Disclaimer: I still don't own Stargate SG1, or the spin-offs and/or characters I have played with in this fiction or in the ones I have created in the past... and I am still slightly disturbed that I have written and published something like this, I even gave myself writer's block because of it! Whoop! Not(!)

Guilty

Chapter Two

Romance and Friendship

Rated T

English

Daniel & Vala

9 o'clock

Relaxing on the bed in the middle of the room, Vala Mal Doran wiped at the one tear from her sapphire eye. The milky white, pale singular digit caught the salty droplet and she raised it to her lips, tasting at the sadness within her as it poured from her eyes within the tear now spread on her tongue. It somehow made the depression wrapped around her heart and thoughts more realistic.

More concrete, although it could never really manifest itself in reality, of course. So, with a wry smile, a sniffle, a bite to her lower lip, giving her thoughts some stimuli other than the usual sadness, internal pain, loss. Vala finally registered the door chime outside of her room. A soft and almost unusual tweeting sounded to alert her someone was outside.

Shaking her head to allow her dark hair to tumble down her shoulders, giving her the usual predatory alien female appearance she that saw each time in the mirror. Usually simultaneously the same and each time she used the one thing she relied on for anything and everything in this world. Herself. She tried on a smile and aimed it at the mirror, practising the one she would use on her company.

Ridding any lingering, remaining tears and negative thoughts, Vala opened the door and once again mustered the best and brightest grin that she could. It had in the past won her countless drinks, artefacts and nights in chambers with strangers if the smile had indeed worked the first time around. It had usually worked again the second time too, in the house and bed of whoever she had gotten her eye caught on.

Vala greeted her male companion, in his signature Atlantis suit with a basket of peculiar looking items that had the appearance of being edible. Possibly edible. "Rodney, right on time!" She beamed. "Are those for me?" Her smile stayed strong and firm.

"Vala Mal Doran, I proudly offer you a selection of the fruits on this planet and many others which I and my able crew have come to know as much needed sustenance." He handed her the basket and she took his hand, leading him into the spare room at the end of one of the upper, unused tiers in the snowflake shaped building. Rodney amused himself for a moment with her choice of dress for the evening, opting for a quick glance out the corner of his eye when her eyes were otherwise distracted as she placed the the gift of fruit on the table beside her.

"How sweet." She cocked her head to the side and coyly smiled. "And I wasn't talking about the fruit." Vala swayed her hips from side to side as she made her way over to the bed, draped with white sheets and a black comforter on the foot of the bed. Beckoning Rodney over once seated, Vala swung one leg over each of his and planted herself fully on his lap.

He babbled for something to say. But once again, like earlier in the day, found himself lost for words. "I picked them from all the planets we've been to from the start-" Vala nodded with a faux incline of interest as she unzipped his jacket and slowly pushed it off his shoulders. "Well, when I've remembered to that is." She let the jacket drop off his arms and turned her attention to the now exposed flesh. "And when I mean I picked them, what I meant to say was the agricultural team harvested probable foliage." He sucked in a breath when she used her mouth and hands on his neck, working the area with massage like administrations. "Only the ones that could sustain us when provisions run out. I must admit they did well. Very well." He blinked rapidly and closed his eyes to submit to her.

Opening his mouth to hers, he welcomed her foreign embrace. How many people could say they slept with an alien? A beautiful one at that... Her tongue snaked around his and his around hers until he grew more confident and hopefully pulled at her clothing. Vala undid the belt of her black, silk gown and let him play with that all the while her thoughts backtracked to earlier that night. Which in turn lowered her mood. Welcoming him to enjoy and control the moment, Vala studied the young man in her bed.

She didn't need long before realising that he didn't need her angst. Nor her at all.

"Rodney," she began, pulling away from him and trying as she might to forget the longing in his eyes. "It's getting late, I really think you should be getting back now." She avoided his gaze, turning her head to pretend to admire the stars in the extrinsic sky.

"Uh, okay." He spoke plaintive and straightened up, watching Vala move away from him and pick at the assortment in the basket. He noticed and redressed as she opened the door for him. "I, maybe I shouldn't have but I was expecting a little more from tonight." He frowned, feeling oddly courageous.

"No, I'm sorry, Rodney. That was all I had in mind." Vala lied through her teeth. "Although I have to admit some alcoholic beverages would have been nice." She added, telling some alteration of the truth.

With a deep sigh, she waved him goodbye and watched him sidestep into one of the many passageways in the snowflake shaped structure and disappear from view. The truth was – she couldn't. Luring the young, innocent scientist back to her lair would be falling back into her old self. And she had sworn to shed her old self when she was accepted into the SGC.

Moving her hand towards the door control, she paused, wondering what Daniel was doing at that very moment. But it was late and surely the busy archaeologist was holed up something doing what he does best. Wouldn't he? Though, if by chance...Vala headed a little ways down the corridor from her room towards where the path splits off into the same tier and saw the man himself heading towards hers with his hands empty. No book, notebook nor even any hieroglyph could be seen on him. "Daniel! What a pleasant surprise! What brings you down here?" She smiled.

"No real reason. Well, apart from tiredness. But when has that stopped me?" He smirked and added a thumbed gesture in the direction that he had come from. "Did I see Rodney coming from here?" He asked with a curious expression ever so slightly on his features.

"Um, he gifted me with some delicious fruits. Well, they sure look delectable, though I haven't sampled any yet. Would you like to try one?" She didn't wait for an answer and half pulled, half dragged him into her room and picked through the full basket of fruit once she was knelt on the bed sheets. Handing him a hard skinned fruit with mottled yellow and green spikes once he was settled next to her, she mused. "Ooh, this one looks nice." Vala pulled out a small red and brown fruit for herself, soft like a plum though a lot smaller. "This looks a little like those small-berries you told me about." She squished it with her thumb and forefinger before munching enthusiastically on it.

"So, you gonna tell me why else Rodney was here?" Daniel pushed.

"Truth be told, I asked him on a date." I wanted you to get jealous. Of him, of us... "But, I couldn't go through with it in the end." Her expression turned to one of sadness and pushed the fruits away. "It would be like saying goodbye to who I am now."

"Well, I'm glad you did." He turned her face in his hand so she was forced to look him in the eye. Daniel held one of the small plums she took a shine to in his hand. Holding it to ransom, he held it in front of her mouth and cocked an eyebrow. "I'm not ready to say goodbye yet. You?"

"Nope. Me neither." He nodded and popped the plum in her mouth before having one of his own.

"Now, who'd going to tell Sam about what happened?" Vala shut him up by feeding him one of the fruits as an answer.

FIN!

*small berries is something I would expect our alien friend, Vala to call strawberries! Sweet, huh? No pun intended! ;)

Review? Thanks for reading! DCIPHOENIX