dragojustine: (Jack/Daniel)
dragojustine ([personal profile] dragojustine) wrote2008-09-03 12:24 am
Entry tags:

SG1 Schmooplets

Look, I WARNED you guys! Remember that big list of things I wanted? Here they are. Disclaimer: These come with no artistic integrity, no connections between ficlets, no warranties as to characterization or plausibility, and no pretense as to quality. Hell, they aren't even proofread. One involves curtains. Read at your own risk.


Shopping for condo furnishings in DC (Season 8, PG)


"There is no way I need curtains."

"Yes, you do."

"The damn condo comes with perfectly good blinds. There is no way I'm buying curtains."

"Blinds make you paranoid."

"They do not. What?"

"Yes. You're always glancing at them, and checking to see if they're closed, and if you can close them any tighter. They make you paranoid."

"Well, that's because they're… they're…" Jack waved his hand in a gesture that was meant to sum up the ridiculousness of the concept, but probably only looked like flailing. "Full of holes! Little spaces between every slat!"

"Which is ridiculous, but I'm not here to talk you out of your blind paranoia, only to work around it. I have never once gotten you naked in front of a window with blinds, so you need curtains."

Jack blinked. "Wait, this is about us getting naked?"

"Well, for God's sake, what else would it be about?"

"Huh," Jack said. "Right, curtains it is."



The one where Jack goes all out and gets down on one knee (post-series, PG-13)


The restaurant was perfect; low music, great food, wine, privacy, lushly understated décor, attentive but unobtrusive waiter. The whole damn evening was perfect, and the only problem was that Daniel didn't seem to actually be enjoying it.

Oh, he obviously enjoyed the food and they never objected to each other's company. But Daniel kept shooting quick, paranoid glances around, and giving Jack looks of slightly suspicious befuddlement, until Jack finally reached across the table to take his hand and brush his thumb gently over Daniel's knuckles.

"Jack, what the hell is going on?"

"I'm not allowed to take you out?"

"Of course. But someplace like this-- it makes me nervous about what you're trying to apologize for."

"Nothing," and maybe this whole thing was just a mistake, maybe Daniel wasn't on the same page with him at all here. "It's not like that."

Daniel took a few more bites, then looked up suddenly. When he spoke, it was with the wondering tone that always came when he solved a puzzle. "This is a retirement thing. Taking me someplace overtly romantic, because you can now."

For someone so brilliant, he could be incredibly dense. "Well, yeah. And is that… a bad thing?"

"No. Not at all. No, it's a -- Good, it's a good thing." A blush was just starting to creep over Daniel's cheeks. Maybe this was okay. It was time. Now or never. Man up, sink or swim, do or die, ask or don't ask but make a fucking decision, O'Neill, and make it now.

He reached his other hand out to capture both of Daniel's and squeezed firmly until Daniel looked up to meet his eyes, until he was sure he had his attention.

"Daniel, I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Daniel dropped his eyes too quickly, body language radiating avoidance and discomfort. "But?" he asked, his voice tinged with dread.

Fuck. How the hell do these things go so wrong? Why was it so damn difficult with Daniel?

"No but. What? I don't -- no but."

"Okay." Daniel spoke a little too fast, but at least lifted his eyes back to Jack's. "It's just that… well, I thought that we were already doing that."

"We are. It's." Daniel had always been able to do this to him, since the first time they met. Derail his conversational train, make the impossible seem natural and the simple seem unimaginably complex. Jack gave up, and instead slid the ring from his pocket and set it very carefully on the table beside their clasped hands.

Daniel went very still.

"I would get down on one knee," Jack started, and Daniel interrupted with a gentle laugh in his eyes.

"Oh, better not." Daniel's smile encompassed it all, somehow: The knee replacement, but also all the constraints they had lived under all these years, all their adjustments and compromises and the ways they had carved this thing between them out from the all the competing requirements of the most important jobs they would ever do. That entire metaphor, sketched in the slight twist at one corner of his mouth.

"I wanted to ask you before the big shindig tomorrow," Jack explained. "So you can wear it then and tell people, if you want. Or wait and give me an answer later, if you prefer."

Daniel freed one hand from Jack's grasp and laid it by the ring, not quite touching. "Do you want people at the retirement party to know?"

"Daniel, I want to take out a god-damned billboard."

Daniel ducked his head then, head jerking slightly with a silent laugh. He picked up the ring and looked up again to meet Jack's eyes as he slid it very deliberately on.



