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Part 1 of Stargate Kinkmeme , Part 1 of Dom!John
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Stargate Kink Meme
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Published:
2023-07-28
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1,864
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1/1
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I'll love you when nobody else will

Summary:

It wasn’t a thing. Nope, definitely not. Rodney refused to even consider the possibility. He most certainly did not enjoy John Sheppard (of all people!) telling him what to do.

Right?

Notes:

This work was inspired by a prompt from the Stargate Kinkmeme. Anonymous said: "I wanna see John doing caretaking-type Dom things - ordering Rodney to sleep, take breaks, not have that eighth cup of coffee, etc. One or both of them is aroused by it, but bonus points if they don't realise it at first. Not established relationship. Everything else up to you :)". This got way more feels-y than I expected, but maybe I'll give it a smutty follow up at some point. I encourage yall to check out the stargate kinkmeme page and post some prompts or fills of your own!

update: a smutty follow-up has been posted! its the next in the dom!john series

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

It wasn’t a thing. Nope, definitely not. Rodney refused to even consider the possibility. He most certainly did not enjoy John Sheppard (of all people!) telling him what to do… right?

Rodney wasn’t even sure when the definitely-not-a-thing thing started. It must have started some point in their second year on Atlantis, after Ronon joined the team and John and him actually started becoming good friends, but Rodney couldn’t pin-point when he started noticing John mother-henning him and he certainly couldn’t point out when he realized he enjoyed it.

-

If you asked John, he’d say that looking out for Rodney became a more conscious choice after he managed to blow up a solar system. Thankfully, nobody ever asked.

-

It started small. A ‘no, I’m not getting you another cup of coffee, you’ve already had six’ here, and a ‘Rodney, go to sleep. You’ve been awake for 24 hours’ there, and everything was fine. Rodney never acquiesced easily, but for some reason he always ended up obeying anyways. No matter how hard he argued or how many times he waved John off, it seemed like he’d blink and be in his quarters, or sitting down for lunch, or drinking the water John forced into his hand. He tried not to think too hard about it.

To Rodney’s credit, he does at least notice when escalates. Well, not really, but the extent of John’s protectiveness finally hits him a couple years later, after they save his sister from that Wallace maniac.

In the moment, all Rodney felt was fear and anger and grief. Hearing John say no to Rodney letting the Wraith feed on him and not even being able to look him in the eye when he said it nearly pushed him over the edge. He had a chance to save his sister and John couldn’t let him do that? What kind of brother did that make him? What kind of friend did that make John?

Later, when its all over and Jeannie is back home safe and sound, they are eating together in the mess hall – blissfully quiet at that time of night – and it hits him. That John wouldn’t let Rodney sacrifice himself to save his sister but instead would take on the guilt of talking a man into suicide to protect both McKays. He pauses with his fork halfway to his mouth, staring at John, who pauses mid-sentence when he notices the attention.

“So then Lorne says… uh. What’s wrong?” He looks down at himself. “Do I have something on my shirt or something?”

Rodney puts his fork down but looks John straight in the eye. John’s brow furrows and he leans forward.

“McKay, seriously. Are you okay? What’s going on?” his tone is serious and Rodney clears his mind with a shake of his head.

“Oh- uh, sorry everything is fine.” He says at last.

John clearly doesn’t believe him.

“You’re a terrible liar, McKay. Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing’s wrong.” He looks around the mess hall. There are only a couple of people from the medical staff and they are on the other side of the room. He drops his voice a little.

“I just, um, realized something today, that’s all.”

John just eyes him suspiciously.

“You… you did a lot for my family recently. Like, more than you were obligated to. And… and I’m grateful for that.”

John’s tone aims for nonchalant, but Rodney doesn’t miss the slight reddening of the tips of his ears.

“You realized you were grateful that I saved the McKay geniuses? Wow. What a revelation.”

Rodney shakes his head.

“Look, I know we’re bad at the whole ‘talking about our emotions’ crap, but I’m being serious. You did more than you were required to do. More than maybe you even should have done.”

John’s ears redden even more and he glances around the room before leaning closer and dropping his voice to barely above a whisper.

“Stop. I did exactly what I had to do.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Rodney. Drop it.” His tone is sharp, but still quiet.

Rodney says nothing, but gets up to clear their trays. When he’s done John is still just sitting there at the table.

“Are you coming?”

John looks confused but stands anyways.

“Where?”

-

They are sitting on the dark, empty pier in a quiet part of the city before either one speaks again.

“I know I have a tendency to say the wrong things at the wrong time, so forgive me for doing it once again.” Rodney says, pausing to look out at the dark water.

“I… I just was doing some thinking and I realized something today. I realized that… well, I realized that you… take care of me.”

John snorts, but resolutely does not make eye contact. His body is tense as he stares out at the water.

