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“Show me your scars.”
Rodney paused in his typing, looked up, and saw John standing in front of him. How the man had managed to creep up on him was…well, ok, it was understandable what with John being super Colonel and Rodney being…not.
Rodney bit down on his instinctual dismissal at the ridiculous order when he saw the way John's eyes were flashing with a barely contained…something. It was the same something Rodney sometimes saw just before things were about to get violent off world. He couldn't begin to imagine what had put that look on John's face here, in Rodney's lab.
“But…why?”
John's jaw clenched, his voice trembling with the force of the something. “I want to see how many times you needed me and I wasn't there.”
“You wanted to - -“ Rodney trailed off in his repetition of John's words as he failed to make sense of the entire situation. It wasn't often that Rodney was left struggling to understand; he hated that feeling.
Sometimes it was better to just ask.
"What?"
John started to repeat the same confusing words again. “I want to see how many- -“
“Yes, yes,” Rodney snapped, “I heard what you said, I just don't understand it. You need to use your words, Colonel.”
“I know about the enzyme.”
Rodney blew out a breath. When John used his words, he went for the kill.
“I know that you nearly died, McKay. I just have to wonder what else I missed.” John slammed the screen of Rodney's laptop closed and turned Rodney's stool around so they were face to face. “Your arm,” John touched Rodney's arm. “There's a scar here. Kolya.” John kept talking, touching each part of Rodney's body as he catalogued every injury. “Your temple, here. From where you nearly drowned in that damn jumper. Your shoulder, where I shot you. Your..”
“You are not touching my ass.” Rodney yelped, hopping off the stool and clutching the site of his arrow scar.
“Those are the ones I know about.” John continued, ignoring Rodney's outburst. “What don't I know about? How many times have I let you down? I thought it was just those four but then I find about your overdose and - ”
“Alright,” Rodney interrupted, “first of all - it wasn't an overdose. I'll admit it was possibly a little more than I needed to take but it wasn't…you make it sound like I'm some kind of junkie or something.” Rodney shuddered before getting quiet, serious. “Second of all, you have never let me down. Not once.” He quirked his mouth in a half smile. “I can't even imagine a situation where you could.” He caught John's eyes, which were wide with surprise, and blushed, clearing his throat. “Yes, well. Can you please go be stupid somewhere that's away from me? I'm a very busy man.”
Rodney tried to force himself past John, to sit back down at his laptop, but John reached out and closed his hand around Rodney’s arm, holding him still.
“Rodney,” he said, “I - - that means a lot to me.”
“It's only the truth. No big deal.” Rodney shook the importance off, knowing he was perilously close to revealing a little too much about just how high the esteem he held John Sheppard in was.
“It's a huge deal,” John argued. “It's…no one has ever had faith in me like that.”
Rodney swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. Slowly, he extricated his arm from John's grip and stepped back, putting some much needed space between them. Another second of close contact and he would have done something ridiculous like kiss the man.
“You've earned it, Colonel. From all of us.” He forced mirth into his voice and tried to lighten the mood. “As have I, of course. It's common knowledge that the expedition would be dead a hundred times over if it wasn't for me.”
“You're right.”
Rodney had expected John to laugh, to drawl out something pithy in response. The last thing he expected was an agreement. A wide grin broke out across his face just as a look of faux horror broke across John’s.
“Did you just… agree with me?”
“Oh, I wish I could take-“
“Nope! You said it! No take-backs!” Rodney rocked on his heels gleefully. “You think I'm amazing.”
John chuckled at that, smiled and shifted to lean against the edge of Rodney’s desk. “You know,” he mused. “I kinda do.”
Rodney frowned, losing the trail of the conversation again.
“Think you're amazing,” John clarified.
“Right.”
“No, Rodney, I’m serious. Look,” John ran his hands through his hair, making it stick up even more stupidly than usual, “I kinda freaked out when I realised that I'd come close to losing you one more time than I thought I had and - -“
“Oh my god, you like me.”
John laughed his full on donkey bray of a laugh. “They don't say you're the smartest man in two galaxies for nothing, huh?”
“Ohmygod, c’mere,” Rodney made grabby hands, even as he moved to pull John upright and slot himself close against the line of John's body. “I take back what I said earlier, you can touch my ass anytime you like.”
John reached around and did just that, smiling as Rodney shuddered even closer. “Are we doing this? Really doing this?”
“Maybe, if you ever stop talking -“ John muffled the remainder of Rodney's complaint by pushing his tongue in Rodney's mouth. He tasted like aniseed and peppermint and Rodney couldn't get enough.
John broke the kiss and Rodney chased his lips, not ready for it to end.
“Wait,” John was at least breathing heavily which was some comfort to Rodney, “just, promise me one thing.”
“Anything, oh my god, just get back here,”
“No more secrets. You get hurt, I wanna know.”
“I’ll complain about it until you want to kill me yourself,” Rodney promised. “Now get back here and kiss me.”
John did.