Wraithbait

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Season/Episode/Spoilers: Minor reference to & spoilers for one rumored S2 event, but contradiction of others - so early AU Season 2

Series/sequel: No, no, no. There is no sequel. If you can't figure out what happens next, I'm not going to tell you. ;)

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John Sheppard stirred drowsily, slitting his eyes open to figure out what had disturbed his sleep. It was quiet, still dark. No voices or activity were audible in the campsite, and when he checked the time, he saw there was still over an hour to go before Ford would wake him for his turn at watch. No wind shook the tent he shared with Rodney McKay, who as he checked, was sleeping quietly.

He shrugged and closed his eyes again, just on the verge of drifting off when he heard a low moan from the sleeping bag beside him. Nothing to be concerned about, he figured, just muscle aches from the day's hike or a random nightmare making McKay complain even in his sleep. When another moan faded out in a ragged gasp, John blinked his eyes open, forcing himself to wake up enough to evaluate the situation. He leaned up on one elbow and peered over at Rodney, who still seemed to be sound asleep, hoping that if he had to wake his tent-mate from a nightmare, he could manage it without either of them getting hurt in the process. He knew from a few late-night infirmary vigils and overnight missions that Rodney tended to thrash when serious nightmares disturbed him and even more so when someone else tried to interrupt them.

He watched for a moment as Rodney breathed a soft sigh and licked his lips, and in the dim light from the powered-down electronic equipment that shared their space, he could see his eyes flickering back and forth behind closed lids. Dreaming then.

"Ah," Rodney breathed quietly. "Oh, yesss," was followed by a fading mumble John strained to make out.

Well, he figured, not a nightmare. From the sound of it, Rodney was having a good dream. A very good dream. John laid back and closed his eyes, resolving to go back to sleep rather than eavesdrop on Rodney's private fantasies, though he couldn't entirely suppress his curiosity about what those fantasies might entail.

Rodney's sporadic murmuring wasn't loud enough to be heard by Ford, on guard duty or Teyla, sleeping in the next tent, but it was irregular enough and just enough of a disturbance to keep John from falling back asleep. Interspersed with the sounds of escalating happiness and the incoherent burbling, he could catch a word or two here and there. So far he'd found out that the person of Rodney's dreams was apparently smart and sexy, though 'not quite as much of a genius' as him, reckless and brave, had worked with him at some point and was the recipient of not only McKay's lavish praise and encouragement in the dream, but emphatic declarations of love.

"Mmm," Rodney moaned again, his inflection making it clear the interaction he was fantasizing about was very sexual in nature. "Major!"

Major? John's breath caught and a frisson of something that was might have been either fear or excitement ran through him. Granted, he was a Lieutenant Colonel now, but Rodney had spent the last year calling him almost nothing but 'Major.' Could he actually be...?

Nah. Had to be some other Major, probably a pretty female major from one of his other assignments, an Army nurse or an exotic Russian beauty. But while John was contemplating, he missed something that he could have sworn sounded like 'the air force' then Rodney grabbed his full attention with a slurred "Mmm, no, L'tenant Colonel now."

Now this was too much. He couldn't just lay here while another man, one Rodney 'Annoying' McKay at that, fantasized about him, could he? The military parts of his mind resolutely ignored the reactions of a decidedly inappropriate sexual nature the non-military parts of his brain, and a few other body parts a bit lower, were suggesting, and he turned violently to his other side, rustling his sleeping bag loudly and brushing his elbow against McKay's bedding on his way, hoping to disturb the other man, if not enough to interrupt that dream, then at least enough to nudge him into a sleep-state where he might continue it a little less vocally.

John curled up on his side, willing his half-awake cock and mind to both just go back to sleep. He thought he might have succeeded in stopping the slumbering fantasy, when Rodney's next decipherable mumble, several minutes later, was some mathematical equation. John smiled in drowsy satisfaction, though he wasn't awake enough to keep himself from working the whole thing through to a solution before he realized sleep-calculations might be even more annoying than sleep-sex, then further realizing he hadn't derailed the dream at all when Rodney confessed to his dream-lover that the math thing was a real turn on.

John groaned in aggravation and turned back over toward the dreaming astrophysicist. The mounting evidence, circumstantial as it was, definitely seemed to be pointing to John himself being the subject of Rodney's dream. And the breathy sounds of sexual pleasure had pushed him past the point where he could pretend that he wasn't completely turned on by that possibility. Or that he hadn't been entertaining dreams of a similar nature with increasing frequency lately.

Rodney's happy sex noises getting progressively louder wasn't just driving John crazy with repressed desire, it was getting to the point where he'd really have to intervene and stop them before the others heard him. He sighed in exasperation and reached out a hand to nudge Rodney's shoulder. The t-shirt under his palm was warm and soft, and doing nothing to quell his arousal. Rodney mumbled sleepy encouragement and John shook harder. Rather than waking McKay, John's touch seemed to intensify his sleeping monologue.

"Rodney! Shhhh. Quiet," he hissed, also to no avail.

