Learning to Play
I own none of these characters (well I suppose only Jack and Daniel appear in this chapter, probably the entire fic,) and if wishes were horses I'd need a rather large stable, let's leave it at that shall we?
"You have got to learn how to play," Jack said standing in the doorway to Daniel's cluttered office.
"What?" Daniel asked looking up from the stone tablet lying on his desk.
"How long have you been here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Sitting here, looking at that rock. How long has it been since you even moved?" Jack had decided recently that he was going to focus all his spare time on getting Daniel to lighten up.
"Jack, this could be important."
"Daniel, everything could be important."
Daniel knew Jack wasn't finished but seeing as he wasn't continuing right away he picked up the tablet again and tried to continue from where he'd left off.
Jack just watched in silence for a moment and then shook his head ruefully, he made his way over to Daniel, grabbed him by the shoulders and hoisted him up
"Come on," Jack said. "Out, out! You can at least get some fresh air."
"Jack!" Daniel exclaimed, trying to break out of the older man's grip. "Let me go! Jack! I've got to fin--"
"Nuh ahn," Jack said pushing him toward the door. "You've been sitting there for more then three hours. You're going out!"
Daniel sighed and let Jack push him out the door and down the hallways toward the parking lot of the SGC.
"Get in," Jack said, gesturing at the passenger side of his car.
"Jack," Daniel whined. "Can't this wait till later?"
"Yeah, but you don't have anything more important to do."
"That's an awfully large assumption," Daniel snapped and slid sulkily into the passenger seat of Jack's car.
"So what do you wanna do?"
"I want to finish translating the text we found on P5X-614," Daniel said.
"Alright, what do you want to do that sounds remotely interesting."
"It IS interesting," Daniel said. Hoping if he was annoying enough Jack would let him off the hook.
"Daniel," Jack warned, "You know what I mean."
"I don't care Jack, I don't even know why I'm here."
"Cuz you've gotta learn how to have fun," Jack said, peeling out of his parking space.
Daniel's knuckles whitened briefly as the car gained momentum. "I was having fun."
"Okay," Jack said. "That was not fun."
"Come on Jack, we've already established that the two of us are very different people. Do you really need to drag it back up now?"
"Yes," Jack said showing the security guard his ID.
"I can already feel tomorrow's headache," Daniel said and lapsed into silence staring out the window. He shouldn't put up so much of a fight, Jack might actually decide to turn the car around and that'd be awful. He was trapped now and a night with Jack would be . . . well, better then translating that was for sure. Even though tomorrow he would feel like a fickle bastard and spend the whole day telling Sha're that he was sorry even though she was dead. "So what do you want to do?" Jack asked again.
Daniel shrugged.
"You know you could at least pretend like you care."
"I don't know, is that better?"
"A little bit."
They sat in silence for a little while, Daniel staring moodily out the window. Torn between keeping up his usual charade of frustrated behavior and suggesting something, risking letting Jack know that he actually cared.
"Monopoly!" Jack shouted suddenly.
"What?"
"Or some board game, we could have a tournament!"
Daniel smiled at the trees rushing past, he was so adorably childlike, sometimes. "I don't like monopoly."
"Whatever, board games and Pizza and beer."
"Sounds like quite a night."
"More fun then translating."
"For you maybe."
"Yeah, well I can't do it on my own." Daniel's mind immediately went somewhere it shouldn't. "Do what on your . . . Oh." "Fun, Daniel, fun." "So you mean you're simply using me to alleviate you boredom?" "You're my new project," Jack said.
"What does that mean?"
"I'm gonna get you to loosen up!"
Daniel sighed.
"It's not gonna be that awful."
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
"That's comforting."
They drove the rest of the way in relative silence. Jack flicked on the radio at one point; Daniel put up with the obnoxious blaring until Jack started singing along--at which point Daniel turned it off a small smile playing on his face. Jack continued singing till he forgot the lyrics and faded into humming tunelessly.
