Understood
by Keiko Kirin

The last thing Jack remembered was being on P9A-287, standing in a hole in the ground, stripped to his underwear, and holding a carved stick in the air while the natives circled the hole and chanted something. It was a vivid memory, one he supposed wasn't going to fade any time soon.

But that wasn't the immediate problem. No, the immediate problem was how he came to be here: inside the SGC infirmary, hooked up to wires and stuff. He didn't remember any injuries, any whacko alien stuff -- not counting the stripped, in-a-hole, natives chanting incident -- and didn't remember coming back through the stargate.

"Hey, doc!"

Doctor Fraiser had been hovering in the shadows like a vulture with a clipboard. She swooped at the sound of his voice. "Well, Colonel, how do you feel?"

"I've been better. What happened?" He touched his temple and peeled one of the wires off. Fraiser batted his hand down and grabbed his wrist, making a show of taking his pulse.

"I was hoping you could tell me," she said. "SG-1 brought you back in a dreamlike state a few hours ago. Apparently, you passed out on the planet."

"Passed out?" Jack looked around. "Where is everyone?"

"Debriefing with General Hammond." Fraiser let go of his wrist and jotted down a few notes. "Trying to figure out what happened. I'll tell them you're-- Colonel!"

Jack swung his legs over the side of the bed, ripping more wires off. "Where are my pants?"

Fraiser laid a restraining hand on his chest. "You're not going anywhere, not until I've done a full work-up."

"Is that really necessary?" Jack grumbled. "I feel fine."

She pushed him back down and fussed with the wires. "I know you're bigger than me, but I've got your pants, you big baby. So lie still and stop whining. You had me sick with worry, and I'm tired of worrying about you and the rest of SG-1. What is it with your team, anyway? Do you just stroll onto a planet and ask to be injured?"

Jack frowned at her. "Doc?"

Fraiser readied a needle for a blood sample. "Hmm?"

Jack looked her over. She looked real. The infirmary seemed real. He didn't think this was some kind of dream. Maybe it was just stress. They were all under stress. And yet... This was unflappable Fraiser.

"What... What did you just say?"

Fraiser paused, needle poised. She gave him a concerned look. "I said, you're not going anywhere yet. Let me run some tests, make sure you're okay."

Jack winced a little from the prick of the needle. "Yeah, that's what I thought you said."

Maybe hanging out in the infirmary wasn't such a bad idea, since he'd just hallucinated Fraiser mouthing off to him. Stress, he hoped. Not some whacko alien thing. He'd had enough of those in five-odd (very odd) years.

-----

When he woke up again, his pants were folded and waiting on a chair next to the bed, with his shirt slung over the back. He sat up and checked around the infirmary. Lieutenant Van was in one of the beds, and a nurse was working at a monitor. So far, so good. No hallucinations. All he'd needed was some rest. Jack waited a moment, then got up and got dressed. He strode out of the infirmary.

"No fair. Looking hotter and hotter," the nurse's voice reached him.

Jack stopped in his tracks. He glanced back over his shoulder. The nurse was still at the monitor, typing something. She didn't even look up.

"What's with you?" someone said.

Jack snapped his head around and saw an airman walking away down the corridor. The whacko alien thing was making people mouth off to him? Unless... Jack mulled over the options as he wandered the halls. He made it to Daniel's office without any comment. Daniel wasn't around. Teal'c wasn't in his quarters, and Carter wasn't in her lab. He tried Hammond's office and found SG-1 in a briefing with Doctor Fraiser.

"There's the patient now," Fraiser said as Jack hesitated in the doorway. "How are you feeling, Colonel?"

"Ummmm, better. I think," Jack hedged, lingering by the door. Everyone looked real, everything seemed real. They were staring at him. He took a few steps forward, slowly slid into the chair next to Teal'c's and clasped his hands over the table.

 "If you're better, why were you behaving as if we're hostiles?" Teal'c asked.