With a yawn, he leaned up on one elbow, deciding the next step would have to be covering Rodney's mouth. He was reaching his free hand over to do that, when his intended victim's whispered "Need -- need to kiss you, now. Pleeease," short-circuited his resolve and he discovered that his mouth rather than his hand had ended up covering Rodney's mouth. Rodney's lips parted and latched onto his before he could pull back and he found himself a participant in a particularly steamy kiss with the sleeping man.

"Mmm," they both sighed in unison, and he dug his fingers into McKay's hair and leaned back in for another long, deep kiss. Somewhere in the midst of his enjoyment, his groin rocking hard into Rodney's hip, he felt Rodney stiffen beneath him, obviously waking up. He pulled back to smile contentedly and, he hoped, reassuringly, down at the subject of his affection, only to be pushed off by a spitting-mad McKay.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Major?" Rodney snarled, fortunately with no more volume, and unfortunately with far less contentment than his sleep-talking.

In his shock, John let himself be tossed over onto his back, then shook his head hard and returned to defensive. "You were dreaming. About me."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Quiet," John urged, "You'll wake the others."

"Well if you're going to be sexually assaulting team members in their sleep, then maybe it's a good thing for them to be awake."

"A sex dream."

"Really?" The cutting sarcasm of that drawl was not at all diminished by the quietness with which it was delivered.

"About me!"

"Not that it in any way excuses jumping me, but what on Earth --" he waved a hand in aggravation, "or M3Y-728 - would give you that ridiculous idea?"

"You weren't dreaming about me?" John asked, earning a pointed glare. "You talk in your sleep. You were dreaming. It was obviously... of an erotic nature."

"And because you're so irresistible it had to be about you?"

"You said, among other things, 'Oh, yes, Major, just like that'."

"And tell me, what's your current rank?"

"It's Lieutenant Colonel, but..." John paused to glare in return to the McKay arched brow that clearly said John had just proven his point for him. "But," John continued, "you still call me Major half the time anyhow, AND then you said 'no, it's Lieutenant Colonel, now.'"

"Well, believe it or not *Lieutenant Colonel*, people other than you HAVE gotten promotions."

"Who was it then?" John demanded. "You were obviously dreaming about having sex with this person. Apparently really good sex."

"I don't think that's any of your business."

John didn't take that non-answer for an answer and persisted. "You woke me up with the sighing and moaning. You said I was smart, and that doing complex math in my head was sexy."

"Are you sure you weren't the one who was dreaming?" Rodney asked. After glaring for a moment, he sighed dramatically. "Alright. For example, Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter at the SCG is a Lieutenant Colonel. She's smart, a brilliant, no, genius astrophysicist, and beautiful, with the kind of short blonde hair I like on women and she can do complex mathematical equations in her head, which is, in fact, a real turn on. There's someone worth having sexy dreams about."

John sighed and scrubbed a hand across his face. He'd heard about Rodney's admiration for Carter before. Repeatedly. "Fine. It wasn't me. Just drop it and go back to sleep."

"Why did you want me to be dreaming about you?" Rodney asked, after an all too short respite.

"I didn't. I don't," John snapped, turning his back on Rodney and tugging his sleeping bag up over his shoulder.

Another moment passed, and Rodney asked "Why did you kiss me then?"

"Can't we just drop it?"

"No."

John rolled his eyes in exasperation and didn't answer.

"Why did you kiss me?" Rodney asked again.

"You were moaning and whispering all this sexy dirty talk in your sleep, and *begging* me... *her* to kiss you. It was a mistake. I want to forget it, you want to forget it, so could we just forget it?"

"Major," Rodney nudged his shoulder, "Colonel. John."

He rolled to his back and scowled up at Rodney. "What?" he snarled.

Rodney leaned down and planted a long, firm, serious kiss on him. "I wasn't dreaming about Colonel Carter."

"What?" John asked again, tone softened by total confusion.

"It was you I was dreaming about."

"Then why'd you say it wasn't?"

"Because you being all wound up is even sexier than you being smart." Rodney favored him with a smug half-smile, which faded to something softer. "And to be honest, I had to know if it was worth fighting for to you, because it's not going to be easy and it's not going to be casual."

John just stared up at him with his mouth gaping open in surprise, which Rodney took as invitation to explore it with his own. They'd gotten back to the point of digging fingers into hair and making quiet sounds of enjoyment, when John's watch beeped and a moment later a soft patting against the tent's door rattled the fabric.

"Sir? Your turn on watch," Ford called.

John pulled away from Rodney with a deep breath, then moved back in for a quick press of their lips together.

"Colonel?"

He released Rodney. "On my way, Ford," he said.

John crawled out of his bedding, brushing at his sleep-rumpled uniform and hair with hands that weren't entirely steady yet. He caught Rodney's eyes for a moment and couldn't resist one more, quick kiss.

"Tomorrow night. When we get back..." he promised quietly. Rodney nodded and silently waved him to go.

Ford was waiting when John unzipped the tent door, catching a glimpse of Rodney still awake and watching them. "Sorry to wake you, doc," he whispered with a wave to McKay. "You go back to sleep."

When he turned away, John peeked back in and winked before zipping the door shut. "And sweet dreams."

The End