It was an easy and comfortable silence that passed between the two of them. The type that develops after such a long time of knowing each other that when little is happening one can almost guess what the next thing to be said will be.
Jack pulled into his driveway, turned the car off and leapt out of his seat, rushing to the other side of the car. He pulled Daniel's door open. He bowed low and gestured expansively with his free hand.
"When'd you get so chivalrous?" Daniel asked, playfully pushing Jack out of the way and stepping out of the car.
"Chivalrous?" Jack asked cocking his head and looking at Daniel with his best innocent look.
"Do I have to teach you the meaning of another word?"
Jack grinned and nearly skipped to the front door. Daniel stared after him. "Come on Danny!" Jack called over his shoulder. "I've got a tournament to win!"
*
The remains of Monopoly, Sorry and Uno were spread about the floor along with at least three decks of cards, a couple beer bottles and two pizza boxes (six slices of pizza remained.)
"What's next?" Jack asked, he was feeling rather good, he was sure Daniel had been having fun almost all night and now he just had to make sure he didn't relapse.
Daniel looked accusingly at the beer bottle in his hand. "Next?" he said scrubbing his face with his hands.
"Yeah, next."
"Jack, you have officially mopped the floor with me. I congratulate you and say most whole heartedly that I do not think I have enough coordination for anything right now."
"Aw, c'mon," Jack said. "You've still got a chance."
"Sure if we play war."
"Alright then! War it is."
Daniel emitted a cross between a chuckle, a sigh and a snort.
"What was that?" Jack asked.
"I have no idea," Daniel said and took another swig of his beer.
"Where'd we put the cards?" Jack muttered crawling around in circles. He picked up every card in sight and shoved them together in a pile, creating a deck at least twice the size it should be and with a multitude of art on the back.
"Here ya go," he said and handed Daniel a rough estimate of half.
Daniel looked at the pile dubiously.
Jack grinned and flipped over his top card, it was a two.
Daniel responded in turn displaying a ten. Daniel picked up the two cards with a triumphant smile on his face. The thought that he was drunk and should either get the hell out of there or be extremely careful (preferably the former) passed through his head, he ignored it.
Jack played his next card (a queen) saying happily, "I knew I could get you to have fun. Aren't ya glad you aren't stuck in that office staring at a rock?"
Daniel played a king, picked both cards up and glared at Jack. "I'm going to be in serious trouble tomorrow."
"Don't worry, I'll call us both in sick." Jack played a seven, Daniel a nine. Jack a four, Daniel a king. Jack a king, Daniel an ace. Jack a two, Daniel a two. "War!" Jack shouted and they laid out their three cards. "Ready?" Jack asked. "Ready," Daniel affirmed. Two queens hit the floor. "Double war." "Triple war." "Quadruple war." "That's not possible," Jack said. "Well, when you're playing with a combination of three decks . . . " The two of the looked at each other both of them had gotten rather wrapped up in the game and actually cared who won the set of cards. "One, two, three!" Two kings stared up at them. "No way," Daniel said.
"We must have entered some space ano--nomly--aly," Jack continued to fight with the word, trying to get it to come out the why he wanted.
"I think you've had just about enough of that," Daniel said grabbing Jack's half-empty beer bottle out of his hand.
"Hey!" Jack exclaimed, giving up on his struggle to pronounce anomaly. "You've had plenty too."
"But I'm a responsible adult," Daniel said, ruining the impact by wavering slightly where he sat on the floor.
"Just play your card."
"You first."
Jack lay down a king, and let a small smile creep over his face, it was quickly crushed by Daniel's ace.
"You rigged the decks!" Jack shouted.
"What?"
"You rigged 'em. I haven't gotten one card since we started this game."
"It's about time, you beat me in just about everything else."
"Well I'm sorry if I'm better at board games then you are."
"Well at least I've got something worth while to do with my time."
