#Jealous John Sheppard

[atlantis-scribe]

#stargate atlantis #john sheppard #sam carter #implied #mcshep #my post #canon-adjacent fics where sheppard is jealous of carter are sooo funny to me #image id in alt text

[the-mushroom-faerie]

when you reblog a post so your beloved mutual would find it and she reblogs it from someone else. 5 dead 87 wounded

#pointed posts #*i* tagged that post john sheppard and she reblogged it from fatworm #ily but youre making me cry #(@ that person who called our relationship upsetting - this post is in jest im not actually cross with her) #(she can reblog from whomever she pleases im just jokingly jealous)

[spurious]

HELLO feel free to ignore this obviously but you seem like the best person to ask - i’ve had a shitty week and am in desperate need of mcshep fic recs. what are the coziest most sweetest soppiest saddest ones youve ever read???

I am so sorry to hear you’ve had a bad week anon!!!!!!! Let me grab some of my best Warm Blanket fics for you 💖

Painted Blind by aadarshinah

John rather thinks he would know if he and Rodney were dating.

Or: Idiots in love, take twelve.

This one is soooo sweet and funny and THEM

I Do by cathalin

The feeling expands and grows and words are pushing up his throat, and he finds himself speaking. “Is that a promise?”

This is just. 🥹🥰🙏💖

Comfort Break by @salchat

On the usual mission-gone-wrong, John and Rodney are hiding in a ruined house. John is hurt and being overly stoic about it as usual and Rodney wants John to admit to being in pain and accept his help. They talk.

Rodney being caring in his stubborn, bullheaded Rodney way 💖

four boots, five thousand two hundred and eighty feet by Pares

"So what you're saying is, learning to love yourself really is the greatest love of all!"

Just a really fun, well-written, sexy body swap fic.

In Plain Sight by lamardeuse

The day they repealed Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Rodney marched into John's office and dragged him out.

Soooooo romantic I love this one!!!

Number Theory by Valdomarx

On another version of Atlantis, John is a mathematician who is better with numbers than with people.

But he's going to have to learn to get on with his team and their bossy leader, Rod, if he wants to survive here.

Set in the parallel universe from McKay and Mrs. Miller.

Hard-won and gradual vulnerability with a lot of team feels!

Monomial Factors by anonymous

Rodney wants a cat. John's always been a dog guy.

SOOOOO sweet this one.

The Reverse of Fascination by shrift

"I only have one idea left," Rodney said, because the situation was dire. It was desperate. It was this, or Rock Paper Scissors, and he didn't have a handy copy of the official strategy guide.

One of those fics where you can just HEAR the dialogue

Loop the Loop by alsaurus

One man's quest to comfort a friend. And maybe himself, just a little.

(AKA the one where John takes Rodney out on a million dates without realizing it.)

One of my absolute FAVES. This one is SO good and SO sweet and SO them!!!

The Suite Life by CartWrite

John did not ask to sprain his ankle, to be reassigned to the best quarters in Atlantis, or for Rodney McKay to become his new neighbor. But that’s what happened. Post-series.

Bit of a longer read but GOD is it worth it. Absolute comfort fic, it’s SO good.

Bare by @alienfuckeronmain

“Did you not know,” Teyla says carefully, shooting a concerned look at Ronon over their mostly empty plates, “that Lt. Colonel Sheppard enjoys the company of—”

“No, I did not!” Rodney manages to grit out, sucking in air desperately before grabbing his glass of water and downing it. “Since fucking when?!”

According to my ao3 history I’ve revisited this 79 times. Rodney thinking he’s homophobic when in fact he’s jealous is SUCH a good amazing trope. Also the sex scene in this is SO incredibly good 🫠

Okay I’m stopping there but like, if anyone wants to reblog with their own fluffy faves for this anon? Yes!

#fic rec #mcshep #I’ve recced some of these before but #they bear repeating

[hawkdisaster]

I generally hate crossovers in fanfics with passion but a Stargate Atlantis / Doctor Who would be the only crossover I'm willing to read. John Sheppard would probably be thrown in a volcano by the Doctor - who is not jealous at all - just for saying hello to Rose and Rodney would probably die just by entering the Tardis, and I need to read this.

