Title: Rules of Logic and Relation
Author: meikitsune
Fandom: Stargate: Universe
Characters/Pairing: Eli/Rush
Disclaimer: Perfection like that isn't created. It just is!
Summary: If he could related that two numbers combined equaled something else, he could definitely relate two human beings together.
Rating: PG

Dedicated to Anastasia Kaliska Dyani Malfoy

He might have spent most of the past few years dodging job interviews and playing videogames, but Eli wasn't stupid. Well, not at most things anyway. Chloe was hugging him, trying to stay strong as Lieutenant Scott took the others off the Destiny. He hugged her back idly as Dr. Rush walked from the atrium overlooking the beginning of Lt. Scott's journey, and the end of everyone's who was on the Destiny.

Seeing Dr. Rush walk off alone solved a few unanswered questions in his head as he pulled back from Chloe. His hands were awkward and he shook them nervously as he took a step back. She wasn't devastated that they were dying; she was saddened because Matt was gone.

"I have something I'd like to do before we totally meet our doom to the pretty star, will you be alright alone?"

"Alone?" Chloe parroted.

Eli nodded and took off running before she could really answer the rhetorical question. In his last moments alive - because really, he'd done the math, it really was only moments! - he knew where he wanted to be. He rushed down the corridors of the Destiny, trying to remember the path to Dr. Rush's quarters and hoping beyond all the luck he had left that he really did know the ship's floor plan as well as he bragged he did.

He whipped his hands nervously on his pants as he shifted indecisively from one foot to the other, determining whether or not he should go through the doors that led to Rush.

"What are the chances you'll ever get to do this again? Never, that's right. You know death and all. Doesn't leave any openings really…" he argued with himself. He finally just took a breath and rushed into Dr. Rush's rooms.

The man was lying on his bed, the sheets and blankets looked neat and pristine even though Rush was laying on them. He still wore his shoes, and his legs crossed at the ankle towards the end of the bed. It really was a relaxed position considering they were going to die in the next few hours.

The scientist looked up from his book, his glasses swinging idly in one hand from the only leg they had left.

"Eli? Yes, what is it?"

"Oh, nothing, still facing certain doom. I just thought that maybe I could stay here until we don't know where here is anymore?"

"Weren't you and Chloe…engaged in something?"

"No…no, not really, it'd be nice but no. I'm like a brother to her I guess. She had the hots for Scott. He's gone now. I don't do rebound well. I actually don't do anything well. Except math. I do that really well. With math there's relation, and I realized it wasn't fair for you to go off on your own like a death sentence. You were the only one trying to save us; the only one who knew even a little about our circumstances, and everyone gave you such a hard time though. I just don't think it's fair, and I wanted you to know that even though we're totally destined for doom, I'd totally stick by you again, even knowing the outcome. Especially, since --"

"Eli!" Dr. Rush cut the boy off abruptly; his glasses had stopped swinging once his attention had focused on the young mathematician. They now swung back and forth idly, again, as Rush looked at the boy in fondness.

"I appreciate your loyalty, Eli, but I think it's a little late for it now."

"I always backed you up, though!"

"While that is true, it doesn't make much of a difference now. There's only hours left…"

"Time goes by more pleasantly when you spend it with someone else, I'm staying."

"As you wish," Dr. Rush said, even as he turned his attention back to his book - War and Peace, Eli noticed.

He could totally tell he wasn't concentrating on the stupid thing though. He proved it by reciting Pi and completely butchering every eleventh number in the irrational sequence. Every time he uttered the false number Rush's glasses would pause in their swinging for a few seconds before continuing to move.

It took about forty five minutes for him to get sick of reciting Pi from memory, and from then recited the mathematical equation that landed him on Destiny in the first place.

He could almost feel the astonishment coming off of Rush, he didn't call the scientist on it though.

He was just starting to randomly spout cheat codes he'd used for the last video game he'd played when he realized that their time had elapsed.

"We're still alive,"

There was silence for a few moments, Eli figured it was the time it took Rush to realize he was deviating from his original goal, and actually stating a fact that shouldn't be quite so true.

The book was set aside and the older man was on his feet faster than Eli thought possible. Then he was following the man back the way they'd come from the atrium, almost running to the open windows that over looked the star they were now entering.

"Gee-willigers, Batman, I don't think that's supposed to be possible…or probable," Eli added as an afterthought. He watched on in stupefied awe as they passed through the corona of the star, the ship lighting up the longer they stayed in the death defying situation. He looked to his side to see Rush; there was a look of pure euphoria on the man's face. His eyes blown and his air intake and out take sounded slightly breathy.

Eli could totally relate; this was a geek-gasm on levels even new laptops couldn't achieve.

He seriously wanted to be the reason, if there ever again was one, that would put a look like that on the older man's face. He put his hand on Rush's arm, almost unconsciously. He knew, though, that he needed to be as near to the man as possible in this moment.

The one person out of this entire…thing that had even a little faith in his abilities, as unpronounced as they may be. The man was a hero, a martyr, really, even if the others didn't see it that way.

It was because they were stupid; they didn't understand genius like this. Only because it wasn't understandable. It was eccentric and volatile and completely mind-blowing, especially if you understood it. Then it was more like a mindblow, the geek's version of the oral act that Eli was seriously contemplating at this moment in time. Even though he knew Rush probably wouldn't approve of the thoughts, Eli couldn't help but foster them as he slid his hand down the man's arm boldly and laced his fingers with the other man's.

There wasn't any fidgeting; there weren't any keyboard finger movements. There was just him, Eli, and Rush, who he'd entwined hands with like he'd done it every day for the last forever. It wasn't awkward, not to him at least.

Rush turned his blown pupils his way, however, and his slightly agape mouth, which gave way to whispering breaths that should be illegal. There wasn't suspicion, there wasn't repulsion. There was only pure-fucking-genius and elation. If Eli was honest, he really didn't mind that most of that was because of the star they were going through. He took it to his advantage either way, he knew the odds of this type of perfect opportunity ever coming his way again. He thought he did anyway, things tended not to follow the laws of simple logic in this universe. He pulled them together and gripped the man's hand tighter, his face buried slightly against the man's neck as he spoke against Rush's neck,

"At least we know the ship works now, that'll be great recon when we're out of FTL and close to planets we don't want to gate to."

Living up to his brilliance, Rush caught on pretty quickly. He didn't make a sound towards Eli's point, only turned closer towards the younger man and buried his face against the mass of hair that seemed to have a mind of its own. He inhaled deeply and Eli could feel an almost imperceptible tightening of the man's hand on his.

He grinned impishly and admitted, that while frustrating; reciting Pi and the cheat codes to half the games he owned was completely worth it. Persistence seemed to work well with Rush. It was a good thing Eli had patience for the things he wanted to figure out.

The only difference being that solving Dr. Rush would be way more satisfying than solving some millennium problem he hadn't even known about. He couldn't wait!