wickedwords | Fic: The Power of Love (John/Rodney)

Title:The Power of Love
Summary: Rodney has a final task to complete before he can become a full-fledged angel: make John Sheppard, the lonely Air Force pilot, fall in love. The only problem is ... John's already stolen a heart, and it belongs to Rodney. Warning: wingfic.
Summary written by:

notpoetry
Rating/warnings: ::cough::I think the summary is enough.
[A/n: This was written for

svmadelyn's badfic summary mini-ficathon. I went over the 1000 word limit, so this is posted here to make it easier on everyone's eyes. But not that much easier.]

The Power of Love

Cupid takes a sabbatical and Rodney, a second class angel who is in the doghouse with the angel-in-charge of work assignments -- and has been for at least a thousand years which is why he doesn't have wings yet -- is assigned to work with the fairies of the love squad, so he's dressed in gold lame briefs and white go-go boots, and he thinks he looks like Rocky from Rocky Horror, but really, he's a little too pudgy for that, however everyone reassures him that he's a first-rate fairy, even if he doesn't have wings.

Oh, and there's this bar that love squad runs called Atlantis, and it's got like disco balls and the walls are made of these enormous aquariums and with huge pretty glow-in-the-dark fish -- really colorful glow-in-the-dark fish that dart around through fish habitrails and fish slides and fish ferris wheels and stuff -- so it looks like everythings underwater all the time. Atlantis is kinda magical too and moves around a lot to wherever people are supposed to fall in love, and there's fairy dust and stuff that the love squad sprinkles on people to make them more susceptible to falling in love -- "Like that's any different from a couple of beers," Rodney snorts -- and Rodney's told that if he can get John Sheppard to fall in love, he'll get his wings.

Which sounds cool, but then things get all screwed up. John's on leave and he's supposed to ship out to McMurdo at the end of the week, so Rodney's working under a deadline, but John doesn't seem to be interested in much of anything. He dresses all in black and plays a lot of the cure and evanescence and hangs around his darkened hotel room, with the lights off and the curtains drawn and no one ever comes to visit him at all.

So Rodney has to go out of his way to meet him. He runs into John (literally) in the elevator, when John goes downstairs to get the morning paper which the chap-ass hotel won't deliver to his room like any normal sensible hotel would, and there's a lot of kinda-smiling, and Rodney's really thankful that he doesn't half to wear the love squad uniform if he's not working in Atlantis, so he's just wearing jeans and a regular T-shirt and stuff, so he's not embarrassed by his clothes, just by the fact that he dumped a huge cup of coffee all over John's shirt. It doesn't come off, no matter how hard Rodney tries to wipe it up with this really inefficient towel he got from the front desk, but John starts laughing anyway and it sounds pretty cool, so Rodney offers to make it up to John and they grab a coffee at the espresso stand in the lobby, but the "triple tall half-caff decaf" is the most conversation that Rodney hears him make all morning, even though they hang out for most of the rest of the day, until Rodney has to report back to Miko, the large-eyed golden catfish that runs Atlantis.

Still -- wings. He has to focus. So Rodney tries to get John interested in someone, but he promises himself that he's going to do it without magic. He tries and tries and tries, but each time he sees John , he just can't do it. They have lunch together, and go to a couple of movies, but then Lizzie, usually the tooth fairy but currently Cupid's temporary replacement, even thought she won't wear the love squad uniform and still dresses in her beautiful blue and white gossamer gown with this sparkly prom queen tiara that looks kinda like a molar and these kick-ass thigh high red leather boots, puts her booted foot down and tells him to get John to Atlantis.

So, Rodney tells John that he works there, and John comes to see him that night without Rodney having to go to his room and turn the lights on and off and shout "get your lazy ass outta bed," and he's dressed up in a black shirt still, but it's silky and mesh-like and shows off his chest really, really well. Atlantis lights up the moment he enters, and Miko sets off some kind of magic signal, and all of these lonely, single people start wandering into Atlantis and hooking up with one another, and the place gets written up in the newspaper as the most happening spot in town.

And it's really cool and all, but Rodney's just wasted most of John's leave trying to get him to fall in love without it working out, and he suspects that maybe he -- kinda, sorrta, maybe -- has fallen in love with John himself. So for the last few nights John's in town, Rodney forces himself to use the big guns and try out the magical stuff to get John to fall in love. "It's for your wings, damnit, wings," he says over and over to himself, like that was any help at all.

