ext_2351: (sga: john headshot b/w by mona)
[identity profile] lunabee34.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] sga_flashfic
Pairing: McShep
Rating: Adult
Warning: Cross-dressing

This is my first fic in this comm and I noticed that this latest challenge wasn't closed yet. I hope I'm still under the wire!



John almost gives up on buying the damn thing before he even starts. For one thing, he’s the only man in the whole store, which to be fair, he pretty much expected. And for another, he can’t even say exactly what it is that he’s looking for, only that he doesn’t see it here. The thought of going to another store fills him with a vague sort of despair that must be visible on his face because the sales associates start hovering.

“Not pink,” he says to one. “Peach.”

The color is very important. Pink is many things—it is young; it is innocent; it is feminine and flirty and fragile and delicate. It can even look lurid and cheap at times. But peach is warm and strong—the color of skin, like a second skin. It’s neutral in a way pink can never be, the perfect foil for what lies underneath.

“What about one of these?” she says and lifts up a short slip from a lower rack in the back corner of the store.

The slip is not adorned with lace or appliqués. There’s no beading. The bodice isn’t even demarcated from the rest of the garment. The only nods at extravagance are its scalloped neckline and the intricately braided cords that make up the straps. John looks at the tag. The slip is made of silk. “I’ll take one,” he says.

“And what size will your girlfriend need?”

“Extra large,” John says.

Later, John stands in front of his bathroom mirror and takes off his clothes, sheds who and what he has become. In the mirror, he can see the scar on his neck from the Iratus bug, the single mole on his left hip, the ragged patina that knives and bullets and hot metal have left on his skin over the years. These are what is real, what is irrevocable—not what he wears, but what he can’t escape because they make him who he is.

John doesn’t think he’s a beautiful man; he never has. But other people always seem to and so John has learned to smile like a beautiful man, to lean against doorways like a beautiful man, to wink and smirk and flirt like a beautiful man. John does none of those things now. He’s naked in his bathroom with his uniform crumpled on the cold linoleum and this is a time for honesty. His eyes are shadowed with purple rings of exhaustion and loss that have only gotten worse in the time since the Ancients made them leave Atlantis. John is clean shaven; he’s still a Lt. Colonel, after all, but the angles of his face have grown sharper. He isn’t eating well. None of them are, he suspects.

John takes the peach slip out of the paper bag at his feet. The fabric catches on his gun-callused hands. It weighs nothing.

“Slip,” he thinks. “Slip of paper, slip of a girl, slip of the tongue, slip down the stairs.” John slips it on.

It’s tight across the chest and loose in the hips; it makes his thighs look more muscular than they really are.

John hears Rodney’s key turn in the lock and he has one second of gut-wrenching panic, one moment to wonder if this is too far, too much, the black mark he’s dreaded since he threw a grinning Rodney over a balcony. But John has never been one to run from the hard choices. When Rodney opens the door of John’s bedroom, John is waiting for him.

Rodney is shocked. John can tell. Rodney stops breathing and his mouth falls open. He stands in the doorway for a long time, one hand white knuckled on the knob, the other still gripping the jamb. Then his eyes grow dark and speculative and John knows everything will be alright.

“This is unexpected,” Rodney says, crossing the room and scratching the nail of his index finger over silk, over John’s nipple.

John shudders and then they are kissing, hungry and open-mouthed and wet, and John can pretend that he’s home. Rodney runs his hands down John’s sides, slides his tongue along the scalloped neckline of the slip, sucks John’s nipple through the fabric until the silk has turned dark and rumpled.

John’s cock leaves damp smears across the belly of the lingerie. Rodney slips to his knees and grips John’s cock through a layer of silk. He jerks John off slowly with John’s hands twisted in his thinning hair and then he leans forward and tongues the end of John’s cock where it wets the slip. Rodney groans like his dick is the one getting licked and then he goes after John’s cock in earnest, sucking up great mouthfuls of silk and pulling them tight over John’s cock on the down stroke.

John doesn’t mean to come, not so soon, but he does. Rodney wipes him down after, and in an uncharacteristic display of sensitivity, runs a sink full of warm water in the bathroom and leaves the slip to soak. Rodney doesn’t ask him, “What was that all about?” or “Is this a new thing?” or “What the hell, Sheppard?” He doesn’t even bitch about reciprocity, and John is glad. John lays his head on Rodney’s chest and Rodney’s hands twine in his hair like they always do and when John finally, finally, drifts off to sleep, he dreams of salt and waves and stars sewn into the sky by distant gods.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 03:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eliyes.livejournal.com
he has one second of gut-wrenching panic,

This right here made the fic for me. Well done.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 03:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mecurtin.livejournal.com
asd;lkfnjasldkfjhsda!!!

I never had a kink for cross-dressing before SGA, you know.

Well, except for Lex Luthor, but there it was his physical ambiguity that was being emphasized, the way he physically doesn't fit into the usual neat categories.

But when JOHN SHEPPARD does it, all previous mentions of "hot" take a back seat.

I think it must be related to the way that he wears a uniform, like "this is not the droid that means something to me, but there's something out there that *does*."

In conclusion, HOT.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-30 04:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greyhat.livejournal.com
I totally agree with you about cross-dressing! I want the hairy legs and chest showing, and the broad shoulders not-quite-fitting, and the bulge at the front ruining the line of the dress/slip/whatever.

I also love the story.
(deleted comment)

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 04:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-kisa-haw.livejournal.com
I am starting to love cross-dressing. Mmm, well done.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 04:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crownglass39.livejournal.com
Oh that is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. Loved it though!

