NOTES: For the 'Stages Of Love' challenge on LiveJournal.
Five stages of love: attraction, romance, passion, intimacy,
committment - and a pairing for which a vignette must be written. The
prompt for this story is 'attraction'.
A Place To Start
At first, John's not sure why he wants to be friendly to Teyla Emmagen; he just does.
If he stops to think about it, she's the first person he's actually reached out to since the powers that be consigned him to the cold wastes of Antarctica. Oh, others have tried to be friendly - from Weir to McKay - but John felt...uncomfortable with them - as though he was being patronised for the gene he carried and his usefulness to the expedition.
In this, at least, he's just a stranger who arrived at her village one morning. There are no obligations involved, no requirements of him.
Teyla's distinctive, self-possessed, and willing to be friendly back. That's more than enough for a man who only got off the coldest continent on Earth because of a winning genetic lottery ticket.
But there's still something about her that intrigues him - something that he doesn't identify until they're in the cave where she used to play as a child.
John's hands frame her throat as he puts the necklace on her. The skin at the nape of her neck is smooth and warm in the cool of the cave, and her scent is wood and earth in his nostrils.
It's been a while since he had a woman, but this attraction goes deeper than just that.
He lets his fingers trail off the lapels of her coat. For a moment, he wonders what it would feel like to trail his fingers across her bared skin, to trace his tongue up the line of her throat. Then the reality of their situation sets in and he distracts himself and her with the reason they came here: the carvings on the wall.
It's not until she mentions the life her people have lived for hundreds of years and the Wraith-sensing ability some of her people possess that John realises why he's drawn to her.
Teyla's a survivor, like him. She's a leader of the kind he wanted to be. She's been through the bad and stuck it out, fighting to keep it all working, working to keep her people together.
John can admire a woman with that kind of strength, that kind of courage.
As they leave the cave, he reflects that this attraction may go further, or it may stutter into nothing. John and the rest of the expedition can't go home, and they're going to need friends.
Friendship is a good place to start.
Maybe in time, there'll be more.
- fin -