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Sometimes Rodney McKay cursed the fate that had made him a genius. If he hadn't been a genius, he would never have become an astrophysicist. And if he had never become an astrophysicist, he would never have become involved with the Stargate program. And if he had never become involved with the Stargate program, he would never have been asked to join the team going to the Pegasus galaxy. And if he'd never come to the Pegasus galaxy, he wouldn't currently be freezing to death in a tiny cave while a blizzard raged outside.

"This is your fault," he said to his companion.

"What?"

"Us. Here. Freezing. Your fault."

Sheppard looked at him in amazement. "How is it my fault? You were the one that wanted to follow the energy reading."

"Into unknown, possibly hostile territory where anything could happen. As leader of the team you should have reined me in."

"Reined you in? Rodney, I'd have better luck trying to rein in a rampaging bull elephant using shoe strings as leads. Besides, how could I have possibly known that on a perfectly warm, cloudless day there was going to be a blizzard?"

"I don't know, but you're in charge so this is your fault."

"That storm is a freak of nature," Sheppard protested. "Totally unpredictable, and therefore, not my fault."

"Right. Not your fault," McKay said sarcastically. "Maybe we can leave an ice carving over our stiff frozen corpses." He held up his hands as if framing the words he spoke. "'It Wasn't Sheppard's Fault'."

"We're not going to die here, Rodney." The violent shiver that shook Sheppard's body did nothing to boost McKay's confidence. "Ford and Teyla know which direction we were headed. They'll have a search party out looking for us. They'll find us."

"By which time we'll be dead," Rodney muttered.

Sheppard ignored him and wrapped his arms tighter around himself.

The two men shivered in silence for a few more minutes before Sheppard spoke again.

"Look, this is stupid. Come over here."

McKay, who'd been working out equations in his head in an effort to keep his mind off the frigid cold, looked blankly at Sheppard. "Huh?"

"We need to get warm or we really will freeze to death. The only method we have available is to share body heat, so come over here and sit next to me."

"You want to share body heat?"

"Rodney. Here. Now."

Rodney swallowed and moved to where Sheppard was sitting. As he lowered himself beside the Major, Sheppard unzipped his jacket, held it open and scooted down until he was lying flat on the ground. "Open your jacket and lie next to me."

Rodney swallowed again and with shaking hands – from the cold, he insisted to himself – opened his jacket and lay down next to Sheppard. The warmth from Sheppard's body felt wonderful and the two men wrapped their arms and the front of their jackets around each other. It should have felt awkward, but it didn't. Not really. In fact it felt rather...nice.

Sheppard must have thought so too because Rodney became aware of a physiological response coming from the Major that really should have been impossible considering the temperature in the cave. He looked into a face that was slightly pink in embarrassment.

"Major?"

"I think under the circumstances, you can call me John," Sheppard joked weakly.

McKay gave him a small uncomfortable smile and tried to ignore John's erection pressing into his thigh. Unfortunately, this proved impossible since every time John shivered or moved the slightest bit, his cock rubbed against Rodney. To Rodney's distress he felt himself harden in response.

"Et tu, Rodney?"

"You'd think it'd be impossible considering how cold it is, wouldn't you?" Rodney said in a choked voice.

"Look, there's no need for us to be embarrassed," John said, his face even more pink than before, his eyes looking anywhere but directly at Rodney. "This is just an autonomic response to being pressed up against another warm body. Doesn't have to mean anything."

"It doesn't?" Rodney said before he could stop himself.

John looked at him then, and Rodney could feel his face heat up. Stupid, stupid, he chided himself. Of course it doesn't mean anything to Major Sheppard. It didn't mean anything to him either, Rodney assured himself. So why was his heart pounding so hard he was sure John could feel it? He closed his eyes in embarrassment for a second and bit his lip. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that John's eyes were locked on his mouth. Rodney almost groaned when John's tongue snaked out of his mouth to lick his lips. Rodney's mouth opened slightly in response, and he felt himself get even harder.

John swallowed and raised his eyes from Rodney's mouth. Time seemed to stand still as they looked into each other's eyes and then John leaned into him, just a bit. Rodney's breath caught in his throat, and without conscious thought he moved his head forward until their lips met. The kiss was beyond anything Rodney had ever experienced. Hot and sweet, he felt the kiss pulse through his body and he automatically pushed his hips forward. John wrapped his leg over Rodney and pulled him closer, rubbing their groins together causing shooting stars to fire behind Rodney's eyelids and a litany of ohgodohgodohgod to run through his brain.

Rodney wanted the kiss to last forever, and his entire body throbbed with desire. When at last they broke apart, they lay with arms and legs entwined, foreheads pressed together as they gasped for breath dragging the cave's frigid air into their lungs.

"Oh, wow," John said.

"Oh, God," Rodney prayed.

John pulled back to look at Rodney, his eyes sparkling. "I'm not feeling cold any longer. You?"

"No, I think I can categorically state that cold is not what I'm feeling right now."

They were just moving in for another kiss when they heard faint voices calling out, "Major Sheppard! Dr. McKay!"

