wisdomeagle: Original Cindy and Max from Dark Angel getting in each other's personal space (Default)
Ari (creature of dust, child of God) ([personal profile] wisdomeagle) wrote2008-12-24 04:38 pm

[ficpost] "Downhill From Here" Jack/Daniel

Title: "Downhill From Here"
Fandom: Stargate: SG-1
Pairing: Jack/Daniel
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Marital infidelity
Spoilers/Timeline: After S8. Ish.
Notes: For [livejournal.com profile] prehistoric_sea in the Catchallathon.
Summary: But he makes hungry where most he satisfies -- Shakespeare, alt.
Wordcount: ~1000



Downhill From Here

When they were younger.

Well.

Daniel was younger.

Jack's hair was brown.

When they were younger, before Jack's knees gave out for good.

When they were younger, before Daniel cut his hair. Before Daniel was widowed, way before Daniel ascended and descended and before they started over, when they were younger, they didn't have sex. They had orgies.

Two-person orgies. Failed orgies. Small orgies. But still orgies. Between the two of them, there were so many limbs, so much movement, so much sweat, so many muscles, so much grappling, so much feeling, hope, frenzy, fear, that it seemed there were a dozen men in their bed. A dozen men who were really good at fucking men, who had all of Daniel's first-time enthusiasm and all of Jack's long-time experience, who all felt the same new, breathtaking emotion of their fucking, Daniel's wide-eyed wonder that there existed a person in the world who could do these things, who wanted these things, Jack's crooked smile and disbelief. They were both, then, certain that they would end some day, that one of them would die, that Sha're would be recovered and they would... change. There would come a day when a frustrating mission sent them both to their private places and not to the back of Jack's truck, tongues to tongues and hands to asses, cocks out and hard, rough frottage in the brief moments before they were due other places, had other jobs to do.

The first time, Daniel came so quickly that Jack's never stopped teasing him about it, three-second Jackson and trigger-happy Daniel and Jesus Jack, shut up. I'd never fucked a man before.

Daniel hadn't fucked a man then, either. Wanted to, but hadn't gotten near enough to Jack's ass before he'd exploded with excitement.

When they were younger, of course. When they were so young that they were practically adolescent.

When they were older, when Daniel became a widow and Jack became roundly middle-aged, they fucked less often.

When they were older, it seemed less necessary. Certain things had fallen into place between them, and they'd made certain agreements, reserved certain amenities for each other. Bottom right drawer in Daniels' dresser, an eighth of Jack's closet, a slot in the toothbrush holder, every second on-world Sunday. They fucked people who were easier to fuck than each other. There was a time when they stopped talking, and there was a time when Daniel disappeared, and a moment when Daniel saved Jack's life and they didn't think, either of them, that this was because they were in love.

Now.

Now they are older, and Jack is old. Now Daniel's fucked men who aren't Jack, and found them adequate but lacking something vital that's gone in Jack, too, the deadly hunger and the dark humor that were equally present in Jack's eyes, when they were younger, when Jack was, almost, young. When the whole universe was in front of them, and they had a lifetime of adventure to push each other into, when they wrestled and roughhoused and shoved, and a shove became an embrace and the embrace became a kiss and Jack held Daniel's face in his hands and stared at him, shook his head, and kissed him harder. When they were younger, it always surprised them that they'd fallen into sex, again.

Now that they're old, they schedule dates. Jack takes a vacation from his sinecure and hides away in the Minnesota cabin, and Daniel visits him, driving too fast, bringing too much beer, reciting Latin declinations to remind himself of who he is. When he sees Jack, it all flies out of his head, and he's angry and happy and scared, all at once, and they don't say a word except, "Hey."

"Hey."

They want to fuck all night, Jack pinned against the wall and Daniel bearing down on him, reminding him that he's a person and a body, that he has mass and weight and nerve-endings. Daniel wants to fuck off-world into Jack, wants to kiss him with adventure and suck him off with Gate-travel.

