PROVOCATION   BY PHOENIX E

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did!"

"For God's sake, Jack, I don't care what you think you saw - it didn't mean anything!  Dammit, this is so stupid!"

"Oh, now I'm seeing things as well as stupid!"

"That's not what I said…ah - screw it!  I've had enough of this.  I'm going to make some coffee.  Why don't you go out and chase cars or something?  Come back when you've calmed down."

"And why don't you -- come back here!  Don't you DARE walk away from me you, son of a bitch!"

Daniel expelled a harsh, irritable sigh as he deliberately tossed his jacket at the corner by the door, knowing doing so would only add fuel to the already blazing inferno but not caring.  He stalked deeper into the house, leaving a blatant trail of discarded books, papers, and unnecessary clothing layers in his wake.  By the time he'd reached the kitchen and the coffee maker he was gratified to hear his admittedly petty, but deeply satisfying attempt to get back at Jack had been entirely successful.

"For crying out loud, Danny, how many times have I told you about this!"

Okay, maybe baiting Jack was childish and so was enjoying getting his goat, but the bastard had started it!

Jack came charging into the kitchen, the offending jacket tightly clutched in his hand.  Daniel pointedly ignored him, calmly going about his business while Jack stood bristling in the middle of the room, shaking the garment threateningly at him, steam shooting out of his ears.

You don't scare me Jack, I've been kicked around by the big boys!

"And don't think I don't see what you're trying to do here!"  Jack shouted at him, still brandishing the jacket as if it was to blame for everything.  "You're trying to change the subject!"

"I thought I'd already made it clear, I don't want to talk about this any  more," Daniel returned, trying to keep his tone mild even though by now he wanted to turn around and cram the stupid jacket down Jack's throat.

Anything to shut him up!

"Well that's just too damned bad, 'cause I do!"

Jack emitted a low, dangerous snarl, stepping quickly forward, roughly grabbing Daniel's shoulder and spinning him around so they were face to face, The unexpected force of the movement causing Daniel to lose his grip on the mug he was holding.  It slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor, promptly shattering like a fragmenting shell on impact, shooting tiny bits of itself halfway across the kitchen.

"Now look what you made me do!"  Daniel yelled at him.

The unexpectedly explosive sound of the mug shattering popped the bubble of Jack's rage; he immediately let go of Daniel's shoulder and stood there, staring dumbly at the remains while Daniel shouldered him roughly aside and stomped away to get the broom and dustpan.

Jack continued to stand there, saying nothing as Daniel returned with them and started to silently sweep up the scattered pieces of broken glass.

"Geez, that was your favourite mug, wasn't it?"  Jack finally muttered in a low, slightly abashed voice.  "Sorry."

Daniel heard the white flag faintly fluttering in Jack's tone but continued sweeping, still not looking at him.  He wasn't quite ready to yet.

"Don't worry about it," he mumbled to the floor.  "No big deal.  Not like it's the end of the world or anything.  I can get another one."

Sweep, sweep, sweep.  For many long minutes a heavy silence reigned supreme, its dominance barely challenged by the soft sounds of the broom's bristles moving rhythmically across the floor.

"I can get another coffee mug," Daniel ventured, at last looking at the other man in the room.  "But there are some things which can never be replaced, if they get too broken to fix.  I don't want that to happen, Jack."

Jack met his gaze, his dark eyes tragic with realization, looking for all the world as if he'd just been punched in the solar plexus.   Hard.  "Jesus, Danny, neither do I!"  His voice was so rough it was almost unintelligible.  "Is that - is that what you thought?  Aw…crap!"

Daniel felt himself being grabbed again, this time swept violently into a bone-crushing hug.  Broom and just-filled dustpan dashed from his grasp, clattering unheeded to the floor.   Daniel spent one frantic second wondering if he was about to join them on the linoleum as his legs were threatening to give way before the overwhelming shock of the emotional tidal wave inundating him along with Jack's embrace.

What was he thinking?  Wasn't going to happen.  Even if he couldn't stand up, Jack had him.  No way Jack would ever let him fall.

Jack pressed up against him, squeezing him tightly.  Jack's frantic kisses heated the skin of his neck while fragments of fervent, gasped apologies and explanations swirled around them.  Daniel closed his eyes; he fought to find his footing as he tightly gripped the warm, firm body his own arms now hungrily encircled.  With his hands splaying possessively across the beloved back beneath them Daniel thrust abruptly forward, making Jack give way before him.  Advancing upon him, melding into him, pushing demandingly until they were both stopped by the barrier of the kitchen wall at about the same time Jack's mouth finally found his.