#if someone had any good fics recs about this... #rose tyler #the doctor #john sheppard #rodney mckay #fanfics #doctor who #stargate atlantis #my post

[this-man-is-my-friend]

I'm convinced that the animosity between McKay and Grodin later in season 1 is because they are ex's

I think they started dating early on the expedition, or maybe just sleeping together, but when Rodney was so obviously jealous of John and the Ancient woman in "Sanctuary", Grodin broke up with him

Rodney's animosity comes from him being upset a) to have been dumped and b) at the suggestion he's in love with John Sheppard, which is NOT true

#peter grodin #stargate atlantis #rodney mckay #john sheppard #mcshep

[isleofair]

Ten faves in ten fandoms

I was tagged by @saltedpin: thank you so much!!! 💙💙💙 (This took me way longer to put together than I thought, wow)

Tiger & Bunny - Nathan Seymour (aka Fire Emblem) What can I say about Nathan. She's my ultimate blorbo, despite being pretty much the opposite of the kind of character I usually fixate on. They're a successful, ultra-rich business owner but also the mom friend of the group; a wonderful mix of (literally) fiery fierceness and soft sensitivity; a big, phoenix-themed peacock with the heart of a small, cuddly lovebird. I love her to death. 💖 (Honorable mention to her future husband Buddy hero, Keith Goodman, aka Sky High, aka literally the bestest guy EVER.)

Star Trek: TNG - Data This guy was sort of a blueprint for my childhood weirdness. I live for characters who are supposedly non-human, but are actually the most human of them all; and Data, for all that he was vastly stronger, faster, and smarter (at least logically) than all of his friends, had a gentleness to him that made you forget about that pretty much all of the time. I've been wanting to hug him for about 35 years.

Yūri!!! on Ice - Yuuri When I started watching the show, I thought Victor would be my favorite, but when I began to truly understand Yuuri's character, there was no going back. He's so astonishingly real in the way he perceives himself as an utter failure while actually being amazing and very successful. He manages to give me a glimmer of hope, at least sometimes, that maybe I might manage, with some effort, to not be quite as much of an absolute disaster as I fear.

The Lord of the Rings - Faramir If I had to sum Faramir up in a word, it would be unassuming. He's constantly treated (mostly by his father, but also by part of the narrative) as someone who's an afterthought, a second best, a spare; all this in spite of being incredibly smart, and learned, and competent, and kind. He's just... really lovely, and although he ends up with Éowyn as sort of (again) a second choice after Aragorn, I say: Éowyn, my beloved badass, you kind of won the lottery there.

Anime Sanjūshi - Aramis (Yes, Italy apparently got ALL of the anime back in the '80s, lol.) This anime adaptation of The Three Musketeers takes quite a few creative liberties with the story, and one of them is making Aramis a woman in disguise. She kicks just as much ass as any of her companions (most of whom never find out her secret), and at the end, after completing the personal, romance-related quest she joined the Musketeers for, she... keeps her male disguise and her job, presumably forever. A+, no notes.

Stargate: Atlantis - John Sheppard One of the very few "military jock, ace pilot, dude with a big gun" protagonists I've ever liked, mostly due to the fact that Sheppard is technically all of the above things, but really he's just as much of a geeky, socially inept loser as the scientists he was hired to bodyguard, cosplaying as the jock with a gun because he really loves the "piloting things that fly really fast" part. Add in a self-sacrificial streak about a galaxy wide, and I was sold.

Sailor Moon - Haruka Tenō, aka Sailor Uranus 13-year-old me saw Haruka and fully went "man, I want to be her!" And then, many years later, I realized that I had also probably been wanting her, period. 😅 The anime got censored to hell and back, of course, but I'm the kind of person who takes things I'm told at face value, so I saw her being incredibly dramatic and jealous and infatuated and totally willing to die for her "best friend" and went "yeah, I guess that checks out". I still vaguely thought that she would make the perfect "boyfriend", as she was the coolest person ever, lol.

The Adventure Zone: Balance - Taako I still can't believe a podcast that started out as essentially "how many dick jokes can we fit into 60-90 minutes of butchering the rules of D&D" ended up being one of the most significant pieces of media in my life, but hey, to quote Taako himself, "It’s not all abraca-fuck-you and what have you. I have a beating heart! I’m multi-dimensional! I’m a fully-realized creation! FUCK!" Taako's vulnerability is hidden under MANY layers, but when it comes out, it hits straight to the heart.

Yūki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern - Lewis Smith I'm throwing my most recent fandom in here, because why not. Smith (yeah, I know) is an apparently extremely stereotypical "American Pilot Guy" character (don't look him up, because the show is best experienced without spoilers, but I promise you, he looks just like he could be Keith Goodman's twin), but in a show that is always at least three genres at once, in very varying degrees of seriousness, he ends up being one of the most genre-aware characters of all, with... interesting consequences.

