NOTE: Unbeta'd. I sat down and wrote this in about an hour and posted it. Any mistakes = mine. ;)

He'd looked at her with open admiration, even though it'd taken the stunner in his hands to finally bring down Michael's hybrid.

"You can fight?"

He'd sounded almost disbelieving, but she couldn't blame him. How would he know? On duty she was one egghead amongst many, quietly doing her job. Off duty, they apparently had different interests, she never saw him. But, she never really saw him on duty either, just the occasional passes through Ops, usually with his team.

So her surprise was, to her, justified when he ambled up to her table in the mess hall one day and nodded at the empty chair across from her. "Taken?"

She blinked twice, doing her best impression of a deer in headlights before shaking her head. "No," she gestured at the chair. "Please."

He smiled. Not the feral grin she'd seen when he fought, but something resembling affectionate. Warm and quiet.

He turned his attention to eating, and she did the same, but their eyes would occasionally meet. She wasn't sure what hers said, surprise probably, but in his, the soft affection remained.

"How's your head?" She finally asked, the silence pushing her to speak.

He shrugged. "Doc says fine. Back on duty in a few days."

"I'm glad," she said, picking at her salad. "You scared me." As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she could take them back and she felt a flush race along her cheekbones.

He set his fork down. "Scared you?"

She shrugged. "Well, I mean all of us. You could've been killed you know…" her voice trailed off as her flushed cheeks turned hot. He was still, not saying a world as she took a few hopefully discreet breaths. Smooth, Amelia, really smooth! She looked up and straight into his gaze.

He smiled slightly, in almost a knowing way, before pushing back from the table. He stood and looked down at her one more time. "Thanks for the company." He grabbed his tray and paused. "Show me those kickboxing moves sometime?"

She drew in a deep breath. Embarrassed or not, she was never one to let opportunity pass. That's how she got to Atlantis in the first place. She looked up, directly into his gaze. "Practice tonight. Come by my quarters around seven. You can walk to the gym with me."

His brows rose and his smile deepened, if slightly. He nodded once, took his tray and walked away.

She watched him go, wondering where her bout of courage came from, but she'd wondered that when she'd taken on the hybrid. A slight smile turned up a corner of her mouth as she watched Ronon exit the mess. Maybe he had something to do with it.

6:55 PM Atlantis Time
She was almost mad at herself… almost. He was only walking with her to the gym, so why was she so nervous? She shifted the contents of her duffle bag again, and checked, only for the third time, that she had a full water bottle before rubbing her hands on the smooth material of her running pants.

The door chime made her jump. "Get a grip," she muttered to herself as she walked to the door. But when it opened, all the grip in the world didn't help. For the second time in the same day, the deer in headlights look took control.

He looked a little tense, but stood quietly, a single purple blossomed flower in his hand. She recognized it instantly as a Maana, the Pegasus version of a rose. Teyla had shown her, when they'd run into each other in the botany lab one day.

He shifted his weight slightly, and waved the flower just a little. "Teyla thought I should give you this. Said it was a good idea."

She took the flower, all nervousness disappearing. "She was right."