“Well that’s kind of my job, isn’t it? You’re a member of my team, and a valuable member of this expedition as a whole. It’s kind of my job to make sure you don’t get yourself killed.”

Rodney sighs with frustration.

“Let me say what I’m about to say, and then if you feel the desire to punch me or something, that’s fine. I mean, I’d rather you didn’t, but I’m giving you the permission if you so desire.”

A beat of silence.

“Okay. Thank you. So here it goes: you take care of me. You take care of me in a way that you don’t take care of Teyla or Ronon or anyone else. You make me switch to water instead of giving me my eighth cup of coffee for the day, you make me take a break and get some sleep when I’ve been up for god knows how many hours straight, you let me ramble on about equations for an hour so I can work out problems. You don’t do that to anyone else.”

“Rodney-” John’s voice comes out strangled.

“This is the part where I hope you don’t punch me: I… I like it. I like it, okay? For some reason this is my totally bat-shit life, and for the first time I’ve realized that I like knowing that someone is keeping an eye out for me. Making sure that I take care of myself.” He drops his voice to a whisper. “I like that its you. I like that its you, okay? For some reason that is only known to this wretched galaxy, this is true. And… and I have a feeling you like it too.”

John says nothing, and they don’t talk about it for a long time after that. John still yells at Rodney to get some sleep or eat an actual meal or whatever else, and there seems to be… something in the air, but they don’t talk about it.

Then John’s dad dies.

-

Rodney doesn’t get to go with John back to Earth, and it kills him inside. But he doesn’t tell that to John. John also doesn’t tell him that it kills him inside too.

-

The night he gets back to Atlantis, Rodney drags John (and a case of beer) back out to the pier. They drink and talk about nothing for a while. Rodney waits until they are both sufficiently buzzed before opening his traitorous mouth once again.

“Can I tell you something?”

Even a couple of beers in, John immediately perks up and looks attentive and serious.

“Of course.”

“I… haven’t stopped thinking since the last time we were out here. After the whole thing with my sister. Well, I never stop thinking, but I mean I’ve been thinking about… us since then, and its driving me crazy. And then your dad dies and you have to go back to Earth with Ronon and I’m stuck working on a stupid Ancient device on a stupid planet full of stupid kids, and I realize that I can’t do this anymore. I’m giving you one more chance to punch me – which again, I really hope you don’t – because I really shouldn’t say what I’m about to say.”

John tightens his grip on his beer bottle and looks away, but says nothing.

“In all of this stupid thinking, I realized that you’re my friend. My best friend. But… I think there’s more than that. And I know you’re military and I’m technically your subordinate and that you might be straight – though let’s be real, I don’t believe that – and that there are a thousand, probably a million, reasons why I shouldn’t tell you this, but I don’t care. I can’t keep watching the people we love die or nearly die without at least having this out in the open. Blame the Pegasus galaxy. For all we know there’s some ridiculous spore that makes us lovesick. And before you respond to me with all the reasons we can’t or shouldn’t, let me as you one question and promise to answer it honestly.”

John nods.

“Do you like taking care of me? Making sure I’m safe and all that?”

John squeezes his eyes shut like he’s in pain, and after a painfully long moment, nods slowly.

“Then I feel fine saying that I don’t give a fuck about what your stupid military says. We’re on a flying city on another planet in another galaxy. I think we’ve both learned that the rules are different here.”

“Rodney,” John manages, very, very quietly, “what exactly are you offering here? Because I need to be crystal fuckin’ clear.”

Rodney looks up at the stars, at the constellations that are becoming familiar.

“Anything. Everything. Damnit John! All I know is that I can’t imagine not having you by my side, okay? I barely slept while you were gone, you know that? I was working on a piece of 10,000-year-old alien technology to keep a planet full of kids safe, and I was distracted because all I could think about was you on Earth and all the pain you were feeling. And then I saw you come back through that Gate and all I wanted to do was kiss you. And… and sometimes when you yell at me I think about you telling me what to do when we are in bed together and it’s the hottest thing I could imagine.”

Rodney doesn’t miss the way John’s breath catches and his head shoots up at that. He also definitely doesn’t miss the way John is worrying at his bottom lip.

“Maybe I’m just a softie and not some macho man like you, but this is driving me fucking crazy and I needed you to know.”

John leans forward and presses their foreheads together, much like he does with Teyla, but then kisses Rodney in a way that he certainly does not with Teyla. Rodney has to catch his breath when they finally break apart.

“Rodney McKay, secret romantic. Who knew?” John says quietly, with a smirk.

“Shut it, Kirk. We can’t all be emotionally constipated assholes.”

John opens his mouth to retort, but Rodney holds up a hand.

“If you don’t knock it off, maybe I’ll boss you around instead, huh?”

John snaps his mouth shut with a blush.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Notes:

as is my tradition, title is a song lyric. It's from The Paris of Nowhere by The Wonder Years. yes they are my favorite band and no I will not stop using their lyrics as titles

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