Kid A by Speranza (NC-17)

[justabi.livejournal.com]

Rec Category: Rodney McKay
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Category: Atlantis, Angst, H/C, Romance
Warning: Slash
Author on LJ: cesperanza
Author's Website: Speranza's Fiction
Link: Kid A

Why This Must Be Read: The fact of the matter is that this is a story told from John's POV, and so rightfully one might think that it would be better in that catagory or possibly just in the pairing, but then you might miss out on how freaking awesomely this story characterizes Rodney.

"Fine, then," John says, rolling his eyes. "What would your movie be?" and he's expecting a funny answer like Weird Science or Buckaroo Banzai, but Rodney thinks about it seriously as they hike together in the hot sun, and in the end he says, "You know, I don't think my movie's been made yet."

It turns out that Rodney has hidden insight into John that one might be tempted to dismiss as out of character given his usual complete incompetence in the area of insight into... anyone, including himself, but Rodney really does get John more than anyone else. He's his usual witty, ascerbic, adorkable self in this story, but rather than bumbling about being the weakest link in relationship land like one might expect, he isn't, much to John's shock.

"We'll never speak of this again," Rodney promised, and boy, he wasn't kidding; Rodney's better than the most jaded, careerist military officer John's ever worked with at keeping a secret.

You can just so see this Rodney, so good at keeping secrets when it's means keeping something important to him, like his TOP SECRET job working with the coolest stuff in two galaxies or John. And that's just damn cool and something we don't see enough of in fic, or canon.