stargateficrec | Slot A Tab B Series by AbylityMaren (NC-17)

Rec Category: Sheppard/McKay
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Category: First Time, Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Warning: Slash
Author on LJ: unknown
Author's Website: http://killmeifimcute.blogspot.com/

Link:
Silence is Golden
Crime Pays
Slot A Tab B

Why This Must Be Read:

The two short prequels provide 'how it started' from Rodney's and then John's POV. Their budding relationship is awkward and messy and neither of them is very good at communication. This slowly changes in Slot A Tab B as together they build something beautiful with broken bits and pieces of Atlantis and life.

Excerpt:

Looking for a larger surface to work on, John eventually carted his collection of half formed pieces out to the conference room. The mass of twisted garbage was proclaimed by Becket to be a 'Monument to Tetanus'. At every meeting John would tinker with it. During free moments, he would push another piece across the table in search of just the right one. Bit to bit. No match. Try a different combination. The circle was too small. Tear it down. Bit to bit and..."dammit". The second half of the contraption was smaller than the first.

People would occasionally pass by and snicker at his cursing, hardly noticing Rodney at all. He could often be found seated across from John with a cup of whatever passed for coffee this week and a laptop. For the most part, his eyes would remain on the screen, but sometimes they would stray to watch pieces of wire and metal being carefully curved and wound together. Rodney looked on as normally agile fingers proved to be far too awkward for the task. Stray sharp ends bit holes in John's fingertips.

"I could find you a soldering iron," he offered one evening.

"Nah."

John couldn't help but think that this should have been easier. It was only math. He knew the shape of it. This piece fit here and that there. Interconnecting and intersecting to create a whole. But somehow the curve was never quite right. Apparently, the eye didn't know pi times the radius squared.

One night John rolled a set of blue cogs between his fingers. They had been found on that first walk. Wandering had led them to a small cul-de-sac with a blue oval window that let in a watery light.

Each man kept his eyes closed as their hands fumbled beneath shirts, lips argued with each other, and fingers tangled over buttons. Both men jumped at the clang of John's belt buckle as it hit the floor.

But awkward tension was replaced by liquid movement as Rodney's mouth found its way to John's neck to lick the salt and feel the pulse of artery. John followed suit and then brought his hips forward until he felt his soft velvet head brush against the path of hair down Rodney's stomach. Rodney let out a low groan as he felt himself being pinned between their bodies.

Their fluids and sweat mixed to create a slick surface. Hips bucked to add to sensation as arms encircled waists to close the gap. They stood for a long time, slowly grinding into each other like drunken dancers.

John sucked in a deep lungful of air as Rodney's hand broke the seal between their stomachs to carefully grasp him. John brought his hand to Rodney and their wrists pumped out the remaining beats of the music they were swaying to.

Rodney's voice broke John's reverie and brought him back to the mess on the table, "Those should probably be the central points."

"Huh?"

"If you're trying to make two equal circles, use those," he motioned with his mug, "as the central points and work outward." With that he scrubbed at his face, pushed the laptop closed, and left the room.

...