Chapter Text
"Ants in your pants, Daniel? Or in your sleeping bag?"
Jack's voice was laconic and not curious. Daniel winced. He'd been tossing and turning; rude of him.
"Sorry; sorry. It's. I can't get to sleep." Teal'c had first watch, and Jack and Daniel both should have been out like lights already.
Jack's reply was a noncommittal grunt, but Daniel knew Jack probably was a couple of hairs from annoyed. If he were Jack, he would be. Daniel shouldn't be restless. Daniel should be asleep. The planet was friendly and known; the mission routine. But besides wanting to get to sleep already, Jack was probably annoyed and impatient, because he no doubt knew the state of Daniel's mind, which was more troubled than usual, even for him. Ever since Kiera (he refused to let his mind range further back, at least for the moment), Daniel had been restless with an irritated self-consciousness that, he was chagrined to notice, had even Jack treating him with courtly politeness. Kid-glove handling from Jack was ... weird. Wrong. The night was crisp, the surroundings unthreatening, and they all should have been ready, willing and able to rest. But Daniel was restless.
He thrashed around some more, wished futilely that Jack had drawn first watch because then he would have been able to resort to... Well, he could still resort to that, actually, in order to get to sleep. Daniel sighed and sat up. Jack turned over and looked at him. The light from the double moons was so bright, he could see the outline of Jack's profile.
"Sorry. I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna go out and. You know. I'll just. I'll be right back." Daniel shoved his sleeping bag away and fumbled in the silvery dark for his boots. Jack didn't roll over and wait. Jack, oddly, was sitting up. He was methodically pulling his boots on, too, purposeful and efficient. He wasn't mad; he wasn't jerking things or slamming around.
"Want some company?" Jack didn't look up, just kept up with the lacing.
Oh my god. He couldn't. He misunderstood. He thinks I need guarding. No, not that; he knows Teal'c's out there. What the...
"Jack, really, I. No. I'm gonna. Well."
"Take a leak." Flat disbelief with a bottom note of sarcastic humor. Jack, apparently, indeed knew very well what he was going to do out there. Daniel flushed.
'No, I." He can't be...
"But -- it's more fun with company."
The fuck?!
Jack, having laced his boots, and having strapped his Beretta back on, patted Daniel on the knee and crab-walked (how could he do that so gracefully?) to the tent entrance, where he waited, one hand on the flap near the zipper.
Daniel continued to lace his boots, embarrassed, resolving to get away from Jack somehow and just go through with this, now that Jack had apparently accessed his always-surprising telepathic skills. Jack seemed to alternate between reading Daniel's mind and being willfully dense. Daniel sighed. Then his mind replayed, not only what Jack had said, but the tone. Jack really did mean it. Jack intended to -- with him. Daniel stilled, images crashing into each other in his mind. His hands paused on his laces. He registered that Jack was waiting, and sheer astonishment carried Daniel to his hands and knees, past Jack and out of the tent into the moonlight. He stood up, shoved his hands in his pockets. Unbelievable: Jack knew what he was doing, and had invited himself along. Truly. For real. This was disturbing, surprising, and. Well. Admit it. Exciting. Daniel had a sense of events overtaking him, of things speeding up, careening. He looked sidelong at Jack, who was looking sidelong at him under his cap brim, and keying his radio. Teal'c was walking the perimeter; of course Jack would check in. Daniel's eyes widened as he quickly brought up and discarded some outrageous things Jack might say. Reality, while still surreal, did not rise to that level of whacked. At least not yet. Daniel felt like giggling. He suppressed it.
"I'm with Daniel, taking a little stroll. Not to worry."
"Acknowledged."
Jack walked past Daniel, and, being vestless, slipped the radio in his pants pocket. Daniel followed, giddy. Following Jack again, into yet another unforeseen adventure.
Jack walked into the grove that protected their camp on the north, looking around carefully, as if assessing possible cover for a firefight. Daniel was content to watch. Several yards into the cover of the woods, Jack put his back to a large tree, a rather oakish tree, Daniel thought. There was very little underbrush. Daniel stopped, facing him, and Jack cocked his head, indicating Daniel should stand beside him.
How did he get to be in charge of this?
