah, there is that," Sheppard said. "And yeah, we're good. Just...Ronon wants to talk about it and for me it's like...I dunno, I guess it'd be like you thinking about Jeannie having sex."
"Oh ew," Rodney said, but underneath the understandable mental cringe, he could feel a happy little glow. That they were friends, he knew, but the idea that Sheppard thought of him as family....
"I'll try to get him to back off," he said, briskly. "And anyway it's my turn to ask him out, so don't worry about it."
"Yeah well," Sheppard grinned the smile that made him look like a demented twelve-year-old. "I sicced him on Elizabeth."
"You, Colonel, are an evil, evil man."
* * *
After a couple of hours spent playing with the Ancient toys and not talking about dating, Sheppard wandered off, bitching about paperwork. Rodney leaned back in his chair and thought about his next move. As nice as it was to be courted, Rodney wasn't sure he was all that wild about being relegated to being the "girl."
It was time for him to ask Ronon out.
Of course the problem with that was that Rodney had no idea what to do for a second date. There was movie night, but while he was sure everyone on Atlantis knew about his and Ronon's Big Gay Romance--and hopefully there wouldn't be any backlash over that--sitting with a bunch of people and holding hands during some stupid movie didn't sound like fun.
Having sex sounds like fun, he thought, but a second date was probably too soon.
That left...well hanging out, pretty much like they had last time. And really, Rodney had nothing against hanging out. It had occurred to Rodney that he really knew very little about Ronon and while he didn't want to grill the guy, still it would be nice to have some background information.
Before he could lose his nerve, he got up, locked up his lab and headed for the gym.
Ronon had just finished tossing some Marines around the gym when Rodney came in. He nodded, but waited until the last (slightly bruised) Marine staggered out before going over to him. Ronon grinned.
"Decided you want to learn to fight?" he asked. "I won't mind teaching you if you do."
"Oh God no," Rodney said. "Honestly, I'd rather not associate you with the kind of humiliation that comes of getting my ass kicked. I'll go to Teyla for that."
"Long as you don't think she'll go easy on you," Ronon warned him. "Especially if she likes you--then she's even worse." He shook his head. "That woman can be damned scary when she wants to be."
He moved a little closer. "So were you just wandering around, or were you looking for me?"
"Looking for you," Rodney said. "And you know it's really disturbing how hot you are when you're all sweaty like this." He glared at Ronon. "It's not fair."
Ronon's grin broadened. "Want me to take a shower, then?"
And really the idea of Ronon in the shower was something that Rodney hadn't really thought about much, but now that he had....
"Yeah, because I was going to ask you to come over tonight and while sweaty is nice and all, I've been given to understand that starting a date out that way isn't a good idea." Ending it that way on the other hand....
Ronon arched an eyebrow. "What'd you have in mind? Just, um...hanging out?" Not that Ronon would say no to more, but he doesn't want to push, either.
"I'm not sure what other options we have," Rodney said. "If we were back on Earth we could go out to dinner or to a concert or a movie. But here...sure we could do movie night if you like but really, hanging out watching a movie with people we actually have to work with isn't the same as seeing one in the theater. So...sorry, but I just figured maybe we could get dinner and bring it back to my room and just...you know, talk some and...I want to know more about you."
"Sounds good." Ronon debated giving Rodney a kiss, but decided against that. Later--when no one's likely to walk in on us. "See you in a bit."
Ronon took a few minutes to jerk off in the shower, figuring that it'd calm him down some. It did, but he still felt jittery, like he'd had too much of that stuff the Lanteans claimed was coffee. On impulse, he grabbed the bag with his current project before going to the mess to pick up some food.
Rodney'd already grabbed his own dinner and brought it back. He left the tray sitting on his desk and spent a little time tidying up his room before bringing out a bottle of Athosian ale and a couple of glasses. He was just pulling on a clean shirt--the one with the periodic table of the elements on it--when his door chime rang.
"Hey," he said, running a hand over his hair. "C'mon in."
Rodney's room was probably a little bigger than Ronon's, but it was hard to tell because Rodney had so much stuff. Ronon looked around for a place to sit and finally just plopped down, cross-legged on the floor.
"Who's that?" he asked after a few bites, pointing his fork at a picture of a woman holding a small animal in her arms.
"That's my neighbor back on Earth. And the cat is Fermi; I had to leave him with her when we came here. I miss him. Well most of the time; I don't miss the hairballs or that thing where he'd walk on my bladder at five in the morning."
"I had a boreshi when I was a kid," Ronon says. "Looked kind of like that, only a lot bigger." He held his hand out about three feet off the floor. "Drove my mother crazy, all the fur everywhere and him whining when I was at school and he wanted to go out."
He took a swig of the ale and smiled. "That's the stuff...thanks."
"Before I could afford to pay a cleaning service...back when I was in grad school, I lived in this funky old place with hardwood floors." Rodney smiled a little remembering the crappy little Boston apartment that was the first place he lived in on his own.
"And Freon--he was my first cat and there's a whole weird story behind his name that's really only funny if you were there--was a long hair. Drifts of cat hair everywhere. I saw this guy for a while but it didn't work out because he was totally allergic and let me tell you, nothing puts a damper on your sex life like having your boyfriend fall asleep in the middle of fucking you because he had to take a Benadryl."
