By: Lionchilde
CATEGORY: Humor, Romance
WARNINGS: None.
AUTHOR’S NOTES: Fire and Water Part 2. Set during Season 9, if Vala hadn’t gone to the Ori galaxy.
AUTHOR’S WEBSITE:
http://so-out-of-ideas.livejournal.com/
1.
I really don’t get it. Everywhere I’ve gone, there have been men. Men with guns. Men with ships. Men with really big ships. And really bad attitudes. Now there’s Daniel. It makes no sense. He’s so straight-laced sometimes I think I’ll choke. But the eyes. He looks at me and I feel goose-pimpley under my clothes. One of these times he’s going to notice and then where will I be? Hmm…maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing… He looks at me like I matter. Not just to him, I mean. When a man’s in love with you, of course you matter to him. He looks at me as if I just matter…and he’s so…Daniel!
Saw Vala’s diary this afternoon. I really didn’t mean to. I wonder if she left it sitting in the commissary on purpose. I doubt she’d have just left it lying around. I walked past and there it was, just sitting open. Of course I’d seen her with it before…tried to keep going, but somehow found myself stopping at the table. Turning the page.
Apparently she genuinely cares on some level. Which is disturbing—to say the least. I have to admit, sometimes I almost think…but she’s so…Vala!
He caught me with the fragment from those ruins he found last week. I should be furious. I really can’t stand him when he’s so smug about these things. He thinks he just knows what I’m going to do. And he thinks I planned it all along. But I didn’t. Honest! Is it my fault he just leaves things lying on his worktable? I’m not angry, though, as much as I should be.
I can’t be angry, because it was different this time. When he pulled the thing back out of my hand, his face changed. Subtly, and only for a moment, but I know that face, and it did. For a second or two, he wasn’t so smug. His eyes got darker and the smirk faded. Then he just looked away and when he turned his head again, it was gone. What was it? Disappointment? Hurt?
Well, what does he expect anyway?
Daniel’s Journal
She took that fragment right out of my office! Right under my nose, in fact. I can’t believe it! Although I don’t really know why I don’t believe it. It’s just what she’d do. I almost didn’t catch her either. Damn, I can’t believe I was that stupid. I can’t believe I expected anything else!
2.
…All right. I admit it. Sometimes, there is this part of me that actually likes cabbage…
Apparently, Vala likes cabbage. This was some kind of major confession deal for her. She wrote three pages of lead in before she finally admitted to herself that she liked cabbage. I’d ask what it was all about, but then she’d probably kill me for reading her diary. I think maybe I’m developing a neurotic compulsion. I tell myself I won’t. It’s a horrible invasion of her privacy. Then I find myself turning another page.
Mitchell walked in and I was sitting at Landry’s desk reading it. I shoved it underneath before he saw what it was. Not that he was paying much attention. Too busy rambling on about space corn again. Fortunately, no one saw me go back to get it off the floor. What the hell was her diary doing in Landry’s office anyway?
…and sometimes there is an even smaller part of me that wishes I really could be what he wants. But I won’t apologize for taking that fragment. I won’t lie and tell him I’m sorry, because I’m not.
Of course she’s not sorry. What would she possibly have to be sorry for? Breaking into my office? Trying to steal a priceless relic from a culture I practically know nothing about yet? No problem, Vala. Hey, everybody’s doing it. Right? ARGH!
I’ve been reading her diary again. Obviously. Y’know, maybe I’m the one who should apologize…
3.
I can’t believe he read my diary! I mean, ok I left it out hoping he’d read it. But I still can’t believe he would actually stoop so low! He’s supposed to be the honest one—the one who’d never cross a boundary like that, violate someone’s trust…which, admittedly is why the whole idea gives me shivers…but that’s not the point! Daniel, of all people, I thought would have more integrity.
When he gave in so readily about taking me off base, I knew something strange was going on. He must have had to promise Landry his right eye, and all we really did was go for coffee. Some little place a few miles off that was dark, smokey, and furnished with moulded plastic. A crowd of gloomy twenty-somethings in long coats or metal studded collars and black nail polish all gawked when we walked in. Daniel’s hand moved to my arm and I had to smile because the grip was just a shade too tight to be a lover’s touch.
“Any funny business and we’re gone,” he whispered as he leaned over my shoulder from behind. His breath was warm on my ear, but I don’t think I quite shivered.
We didn’t stay long though at any rate. A guy with a tattoo on his cheek and a pair of lip rings didn’t like Daniel’s face. Or maybe he liked Daniel’s face a little too much. I can’t remember. In any case, he won’t be looking at anyone’s face for a while. I don’t know if Daniel was more mad because I hit him or because I flirted with the arresting officer. By the time he dragged me back out to the car again, his grip on my arm was tight enough to make bones crunch.
“Well, he let us go, didn’t he?” I demanded as he yanked open the passenger door. “Isn’t that better than having to explain to Landry that I got arrested?”
“Landry,” Daniel groaned. “Aw, that’s…that’s just great, Vala.” He shook his head and gave the door a hard shove, letting it slam shut again before I had gotten inside. Then he brushed past me and stormed off, but only managed a few steps past the care before he stopped short and stared down at the ground.
I bit my lip. The windbag general was gong to hear about this one whether we’d been arrested or not, and Daniel would be the one in trouble. “Daniel, I’m sorry…” I offered, turning to walk up behind him.
He stiffened, but didn’t say anything for a long time. Finally, when he did, I felt the blood drain from my face. Hopefully, he couldn’t actually see me shaking.
“I don’t want to change you, you know,” he said softly.
“What?” my eyes widened in surprise and his mouth flickered in a small, hesitant smile.
“I don’t want you to be anything…anything but Vala. Because she matters.”
“To you?” I asked, smiling a little nervously as I crossed the distance between us. He slowly nodded and I reached up to touch his cheek.
“I think so,” he whispered, just before my hand shot out to slap him across the face.
“That,” I said hotly, “is for reading my diary.”
…She did kiss it better, though. Thoroughly. Now she’s curled up on the couch in my favorite sweater. It’s pouring out, and she wants me to build a fire. I don’t think we’ll go back to the base today. Again.
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