Daniel dutifully turned. He heart sped up, because Jack edged over until their elbows were touching, and he looked around, frowning slightly, as he opened his pants; something Daniel had seen him do before, many times, not trying to look too closely, of course, when Jack had taken a leak in woods like this on a dozen worlds, and even a couple of times in Jack's own back yard, after too many beers and not enough hamburgers -- most recently a night the general's granddaughters and Cassie had come to play croquet. How Jack came to own a croquet set anyway was something Daniel didn't really want to think about too much, too many dragons of memory, but the fact remained that Jack's garage was like a Sports Academy warehouse, neatly stuffed with game equipment of every description and age.
But Daniel dragged his squirming thoughts back to the moment, because Jack's button fly was neatly V-ed open, and he hooked a thumb in the waistband of his briefs and with his other elbow pushed Daniel back the half-step he took, too, putting their backs against the tree trunk.
"To lean on," Jack explained, in answer to Daniel's questioning stare. He was calm and neutral, just a little of the funny, as if explaining some finer point of how the radio worked or something.
Deer in the headlights, Daniel thought, and put his hands to his buttons, and then Jack pulled his dick out, over the band of elastic, just like that, but not like he was gonna pee. Daniel caught his breath. Jack looked into the distance, thumbing the head a little, as if to encourage it along, and Daniel couldn't look away. He forgot what he was supposed to be doing, and Jack had to nudge him. Because he was looking at Jack's half-hard dick, in Jack's hand, with permission. With the expectancy that he would look, should look. Jack's dick swelled a little more, stood up a little taller, as Daniel watched. Smooth, thick, silvery gray in the moonlight, all color washed away. Daniel quickly popped his buttons and loosened his belt. Like Jack, he shoved his briefs down, still looking at Jack's hand, caressing. Daniel swallowed, licked suddenly dry lips and when he finally fumbled himself in hand, he was much harder than Jack.
Hard as a rock was the next point on the scale, because, matter of factly, Jack shoved his briefs down a bit further and then reached under Daniel's elbow. Jack, reaching for him. Daniel froze, almost whiting out with amazed arousal. Jack took hold of his wrist and pulled it under his own arm, and smoothly replaced Daniel's hand on Daniel's dick with his own. Jack, touching him, warm and rough. Jack, squeezing him, and putting Daniel's hand on himself. Daniel stifled a whimper. He glanced away from the surreal picture of his own hand, wrapped around Jack O'Neill's erection, and glanced at Jack's face. It was focused, intent, eyes narrowed, looking ahead, not at their hands.
Jack squeezed him again, and Daniel gasped. He felt Jack sway toward him and sway back, and he tried to get with the program -- curl his hand tighter around Jack, move it. The whipsaw of sensation and sight, the mirror-images that were real and warm, were overwhelming.
Whatever he had thought to expect here, in this whole cracked scenario, it wasn't as vivid and intense as the actual thing. Jack's hand was caressing him, a little firmer, a little tighter, with each trip up and down, and Daniel might have made a choked little noise, which was echoed by a quiet, abbreviated moan low in Jack's throat.
Jack had leaned his head back against the tree trunk, eyes half closed. Daniel didn't know where to look -- at his own hand on Jack's dick, or at Jack's hand on his own, or Jack's intent face, and he rapidly lost his place again, because Jack was hypnotizing him and stimulating him all at once. A weird, illicit intimacy, and Daniel was stunned by the idea as much as by the sensations.
He finally settled on looking at his hand on Jack, and only feeling what Jack expertly did to him, which was why he was so unprepared that his knees almost buckled when he felt Jack's hand disengage. His dick felt cool and lonely, suddenly. Jack lifted his hand to his mouth, and he carefully swiped a slow tongue across the palm, and when he took hold of Daniel again, it was wet as well as warm. Daniel moaned, trying to be quiet, and had to lean more of his weight back against the tree, and when he could compose himself enough to do so, he licked his hand, too.
He felt a kind of glittery competition start to build and shimmer in his belly along with his climbing arousal. It was fun, it was a trip, it was a game with all winners, no losers. He smiled and let his eyes fall half shut and moved his hand faster, and Jack's hand sped up, too.
"Told you the tree was a good idea," Jack said, his voice low and rumbly. It was probably the sexiest thing Daniel had ever heard.
"Yes, you did," Daniel returned, brave now, and he licked his hand again. Because. Because it was better. He'd done this before, years and years ago, but it was never something he thought he would do with Jack, never ever, in a billion years, in any reality.