Caught off guard, Ronon almost spit a mouthful of ale across the room. "Are you serious? He fell asleep?" He shook his head, then looked at Rodney speculatively. "So...uh...mind if I ask...you said 'him'--were you always into guys?"
"Well he really didn't fall asleep at first, but the yawning was a real turn off." Rodney paused to eat a few more bites.
"I like sex," he finally said. "I like girls well enough but...I do better with guys. It was always easier to just go to a gay bar, hook up with someone and get the need out of your system." He shrugged. "No expectations that way."
Ronon wasn't sure exactly what Rodney meant, but the general idea was clear. "Yeah...I mean, it wasn't quite the same, but...girls can be complicated." He went quiet for a minute, then shakes his head again. "I don't get you people, though--even with guys, you make it complicated with all the rules and stuff."
"It's a religious thing," Rodney said, sneering a little. "There's this point in the text of one of our dominant religions that says something about gay sex being forbidden. And then morons insist on a literal interpretation of that bit but not of the bit that says cheeseburgers are forbidden." He finished his mashed potatoes and licked the fork to get the last of the gravy.
"It's so fucking stupid and the idea that there are these rules that come from a Supreme Being but that you get to choose which ones to follow and which ones not to drives me nuts."
"Sounds kind of like Sateda a few hundred years ago," Ronon said after taking a moment to process Rodney's comment; he was getting better at it, but some things still took a little time to work out. "Back...right after the last time the Wraith came...it was more important for people to have kids then. By the time my parents were growing up, it wasn't as big of a deal if you didn't have any children, so there wasn't any real reason to keep people from getting with whoever they wanted--provided they were from the 'right' family, of course," he added bitterly.
"And your...Melena? She wasn't from the right family?" Rodney poured Ronon some more ale. "Um...we don't have to talk about this if you'd rather not."
"S'okay," Ronon said quietly. "I haven't...it's been what, eight years now? Nine? I tried not to think about her when I was running, because I couldn't...I wouldn't have been able to go on. Then when that son of a bitch brought me back, and I there in the damned hospital..." His hand tightened on the glass and he set it down carefully.
"Her parents were farmers, and they didn't even own most of the land they worked. My mother thought she wasn't good enough for me, and my father thought I'd be better off with someone who would--I don't know, someone who had better connections. He was still holding out hope that when I finished my stint in the army, I'd go back to school and study law instead of literature."
Rodney really wanted to just blurt out something like "oh my God, you were a lit major?!" but he managed to hold it back. And people say I'm not sensitive.
"I'm sorry," he finally says. "It's not fair that you lost so much." And maybe that was a kind of stupid thing to say, because if there was anything they undoubtedly agree on, it's that the world isn't fair.
"She died quickly, and the Wraith didn't get their filthy hands on her," Ronon said. "And even if we lost...there are still some of us left, and we did fight back." He smiled a little. "Melena always refused to give up hope; it's why she wouldn't leave, even when we knew the Wraith were coming. She still believed we could win. That's what I like about you people--it just doesn't seem to occur to Sheppard that anything else is possible. You too; you just pretend like you think we're always going to die."
"Oh now you're just being ridiculous," Rodney said, although he was touched by the compliment. Getting up, he continued talking as he rummaged around in his desk. "And anyway, you're totally utterly wrong. you know. I can't count the number of times I've been utterly certain we're all about to die."
"We haven't yet," Ronon pointed out. He leaned back on his elbows, not bothering to hide the fact that he was checking out Rodney's ass.
"It's only a matter of time," Rodney replied. "Oh there you are, you bastard." He pulled the white box out and turned back to Ronon. "I have to hide these from Sheppard; he's got an incredible nose for sniffing out junk food." He grinned. "You're going to love this."
Pulling out a Hostess cupcake, he handed it over to Ronon before tearing open the wrapping on one for himself. "The best thing is how they never go stale."
Ronon had learned to trust Rodney's opinion when it came to food, and he wasn't disappointed this time. The white filling was almost too sweet, but the chocolate frosting on top was good, especially when he copied Rodney and peeled it off to eat separately. Plus, watching Rodney lick frosting off his fingers is never really a bad thing. In fact...
Rodney was well aware of Ronon's eyes on him and he smirked a little as he finished his cupcake. "Thought you'd enjoy them," he said. "Um...do you mind if I put on some music?" This was where dates usually went wrong for Rodney--he could never figure out what to do that wasn't sex.
"Sure. Well, as long as it's not that stuff Sheppard listens to. Puts me to sleep almost as fast as meditating with Teyla does." Ronon sucked a finger into his mouth to make sure he'd gotten all of the chocolate off his hands before digging into his bag for his yarn and needles.
Bent over his computer, Rodney laughed. "Okay, nothing slow." He frowned a little and picked out a couple of Grieg piano concertos. "Hopefully these won't knock you...what the hell?" He stared at Ronon in shock. "You knit?!"
"Is that a problem, McKay?" Ronon said calmly, untangling the yarn. He squinted at Rodney, then frowned at the pile of wool in his lap. Hope this is going to be enough. The metal needles still felt a little strange to him--he was used to wooden ones--but they worked well enough, and in a pinch, they'd make excellent weapons.
