FIC: Concealment 1/1
Title: Concealment
Author: Ismene
Rating: G (kind of a shock, coming from me)
Pairing: McShep
A/N: I've been working on a monster angst piece, so I cheered myself up with this unrepentant, G-rated fluff which I'm almost ashamed of. Except not at all, because that's the sort of mood I'm in.
~
Rodney babbles; John listens to it and stores away the rare little gems of information that pop up in mid-rant. It’s in this manner John has learned that Rodney’s birthday is March eleventh, that Rodney has a sister he doesn’t speak to, that Rodney has had two cats (both named after science fiction counterparts - Cat and Pixel), that Rodney likes bland foods, that Rodney couldn’t live without Cadbury’s, that Rodney is afraid of dying before he can solve the universe.
Which doesn’t really tell John anything at all.
In between the babbling, John has slowly teased out the important things. Rodney hates his birthday because it reminds him of his parents; Rodney’s sister left science and he thought she was wasting her potential; Rodney likes cats because they don’t depend on him, unlike people; Rodney thinks MREs are soothing because they’re as far from lemon-sharp as you can get, and safe; Rodney sees food, chocolate specifically, as incredibly symbolic in gift form; Rodney isn’t afraid of dying so much as he’s afraid of obscurity. Maybe most startling, though - Rodney’s in love with John.
The last one sent a thrill of accomplishment through John when he figured it out, because this was some heavy-duty translation of Rodneyesque.
It happens like this:
John was stretched out casually on Rodney’s bed watching Terminator. Rodney was lounging, but because he hadn’t been out of the lab in almost two days he drifted off to sleep, and his head came to rest on John’s shoulder. “Sorry,” he mumbled before hitching closer, and John shut the computer and eased it off the bed, planning to make his getaway before things got weird.
But Rodney’s hand closed gently around his wrist, and Rodney murmured, “Stay.”
Rodney wanted him, and John was just listing all the reasons that was a Very Bad Thing when Rodney glanced up at him. Rodney’s words may be illusions, but his eyes have never hidden anything, and John blinked at the softness in them.
“Oh,” he said quietly, and Rodney nodded before dropping his head back to its self-appointed pillow.
See, what John’s learned about Rodney McKay isn’t any of the trivial stuff like his birthday or even his darkest fears. Under all that, under the manic geek’s façade there’s a vulnerable, brilliant, brave man who is a hypochondriac and a geek, too. Rodney is wonderfully, beautifully human - flawed and perfect in his imperfection.
For someone who always seems so oblivious and awkward, Rodney still figured out what John couldn’t see - Rodney isn’t just in love with John. It goes the other way, too.
That’s another thing John learned from Rodney - and like Rodney himself, it’s delightfully unexpected.