Jack growled and shoved the cards lying on the floor at Daniel.
"Can't come up with an answer to that can you?" Daniel said before he could stop himself. He really hadn't meant to, the evening had been going pretty well and now he had to ruin it all just because he couldn't keep his mouth shut. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it," he said. 'Yes you did.' Why was his mind always trying to undermine him?
Jack sighed. "That's okay. It's 'just a game,' right?"
"Yeah."
"Pretty impressive about the fivetuple war, though, huh?"
"It's called a quintuple."
There was still a slight tension between the two of them. Neither had any idea where to go next, well, Daniel had an idea but he most certainly knew it wasn't a good one.
"Um," Jack stated.
"Yeah, um," Daniel agreed.
Jack flipped over his next card curiously, Daniel responded in turn. Jack's was a ten; Daniel's a queen.
"Jesus," Jack said. "What did I do?"
"You incurred the wrath of the gods," Daniel said and flopped backwards to lie on the floor.
Jack grinned and crawled over to Daniel, he stared down at him for a moment and then said. "Maybe you cast a spell to make them look fav--like you." He had no intention of repeating his experience with the word anomaly.
Daniel's breath quickened slightly; did Jack have to lean so close?
Jack shifted unconsciously to bring himself even closer. The two were mere inches away from each other. Suddenly Jack collapsed and fell in a heap beside Daniel.
Daniel sat up quickly, that had been to close for comfort. He should most definitely be heading home and he said so.
"Aw, c'mon, you can't leave now," Jack said sitting up as well. "I'd have to call a cab and you'd just be getting up in a couple hours anyway. Why not stay here?"
"I really don't think that's a good idea."
"Why?"
"Jack," Daniel began. They were falling into an all too familiar pattern, a pattern that always came out with Jack on top--well, Jack winning anyway.
"I'm not letting you leave."
"You have no idea how bad an idea this is," Daniel insisted.
"So you keep saying, give me one reason why."
"Cuz I'm likely to make a--" he stopped himself a moment too late. Why had he let Jack talk him into this again?
Jack stared at him through a fog, he knew that Daniel had just come really close to letting something important slip but he couldn't figure out what it was. He knew he shouldn't have had so many beers.
"A?" Jack asked.
"Nothing," Daniel said quickly. "Can I borrow your phone?"
"Why?" Jack couldn't remember feeling so slow in his life before, not even when he was around Daniel AND Carter.
"Because I need to call a cab."
"I told you, you're staying here tonight."
"No, I'm not," Daniel said and stood, he took a few wobbly steps before collapsing. When had he gotten so drunk?
Jack looked over at Daniel who had fallen next to him. "Hey."
"Hey, yourself." Daniel said and slid closer.
Jack was surprised to find his breath hitching. He didn't think he could stand being so close to Daniel much longer and not do anything. Part of him wondered whether all of this was simply coming about because he was drunk or whether he was finally having some sort of epiphany that had been coming for a long time now. He doubted both those options but didn't really care.
Daniel was simply looking at him, using all of his will power to keep himself from leaning those few inches forward. He was taken completely by surprise when Jack did it for him.
Their lips brushed and Daniel pushed away hurriedly, scooting backwards along the floor. "Your drunk," he said as matter of factly as he could manage.
"So are you," Jack said sitting up.
"You don't want to do this."
"You do."
"You're drunk."
"Does it matter?"
"It will in the morning."
"No, it won't."
Daniel stared at him accusingly. "How can you say that?"
"It won't, I promise."
Daniel wanted to believe him so badly. He stared adamantly at his hands.
Jack moved toward him slowly, like you would toward a wild animal you didn't want to frighten away. "C'mon Danny, you want this as much as I do."
Daniel looked up at Jack and there was something foreign and feral in his eyes that scared Jack.
"We'll regret this in the morning," he said and then lunged at Jack, attacking him with a searing kiss.
T.B.C. (I think.)