Jack attacking, devouring, shattering all rational thought, filling him with the single driving need to thrust his tongue as eagerly and deeply into Jack's savagely seeking mouth.  Suddenly everything whirled, shifted; Daniel's back was the one pressed against the wall, he was the one being roughly thumped into it again and again and again as Jack's pelvis ground violently, repeatedly, wonderfully into his.

Jack groaned mindlessly into his mouth, his hands roaming frustrated over Daniel's chest, fumbling blindly, fighting vainly to unfasten buttons with fingers made impossibly clumsy by feverish desire.   Daniel pushed forcefully against him once more, making Jack take a stumbling step back, his hands on Jack's shirt contending with his lover's erratic efforts to de-clothe him.

As he was marginally more functional, Daniel finally succeeded in yanking Jack's T-shirt over his head.  The garment coming up and away in a brief, disorienting tangle of head, arms, and confining cloth momentarily throwing Jack off balance.  Daniel tossed the shirt aside, already seizing the brief advantage before Jack had a chance to recover.  Daniel gripped Jack firmly by the shoulders and shoved him roughly back against the wall, pinning him there as he dipped his head and quickly gripped an already aroused and erect nipple between his teeth.  Jack hissed with surprise, the sound swiftly turning into a deep, rumbling groan of crazed arousal vibrating through Daniel, inciting him to savagely worry the excited flesh he was mouthing, biting and licking while Jack shuddered and clamped his hands in his hair.

 Daniel released the pressure on Jack's shoulders, tracing a teasing path with his tongue as he slid his hands down Jack's heaving chest.  They reached the waistband of his pants, moving around to the front.  Suddenly the hands clenched in his hair opened, gripping his head, cupping it forcefully, pulling it up, guiding his mouth toward the one seeking his once more.  Brutal, biting, bruising, Jack's mouth plundered rapaciously, stealing his breath and reason while the hands holding his head moved to clutch Daniel's arms.

 Jack moved so swiftly, the attack was so skilful, in the next, dizzying instant Daniel found himself lying on the floor, Jack straddling his thighs while pulling impatiently at the buttons on his shirt.

Daniel struggled frantically against the restraint, bucking up against the man squatting on his legs, and pinning him to the floor.  The abused fabric of his shirt finally yielded to the determined assault; the noisy, organic sound of rending material mingling with Jack's low, evil grunt of satisfaction.  He yanked the sundered remnants halfway down Daniel's arms but didn't entirely remove them.  While what was left of the shirt no longer proved to be an impediment to his further intentions it definitely restricted Daniel's efforts to resist them.

Daniel moaned with annoyed pleasure, arching his back up into the hands moving freely over his chest, possessing the naked expanse beneath them as they willed.  Skilled hands so often employed in much more terrible, equally skilled ways touched him knowingly with rough and beloved familiarity, speaking the language his body understood completely as it never had with any other.

Making him ache to answer in kind.

Jack was bending low over him, grunting urgently with need, his tongue rasping hotly and moistly over his flushed skin as Jack greedily lapped up the salty dew of arousal exuding from his pores.  Nothing mattered now but removing the final barriers to what they both wanted; two pairs of hands clumsily, desperately, fumbled and tangled as somehow they finally contrived to rid each other of the last remaining confining bits of clothing.

Cupping Daniel's buttocks in his hands Jack rolled over onto his back, pulling his hotly writhing partner on top of him.  Fingers bit deeply into the firmly muscled flesh, moving with rough, desperate purpose, seeking, finding, pushing within, frantically reaming, thrusting.  Fire exploded behind Daniel's eyes as he ground his hips brutally into the pulsing, sweat-slicked hardness beneath him.

No more resistance, not a particle of discord, no winners or losers, only the unity of urgency expressed in the frantic commingling of flesh.  Jack's hands clutched his hips, impaling him mercilessly, repeatedly upon the fiery spike filling him, thrusting ever deeper into him as it pushed him over the edge.

Too much, it was too much.  Jack's shuddering body heaved up into him, slamming the force of his climax straight into the core of Daniel's being. Daniel howled and felt the blissful blackness closing about him.  Knew he was falling, but couldn't stop himself.