Good Omens (TV) - Crowley This one is interesting because in the book, my favorite character was always, very clearly and very firmly, Aziraphale. And then the tv show happened, and yeah, I'm not immune to the David Tennant Effect, by any means, but... You know that post that's been going around, that says something vaguely like "the best trait a male character can have is being pathetically in love with someone"? Well. Crowley is not a male character, but in the show he embodies pining. Pining pours out of each and every one of his probably non-existent pores 24/7, non-stop, for millennia. And I... kind of like pining. A reasonable amount. It's fiiiiiiiiiiiine.

I am tagging YOU! 🫵 But only if you want to play, of course! 😂💙

#tag game

[chaos-monkeyy]

annnd I wrapped up that John/Dave(/Ronon) fic that grew feelings on me and, like, pretty much consumed my entire being for the past two months.

Coming Home - Explicit, complete

CW for underage content in chapter 1-3, incest, and more, please read the tags xx

Six chapters, just shy of 15k words total... I still don't know where this came from but I've never been so interested in Dave Sheppard before 😂😏 Starts when they're teenagers and wraps up in canon-present-day. I'm also still not over the moodboard art Anagrrl made for me to go with it 😍 so I'm gonna put that here along with a little Chapter 5 (Reunion) excerpt just because I can.

…

After an incredibly awkward exchange with John and his… “friend,” the rest of the day passes in a blur. Somber faces Dave only half recognizes, a tangle of conflicting emotions he’d just rather not have to process at all, especially not today. 

John’s home. Now, John comes home, after disappearing for longer than he ever had before; after leaving Dave to deal with all of this alone and not even bothering to get in touch, let alone come back for a goddamn visit. 

Dave can’t work out whether he’s more relieved or pissed off about it. 

He also can’t work out how, exactly, he’s feeling about John bringing a stupidly attractive man home with him the fucking minute their father dies. Civilian contractor, my ass, Dave thinks to himself, with equal measures of bitterness, sardonic amusement, and— 

…Jealousy. 

Even after all this time, even through the dark, mirthless laugh he gets at the thought of John pulling this stunt to flip their father one last middle finger for good measure on his way out; despite all that, Dave can’t bring himself to deny the fact that deep down, he’s jealous that this guy has what Dave lost, twenty-plus years ago. 

The way the two stand while they talk quietly, so casually, comfortably near one another; the way this ‘Ronon’ hovers protectively and glowers at almost everyone else who comes too close or so much as looks at John sideways. The way John smiles up at Ronon, who is… not that far off from Dave himself in height and build, even if they have nothing else in common. 

The afternoon seems to last for a week all by itself; but once the day is finally, finally over, once everyone has gone home and left Dave in peace… He steels himself, and goes to find his brother. Surprisingly, John hadn’t found some vague excuse to leave early— Dave had been fully expecting he would— and he and Ronon accepted the offer to stay the night at the estate to give Dave and John the chance for a much-needed talk.

…

#stargate atlantis #john sheppard #dave sheppard #ronon dex #shepcest #not the self kind #shepdex #smut #(kink) #in/cest #chaosfic

[hero-in-waiting]

3 & 6 for the fic writer asks!

3. What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

I still adore Guide You Home which is my McLorne Last man AU, because I love the world I build and having Rodney deal with his grief. New Beginnings is my Teyla/Evan first date fic and I love love love love the relationships I built in it. The Doctor and the Sheppard was also super fun for me to write, and one of these days I will make the sequel. Also Kintsugi because I love OT4 putting John back togetehr.

Tbh, i love all my fics? Even the ones that I think I could do better now than I did when I write them.

6. Are there any fics from others you reread all the time?

Perpetual Motion by the lovely @esteefee is one of my all time, top 10 favorites and it makes me so happy.

Do The Math and Plague are some of my fav character works, I think it's so interesting.

Team Bonding for my platonic soulmates Rodney/Evan and John being a jealous but its so cute

Little Storms bc sometimes John is wrong, and I like that

Like A Handprint on my Heart is a fantastic Matt/Foggy story that deals with kinda funky soulmates and I love the ending.

Lucky Devil bc its good, and also? Has the best two dudes crying because of emotions scene ever and it works.

A Wildness Warily Awakened is one of my all time fave Teen Wolf fics and I want this to be a movie, or like 5 seasons of atv show. Werewolves in space!!