"Well, not a problem," Rodney said, settling back down next to Ronon as the music started up. "It's just...I dunno, kind of incongruous. I've never been much for the whole idea that certain things are women's work, but you knitting seems...weird."
"My aunt taught me," Ronon explained. "I had way too much energy when I was a kid--always running around, breaking things by accident and banging myself up. Drove my parents crazy, but I just couldn't sit still. I hated not doing something, you know? So one day my Aunt Esta was visiting and she'd brought her knitting. I started watching--it was totally fascinating, to see how she took this pile of thread and put order to it. She asked if I wanted to learn, and I did. And it kept me quiet and sitting in one place for more than ten minutes at a stretch, so my parents were happy."
Rodney tilted his head, trying to picture Ronon as a restless little kid. It didn't work and he chuckled a little. "I can't imagine you with ADD," he finally said. "You're so patient and...." He waved a hand. "Self-contained."
"I settled down some when I was older, and then the army took care of the rest," Ronon said dryly. "No matter where you go, the military's the same: hurry up and wait."
He reached out and ran a hand over the top of Rodney's head. "You wouldn't have recognized me," he told him. "My hair was almost as short as yours back then."
Leaning into Ronon's caress, Rodney laughed a little. "And mine was lighter, curly and I had less forehead." Ronon's fingers felt good and Rodney wondered if he should start purring. "I was pretty much the same as a kid as I am now, though. If my parents hadn't been such jerks, I'd feel sorry for them in retrospect."
Ronon frowned a little. "They didn't...hurt you, or anything, did they?"
"Oh God no," Rodney said. "Neither of them would have raised a hand to a child. But they hated each other, which only makes sense since Dad was an investment banker and Mom was pretty much a hippie who taught at a Waldorf school...uh never mind, all you need to know is that they didn't agree on anything at all, which was probably hot when they first met--you know the whole fighting and making up thing--but honestly, once Jeannie and I came along, it got kind of ugly and there was a lot less of the making up."
He leaned closer to Ronon. "I don't talk about it much not so much because it was traumatic, although it was, but because it's over and they're dead and at some point there's no real point in dwelling on it."
"Is that why you see Kate?" Ronon asked curiously. He'd noticed Rodney leaving her office as he was going in, but he'd realized quickly that he wasn't supposed to mention that. Now, though, he figured he could get away with asking.
"Yeah," Rodney said. "Or at least part of it; I have to talk to her as a department head too. But you know, as a voodoo practitioner--because seriously, if you think medicine is bad, psychology is even more a matter of guesswork--she's not utterly incompetent."
Ronon smiled. "She reminds me a little of Melena," he told Rodney. "I didn't want to talk to her at first, but Dr. Weir kind of made me. It hasn't been so bad."
With Rodney leaning against him it was all Ronon can do not to just say "screw it" and jump him. Instead, he picked up his knitting again. "So what do you do with yourself when you're not working or eating?" he asked.
The abrupt change of subject didn't bother Rodney; he was plenty used to doing that kind of thing himself when he wanted to avoid a subject. "Sleep," he said, leaning back against the bed. "I've got a couple of really theoretical things I'm working...stuff that's mostly at the pen and paper and tearing out what little hair I have at this point stage." He smiles a little ruefully. "I've never known what to do with down time."
"You need to learn to relax," Ronon chided him. "Not too much, or we wouldn't recognize you, but still." He scooted back a little in an effort to reduce the temptation to rub Rodney's shoulders.
"You really don't want to see me trying to relax," Rodney said, sighing a little. "I kinda suck at it."
"Now there's a surprise." Ronon put down his knitting. "Move closer," he told Rodney.
After Rodney scooted closer, Ronon rested his hands on his shoulders for a moment, pressing a little to see where the worst knots were before he started trying to work them out.
"Ohhhh..." Rodney moaned as Ronon's fingers went to work on him. "That's...oh yeah...one way to get me to...mmmm harder, please?"
Okay, so maybe doing something that's going to get him to make sex noises wasn't the best idea, Ronon thought, digging his fingers into a particularly stubborn knot just below Rodney's right shoulder.
"Is there anywhere you're not tense?" he asked, sounding a little peevish even to his own ears.
"Sorry," Rodney snapped, although it was hard to be truly annoyed when he was being kneaded like this. "I told you...I suck at relaxing...ohhhh...that's a good spot."
Ronon couldn't help himself: he leaned in and licked the back of Rodney's neck. "Sorry," he said. "It was...you were just there. And you taste good."
"Oh God," Rodney moaned, leaning back a little more. "That feels...do it again."
"What, this?" Ronon put teeth into it, nibbling just above the spot where Rodney's neck ended and his back began. "Or this?" he whispered into Rodney's ear just before catching his earlobe in his teeth and tugging gently.
"Yes, all of it," Rodney said, tilting his head a little. "Oh fuck...that's one of my spots...." He let Ronon nibble on him more and then turned, sliding his hands under Ronon's dreads and dragging him in for a kiss.
Ronon pulled Rodney onto his lap and kissed him back hard, stroking Rodney's hair with one hand and rubbing his shoulders with the other. He tasted like chocolate and that strange chemical-mint toothpaste the Lanteans used; Ronon decided the combination worked on him.