The one where they hold a tiny little hush-hush ceremony with just SG1 that gets out of hand (Season 7, PG)


Jack took a deep breath and looked across the group of people in his living room, Sam and Janet and Cassie on the couch, Teal'c in the chair beside them. He ran his mind back over what he wanted to say. He wanted it to sound rehearsed, or at least better rehearsed than it was (because even saying it once, to his mirror, had seemed like a temping-fate jinx of the very worst kind). Hell, he wanted to sound suave, but at least not stupid would work.

Beside him, Daniel set down his champagne flute. When he spoke he didn't sound rehearsed, of course. Just smoothly, calmly, confidently off-the-cuff in a way Jack couldn't imitate if he rehearsed a hundred years.

"Thank you for coming. Normally something like this would serve the purpose of-- well, of declaring ourselves to the community. Of telling the world. We can't do that, but nevertheless, the urge is still there. You are our closest friends, and we wanted you to hear this."

When Daniel turned to him, the smile on his face was so wide and warm and sincere and utterly happy that Jack nearly surged forward and kissed him right then. He didn't know how he was going to speak.

Just at that moment, the doorbell rang.

Jack just about jumped a mile, the shot of pure adrenaline mixing with his already heightened emotions and nearly putting him out of his skin. He looked around frantically, eyes scanning the champagne and flowers (one bouquet, understated, still enough to raise eyebrows). He didn't often freeze like this under stress.

Sam had already scooped up the four champagne flutes in one hand and the two Coke bottles in the other. "Go answer the door, sir," she said urgently. "We'll take care of it." Sure enough, Janet was already moving as well, whisking the flowers away to the spare bedroom.

His front step was occupied by Lieutenant Tyler and Sergeant Call, most recently of SG-14, in impeccable dress blues. They both came sharply to attention when he opened the door, and he managed to keep his cool enough to sketch them a brief salute back.

"Lieutenant. Sergeant." If military speak was good for nothing else, it at least excelled at completely meaningless filler verbiage.

Call handed him a stiff envelope that was obviously a card and said, "Congratulations, sir," and Jack figured he was obviously about three steps behind this conversation. Tyler was looking him up and down with a somewhat baffled expression on his face, eyes lingering on his slacks and shirt before saying, "Pardon the uniforms, sir. We weren't clear on the dress code," and this conversation just got more and more bizarre. Tyler stepped forward confidently, and Jack stood aside to let him in.

The afternoon only got more surreal, as Tyler and Call were quickly followed by Lieutenant Ortiz of SG-9, then Captain Vandenberg of SG-13, also with a card from his team, then Sergeant Siler and a gatetech Jack only dimly recognized, then two nurses bringing him a bottle of wine, then Lieutenant Phipps with the congratulations of SG-7 and regrets from SG-8, who were currently offworld.

Daniel had slipped smoothly into the role of diplomat, circulating and exchanging carefully calibrated quantities of small talk with everyone. Every few seconds he shot Jack a slightly panicked look, and Jack tried to convey a sense of baffled helplessness over the heads of the increasing crowd.

When Walter Harriman came up the walk, it all became clear.

"You!" Jack leveled an accusing finger. "This is your fault."

Walter looked excruciatingly nervous.

"Let me guess: your intentions were good?"

"Yes, sir."

"You know what they say about the road to hell, don't you?"

"Sir."

Ah. Another man who had learned the uses of military verbal filler.

"You're forgiven," Jack said, and let him in. Harriman visibly switched gears, then, and instead of joining the party he hustled Jack back toward his bedroom, asking him why he was opening his own door and how long it would take him to change and if there were any plans he should be aware of. Jack wasn't sure why Harriman should be aware of anything, given recent evidence, and pointing out that he wasn't planning on changing seemed about as much use as arguing with the tide, and he was altogether glad to be away from the door. So.

About twenty minutes of very slight hyperventilation later, Jack heard Daniel's voice at his door.

"What do you mean, he's not supposed to see me? When did I become the-- You know, just let me in."

Daniel came up behind him, and Jack concentrated on adjusting his tie for the seventeenth time.

"You look great. But you know, I really didn't care if you wore the uniform or not," Daniel said.

"Funny. You'd think what we wanted might have some relevance here."

"Oh God. No, that's really not the way this thing works, is it?"

"Not so much." Jack finally dropped his hands from the tie. "What's going on out there?"

"Lots of people. Nyan, Rothman, Davis, Ferretti. Walter set somebody to handle the door, somebody else to bring your folding chairs up from the basement, somebody else to put on music, and somebody else to handle the wine and champagne. He says we're ready."

"I'm a little scared of that man."