I own none of these characters (well I suppose only Jack and Daniel appear in this chapter, probably the entire fic,) and if wishes were horses I'd need a rather large stable, let's leave it at that shall we?
"You have got to learn how to play," Jack said standing in the doorway to Daniel's cluttered office.
"What?" Daniel asked looking up from the stone tablet lying on his desk.
"How long have you been here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Sitting here, looking at that rock. How long has it been since you even moved?" Jack had decided recently that he was going to focus all his spare time on getting Daniel to lighten up.
"Jack, this could be important."
"Daniel, everything could be important."
Daniel knew Jack wasn't finished but seeing as he wasn't continuing right away he picked up the tablet again and tried to continue from where he'd left off.
Jack just watched in silence for a moment and then shook his head ruefully, he made his way over to Daniel, grabbed him by the shoulders and hoisted him up
"Come on," Jack said. "Out, out! You can at least get some fresh air."
"Jack!" Daniel exclaimed, trying to break out of the older man's grip. "Let me go! Jack! I've got to fin--"
"Nuh ahn," Jack said pushing him toward the door. "You've been sitting there for more then three hours. You're going out!"
Daniel sighed and let Jack push him out the door and down the hallways toward the parking lot of the SGC.
"Get in," Jack said, gesturing at the passenger side of his car.
"Jack," Daniel whined. "Can't this wait till later?"
"Yeah, but you don't have anything more important to do."
"That's an awfully large assumption," Daniel snapped and slid sulkily into the passenger seat of Jack's car.
"So what do you wanna do?"
"I want to finish translating the text we found on P5X-614," Daniel said.
"Alright, what do you want to do that sounds remotely interesting."
"It IS interesting," Daniel said. Hoping if he was annoying enough Jack would let him off the hook.
"Daniel," Jack warned, "You know what I mean."
"I don't care Jack, I don't even know why I'm here."
"Cuz you've gotta learn how to have fun," Jack said, peeling out of his parking space.
Daniel's knuckles whitened briefly as the car gained momentum. "I was having fun."
"Okay," Jack said. "That was not fun."
"Come on Jack, we've already established that the two of us are very different people. Do you really need to drag it back up now?"
"Yes," Jack said showing the security guard his ID.
"I can already feel tomorrow's headache," Daniel said and lapsed into silence staring out the window. He shouldn't put up so much of a fight, Jack might actually decide to turn the car around and that'd be awful. He was trapped now and a night with Jack would be . . . well, better then translating that was for sure. Even though tomorrow he would feel like a fickle bastard and spend the whole day telling Sha're that he was sorry even though she was dead. "So what do you want to do?" Jack asked again.
Daniel shrugged.
"You know you could at least pretend like you care."
"I don't know, is that better?"
"A little bit."
They sat in silence for a little while, Daniel staring moodily out the window. Torn between keeping up his usual charade of frustrated behavior and suggesting something, risking letting Jack know that he actually cared.
"Monopoly!" Jack shouted suddenly.
"What?"
"Or some board game, we could have a tournament!"
Daniel smiled at the trees rushing past, he was so adorably childlike, sometimes. "I don't like monopoly."
"Whatever, board games and Pizza and beer."
"Sounds like quite a night."
"More fun then translating."
"For you maybe."
"Yeah, well I can't do it on my own." Daniel's mind immediately went somewhere it shouldn't. "Do what on your . . . Oh." "Fun, Daniel, fun." "So you mean you're simply using me to alleviate you boredom?" "You're my new project," Jack said.
"What does that mean?"
"I'm gonna get you to loosen up!"
Daniel sighed.
"It's not gonna be that awful."
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
"That's comforting."
They drove the rest of the way in relative silence. Jack flicked on the radio at one point; Daniel put up with the obnoxious blaring until Jack started singing along--at which point Daniel turned it off a small smile playing on his face. Jack continued singing till he forgot the lyrics and faded into humming tunelessly.
