Work Text:
“Goddmanit Rodney,Did you really have to break time and space for a second time?”
John Sheppard was an understanding man, or at least he’d like to think he was. He had put up with the seeming infinite ways Rodney had almost ended the universe, or destroyed a planet or a solar system, in the name of science, but he draws the line at having to see someone else walk around with his face, his name and some of the same memories even.
Alternate universe Sheppard, or Shep as he asked to called, had come hurtling out of the glowing void that had opened up when Rodney had activated an Ancient device that had been squirreled away on one of the lower levels. And the weird shit just kept on coming. For one thing this Sheppard was a member of the science team, not a pilot or a soldier but a physicist. And for another he hadn’t woken the wraith hive ship, That was apparently his Rodney’s fault. It made John feel a little exasperated fondness that Rodney could create a disaster no matter what the universe. He was shaken out of his fondness by an Ensign jogging down the hall towards him.
“Colonel Sheppard, sir, you are needed in the GateRoom,the Wraith delegation has arrived and are sending down their negotiation party”
“Alright, You stay here and take watch over "Other Me" in there make sure he doesn’t do anything too sciencey while I’m gone” He ordered mentally preparing for what was sure to be a tense set of meetings.
The meeting does go awry but not for any of the reasons that John had prepared for. No one killed anyone, or even meaningfully threatened to eat anyone, which is pretty much the most civility anyone from either side could really expect. They had nearly reached an agreement about assistance in the war between Hives when the door popped open and in waltzed Shep muttering to himself and not even looking up from his tablet until he hit his shin on a decorative table. When he looks up he freezes for a second, like a rabbit in front of a Bobcat, which is not an inaccurate assessment of the situation really.
“Well, this is not the room I expected here, I guess the Ancients here were a little more different then I thought” Shep muses almost to himself as he pans the room.
The Wraith in the room let out a little hissing growl which John is ashamed to say he can identify as mild annoyance.
“Oh calm down” Shep replies, waving his hand dismissively at the apex predators in the room as if they were badly behaved school children as he continued his perusal of the room. John almost couldn’t wait until Shep saw Todd. Curious as to whether physicist John Sheppard would even have met their somewhat reluctant wraith friend. He shouldn’t have worried. The moment Shep lays eyes on Todd he lights up, tension only John would have noticed draining from his posture.
“Guide!” He belts out as he quickly crossed the room, and before anyone can react, even the wraith, he has planted a kiss square on the confused wraith’s cheek and is about to nuzzle the clearly shocked alien when he pulls back looking concerned.
“You smell different.” He declares looking put out “And I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in this jacket before...Aaaand you’re not my Guide are you. Oh god, well this can’t get about anymore humiliating, that’s fun.” Shep pulls away and retreats to the human side of the room, leaving behind a vaguely bemused Todd.
“Sheppard, There are two of you?”
“Another one of Rodney’s scientific mishaps.” John groans feeling tireder by the second just from processing this.
“How...interesting” Todd says in what to john’s great discomfort is an almost sensual purr.
“Ok, this meeting is definitely over now. Ok? Ok. Come with me” John says grabbing Shep’s arm and dragging him from the room tossing a “I trust you can see yourselves out” over his shoulder as he went.
He stops as soon as he reaches the empty hallway.
“Ok what the hell was that?!” John demands.
Shep looks confused for a second and then a little uncomfortable. “So, I’m going to assume you aren’t in a relationship with Guide in this universe then?”
“Guide? Who the hell is guide?”
“Oh, uh you probably called him Todd. He totally looks like a Todd.”
“Wait, so you thought I was in a relationship with Todd?”
“Well, I mean we’ve been so alike about almost all of the important things that I just kind of assumed you two would be together too. Oh god, you didn’t date and then break up did you? because that would make this all so much more awkward-”
“Whoa, whoa whoa, slow down. You’re dating Todd, the wraith Todd, the life-sucking alien vampire Todd?”
“Well, technically we’re engaged, but it’s hell on wheels to get a marriage license for an alien so it’ll probably be a while.”
“Engaged?” John whispers feeling faint “To.Todd?”
“I mean, what’s not to love?” Shep says continuing on either blind to or uncaring about the crisis he is causing for John.