Already hard after having his neck nibbled, Rodney moaned into Ronon's mouth and kissed back as thoroughly as he could. Keeping one hand tangled in Ronon's dreads--and wasn't that a new, and very cool, feeling--he slid the other between them. It was easy enough to reach through a gap in Ronon's shirt and find a nipple. He tugged at it lightly, his other fingers spread out across Ronon's surprisingly smooth chest.
His nipples had always been kind of sensitive, so when Rodney pinched one, Ronon gasped. He was so hard it ached, and he was starting to give serious thought to revising his plan to do everything properly.
"Is this what you sound like when you're getting fucked, McKay?" he growled. "Or when you've got someone's mouth on you?"
"Oh no," Rodney murmured, grinding against Ronon. He gave Ronon's nipple a sharp little tweak. "Don't go assuming I'm going to roll over every time," he added, leaning in to mouth at Ronon's ear. "And when I do? I'm a lot louder than this."
Ronon moaned. "What," he said when he could breathe again, " Did you think I was gonna let you get away with making me do all the work all the time?"
He closed his eyes, steeled himself, and carefully nudged Rodney off his lap. "Not tonight, though."
"See if I share my Hostess cupcakes with you again," Rodney grumbled, crossing his arms and glaring at Ronon as he sat back. "Seriously, I appreciate you're not wanting to treat me like I'm some kind of slut or something, but I'm finding that I have no problem being easy. For you."
"It's not that I don't want you," Ronon said, his tone serious, "And I like easy most of the time. It's just...it's been so long. I don't want to mess this up."
Leaning back a little Rodney looked at Ronon for a moment. God, he seems so damn young at times. "I know the feeling," he said. "You'll find that I'm actually pretty good at the having sex thing, it's the rest of it that I worry about." He shrugged. "So maybe, between the two of us, we can muddle through somehow."
"Yeah." Ronon took a deep breath. "Do you mind if...will it be a problem if I stay, and we just hang out for a while?"
"I'd like that," Rodney said, reaching for his tablet. "You can knit, I can go over some stuff, and we can compare notes on the latest morons dumped on us by the Daedalus." He unwrapped another Hostess cupcake and peeled off the frosting.
"Of course you realize, what with the knitting and you wanting a degree in Lit., that you're the girl here."
-end-
Author: darkrosetiger & telesilla
Pairing Rodney/Ronon
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4,889
Disclaimer: The SGA characters do not belong to us. Duh.
Summary: Ronon and Rodney's Big Gay Atlantis Courtship continues with their second date.
Notes: This is a sequel to Reasonable and Customary and will only make sense if you read that one first. Many thanks to cesperanza for extending the deadline of the sga_flashfic Background challenge for us; we really appreciate it. And yes, the title is another common insurance term; why break a streak?
Rodney didn't really have to make much of an effort to smile more than usual on the morning after his date with Ronon. They'd walked back to Rodney's quarters and really, Rodney thought he was the very model of restraint for not hauling Ronon into his room and having his way with him right there. There was, of course, the fact that it was doubtful that Rodney could do anything of the kind if Ronon didn't want it, but that was beside the point. Rodney hadn't tried, and while it made for one hell of a frantic jerking off session less than five minutes after the door closed with Ronon on the wrong side, Rodney still felt rather virtuous about the whole thing.
That didn't stop him from taking the time to jerk off that morning in the shower, which, as much as the date, put him in a good mood. If he radiated smugness on his way to the mess hall for breakfast, it was only to be expected.
After a quick glance around the room, he decided that the safest table was a small one off to the side--and all the way across the room from the table Cadman was sharing with several other Marines--and he smiled at Teyla as he sat down opposite her.
"You seem to be in an excellent mood this morning," she said as he savored his first sip of coffee. "Your date with Ronon went well?"
"Yeah," he said, and while the question would have been annoying from Cadman and bizarre from anyone else, Teyla managed it with ease. "It was...really nice."
"I am glad," Teyla said. "Please pass the salt."
They spent the rest of breakfast talking about their next mission and if Teyla knew that Rodney was using her to keep certain blonde marines at bay, she was polite enough not to mention it. He didn't see Ronon, but he didn't expect to; both of them were early risers, but Ronon ran with Sheppard every morning that he could, while Rodney ate and then made his way to the labs.
As he finished eating and said goodbye to Teyla, he couldn't help wondering just how Ronon's run with Sheppard had gone. Better him than me, he thought with a certain degree of amusement. Maybe he'll get Sheppard to flail more.
* * *
Ronon waited until they'd started back to see if Sheppard was going to work up the nerve to ask about the date. When it became clear that although he was dying to know, he wasn't going to say anything, Ronon decided to give him a break. Sort of.
"So maybe you can tell me...on Earth, how many dates do you have to go on before you can have sex?"
Sheppard stopped running so abruptly that he almost fell over. Ronon fought to keep his own face blank, but the way Sheppard was turning bright red made him wish he'd brought a camera so he could show Rodney later.
"Didn't we already cover the part where I'm not supposed to be having this conversation with someone on my team?" Sheppard said when he could breathe again.
