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I. Rodney
“We need to find a bigger bed if we’re going to keep doing that,” Rodney gasps once he feels relatively safe that he isn’t going to fall down, teetering dangerously on the edge of his prescription mattress.
“Yes,” Radek agrees, still breathless.
“Really?”
Rodney tries to sit up, forgetting for a moment his perilous position, and promptly falls on his ass. Radek hardly lifts an eyebrow, turning on his side so he can look at Rodney on the floor.
“This is the third time it has happened, which leads me to the hypothesis that it’s going to keep happening. Not least because the evidence suggests we both very much enjoy it.”
“True. I’ll try to finagle a requisition for a double mattress.”
“Please do,” Radek says, getting out of bed and heading for the bathroom.
When he comes back out, he tosses Rodney a washcloth. He doesn’t ask why Rodney is still sitting on the floor.
II. Carson
“I told Carson,” Radek says, a few weeks after the discussion that landed Rodney post-coitally on his ass.
“You did what? Why would you do that? That --”
Rodney’s rant is cut short when Radek presses something into his hands, eyes bright with excitement. His heart skips a beat when he realizes what they are: A tube and some foil squares.
“For me or you?”
Radek smiles.
“I’m not picky. You choose.”
That night, Radek makes Rodney sob and beg and finally come without a single touch to his cock. It takes him a very long time to catch his breath. They doze pressed close together on the narrow bed for a bit.
“Telling Carson,” Rodney says, half-asleep. “On the whole, an excellent idea.”
III. Elizabeth
“I think I need to tell Elizabeth,” Rodney says.
They’re lying side by side on Rodney’s brand-new double mattress (“I called in favors from about six pounds worth of brass”, is all he is willing to tell Radek on the matter of getting it at all, not to mention getting it to Pegasus within two months), and Radek considers Rodney’s statement while blood is returning to his system and his heart rate slows.
“In case someone finds out and accuses you of having given my department preferential treatment,” he surmises.
“Yeah. I should tell her now, then she can ream me out for sleeping with my subordinate and I can guarantee her there won’t be a problem, before there actually turns out to be a problem.”
“Why do I have the feeling this is going to end with me being shouted at more than usual?”
“It probably will,” Rodney says breezily.
“Do háje, Rodney.”
“Czech still being on the roster of languages I don’t speak, I’m just going to assume that was something rude.”
IV. Hirsch
It had to be Hirsch. Fucking Hirsch who arrived three weeks ago and who’s sorry ass they haven’t saved from Wraith or explosions or even just his own stupidity yet, who doesn’t owe them shit yet. Fucking Hirsch that has already, in the three weeks he’s been in Atlantis, established a firm reputation as a gossipy type, as if there weren’t enough of those around already. Hirsch, who is apparently spending his evenings wandering around where he has no business being, like Radek’s East pier lab where he and Rodney are the only ones to ever go. Rodney doesn’t even know where to look, he’s so pissed with fucking Hirsch, with himself, with Radek. Radek doesn’t look pissed so much as just deflated, sinking down on his stool.
“We should have known better,” Rodney says faintly.
“I know.”
“We shouldn’t be making out in the lab. I mean, I know you find my body irresistible, but --”
Rodney has to stop and take a breath before he goes and blames this whole thing on Radek. That would be a spectacularly petty and immature thing to do, and he is, generally speaking, trying very hard to be less petty and immature where Radek is concerned. He’s not used to reining himself in like this, but he thinks he can see a glimmer of approval in Radek’s eyes. It makes him warm in ways he can’t quite articulate, right before exasperation washes over him again.
“This is exactly the kind of thing I promised Elizabeth there wouldn’t be any of, Radek.”
“I know.”
“Well, Monosyllabic Man, what do we do?”
Radek takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes and the bridge of his nose.
“I don’t know that there is much to do. Perhaps let Major Lorne know that word will be spreading, in case there is trouble?”
Trouble, in this case, a euphemism for ‘being beaten up by a randomly homophobic Marine’. Or worse. God, how stupid was it possible for two fucking geniuses to be? Making out in an unlocked lab, even though it is on the far edge of the city. Rodney is lost in thought when he realizes Radek is waiting for some sort of response.
“Good, that’s good. That’s… Good thinking.”
