icarus: (Out Of Bounds 2)
[personal profile] icarus
You can get caught up here: Out Of Bounds.

Title: Out Of Bounds
Author: Icarus
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: John/Rodney
Summary: And here be unicorns.
A/N: Thank you to [livejournal.com profile] perfica for playing OOB beta badminton with me, [livejournal.com profile] amothea for listening to me whine, [livejournal.com profile] teaphile for her birds eye view, as well as [livejournal.com profile] enname and [livejournal.com profile] monanotlisa for coming through in a pinch.

Previously in Out Of Bounds: Known more for his jumps than his artistry, figure skater John Sheppard hired ex-skating champion and 'artiste' Rodney McKay to be his coach. A teasing friendship developed between them, but after a late night practice turned sensual and intense, John issued his ultimatum to deal with the issue. Yes. This chapter has unicorns.


[Previous][Next]

Out Of Bounds
by Icarus



They'd talked about food, but it was a really long walk to the kitchen, and Rodney had made the pleasant discovery that he'd left half a box of saltines in his bedroom. They weren't too stale, so they nibbled those instead, getting crumbs on John's chest and all over the bed. John tried to sweep them off with quick whisking strokes, lifting himself up on his legs and one arm, looking for all the world like a pale, hairy spider, but it was a lost cause.

Lazy as a cat, Rodney rolled to his side, head tipped to one shoulder. He admired John's long waist, his rough hand draped across a flat stomach and one thigh raised, resting. He was sprawled out bonelessly, propped up on a pillow against the headboard. His eyes were puffy from lack of sleep, face greasy, and his hair looked like he'd been in a wind storm. Rodney stretched and sighed, in no better state.

John plucked a stuffed dingy white unicorn from between the pillows, turning it over in his hands. He prodded its pointy yellow vinyl horn experimentally and said, "This thing nearly took my eye out."

Rodney snatched it away, explaining, "That's valuable."

John dipped his chin and answered him with a raised eyebrow. "Collector's item?" There was a bit of a nervous waver in his voice.

Rodney's shoulder sagged as he rolled his eyes and gave a sarcastic snort. "Yes. I collect dolls and rainbows, and hide the frightening 'Hello Kitty' collection in the attic – no, of course not." He licked his lips and cringed, examining the toy. "It was my sister's. She loved this stupid thing."

Reluctantly, he continued with a sigh, waving a hand as if this weren't important. "It's from the Munich Olympics. My family had missed the compulsories, but everyone was there for the final free skate. I mean everyone. Grandma, aunts and uncles, people who never watched me skate." He dropped his face to his hands and rubbed his eyes. "You know how well that went."

John winced appreciatively, wrinkling his nose. "I heard."

"Well, my dad even made my sister go, and she'd never forgiven me for being far better without her." He looked up and added hastily on a shaky laugh, blinking earnestly, "I mean, once I cut her loose, I went from 15th place mediocrity at Junior Pairs to stellar performances in Junior Men's, taking home one title after another. We'd always known who the talented one was," he said with no little smugness.

"Anyhow, at the end of the free skate in Munich everyone clapped and threw flowers and stuffed toys and whatnot, but I knew the truth." He held out the unicorn. "And this was on the ice. I recognized it right away."

"I probably looked ridiculous clutching a toy while I waited for them to announce my scores, and certainly I didn't want to talk to anyone afterward -- but I was really glad it was there."

John was thoughtful a moment. He shifted, squinting his eyes. "It takes them a long time to read the scores."

"An eon."





[Previous][Next]

Note about the unicorn: [livejournal.com profile] cesperanza made a comment an... embarrassingly long time ago... that Out Of Bounds had everything you ever wanted as a little girl except unicorns. I promised I'd add a unicorn. Here it is. Proof that this fic is like a goat and anything you say ends up in it somewhere.


Date: 2007-07-18 07:14 pm (UTC)
ext_1720: two kittens with a heart between them (Default)
From: [identity profile] ladycat777.livejournal.com
Awwwwwwwwwwww! Okay, Rodney talking fondly about Jeannie never stops being fantastic.

Date: 2007-07-29 01:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
And I doubt Jeannie even knows Rodney still has that unicorn.

More to be posted sometime today.

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-18 07:22 pm (UTC)
ext_1771: Joe Flanigan looking A-Dorable. (Default)
From: [identity profile] monanotlisa.livejournal.com
Aww!

::doodles little hearts around them (yes, is twelve)::

Date: 2007-07-29 01:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
This works out well, given they are, too.

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-18 07:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angiepen.livejournal.com
The unicorn was cute but I liked the whole "eating crackers in bed" thing. :) It's just so proverbial, seeing them do it made me giggle.

Angie

Date: 2007-07-29 03:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
It's just sort of thing they'd do, too. Though Rodney would make sure they got the crumbs on John's side of the bed.

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-18 09:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sarka.livejournal.com
Oh my. These updates came at the best ever time for me, you know. I was JUST going out of my head with my studies.

