Work Text:
Rodney knew that he shouldn't have had that last cup of coffee before going to bed. As he lay there in his sleeping bag he wondered if could possibly just will his full bladder to leave him alone and let him go back to sleep. When it finally got to be too much to bear he got up and found his flashlight and boots.
It took Rodney a moment to realize that Sheppard wasn't in the tent. That wasn't particularly unusual as Sheppard often had trouble sleeping offworld. He would take extra watches or simply sit up with whomever was on watch. Sheppard was always on alert for danger. And that was the reason Rodney himself felt secure enough to sleep; he knew Sheppard would keep him safe.
Rodney unzipped the tent and tried to quietly head out in the the brush to find a tree with a passing nod to the young Marine on watch. The night was very warm and the sky crystal clear and the light from the planets three huge moons brightly illuminated the night. Rodney's obsessive modesty made him trek a goodly distance away from the moonlit campsite to find a suitable tree. He quickly took care of his bladder's pressing need and started back to their campsite.
Rodney had, however, gotten himself turned around a bit in the brush and it took him a moment to reorient himself. Once sure of the correct direction, he started back. His altered path took him past another clearing and when what his casual glance in its direction had caught actually registered in his brain, Rodney stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the clearing.
Standing in the middle of the moonlit clearing were Sheppard and Ronon. The two men were quietly looking up at the beautiful moonscape. Both men were shirtless, and in bright moonlight the warmth of the night was evident in the sweat glistening on their skin. Sheppard was leaning back against Ronon's broad chest and was lazily reaching up with one hand and stroking one of the arms Ronon had wrapped around him, his favorite dilapidated foam football clasped in his other hand.
Rodney had accidentally walked in people having sex before and though it was morbidly embarrassing it hadn't particularly felt like an intrusion. But as he stood there staring at Sheppard and Ronon he felt like the worst sort of interloper. The two of them standing there wrapped around each other in the moonlight enjoying a simple moment together was the most intimate thing Rodney had ever seen. It was tender and gentle and serene. And somehow it seemed... honest. This wasn't some contrived thing between them. It was what it was. And it was real and genuine.
As he quietly slipped away, Rodney smiled to himself. Although completed shocked and surprised, because he would never have suspected either of them to have had any inkling of interest in men, he was glad for his friends. The Pegasus galaxy had stripped away so many things from them all- hope, optimism, and sometimes even their humanity. Rodney found it uplifting to know that two people could connect and find such unabashed intimacy in spite of everything, especially those two hardened men in particular.
As he drifted back to sleep Rodney made a mental note to requisition a couple of new footballs for them.
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the end.