Fic: Flashpoint, SGA, McKay/Sheppard

[darkhavens]

Author: darkhavens
Title: Flashpoint
Fandom: Pairing: Stargate Atlantis: John/Rodney
Rating: R
Words: 508
Spoilers: Minor location spoilers for early S4.
Concrit: darkhavens @ slashverse.com. If you spot a typo, please feel free to tell me in comments. I want you to!
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.
Summary: The weather here is like nothing they've experienced before, not on Lantea or Athos or Earth.
Notes: Written for day 6 of mini_nanowrimo and prompt #45 of my long-neglected McShep Big Damn Table.



The weather here is like nothing they've experienced before, not on Lantea or Athos or Earth. It starts cool and damp, but the barometric pressure creeps ever upward and takes the temperature with it.

Over days and weeks - a month, maybe two - the dampness resolves into humidity, limning the more athletic, aesthetically pleasing ones with glistening dew. The less fortunate become sweaty, lank and swollen, plagued with heat rash and the ever-present threat of dehydration.

The pressure builds until a flashpoint is reached - and then the storms come.

They dance across the surface of the planet in a beautiful ballet, each a thousand miles or more across and a hundred miles high. They merge and grow, or clash and spin away on new trajectories, completely unpredictable.

For the lightshow and the rains, the city hides behind its shield - an upturned goldfish bowl trapped beneath a never-ending torrent. For three to five days, a million tonnes of water every seventeen seconds hits the shields, a deluge of Biblical proportions.

The sheer weight of it, the unimaginable volume, keeps Atlantis in motion on the roiling sea. Dramamine is in short supply for those who have no sea-legs.

~~~~~~~

Most people take their downtime when the pressure gets too much, when they can feel their brains liquefying, their tempers stretched so thin that their nerves poke through. They only return to regular work when the weather breaks and the rains begin.

Rodney claims he does his best work under pressure, and that the lack of personnel underfoot is just a bonus. He spends these sultry, sequestered days, when offworld's out-of-bounds, scouring the database for long-buried treasure, hunting down elusive hints of armories and ZPMs.

The sultry, sequestered nights he spends with John, sprawled inelegant and naked on a thrown-together bed of Ancient mattresses and cushions on his balcony. They breathe together and watch the sky when it's too hot to fuck, and join the stars and gasp for air when it's not.

Rodney knows the taste of every inch of John's skin - every crease and scar and wrinkle, every follicle. He knows a nip behind the knee makes him giggle, that a long, slow lick from tailbone to nape makes him beg. He knows the taste of John angry and cheerful and fierce, he knows the taste of him melancholy, half-drunk and glad.

He knows the taste of every mood, every facet of John, but today - this day that hasn't been different in any way but this - today he tastes fear and hope and something undefined, something frangible and sweet as spun sugar.

"John?"

The sweetness, the fragility, is visible in John's eyes, in the angle of his jaw and the lightness of his touch.

"You know this isn't just about…" John waves a hand over their come-smeared bellies. "Right? I mean, it's not like we meant to… But with the heat and… With you… And I really…"

Rodney kisses him into silence. So this is what love tastes like.

"Yeah, me too."



mini_nanowrimo running total: 2890 words

Comments

[princess-s.livejournal.com]

Wow that's some powerful imagery!!


Dammit now I'm going to be thinking about the two of them going at it like bunnies with lighting over head :P

[hidari-blue.livejournal.com]

Beautiful.

[danakszoul.livejournal.com]

Oh squee. This makes me happy. And yay for imagery, 'cause it's kind of chilly where I'm at, but I could feel the sweaty humid.

=^_^=
Anneko

[alipeeps.livejournal.com]

So this is what love tastes like

Lovely. :)

[mf_luder_xf]

Oh, that was simply beautiful. Wonderful imagery and I felt like I could reach out and feel the heat, taste the emotions.

[mf_luder_xf]

Is it totally weird and pervy though, that I had the love song from the Disney version of Cinderella running through my head? So this is love...

*facepalm*

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is quite delicious.

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Rodney kisses him into silence. So this is what love tastes like.

Gorgeous

[inkscribe.livejournal.com]

Aieee! Frangible Awesome! :-)

[katbcoll.livejournal.com]

Rodney kisses him into silence. So this is what love tastes like.
Oh my god... This was amazing! *flails* I'm outta words!

[fangrrl.livejournal.com]

Sex and thunderstorms, nice combination. I love the build up to the emotional stuff using the imagery of the thunderstorm, very nicely done.

[mellyna.livejournal.com]

Wonderful piece. Thanks for sharing.

[chaps1870.livejournal.com]

Really wonderful imagery in this one.

[love-jackianto.livejournal.com]

Great use of imagery and I adore that So this is what love tastes like. line. :D

[the-cephalopod.livejournal.com]

Ooo, sweaty stormy sex... very nice! cep xxx

[aimeelicious]

Such lovely, lush imagery.

[vinniebatman.livejournal.com]

::wibbles::
Wow, that was incredibly well-written (naturally) and very sweet and hot and....
I'll just start a new sentance now and say that it was great.
~Alice~

[tabaqui]

Oh, i love it. Just...so gorgeous.
They dance across the surface of the planet in a beautiful ballet, each a thousand miles or more across and a hundred miles high. They merge and grow, or clash and spin away on new trajectories, completely unpredictable.

For the lightshow and the rains, the city hides behind its shield - an upturned goldfish bowl trapped beneath a never-ending torrent. For three to five days, a million tonnes of water every seventeen seconds hits the shields, a deluge of Biblical proportions.

The sheer weight of it, the unimaginable volume, keeps Atlantis in motion on the roiling sea. Dramamine is in short supply for those who have no sea-legs.

Sorry for the huge quote but i just *love* that.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! it was such a delightful image in my head I had to share it. *g*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :D

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Hee! So glad I could help you warm up. :D

Thanks!

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :D

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I have to admit, I did get a bit hot myself while writing it. *g*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

BWAH! And now I want to read a McShep treatment of Cinderella. I know there's at least one out there. *g*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thank you! 'Frangible' is such a wonderful word, but so sadly under-used. *g*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The emotional stuff refused to be written until I'd properly set the scene. *g*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :D

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :D

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Storms are sexy, yo! *g*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I got kinda hot myself while writing it. All that pressure building up. ;)

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Hee! No need to apologise, huge quotes are love! *g*

The idea of Atlantis being under 'glass' while water just pours down onto it wouldn't leave me alone. Can you imagine standing on one of the balconies? It would be like standing behind Angel Falls - a solid wall of water. The goldfish bowl thing seemed amusingly appropriate. *g*

[tabaqui]

Yes! Very cool mental image. I wanna be there now.
:)

[ceitie.livejournal.com]

*hugs fic to chest* Oh, this is just gorgeous. The imagery, both of the rain pouring down over the shield, and of John and Rodney lying together, is so clear in my mind, it's like I saw a painting instead of reading a story.

[cordeliadelayne]

That was really lovely. :D

[literati.livejournal.com]

dude, the imagery in the first part is to die for!

so wonderful! ♥

[(Anonymous)]

Lovely descriptions! And hey, it sounds exactly like Texas! With the possible exception of the need for sea legs. :)

Leah

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

awww....it's just so beautiful.

[firefly557.livejournal.com]

Oh boys! and that is my only coherent reaction aside from awwww.