Title: Close to You
Characters: Daniel Jackson, Jack O’Neill
Themes: J/D Friendship and/or Pre-Slash (depending on how you want to read), Fluffy Fluff Fluff!

Author’s Notes: A little bit of Valentine Fluff, completely and totally inspired by Brihana25’s “Moondust and Starlight” video, found at The Alpha Site.

ESRB Rating: Everybody 15+
Season: 8-9ish

Written: February 06

With an inarticulate growl, Daniel threw his pen against the wall for about the fifth time in as many hours. And that was only after he’d really become frustrated; the five hours before that he’d still thought he could crack this. Figure the rhyme and reason of the vocal cadence out so the whole passage could begin to make sense.

He knew it was religious in context, knew it was based on Latin, and so in turn shared similarities with Ancient. He knew it was meant to be read out loud, and by SG-11’s reports, reading it out loud with the right intonation was supposed to open some sort of door. Or, that’s what the locals had told them.

Who no longer spoke the way their ancestors did.

So ten hours total, give or take, of him sitting at his desk with a wide assortment of reference books and entire forest’s worth of print outs from video of the temple and Daniel had exactly less then what he’d had before he started. In a rough gesture he pulled his glasses off his face and let them fall indiscriminately onto his work. He was too busy grinding the palms of his hands into his eyes to pay attention to such small details.

He was so busy grinding he also missed the soft ‘click’ of his office door closing.

“Why do birds suddenly appear–”

Daniel shot his head up so fast he nearly knocked himself backwards out of his chair. He turned, wild and crazed, towards whoever had just scared the crap out of him with their impromptu serenade.

“Every time you are near? Just like me, they long to be, close to you.” It was Jack. It was ‘why aren’t you in D.C.?’ Jack. Jack who was currently striking a pose in his dress blues, one hand stretching forward “meaningfully”.

“Jack?”

“Daniel?”

Blue eyes flicked from the man, over his shoulder, across the room and then back. “What are you doing here?” Pawing around his desk, he found his glasses and slid them back on.

The General swung his other hand up “meaningfully”, working the room of one. “Why do stars fall down from the sky? Every time! You walk by? Just like me, they long to be–”

“Jack!”

“I’m not even to the bridge yet, so just hold your horses!”

“Just what in the world do you think you’re doing?” Daniel was actually starting to get a bit alarmed here. Standing up, he shoved the blue jacket of his issued uniform behind his hips so he could perch his hands on his belt. Was something wrong? Something very wrong? Another hole Jack had stuck his head into and this was another ancient language? That… that just happened to sound like the Carpenters?

“I’m singing to you here, Daniel. Well. Some have called it singing.” A pause while he thought things over. Did he just insult himself? Sort of. Okay, well, moving on. “Do you even have a guess at what today is?” Jack had his own exasperated look, hands slapping down to his thighs.

The archeologist looked at his watch in confusion. “It’s Tuesday.”

“Tuesday what.”

“Tuesday the 14th?”

“Very good!” Again Jack threw his hands into the air, this time with all the smug patronization one smirk could hold. Which for Jack O’Neill was quite a bit.

Yeah, Daniel was getting tired of this. Eyebrows crashing together over the rims of his glasses, he gave the man his signature sigh of snark. The sound that told the plebeians that Dr. Daniel Jackson had so many better things to do with his time then deal with the petty likes of you, mere mortal.

Not that he actually used it on anyone other then Jack O’Neill, but.

“Are you here to see Landry? Because his office’s two floors down. In case you’d forgotten.” He was talking with his hands again, so they flicked this way and that. Daniel’s hands almost seemed to speak another language all their own, layering the effect against his voice. Two tracks a person was required to listen to and interpret. “And Sam’s out of town with Cassie and her niece. Teal’c’s around here, though, if you wanted to–” Wait. Wait wait wait. Sam had complained that Cassie hadn’t wanted to take this trip after all because it’d mean she was going to miss–

“Jack, it’s Valentine’s day. You’re here singing to me on Valentine’s day?”

“Give the man a prize!” Jack’s benevolent smile included a celebratory punch into the air.

