Originally posted 2/11/04Okay, so I'm working on this kidfic, actually, and it's slow going because it actually needs a plot, and I thought, it's almost Valentine's Day -- I should challenge the Bunnies to write some short shippy "Valentine's Day" fic....
So I did.
Now, I don't know if any of them are going to take me up on it, time and the muses being variable things, but....this one just flowed.
I'm pretty happy with it! (I'm not as happy with the TITLE, but I think the story came out well....)
(Thanks to Loco, Ships, ScaperRed, and MadScientist for a look-see and encouragement!)
Rating: G
Setting: Shortly after "Look at the Princess 3" (however you define "shortly")
Spoilers: Through LATP3
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, this universe, etc., far more creative people than I do, and I'm not making any money off of this. This is a labor of love.
Turnabout is Fair Play
John Crichton was bemused to realize that he was walking around this rundown trading post with a spring in his step and damn near a song in his heart. Maybe it was because he was having remarkably good luck finding the items he was looking for. Maybe it was the bottle of fellip nectar he had had when he and Aeryn stopped for lunch together before splitting up to finish their shopping. Or maybe, just maybe, it was because Aeryn seemed to be relaxed around him again, finally.
Damn, the woman was enough to drive him to distraction!
She'd had a hold on his heart almost from the moment they'd met, and he was pretty damned sure that somewhere under all that load of PK crap cluttering up her head, she felt something for him, too.
The few times she'd cut loose -- well, let's just say he did not want to be thinking about it in public, but the memory of those few kisses, and that one night together, had gotten him through a lotta lonely nights.
He idly wondered if she thought about those times at all....
But she must, because she'd been freaked out enough on the Royal Planet to run away from his crazy wedding, and she'd cared enough to bring him the compatibility test when they'd managed to get away safe....
That had scared the crap out of him, because even though he'd always known he wanted to have a family, if he admitted to himself how relieved he'd been when the kiss was sweet, it meant admitting that he wanted to have that family with
her -- Aeryn Sun, alien ex-Nazi....
But that was getting way ahead of himself, because emotions and feelings still freaked her out. She was like a skittish wild animal, and it seemed like they took one step forward, and then two steps back, over and over and over. If he'd thought for a moment she was playing games with him, he would have been pissed, really pissed, and he'd've found a way to walk away; but in his heart, he knew she was doing the best that she could.
So after that kiss in the maintenance bay, the sweet one, the one that said maybe, just maybe, they'd be making babies together someday, he'd given her her space, didn't try to follow it up. Didn't push her. Tried not to resent the "stay away from me" vibes that rolled off of her whenever he was in the room.
And this morning, she'd stopped by his quarters and said, "Pilot says we're near a small commerce planet. I'm going down to look for some supplies. Are you coming?"
It was the ultimate olive branch. Alone with her, in her prowler....how could he say no, even if he'd wanted to? And when he'd said yes, she'd smiled at him, that big smile he hardly ever saw, but that he also knew the others saw even less often than he did.
It had been a good day. They'd been comfortable together, pointing out bits of equipment to each other, talking casually about things in general, even childhood memories evoked by the things they saw. They felt like friends.
And wasn't it good to be friends with a woman, before you were lovers?
He shook his head. Damn, he was getting introspective this afternoon....or sentimental.... Either way, it had to be because he felt like he and Aeryn were back on track...to whatever place it was they were going, whenever it was they were going to get there....
Come on, he told himself,
find that last linkage and get back to the Prowler before you piss her off by being late.But he couldn't stop smiling, and when he saw a stall selling flowers he almost, almost, stopped to get some.
Uh-uh. Not this girl. This girl, you did not give flowers to. A pulse pistol, maybe, or some chakkan oil cartridges, or even a pulse
rifle....but not flowers....or chocolates, or a sexy red negligee, or diamonds the size of Rhode Island.
He snorted at his own romantic impulses.
But he couldn't help it, he really did want to get her something, just to let her know how much he appreciated the thaw. It just needed to be the right something, something that was
Aeryn....