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 04:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tex.livejournal.com
Wow. I'll admit, this is usually not my thing, but Wow. This was so hot. Also, I can totally buy that John goes a little insane when he left Atlantis and that's what finally brings him to this point. The whole thing is beautifully done. And did I mention really hot? \o/

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 05:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sasha-feather.livejournal.com
This is very well-written, good job!

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 05:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ceitie.livejournal.com
Wow, nice. I really like John's POV here, and the way that we don't really know anymore than Rodney does exactly why John's crossdressing. I love Rodney's reaction, too.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 05:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gaffsie.livejournal.com
I like how ambiguous John's reasons for buying and wearing that slip are. It's a mystery, much like he is.

Slip

Date: 2009-01-26 07:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sunnyd-lite.livejournal.com
The thought of going to another store fills him with a vague sort of despair Guy out of his comfort zone, luckily half the men who wander in wear that expression.

Pink is many things—it is young; it is innocent; it is feminine and flirty and fragile and delicate. It can even look lurid and cheap at times. But peach is warm and strong—the color of skin, like a second skin Yup can NOT see that man in pink! Love his logic here.

“Slip,” he thinks. “Slip of paper, slip of a girl, slip of the tongue, slip down the stairs.” John slips it on. The writer in me hugs this bit, pets it and calls it george.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 07:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] almostnever.livejournal.com
John doesn’t think he’s a beautiful man; he never has. But other people always seem to and so John has learned to smile like a beautiful man, to lean against doorways like a beautiful man, to wink and smirk and flirt like a beautiful man. John does none of those things now.

Oh John Sheppard! Lovely character piece for him.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 01:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kassrachel.livejournal.com
Oh, WOW.

This is fantastic. Gorgeous and lyrical and hot. I love that John has never thought of himself as beautiful. I love the description of him putting on the slip, the way you don't shy away from the circles under his eyes. And oh, the gut-wrenching moment when Rodney comes in, when John doesn't know if it's going to be okay! But it is. And GUH.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 05:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mckays-girl.livejournal.com
This was breathtaking. You captured John's desperation and uncertainty beautifully.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 05:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tzzzz.livejournal.com
That was really hot! Thanks for writing.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 07:42 pm (UTC)
ext_1771: Joe Flanigan looking A-Dorable. (john so gorgeous - sga)
From: [identity profile] monanotlisa.livejournal.com
Oh, gorgeous - hot, but not so much through the imagery but John's mental and emotional processes. You get not just under his skin but in his head, and that makes this story breathtaking.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-26 09:49 pm (UTC)
ext_1246: (Default)
From: [identity profile] dossier.livejournal.com
I love the spareness; so many unanswered questions to tantalize the imagination, and the gorgeous use of language. I can see Sheppard in that slip, feel the awful second before he flies off the cliff of Rodney's reaction. fantastic!

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-27 06:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ozsaur.livejournal.com
I love that John doesn't talk about it, just presents himself to Rodney, take it or leave it. Lovely style, too.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-27 07:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cryptocat.livejournal.com
I'll admit it, I jumped for joy when I read the warnings. I just love cross dressing and you fic was lovely; just the right blend of anxiety and guh.

Now I'm having happy thoughts of John in women's clothes. God knows John would never "pass" but that's not always the point. I'd prefer to see him in a black slip myself but that speaks of a boldness that comes later in a relationship. Or garters, stockings, and strappy sandals.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-28 11:45 am (UTC)
ariadne83: cropped from official schematics (Default)
From: [personal profile] ariadne83
Oh this is so wonderful. Melancholic and desperate and decadent. I particularly like John's ruminations on colour, and his reasoning for choosing peach. Logical and emotional at the same time *loves*
(deleted comment)

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-30 02:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] helenkacan.livejournal.com
I think you've rendered me speechless ... and that's a pretty impossible thing to accomplish.

Still ... if I have to say something, I'd mention Rodney's initial reaction. And, then, his uncharacteristic softness, not demanding reciprocity (wait, now, this is Rodney?) and soaking the slip afterwards. It's as if the slip is an avatar of John and Rodney treats it with the same respect and careful consideration. Wow - that's some symbolic slip!

And, oh, please feel free to write as much cross-dressing John as possible. The Flan plays him with this languid ease (mmmmm, even just the way he caresses a chess piece) that begs putting him into a dress. And that has nothing to do with erasing or masking his masculinity.

Huh - for someone who was struck speechless - I think I've managed to express my feelings rather well.

Thank you again for painting a lovely scene.
'lenka

(no subject)

Date: 2009-02-09 02:36 pm (UTC)
ext_1720: two kittens with a heart between them (txtls - sex)
From: [identity profile] ladycat777.livejournal.com
Oh, oh I don't know why I didn't comment on this, because it's gorgeous and I've read it like four times now. I love the language you use, the way you're so stark as John strips and remakes himself for Rodney, but more I love Rodney in this. It's all about John, but it's Rodney who shines with the way he just says "This is unexpected", recalculates and moves on.

Also, it's hot as blazes. Mm.
Edited Date: 2009-02-09 02:36 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2009-10-19 10:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bitter-crimson.livejournal.com
Super hot! I like the focus on the feel of the material; particularly that bit with it darkening after Rodney has sucked John's nipple through it for a while.

And John's uncertainty about Rodney's reaction, d'awwww. Oh John. ♥

(no subject)

Date: 2011-01-20 03:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cocokitti.livejournal.com
I'm not usually a fan of cross-dressing but I think you did it well!!!!

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