#this turned into a fic rec list #sorry not sorry #ask meme

[lezarus]

i want a cw network crossover between spn and lot SOOOOOOOOOO badly. imagine jack hanging out with the legends!!! and cas!!! i legitimately think it would fix dean too

i think an spn/legends crossover would have been SO funny bc it would have been SUCH a delicate ecosystem of who could hang and who could not hang under any circumstances.

ray: could absolutely hang. dean would find him soooo annoying but jack would adore him and cas would think he was a good influence so hed stick around. dean would grow to love him garth style.

sara: could hang. she and dean would flirt mercilessly. ava and cas would hate it

ava: could not hang. WAY too highly strung i physically cannot imagine her checking into a motel

zari 1.0: COULD HANG COULD HANG. zari basically dresses like a spn girl anyway and i think sam and dean would have like a jo/charie type relationship with her. genuinely very sweet

zari 2.0: absolutely could not hang. dean would call her kim kardashian or something as a joke and she’d dox him and get him sent back to prison. and she’d be right to.

nora: could not hang. like i think they would try ok. like nora becomes jacks fairy godmother or something and its very sweet and sad and difficult but ultimately it would just be too weird bc she literally looks exactly like kelly and also cas would get jealous bc jack was spending too much time with her.

mick: surprisingly could hang! mick and cas could bond over becoming fathers to unruly teenage girls who kind of hate their guts

john: ok this would be SO fun. could hang but in the way that he does with the legends where everyone kind of hates him but they just keep him around anyway. would realise dean is super uncomfortable around gay men and flirt with him openly making dean weirded out but also like secretly flattered. cas would be absolutely incensed that some blond bisexual british guy in the same outfit as him was flirting with dean and come up with increasingly desperate suggestions as to why they have to kill him. ultimately bc of his soft spot for kids i feel like john would end up saving jacks life somehow and cas would have a grudging respect for him after that but would still be like i NEVER want to see this man again dean. also i would have LOVED to see matt ryan and mark sheppard act opposite each other

nate: hmmmmmmmm im gonna say could hang. dean and jack would simply find it insanely cool that he can turn to steel

charlie: could absolutely hang IF the winchesters got over their thing abt shapeshifters

snart: ill admit. i agonised over this one. i think i THINK that he could hang but it would take some work. like i almost think dean and him have too similar problems but snart is just like super gay abt it all so dean would find him excruciating to talk to. i think snart, cas and rowena should get brunch tho

#to tell u the truth anon i thought abt this my entire 8 hour shift today #ask #anonymous #lot

[wonkyelk]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Stargate Atlantis Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard Characters: Rodney McKay, John Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan Additional Tags: Comic, Digital Art, Humor, Jealous John Series: Part 10 of Comic strips Summary:

Rodney has a new friend. John is not pleased.

#mcshep #stargate atlantis fanart

[tomwambsmilk]

I’m fully off in fangirl daydream land now, but I am gonna say that of alllll the fictional characters I would love to see Tom interact with my number one is actually Rodney Mckay from Stargate. I think they would hate each other and it would 100% be a case of ‘you hate in others what you hate in yourself’. Both deeply insecure assholes, except Rodney has somehow managed to be beloved by his subordinates despite this and Tom is wracked with jealousy over that. Actually I think Tom would be secretly deeply jealous of everything Rodney has - the friendships, a job that’s actually exciting, being able to save the day and get lauded for it - but pretend not to be. Tom reminds Rodney viscerally of the worst members of the IOA and immediately he’s filled with loathing. They both hurl verbose insults at each other and everyone else is just laughing at the absurdity.

Bonus side effect is that is that I think John Sheppard and Greg would meet and immediately get along fabulously. They both have offices full of toys. Both utterly socially awkward. I think John would see a lot of his past self - isolated and wanting friends but not able to trust and focusing mostly on survival - in Greg. Greg’s not a trust fund baby like John was but he did grow up wealth-adjacent. Greg would thing all John’s war stories are cool as shit. Also John would immediately clock all the similarities between Tom and Rodney and dump a wealth of “here’s everything I’ve ever learned about managing the emotions of a mildly unstable man in high-stress situations” on Greg. I also think John would teach Greg how to golf, probably, which would make Tom exceedingly jealous because golf is a classic Rich People Thing but he’s never actually golfed so he couldn’t teach Greg himself.