Jack looked at Teal'c. Teal'c returned the look, silent. Jack glanced around the table. Fraiser was prattling on about EEGs. Carter and Hammond were watching her. Daniel was leafing through a folder.

Jack leaned closer to Teal'c. "What did you just say?" he asked quietly.

"I said nothing," Teal'c replied, arching one eyebrow.

"Yeah, I was afraid of that."

Jack drummed his fingers on the table. He decided to try a little experiment. He stared hard at Daniel, concentrating. Nope, no thoughts, and that was impossible, given Daniel. So if this alien whackiness wasn't mind reading, what was it?

Daniel peered at him over the folder and frowned. "Stare at me like that, and it makes me want to do things, you have no idea. I can't be thinking like this. I wish you were back in the infirmary. No, I don't. Of course I don't. You were so still, I thought you were dead. Scared the hell out of me. Wish you wouldn't do that."

It was Daniel's voice, no mistake, but Daniel wasn't speaking. He'd gone back to looking at something in the folder.

Damn. It was mind reading all right, but with a twist.

This briefing is about you, and you're not even paying attention. That from Hammond, who said, "Colonel? Are you okay?"

Jack sat back in his chair, wondering how to answer. If he told them he was telepathic, it was back to the infirmary, back to the wires and stuff. Hell, if he really were telepathic, it could be a great advantage, couldn't it? Then he'd have to tell them the catch: it only worked when their thoughts were directed at him. Then they'd fall over themselves trying not to think at him until they figured it out.

This was his chance to find out what everyone really thought about him. That thought alone almost sent him rushing back to the infirmary.

He was about to answer when he heard Daniel: Not again. Can't you be well, just when I need you?

And Carter: You look tired. You need rest, like we all do. You need a day when the world isn't resting on your shoulders.

Fraiser: You were better when I left you. Your tests were all normal. Damn. I've missed something again.

He imagined the infirmary and being surrounded by people worrying about him. It was draining just thinking about it. He could tell them in the morning. After a nice, peaceful rest at home.

-----

In the morning, Jack felt so much better, felt renewed in fact, that he didn't go straight to Doctor Fraiser. No incidents on the way in. No incidents on the way down to SGC. No incidents at all. Instead of making for the infirmary, he strolled by Daniel's office. He had to check it out first, see if the mind reading had worn off.

Daniel was standing next to a bookshelf, pulling down one of his dusty, musty old books.

"Hey. Whatcha doing?" Jack greeted, glancing around at the clutter.

"Don't you ever knock?" Daniel swung around, book in hand.

Jack looked behind him and across the room. "No doors."

Daniel gazed at him blankly. "Um, yeah," he said slowly. He sat down at his desk and opened the book, thumbing through it. Jack picked up a magnifying glass and peered around the room through it.

"You're in a good mood this morning," Daniel observed.

"I feel great this morning," Jack said, wielding the magnifying glass like a miniature tennis racket. He hadn't felt this good in years.

"I found some references to similar rituals on Earth." Daniel showed him a page from the book with an illustration of a naked man holding up a baton while people danced around him. "You weren't naked, more's the pity, though that's probably just as well. As it was, I couldn't stop thinking how you were at the perfect height to go down on me, and it was all I could do to keep from getting a hard-on."

Jack froze in mid-backswing. He lowered the magnifying glass and stared at Daniel, who had opened another book and was reading, oblivious. Who hadn't just said aloud that he'd wanted Jack to go down on him.

Jack pulled up a stool and perched on it. He watched Daniel read for another minute or so. In silence.

"So, uh, what does it say about that ritual anyway? I mean, what's it all about? What's it supposed to do?" He tilted his head and looked at the picture again. No one had any hard-ons. Unless the baton was supposed to be symbolic.

Daniel looked up at him. "You're asking about the significance of a cultural ritual? Are you winding me up?"

Jack stared at him. It was freaky hearing Daniel speak without moving his mouth.