Ronon shrugged. "I'm not gonna be sleeping with you; does that "don't tell" stuff still apply?"
"No, but I don't want to know! I take it that oversharing is part of the process?"
"You asked me before--that day Beckett almost got killed," Ronon pointed out.
"Uh...yeah, right. Look, it's not that I have a problem, it's just that with you, and then Rodney, it's like how you don't like to think about your parents having sex..."
Ronon folded his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow.
"Not that I'm saying you're like my parents! It's weird, but not that weird. I take it things went okay, then?"
Ronon closed his eyes for a moment and wondered why he'd ever thought Rodney was hard to follow when he started babbling.
"It went okay," he told Sheppard. "I think." He stopped running again, "You didn't answer my question, though."
Sheppard ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up even more, and at odd angles. "Honestly, I don't really know," he said, sounding apologetic. "I was a military brat, so I usually didn't have enough time to get to know girls and do the whole dating/borrow the car/take her to prom thing, and then at the Academy, I was too busy to really date."
Ronon sighed. "Don't know who to ask. I got the feeling Rodney doesn't want me talking to Cadman about it."
"Uh, no--that would be bad...oh, I know--Elizabeth."
"You want me to ask Dr. Weir how many dates before sex?" Ronon figured Sheppard was yanking his chain, and under the circumstances it was only fair, but he was curious to see how long Sheppard could keep a straight face.
"Well, I know she was seeing someone before the expedition left, and you know, women have a better sense of these things, so..."
"'kay. I'll tell her you said to ask her." Ronon glanced over at Sheppard, who opened his mouth and closed it again. Ronon grinned at him. Point to me.
* * *
"Can you get Ronon to stop asking me for dating advice?" Sheppard was carefully looking at the box of "unimportant Ancient artifacts we haven't figured out yet;" he hadn't really looked at Rodney since he came into Rodney's small private lab.
Rodney gave him a look. "Do I look like I can stop Ronon from doing anything?" He frowned. "Although honestly, why he'd go to you...." Actually Rodney knew perfectly well why Ronon would go to Sheppard and he wished like hell he'd been there to see the look on Sheppard's face.
"He's just trying to do things the right way," he continued and, wow yeah, that was still pretty amazing. And flattering.
"Yeah well," Sheppard scratched as the back of his neck, "the ins and outs of gay dating are something I'm not all that up on." He finally looked up at Rodney. "Didn't know you were either."
"Not something I make a big deal about for obvious reasons," Rodney said, trying to figure out Sheppard's expression. "Um...it's not a problem is it? Me being on the team and all?"
"I'm the last to know?" Sheppard said and Rodney nodded.
"Yeah, Teyla caught me...well it's not important and anyway it's not like anyone else was sleeping alone on Trantia." Sheppard scratched the back of his neck again and Rodney remembered the girl Sheppard had spent the night with and how surprised he'd looked when she settled next to him at dinner.
"Well yeah, there is that," Sheppard said. "And yeah, we're good. Just...Ronon wants to talk about it and for me it's like...I dunno, I guess it'd be like you thinking about Jeannie having sex."
"Oh ew," Rodney said, but underneath the understandable mental cringe, he could feel a happy little glow. That they were friends, he knew, but the idea that Sheppard thought of him as family....
"I'll try to get him to back off," he said, briskly. "And anyway it's my turn to ask him out, so don't worry about it."
"Yeah well," Sheppard grinned the smile that made him look like a demented twelve-year-old. "I sicced him on Elizabeth."
"You, Colonel, are an evil, evil man."
* * *
After a couple of hours spent playing with the Ancient toys and not talking about dating, Sheppard wandered off, bitching about paperwork. Rodney leaned back in his chair and thought about his next move. As nice as it was to be courted, Rodney wasn't sure he was all that wild about being relegated to being the "girl."
It was time for him to ask Ronon out.
Of course the problem with that was that Rodney had no idea what to do for a second date. There was movie night, but while he was sure everyone on Atlantis knew about his and Ronon's Big Gay Romance--and hopefully there wouldn't be any backlash over that--sitting with a bunch of people and holding hands during some stupid movie didn't sound like fun.
Having sex sounds like fun, he thought, but a second date was probably too soon.
That left...well hanging out, pretty much like they had last time. And really, Rodney had nothing against hanging out. It had occurred to Rodney that he really knew very little about Ronon and while he didn't want to grill the guy, still it would be nice to have some background information.
Before he could lose his nerve, he got up, locked up his lab and headed for the gym.
Ronon had just finished tossing some Marines around the gym when Rodney came in. He nodded, but waited until the last (slightly bruised) Marine staggered out before going over to him. Ronon grinned.
"Decided you want to learn to fight?" he asked. "I won't mind teaching you if you do."
"Oh God no," Rodney said. "Honestly, I'd rather not associate you with the kind of humiliation that comes of getting my ass kicked. I'll go to Teyla for that."
"Long as you don't think she'll go easy on you," Ronon warned him. "Especially if she likes you--then she's even worse." He shook his head. "That woman can be damned scary when she wants to be."
He moved a little closer. "So were you just wandering around, or were you looking for me?"
"Looking for you," Rodney said. "And you know it's really disturbing how hot you are when you're all sweaty like this." He glared at Ronon. "It's not fair."