But Jack is older, now, and all night's not an option. Daniel sits on a cot, naked, legs spread, grips himself and jerks off, eyes on Jack's, and Jack watches with a smirk and gets half-hard, observing. Daniel wipes off his come and Jack offers him a beer, and they go to bed early, in separate cots. They've lived by themselves so long, and have been forced into such close proximity with each other and their teammates on so many missions, that there's no comfort in cuddling. Instead they sleep in the nude, and in the morning, they have sex that's more tender than loving. There is passion between them, but it's buried so deep and burns so slowly that they hardly feel it, until hours have passed since orgasm and Jack is fishing and Daniel is translating and suddenly a smile breaks on both their faces.

"Hey."

"Hey."

Jack wants to ask What took you so long? Do you know how many years I've been fishing here alone? But he doesn't.

Daniel wouldn't know the answer.

"Wanna fish?"

"No," Daniel says. "I don't fish."

"Why'd you come if you aren't going to fish?"

"I think you're fishing."

"It won't ruin your macho cred if you tell me you love me. Promise."

"You think I'm here for love? Really?"

"You were pretty loving this morning."

"I've loved you a lot longer than since this morning."

"Yeah?"

"Yep."

Jack looks at him for a second, then shrugs. Okay.

"Look, Jack, we're too old to do this. Anyone over the age of twenty is too old for this."

"For love?"

"For... boyfriends. For do you like me or do you like me?"

"When you're as old as I am --"

"Oh, this'll be good."

"There's a point when you don't need to be mature anymore."

"You've never been mature, Jack."

"So I reached the point early. I'm precocious."

"Right."

"So I can tell you without being embarrassed. Or immature. Or unnecessarily sarcastic."

"Really? You can?"

Jack takes a drink of beer, Daniel crosses his arms over his chest, and they stare at each other, wonderingly. After all these years, you.

"No, you're right. I can't."

"Thought so."

"Back inside?"

"Yeah. You sufficiently recovered for more?"

"I guess we'll find out."

[identity profile] raedbard.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 02:41 am (UTC)(link)
OH JACK AND DANIEL. Oh fucking hell, Ari. I <3 this so damn much. I have such a desperate little kink for as-they-got-older-and-changed-and-fell-apart-and-put-themselves-and-each-other-back-together-again fic. Happy sigh.

The first not-really-section, when they were young, is absolutely beautiful. Before Daniel cut his hair. Just ... *ded*. Too much hearts.

They want to fuck all night, Jack pinned against the wall and Daniel bearing down on him, reminding him that he's a person and a body, that he has mass and weight and nerve-endings. Daniel wants to fuck off-world into Jack, wants to kiss him with adventure and suck him off with Gate-travel.
Guh. GUH. I so totally want to gorge on SG-1 right now, for srs.

"You've never been mature, Jack."
"So I reached the point early. I'm precocious."

Smirk. Oh, Jack. :D

Wowwowwow. So much good. You are *so* good at this. <3
ext_72: (Jack/Daniel split)

[identity profile] prehistoric-sea.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
THIS IS AMAZING.

The place you go with this is tough without being saccharine or maudlin but you pull it off beautifully.

I love how all the different parts of this play off each other so nicely. Wonderfully sharp characterizations, love the spare, IC dialogue.

And the sex is really, really hot.

Far, far beyond my expectations. Thank you so much for this.

[identity profile] princessofg.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 01:22 pm (UTC)(link)
THIS IS PERFECT.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE.

*DIES OF THE PERFECT*

[identity profile] justhuman.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
*SQUEEES*

This is gorgeous. There's lots of ways to do Jack and Daniel but the best ways are what you've done here, just accepting them the way they are. They have sex with other people, Jack gets old, Daniel gets tough, Jack's memories of adventure fades and Daniel's too much a junkie for it and tries to make Jack remember.

The conversation about Jack's maturity and need for sarcasm is just spot on.

Well done :-D

[identity profile] melayneseahawk.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 04:17 pm (UTC)(link)
In my mind, their relationship went one of two ways: they never gave in, until they were both grounded and the program was public and they could fade away together, or they were fucking the whole time and fell apart and came back together. And you nailed it.
ext_840: john and rodney, paperwork (xmas jd)

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/ 2008-12-25 04:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, this is just gorgeous! And so, so true to them and to age everything they need simply being there, whether there are words for it or not...

[identity profile] avidrosette.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 05:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Here via [livejournal.com profile] prehistoric_sea and [livejournal.com profile] princessofg.

Lovely tough, uncompromising version of Jack and Daniel. Great voices and banter. Also love the way you compress the past so that we get the exposition without losing any tension.