Jack.  Jack was there.  Jack had him.  He was still falling, but forward, into the place of safety that was Jack, where there was nothing to fear.

Daniel sighed and gave himself trusting over into the blackness.

"…Danny?  Earth to Danny?  Still in there, kid?  I don't care how many times you do this, it still scares the crap out of me!"

Consciousness came fluttering back, buoying him gently up to satiated awareness.  Not to mention a hell of an afterglow.  He was safely snuggled on Jack's chest.  After having been well and truly fucked into oblivion in the middle of the kitchen floor.

As if reading his mind Jack started to chuckle.  "Ya know, Dannyboy, I really don't know why we bother owning a bed.  Not like we use it much or anything."

"Uh…" Daniel replied.  Being conscious was not quite the same as being articulate.  He'd be able to talk in a minute.

Jack wriggled contentedly beneath him and gave him a quick, affectionate squeeze.  "Back in the land of the living?  Sorry about the brain cells, but I figure they gave their lives for a good cause.  Hell, if this is what happens, we should fight more often.  Ah - Danny?  Wait a minute, where are you going?  Danny?  Aw - crap…"

Fighting.  They'd been fighting.  He'd almost forgotten.  But it was still there.  Postponed, not forgotten.  Remembering what they'd been doing and why while lying in Jack's arms was suddenly more than Daniel could bear.

Daniel scrambled to his feet, paused to retrieve his pants and shirt and shuffled silently away.

Jack found him in the bathroom, sitting on the edge of the tub, absently fingering what was left of his shirt.

"Too bad about this one," he murmured at the man standing in the doorway.  Not looking at him.  "Had it two whole weeks.  I was getting rather fond of it."

"I keep telling you, Danny," Jack said gently, "Buttons is just asking for trouble."

Daniel nodded, his gaze still fully focused on the garment in his lap.  Neither man moved or spoke for several minutes.

"I'm sorry," Jack finally sighed.  "I was being a jerk.  Again.  I don't know why.  Honest to God, Danny, I don't know why I get like that."  Jack shrugged helplessly.  "It's like I get nuts or something.  You're just…so…and I'm so…well, you know what I am.  When someone like that looks at you like that I just start…thinking stuff.  Crazy stuff like, well, why shouldn't he, you treat him like crap half the time when you're not yelling at him or making him nuts.  I start thinking about all the reasons you shouldn't be here and it seems to me there are more of them than why you are and I get… I get…"

"Scared?"  Daniel said in a soft, warm voice laden with comprehension.

"Out of my freakin' mind."

"Not much a trip," Daniel snorted, and then smiled fondly at him.

"Okay, so I had that coming," Jack grimaced as he crossed to Daniel and knelt in front of him.  "So, am I forgiven or do you want to insult me some more?"

Daniel shook his head and reached out to caress Jack's cheek before replying.  "I'm sorry you think about yourself that way.  I don't know what I can say to make you believe me except to tell you this.  You've got nothing to fear.  I don't care who's looking at me, that's their problem.  You're the only one I see.  The only one I want."

"Even when I'm being a jerk?"

"Even when you're being a jerk," Daniel breathed, moving closer.  "Besides, you're so very good at it."

"Nobody better," Jack muttered before he closed the gap and fell into the lips moving to meet him.

After several long, moist and noisy seconds Jack raised his reeling head.  "Holy crap, can you kiss or what," he gasped.  "Are we starting something again, here?"

"It's entirely possible," Daniel sighed, licking the side of his neck.

"Pretty much what I figured," Jack gulped.  "Small suggestion.  Let's do something boring and conventional and try it on the bed this time.  My knees are killing me."

"Whatever you say," Daniel smiled wickedly as Jack pulled him to his feet.  "I can do conventional.  I promise you it won't be boring, though."

"That's it, talk dirty to me," Jack leered as he propelled Daniel out of the room with an affectionate slap to the rump.

"At least I won't have to worry about you ruining another shirt."

"Again with the shirt!  I know!  I'll just keep you naked all the time.  Problem solved."

"Interesting idea.  Sam would probably like it too.  Where would I put my gun?"

"Just - shut up and get in the bedroom!"

"You sure you don't want to do it on the dining room table?"

"Daniel!"

"What?  Jack?  Why are you looking at me like that?  Jack?  Jack? Ohhhhhh…Jaaaaaccckkkkk…"

FINIS

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