"Only a little?" Daniel asked, and Jack surprised himself with his sudden laughter. It felt good. Genuine. He clapped Daniel's arm as he laughed, and was almost startled by the way the tension physically drained out of him.

"Jack." Daniel's voice was urgent, important. "You don't have to go out there. This wasn't what you signed up for, at all. I can send everybody home right now and it doesn’t change a thing, I swear."

"No. God, Daniel, I want this. It isn't that."

Daniel just looked at him, the what is it, then? hanging unspoken between them. It didn't really need to be asked; Daniel could read that easily enough. "You know they all had figured it out by now."

"I know. That doesn’t mean this can happen."

"They want you happy. Maybe just don't examine the gift-horse too closely?"

Jack nodded, and reached out to kiss Daniel. Daniel stopped him smoothly, the very lightest touch of a finger to his lips. "Hold that thought. Save it for out there."

A few short minutes later, Jack stood in front of the crowd, and Daniel stepped up to join him, raising a hand for silence and then looking around in the same baffled awe that Jack knew was reflected in his own eyes.

"Thank you all for coming. You weren't invited, not because we didn't want you here, but because we thought it wouldn't be possible," Daniel started. As he spoke, his eyes moved over the crowd with the ease of a practiced public speaker, but his hand slipped sideways to find Jack's. Jack held on for dear life, and Daniel gave him three deep, slow squeezes.

"Sometimes, it's good to be proven wrong."



The one where don't ask, don't tell is repealed and they are married practically before the ink is dry (post-series, PG)


The memo was the second paper in the stack on his desk when he walked in that morning. By 8:05 he had read it, and by 8:06 he was being put through to Dr. Jackson's office.

Daniel's voice was slurred, likely at the tail-end of an ill-advised all nighter, but the sudden, melting pleasure in the way he said Jack's name made Jack's heart thump hard.

"When are you offworld next?"

"Uh…" The slight creak on the line would be Daniel spinning in his chair to find his calendar. "Three days, as far as I know."

"Daniel, will you fly to California today and marry me?"

"Yes," Daniel said, instantly and without hesitation, without even a second to process. It sounded like an answer he had known for a very long time. Then his brain caught up. "Jack, what-- how in the world--"

"Nice thing about being at the Pentagon, is I get my memos before you people." It wasn't an answer, only a statement that there was an answer, not random career suicide. Apparently that was good enough for Daniel.

"What should I tell Landry?"

"Tell him the truth. And if he goes nuts, make him check his email. Just get yourself on the next plane to, well, where do you want?"

"San Diego?" Daniel offered. "It's damned cold here right now."

"Okay. Get yourself on the next flight to San Diego, with a suit and an overnight bag. I'll handle everything else."

It sounded like Daniel was clicking away at his computer, already looking at flights. But he would probably be checking his email, too. Jack stayed on the line 'til he saw it.

"Oh," said Daniel. "Wow."

"Yeah," Jack agreed, around the lump in his throat that was, God, thirty-five years of his life and six years of his life with Daniel, and of the thousands of impossible things that had happened since he first stepped through that gate, this was the most impossible of all. "Wow."



The sex with lots of talking and lots of endearments and lots of "I love you"s. (Season 4, R)


Jack clenched his hands around the back of Daniel's head, too far gone to try and stop, and came with a stifled groan. It pulsed through him in intense waves, making every muscle in his body clench and spasm and leaving him wrung out and limp. Daniel eased him through it, lips and tongue moving gradually and ever more gently until he finally held completely still, letting Jack come down in a mouth turned soft and tender.

"Jesus," Jack whispered.

Daniel pulled off then, and crawled his way up Jack's body to settle against his side in a long, warm, familiar drape. He kissed Jack very slightly, closed-mouthed.

"No. Try again."

"Holy shit?"

"Uh-uh." Daniel turned his head slightly, letting his moist lips slide over the skin of Jack's jaw. "Still not what I'm looking for."

Jack wrapped one arm around Daniel to caress the back of his head and went for it. "I love you."

The sudden stillness was frightening. Then Daniel let out a long, shaky breath.

"What I was looking for was something like 'let me catch my breath and I'll repay the favor.' I wouldn't --" Jack felt the slight shudder run all the way through Daniel, felt the convulsive squeeze of his hand on Jack's side. "I wouldn't push, on the other thing. If you're not comfortable."

"But it's true," Jack whispered. "And it was damned well my turn."

"But I never--" Jack just looked at him, and Daniel gave a slight laugh. "At least, never that I thought you could understand. I mean, I avoided French, Spanish, Italian…"

"Ich lieben dich, right? Or something."

