sparky advent calender fic
fandom: sga
pairing: John/Elizabeth
a/n: written for the sparky advent calender, day four. Also haven't been on lj for a while but for some reason it isnt letting me highlight everything to put it under a cut so im not going to.
"I dont like christmas without snow."
John sighs as he leas on the balcony, staring up at a depressingly clear sky.
Elizabeth shrugs. "When I travelled i got used to snowless winters."
she moves from where she had been leaning on the doorway, watching him. She stands next to him, arms crossed.
He looks at her and smiles. She can't help but reciprocate seeing the look of friendly familiarity that crosses his face when he looks at her.
"Didn't you miss it feeling like winter? Hell, don't you miss it now? You know, sledding and ugly jumpers and mistletoe?"
Elizabeth laughs brightly. "Well, well, well, Colnel. I had no idea you were so sentimental."
He rolls his eyes with a smile. "Yeah yeah. But don't get used to it. Until next christmas I am my miserable self again."
"No! I like it!" Elizabeth smiles, hesitantly putting a hand on his shoulder. She removes it quickly as he glances down.
She glnces at her shoes awkwardly for a moment before nodding and looking back up at him. "I do miss it sometimes. I miss my family. But they understand.
they know that I'm part of something much bigger here. I would trade that in for anything, would you?"
John looks her in the eye, and she has the feeling he's searching her face for what answer he can give. So she stares back as equally hard, wanting another moment of truth.
"Maybe there are a few things more important than this place. After all, this city isn't anything with out the people in it. The people...people I care about." He
leans impertectively closer to her.
Elizabeth finds her self on the verge of getting caught up in something that she isn't sure she is ready to get caught up in - him. She steps back with an awkward flustered smile.
"Im...I'm going to get back to work." She says quietly, not quite meeting his eye.
She doesn't have to tell him he can stay on the balcony as ling as he wants. He already knows.
He goes back out there that night. He doesn't quite know what it is about this balcony that helps him think. All he really knows is that it is the one place that he ever really
lets himself relax. The only place he can think clearly. Make the right decisions. Maybe it's just being apart from the rest of the team. Maybe it's the ocean view.
Or maybe it's just the feelings this place holds for him. The memories it brings out in him. Maybe it's just that this place belongs not only to him but mostly to Elizabeth.
The atmosphere belongs to her, the presence of the place. Even when she isn't there he feels it. Calming him, guiding him.
He is suddenly brought out of his revelry by something he cannot quite belive. Where his fingers rest on the railing of the balcony a small white fleck appears.
He looks up at the sky but see's nothing but darkness. But then - there - another.
"Snow?" He whispers, not believeing it. He had been told to expect no snow on atlantis in general.
"Not quite, but good as." A voice calls out behind him.
He turns to see elizabeth smiling at him and laughs.
"It's the petals of a flower that only grows on the mainland during in winter." She explains, moving toward him as more and more tiny white petals float down.
"Apparently it symbolises strength. The smallest flower grows through the winter when everything else dies. It's the idea that even when everything else disappears,
somethings can live on."
"Did you do this all for me?" John asks her with a teasing smile.
She shrugs. "Well, i can't say I had entirely altruistic motives."
"Oh really, how so?"
"Well. This is a winter flower. As well as all the beautiful things it means, they also say the genetic design is very similar to that of mistletoe."
John smiles again widely and looks up at the floating white petals floating from somewhere above their balcony.
"Mistletoe and snow. I didn't realise you were so sentimental." He says looking back down at her.
She doesn't reply. Instead she nods with a laughs and wraps her arm around his shoulder, as he takes her face in his hands and kisses her.