~Fire~

by
Jay Em

Sunlight broke through the blinds in bands of gold, brushing Daniel's hair with liquid fire….

Jack smiled to himself at the image, sighing at the appropriateness…

Daniel *was* liquid fire…banked and hidden and reserved only for Jack…

Jack's breath caught in his throat as Daniel sighed in his sleep, a tiny smile quirking one corner of the sensuous…so very talented…mouth…a secret smile Jack knew so very well…and adored. *His* smile, the smile only he could see and recognize because only *he* could bring it to life.

Daniel was dreaming of Jack.

Jack propped himself up a little on his pillow, making himself comfortable to indulge in his favorite pastime. He could…and had…spent many pleasant hours in such pursuits. Sometimes at the base, sometimes during endless, deadly dull briefings, sometimes on the more boring missions…while Daniel studied artifacts or carved words thousands of years old with seemingly boundless interest, Jack studied Daniel with equal…or greater…fascination. Each of those times brought its own pleasure, its own unique insight and joy at the opportunity to observe the man Jack loved more than the air he breathed…

Jack felt his heart stop at the thought, the utter certainty of its simple truth…

Daniel sighed again, one hand sliding toward Jack's side of the bed as if sensing something amiss with his lover even from the depths of his dreams…

Jack reached out to encircle the sinfully long and deceptively strong fingers, pulse quickening as they tightened…possessively, reassuringly…around his own. The gesture was so intrinsically 'Daniel'…*giving* even now, helping and soothing by virtue of his simple presence.

Jack wanted to take his lover into his arms, hold him close and let him know…once again and with utmost feeling…how completely he was loved…

But he wouldn't…couldn't…disturb this perfect moment.

Jack felt a tinge of something in his eyes, knew he was being uncharacteristically sentimental…didn't care. Brushing aside the moisture on his cheek, Jack looked up again and gasped at the sight of Daniel's intense blue eyes…

Words were extraneous…their eyes, smoldering charcoal and ocean blue…fire and water…ignited as their more mundane counterparts could never hope to do. Feeling rushed from blue to brown…sparked, ignited….

Jack could feel himself grow hard with the force of desire and emotion flowing from Daniel…marveled at the singular miracle of such love as he had never known. He had no idea what in his life he had ever done to deserve it, but he vowed with his eyes never to prove unworthy…

Tears glittered over Daniel's eyes…accepting and returning the vow…giving all of himself in one unguarded, totally open gaze…

Jack couldn't breathe…couldn't move…couldn't *feel* everything laid before him. It was too good, too perfect…and in Jack's experience that was dangerous. Good things never stayed…by their very nature too fragile and fleeting to last…

Daniel moved…pulling Jack's hand toward him and placing it on his heart…waiting…

Jack looked up into his lover's face, blurred now through the curtain of overwhelming emotion…and still he could see it all. Daniel…sweet, giving, wonderfully inventive and totally wide open for Jack's eyes alone…

Too much, it was all too much…

Daniel leaned down his head, tongue flicking away the tears…a sweet blessing…before moving further down to share the taste, share the too strong emotions…giving comfort through the very thing that had frightened Jack so much. Daniel's lips moved on Jack's as if smiling at the thought…laughing with Jack…never at him. They both understood too completely the quicksilver nature of happiness. Words were unnecessary, promises unneeded…extraneous by comparison to the sheer joy of the sensations flowing between them…

Jack surged forward, enwrapping Daniel's slighter form in arms somehow not strong enough, frustratingly unable to bring them as close as he needed to be…

Daniel pulled Jack down…lending his own strength to the endeavor, bringing them closer…closer…

Jack felt his pulse explode in a rush of heat as they touched, meeting and melding perfectly…as always…and yet with the newness of the first time. Jack opened further to the kiss, pushed harder against the rushing tide of passion…realizing all the while that passion was much too pale a description. There was no word in any of Daniel's twenty-some languages complete enough to describe *this*…

Daniel opened his eyes then, the sunlight laying across them as they looked up with so *much* raw love and desire…it was if suddenly the depthless blue eyes gave a home to the liquid fire of Jack's earlier imaginings…

It was too pure, too real, too incredibly *big* for Jack to bear…

With a gulping sob, Jack claimed the gift he felt far too mundane to accept…pushing away the doubts…believing only the truth in Daniel's eyes…wanting, needing, no other…

Bodies opened and pulsed…driving further…higher… exploding in a rush of heat and light and intensity….

Jack collapsed roughly over Daniel's chest, rediscovering the need for air…incapable of moving…

He was afraid to look again at those eyes and not see the fire…knowing it had to be too hot to sustain for long….

Beneath Jack's ear Daniel's heart thumped in an impossible rhythm…finally slowing, settling into the more familiar pattern Jack knew from so many nights of listening…

Hands moved to caress his hair, gently touching his cheek, drawing him up to look into his eyes…

There.

It *was* there…

Still, again… Jack dared to believe…forever…

'How?'

Daniel shrugged and smiled, brushing Jack's hair back from his temples in a gesture both comforting and arousing…

Jack drew himself upward, meeting his lover eye to eye…smiling in pure adoration, perfect love…

He decided at that moment not to question the fire…Daniel's eyes told him it was his…always…never-ending, all-consuming, happily-ever-after, all too clichéd yet unquestionably more…*his*.

It was his…nothing else mattered.