"Well," Daniel said, turning the book around. "It's supposed to be... mystical, I guess you could say. Spiritual. This source calls it the Guidance Dance." He traced the circle of dancers with his index finger.

Jack slid his jaw to one side. "I was 'guided' into a stupor. Was that supposed to happen?"

"How the hell should I know? You act like I'm omniscient, and get pissed at me when you don't like the answers I'm making up as I go along." Daniel picked up the book and turned the page, pretending to read. "I don't know, actually," he admitted. "It was a secret ritual on Earth. There isn't a lot written about it. My best guess is that it's meant to be a kind of vision quest. King Taklital only insisted on it after you made that joke."

"Joke?" Jack tried to remember the events leading up to underwear-in-the-hole. He remembered the town around the stargate, the steps leading up to the palace, Daniel's pleased satisfaction when he'd figured out how to talk to the natives, and the grand tour of the labyrinth under the palace, when Daniel kept going ahead of the others in his distracted fascination.

"When we were in the dark. You said something about blind leaders instead of blind followers," Daniel reminded him.

Oh, that joke. Jack narrowed his eyes. "I said that about you, not about me."

"Oh," Daniel said lightly, but his thoughts filled Jack's head: "I knew that. And don't you wish you knew how I'd translated it to Taklital? I didn't know he would take 'blind leader' literally and try to cure you. Dammit, I didn't know anything was going happen, and sometimes I just want to smack the sarcasm right out of you."

"You do?" Jack asked before he could stop himself.

Daniel frowned. "What?" he asked warily.

"Huh?" Jack replied to throw him off track.

Daniel closed the book and drummed his fingers on top of it. "Well, that's my guess, anyway. I don't suppose you're having any visions."

If you only knew, Jack thought. He folded his arms over his chest. "Not exactly. How would I know if I were? I mean, what should I look for, if it were working?"

Daniel gave him a scrutinizing look, then glanced down and thumbed some dust off the book. "I’m not sure. It's supposed to lead you to the right way, the right path."

"Sorta like a road map?"

"I doubt it would be that clear."

Jack sighed. "No, of course not. That would be too easy."

Daniel looked up at him for a moment, then pointed at the computer screen a few times. "I have some work to do now, so I think I'll just, you know. Work." His thoughts added: "And try not to think about you coming here to wind me up, because you drive me crazy when you do this. The way you're sitting there, with your thighs spread, your pants tight across your lap, just to tempt me when I should never be having these thoughts. Not here, anyway. Not where I can't do anything about it."

Jack glanced down at his lap and brought his thighs closer together before he got off the stool.

"Yeah," he said. "I'll... see you later, I guess." He wasn't sure what to say, and he wasn't sure why. Then again, he guessed it was normal not to have a response when your best friend was thinking about your thighs being spread in front of him as a temptation.

He glanced back at Daniel before he left the office, curious at the ease with which Daniel could switch his thoughts away from Jack and onto something else. How much of a temptation could he be, then?

As if in response, as he left the office, Jack heard Daniel's voice. "I wish you'd tuck your shirt in so I could see your ass."

----

Jack spent most of the rest of the day in his office. Not in the infirmary. Where he should be. Telling Fraiser all about the bizarro Jack-centric telepathy. Having her look alarmed, then hook him up to all kinds of brain scanning machines before declaring that she was stumped, and they'd have to go back to the planet and throttle the cure out of King Taklital.

Or, in one scenario, Jack made Daniel explain to Taklital that the joke had been about Daniel, and Taklital made Daniel stand in the hole, and then Daniel was getting sideswiped by everyone's thoughts, starting with Jack's, "Ha! Now you know what it's been like for me."

Jack wondered when he'd gotten so petty.

He also wondered when he'd taken leave of his senses and decided not to tell Doc Fraiser what was happening. It was after he'd left Daniel's office, which meant the two events were related: visiting Daniel's office, taking leave of his senses. Well, okay, finding out your best friend had thought about you going down on him while you were standing in a hole in your underwear could understandably cause a little sense-leave-taking. Jack thought he was justified in hiding in his office and being petty for a while.

