A Well-Executed Plan

"I love you, Dr. McKay."

Glancing down at where John was sitting, gazing up at Rodney with an expression of mild interest, Rodney frowned. Sheppard couldn't have said what it sounded like he'd said.

"Rodney," Elizabeth said.

Shifting his gaze to Elizabeth, seated on the far side of John, he straightened his shoulders and took a step back, away from John. "Sorry, I lost track there for a moment." Pressing a button on his remote, he changed to the next slide and resumed his presentation.

Four hours later he decided that maybe John really had said, "I love you." Because there wasn't any other explanation for why John was drawing back, a small smile curving his already curvy lips. "You kissed me."

Still smiling, John nodded.

John hadn't denied it, which meant Rodney hadn't imagined it. "Why?" Not that Rodney didn't think of himself as kissable, because he did.

John's smile faded. "What do you mean 'why?'"

"I mean why. Why did you kiss me?"

Those curvy lips curved downward. "You should know why."

Rodney crossed his arms. "Clearly I don't." He'd stopped by John's quarters to talk to him about the plan to explore the west tower and found himself being kissed.

Running his hand through his hair, John said, "But you should."

"Apparently your behavior is beyond even a genius like myself."

"Maybe you're just dense."

It was just like Sheppard to claim Rodney was dense when Sheppard was the one engaging in all kinds of weird behavior. "Maybe you're just…" Okay, so Rodney didn't know what John was, other than weird.

"You should have gotten it by now. It was a damn good plan and the execution was flawless."

"Plan? What plan? What are you talking about?"

"My plan." Crossing to his desk, John opened a drawer and pulled out a legal pad. He held it out to Rodney. "See?"

Across the top of the page the words "The Plan" were written in John's distinctive scrawl. Beneath it was a list of tasks, all neatly checked off except for the last one, which read "kiss him." "We haven't done any of these things."

"We've done all of them."

"Here." Rodney pointed at the page. "We never did that."

"Date one?" John said. "We went on date one."

"When?"

"Two weeks ago. We took Jumper Three out, just the two of us."

"It was a test flight."

"We had a picnic on the beach."

"It was lunch."

John glared at him. "It was romantic."

"We had MREs."

"You like MREs."

Rodney shook his head. Since when were MREs and a test flight a date? "What about date two? That's checked off, too."

With a smug grin, John said, "Airplane."

"Airplane? That was a team movie night."

"But Ronon and Teyla weren't there. It was just the two of us."

"They were on the mainland."

John pointed at him. "Exactly. And we snuggled under a blanket."

"Because it was cold."

John grinned again. Clearly he had been responsible for the temperature and at least Rodney now knew why John's hand had kept brushing his.

"It's not like we made out," Rodney said grumpily.

"We hadn't reached kissing yet."

"I can see that. And date three?"

"PJ3-729."

"That was a mission." Rodney was going to have to stop calling John "Kirk" because even Kirk knew a mission wasn't a date.

"Walk in the moonlight just the two of us. Very romantic."

It hadn't been romantic. They'd been trudging through mud looking for Ancient ruins that had been ancient but not Ancient, and completely useless. With a shake of his head, Rodney pointed at the second to last item on the list. "And this?"

"Took care of that this afternoon."

"During my presentation." That was Kirk-like, to assume that his declaration was more important than Rodney's work.

John shrugged. "I went with what I was feeling."

"Which just left the kiss, which you've now done."

"Yup. I make good plans."

"And the purpose of this plan?"

John looked at him like he was the weird one. "Isn't it obvious? Dating, declarations of affection, kissing? Even you should be able to figure it out."

"And once we'd kissed, then what?" Rodney asked, because he had an odd feeling that he knew, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"Sex."

"Sex."

"Hot, sweaty, naked sex," John said clearly pleased with himself.

Rodney swallowed. He hadn't had hot, sweaty, naked sex in a long, long time. He hadn't even had cold, not sweaty, clothed sex in a long time. "Okay."

***

Hours later, and how had hours gone by without Rodney noticing? Oh, yeah, he'd been having hot, sweaty, naked sex, Rodney conceded that John did, indeed make good plans.

"Told you so," John answered with a bright smile. Then he kissed Rodney and rolled over onto his side, taking most of the blankets with him.

Rodney thought about complaining, then remembered John's face in the briefing room and settled for simply tugging until John rolled back over, returning the blankets and covering Rodney's body with his.

With a contented sigh, Rodney wrapped his arms around John's shoulders. John wasn't the only man in the bed capable of strategy.