State Dinner
Category/Genre: Gen/Humor
Characters: Daniel, Jack, Sam
"Jack, just eat it!" Daniel hissed, tilting his head toward his teammate in what he hoped would be seen as a friendly gesture by their hosts. The wary look on Jack's face was certainly not being interpreted as friendly, nor was his suspicious poking at the food that had been set before him.
This dinner was the culmination of a day of negotiations for naquadah mining rights. Stories of the ancient Goa'uld occupation of their world had been passed down through the generations, leaving them highly suspicious of outsiders and unwilling to potentially hand over control of their own destiny too easily. It had taken all of Daniel's and Carter's not-inconsiderable powers of persuasion to close the deal, but nothing was signed yet, which meant it could all be for naught if they took offense at this point.
"What is it?" Jack's voice was low enough that Daniel thought the dubious tone was probably not overheard. At least he hoped not.
Daniel answered in a quiet rush of words, through a stiff smile. "It's some sort of fruit, it's only harvested one day a year, and this is a great honor they are bestowing upon us, so eat the damn thing!"
Leading by example, he spooned up a big bite from his own bowl and chewed enthusiastically, earning pleased smiles from their hosts and a 'you are so strange' look from Jack. Sam leaned over from her seat on the other side of Daniel. "It's good, Sir. It tastes a bit like papaya."
"What if I don't like papaya?" Jack asked sourly.
With a significant effort, Daniel managed not to roll his eyes. Jack's tendency to behave like a four-year-old really came to the forefront on these diplomatic missions. He bored easily on worlds where he didn't understand the language - and often even when he did - and he usually found the pomp and circumstance that accompanied these types of missions to be silly at best and a complete waste of time and resources at worst.
Daniel usually had more patience for Jack's little rebellions; sometimes he even found them funny. But it had been a very long day and he was really hoping that they would be heading home in the morning and not sitting down to another days of negotiations. He narrowed his eyes at Jack.
"Well, you're a big boy. Just suck it up and... oh here's an idea: eat it."
Jack stared at Daniel blankly for a minute before looking down at the forkful of squishy pulp.
Daniel looked up to smile reassuringly at their hosts once more as they waited. Their answering smiles looked a trifle forced and he had a feeling it was only a few more minutes, tops, before his own smile became creepy rather than reassuring, if it hadn't already.
He held his breath as Jack finally brought the fork to his mouth. Daniel relaxed as Jack smiled and made approving noises toward their hosts. The village elders smiled and nodded to each other and all was well.