Title: Shadow Puppets
Setting: Somewhere in season 10
Pairing: D/V
Summary: SG-1 needs some time to cool off from their rather hectic schedule. What better place than a little out of the way planet with feasting and dancing? Of course, Daniel and Vala find a more creative way to spend their time. Enjoy!
Daniel Jackson hadn't been expecting to stay more than three hours on this tiny backwater planet. Not that he wouldn't love to stay longer it was just that Colonel Mitchell had been very adamant that the natives were too crazy for anyone to stay longer. Daniel had been sure that Mitchell had been using the word 'crazy' lightly. After all, considering some of the phenomenon that SG-1 one had run into over the years how bad could they be?
Stepping out of wormhole, Daniel hadn't seen any special appeal for the planet. Nikiah, who had met them at the gate, seemed normal enough. Perhaps he was a little too eager to serve, but otherwise harmless. Yet, the team leader had been cold and little more than tolerating towards the slight dark skinned man. It had come as a shock then when the Coloronots had asked them to attend the New Yubi Feast and Mitchell had accepted.
The only reason the team had come to this planet in the first place was to drop off medicine that was part of the trade negotiation for being allowed to mine the Vestish hills for naquadah. Mitchell had moaned and complained about having to go on such a 'boring' mission, but General Landry had not relented. Daniel was half convinced that the general had sent them on this drop and talk mission merely to keep them out of trouble. After all SG-1 hadn't had a smooth off-world experience in two months. As much as he complained, Daniel was sure that Cameron had appreciated the break from constant peril. And yet it was still a surprise when the colonel had accepted Nikiah's invitation with a gracious smile. Daniel was aware that keeping in the good graces of the indigenous population would certainly be helpful, but it was not strictly necessary to keep the deal going. Perhaps if he'd known about the Coloronots' famed wine, Mitchell's behavior would have been more understandable.
And so it had been with a simple yes that Daniel found himself sitting around a fire surrounded by a group of children while the rest of SG-1 danced the theamtiti to honor the great Yubi. The past hour had been filled with drinking and feasting. The archeologist, knowing his limits, had declined the fourth bowl of ceremonial wine and gone to join the village children while they told stories about the god of fire and smoke. Yubi, it turned out, was a major god to the tribe and was ritually reincarnated every six moon cycles so that he may once again cleanse their land with fire. The Coloronots' planet was the clichéd Milky-Way-Galaxy-trees-all-over-the-place sort of planet. There was a stand of what looked like oaks behind the dining tables and scattered pines through the rest of the area. Actually the only direction in which trees couldn't be seen was to Daniel's left due to a large cliff face of granite.
Yohimi, who was perched near Daniel's knee, peered up at him in the way all children do when they want something and are waiting for you to guess what it is. Gazing down at the dark haired girl, Daniel asked, "Would you like to hear a story from my planet?"
There was an excited murmur from all those seated in the small circle. "A long time ago," he began in the most mystical voice he could muster, "there lived a wizard by the name of Merlin. It was prophesized that-"
"He would get frozen in a stasis pod and have his consciousness downloaded into an idiotic archaeologist's brain ten thousand years in the future." Vala Maldoran said, plopping down onto the dirt. Her brow was slick from the exertion of the fast paced theamtiti.
Her arrival was met with quizzical looks from the children and an exaggerated groan from said archaeologist. "Do you mind, I was actually trying to tell them the myth, not the history." He hissed into her ear. Vala, ignoring him, smiled impishly. "So who wants some iglau? Your Mother has it." At this announcement the children scrambled quickly to their feet running to receive the steamy, sweet drink.
"Don't look at me like that. I was just trying to save them from having to listen to one of your boring lectures."
Daniel huffed, "I wasn't lecturing."
"Whatever you say." Vala gave in. "So do you want to dance?" She stood back up, swaying slightly and there was a noticeable flush to her cheeks.
"How about you sit down for awhile?" Daniel suggested. Experience had taught him that a tipsy Vala was not much fun to dance with.
"Okay." She dropped, even less gracefully than the first time, back onto the hard ground. "Now what?"
Daniel, who was just wondering the same thing, ran a hand over his hair. As he did so he noticed the shadow of his hand on the rock wall. "Did you ever make shadow puppets when you were little?"
"Puppets made out of shadows?"
"Yeah, you know, like a dog." Daniel held up one hand putting his third and fourth finger so that they touched his thumb with the index and pinky sticking up. He put this in front of the fire so that it cast the shape of a dog's head onto the wall. "See, woof woof." He made the dog bark.
Vala laughed, "Do that again!"
"Woof!"
"Do something else." She was beaming wide eyed at the wall.
Daniel had the distinct impression that this would not be nearly as entertaining to her if not for all the wine. But he continued nevertheless and the dog's head morphed.
"Ha-ha, it's a frog. Ribbit!" Vala supplied as Daniel opened the frog's mouth.
It was at about this time that the children, cups in hand, came running back to the fire. The youngest among them seemed nearly as excited as Vala about the imagery happening on the rock wall.
"Show me." Demanded little Yohimi when Daniel lowered his arm. "Show me, please," she corrected. This was followed by a chorus of 'pleases' and Daniel couldn't help but oblige them.
"Let's see. How about a… moose!" However, apparently no such animal existed on this planet. "A what?" was the most common response, but many of the children clapped anyway.
"How do you do that?" Vala crawled over to the wall and placed her hand below the moose.
"You just, sort of stick your right hand out and make it look like this," he demonstrated, "the take your other hand and put it on top to make the antlers." He put his left on back to back with his right and staggered his fingers so that they looked like prongs.