He feels a sudden need to be sitting and just sits down on the floor where he was standing, face pale, eyes staring off into the distance as he murmured “Love...sure what’s not to..love?”
*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>
An hour later he was back in the labs rubbing his temples and wishing he had simply stayed in bed that morning, though it had been somewhat...pleasant to see Todd again. Standing there seeing two of him however was just one Wraith too many. Not to mention the look on Shep’s face when he looked at ‘Other Todd’. John knows that look, he’s made that look. It’s his ‘I’m so in love I don’t know what I’d do without you’ face and seeing it directed towards Todd or Guide or whoever the new Wraith says he is, is seriously messing with John’s mind.
This makes it real in a way that just talking about it and dealing with it in the abstract hadn’t really prepared him for. It also hadn’t prepared him for the contemplative look on ‘His Todd’s” face as he watched the couple interact. They were leaning close to each other, forehead to forehead, murmuring quietly to one another when Shep grabs Other Todd’s hand, his feeding hand and presses a gentle kiss to the palm before placing it on his own chest. John’s Todd has a look of surprise on his face before he forces it back to a wary neutral look.
“You voluntarily feed him?” John asks incredulously
“The feeding isn’t always a...painful experience. Sometimes it can be quite an erotic act” ‘Other Todd’ says with a smirk, before ‘Shep’ smacks him on the shoulder and frowns at his wraith. And damn if that wasn’t a weird thought ‘His Wraith’, his fiancee, if Shep is to be believed which all evidence is pointing to being a good idea. It had been bizarre to watch himself putter around the labs like he’d been there all his life but watching someone wearing his face gleefully embrace a wraith, never mind that it was Todd who sheppard had gotten pretty darn used to at this point, was truly beyond the pale.
“This is just too weird” Rodney interjects from where he is standing on the sidelines of this freak show. “You’re dating a wraith.”
“I’m not dating a wraith. He’s dating a wraith and marrying him apparently. I’m just..here.” John says gesturing at what is by all accounts a happy couple. He is uncomfortable to find himself feeling a little longing for the safety and the clear trust between the two. Slightly jealous of how happy they seem together. He hasn’t wanted to start a relationship since he got to Atlantis, didn’t think he had the patience and the energy to do it to be honest. But now seeing the soft look on Other Todd’s face as he gazes at Shep, John thinks he might do just about anything to have someone, anyone, look at him like that. Rodney let’s the soppy reunion go on for quite a bit before bustling around shooing everyone out of the lab
“There is important science to be done. All the more urgent now that we have two people from another universe stuck here. And I can’t get anything done with you two clouding up the air with your ‘romance’ or whatever you want to call it” He says a little bit primly.
*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>
It had taken the city a while to get used to seeing Guide roaming around, lurking protectively behind Shep, but after about two weeks of being on high alert all of the time people had relaxed into the idea of their own residential Wraith. Some of them even tried to talk to him, make friends. Markham had even gotten him to laugh one day on a break. John thinks if the wraith had known all they needed to do to get access to Atlantis was act lovey-dovey with a boyfriend they would have been in a lot more trouble.
“No need for war, just date a human” He thinks mockingly to himself before returning to the paperwork he had been neglecting in favor of what had become almost a hobby, wraith watching.
Guide was so interesting to watch, so like Todd but with all the sharpest of edges worn down. And seeing him look after his Sheppard was a revelation for him as well as the others. To be totally honest he hadn’t been entirely sure the wraith could love, at least not love in the way humans would understand it, but there they were proving every theory and prediction wrong. He got distracted again by the knock at his door.
Rodney shoved his way in to his office almost before he finished knocking, wild eyed, his hair in disarray, a coffee mug still clenched in his fist. John knew that look too. Rodney had solved the problem. John felt a wave of relief go through him at the thought of being the only John Sheppard in Atlantis again. And maybe with the two of them gone, he and Todd could go back to their somewhat snarky friendship-esque thing and John might stop thinking about how a feeding could feel less like his chest was on fire and more like something that made Shep moan so loud the whole hallway could hear it. John wanted to stop thinking about this. He wanted to send them back and forget these past three weeks had ever happened.