It was an easy and comfortable silence that passed between the two of them. The type that develops after such a long time of knowing each other that when little is happening one can almost guess what the next thing to be said will be.
Jack pulled into his driveway, turned the car off and leapt out of his seat, rushing to the other side of the car. He pulled Daniel's door open. He bowed low and gestured expansively with his free hand.
"When'd you get so chivalrous?" Daniel asked, playfully pushing Jack out of the way and stepping out of the car.
"Chivalrous?" Jack asked cocking his head and looking at Daniel with his best innocent look.
"Do I have to teach you the meaning of another word?"
Jack grinned and nearly skipped to the front door. Daniel stared after him. "Come on Danny!" Jack called over his shoulder. "I've got a tournament to win!"
*
The remains of Monopoly, Sorry and Uno were spread about the floor along with at least three decks of cards, a couple beer bottles and two pizza boxes (six slices of pizza remained.)
"What's next?" Jack asked, he was feeling rather good, he was sure Daniel had been having fun almost all night and now he just had to make sure he didn't relapse.
Daniel looked accusingly at the beer bottle in his hand. "Next?" he said scrubbing his face with his hands.
"Yeah, next."
"Jack, you have officially mopped the floor with me. I congratulate you and say most whole heartedly that I do not think I have enough coordination for anything right now."
"Aw, c'mon," Jack said. "You've still got a chance."
"Sure if we play war."
"Alright then! War it is."
Daniel emitted a cross between a chuckle, a sigh and a snort.
"What was that?" Jack asked.
"I have no idea," Daniel said and took another swig of his beer.
"Where'd we put the cards?" Jack muttered crawling around in circles. He picked up every card in sight and shoved them together in a pile, creating a deck at least twice the size it should be and with a multitude of art on the back.
"Here ya go," he said and handed Daniel a rough estimate of half.
Daniel looked at the pile dubiously.
Jack grinned and flipped over his top card, it was a two.
Daniel responded in turn displaying a ten. Daniel picked up the two cards with a triumphant smile on his face. The thought that he was drunk and should either get the hell out of there or be extremely careful (preferably the former) passed through his head, he ignored it.
Jack played his next card (a queen) saying happily, "I knew I could get you to have fun. Aren't ya glad you aren't stuck in that office staring at a rock?"
Daniel played a king, picked both cards up and glared at Jack. "I'm going to be in serious trouble tomorrow."
"Don't worry, I'll call us both in sick." Jack played a seven, Daniel a nine. Jack a four, Daniel a king. Jack a king, Daniel an ace. Jack a two, Daniel a two. "War!" Jack shouted and they laid out their three cards. "Ready?" Jack asked. "Ready," Daniel affirmed. Two queens hit the floor. "Double war." "Triple war." "Quadruple war." "That's not possible," Jack said. "Well, when you're playing with a combination of three decks . . . " The two of the looked at each other both of them had gotten rather wrapped up in the game and actually cared who won the set of cards. "One, two, three!" Two kings stared up at them. "No way," Daniel said.
"We must have entered some space ano--nomly--aly," Jack continued to fight with the word, trying to get it to come out the why he wanted.
"I think you've had just about enough of that," Daniel said grabbing Jack's half-empty beer bottle out of his hand.
"Hey!" Jack exclaimed, giving up on his struggle to pronounce anomaly. "You've had plenty too."
"But I'm a responsible adult," Daniel said, ruining the impact by wavering slightly where he sat on the floor.
"Just play your card."
"You first."
Jack lay down a king, and let a small smile creep over his face, it was quickly crushed by Daniel's ace.
"You rigged the decks!" Jack shouted.
"What?"
"You rigged 'em. I haven't gotten one card since we started this game."
"It's about time, you beat me in just about everything else."
"Well I'm sorry if I'm better at board games then you are."
"Well at least I've got something worth while to do with my time."