And the odd part was, Jack reflected as he ventured outside his door again, he still felt really good. Physically, he was in top shape. He glanced at an emergency exit hatch in the corridor and thought he could probably beat his own personal best scrambling up to the surface. Achy knees and all.

So it didn't make much sense, all things considered. And neither did doing this, Jack acknowledged as he entered Carter's lab. It didn't make much sense unless he came clean, and admitted that curiosity had paired with pettiness to overcome his better judgment.

"Hey, Carter," he cheerfully greeted the back bent over a microscope.

Carter sat up straight and swivelled around in her chair. "Don't you ever knock?"

"Hi, Colonel." She smiled at him.

Jack strolled up to the microscope, getting closer than was absolutely necessary. Carter eased out of the way, and he looked through the lens.

"What am I looking at?" he asked her, seeing nothing but a black reflection.

"A cross-section of that new mineral SG-6 found last month on P4X-923," she said, adjusting the scope for him. "Its surface texture is amazing."

"You don't say," Jack murmured, looking for amazement.

"It has a random pattern of octagons and hexagons, each about the width of a human hair," Carter elaborated.

"A-mazing," Jack teased her.

"Do you have any idea how fey you are when you do that?" Carter swapped slides in the scope.

Fey? Jack stood more butch-like. He glanced around the lab, fishing for a topic of mutual interest. Coming up short, he sat on one of the stools, picked up Carter's pen and tapped his palm with it.

"So, Daniel found a reference to that thing I had to do on 287. He thinks it was a vision quest. The Guidance Dance or something."

Carter was looking through the scope and re-focusing it. A shade too late she said, "Really?"

Jack tossed the pen from hand to hand. "Yeah." He juggled the pen, but on the third pass, it hit his palm and bounced off, striking the desk with a lightweight plastic clatter. Carter flinched from the noise and retrieved the pen.

"You're bored, and Daniel kicked you out. And I can't kick you out, because you're my superior officer, so lucky me, I get to humor you while you pretend to be too dense to understand what I'm doing. You can't have any idea how tiresome the dense act gets."

Jack watched her replace one slide inside a small protective case. She smiled at him. "That's good, sir," she said, her lack of interest almost undetectable.

"Well," Jack said, getting up, "I'll leave you to it. You can amaze me later with your cross-sections and particle structures."

"Yes, sir." Carter went back to the microscope. He heard as he left: "I hope you're okay. You're acting odd. Odder than usual, anyway."

Odd. Tiresome. And, apparently, fey. The little jaunt to Carter's lab should have taught him his lesson. And yet, instead of making straight for the infirmary, he ended up in front of Teal'c's quarters. This time, he knocked.

"Enter."

Jack opened the door and stood, half in, half out. Teal'c was sitting on the floor, surrounded by candles, some of which were lit.

"Sorry. Didn't know I was interrupting," Jack said, drumming his fingers on the doorknob.

"I have not yet begun my kel-no-reem. Come in." Teal'c gestured to the empty chair.

Jack sat down. Teal'c looked at him for a moment, then picked up a long match, sparked it, and lit a candle. "You are agitated. I will wait, let you tell me in your own time. You seek my counsel rarely, but it does me honor when you do."

Jack watched him light two more candles. "I... I think something happened to me on that planet yesterday," he said.

Teal'c paused, then lit another candle before blowing the match out. "Do you not feel well?" he asked, but in Jack's mind, he vowed, "If those aliens have hurt you, we will return and demand the truth. I will gladly challenge their mightiest warriors if it will save you."

Jack shook his head a little. "I feel fine. Better than fine, actually. It's not that. It's... something inside." Jack gestured in the air next to his head. "Daniel thinks I've been sent on a vision quest. Sort of a... spiritual path, I guess. For guidance."

"You do not believe Daniel Jackson," Teal'c's voice echoed, his thoughts and words matching exactly.