Pulling back they looked toward the cave entrance and saw that the blizzard had stopped. Teyla and Ford were outside somewhere calling for them. Getting back on their feet, they hurriedly zipped up their jackets, straightened clothes and hair, and without a word to each other headed back outside.

Their rescue party was about fifty meters away and when Sheppard called out they waved their arms and hurried to them.

"Major, we were so worried when the storm hit," Teyla exclaimed, handing him a heavy fur cloak.

"Yeah, turns out these storms are common this time of year," Ford added, handing a similar cloak to McKay. "I guess we should have asked the chief here before you guys took off."

"Yeah," John said, glancing to Rodney as if expecting a withering retort. He looked surprised when McKay merely fastened his cloak, took out his scanner and started fiddling with the dials.

"The energy reading I was following is that way," he said, moving in the direction he had indicated.

"Hey, wait a minute, McKay," John said, pulling him to a stop. "We're not chasing after that signal again. What if another storm hits?"

Rodney pulled his arm out of John's grasp, and looked at the village leader who had led the search party. "Is that likely?"

"No," the chief answered with a shake of his head. "Once or twice a week is the most we get them, and never two in one day."

"Then we can follow the energy trace without danger," McKay said and started off again.

"Dammit, Rodney," Sheppard groused following behind him. "Could we at least wait until the snow melts?"

Rodney ignored him. He really didn't know how to handle what had just happened in the cave. To say that he hadn't liked it would be a lie. He had liked it. A lot. He'd only once before kissed another guy, and that had been at Space Camp when he was fourteen. It had been awkward and unpleasant and the fright they'd received when they'd almost been caught had been enough to convince Rodney he liked girls better than guys. He'd pursued heterosexual relationships exclusively thereafter.

Now he'd kissed John and it hadn't been awkward. And it certainly hadn't been unpleasant. It'd been the most amazing kiss he'd ever experienced, and it left him wondering if maybe he wasn't as exclusively heterosexual as he'd thought. But surely John was, right?

Rodney was feeling confused and not a little panicky, so he decided to just push it all away and concentrate on following the energy trace. In the end it didn't take long to find the source in an old building, pretty obviously of Ancients' construction, long abandoned and half-collapsed. To Rodney's delight, it was a ZPM, and it wasn't attached to any defense shields or anything else of any use to the inhabitants of the planet. To his disappointment, it was three-quarters depleted. Still, there was enough to make it worthwhile to take it back to Atlantis with them. The village elder agreed to include the ZPM in the trade negotiations and everyone returned to the village.

There was a celebration that the lost had been found, and afterward Teyla and Sheppard completed the negotiations. It was well into evening when everyone boarded the puddle jumper for the trip back to Atlantis. John had been all business once they'd returned to the village and had addressed Rodney only when his opinion was needed, which hadn't been often. It was as if he'd put what'd happened in the cave completely out of his mind. Rodney didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

After the debriefing, Rodney returned to his lab, confident that his work would put all thoughts of Major John Sheppard and The Kiss out of his mind. He stayed in his lab working the rest of the evening stopping only long enough to eat the sandwiches he'd ordered from the mess. It was because he had work to catch up on that he'd eaten at his desk, he told himself, not because he was afraid to see John. Five hours later, he sighed and sat back in his chair, tiredly rubbing the back of his neck. Shutting down the computer, he wearily left the lab and headed for his quarters. He resisted the temptation to pay a call on Sheppard. He'd half expected/half hoped that John would track him down in his lab, and when he hadn't Rodney told himself it was for the best. He refused to acknowledge the leaden sense of disappointment he felt.

The door to his quarters opened and Rodney halted in surprise in the doorway. John was fast asleep on his bed, his feet on the floor, one hand resting on his flat stomach. The scientist in Rodney made note of how difficult it was to swallow when one's mouth had gone completely dry. He stepped into the room and without conscious thought engaged the privacy lock, never taking his eyes from Sheppard.

Now that he was looking at him with new eyes, Rodney had to admit he was one of the most beautiful men he'd ever seen - Black Irish good looks, taut, trim body, thick dark eyelashes and that goofy spiky hair that Rodney desperately wanted to run his hands through. He felt himself responding to the sight of the sleeping Major, but he held himself tightly under control.

He was almost afraid to wonder why John was here. Was it to warn Rodney not to say anything about what had happened in the cave? Did he really think Rodney would? Was he going to warn him off, afraid Rodney would expect more from him? Rodney had learned long ago not to expect anything from anyone. He just hoped the Major would handle what had happened with maturity. After all, it hadn't been entirely Rodney's fault.

Approaching the bed cautiously, Rodney stuck out his foot and lightly kicked John's foot. A rather charming double snort escaped from John's mouth and long eyelashes fluttered open. John lifted his head and smiled blearily.

"Hi."

"Hi, yourself. Did you get lost?"

John sat up and rubbed his hands over his face and then through his hair, messing up the mop even more than usual. Rodney clenched his hands into fists to resist touching the thick thatch.

Looking up again, Sheppard gave Rodney a lopsided smile. "Nope. Thought I'd wait here for you, but you were so long in coming, I guess I fell asleep. What time is it, anyway?"