#also I think Teyla and Ronon would immediately adopt Greg #being on stargate would be so good for Greg actually #it would be a rough transition but eventually he’d dig it #it would also be good for Tom but he’d be salty about it #you’d have to drag him kicking and screaming #full disclosure I have an au idea that I’ve done some vague outlining for where the wraith do attack earth and obliterate nyc #and the Roy family plus Tom and Greg have to survive the post-apocalyptic landscape #I now kind of want to write an INCREDIBLY self-indulgent fic where Tom is placed in the position of running Atlantis bc of Events #waystar’s involved with the SGC and he becomes a member of the ioa maybe? #anyways. I think he’d hate it so much but he would be good at it actually #this is soooo self-indulgent and if you read all this I commend you

[spurious]

8 for the kissing meme

Kissing prompt ask meme: send a number~

8: "in secrecy" oooooooh this was FUN

There are days that Rodney doesn’t mind having to keep things between them a secret. He’s, despite evidence to the contrary, actually somewhat of a private person, and he doesn’t feel like everyone in the city needs to know he and Sheppard are together. He knows it would fuel gossip among the personnel, knows his scientists would never let it go, and, well, Ronon and Teyla know, and usually that’s enough.

Today is not one of those days, though. Today is a day that Rodney wants to tear down the American military establishment, wants to scream the truth in everyone’s smug fucking faces, to tongue-kiss John in the goddamn gate room. It’s petty, sure, but Rodney’s never claimed not to be a petty person. Watching John get dragged off by the latest beautiful alien princess, seeing the congratulating and back-slapping among the Marines when he’d come back looking rumpled—and Rodney trusts John with his life, of fucking course he trusts him not to cheat, so it’s not that he’s worried, or jealous, he just…wants, to be able to be more than something shared in the quiet dark, to have the same respect for his relationship that anyone else would be afforded.

He could get angry at John about it, has gotten angry at John about in the past, has refused to speak to him for days until they both broke, making eye contact across the mess and just laughing, stupid and light with it, edges softened. If he wanted to rant about for a while, John would listen to that, too, would let Rodney pace and shout and wave his hands until he got tired.

Right now, though, all he wants is to be alone with John, to feel him under his hands, to confirm, confirm, confirm. He presses John back against the door, tilts his head up and noses across the line of John’s jaw.

“She didn’t touch you?” Rodney asks, because he needs to know whether he has to put John in the shower before they get any further with this.

“No,” John says, shakes his head. He lifts his hands and clutches at Rodney’s shoulders, tight and desperate like he needs this too. “Only you.”

“That’s right,” Rodney murmurs, kissing John’s chin, his cheekbones, before landing on his mouth. John opens for him with a quiet little sound, muffled against Rodney’s lips, and, well—John like this, soft and beautiful and giving himself up so perfectly, so easily: that’s something Rodney’s glad to keep to himself.

#mcshep #fic #ask meme

[ao3feed-mcshep]

You Are My Favourite Flavour

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/Nq7pZI3

by lennyangel

John comes back from being kidnapped by Larrin, and Rodney is jealous. He acts out, embarassing himself. But John won't just pretend it never happened, which leads to explanations, and confessions, and some other things.

-- The culmination of the Blue Jello Series!

Words: 4352, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 6 of The Blue Jello Series

Fandoms: Stargate Atlantis

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Rodney McKay, John Sheppard

Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard

Additional Tags: Jealous Rodney McKay, John is a Spirk shipper, Blow Jobs, Hand Jobs, First Kiss, First Time, Spooning

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/Nq7pZI3

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #McShep

[stargatelov3r]

Yeah, I wasn’t sure when I typed it because I know you McShep lol. So, I see where you are coming from in that respect, if those two were together I could see that. Specifically, I see John as being the most jealous for some reason. I do think they could handle it only with someone they trust dearly, which I think Radek would fit the bill on that for sure, especially with Rodney.

Most of the Rodney/John/Radek I have read actually follows what you have said here about the hierarchy, in the fics Radek doesn’t mind. I have to agree with you though, I don’t think he would be okay with that. He needs to have some sort of equality in his relationships.

Oh! Rodney/Radek/Chuck/John as a quad!! OHHHH YESS! I can get behind that 100% and I mean I only ship John with one other person so that is really saying something!

Hmm… I need to absorb this quad headcanon more because I have never thought of this ship and that is such a good idea!

You know what I’m just going to throw Chuck in everywhere now because he needs the love.

A fic about this double date would be amazing. Alright people, band together <3 let’s go!

