tired
dogeared, a Sweater 'Verse sneak-preview written yesterday, on my phone, on the bus (My phone? Still awesome.).In late April, a package arrives for Rodney, much-battered and bearing the censor's seal that indicates it was checked at the SGC before being sent on. This makes him wonder, as it's been ages since anybody searched his mail. Jeannie's packages come through unmolested. But this box, about an armful with Aunt Jess's neat, English teacher handwriting on the labels, seems to have aroused someone's suspicion. He opens it cautiously, as though it might explode.
Later, John holds up the sweater in front of himself with a look both dubious and pleased, pretending not to be. It's not black, as Rodney might have expected, but a warm green that - God help me, Rodney thinks - brings out his eyes. The sight of John wearing it after he pulls it over his head, mussing up his hair, makes something warm and squirmy happen in his chest. "What do you think?" John asks, smoothing down the hem.
Rodney spares a moment to resent the fact that John's sweater is elegant and ordinary at once, with twisty cable patterns down both sleeves and no fish to be seen anywhere. John looks like a fisherman or a sailor, the only thing missing the captain's hat.
He also, however, looks hot, standing there barefoot in jeans and a sweater and his hair going in every direction. He looks cute, which is a word Rodney has never applied to anyone, ever, either silently or aloud.
So instead, he kisses John and doesn't tell him what he thinks of the sweater at all.
When people ask, they tell them it was for Rodney and didn't fit.
ETA: Because Pru's post has reminded me, and because
amplificathon is so fabulous and podfic is often all that gets me through the day without actually expiring from boredom, I'd like to take this opportunity to extend blanket permission to anyone who might want to podfic any of my stuff (which can be found here on my site and - just the SGA - here on AO3). Go forth! Just drop me a line if you're doing it, because these things brighten my day. 