My first fanfic in a while, and my first SGU fic also.

The touch wasn't much. But it was just enough. The fleeting gesture, the hand on the shoulder, fingers digging in slightly then dragging across his hoodie was enough for the sparks to fly and Eli to feel more than he should have with his friend touching his shoulder.

Matt didn't touch people that much, he smiled with his eyes, laughed but hardly ever touched. He touched Chloe though and Eli tried to ignore the vicious stab of jealousy that thought gave him, deep in his gut. Visions of Matt and Chloe, her long dark hair, Matt's hands tangled in it.

Eli had never been the jealous type, had never wanted anything badly enough (except his mother's health) to be jealous of it. And he hated the feeling that touch gave him. Because he had never thought of Matt like that, never thought of Matt's hand tangled in his own hair, Matt's mouth on his own. But the fingers dug into his shoulder, one slipped inside and dragged across Eli's skin and made Eli's stomach flip at the thought that Eli didn't want that hand touching anything else other than Eli. Ever again.

Seeing it was worse than imagining it though. When one of them was in trouble, Chloe abducted, Matt nearly dying, again, they would gravitate to each other and Eli would watch them touch each other. Small innocuous touches just to reassure themselves the other was there. Eli's fingers would itch to feel Matt's skin beneath his.

Matt found him once, sulking in his room, Kino in his lap in ten million pieces. It relaxed Eli to take things apart and put them back together. Matt didn't knock, and Eli felt irritated at that. Matt didn't need to knock but it irritated him that Matt knew that. Like Matt knew what went on in Eli's head whenever Eli watched Matt touching weapons, or Chloe. Matt smiled though, the smile that lit up his face, made his eye sparkle in the near permanent gloom of Destiny.

"Hiding?" He asked, setting himself down on the bed next to Eli and picking up one of the pieces of the Kino. He turned it over in his hands and Eli swallowed hard around the lump that formed watching his hands. He snatched the part out of Matt's hands.

"Why would I be?" He asked. He could hear the petulance in his voice but couldn't do anything about it. Matt just let out a small laugh and stood up. His hand found Eli's shoulder again, fingers deliberately slipping inside the collar of his t-shirt.

"Just making sure you weren't hiding from me." He said. Smile still on his face, eyes sparkling with something other than amusement.

Eli swallowed again.

"Matt.."

"Eli. You think I don't see. But I do. I see you." Matt's thumb crept upwards, stroked across Eli's jaw briefly, then was gone. Matt was gone, leaving Eli breathing heavily and wondering what the hell that meant for them.

Eli had hidden then. He was bad enough with women let alone men, a soldier trained to kill, muscle and bone wrapped up beneath that uniform that Matt wore so well. He'd hidden from both of them, not wanting to see Matt and try to figure out what that meant, and not wanting to see Chloe, her pretty face and warm smile. Seeing that Eli knew he would feel guilt.

Matt had found him again though. Like Matt had his very own Eli homing beacon. Found him in one of the control rooms, bent over a console long after everyone else had gone to bed.

"You are hiding from me now aren't you?" Matt's voice had sounded amused. Not hurt. And Eli jumped, his mind concentrating on the task in hand rather than the soldier sneaking up on him.

"No." He managed to squeak out and Matt laughed.

"Liar." Despite the heating not running properly, the room suddenly got hot, and Eli found it hard to breathe as Matt approached him, fingers trailing over consoles as he closed in step by agonising step.

"Where's Chloe?" Eli heard himself asking. Matt faltered for a second, irritation flitting across his face, his steps slowed. Eli would have punch himself in the face if it wouldn't have hurt so much, because why on earth would he bring up Chloe?

"With Rush." Matt answered and Eli doesn't imagine the hint of bitterness in his voice. "He understands."

Eli wanted to get out, wanted to run because he didn't want to be Matt's Chloe replacement. He wanted all of Matt; the illegitimate kid, the boyish smile and the broken promises to God, the man so in danger of becoming broken himself, ready to follow any instruction Young gives him. Wanted every bit of that.

Matt took one more step and he was there, right up against Eli. Not too close but close enough. Eli could feel the heat radiating from Matt's body, through his t-shirt and hoodie, like there were no barriers between them.

"But it doesn't matter." Matt said, and it took Eli a few second for his short-circuited brain to figure out what Matt was talking about. It doesn't matter that Chloe was with Rush, because Matt was with Eli. And that was what mattered.

Eli took in a deep breath. Big mistake as he could smell Matt, that goddam smell that lingered where ever Matt had been, almost like rain, with a hint of sweat underneath and it made Eli think of far too many things he shouldn't haven't been thinking about, like Eli making Matt sweat, Eli running his fingers over sweat slicked skin and Matt's skin rippling under them.

"What are you thinking about?" Matt asked. His eyes smiling at Eli, like he knew exactly what Eli was thinking.

What Eli wanted to say was nothing, because how could he have thought about anything coherent when Matt was that close and Matt was breathing his warm breath over Eli's skin, and Matt was licking his lips slowly. What he actually said was "I have to run a few calculations for Rush." Matt scoffed and took the portable console that Eli was using as a barrier out of Eli's hands.

The kiss, when it came, took Eli by surprise. He wasn't expecting it, expecting instead a lingering touch and Matt to leave again, but what he got was Matt's mouth over his, hot, wet and needy. Matt's hands fisting in Eli's T-Shirt. Matt's hard body like a furnace next to Eli's.

Eli wanted those hands on him, needed those hands on him, and as if Matt could read his mind, he lifted his hands to Eli's face, fingers rubbing at the back of Eli's neck, thumbs rubbing along Eli's jaw.

Then Matt pulled back. There was a smile in his eyes, and a hint of uncertainty. Eli's mind was completely blank but he knew he had to do something. So he smiled back, puts all his effort in to making Matt see how incredible it was to feel Matt properly, to be allowed to touch him and to have Matt touch him back. Matt's body relaxed slightly, his eyes smiling properly then. Matt's hands lingered a moment longer, leaving an indelible mark on Eli's skin that Eli knew he would be able to feel for a long time afterwards.

"Don't work too hard." Matt said and pulled him in for another kiss, as hot and searing as the last one, but ten times too short. "You don't want to be too tired." Matt was halfway out of the door when Eli's mind started working again.

"Too tired for what?" He asked. Matt's answer was a smile so full of promise that it made Eli's knees go weak.

"See you dinner, Eli."