Love, Ship Anon <3

well, i kinda ship McShep (wait is McShep a verb? as in if you McShep you ship McKay and Sheppard????) anyways

i think they can both be super jealous, just think of Rodney in "Sanctuary"... he's besides himself!!! (he's also right, which is good, but he's definitely coming from a place of jealousy)

anyways, yes, let's get Chuck the attention he deserves! he's kinda the Walter of Atlantis xD

and yeah... anyone interested in writing a McShep/Radek/Chuck double date fic?

it's funny, i'm not even a big fic reader except for rarepairs (i'm kinda counting teylabeth as a rarepair even though they *do* have 125 fics on ao3...) but I would read that one xD

#mcshep #radek x chuck #ship anon #answered #sga

[logicgunn]

Delineation

Posted on AO3

The first time John catches Rodney walking out of Major Lorne’s room at oh-something-hundred in the morning he’s been drinking with the marines, and so when he wakes up in the afternoon with a pneumatic drill in his head and a mouth like the ass of a camel in the Danakil Depression he assumes it was some kind of alcohol-induced hallucination and lets it go.

The second time John catches Rodney walking out of Major Lorne’s room at oh-something-hundred in the morning he’s just gotten back from mediating a cabin-fever induced fracas in the gate room between Sergeants Nikolas Hansen and Rick Myers and he’s in a mood, so when Rodney turns down the corridor he hides behind a water feature and waits until he’s vanished out of sight, his heart thumping and his hands clenched into fists.

It’s not that John’s a homophobe, far from it, in fact, it’s just that DADT is still in effect (no matter the rumours from Earth) and Rodney could stand to be a little more discrete about things. If they get caught by someone, John will have to intervene. Officially. It won’t do a damn thing to Rodney, being a civilian and a scientist and, you know, Canadian. But Lorne’s a damn good 2IC, has strengths that counter John’s weaknesses and a steadfast reputation that goes a long way to smooth over the ruffled feathers of the marines that baulk at being commanded by an Air Force officer. If John is forced to send him back to Earth it will be an absolute travesty. If something ever happened to John, he trusts Lorne to take over command, knows that he’ll always do the right thing even if it’s not the easy thing, that the city and its inhabitants will be safe in his hands. If Rodney fucks that up with his late-night visits and his dopey smile and his god damn fingers fastening his shirt buttons in the corridor, John’s going to kill him with his bare hands.

He’s going to have to have a word. A strong one.

***

“Hey, McKay.”

Rodney looks up from his laptop. “Sheppard.”

“D’you have a minute?”

“Sure.”

Rodney gets up from his workstation and closes the door. “What’s up?” he asks.

“Look, it’s come to my attention…and I mean I get it, really I do…but if the wrong kind of person was to find out…”

Smooth, John, real smooth.

“Whose reputation…and…what?” asks Rodney, his face scrunched into confusion.

“What I mean is I know about what you and Lorne are doing, and there are reputations to consider and careers on the line and Lorne’s a damn good officer, I really don’t want to lose him, so if you could maybe, you know, be a little more subtle about it, that’d be great.”

“Oh. I see.”

“It’s not that there’s anything wrong with it, not in the slightest. It’s fine. Great even. It’s just that if word got out…”

Rodney crosses his arms and narrows his eyes. “I would never do anything to jeopardise Major Lorne’s reputation with the rest of the military grunts.”

“That’s great, buddy, Glad we’re on the same page.”

***

And he is glad, really. What two consenting adults do in their downtime is none of his business. And Lorne’s been acting different lately, all loose-limbed and easy smiles, it’s a good look on him. John’s happy for them. Yup, absolutely.

And so John doesn’t catch Rodney leaving Lorne’s room again. Not that he’s trying to, of course. It’s just that it’s good leadership to take the nightshift on occasion, and even better leadership to get his hands dirty and take on a few patrols around the city to help out. Let the men know that he remembers what it’s like to be them. That even though he’s the man, he’s still just a man. And if he uses his status to snap up the patrols of the living quarters, well that’s just showing his men that he trusts them with the more dangerous parts of the city and doesn’t need to be breathing down their necks all the time.

It bugs him, though. Not knowing if Rodney’s still sneaking in and out of Lorne’s room. He doesn’t do anything so crass as to imagine what they’d look like, the two of them laid out on the bed together, naked and entwined and sweating, all that skin and muscle and heaving breath, hands clasped and thighs- no. They must still be seeing each other, though, because Lorne still looks like someone who’s getting it on the regular, and Rodney sometimes heads over to talk to him in the mess, tray in hand, exchanging a few words before coming over to sit with the team. If John’s stomach does some kind of free-falling, fluttering, crash-landing thing in those moments, it’s only because his lungs are momentarily forgetting to breathe and he’s not getting enough oxygen.

***

He pushes it out of his mind. There are close encounters with the Wraith and close encounters with the Genii and close encounters with the vacuum of space to keep him occupied, and Rodney starts spending more and more of his free time in the labs so he must hardly be seeing Lorne at all. Lorne takes longer and longer shifts, days and nights and sometimes both, one after the other, but it doesn’t seem to be having a detrimental effect on their relationship; if anything their working relationship is thriving under the pressure.