Ronon's grin broadened. "Want me to take a shower, then?"
And really the idea of Ronon in the shower was something that Rodney hadn't really thought about much, but now that he had....
"Yeah, because I was going to ask you to come over tonight and while sweaty is nice and all, I've been given to understand that starting a date out that way isn't a good idea." Ending it that way on the other hand....
Ronon arched an eyebrow. "What'd you have in mind? Just, um...hanging out?" Not that Ronon would say no to more, but he doesn't want to push, either.
"I'm not sure what other options we have," Rodney said. "If we were back on Earth we could go out to dinner or to a concert or a movie. But here...sure we could do movie night if you like but really, hanging out watching a movie with people we actually have to work with isn't the same as seeing one in the theater. So...sorry, but I just figured maybe we could get dinner and bring it back to my room and just...you know, talk some and...I want to know more about you."
"Sounds good." Ronon debated giving Rodney a kiss, but decided against that. Later--when no one's likely to walk in on us. "See you in a bit."
Ronon took a few minutes to jerk off in the shower, figuring that it'd calm him down some. It did, but he still felt jittery, like he'd had too much of that stuff the Lanteans claimed was coffee. On impulse, he grabbed the bag with his current project before going to the mess to pick up some food.
Rodney'd already grabbed his own dinner and brought it back. He left the tray sitting on his desk and spent a little time tidying up his room before bringing out a bottle of Athosian ale and a couple of glasses. He was just pulling on a clean shirt--the one with the periodic table of the elements on it--when his door chime rang.
"Hey," he said, running a hand over his hair. "C'mon in."
Rodney's room was probably a little bigger than Ronon's, but it was hard to tell because Rodney had so much stuff. Ronon looked around for a place to sit and finally just plopped down, cross-legged on the floor.
"Who's that?" he asked after a few bites, pointing his fork at a picture of a woman holding a small animal in her arms.
"That's my neighbor back on Earth. And the cat is Fermi; I had to leave him with her when we came here. I miss him. Well most of the time; I don't miss the hairballs or that thing where he'd walk on my bladder at five in the morning."
"I had a boreshi when I was a kid," Ronon says. "Looked kind of like that, only a lot bigger." He held his hand out about three feet off the floor. "Drove my mother crazy, all the fur everywhere and him whining when I was at school and he wanted to go out."
He took a swig of the ale and smiled. "That's the stuff...thanks."
"Before I could afford to pay a cleaning service...back when I was in grad school, I lived in this funky old place with hardwood floors." Rodney smiled a little remembering the crappy little Boston apartment that was the first place he lived in on his own.
"And Freon--he was my first cat and there's a whole weird story behind his name that's really only funny if you were there--was a long hair. Drifts of cat hair everywhere. I saw this guy for a while but it didn't work out because he was totally allergic and let me tell you, nothing puts a damper on your sex life like having your boyfriend fall asleep in the middle of fucking you because he had to take a Benadryl."
Caught off guard, Ronon almost spit a mouthful of ale across the room. "Are you serious? He fell asleep?" He shook his head, then looked at Rodney speculatively. "So...uh...mind if I ask...you said 'him'--were you always into guys?"
"Well he really didn't fall asleep at first, but the yawning was a real turn off." Rodney paused to eat a few more bites.
"I like sex," he finally said. "I like girls well enough but...I do better with guys. It was always easier to just go to a gay bar, hook up with someone and get the need out of your system." He shrugged. "No expectations that way."
Ronon wasn't sure exactly what Rodney meant, but the general idea was clear. "Yeah...I mean, it wasn't quite the same, but...girls can be complicated." He went quiet for a minute, then shakes his head again. "I don't get you people, though--even with guys, you make it complicated with all the rules and stuff."
"It's a religious thing," Rodney said, sneering a little. "There's this point in the text of one of our dominant religions that says something about gay sex being forbidden. And then morons insist on a literal interpretation of that bit but not of the bit that says cheeseburgers are forbidden." He finished his mashed potatoes and licked the fork to get the last of the gravy.
"It's so fucking stupid and the idea that there are these rules that come from a Supreme Being but that you get to choose which ones to follow and which ones not to drives me nuts."
"Sounds kind of like Sateda a few hundred years ago," Ronon said after taking a moment to process Rodney's comment; he was getting better at it, but some things still took a little time to work out. "Back...right after the last time the Wraith came...it was more important for people to have kids then. By the time my parents were growing up, it wasn't as big of a deal if you didn't have any children, so there wasn't any real reason to keep people from getting with whoever they wanted--provided they were from the 'right' family, of course," he added bitterly.
"And your...Melena? She wasn't from the right family?" Rodney poured Ronon some more ale. "Um...we don't have to talk about this if you'd rather not."
"S'okay," Ronon said quietly. "I haven't...it's been what, eight years now? Nine? I tried not to think about her when I was running, because I couldn't...I wouldn't have been able to go on. Then when that son of a bitch brought me back, and I there in the damned hospital..." His hand tightened on the glass and he set it down carefully.
"Her parents were farmers, and they didn't even own most of the land they worked. My mother thought she wasn't good enough for me, and my father thought I'd be better off with someone who would--I don't know, someone who had better connections. He was still holding out hope that when I finished my stint in the army, I'd go back to school and study law instead of literature."
