Christmas - for Jennifer

[feltgoodthough]

Ronon had never cared for Christmas on Atlantis. He didn't mind it - but it had always seemed pointless to have a winter feast that celebrated winter on a planet a galaxy away. Some of the food had been interesting though.

On the island there was winter for the winter feast. It was the one time of year the weather changed. It reminded Ronon strongly of his arrival and the thought that he had been here a year now was not a comforting one. But if there was one thing he did appreciate it was the change in his and Jennifer's relationship.

On Christmas morning he slipped into her transformed home - earning himself a yowl from Socks and a muffled whine from the dog she'd inherited from Carson. He put the wrapped painting at the foot of her bed and leaned down to kiss her awake while Socks persisted into trying to climb him.

Comments

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

Jennifer jumped at first, startled, until she realized it was Ronon, and then she relaxed into the kiss, taking her time in waking up. "Hi," she said, when she was awake enough to talk, and then tweaked his beard. "I don't think you can quite pass for Santa yet," she teased.

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

"Should hope not," Ronon told her leaning back to look at her all mussed from sleep. "He's old and fat." He brushed a bit of her fair hair back and leaned in to kiss her again.

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

"You've got the sneaking into people's houses thing down pretty good though," she teased. "Not that I mind." Except for the fact that she hadn't brushed her teeth yet and probably had morning breath. Ronon never seemed to care about that, though.

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

Ronon grinned and stretched out next to her pleased with himself. Not that it was hardly hard to sneak between the tiny cottages their homes had turned into. "You want your present?" he asked all while tugging her against him so she couldn't exactly reach the wrapped painting.

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

"Present?" she asked with a grin, and moved to sit up, but Ronon was holding her too close so it was really only a half-hearted effort. "You're not going to make me play Twenty Questions to figure out what it is, are you?"

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

"No," Ronon assured her. "You can open it." He didn't actually let go of her though and he added, "in a minute." He pressed a kiss to the warm curve of her neck and then revised the estimate upwards quite a bit.

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

"It's been a minute," she teased, but since she was squirming against him in a way that encouraged him to go on rather than being an attempt to get away from him, she figured he knew she was just teasing.

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

"Another minute," Ronon said pushing aside her blankets and then slipping one hand inside the t-shirt she slept in to rest it on the soft skin of her back. He shifted her so that she was on top of him - still squirming. It meant there was nothing stopping her going for the painting instead of staying pressed against him.

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

She kissed him again, and when his hand fell away from her back she quickly slid off of him, picking up the wrapped package at the foot of the bed. "Oooh," she said teasingly, beaming. "I wonder what it is?"

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

Ronon watched her investigate her gift, all the while kicking off his boots, wrapping Jennifer's blankets around him and managing to take up a lot more bed than was strictly necessary.

"Open it," he said, settling himself in. He thought she would like it - the painting wasn't of the city itself but of the view from one of the towers, falling down on to one of the many peers and emphasizing the ocean - a familiar sight to any who had called Atlantis home and one Ronon had missed even before he had painted it.

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

Jennifer went to sit down on the bed, but Ronon had taken up all the space and there was now nowhere to sit. "Hey!" she said, nudging him with her knee. "Move over so I can sit down and open this."

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

Ronon grinned up at her, not moving an inch and being stubborn for the sake of it. "Nope," he said stretching a bit. "You wanted presents not bed."

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

"Well then, if you won't make room..." She gathered up the present, climbed up on the bed, and sat right in his lap. "There, that's better." She laid the present across her knees and began to unwrap it.

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

"Comfy," Ronon told her - as if her weight could bother him. He sat up and pulled her into his arms resting his chin on her shoulder watching to see what she thought.

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

Jennifer stuck her tongue out at him and returned to unwrapping. When she'd pulled the paper away, she realized what it was--a painting of Atlantis. It was stupid, but tears stang her eyes when she looked at it. She hadn't realized how much she missed Atlantis, the first place she really ever felt like she belonged. "It's beautiful," she said, tracing a line that lead from a pier down to the ocean. She turned to look at him. "Did you do this?"

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Ronon said, shifting a little careful not to dislodge her or the painting. He pulled her closer as turned to him without as much care for his art as he could have had. Mainly because he could see the tears in her eyes and wondered if he'd chosen wrong - but he didn't think so. Atlantis was home - they'd be back there someday like everyone else on the island. But they wouldn't remember this. Any of it. They'd have to start again. Ronon didn't like that bit at all and it didn't make what he had to say next easier.

"When we get back there," he told her, looking at the painting before glancing at her again. "I want to marry you." He wanted to marry her here too except it didn't seem real knowing that one day they'd vanish and not remember it.

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

Jennifer was quiet for a moment, staring at the painting. She hadn't expected him to ever say anything about marriage, and now that he had she hadn't expected it to come out like that. And really, she sort of knew what he was getting at. But still...

"When we get back there," she said quietly, "we won't remember any of this. You won't remember that's what you... what we want."

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

She was right. Ronon knew it, really everyone knew it. Some people just ignored it. "We get married here," he said. "And we'll forget that too."

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

"There's no guarantee we're going back," Jennifer said. She was looking at the painting as she spoke. "We might, or we might not. Or if we do, it could be twenty years from now. We just don't know. I think when it's something really important... you can't let that factor in, or you'll spend your whole life waiting for something for something that might never happen, when you could have been doing what you really want that whole time."

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

"Everyone goes back eventually." Ronon said. More because he wanted it to be true than because he had any confidence in it - but then they'd seen so many people disappear. "But I don't really want to wait for something we don't know is coming either."

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

Jennifer carefully laid the painting aside (out of reach of little claws and teeth) and shifted on Ronon's lap so she could see him better. "Do you really want to?" she asked, trying not to sound too eager, but she thought the smile she couldn't hide on her face might be a giveaway.

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

Ronon met her gaze for a moment, taking in her eager smile. That he liked - "Yeah," he said. "Wouldn't have said it otherwise." He held her even closer still watching her. "Love you." He wanted things to be permanent between them - or as permanent as they could be and he had learnt the hard way that close enough wasn't good enough.

[dojustfine.livejournal.com]

"Love you too," she replied. "Wow." Jennifer looked at him for a minute.

"We're going to get married."

Just saying that made her smile grow even wider. "You know, if we're going to get married, you're going to have to stop stealing the whole bed."

[feltgoodthough.livejournal.com]

Ronon pulled her down so she was properly on top of him and then rolled so she was underneath him. "No if's," he insisted. And she certainly had more of the bed than he did now which he didn't care about as he was much more interested in her. He bent his head to kiss her, sliding on hand down her side until he could slide it under her t-shirt, her skin warm and soft to his touch.