"Liebe," Daniel corrected automatically, lips sliding lightly over the skin of Jack's neck. Then: "I have got to stop underestimating you."

"Please don't. I work hard for that. Just English from me, I'm afraid. But it's true."

Daniel pushed himself up off the mattress to prop himself up over Jack. He looked choked, like he was fighting words that he couldn't quite get out. Jack tried to pull him down for a kiss, but Daniel just locked his elbows.

So Jack jabbed him in the inside of the elbow, just enough to break the lock. Daniel collapsed on his chest with a startled "oof," and Jack wrapped him up tight in his arms before he could get away again. They kissed, long and slow and wet and open, and Jack moved their hips together in easy rolling surges.

"Hey, Daniel," he said, when they finally broke apart. "I think I've got my breath back now."



Oh my God, I feel SO MUCH better now. Except for the fact that my [livejournal.com profile] spn_nostalgia is now due in two days and I am still procrastinating it. *hangs head* But at least I think I am in a mental place for happy brotherly banter now. If I had tried to write it before these, it would have been Incest-induced Guilt Angst Of Doom.

[identity profile] emgeetrek.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 06:36 am (UTC)(link)
:-) Oh, I do so love the schmoop. Are we going to get the sequel to the one where don't ask, don't tell is repealed? I'm dying to know what Jack comes up with for wedding plans!

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I'm sure the plans are understated and tactful and lovely and they are both deliriously happy :) Thank you!

[identity profile] green-grrl.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 06:52 am (UTC)(link)
I COMPLETELY APPROVE OF THE SCHMOOP!!!

*glomps*

*rereads*

*rolls around in them*

"Right, curtains it is." and Daniel derailing the conversation and scary Walter and the one memo Jack wanted to get and Jack using his hand-to-hand skills to get Daniel to hug him ... ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Get schmoopy anytime! I love them!

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 01:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, thank you so much!
synecdochic: torso of a man wearing jeans, hands bound with belt (Default)

[personal profile] synecdochic 2008-09-03 07:41 am (UTC)(link)
Oh my God, I love them so much!

(I channel my desire for schmoop -- and like you, I always feel slightly baffled; where the fuck does it come from? -- into Mezzanine. Or, occasionally, into one of the Cam/Sam series. I just can't bring myself to do schmoop with Jack and Daniel. *g*)

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 01:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I always feel slightly baffled; where the fuck does it come from?

I know! My intellectual brain is going, "but this type of thing SUCKS! Where's the tension, the conflict, the arc, the theme, the point?"

And in the meantime my emotional hindbrain is just rolling around in the joy of it. Weird *g*

Thank you so much.

[identity profile] jenlev.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 10:31 am (UTC)(link)
I heartily approve of these smooplets. Plus 'smooplet' is a very cool word to say. And a very fine way to start the day. :)

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 01:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Aw, I'm so glad.

[identity profile] princessofg.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 11:17 am (UTC)(link)
I am so glad you did these, and they are totally not over the top. They are wonderful and they heal my heart and I'll be reccing these and rereading them and holding them close.

The canon in this verse is so damn angsty, and the difficulties and conflicts you mentioned in your other post that exist in the characters of Jack and Daniel are very real.

But the love and joy and peace is real too.

And I have so many issues in real life and I'm not ashamed that I come to fandom for escape and for pleasure and happiness and I can find any flavor of Jack and Daniel I want, from H/C and carthasis.... to this. Happily ever after never felt so good.

Thank you so much for giving in.

I'm SO GLAD you chose to focus your considerable talents on my OTP. I am so so so grateful you're here. *HEARTS*

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 01:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not ashamed that I come to fandom for escape and for pleasure and happiness

This seems to be the key, doesn't it? Because if you asked me, it wouldn't have occurred to me to give that answer. I'm here for story telling and writing as craft and possibly for the porn. But there are so many different things you can get out of this community- and apparently this is one of them, and I just hardly knew I wanted it. *happy*

And thank you much.

[identity profile] princessofg.livejournal.com 2008-09-04 11:40 am (UTC)(link)
well, sure: storytelling and craft and porn. but how does doing all that make you FEEL? sometimes i want thrilling excitement and sometimes i want comfort. fic produce different things in us, you know? and it's true that i'm here to escape. and as a writer i have to not escape through writing; i have to work at the writing. but the feelings you produce for us in this little series? glorious.

thank you so much for being here. the J/D people are so lucky that your fancy is turned to them right now. wheeeee.
sid: (J/D Of course I do)

[personal profile] sid 2008-09-03 01:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Sheer. Bliss.

I want to drive past Jack's billboard every day, and I want them to name their first-born son Walter.

