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“Ready, Rodney?”
Rodney’s stomach did a couple of unpleasant flips and he swallowed dryly past the constriction in his throat. It was no good - this had been a monumentally bad idea and really, just what the hell had he been thinking anyway? No, he’d just have to explain that he’d changed his mind, that he couldn’t do this. It would be all right, John would understand - John, who was sitting across the cockpit from him, face open and carefree and just about bursting with the biggest, happiest damn grin.
Rodney swallowed again, forcing his mouth into something approximating a smile, and nodded. “Um, okay. Yes, of course - ready when you are.”
It had seemed like such a good idea when John had suggested it, voice all sex-rough and fizzing with barely banked anticipation. They’d been sprawled in bed, loose-limbed and sated, cocooned together in the heady scent of lazy, late night sex, when John had lifted his head from his casual mapping of Rodney’s belly and grinned like he had a secret to share.
“Come flying with me Saturday.”
“Hmmm?” It wasn’t as if Rodney hadn’t flown with John before, there’d been plenty of weekend hops to the mountains, often with Ronon and Teyla in tow. “Um, what? I thought we’d got plans for next month?”
“No, I mean come and fly with me,” John had said, his gaze suddenly intense. “We’ll take the One Five Two - it has dual controls - I want to teach you to fly.”
“Fly? Me?” Rodney hadn’t squawked exactly, though John’s lips had quirked up enough to suggest that it had been a close thing. “But I don’t know how to fly! I wouldn’t have a clue what to do and I’m the first to admit that my hand-eye coordination isn’t perhaps quite what it should be and what if something goes wrong and…”
The fondness in John’s smile had warmed his face to gold in the shadows of their bedroom. “That’s why I’m going to be right there next to you, buddy - every step of the way. I want us to do this together. I want to show you this.”
And that was the moment that Rodney had realised everything that John wasn’t saying. He’d always had an idea of just what flying meant to John, how he often took a plane up by himself, for the freedom, for the solitude - and now John wanted to show him that, to share that feeling with him… and Rodney recognised the gift he was being offered. “Oh, um, yes. Of course,” had been his stammered response. Really, what else could he say?
But things seemed so different looking out across the airfield through a tiny windshield, the harsh glare of morning bleaching away the ease of languid evening promises. They were sitting side by side in the cramped cockpit of the Cessna and Rodney wasn’t sure that he could go through with it.
“Hey,” John said softly, sure hand cupping Rodney’s chin and turning until their gazes met. “It’ll be okay. You’re gonna do fine. I’m right here - just trust me.”
“I do,” Rodney said, words rushing out headlong and certain because that was something that he never doubted. He did trust John, completely.
“Good,” John said, pulling him in for a firm, sweet, totally perfect kiss. “This is gonna be great. Just wait - you’ll love it,” he laughed, joy writ plain in the fine lines crinkling the corners of his eyes and Rodney knew right then that it was all going to be worth it. “Let’s take her up then.”
“Yeah, let’s,” Rodney smiled, nerves settling as John’s excitement spread through him. He could do this - wanted to do this - and everything would be okay; he was with John.
“Oh hey, and after,” John grinned, eyes bright with mischief as he flicked back the ignition control, “Ronon says it’s time he took you sky diving.”
Luckily the roar of the engine pretty much drowned out Rodney’s response, though he was fairly certain John’s honking laughter meant he’d understood the accompanying hand gestures just fine.
Fin