Jack looked at him in surprise, then thought about the question. "I don't know. I don't believe in that mumbo-jumbo, but there is something... different. I just can't see how it's helping me any. If it's guidance, then I need a compass."

"I see." Teal'c struck another match and lit more candles. He waited while Jack pressed his fingertips together and flexed them, wondering how much to say.

"You know how sometimes something happens, and you know it's not a good thing, but at the same time, it is kind of a good thing? Because it gets you to reevaluate some things..." Jack trailed off, considering.

Teal'c watched him but said nothing. Jack heard, "I cannot help you, for I do not understand your problem. I am sorry to fail you, and hope that I will find answers during my kel-no-reem."

"Hey," Jack said softly, patting Teal'c's shoulder. "Thanks for listening. It helps." He stood up and opened the door. Teal'c inclined his head.

Before the door shut, Jack heard, "Your spirit is ever in your path. I cannot see where you need guidance."

-----

Jack decided to call it a day. He still felt physically fine, but the mind reading stuff was giving him a headache. Tomorrow, if it hadn't worn off -- and who was he kidding, it wasn't showing any signs of wearing off -- he'd turn up on Fraiser's doorstep first thing.

He changed into his off-duty clothes, remembered he had to drop off his mission report, and swung by Hammond's office, almost dreading to find out what the general thought about him. Hammond wasn't there. Jack breathed out in relief.

The elevator doors were closing as he approached.

"Hey! Hold the elevator!" he called, skirting a female airman who wondered where the fire was.

Jack ducked between the doors just in time, and winced when he saw that it was Daniel with whom he was riding to the surface. For a moment, he seemed to be safe, then: "You look so sexy in leather."

Daniel watched the numbers change on the display above the buttons. Jack sunk his hands in his pockets and listened.

"In leather, out of leather. In clothes, out of clothes. You even manage to make BDUs sexy, and God only knows how that's possible. But I shouldn't be thinking this. Still the wrong place, the wrong time."

Jack couldn't help it. He snuck a glance at Daniel, who looked at him, face a mask of neutral interest. Jack made a mental note never to play poker with him.

Silence for a moment, then: "Ah, screw it, we're nearly up top. Up top screw. If only. You on top while I screw you... Damn. I have to stop thinking about this."

And he did. They reached the surface in silence. Jack stared at his back, slightly shaken and curious to know what Daniel's replacement thoughts had been.

In the parking lot, Daniel said, "Bye," with a slight wave, mostly managing to hide his nervous guilt.

"Bye," Jack said, walking slowly as he watched Daniel hurry to his car. By the time Jack reached his truck, Daniel had driven away.

Road map, compass, anything.

-----

Jack wasn't surprised at the reaction -- "Oh God, what are you doing here?" -- when Daniel answered the door.

"Hi, Jack," Daniel said with a puzzled frown. "I, uh... What are you doing here?" He stood aside and let Jack in.

"We have to talk," Jack said.

Daniel stared at him. "We do?" Words echoing thought. He closed the door. "Uh, not that you're not welcome here, any time, but what's this about that it can't wait?" he said over his more to-the-point thought: "What could have brought you here now? Looking all serious and sexy in your leather jacket and I swear, if you keep looking at me like that... Damn. It must be something terrible, if you're over here and you want to talk."

Jack wandered over to the sofa and ran his hand along the top, preparing for the plunge. "I don't think we can talk about this at the SGC," he said.

"Why not?"

Jack looked at Daniel. "Because it's not really the place to tell you that I know what you've been thinking about me."

Daniel hid his brief panic with genuine bewilderment. "What do you mean?"

Jack played with the sofa fabric, staring into his eyes. "Wanting me to go down on you. Screwing me. Having my thighs spread in front of you. Like the jacket, huh?"

The color drained from Daniel's face and he dropped onto the chair. "Oh, Christ," he said.

Jack took off his jacket, draped it across the back of the sofa, and sat down. Daniel took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"When were you going to tell me?" Daniel asked.

"I'm telling you now."