*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>
It had been two months and five days since the Alternate John and Todd had gone home and if anything John’s musings on about Todd and being in a relationship with a wraith had only gotten worse and more frequent. At their last meeting he had drifted off a little thinking about how smooth Todd’s skin is and how that would feel against his own, only to be startled out of that thought by an elbow to the side from Sam. He couldn’t help but blush at the memory. And dammit this all had him acting like some sort of school girl with a crush. He really needed to grow a pair and ask Todd for a date or forget about the entire thing. Nodding firmly to himself at that thought John gathered his courage, dismissed his misgivings, and went in search of his wraith.
Before he had left Shep had told John looking him straight in the eyes “I don’t think there’s a universe where we meet and he wouldn’t fall in love with us. Even this one.”
John desperately hoped he was right about that.
He found Todd in one of the labs fixing some code while Rodney loomed over him and complained. John leaned up against the doorway and drawled “Got the wraith doing your work for you now Rodney? “ he shared a grin with Todd as Rodney spluttered out an indignant response.
“Did you need me for something Sheppard?” Todd asked voice a low rumble that almost made John shiver.
“No, I...well yes actually. If Rodney can spare you.”
Rodney’s response could have filled the pages of War and Peace solely with insults and profanity but the gist of it was ‘Get out of my lab and take the wraith with you.’ A demand that John happily obliged to trying to think of a good place to have the conversation that was about to happen. Eventually he gave up and settled on his room. At least it would be private if he was going to be let down by Todd.
They walked to his room in silence though John got more than his fair share of curious looks from both Todd and the people they passed in the hallways. Once his door is securely closed behind him he takes a deep breath and begins talking, knowing that if he doesn’t get this out now he might never do it.
“Todd...I care for you. I care for you more than I ever thought was possible. And after seeing how you looked at our alternate selves I think, maybe you might just care for me too?”
John’s breath catches in his throat as Todd moves in rapidly to crowd John against the wall.
“I know what you are asking John Sheppard” Todd murmurs leaning in close “ And the answer is yes. Yes, I care for you. Yes, I would like a relationship with you. Yes, I do want what they had very much. I never thought I would be jealous of myself but I was.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” John breathes out eyes half closed “Kiss me.”
Almost before John is done saying the words Todds mouth is on his own. They meet in a clash of teeth and tongues, coming together in a clumsy unpracticed way. John almost immediately nicks his tongue on one of Todd’s teeth but the purring sound Todd makes in response has him almost eager to do it again. They grab at each other, hands moving over bodies like they can’t get enough and John gives Todd a little push towards the bed.
Todd pulls away, slitted pupils almost fully dilated. “Are you sure Sheppard? You need to be sure.”
“I think anyone who’s had their tongue down my throat gets to call me John. And yeah, I’m sure. I’ve been wanting this for a long time, longer than I even knew it.”
Todd makes a sound low in his throat and surges back in for kissing round two.
*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>
John wakes slowly and then all at once remembering the night before. He quickly looks down at his chest and sees a healing feeding mark there and grins like the cat who ate the canary. Other Todd had been right, feeding could be erotic and John would make damn sure they did that again. He looks at his watch and then startles. How the hell did he sleep so late? How did no one come to get him?
“Go back to sleep John” Todd rumbles “I have already let Carter and Mckay know you are, indisposed this morning”
“You what?!”
“You needed the rest.”
“That’s not..I don’t...You can’t just do that Todd.”
Todd raises an eyebrow. “By all accounts you are due for a break and what better reason that the consummation of a marriage?”
“A marriage?” John asked as he weakly flopped back down onto the bed.
Todd grinned showing every last one of his pointed teeth “I did tell you to be sure.”
John throws an arm over his eyes “Oh god, my dad is going to kill me. First I get divorced and then I get alien space married. Dave is going to have a field day with this. You know we’re going to have to get Earth married too, right?
“ Calm down” Todd purrs running his feeding hand up and down John’s arm gently “This is not a time for panic, it is a time for relaxation. Are you relaxed John?”
“Relaxed, not even close.”
“Well,” Todd murmurs with a wicked grin “Let’s see what I can do about that.”
As it turns out Todd is very good at relaxing John when he puts his mind to it.