torch, [email protected]
April 12, 2006
Disclaimer: I'm sure it wouldn't happen like this at all. Written to cheer up the Merry; beta work by Mary. Do not archive without permission.
Sweetness and light
John fumbled for the pillow with his eyes closed. His fingers only found a small twisted corner of the pillowcase, and tugging on it didn't make it move. He opened one eye, reluctantly, and then the other one very fast. Clean sunshine cut across the room, and there was a tang of salt in the air; the window was open. Rodney was lying under most of the sheet and on top of all of the pillow, drooling into the mattress. The sunshine, the window, the walls all seemed too pretty, like they'd been Photoshopped, but there was an undeniable solidity of presence about Rodney, the stubble at the angle of his jaw, the way his elbow stuck out, the warm length of his back. Whatever else he was, he was really there.
"It really happened," John said. He had to clear his throat to get the words out.
Rodney stirred. "Wha'?"
"I didn't think you'd be here." John scratched his hairline, then the back of his neck. "I mean, for real."
Rodney scowled without opening his eyes. "What, you thought I'd get up early and go to work or something? Are you completely insane? We have the entire day off! I don't plan on going into the lab until, oh, maybe after lunch."
"It really happened," John said again.
Rodney went from lying down prone to propped up on his elbow, eyes wide, in what seemed like no time at all. "Oh my God," he said. "What were we thinking?"
"I don't know!" John trailed a finger along Rodney's spine. "Big party? Day off?"
"Change of pace?" Rodney offered.
"Probably." John thought about it. "Or maybe not. I mean. You think things are going to be all that different?"
"If it means you having an existential crisis every morning, yes." Rodney wriggled in closer to John, making himself more comfortable. "Remind me never to do that again."
"You'd better not," John muttered. He pressed in closer, too, and when Rodney wrapped his hand around the back of John's neck, the ring was warm against his skin.