"But you've known..." Daniel paused. "How long have you known?"

"About the telepathy? Since yesterday." Jack shrugged. "I thought it wore off," he white-lied. "Until I realized, uh, it hadn't."

"Oh shit. You must hate me. I can't believe this is happening."

"Stop it," Jack said.

Daniel shook his head. "Stop what?"

"I don't hate you."

"You heard that? Oh, God..." Daniel groaned, rubbing his eyes.

Jack sat back, picking nonexistent lint from the sofa cushion. "Look, it's not easy for me, either." He paused, scratching at the cushion with his thumbnail. "Teal'c thinks he's failed me, and Carter thinks I'm tiresome and fey."

"It's not just me?" Daniel asked. "What else have you heard?" Prurient curiosity knocked mortified embarrassment out of the way pretty damn quickly.

"Not a lot," Jack said. "It's a stupid kind of telepathy. Only works when someone's having direct thoughts at me."

"Like this?" Daniel thought at him.

"Yes, Daniel. Like that."

"Don't get pissy at me."

"I'm not pissy. Just a little... frazzled. It's not every day you get to listen in on your best friend's porn movie fantasies about you."

"Oh, God... I can't believe this." Daniel ran his hands down his face.

"Look," Jack said. "It'll be okay. Tomorrow we'll go back to 287, get Taklital to put me back together again. And if he can't do it, Fraiser will find something. There has to be a way."

"Who are you trying to reassure: me or you?" Daniel caught himself and added, "Sorry." He pinched the bridge of his nose again, gave Jack an assessing look, and asked, "Then why are you here? If tomorrow you're going to get this fixed, then why was it so imperative to come over here tonight and tell me about it? Tell me you've found out my dirty little secret?"

Jack gazed at him steadily. Daniel stared at him, mind a blank, then: "Oh my God. You're turned on by this, aren't you?"

Jack looked down at the sofa and swallowed. He ran one clammy palm over his knee. "I tried not to be," he said lightly, not quite managing a smile.

"I can't believe this," Daniel said. Lying, because he must have believed it since he was thinking, "How turned on are you?"

"Come over here and I'll show you," Jack said. Nearly shaking now, from nerves, excitement, adrenaline rush, or maybe sheer stupidity, he couldn't tell.

Daniel stood up and came toward him, thinking, "Show me, yes, show me. And I'll show you how much I want you, how much I've wanted you for so long."

Panic. Panic would be about right, Jack decided. But then Daniel was kneeling on the floor next to him, thinking, "I want you. Oh, Jack, you're shaking..." and the excitement/adrenaline rush/stupidity took over, and Jack grabbed the back of his neck and kissed him.

Daniel kissed him back, and the thoughts were so frantic now -- Daniel's and his -- that they became a buzz. Background noise, behind the breath, the pulse, the moan from deep in his throat -- Daniel's or his, Jack couldn't tell. They kissed again, Daniel wrapping his arms around him and pulling him off the sofa, onto the floor so that they knelt together.

Daniel's hands were restless, feeling him all over, untucking, unbuttoning, unbuckling, eager to reach under his clothes. Jack felt his restlessness in his kisses and shuddering breaths and the coiled tension in his body. He held him tight, couldn't stop kissing him, feeling free and fine, better than ever, above the background noise.

Turned on? Hell yeah, even though it made no sense. More sense-leave-taking, but it felt wonderful. Daniel wanted him so much, and Jack loved being so wanted. And couldn't -- even now, devouring Daniel's kisses, couldn't -- wrap his mind around the fact that it was Daniel. Because he'd already made room for Daniel inside. Had already recognized that whatever empty spot he couldn't name, Daniel filled, just by being around and irritating him and making him smile and making him want to throttle him. All the Daniel things, adding up, becoming this important place inside.

"I wish I knew what you were thinking." One thought pierced the background noise.

And Jack almost told him, drawing back from the kiss. But he kept it inside, instead reaching under Daniel's sweater and pulling it off. Stripping him down to bare, smooth chest with hard nipples.