Spit mixed with pre-ejaculate, hands moved faster, and pretty soon Daniel was blind and panting, forcing himself to stay quiet, so glad for whatever fucked up military training allowed Jack to do this and still be the one to keep watch, too. Because whenever he flicked his eyes to Jack, Jack was looking into the woods, and Daniel could tell he was not totally lost in the moment. Amazing.
Sensation mixed up: Blurring pleasure from his groin. The daring flare of knowing it was Jack. Jack's silky cock in his fist, warm and wet and alive. Jack's body heat, right there, right at his elbow. The occasional friendly bump where their arms crossed. Jack's lips, parted in the moonlight.
Daniel moaned, a sound torn out of him, because he was going, going gone, and he had to look down for it, had to look at himself and Jack's hand, there at the end. He scrabbled for purchase on the tree with his free hand, his legs rubbery, as Jack took him there, knowing and sure, squeezing the head at just the right moment, leaving room for Daniel's shot to clear his fingers and spatter into the leaves.
Daniel's hand stuttered, but he got right back to business, panting, eyes squeezed shut, the competition thing again. It was weirdly gratifying that Jack was not too far behind him. Jack grunted, but silently -- Daniel felt it as a nudge to his elbow, a sonic disturbance -- and sagged backward a little, and then he was coming. Daniel watched. He timed it right; with relieved self-congratulation, he noted that nothing spattered on Jack's pants.
Daniel felt blasted. He sagged forward as Jack sagged back against the tree, but Jack's firm arm caught him, giving him a reference point. Daniel, still holding on, jerked in an aftershock and felt an answering pulse in Jack's half-hard flesh, which he was holding a little too tightly now. He leaned forward against Jack's arm and found his balance again. He shifted so that his feet would hold his weight, and looked up.
Jack's eyes were closed and he still had his hand on Daniel, and then he opened his eyes and his smile was predatory. He squeezed Daniel once and let go. Daniel was pretty sure etiquette dictated that he had to let go when Jack did, but he was reluctant. It was like breaking a connection between them that Daniel wanted, unexpectedly, to hang on to.
Jack rubbed his hands and reaffirmed with a glance that all the mess went to the ground and not onto them. Then his eyes met Daniel's. Jack managed to stare him down the whole time they were buttoning up. His gaze was not fond, but intent. Focused.
"Like I said. It's more fun with company." Almost a whisper. The words seemed too loud, too intense, Daniel's hearing -- all his senses, actually -- on high alert, strengthened and sensitized by the afterglow. Jack's fingers flew, fastening buttons, his belt. Daniel felt slow, like he took too long with the same task. Jack watched him, turned a little toward him, leaning back on the tree, his hands behind him. Daniel registered again that Jack still had his cap on and that struck Daniel as hilarious. Daniel found himself staring, at Jack's face, at his mouth, but he couldn't seem to stop. Jack gave him the cryptic half smile and reached for him, jolting Daniel right down the backs of his legs, not knowing what Jack intended. It was still shocking, unbelievable, how Jack had gotten into his space. But all Jack did was take the loose dangling end of Daniel's web belt, and slide it through a belt loop, all tidy. He gave the belt a pat, just exactly as he'd done in the gate room a hundred times, to Daniel, to all of them -- fixing a strap on a backpack, smoothing the velcro of a pocket flap. The ordinariness of it was stunning. Daniel looked up again and met Jack's eyes, and Jack winked at him.
!!!
Then Jack turned on his heel, and Daniel followed him back to camp.
Lying down in the dark, conscious as never before of Jack's warm bulk next to him, close enough to touch, the comforting whiff of his sweat and anti-perspirant, and a new scent, a lingering rich smell of come, Daniel felt the whole thing to be vaguely incomplete.
"Um, thanks," he offered.
"Any time," Jack said, drawling a little. He had rolled to his side, facing away from Daniel.
Does he mean that? How can he possibly mean that? But there was nothing to do but roll over and try to follow the ebbing endorphins into sleep. Daniel could indeed sleep -- the body's sated happiness more than enough, for once, to comfort his jumpy mind.
The next day, Daniel watched Jack, curious, with an itch awakened. Jack treated him exactly the same. But he was hungry. Daniel had acquired a new appetite, and he didn't know the rules for sating it. But he's a terrific observer. He'll learn. He feels... initiated. Jack has offered him something, invited something? If it's a puzzle, well, Daniel can solve it. If there are ropes, Daniel will learn them.