Morning rolled around unnoticed in the depths of the mountain. With only the small lamp on in the corner of the room, it still felt like evening when Jack opened his eyes. Daniel was sprawled across the corner of the bed, one arm over his face, his back to Jack. One of Jack's legs was across Daniel's, his groin tucked against Daniel's hip. Jack's left hand rested on the small of Daniel's back, the other was tucked underneath his pillow. He watched Daniel for a couple of minutes until the pressure of lying on his bladder forced him out of bed.
Returning, he slid under the covers. Daniel murmured something unintelligible and snuggled closer. Jack wrapped himself around the sleeping archaeologist and dozed, breathing in the scent of Daniel and sleep, sweat and sex. Some time later, Daniel shifted closer, turned onto his back and blearily opened his eyes to find Jack wide awake, inches from him.
'Morning,' Jack said softly. He studied Daniel's face, those sleep-filled blue eyes sending warm fuzzies through him. Daniel's lips curved in a lazy smile.
'Morning.' He kissed Jack thoroughly, ignoring the morning-breath. 'Mmm. Coffee?' he asked hopefully.
Jack laughed. 'So it's like that, is it? Marry me, marry my coffee machine?'
Daniel stretched, cat-like. 'Mm-hmm.' He blinked.
Jack laughed again, kissed him, and got up to put the coffee machine on. He showered quickly, dried, dressed, and was out in time to pour Daniel the first mug from the machine. He stretched out on the bed, over the covers, and watched Daniel inhale his first coffee of the day.
'Are we going through with this?' he asked as Daniel reached the bottom of his mug and attained semi-consciousness.
'That depends,' Daniel said, giving in to a huge yawn as he put his mug aside on the bedside table. He rolled back to face Jack and studied him, a subdued joy evident in his half-smile.
'On what?' Jack asked, stroking Daniel's stubbled cheek with one finger.
'On whether or not that's your proposal,' Daniel smiled.
Jack raised his eyebrows. 'You want me to take you out to dinner and get down on one knee?'
Daniel shook his head, blinked. 'Nope. Just make it sincere. I'd like to believe it.'
Jack rolled over and sat up, snagged Daniel's mug and refilled it, got his own coffee and brought in breakfast. He waited to eat until Daniel returned from the shower, making sure he at least made a vague attempt at a couple of pancakes. Then Daniel busied himself with his translations again and Jack tidied the room, stripping the bed and bundling the sheets with the damp towels from the bathroom. He left the bundle of washing at the end of the bed, then placed the waste bin by the door. The lube and remaining condoms he hid in the middle of his roll of laundry.
He sat on the stripped bed for a while, watching Daniel at work. When he shifted, he could still feel faint twinges of last night. He'd finished his book, his yo-yo could only distract him for so long, and Daniel was firmly ensconced in his work. Jack cleared his throat.
'I could go see Hammond,' he offered. 'Straighten things up, get us back to work.'
Daniel glanced up from his papers. 'You're bored enough to face paperwork? Voluntarily?'
Jack laid back on the bare mattress. 'Yup.'
'Oh.'
A couple of seconds later, the mattress dipped as Daniel sat down next to Jack. He leaned over and kissed Jack tenderly, brushing lightly over Jack's lips before deepening the kiss, sucking at Jack's lower lip, exploring his mouth. When he finally pulled back and looked down into Jack's eyes, Jack could still feel the smooth pressure of Daniel's kiss. The corners of his mouth curled up into a smug grin.
'Better?' Daniel asked, with an answering smile.
'Much.' Jack reached up and cupped Daniel's cheek with a warm, callused palm. 'Any regrets?'
'Nope,' Daniel said without hesitation. 'No second thoughts?'
'Nope,' Jack replied.
'Not worried about how the rest of the base will take this?'
'They'll deal, or they'll be transferred. But given the nature of the job, most folks here are pretty open-minded, or get to be before they've been here long.' Jack's grin faded into seriousness. 'Daniel, if you run into any problems at all, with anyone, come see me or tell Hammond. We'll deal with it. If I thought for an instant you'd get hurt because of this, I'd tell the President himself where to shove it. I mean it.'
Daniel smiled softly. 'I know, Jack. You know I can take care of myself, right?' At Jack's raised eyebrow, he sighed. 'Yes, all right, I promise. If anyone causes trouble I'll tell you.'
'Good.' Jack pulled Daniel down for another long, slow kiss. When they broke apart, he cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably. 'Better stop that, or I'll have to put the sheets back on the bed.'
Grinning, Daniel scooted back to the edge of the bed. 'Okay. Save it for later?'
'Yeah, sure, you betcha.' Jack sat up, took a deep breath. 'Daniel, you're my very best friend, and now you're my, well, lover, I guess. I don't think too much about the future, but I can't imagine a life without you in it. Want to see if we can live long enough to grow old and cranky together?'
Daniel stared at him. 'That's it? That's your proposal?'
Jack shrugged, defensive. 'Think you can do better?'
Daniel rolled his eyes. 'Jack O'Neill, you are stubborn, argumentative and I have to be insane for doing this, but I love you, I want to spend my life with you, so would you do me the very great honor of marrying me?'
'Huh. Insults aside, I guess that was a little better. Yup.' Jack nodded.
'Yup?' Daniel's voice was rising.
Jack grinned. 'Yes, Daniel, I would love to marry you.'
'Ass.'
'Back atcha.'
They grinned at each other for a while, before Daniel cleared his throat and looked away. 'I suppose I should, uh...'
'Get back to work? Yeah. Me too. Want a hand carting that lot back to your office?' Jack asked.
'I think I'll stay here for a couple of hours to get this finished. As soon as I go back there I'll have a hundred emails to answer and the past two days-worth of crap dumped on my desk and it'll take me the rest of the day to sort it out.' He shifted back to the table and picked up the printout again.
'Okay, well, I'll catch up with you later, then.' Jack dropped a kiss on Daniel's head, picked up Thor's anti-bugging device, his laundry and left.
