Cloudless Mind
Spacegypsyl
Daniel and Vala. Drabble. Fluff.
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Vala lay on her back staring at the late afternoon sky just outside the tomb where Daniel and Muscles searched. Cameron and Samantha worked diligently setting up camp in the valley below the ledge where she lay. She was on relay duty as the radio signal wouldn't reach from inside the tomb down the sloping rocks to the campsite.
And no. She wasn't bored as one would think. She'd entertained herself with identifying shapes in the clouds above. She'd done that often as a child with her mother. Though these clouds happened to be magenta and wafted and morphed against a yellow sky.
She loved the odd worlds with vivid colors.
Her thoughts were on Daniel as the clouds drifted in and out of shapes. Daniel and the lovely time they'd had last night. Another one of his not dates. She loved those. Really.
They'd gone to dinner, then driven up into the mountains talking and laughing. When he'd brought her back to the base, they'd sat in the car for an hour and he'd told her stories from his early years on SG-1. Then he'd told her to get some rest. Kissed her softly, reached across her, opened her door and whispered goodnight.
She'd walked into the facility in a dream state, wondering what had come over him. And she had barely slept a wink. Her musing stopped suddenly.
"Hey." Daniel stood over her, Teal'c behind him.
Bringing her gaze from the purplish pink image resembling the Arg'nok beast of P45-098, Vala smiled up at the two handsome men. "Finished?"
"We are, ValaMalDoran." Teal'c bowed slightly and took off down the craggy rocks.
"Ready?" Daniel asked.
"Mmm. Not quite. I think I'll wait here until dusk." Placing her hands behind her head, she once again lifted her eyes to the clouds.
"What are you doing?" There was no impatience in his voice. Only curiosity.
"Looking at the clouds. They make shapes. I know…wonko." She waved a hand in his general direction.
"Not really." Daniel lowered himself and stretched out beside her. "Actually, I used to do that with my parents." He took her hand, holding it lightly.
Surprised, Vala darted her eyes towards him for just an instant.
"I was very small the first time, but I remember it clearly. A dig in Greece, on a grassy hillside, late one afternoon. My mom pointed up, excited…I can hear her voice… 'look, Danny! It's a turtle.'" Daniel turned his eyes to Vala and found her smiling at him. "Then, my dad's deep voice added, 'And a dragon'."
Vala could clearly hear the melancholy in his voice. "And did you see the turtle and the dragon, Daniel?" She curled her fingers through his.
Daniel looked at the clouds above them, squeezing her hand gently. "I love you, Vala."
"Daniel?" Her voice, full of wonder and perhaps a bit of doubt, called his name softly as she turned her face fully to his.
"Listen. Please. I love you and want to be with you. Sometimes I think it's impossible. Other times, it seems so simple. So right. I want to love you the way my father loved my mother. I want children. And at least half the life I dreamed of after my parents' death. Family. Home. Stability. But I still want half of a new life. A life in your world. Doing what you want to do. Going to places you want to go. Showing our children the world we discovered together. That's the future I see. What do you see?"
Turning her face back up to the clouds, Vala smiled, a single tear falling. She was quiet for a moment and then finally pointed upwards. "Look. There."
He lifted his gaze from her lovely profile. "Where? I don't see it. What are we looking at?"
"Those two clouds."
"They look like clouds."
"Yes. Watch."
The two clouds, bright with color, merged, rolling into each other.
"When you touch me, it's like sitting in a patch of warm sun on a cold rainy day." Vala suddenly moved, coming to lie atop him, kissing him sweetly. "That's what I want, Daniel. You and me and everything that comes with it. Whatever it might be."