“Is something wrong? Maybe with you?” Tilting his head in concern, Daniel’s mouth pursed full as he watched Jack slide out of his coat and toss it over a chair with the careless ease of a teenager. “Am I being scrubbed from the Prometheus’ Atlantis mission? You’re here to tell me that in person, aren’t you. Well, I’ll tell you something,” and Daniel was waving his hands in the air. “I’m going to go. It’s the chance of a life time! To actually be in the city of the Ancients! And if everyone’s going to keep telling me what an expert I am on the subject, the least I think they could do is let me see the place.” Oh, he was just getting started!

“Danny! Slow down before you hurt yourself.” Jack gave it a moment, watching the curve of Daniel’s wrist with concern. “Or me. Just… just calm down.” He made soothing, placating gestures towards the younger man. He’d known it’d be funny to jump out of no where like this on Daniel, but seriously, this was turning out to be almost too much to bear. Damn how he missed this.

Daniel only frowned at him harder as Jack hitched a hip up against the long work bench. He watched in pinched lip concern as Jack picked up a fifteen thousand year old pendent — and begin to toss it back and forth from hand to hand. “Okay. Then why are you here - uh - singing to me on Valentine’s day?”

“You know, for the bloodless, soul-grinding machine Washington is, would you guess how much it shuts down on Valentine’s day? Secretaries bust in early so they can bust out early to get their hair done. The Pentagon’s switchboard is flooded with wives calling to remind their husbands to get themselves home tonight - quote - or else. Did,” and here Jack paused for incredulous emphasis. “Did you know each member of congress gets a single red rose delivered to their offices’ today? Who’d've thought!”

“Who’d've thought.” Biting his lips together, Daniel continued to frown hard at Jack. “Is something wrong? Maybe with you?”

“Damn it, Daniel! For cryin’ out loud.” He was careful when he put the pendent down — eight and a half years of his team’s specialist chewing him out for ‘dropping’ things had taught him at least that — but once his hands were clear, Jack was free to swagger around with as much posturing and gesturing as he could want. “I was bored and lonely and saw everyone putting their jobs on hold for at least one day to be with someone special, and you know what? All my special people were literally on the other side of the country. So here I am. Singing to you.”

When… exactly had he lost control of the situation? When had this stopped being something funny and turned into something embarrassing? When his aide had asked if he had any “big plans” tonight, and Jack had realized his “big plans” had consisted of take out pizza, he’d corralled the first plane he could out of Bolling to Peterson. He only had the one star on his shoulder placard, but his pull was strong enough to swing only an hour’s wait. Something about saving the world a few times. It was bearly 6pm local, a time table you could be proud of start to finish. Especially when you consider the start was only two hours ago. But now here was Daniel, making his great plan seem not so great. In fact, Daniel was making it seem kind of. Well. Silly.

Jack scrunched his hands into his pockets and took to skulking in the general direction of the bookshelf.

“Jack, I–” He didn’t know what to say. He was humbled and touched and… and simply surprised. Daniel had noticed the base staff seemed somewhat light, but then he’d squirreled himself away in his office with these damned translations and hadn’t seen another face for some time.

His eyes soft and smile warm, he reached out to rest a hand on his friend’s shoulder, squeezing gently. Sam was leaving for Area 51 in a few weeks and Teal’c was preparing to throw himself behind the Jaffa Reconstruction completely shortly there after. Jack had started the dominos falling, but that didn’t mean he’d liked or wanted it. It was really the first time Daniel had thought of it like that. Thought of it from Jack’s point of view. “Did you have anything in mind? Or just the concert.”

You couldn’t keep a rake down for long, and Jack O’Neill — two Ls, please — was as rakish as they made them. Filling his chest (now that he knew all was forgiven), he yanked his hands from his pockets and threw them into the air for a third time.

“On the day that you were born, the angels got together and decided to create a dream come true! So they sprinkled moondust in your hair of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue!”

Daniel could only roll said blue eyes and shake his head in quiet laughter. “Who knew you were a romantic, Jack,” he teased, reaching for the General’s coat and handing it over.

“I’m a man of mystery, Doctor Jackson. An enigma. Wrapped up in a– in a however that goes.”

“Ah, yes.” Daniel hit the lights as Jack swung his jacket over a shoulder.

“I miss you.”

“Yeah, I miss you too. It’s just not the same around here anymore.”

“No, no it isn’t.”

Daniel’s hands were back in his pockets as they meandered towards the locker room. He bumped his shoulder up against Jack’s. Jack grinned and bumped back.

Then Jack started singing again, from the top. The Marines on watch carefully said nothing.

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