Radek studies Rodney closely.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Rodney lies, sitting down by his computer. “You should go talk to Lorne. I’ll see you later.”
Radek squeezes Rodney’s shoulder gently as he walks past him out of the lab.
V. Ronon
“You’re sleeping together,” Ronon observes, prompting Rodney to jump about three feet in the air.
“What the hell are you talking about, and would you for the love of God keep your voice down?”
Ronon leans back dangerously far on the stool where he’s been perched for the past hour, watching while Rodney and Radek carefully took his gun apart and are now putting it back together. It’s been misfiring, lagging in the switches between kill and stun. Nobody’s been hurt that shouldn’t have been yet, but Sheppard still sent Ronon to the lab with instructions to let the scientists have a look.
“Is it a secret?”
“Again, what are --”
“Yes,” Radek says, interrupting Rodney. “It’s a secret.”
Rodney stares at Radek, but Radek holds Ronon’s gaze.
“Why?”
“Because I prefer my jaw unbroken,” Rodney mutters, sighing dramatically and turning his attention back to the gun.
Radek tuts at Rodney.
“I don’t know what the customs of Sateda were like, but on Earth… Not everyone approves of two men or two women together.”
“On Sateda, you were expected to settle down with someone you could have kids with. Most people did.” Ronon shrugs. “Some didn’t.”
Radek nods slowly.
“Your society was at war. Encouraging procreative behavior makes a lot of sense.”
“Very good, Radek, I’m sure the sociology department has a desk for you if you find you’re no longer up to the demands of actual science,” Rodney says, motioning for Radek to hand him a tool from the table opposite.
“You think someone here would beat you up,” Ronon says, looking at Rodney. “If people knew.”
Rodney sighs impatiently, clicking the main firing crystal back in place.
“We don’t know, but we’d rather not find out.”
He hands Ronon the gun, and pats Radek softly on the shoulder.
“You two head to the firing range and find out if we’ve fixed this thing.”
“You don’t know if you fixed it,” Ronon says, but Radek’s already on his way out the door and Rodney doesn’t look like he heard him, so he sighs and follows Radek.
“You don’t know if you fixed it,” he repeats when he’s caught up.
“No,” Radek says ruefully. “This technology is very advanced, we don’t really know quite what we’re doing. We think we fixed it, but it’s hard to be sure. So, we test.”
“Sure.”
“Where did you get it, anyway? It’s quite unique.”
“A place called Antalya.”
“Really? There’s a city on Earth --” Radek stops himself with a chuckle. “Well, it doesn’t really matter. We should go there and see if we can procure more of those.”
“Can’t. They’re gone.”
“Wraith?”
“Some of them. There was a war. I don’t know if the plague broke out during the war or the other way around. I guess the Wraith finished off the rest, but I don’t think there were a lot left for them. There were corpses rotting in the street when I was there last time.”
“It’s a shame.”
Ronon shrugs. There’s nobody else in the firing range when they get there. He fires off a couple of shots quickly, while Radek makes a few notes.
“So, you and McKay. You’re just going to hide?”
“It’s not so much hiding as simply keeping a low profile. Dr. Hirsch walked in on us kissing in my private lab last week, and I imagine most of the base knows about us by now. The secret is out, so now it’s a matter of not attracting too much attention,” Radek says with a wry smile.
“That should be easy for McKay.”
Radek laughs.
“Now,” he says, “I’m afraid this is the boring part. What I need you to do is fire, switch to stun, fire, switch back and repeat the process about a hundred times.”
“A hundred?”
“Yes.” At Ronon’s look of plaintive disbelief, he continues: “Like I said, we think we fixed it, but we need to make sure it doesn’t just slow back down with use. So. A hundred times, please. If it slows down, come back to the lab. If it doesn’t… Well, then you’re welcome.”
Radek smiles and goes to leave.
“You should stand up to the people who disapprove.”
“Well, I imagine if I looked a little more like you I could, but Rodney and I aren’t really equipped to fight people,” Radek says, turning back to face Ronon.
“I’d fight them.”
“I know you would,” Radek says, “that’s why I said that --”
“No,” Ronon interrupts him. “If anyone had issues with you and McKay, I’d fight them.”
Radek smiles.
“Thank you.”