So he tries out the fairy dust, and unfortunately, spills it all over some Czech guy who takes home three women and two men that night, and who then goes one to write a best seller called "Dr. Love's Remedy: How to put some zip back in your failing relationships" when John upends his beer and swallows in a way that Rodney can only characterize as vaguely dirty.

The second night's better, and the woman he tosses the fairy dust on -- Chaya Underwood, a single mother of three in need of direction in her life -- falls in love with the choir director when John -- dressed in a green shirt that makes his eyes the color of emeralds -- makes an unexpected trip to the bathroom when he sees her approach, and she ends up as the lead singer for Ancient Gospel ministry's chorale outreach program.

Well, he's screwed up his two chances and there's only one night left. The whole love squad yells at him a lot, and Teyla, the lead love fairy, has a real heart-to-heart with him, telling him that he's gotta do it. And he knows he's gotta do it. He knows she's right. He can't stand the thought of John being with someone else, even though the two of them can never be together.

So she takes him up to the mountaintop and sets him down on the rock next to her, and pats his knee. She tells him how serious this is, because if John isn't in love with anyone by the time he gets to McMurdo, there's a good chance that he's not coming back, and he's got too much darkness in his soul to ever make it to heaven. So if he dies right now, he's not going to get a glorious forever. He's just gonna get eternal pain.

Rodney nods, and he knows she's right. No matter how much it hurts, he'd just got to make sure John's happy. John needs to have someone, and that someone can't be Rodney

So the third night, he's watched everyone carefully and made his decision. he's got his hand in the fair dust and his eye on this gorgeous dreadlocked cop when John grabs his wrist and jerks it out of the bag. "What are you doing?" John asks carefully, shaking the dust off of Rodney's hands.

"Glitter," Rodney says hurriedly. "We're supposed to spread it around." And he throws handfuls of the fairy dust into the air -- which lead to three marriages, four children, and a new communal religion -- which drifts gently down onto the bartop and Rodney's hair, making them sparkle in the light. "See, just glitter."

John looks at him oddly, then drags him by the hand through the kitchen and the back door and out into the clear moonlit night. "Now we can talk."

"Do you mind?" Rodney says, wrapping his arms tight around himself, feeling his nipples harden and his balls attempt to crawl up into his groin because the love squad uniform is kinda scanty. "Cold here."

"Well, wearing that outfit, I can see why."

"The dust makes people fall in love."

"Well, then. It worked so stop tossing it around. You'll put someone's eye out."

"Oh?" Rodney says quietly. "That's. ..that's good. Who are you in love with?"

"You." John's smiling now, and it's kind of nice, and it's no wonder Lizzie liked him and wanted to save him as he's got really beautiful teeth.

Rodney shakes his head. "But you can't fall in love with me, John, the dust doesn't work with me because I'm not human!"

"What are you then?"

And he knows it sounds kinda goofy, but it's really important that he tell the truth, and that John sees him for who he really is. "An angel."

"An angel, huh? Well, where are your wings?" And John's looking all pretty and sharp and smart and Rodney knows he's completely doomed.

"I haven't--" Rodney shakes his head and looked down at the ground. "I haven't earned them yet."

"Well, I think you're a pretty good angel as it is." John presses two fingers under Rodney's chin, lifting his head, and kisses him.

The kiss floods through Rodney like warm caramel syrup, sweet and rich and slow, making everything in him tingle. He grabs onto John's soft black T-shirt and presses him back against the wall of Atlantis, because, really, this is just too good to give up. He runs his hands over John's arms, and feels John rubbing his own hands down Rodney's shoulder and over his back--

Which feels really, really, good as Rodney realizes that his shoulder blades itch. No more than that, it's more than just simple itching, it;'s kinda like hives, or little tiny slivers of something -- Oh, God! That really hurts, once he thinks about it.

"What the --"

Rodney opens his eyes -- he hadn't realized he'd closed them -- and looks at John, who is holding up some white pin-feathers in his hand, while looking a little dazed.

"I guess...you really are an angel."

Rodney smiles, and rubs his nose against John's. "I really, really am." Spreading his sleak white wings wide, he wraps them both up, and runs his hand's over John's chest while no one can see. Bells are going off all over Atlantis, and they can both hear them, and Rodney laughs. "Every time a bell rings --"

"An angel gets his wings," John replies, his dazed look softening into one of amused adoration.

Kissing John deeply, Rodney takes him into his arms, and launches them both into the moonlit sky.