SGA fic: "Outside The Box, Into The Lake"

[tielan]

FANDOM: Stargate Atlantis
TITLE: Outside The Box, Into The Lake
SUMMARY: A too-hot day during a celebration of summer requires a little...ingenious thinking
RATING: G
CATEGORY: team, friendship
DISCLAIMER: Not mine, making no money.
NOTES: Written to stuff marag's fandom_stocking

Outside The Box, Into The Lake

John wipes his brow and drinks another beer as he squints across the nearby lake at the houses on the other side.

Strictly speaking, it's not beer, but in the heat of today's planet, he's pretending. The temperature's at least one hundred in the shade - what little shade there is.

"God, tell me they don't do this every summer!" Rodney isn't just pink, he's completely scarlet in the heat. The sunhat the locals gave him isn't doing a thing for the sweat beading all over his cheeks and brow, dampening his clothes in much the same way that John's own sticky shirt clings to him.

"They were not expecting such weather when they arranged the festival," Teyla says from beneath her sunhat, her cheeks flushed with an pink undertones as she rests her bare arms on the table.

Rodney sighs and lowers his voice. "Can't we at least take this indoors?"

"It's a celebration of summer," says Ronon. "Gotta be done outside." Apparently unbothered by the heat in his loose trousers and a white wifebeater, Ronon's sole concession to the weather is a bandanna tied around his forehead. John thinks he looks like he might karate chop someone as soon as look at them.

Then again, that is usually Ronon's philosophy, so it's not that far off.

"Does celebrating summer include melting into a puddle? Because that's what's going to happen if we stay out here much longer!"

"Rodney, in case you haven't noticed, the locals are also doing it rough." John eyes the damp patches of clothing visible on the local people moving around them, serving food and drink and making easy jokes. "And, given that they handed over all that Ancient tech that they weren't using and weren't interested in, I think we owe them one."

"It was worth trying."

Teyla turns her head back from contemplation of the lake and abruptly stands. "I have an idea."

John glances at Ronon, who shrugs. He turns his gaze back to watch her, bemused as she consults with one of the seniors. The older woman stares at her for a moment, then throws back her head and laughs - a hearty, unashamed bellow of amusement. "By all means, Teyla of Athos!"

A moment later, Teyla returns to their table, looking like the proverbial cat with cream on her whiskers. "Ronon, if you will help me..."

John only realises what she intends when she and Ronon lift the table up. He grabs for his drink and Ronon's; Rodney grabs Teyla's drink as well as his own, and they stare in shock as their team-mates begin heading for the lake. Boots and trousers gain a dark stain as they wade into the shallows and carefully place the table. The laughter and applause of the locals marks their exit from the lake, and as they return to where their team-mates are sitting, staring, others are already following their lead.

John stands as Ronon grabs the back of his chair, not trusting his team-mate not to just yank it out from beneath him. "Better than sitting around hot?" Ronon grins.

"Not quite what I had in mind."

"You want me to-- But these boots are new!"

"Take 'em off, then!" Ronon's already heading for the lake, pausing to let a crowd of gleeful children drag their table and chairs into the water.

Teyla smiles as she nudges Rodney towards the lakeside. "If you cannot beat the heat, Rodney, perhaps you should join the puddle?"

John snorts with laughter, but when he settles himself in the chair, with the water soaking through his boots and socks, he reflects that if he has to be out in this kind of heat, a lake is not so bad a place to sit.

fin