The kids imitated him and suddenly there were many more moose being cast on the rock. A few were particularly deformed and Daniel walked around to help make them more 'mooseish'. This turned the little gathering into an impromptu puppet show class. Just as they were about to learn the finer points of the swan a villager elder approached the group.
"It is long past sunset, it is time for sleeping."
"Oh, five more minutes," complained Vala loudly.
Daniel rolled his eyes, "I think he means the kids."
"Oh right," her expression brightened, "Too bad little children." She told the morose group as they sauntered off after their caretaker.
After they left it was much quieter. All that could be heard was the crackle of the fire and the soft beat of drums as they continued to play for the remaining dancers. There was a light breeze meandering through the trees cooling their skin as the two puppeteers sat awkwardly. Without the presence of the children and the loss of Vala's drunkenness, they both were at a loss.
"Will you show me the elephant again? I don't think I got the trunk quite right." Vala manipulated her hands into a shadow which was more lump than pacaderm.
Daniel watched her as she struggled to get her fingers into the right position. The glow from the fire added a healthy light to her features and he was struck by how attractive she was. It wasn't that he hadn't noticed before, but rather that he had gotten used to it. But there were moments when she looked so completely innocent that he forgot how much she had been through in her life and her beauty was magnified all the more.
She caught him staring and asked, "What? I know I'm not doing it right, but my hand just doesn't want to…" She trailed off as Daniel took her hands and gently twisted her fingers into the proper position. His hands were warm and Vala felt a flush that had nothing to do with the fire creep up her cheeks. As an excuse to avoid his gaze she let out a little trumpet sound as the elephant on the wall reared.
"Look at that," she muttered more as a way to break the silence than an actual request. "I can do it after all."
"Yeah," was all Daniel managed to say. He marveled at the fact that the two of them could argue for hours about the most inconsequential issue, but if they were actually getting along they hardly had anything to say to one another.
Vala must have been thinking along the same lines. "Malia is looking at you again."
Ducking his head, Daniel tried to look inconspicuously in the direction of the fair haired woman. Sure enough she was goggling at him with her large blue eyes.
"She's very pretty."
He made a noncommittal noise. She looked barely out of her teenage years. "I'm not interested."
"Why? She's pretty and she's interested."
"She's too young." He tried to make it sound like that was the only reason he couldn't have feelings for her.
"Well that figures, men are always stereotyping women based on their age. So what if she's younger than you are. That just means she has more energy."
Caught off guard, he stuttered out, "I… I'm not… There is the fact that she lives on a different planet."
"What's a few thousand light-years when love is involved? That didn't keep Rome and Julia apart."
"Romeo and Juliet killed themselves."
"I thought they were faking so the Friar couldn't marry Julia." Vala asked, clearly confused.
Daniel stared at her mystified. "Uh… no."
"Oh!" She frowned, "That's a really sad story."
"It is a tragedy."
"Is it that you don't want to be a star crossed lover?"
Daniel shook his head, amused at her phrasing. "No, I'm just not sure I want a relationship right now."
Vala hadn't been expecting this answer and didn't reply immediately. She noticed that Daniel had a look on his face, one she had seen before. If she'd had to describe it she would have said he was searching for something. But then his eyes met hers and she looked away embarrassed. A hand appeared on her cheek causing her to look back up.
"There's another reason too."
Vala glanced back over at Malia who was now staring daggers in their direction. "Her chest is too flat."
Daniel didn't know if she'd meant this to be funny or not, but Vala looked so serious that he tried to keep from laughing, even though he failed miserably. "Yeah, it could be that too." He grinned; making sure Vala knew he was joking.
At some point during the dancing a strand of hair had worked its way out of Vala's ponytail and fallen across her forehead. It was this strand that had Daniel completely mesmerized. His staring was making Vala uncomfortable. She brought up her hand to wipe away the annoying hair when Daniel too went to brush it away. Their hands met halfway, and rather than pull back, he grabbed her hand.
It was only then, when she was gazing into Daniel's blue eyes and he began leaning forward, that she realized his intent. Of course it was at this same moment that Mitchell, quite sloshed from the wine, came over to the fire to round up his team.
"Hey kids, no time for hand holding now, we've got ta get back ta base. The 'eneral will want to see us…" He laughed, managed to spit out the words "hand holding", and then collapsed back into laughter.
"Alright, I guess it's time to head back." Daniel said regaining his feet. He helped Vala up and then walked over to Cameron who was weaving unsteadily through the departing crowd. Grabbing him by the arm he motioned for Teal'c to do the same. He saw Sam extricating herself from a rather friendly male Coloronot and decided the man wasn't anymore than Sam could handle.
Moving with Teal'c to maneuver Mitchell towards Nikiah, they intoned how much fun they'd had, wished him well, and then waited for Carter to join them. Suddenly Daniel felt Vala grab his hand and he turned to see her smiling at him. If Malia noticed he didn't see nor did he care. He found that he was only slightly disappointed that Mitchell had interrupted them. Daniel knew that at one time or another he and Vala would find the time to have the conversation that they needed to have. Until then, they could go on pretending that nothing had happened. Or, he thought as Sam came over and grinned suspiciously at his and Vala's joined hands, they could enjoy the benefits of their new found understanding.
A/N: I don't want to say 'The End' because there may just be more. I don't know yet. I've never been that much of a Daniel/Vala fan but I really enjoyed writing this so I may just be inspired later to add little sequel. Maybe they'll actually kiss, maybe not. Well, review if you'd like. And if you have an idea for a sequel, I'd love to hear it.