Come What May
Vala was bored. She was bored out of her mind. Her current station was in Daniel's office, but he wasn't there. Which partly explained her boredom. The other part was the fact that no else was around either. She sighed and swung her legs gently against the side of the cabinet on which she was sitting. Suddenly, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps and Daniel appeared in the doorway, cup of coffee in one hand, numerous papers in the other. He stopped upon seeing the dark haired ex-thief and her bored expression.
"Uh-oh," he muttered. Walking in, he set his papers and coffee down on his desk.
"Daniel," Vala whined. "I'm bored."
He eyed her bemusedly. "I can tell." There was a pause. "Is that why you're sitting in my office?"
"What do you mean?" Vala demanded indignantly.
"Well, I am the only person around that you can get away with annoying, so . . . " He trailed off shrugging.
"Well, if you put it that way, " Vala grinned. "that is why I'm sitting in your office." Daniel rolled his eyes and took a gulp of coffee. "You know," Vala began, "It's my birthday in two days."
Daniel choked. "What?" he asked, staring.
"It's my birthday in two days."
"Really?" The woman nodded. "Wow, that's . . . wow." Vala smiled. "What?"
"Nothing. It's just, you're so cute when you're speechless." Daniel hurriedly buried himself in his coffee cup, but not before the ex-con had seen the blush with spread across his cheeks. Vala waited until the archeologist had composed himself before speaking again. "You know, Daniel, seeing how my birthday is coming up, the least you could do is spend some time with me."
He looked up, his eyes strangely open and tender. "In what way exactly?"
Vala shrugged. "Well, I, um, I thought that maybe we could go rent a movie or something and, you know, eat popcorn and stuff." She eyed him hopefully as he thought a moment.
"Yes," he said suddenly. "I'd be happy to watch a movie with you."
Vala stared at him. "You . . . you would?" Daniel nodded. "You don't have anything else you'd rather be doing?'
The archeologist smiled. "Actually, no, I don't."
"Really?"
"Really."
Vala hopped off the cabinet. "Well, than what are we waiting for?! I'll go get changed." She bounced out of the room. Daniel looked after her, finishing his coffee. Then, he too headed off to change. Roughly ten minutes later, the two of them were sitting in Daniel's car on the way to the movie rental place. A few minutes after that, Vala was browsing through shelves of DVD's while Daniel trailed behind, hands in his pockets. He was shaken from his thoughts by Vala's voice.
"How about this one?" She was holding up a bright looking movie entitled "Moulin Rouge". He nodded. "You're sure?"
"Yeah."
"Your being honest with me, right?"
"Of course." She eyed him hard for a moment before heading for the counter. Several minutes afterward found the two in Daniel's house. The archeologist stuck a bag of popcorn into the microwave and got the DVD player ready. Vala, meanwhile, explored the house. Daniel found her looking at the piano which had belonged to his mother.
"Do you play?" Vala asked as they headed back to the living room.
"A little, but not in a very long time," Daniel replied simply. As Vala plopped herself down on the couch, the archeologist turned off the lights and started the movie before settling in next to Vala. The ex-con in turn snuggled up to her companion and sighed contentedly. Daniel hesitated a moment and then gently laid his arm over Vala's shoulders.
The movie was very good. Parts of it were funny, other parts sad. The ending especially was a tearjerker. The movie ended and Vala sniffed softly.
"That was sad," she said, "but very good. What did you think?"
Daniel looked down at her. "I liked it."
"Good."
"The music especially."
"Oh, yeah, the music was, like, completely spectacular," Vala agreed.
Daniel held up a finger. "No."
"No?"
"No, it wasn't just spectacular." He grinned unexpectedly. "It was 'Spectacular Spectacular'."
Vala laughed. "That is exactly true." They shared a gentle smile and then Daniel got up to take the DVD out of the player. Vala glanced at the clock and yawned.
"Well," she said, "that was a lot of fun. Thank you."
Daniel looked at her, his eyes smiling. "You're welcome." Vala got to her feet.
"Well, I'm sure that you really do have a ton of work to do, so if you want to take me back to Stargate Command . . . "
"Uh, actually," Daniel broke in, "I was thinking of just staying here tonight since I don't much feel like working so you're welcome to - to stay here."
Vala stared. "Really?" The archeologist nodded. "You don't mind?"
"No." Vala was surprised at his sudden openness to her, but she wasn't about to argue.
"Thank you." Daniel smiled. "But I don't have any clothes or anything."
"You mean to sleep in? I have some clothes you could borrow." He took her bedroom and showed her the clothes he had in mind. A few minutes, she appeared in her tank-top and an old pair of sweats.
"Do you have a blanket I could borrow?" she asked. "I was just planning to sleep on the couch or something."
"Um, actually, I was going to stay up a little bit anyway, just to check emails and stuff, so you're free to use the bed."
"Oh. Okay." She squeezed him into a quick hug. "'Night."
"Goodnight." Daniel watched her disappear into the bedroom, a smile on his face. Then he turned back to the computer and began to browse.
Do you like it so far? Please review. Oh, by the way, when I said that Daniel smiled with his eyes, I was talking about the look he gets sometimes where his eyes look like he's smiling, but he's not. anywho, review.