*happy sigh*

They are so adorable, aren't they? And I can't wait for the bits that you emailed me about ;)

*goes back to Czech economic history*

Date: 2007-07-20 02:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
They're coming. I may have given in to writing an entire scene with the director. I didn't mean to, and it really is outside the scope of the story, but... I couldn't resist.

Maybe I can work it in.

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-18 09:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] feanna.livejournal.com
Rodney had made the pleasant discovery that he'd left half a box of saltines in his bedroom.
Don't you just love finding food you'd forgotten about? ;) (Doesn't happen to me too often as snack-food never survives long around me, but I had this couch that pulled out where I used to stuff the things I'd taken from my mothers stash so she wouldn't find them.)
Before he kissed Rodney I was kind of afraid that John would do something like demand more distance and a professional relationship, but all turned out well.

Catching up on comments after HP.

Date: 2007-07-29 02:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
I know! It doesn't matter if they're stale, it's "Oh, goody, I thought we were out of those."

Before he kissed Rodney I was kind of afraid that John would do something like demand more distance and a professional relationship, but all turned out well.

That was the plan, but then John just couldn't explain to Rodney (especially when Rodney was ranting) what was going on in his mind. So he had to give a demonstration. Which lit the match.

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-18 10:36 pm (UTC)
ext_1246: (Default)
From: [identity profile] dossier.livejournal.com
Remind me again--is the Munich Olympics where Rodney bombed out, or simply that they all got bombed out? And are we to infer the special meaning of the unicorn from the text(it seems to be all there), or did I miss another reference?

This is all wonderful, and I'm sort of reveling in three chapters! I do have this sense of foreboding that things are going to get ugly, though the question is, can Rodney drag that momentary flash of John's artistry out of him?



Date: 2007-07-29 02:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
I'm fixing that in the main story, changing the city to Stuttgart. And thank you. I totally forgot about the Munich Olympics in 1962 (I think) when the entire U.S. skating team died in a plane crash. Everything about the unicorn is all there. And trust me, if there's ever a reference you miss, that's my fault for a) taking forever to write this, and b) not being clear.

I do have this sense of foreboding that things are going to get ugly, though the question is, can Rodney drag that momentary flash of John's artistry out of him?

Much more about the skating later.

This is all wonderful, and I'm sort of reveling in three chapters!

I'd like to post in multi-clumps again, but what happened here is the SGA Newsletter had to link to my announcement in the SGA Noticeboard since these aren't numbered chapters. So folks clicked the newsletter, then found themselves linked to... the noticeboard? And then... agh.

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-29 10:10 am (UTC)
ext_1246: (Default)
From: [identity profile] dossier.livejournal.com
Oh, plane crash! I was thinking of the year that there were terrorist bombings, but further googling comes up with summer Olympics. My bad!

I can link correctly multipart chapters to the newsletter, without you having to post to the noticeboard, if I have your OK to do that. There's a handful of blackout journals, and I can never recall who they are, so I generally don't post stuff my friendslist, just what's in the communities I'm assigned. But you, I can remember that!

Date: 2007-07-29 10:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
Yes, the entire team, judges, coaches, everyone died on the way to the 1961 Worlds competition. The 1962 figure skating wasn't held out of respect for the fact that we were missing so many of the competitors, it just seemed callous (and who knows? Maybe some key organizers were lost on that flight as well).

Oh. I didn't realize you were on the [livejournal.com profile] sga_newsletter crew.

I stopped numbering my chapters about 10 updates ago. Once it gets past 20 parts, well, that's the unspoken signal for the "oh, no, this is never going to be finished" out of control fic. Heh. I figured the unnumbered chapters left whoever was updating that day with a puzzle, so they just linked to the noticeboard post. When I did just one post I was linked directly, so I took from that I shouldn't do more than one a day if I want to avoid a link-maze.

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-19 12:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mecurtin.livejournal.com
At long last nookie!! I love Rodney's realization that John thought bottom=passive, and how he was going to show *him*. Oh boys, you are so messed up but cute.

Catching up on comments after HP.

Date: 2007-07-29 03:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
Ta-da! Actual sex and everything.

I love Rodney's realization that John thought bottom=passive, and how he was going to show *him*. Oh boys, you are so messed up but cute.

The morning after is always fun to write with these two. *g*

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-19 01:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lark-ascending.livejournal.com
like a goat

What a brilliant phrase, I've never heard that before! Not just fic but language porn as well :)

Date: 2007-07-19 06:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lavvyan.livejournal.com
Oooh, NC-17! And to think I was so certain John would push Rodney away for a good round of angsting again.

I wonder how a good sex life will show in John's performance. On ice, I mean. ;)

Date: 2007-07-19 06:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] enname.livejournal.com
Ha, posted! With a bonus unicorn scene even :P *snorts* Yes John, Rodney certainly strikes me as the sort to collect unicorns. So almost exactly like the vampire Harmony in BtVS. Yes. Indeed. *rolls eyes*

Well it is a good thing I can do surgery on stories, because my hands are so shaky in real life that I would kill anybody that I tried to open upin three seconds. Truly there is no need to thank me, it was a pleasure. Erm, reading it not hacking it apart. I mean cutting. Um. Shutting up now.