"I want you licking them," Daniel thought, and in some strange twist on telekinesis, sent the blood rushing to Jack's balls and made his dick strain against his fly. Jack bent his head and licked them, sending Daniel's thoughts back to background noise, behind the groan.

Daniel clutched Jack's hips and rocked, holding him in another hard kiss and grinding against him, harder than hell. Jack ran his hands over Daniel's ass, realizing from some deep, hidden place how much he'd always wanted to do that, just to see if it could really be that firm. And yeah, it could, no fairness in that, although Daniel was squeezing Jack's ass and enjoying it just fine. Fine being an understatement when the thoughts leaked out of the static: "I love your ass. Great ass. Do that again. God, you're so hot." The words made Jack's dick throb, made him bite Daniel's lips and tongue, made him thrust his hands into Daniel's pants and run his fingernails over Daniel's ass.

He kissed Daniel again while working on his fly, pushing his pants and underwear down to his knees. He wrapped his hand around Daniel's shaft and felt its restless heat. Daniel buried his head against Jack's neck and moaned, rocking in his hand. "Oh..." he breathed.

"Think it," Jack said, kissing his ear.

Daniel squeezed his ass and shuddered before the background noise became coherent. "Suck me. I want you to suck me... No, I can't ask you to do that... I want you so much. I want your mouth. I want to be inside you... No, wait, I can't--"

"Okay, shhhhhh," Jack said into his ear, smoothing both hands along Daniel's sides. He pressed him back against the sofa and kissed him again. Daniel kicked his pants all the way off and was spread out beneath him, on the floor, leaning against the sofa leg.

Jack kissed his nipples and licked his skin, which tasted warm, salty, sweaty. Jack felt Daniel's excitement, his restraint, his want, as Jack licked lower, down his stomach, closer to the rich, musky smell. Was he really going to do this? Daniel was asking himself the same thing in all that buzzing, and that settled it for Jack. Hell yeah, not only was he going to do it, he really wanted to do it, really wanted to feel Daniel's cock in his mouth.

He sank down to the floor between Daniel's legs, ran his tongue once over the shaft, and glanced up at Daniel. "You can think now," he said.

"No, I can't," Daniel said shakily, rubbing his hand over Jack's shoulder.

Which was true. Beyond the initial, "Oh my God," as Jack took him inside his mouth, there were no individual thoughts, just a rhythmic, deep, humming buzz of pleasure. Jack followed it, lifting and lowering his mouth to the rhythm, tasting hard, full, salty heat. And when Daniel pushed up a little, it made his mouth water and Jack moved faster, pulling with his tongue, knowing it had to feel good. The buzz was getting louder, and deeper, more urgent. Daniel was pushing into his mouth, again, then again, and then:

"Oh, Jack... Jack, Jack, Jack..."

Daniel could think again.

Jack wasn't sure he could, not right now, tasting and swallowing Daniel's come, gently stroking his cock with his mouth. Feeling like... He wasn't sure what this feeling was. A kind of love, a kind of pride, and a kind of fear. Nothing he'd felt before in quite this combination.

He released Daniel and drew back. Daniel gazed at him, mouth silent.

"You're beautiful. I love you. Lie back. Let me show you. Let me taste you." Daniel was kissing him now, kissing his throat and licking his jaw, fingers fumbling with Jack's pants. "Look at you, you're gorgeous." Daniel cupped Jack's balls, rubbing slowly. "Gorgeous." Daniel kissed his nipples, his chest. Stroked his cock until wetness covered his hand. Daniel sighed and licked his belly. "So beautiful."

"Daniel." Jack couldn't stop the tremor in his voice. "That's laying it on a bit thick, don't you think?

Daniel bit a soft spot below his navel and shot him a look. "I'm about to give you head, and you're complaining?" he said, sounding enjoyably annoyed.

