TITLE: The Sun and the Sound
E-MAIL: eli @ popullus.net
RATING: PG-13
POSTED: Aug. 15, 2004
SUMMARY: Hot, hot August.
NOTES: Salieri posted a lovely snippet, Cofax voiced the suggestion to "Give 'im a lick and see what happens," and Sal said for everyone to feel free to play. So. Taking up right on the heels of Sal's last line...
DISCLAIMER: Read

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Jack watched that movement, that offer to...let the sky take. And Daniel kept moving, so Jack kept watching: the way Daniel's wrists twisted and his arms flexed as he truly stretched; the way bones shifted and muscles lengthened to create the maximum stress; the way his skin fucking gleamed, just-melted gold against the parched ground, still too solid to sink in. Jack's eyes swept down, drawn, following up and back down the small arch that stretch gave Daniel, discovering the shadow under the small of his back, finding at the end that even Daniel's toes were in on the act. Under Jack's slight frown they spread wide and then curled tight, like they wanted to enjoy the sun but were afraid of getting burned.

Silence. A split second when every cicada in Jack's head shifted position and the electricity overloaded. Then Daniel sighed and, just like that, all that tension vanished with that breath, dropping him those last few inches into a boneless sprawl, both arms curled slightly over his head now while the strength of the returning tsssszzzzt made the air vibrate.

Jack started breathing again.

He could feel that sound, whether it really existed or not. It raised goose-bumps under the hair on his arms and pulsed in his ears, growing stronger and fading out before cycling back around, surrounding them, shielding them.

He was bent over Daniel's chest, just above the slow fall and slower rise, and he didn't know how that had happened but, well, there he was. The heat from Daniel, bouncing off Daniel, it came up into Jack's face, like when he was kneeling over a chlorine-filled pool, about to scoop up a handful, knowing that the water wouldn't be any cooler but that the water plus the wind would.

His mouth skated across Daniel's shoulder, his brain trying to head for more neutral territory and his lips skipping off the sweat and curve. Daniel stirred, his far arm curling in tighter, his hand forming a fist that almost touched his head as Jack leaned back and licked his lips, taking in the salt and dust.

Daniel's lashes twitched.

Wondering when he'd lost his mind, if it was before or after he'd found the taste of Daniel under the skin of the planet, Jack braced himself on his elbow and dipped his head to touch his tongue to the side of Daniel's throat, drag it down along the muscle toward--

A hand in his hair. A startled "Mmpt" from his throat, even though he shouldn't have been surprised. He couldn't sit up, not when the hand closed, gripping and holding his head right where it was, right over Daniel's. Heart pounding, Jack forced his head back just enough that they weren't quite touching when Daniel turned and lazily-narrowed eyes locked with Jack's.

"Err..." Jack tried, but his voice was as rough as the ground beneath his tense hand. The eyes narrowed further, the crinkles at the edges and the curve of the full lips below signaling amusement, not anger or confusion. Jack cleared his throat and tried again. "Hi."

"Hello," Daniel said, his own voice low and...smug. "Always said you were slow."

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