And I especially want you to write more schmoop, whenever the muse moves you. You do it so very well. :-)

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 01:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! *g* But don't even talk about kidfic, cause I'll NEVER go there :p (sure. Right. never. Uh-huh.)
sid: (Daniel uh-oh)

[personal profile] sid 2008-09-03 01:14 pm (UTC)(link)
*makes sign of the cross to ward off evil*
ext_2799: (Default)

[identity profile] lavenderlocks.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Awwwwwwwww. They're darling ickle fics.

Seriously, though, I adore this sort of writing: sweet, but with a bite of snark, or sarcasm, or something.

SG:lemon cheesecake. That's it! Totally satisfying.

Thank you.

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-04 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
Lemon cheesecake! *loves*

Thank you.

[identity profile] darkandshiny.livejournal.com 2008-09-03 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Totally gorgeous!
Loving them!

Re disclaimer:
you write this well and they aren't even proofread? Blimey.
They are just so true and believable.

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-04 01:56 am (UTC)(link)
Well, that's a lie. Early morning after I posted, I proofread (impatient? me?). I'm totally not going to admit to some of the stuff I had to change :p

ETA: and of course, I forgot to say: Thank you!
ext_847: shep actually asleep by ciderpress (Default)

drive-by commenting

[identity profile] miriad.livejournal.com 2008-09-04 04:46 am (UTC)(link)
OMG, love your icon.
ariadne83: cropped from official schematics (Default)

[personal profile] ariadne83 2008-09-04 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
I love every one of these, but especially the second. It's so Daniel to assume the worst, and all the little moments and gestures say so much - the way he just puts on the ring, the line about the knee replacement *happy sigh* If this is what happens when your angst is broken, then I don't really mind :)

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-04 01:59 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I'm so glad. I was afraid that second one ventured perilously close to not being actual schmoop (I'm not familiar with the constraints of the genre, you see *g*), what with the not on one knee after all and Daniel assuming the worst and such. I'm glad it worked!
ext_847: shep actually asleep by ciderpress (pretty daniel from ningyouhime)

[identity profile] miriad.livejournal.com 2008-09-04 04:45 am (UTC)(link)
"What do you mean, he's not supposed to see me? When did I become the-- You know, just let me in."

I LOVE THIS LINE. LOVE IT.

Thank you for this. I told you that I love the schmoop and it's true- I do. And you write it really, really well.

I think that's the real difference between the crap and the really classic stuff that makes you go back to it over and over- a full understanding of the characters and a solid, well put together plot. You have given us a few short but lovely stories that are fun and truly capture who these characters are.

I am very glad that you "broke down" and wrote these- they're a blast.

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-04 03:08 pm (UTC)(link)
heehee. I loved that line too *g* Oh, Daniel.

Glad you liked!

[identity profile] jd-junkie.livejournal.com 2008-09-04 10:31 am (UTC)(link)
*bathes in the schmoop*
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, wrong with a healthy dose of schmoop, especially when it's as well written as this.
Thank you. :-)

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-04 03:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad it worked for you!

[identity profile] freaky-anomaly.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
These are awesome... at least the two I read. That was just so sweet about Walter spreading the word that Jack and Daniel were getting married and then everyone, regardless of don't ask don't tell, came to the wedding with best wishes. And the One with the lots of sex... that was great too. Thanks for sharing. There isn't anything wrong with the others I'm sure, I just don't like anything past the end of season 8. Besides that, I loved them!

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-12 01:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you liked!
paian: blank white (jd someday just began)

[personal profile] paian 2008-09-07 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Very glad you got this out of your system. They're delightful! My favorite bit is "I love you." / The sudden stillness was frightening. Then Daniel let out a long, shaky breath. / "What I was looking for was something like 'let me catch my breath and I'll repay the favor'", but only by a slight margin. And the one about the curtains is such a fun play on the whole notion of curtain!fic. Yay!

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-12 01:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so glad you liked! And yeah. I couldn't do curtains with a straight face. *g*

[identity profile] starting-gate.livejournal.com 2008-09-12 06:08 am (UTC)(link)
This felt like looking through a stack of photographs I might have set aside over time. You know, like a photo that comes with their Christmas card every year, showing a snippet of their life from the year (or in this case, maybe an alternate reality), but didn't really have the time to look at. Then the photos get stuck in with the decorations instead of the regular box where pictures are usually tossed. Which is my rambling way of saying these were great fun and I'm glad you shared. :)

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2008-09-12 01:25 pm (UTC)(link)
*g* Oh, I adore your metaphor! Thank you.