"I love you," his mind added. "And you are beautiful, so there. I want to taste you. I want you in me..." His mouth covered Jack's cock. Wet, hungry, restless. "Mmmmm, beautiful. I want you so much."

And Jack, because there was too much going on, too much sensation -- the wonderful pull on his cock, drawing on his whole body, and this blanketing warmth covering him, warmth that was all those little Daniel things, like touch and words and smiles and annoyances -- Jack focused on the ridiculous: Daniel's mouth was full, and he still wouldn't shut up. It made Jack laugh, which made his body shake, which made his dick swirl inside Daniel's mouth. Which made the thoughts go away, for a second.

Then: "Oh yes, yes. Do that. Show me how much you want me. Fuck my mouth. I want you. I love you."

Daniel's mouth wrapped tight around him, sucking hard. Begging him as his mind was. Jack thrust, moved to Daniel's voice saying, "Yes... yes... yes..." over and over. Until his own pleasured buzz rushed through him, and he came, trembling, stroking Daniel's hair, hearing Daniel's voice without words.

-----

Somehow, the evening went on. He and Daniel had just had sex, and the world hadn't ended. Jack supposed that was a good sign. For far longer than was strictly comfortable they lay on Daniel's floor among discarded clothes, Daniel resting his head on Jack's stomach, and held hands. Held hands for so long that when Jack glanced down, he couldn't tell which were his fingers, which were Daniel's. Same difference. Same thing.

Then it got chilly, and it was completely dark, and Jack had to pee. They got up together as if staged that way, Jack heading for the bathroom, Daniel picking up clothes.

Somehow, Jack wound up in Daniel's bed. He didn't remember the exact sequence of events, but the path to the bedroom had involved a beer and cold leftover curly fries from Daniel's long-since interrupted dinner. And, as Jack stretched out under the covers, working the kinks out of his spine, it had been a quiet evening, afterward.

Very quiet.

The bed shifted under and behind him as Daniel got in after him. He nestled against Jack's back and wrapped an arm around him. So nicely snuggly that Jack didn't even mind the fact that his feet were cold. Daniel yawned and murmured, "Good night."

The quiet: that was it. No thoughts. He was cured. Jack was about to nudge Daniel and tell him the good news when he heard, "You're beautiful, Jack. I love you."

"Damn," Jack muttered, wide awake now. So much for being cured.

Daniel bit his shoulder. "I didn't think that."

"What?"

"I didn't think that just now. I said it."

Jack shifted around, trying to see him. "You said I was beautiful and that you loved me? You actually said that?"

"Yes." Daniel paused. "I've been thinking about you all night. Thinking at you. And you never responded. I guess whatever it was, it's gone."

Daniel's voice was careful, too careful. Jack took his hand and intertwined their fingers. "I guess..." he paused, "I guess we found the right path. Not that I really believe in all that mystical crap, but, you know, whatever Taklital wanted me to find, I guess this was it."

Daniel nestled again, arm around him, fingers locked tight. "Then I guess you better stay on the right path. Just in case, you know."

Jack lifted their hands and kissed Daniel's fingers. "I guess I better."

It was silence, all silence, and yet, when Daniel spoke again, Jack was not at all surprised. "And yet..." Daniel said, "You have to admit, it had its moments. I mean, uh, well, it broke the... got the ball... Uh, you know what I mean."

"It had its moments," Jack allowed. "But," he said, stroking Daniel's fingers, "you can tell me what you want me to do to you, and I'll be just as turned on."

Daniel pressed against him and said into his shoulder, "Oh, my God, Jack. Jeez."

"Hey, I'm not winding you up, I swear. Well, not intentionally. Whatever you're thinking, whatever you want to say, go ahead." Jack paused. "It's just the... mushy stuff I can live without. You know."

Daniel smiled against his skin and kissed his neck. "I know." He kissed Jack's cheek and temple. "Besides, it goes without saying. It's understood."

"Yeah," Jack said, closing his eyes and leaning into Daniel's embrace. "It's understood."

(the end)

2003/2006