Date: 2007-07-19 06:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
I've been dying to post this part. I've been getting a lot of ribbing over the sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow build of their relationship. *g* And wow, we almost didn't have this.

I'm told surgeons are not allowed to say "Ooops." They're trained to say "There" no matter what they've just done.

Date: 2007-07-19 07:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] seekergeek.livejournal.com
Finding long lost food...eugh, Rodney is such a bachelor. It's been a while, was the Munich Olympics when Rodney's skating career when boom or is this just referring to the general angsty unhappiness that was the Munich Olypmics (is old enough to remember seeing that on tv - god, I'm ancient).

Date: 2007-07-19 05:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
You know what? I forgot about the Munich Olympics in the 60s and that skating team who died. I'll move my fantasy 1986 Olympics to another city in southern Germany. Stuttgart? I just want to set them in a country where I've lived (and I can't credit winter Olympics in southern India).

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-19 09:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] seekergeek.livejournal.com
Okay-dokey, sounds good to me. By the way, congratulations on finally getting John into bed with Rodney. I know he fought tooth and claw all the way!

Date: 2007-07-19 07:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] geeklite.livejournal.com
Aww yay! Boys <3 I love AUs and this is an awesome one.

Date: 2007-07-19 05:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
*beams* Thank you. I'm having so much fun. I have to get to the next competition before Saturday though, or the Harry Potter book will completely distract me.

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-19 08:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] droolfangrrl.livejournal.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_spiral_%28figure_skating%29

:P

Date: 2007-07-19 05:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
Thank you, I've seen the wiki. I'm kind of confused why you're linking me to it. Do my links to the death spiral in previous parts not work any more? *worries*

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-20 12:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
Okay, whew. They are still working. [livejournal.com profile] perfica suggested I post them so people could recognize the maneuver. They're here (http://icarusancalion.livejournal.com/649517.html). Just photos, not the wiki.

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-20 12:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] droolfangrrl.livejournal.com
I'm having alllllll sorts of issues with my connection esp via LJ. I don't end up seeing photos way too often.

So sad, my life so tragik.

WOE, ANGST

Soon there will be much black clothing and bad poetry.

Date: 2007-07-20 12:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
Something really weird happened the other day, too. Someone was trying to access the post just before this one -- I think her click got stuck right before LJ went down -- and it opened (or attempted to open) the post 15,000 times.

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-19 06:34 pm (UTC)
ext_18066: Default (Default)
From: [identity profile] apple-pi.livejournal.com
I'm always so pleased to see more of this posted. And this time! With the hotness! And the sweetness! Oh. *heartclutch*

Date: 2007-07-20 03:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] twistedrecesses.livejournal.com
I think one of my favorite things about this story is the consistency with which you write your characters :)

Date: 2007-07-20 05:06 am (UTC)
ext_2356: Water Ribbon (Default)
From: [identity profile] dunv-i.livejournal.com
*is relieved* I have finally read the next (one, two, three) five parts - and look, I'm only a day and an hour late all together! I mean, okay, so I'll have to reread these later because my mind is seriously on the fritz, mostly because there's only one more day of super-scary college-level math-major classes, which is saddening and sorta relieving but anyway!

*is dancing* FINALLY (from the previous segment) the John/Rodney has arrived - and damn, I love how... John and Rodney-ish your John and Rodney feel, despite the AU-ness of the universe - these are the characters, not random people with their names.

And I loved the freak-out scene, with Rodney going paranoid and everything and the unicorn and oh god, that girl you put in with the good crossovers - *headdesk**headdesk* that's what everyone says to me - good power, not so good posture and are those supposed to be BI edges (as in, did I seriously pass my Pre-pre test? *headdesk*)

"When this ends in disaster I at least want credit for having predicted it." I loved that line. I'm thinking of framing it. No one'll ever know it's not canon, it's so perfect-Rodney type.

Date: 2007-07-20 05:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cupidsbow.livejournal.com
Yay for unicorns! *happy sigh*

Finally catching up on comments after HP.

Date: 2007-07-24 05:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
Hee. Now all I have to do is get this subplot under control... *Icarus seizes the dragon by the neck and gets carried off*

Icarus

Finally catching up on comments after HP.

Date: 2007-07-24 05:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
I told you: You threw me a unicorn and it instantly stuck in the story. It just... took a while to get John to this point. *sighs* Stubborn man.

Icarus

Date: 2007-07-31 01:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] teaphile.livejournal.com
"It takes them a long time to read the scores."

Ouch. I know it does from the spectator side, so I can't imagine how long it feels for a competitor.

I, for one, loved the long, slow build-up to sex. And as a bonus, I know you have more plot to go afterwards! It's the best of both fic worlds.

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