Jack growled and shoved the cards lying on the floor at Daniel.
"Can't come up with an answer to that can you?" Daniel said before he could stop himself. He really hadn't meant to, the evening had been going pretty well and now he had to ruin it all just because he couldn't keep his mouth shut. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it," he said. 'Yes you did.' Why was his mind always trying to undermine him?
Jack sighed. "That's okay. It's 'just a game,' right?"
"Yeah."
"Pretty impressive about the fivetuple war, though, huh?"
"It's called a quintuple."
There was still a slight tension between the two of them. Neither had any idea where to go next, well, Daniel had an idea but he most certainly knew it wasn't a good one.
"Um," Jack stated.
"Yeah, um," Daniel agreed.
Jack flipped over his next card curiously, Daniel responded in turn. Jack's was a ten; Daniel's a queen.
"Jesus," Jack said. "What did I do?"
"You incurred the wrath of the gods," Daniel said and flopped backwards to lie on the floor.
Jack grinned and crawled over to Daniel, he stared down at him for a moment and then said. "Maybe you cast a spell to make them look fav--like you." He had no intention of repeating his experience with the word anomaly.
Daniel's breath quickened slightly; did Jack have to lean so close?
Jack shifted unconsciously to bring himself even closer. The two were mere inches away from each other. Suddenly Jack collapsed and fell in a heap beside Daniel.
Daniel sat up quickly, that had been to close for comfort. He should most definitely be heading home and he said so.
"Aw, c'mon, you can't leave now," Jack said sitting up as well. "I'd have to call a cab and you'd just be getting up in a couple hours anyway. Why not stay here?"
"I really don't think that's a good idea."
"Why?"
"Jack," Daniel began. They were falling into an all too familiar pattern, a pattern that always came out with Jack on top--well, Jack winning anyway.
"I'm not letting you leave."
"You have no idea how bad an idea this is," Daniel insisted.
"So you keep saying, give me one reason why."
"Cuz I'm likely to make a--" he stopped himself a moment too late. Why had he let Jack talk him into this again?
Jack stared at him through a fog, he knew that Daniel had just come really close to letting something important slip but he couldn't figure out what it was. He knew he shouldn't have had so many beers.
"A?" Jack asked.
"Nothing," Daniel said quickly. "Can I borrow your phone?"
"Why?" Jack couldn't remember feeling so slow in his life before, not even when he was around Daniel AND Carter.
"Because I need to call a cab."
"I told you, you're staying here tonight."
"No, I'm not," Daniel said and stood, he took a few wobbly steps before collapsing. When had he gotten so drunk?
Jack looked over at Daniel who had fallen next to him. "Hey."
"Hey, yourself." Daniel said and slid closer.
Jack was surprised to find his breath hitching. He didn't think he could stand being so close to Daniel much longer and not do anything. Part of him wondered whether all of this was simply coming about because he was drunk or whether he was finally having some sort of epiphany that had been coming for a long time now. He doubted both those options but didn't really care.
Daniel was simply looking at him, using all of his will power to keep himself from leaning those few inches forward. He was taken completely by surprise when Jack did it for him.
Their lips brushed and Daniel pushed away hurriedly, scooting backwards along the floor. "Your drunk," he said as matter of factly as he could manage.
"So are you," Jack said sitting up.
"You don't want to do this."
"You do."
"You're drunk."
"Does it matter?"
"It will in the morning."
"No, it won't."
Daniel stared at him accusingly. "How can you say that?"
"It won't, I promise."
Daniel wanted to believe him so badly. He stared adamantly at his hands.
Jack moved toward him slowly, like you would toward a wild animal you didn't want to frighten away. "C'mon Danny, you want this as much as I do."
Daniel looked up at Jack and there was something foreign and feral in his eyes that scared Jack.
"We'll regret this in the morning," he said and then lunged at Jack, attacking him with a searing kiss.
T.B.C. (I think.)