mammals
by Pares
When Ronon drops to one knee to poke at something on the ground, and probably to lick it, Rodney is at first annoyed. But then he notes the way Ronon's shoulders tense up, how he leans forward and down, as if trying to shield something from Rodney's line of sight.

"Unbelievable. What's that, another cooking pot? You're gonna give yourself worms--"

Ronon looked up, his eyebrows tense. Rodney wondered sometimes if Ronon found looking at him actually physically painful. There was usually some measure of annoyance in all of the expressions he directed Rodney's way, but this particular one looked almost-- sheepish.

Ronon held out one hand, and in the middle of his mud-caked paw was an absurdly tiny little animal. Rodney leaned in closer and saw that it was some kind of mammal-- it was furry anyway, with a pink nose and the pissy little clench-eyed face and drunken shudder that Rodney associated with newborns of every stripe. It was a kitten, or something very like it, and Rodney reached out to prod its belly, very gently, with one forefinger. It wiggled a bit and opened its mouth in a tiny soundless mew.

"I suppose we could always tell Sheppard that it followed us home," Rodney decided.

Ronon gingerly touched its little blue skull with one roughened forefinger before lifting his eyes to Rodney's. It took Rodney a moment to realize that the guy wasn't baring his teeth at him in some Cro-Magnon display of territoriality, but smiling, just beaming at him, the planet's sunny day bouncing right off his white teeth and back at Rodney.

Sweet Christ. Kittens and hot guys in sleeveless shirts. If he didn't watch out, he was going to wake up in a room papered with boyband posters. Again.

That Zelenka was disturbingly intuitive as well as vengefully creative when it came to things like this.

Ronon stood up again and sheltered the little beast against his chest, and Rodney resolutely refused to melt... but resigned himself to the fact that he'd be finding a kickpleated skirt and pom-pons instead of BDUs in his locker for weeks once Zelenka got wind of the kitten.

END