Rodney really wanted to just blurt out something like "oh my God, you were a lit major?!" but he managed to hold it back. And people say I'm not sensitive.
"I'm sorry," he finally says. "It's not fair that you lost so much." And maybe that was a kind of stupid thing to say, because if there was anything they undoubtedly agree on, it's that the world isn't fair.
"She died quickly, and the Wraith didn't get their filthy hands on her," Ronon said. "And even if we lost...there are still some of us left, and we did fight back." He smiled a little. "Melena always refused to give up hope; it's why she wouldn't leave, even when we knew the Wraith were coming. She still believed we could win. That's what I like about you people--it just doesn't seem to occur to Sheppard that anything else is possible. You too; you just pretend like you think we're always going to die."
"Oh now you're just being ridiculous," Rodney said, although he was touched by the compliment. Getting up, he continued talking as he rummaged around in his desk. "And anyway, you're totally utterly wrong. you know. I can't count the number of times I've been utterly certain we're all about to die."
"We haven't yet," Ronon pointed out. He leaned back on his elbows, not bothering to hide the fact that he was checking out Rodney's ass.
"It's only a matter of time," Rodney replied. "Oh there you are, you bastard." He pulled the white box out and turned back to Ronon. "I have to hide these from Sheppard; he's got an incredible nose for sniffing out junk food." He grinned. "You're going to love this."
Pulling out a Hostess cupcake, he handed it over to Ronon before tearing open the wrapping on one for himself. "The best thing is how they never go stale."
Ronon had learned to trust Rodney's opinion when it came to food, and he wasn't disappointed this time. The white filling was almost too sweet, but the chocolate frosting on top was good, especially when he copied Rodney and peeled it off to eat separately. Plus, watching Rodney lick frosting off his fingers is never really a bad thing. In fact...
Rodney was well aware of Ronon's eyes on him and he smirked a little as he finished his cupcake. "Thought you'd enjoy them," he said. "Um...do you mind if I put on some music?" This was where dates usually went wrong for Rodney--he could never figure out what to do that wasn't sex.
"Sure. Well, as long as it's not that stuff Sheppard listens to. Puts me to sleep almost as fast as meditating with Teyla does." Ronon sucked a finger into his mouth to make sure he'd gotten all of the chocolate off his hands before digging into his bag for his yarn and needles.
Bent over his computer, Rodney laughed. "Okay, nothing slow." He frowned a little and picked out a couple of Grieg piano concertos. "Hopefully these won't knock you...what the hell?" He stared at Ronon in shock. "You knit?!"
"Is that a problem, McKay?" Ronon said calmly, untangling the yarn. He squinted at Rodney, then frowned at the pile of wool in his lap. Hope this is going to be enough. The metal needles still felt a little strange to him--he was used to wooden ones--but they worked well enough, and in a pinch, they'd make excellent weapons.
"Well, not a problem," Rodney said, settling back down next to Ronon as the music started up. "It's just...I dunno, kind of incongruous. I've never been much for the whole idea that certain things are women's work, but you knitting seems...weird."
"My aunt taught me," Ronon explained. "I had way too much energy when I was a kid--always running around, breaking things by accident and banging myself up. Drove my parents crazy, but I just couldn't sit still. I hated not doing something, you know? So one day my Aunt Esta was visiting and she'd brought her knitting. I started watching--it was totally fascinating, to see how she took this pile of thread and put order to it. She asked if I wanted to learn, and I did. And it kept me quiet and sitting in one place for more than ten minutes at a stretch, so my parents were happy."
Rodney tilted his head, trying to picture Ronon as a restless little kid. It didn't work and he chuckled a little. "I can't imagine you with ADD," he finally said. "You're so patient and...." He waved a hand. "Self-contained."
"I settled down some when I was older, and then the army took care of the rest," Ronon said dryly. "No matter where you go, the military's the same: hurry up and wait."
He reached out and ran a hand over the top of Rodney's head. "You wouldn't have recognized me," he told him. "My hair was almost as short as yours back then."
Leaning into Ronon's caress, Rodney laughed a little. "And mine was lighter, curly and I had less forehead." Ronon's fingers felt good and Rodney wondered if he should start purring. "I was pretty much the same as a kid as I am now, though. If my parents hadn't been such jerks, I'd feel sorry for them in retrospect."
Ronon frowned a little. "They didn't...hurt you, or anything, did they?"
"Oh God no," Rodney said. "Neither of them would have raised a hand to a child. But they hated each other, which only makes sense since Dad was an investment banker and Mom was pretty much a hippie who taught at a Waldorf school...uh never mind, all you need to know is that they didn't agree on anything at all, which was probably hot when they first met--you know the whole fighting and making up thing--but honestly, once Jeannie and I came along, it got kind of ugly and there was a lot less of the making up."
He leaned closer to Ronon. "I don't talk about it much not so much because it was traumatic, although it was, but because it's over and they're dead and at some point there's no real point in dwelling on it."
"Is that why you see Kate?" Ronon asked curiously. He'd noticed Rodney leaving her office as he was going in, but he'd realized quickly that he wasn't supposed to mention that. Now, though, he figured he could get away with asking.