John finally catches Rodney going into Lorne’s room one night, completely by accident when he’s passing through to get to- well that’s neither here nor there. It’s been a week or two since the last disaster, and Rodney doesn’t even notice John behind him, is actually unzipping his jacket in his haste before he knocks. When the door swishes open, John hears him saying I only have an hour before it slides shut again, separating John from him with three inches of soundproof Ancient alloy.

An hour. Time enough for something unhurried, but not time to linger afterwards… but John’s not thinking about that. He heads back to control to check in with Chuck before he goes to his room to try to wind down. He changes into his PJs, washes his face and brushes his teeth, then settles down in his bed to read War and Peace, something he hasn’t had time to do for months. His eyes scan over the words, but nothing actually makes it to his brain. An hour, Rodney had said nearly forty minutes ago. An hour to…what? Lie on the bed, naked, grinding against each other? Or maybe Rodney fell to his knees the moment he the door shut, unzipped Lorne’s BDUs and took him into his mouth. Perhaps Lorne was already prepped and ready for Rodney to fuck him, slick with lube that he snuck from the infirmary. Maybe Rodney bent him over his desk and is fucking him right now, his strong and powerful thigh muscles slamming him into Lorne over and over and-

John’s hard as a rock at the thought. He cups himself, pinching the inside of his thigh to calm his body down. The last thing he needs to be doing is jerking off to thoughts of Rodney thrusting. That way lies madness. It’s been forty-five minutes. Maybe it’s all over already and they’re lying together, catching their breath, or getting dressed and talking softly. Is it just sex? Or is there something more? They seem an unlikely couple – Rodney the workaholic with his Canadian wit and his inability to suffer fools, and Lorne with his all-American boyish charm who has never met a Pegasus or Milky Way trader he can’t sweet-talk into a better deal. What do they see in each other? What do they talk about?

The more John thinks about it, the more he convinces himself that it must be purely physical, and that…well it doesn’t make him feel better so much as make him feel less freaked out. If it’s purely physical between them, then it won’t get in the way of John and Rodney’s friendship. It’s not like Rodney’s been ignoring John recently, he’s been turning up for team movie nights when they’ve been able to have them, still eats his meals with them, plays chess a couple of times a week…but there’s a little niggle in John’s brain screaming that if Rodney has had more spare time to spend with Lorne, why didn’t he spend it with John instead?

John looks at his watch again. It’s been fifty-five minutes. If he was to head out to get a cup of Athosian tea from the mess hall, he might bump into Rodney as he leaves. And if he bumps into Rodney, he might…what, know more about their relationship? Is he really that interested? Apparently he is because he’s jamming his feet into his sneakers, War and Peace falling to the ground in his haste. He rushes out of his room and half walks, half jogs down the corridor and around the next junction, just in time to see Rodney slip into the transporter. He watches the door close on Rodney’s curved ass and collapses against the wall, panting. He hears someone’s footsteps, so he pushes off the wall and tries to look casual, passes Miko Kusanagi with a nod and is about to turn the corner when he hears Lorne’s voice behind him.

“Miko, thanks for coming by.”

He turns quick as a flash to see Lorne step out into the corridor to greet Miko, watches them exchange an Athosian head tilt as he gestures her ahead of him into his quarters. That rat bastard, how dare he-

Before John can stop himself, he feels himself striding back down the corridor, his fist colliding with the side of Lorne’s face, knocking his second onto the ground as Miko comes rushing out of the room and tries to step between them.

“Colonel Sheppard!” she all but yells as Lorne pushes up with one arm, the back of the other hand pressing against his bloody lip. John stands there awkwardly as Lorne gets up, helped by Miko, his eyes fixed on his CO in case of another attack.

“I take it I’ve really fucked you off, Sir,” he says, taking a step back. It’s a testament to how good a man Lorne is that he doesn’t take a swing at John, he has every right to despite being his subordinate.

“I, uh…” John searches for something to say but feels his rage slipping away like a low tide.

“Do you want to step into my room and talk about it, sir?” asks Lorne. “Or do you want to make it official?”

It’s not a threat. When Lorne says official he doesn’t mean he’ll make a complaint, he means John writing him up for whatever he’s so pissed about.

“Maybe…we should…yeah. Talk.”