Rodney checked his watch. "One thirty."

"In the morning? Geez, Rodney, no wonder you're always so cranky. You need to get more sleep."

"I get enough sleep," Rodney snapped, tension making his tone sharper than he'd meant. "What are you doing here?"

John stared at him in surprise, a look of uncertainty crossing over his expressive face.

"Making a mistake, it seems," John said, standing up. "I thought... But I guess I thought wrong. Look, sorry I bothered you. I'll leave and let you go to bed."

He started to walk past Rodney. Rodney felt his heart twist as he realized that if John left, it would be forever. There wouldn't be a second chance. Reaching out, he grasped John's arm.

"John, wait," he said in a soft voice. "Please, why are you here?"

John turned back to him, his manner hesitant, and then he drew in a deep breath. "Because I wanted to do this again," he said leaning into Rodney.

The kiss was everything and more that Rodney remembered from their earlier kiss. He moaned and opened his mouth to John's hot eager tongue. He wrapped his arms around John's back, pulling him tightly against him. There were moans and Rodney wasn't sure if they came from him or from John. Their tongues touched, tasted, retreated, touched again. John's hands held Rodney's head, his fingers pressed tightly into Rodney's scalp. He lifted his mouth, smiling at Rodney's whimpering protest, and pulled Rodney's head to the side to get access to his neck.

Rodney moaned at the feel of John's hot mouth and sharp teeth as he nibbled, kissed, and licked his way down Rodney's neck. Rodney was desperate to feel John's skin and pulled at the back of John's shirt finally managing to get it out of the waistband of John's trousers so that he could slide his hands up the smooth, warm skin. Their mouths came together again, and Rodney held John to him with one hand as the other moved around to caress John's chest and stomach. His hand slid further down until he was caressing John's hard length through his trousers drawing a whimper from the other man. Everything he felt was wonderful and he wanted to feel everything.

"Bed," Rodney moaned.

"Genius," John gasped.

They moved together toward the bed, neither willing to release the other. Rodney felt the edge of the bed and fell backward onto it bringing John him. And then there were lips and tongues and teeth and hands caressing skin as clothing was pushed aside. Somehow they managed to get out of their clothes, and they both groaned as chests and hips and legs and cocks met.

Rodney strained up as John lay on top of him, kissing, biting, and touching him wherever he could get his hands. He spread his legs so John could nestle between his thighs, and then reached down and grabbed John's ass pulling his body even closer as he thrust up, rubbing his cock against John's. He couldn't remember ever feeling so hot and out of control. It was so good, so much better than anything he'd ever felt. The feel of John's strong, lean body, his long, hard cock, his sweet, wet mouth, hearing the little noises of desperate need John was making was sending Rodney over the edge and before he knew what was happening, he shuddered and cried out.

John lifted his head from where he'd been sucking on Rodney's nipple and smiled in satisfaction. "Made you come."

Rodney smiled back and then rolled them over. "Yes, you did," he said, nipping at John's shoulder. "And now it's your turn." He began to lick his way down John's torso, stopping to suckle at a nipple, to dip his tongue in John's navel, and nibble at his hips. His hand wrapped around John's length and he began to stroke, long, slow movements that had John whimpering and thrusting up his hips. When Rodney put his head between John's legs and drew one ball into his mouth sucking gently, John cried out and came, semen spurting over his stomach.

Rodney kissed John's cock and moved up to lie beside him. John lay on his back with his legs splayed wantonly, his now flaccid cock resting on the curly nest of black hair, and drew in deep breaths of air.

"Wow."

"Wow, indeed," Rodney agreed, in a breathless little voice.

"Wasn't what I expected," John said.

Rodney turned his head to look at John. "What did you expect?"

John looked up at the ceiling and frowned slightly. "I'm not sure. Something not so... intense." He lifted his hand from his stomach and looked at the sticky fluid that coated his palm. Glancing over at Rodney, he gave him a lopsided grin and said, "Or messy."

"Yeah," Rodney said looking down at his own messy belly. He wasn't really sure what to do or say. He knew what he wanted but he still wasn't sure what John wanted. In a voice a little more gruff then he intended, he asked, "So, what now? Was this just a one-off?"

John looked at him in surprise. "Do you want it to be?"

"Do you?"

"What I want right now is a shower," John said, getting off the bed. Rodney watched, his heart sinking just a bit as John walked across the room toward the bathroom. Halfway there he turned, mischief lighting his eyes.

"You know what they say in California?"

"They say any number of insane things in California. I couldn't begin to guess which one you mean."

John held his hand out toward Rodney and with a sweet smile said, "Save water. Shower with a friend."

Rodney felt a sense of relief rush through him. Getting out of bed, he walked over to John, took his hand and then leaned in for a sweet, long kiss. Pulling back he smiled. "Water conservation is a high priority in Atlantis."

As they walked hand-in-hand to the bathroom, Rodney blessed the fate that had made him a genius, which had led to him becoming an astrophysicist, which had led him to the Stargate program, which had led him to the Pegasus galaxy.

Which had led him to John.


The End.