"When you're as old as I am --"

"Oh, this'll be good."


Heh!

[identity profile] mornincamper.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 06:36 pm (UTC)(link)
and he *so* said it. Even if he didn't. ::sigh::

What eveybody else said.. not a cop-out, just - they're right. Perfect and sad and happy and real. (and still just enough snark...which is only right)

paian: blank white (jd someday just began)

[personal profile] paian 2008-12-25 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
God I love it when you write J/D. And this is above-and-beyond. Fantastic!

ext_3440: (Default)

[identity profile] tejas.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
What a delightful Christmas present to us all.

Thanks. :-)

Here via paian's rec

[identity profile] perfica.livejournal.com 2008-12-26 07:54 am (UTC)(link)
And I love it! A gorgeous piece of writing.

[identity profile] jd-junkie.livejournal.com 2008-12-26 11:56 am (UTC)(link)
Just wonderful. An excellent, tough condensing of their relationship. It is just THEM.
Perfect. Thank you. :-)

[identity profile] kellifer-fic.livejournal.com 2008-12-27 07:04 am (UTC)(link)
Oh wow... this is just excellent. I love the little details that ring so true for them. That they don't sleep together... it's just so perfect.

Wonderful.
sid: (J/D Always)

[personal profile] sid 2008-12-30 11:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, wow. From burning lust and need to appointment sex to old-married-couple occasional sex.

And then they find love, OMG! And they find it in such a perfect Jack&Daniel way. *hugs the banter tight*

Lovely, thank you! :-)

[identity profile] dragojustine.livejournal.com 2009-01-02 07:02 pm (UTC)(link)
This is absolutely beautiful, such a complicated emotional journey- so much lost, Jack forgetting and losing so much, and it's not a tragedy, it's just... how they are now. What happens. How they put themselves back together. How this Thing that was huge and frightening and intense between them falls apart and comes back together and it's different, and they're different, and it's just so incredibly perfect.

Sometimes I want to shove my fingers in my ears and swear nothing after Season 7 ever happened, because it's so hard to come to terms with, all the changing and the aging and the separation and the knowing that whatever they had before couldn't possibly survive in its previous form. And then someone like you comes along and writes something like this, and it doesn't make it better or easier, but it's right.
ext_29530: (TW_tosh glow happy)

[identity profile] jhava.livejournal.com 2009-01-06 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh! This really is beautiful. In only a few words, you've really captured the ups and downs of their relationship and why they're *still* together. You've reminded me just why I adore Jack and Daniel.

Thank you!
ext_3999: (Old Married Couple)

[identity profile] discodiva76.livejournal.com 2009-01-18 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Here from a rec by [livejournal.com profile] paian....simply beautiful....thank you so much...


Deeds xx
juliet: (Default)

[personal profile] juliet 2009-01-19 08:56 am (UTC)(link)
This is fantastic. So well characterised, and well-written. I especially like the first section, as well (the "when they were young" bit).

[identity profile] sothcweden.livejournal.com 2009-01-19 10:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Here via [livejournal.com profile] paian's rec. This is so lovely. It has such a balance between the humor that's always been a part of Jack and Daniel banter and the resignation/tiredness that we see in later seasons. This was my favorite line:

There is passion between them, but it's buried so deep and burns so slowly that they hardly feel it, until hours have passed since orgasm and Jack is fishing and Daniel is translating and suddenly a smile breaks on both their faces.

Thanks for making my Monday better.

(Anonymous) 2009-01-20 11:47 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, and yes, and yes: this is what it is to love another man for years and years and years. Becoming something else, together: a fire not so bright, but hotter, deeper...

Thank you -- I look forward to reading more of your work! (And I especially like your almost-sentence-fragments... little shards dancing, thought to thought, year to year.)
ext_1770: @ _jems_ (fandom: sg-1 across the universe)

[identity profile] oxoniensis.livejournal.com 2009-02-10 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
That was gorgeous - the way you take us through so much of their history in so few words is wonderful. And it feels incredibly natural. Loved it.

[identity profile] hivesofactivity.livejournal.com 2010-03-25 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I love this. I have a bit of a thing for realistic when-they-are-older fics, and you really have this spot-on. Beautiful.