"Yeah," Rodney said. "Or at least part of it; I have to talk to her as a department head too. But you know, as a voodoo practitioner--because seriously, if you think medicine is bad, psychology is even more a matter of guesswork--she's not utterly incompetent."
Ronon smiled. "She reminds me a little of Melena," he told Rodney. "I didn't want to talk to her at first, but Dr. Weir kind of made me. It hasn't been so bad."
With Rodney leaning against him it was all Ronon can do not to just say "screw it" and jump him. Instead, he picked up his knitting again. "So what do you do with yourself when you're not working or eating?" he asked.
The abrupt change of subject didn't bother Rodney; he was plenty used to doing that kind of thing himself when he wanted to avoid a subject. "Sleep," he said, leaning back against the bed. "I've got a couple of really theoretical things I'm working...stuff that's mostly at the pen and paper and tearing out what little hair I have at this point stage." He smiles a little ruefully. "I've never known what to do with down time."
"You need to learn to relax," Ronon chided him. "Not too much, or we wouldn't recognize you, but still." He scooted back a little in an effort to reduce the temptation to rub Rodney's shoulders.
"You really don't want to see me trying to relax," Rodney said, sighing a little. "I kinda suck at it."
"Now there's a surprise." Ronon put down his knitting. "Move closer," he told Rodney.
After Rodney scooted closer, Ronon rested his hands on his shoulders for a moment, pressing a little to see where the worst knots were before he started trying to work them out.
"Ohhhh..." Rodney moaned as Ronon's fingers went to work on him. "That's...oh yeah...one way to get me to...mmmm harder, please?"
Okay, so maybe doing something that's going to get him to make sex noises wasn't the best idea, Ronon thought, digging his fingers into a particularly stubborn knot just below Rodney's right shoulder.
"Is there anywhere you're not tense?" he asked, sounding a little peevish even to his own ears.
"Sorry," Rodney snapped, although it was hard to be truly annoyed when he was being kneaded like this. "I told you...I suck at relaxing...ohhhh...that's a good spot."
Ronon couldn't help himself: he leaned in and licked the back of Rodney's neck. "Sorry," he said. "It was...you were just there. And you taste good."
"Oh God," Rodney moaned, leaning back a little more. "That feels...do it again."
"What, this?" Ronon put teeth into it, nibbling just above the spot where Rodney's neck ended and his back began. "Or this?" he whispered into Rodney's ear just before catching his earlobe in his teeth and tugging gently.
"Yes, all of it," Rodney said, tilting his head a little. "Oh fuck...that's one of my spots...." He let Ronon nibble on him more and then turned, sliding his hands under Ronon's dreads and dragging him in for a kiss.
Ronon pulled Rodney onto his lap and kissed him back hard, stroking Rodney's hair with one hand and rubbing his shoulders with the other. He tasted like chocolate and that strange chemical-mint toothpaste the Lanteans used; Ronon decided the combination worked on him.
Already hard after having his neck nibbled, Rodney moaned into Ronon's mouth and kissed back as thoroughly as he could. Keeping one hand tangled in Ronon's dreads--and wasn't that a new, and very cool, feeling--he slid the other between them. It was easy enough to reach through a gap in Ronon's shirt and find a nipple. He tugged at it lightly, his other fingers spread out across Ronon's surprisingly smooth chest.
His nipples had always been kind of sensitive, so when Rodney pinched one, Ronon gasped. He was so hard it ached, and he was starting to give serious thought to revising his plan to do everything properly.
"Is this what you sound like when you're getting fucked, McKay?" he growled. "Or when you've got someone's mouth on you?"
"Oh no," Rodney murmured, grinding against Ronon. He gave Ronon's nipple a sharp little tweak. "Don't go assuming I'm going to roll over every time," he added, leaning in to mouth at Ronon's ear. "And when I do? I'm a lot louder than this."
Ronon moaned. "What," he said when he could breathe again, " Did you think I was gonna let you get away with making me do all the work all the time?"
He closed his eyes, steeled himself, and carefully nudged Rodney off his lap. "Not tonight, though."
"See if I share my Hostess cupcakes with you again," Rodney grumbled, crossing his arms and glaring at Ronon as he sat back. "Seriously, I appreciate you're not wanting to treat me like I'm some kind of slut or something, but I'm finding that I have no problem being easy. For you."
"It's not that I don't want you," Ronon said, his tone serious, "And I like easy most of the time. It's just...it's been so long. I don't want to mess this up."
Leaning back a little Rodney looked at Ronon for a moment. God, he seems so damn young at times. "I know the feeling," he said. "You'll find that I'm actually pretty good at the having sex thing, it's the rest of it that I worry about." He shrugged. "So maybe, between the two of us, we can muddle through somehow."
"Yeah." Ronon took a deep breath. "Do you mind if...will it be a problem if I stay, and we just hang out for a while?"
"I'd like that," Rodney said, reaching for his tablet. "You can knit, I can go over some stuff, and we can compare notes on the latest morons dumped on us by the Daedalus." He unwrapped another Hostess cupcake and peeled off the frosting.
"Of course you realize, what with the knitting and you wanting a degree in Lit., that you're the girl here."
-end-