Miko looks between them, but Lorne just nods at her and tells her they’ll meet up another time. It’s not until Miko heads back into Lorne’s room and comes back out with her laptop that John starts to think he’s missing something here. When she’s gone Lorne gestures John into his room, just like he did Miko a minute ago. When John steps in he’s greeted with an unexpected sight. The bed is pushed against the wall and there’s an easel set up in the middle of the room. All over the walls are charcoal sketches, and as John looks closer he recognises lots of faces from Atlantis and a fair few from the SGC, including O’Neill and Teal’c and Jackson. His eyes are drawn to the picture still on the easel, a coloured pastel picture of Rodney sitting at Lorne’s desk, his laptop open and his hands typing. The angle is unusual, taking in the slope of Rodney’s nose and his crooked mouth, the expression on his face one of serene concentration, the way Rodney looks when he’s in his element and working on something Nobel-worthy but not life-threatening.

Lorne brushes past John to open up his mini-fridge, pulls out a bag of ice and wraps it in a t-shirt. He winces when he presses it to the side of his face.

“You have one hell of a right hook, sir,” he says.

“I’m sorry,” says John quietly, and he means it.

“Any chance you’ll tell me what I did so I can not do it again?”

So John tells him. He tells him that he saw Rodney leave his room a few times and put two and two together and made sixty-nine, that he’s been trying to make sure they didn’t get caught out by anyone, that he thought Lorne was cheating on Rodney with Miko. To his credit, Lorne doesn’t laugh or get mad, doesn’t so much as smile or frown. He listens attentively, almost in parade rest except for the hand holding the icepack to his face. When John’s done, he only nods, dropping the icepack on the bed.

“I’ve been asking people to pose for a while now,” he says. “Mostly charcoal sketches, but Rodney was feeling impatient sitting still, so I asked him to bring his laptop and work while I drew him. He has an interesting face and a unique form, it’s been a challenge to capture his personality on paper and he’s been agreeable enough to come back a few times.”

“Oh. Christ, Lorne, I’m so sorry.”

“You were defending Rodney’s honour, Sir. I can’t fault you.”

“I was totally out of line. If you want to press charges, I won’t contest it.”

“I’m not going to do that sir. But two things.”

“Name them.”

“One, I have something you should take with you.” Lorne opens a drawer and pulls out a large, plastic folder of sketches. He flicks through them and pulls one out of the pile, gently sliding it into a brown A4 envelope. He hands it to John. “Open it when you’re alone, sir.”

“What’s the second thing?”

“Tell him how you feel.”

John schools his face into something neutral. “Major-“

“I’m not asking, Sir. I wouldn’t tell, either. I don’t know anything. But…life is short.”

John looks down at the envelope and nods once. It’s as much as he’s willing to give, even for Lorne. “I’ll take your words under advisement.”

Lorne smiles, then winces as his lips stretch out. “If that’s all, sir?”

“Uh, yeah Major, that’s all. See you tomorrow.”

“Good night, sir.”

When the door snicks shut behind John, he starts to feel like an ass. He heads back to his room and sits on his bed, twirling the envelope in his hands for a while before pulling out the sheet of paper inside. The sketch is entirely charcoal, confident lines on textured paper and it’s been sprayed with some kind of fixative to stop it smudging. Rodney’s hunched over his laptop, his eyes brimming with intelligence and his mouth fixed in determination. It’s like any day in the lab, except that he’s totally naked, his limbs sturdy, the muscles bulging where his thighs are pressed against the seat, the crease of his soft stomach. His cock sits snuggly between his thighs and the chair, explicitly drawn with just a hint of eroticism, thick and heavy and masculine. It’s like he’s not even aware that he’s unclothed and being drawn, his attention is entirely on the screen in front of him. Lorne’s captured Rodney’s whole and his parts, his personality and his physicality, unfiltered and unaltered. 100% pure Rodney McKay. John’s never been one to care for art, but this picture gives him such emotion that he can barely contain it.

There’s a knock on his door, and John rushes to push the picture back into the envelope so no one can see. The knocking gets louder and louder, more impatient with every second that passes.

“Hang on, hang on.”

He stuffs the envelope under his pillow and opens the door.

“What on Earth happened?” says Rodney, dropping his hand. “It’s all over the labs. Did you really punch Lorne? Oh my god, are you going to be court-martialled?!”

John smiles at Rodney’s concern and takes a step back.

“Come in, McKay,” he says.

#McShep #Stargate Atlantis #SGA #John Sheppard #Rodney McKay #Evan Lorne #Miko Kusanagi #Oblivious John Sheppard #Jealous John Sheppard #Misunderstandings #Fanfiction #LogicGunn