He spent so much time picking over the remaining stalls that he knew he was late as he rushed back to the spaceport where they'd left the Prowler. But he had the linkage he'd been looking for, and also, much to his satisfaction, a new holster for Aeryn's pulse pistol. The old one had been pretty badly scuffed when she'd fallen on the Royal Planet, and although it was still serviceable, he knew it offended her sense of order.
There she stood beside the Prowler, Aeryn Sun, bouncing impatiently on the balls of her feet.
Oddly enough, she looked more nervous than angry, but he figured the best defense was a good offense, so he waved his parcels in the air and hollered, "Success!"
She tossed her head, and her dark hair rippled, and he flashed her his best winning smile as he strode up beside her and stopped. "This here's the best swap meet I've ever been to. Got the linkage for my module, and twenty motras of that 3K wire! You find everything you were lookin' for?" he asked, stashing his bundles in the Prowler's cargo space and wondering when to bring out his present for her.
"Mmm-hmmm," she murmured, and the expression that crossed her face when he turned back to look at her was, if he'd had to put a name to it, shy -- or embarrassed.
While he was still puzzling over that, Aeryn abruptly said, "Here," and shoved a small package into his hands.
He turned it over once or twice, but there was nothing to be told from the outside. It was just a rectangular chunk about the size of his hand, wrapped in some kind of shiny, silvery plastic, like Mylar.
"Open it," she said, perhaps afraid he didn't realize he should.
He peeled the wrapping off, and was left with a frame of sorts, with a dull metallic edge about half an inch wide, and an opaque center. There were bumps that might be buttons or feet on one side. He stared at it, unsure what it was, and Aeryn reached over and pressed one of the buttons, grazing his hand as she did so.
John was so busy noticing the electricity of her touch, that he missed exactly when the center of the object in his hands changed from a dull off-white to a crystal-clear three-D image of a sea shore, brilliant blue waves crashing on beige sand and breaking into tiny islands of white foam. With no alien plants to mar the illusion, it looked like nothing so much as a tropical island back home... And the thing had
sound! It took his breath away, and he gaped at it wordlessly, watching the waves and listening to the roar of the sea as the water ebbed and flowed.
Aeryn cleared her throat. "I thought," she began tentatively, and then finished with more strength, "I thought it looked like Earth." She shrugged and added, "The way the Ancients made it, anyway."
"It does," he said softly. "It does look like Earth." He looked into her blue gray eyes and told her, "It's beautiful." He couldn't tell her it made his heart ache just to look at it, all the more so because she'd given it to him -- a perfectly useless, sentimental gift, and he knew he would treasure it for as long as he lived. And he couldn't tell her that either, because she'd die of embarrassment. But he had to say something, so he smiled, and said, "Thank you."
She blushed then, and he realized how worried she'd been that he wouldn't like it.
"It's beautiful," he said again, thinking how beautiful
she was, standing there like that with the pink in her cheeks and her dark hair framing her face... He reached back into the cargo space with one hand and drew out the gift he'd bought for her.
He held it out to her, and she looked at him, puzzled. "Turnabout is fair play," he said.
She grinned then, and chuckled just a little, and said, "All right," as she took the package from his hand. She hefted it for just a moment, postponing the moment where she needed to actually look inside the parcel.
"It won't bite," he encouraged.
Her answering grin was nearly a smirk, but she opened the package without any more delays. The intake of her breath when she saw what it was, was worth all the time it had taken him to find it. "This is really nice," she said, spreading the black leather straps out and examining the workmanship on the holster. She ran her fingers over the smooth surface, and looked up at him. "Thank you."
They stood there for a moment, beside the Prowler, both of them grinning like fools. And then Aeryn licked her lips and said, "I guess we'd better get back to Moya."
John cocked his head to the side and smiled at her. "Yep. I reckon we'd better." He turned off the hologram of the sea, and put it carefully in his coat pocket.
Aeryn wrapped the holster up neatly, and put it into the cargo hold and closed the compartment.
As she followed him up the ladder, John couldn't help thinking that they really were on their way....and not just to Moya....
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