Advantages

Authors Notes: Posted as part of a Birthday smutfest for Morphinexx on Livejournal.

Part of my Fanfic100 Challenge (Prompt: Water)
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Advantages

There is a cave, small and secret, hidden behind in the cliffs and rocks below John's house in Shell Beach, entirely invisible from even the lighthouse above. They have to wade out from their small private beach to reach it after taking the stairs down from John's house at the top of the cliff, climbing over and around half submerged rocks, pants rolled up over their knees, shoes and socks left behind on the sand.

"You could make getting there much easier on yourself, you know," he says as they make their way to the cave, watching John ahead of him clamber up onto a rock, bare toes curled against its ridges to keep his balance. He takes the hand that is offered as John turns back to him upon reaching the top, and lets his lover pull him up to join him.

"Where's the fun in that?" John replies with a smirk, chuckling under his breath, and Daniel thinks that there's still a little bit of young boy underneath all his powers and abilities, even if John's only memories of childhood were fabricated by Daniel himself. "That would be no adventure at all."

He doesn't mind at all when John pulls him along for these silly adventures of his, exploring Shell Beach like the world is entirely new and unknown, instead of completely created by John. Daniel won't admit it, but it makes him feel rather young again, and every time he does this, it eclipses a little bit more time from all the years he'd spent in darkness. He can keep up with John without difficulty now, his battered body healed by his lover's unique powers, made strong again. Whole, like his heart was, healed by a gift more strong and precious than even John's ability to create and manipulate matter with his mind, a gift he's always had and freely given to Daniel without reserve.

John crosses the rock and starts to climb off of it, giving a sudden shout as he looses his balance on the rocks from a wave that crashes against them, feet slipping out from under him and plopping him on his ass most unceremoniously in the sea, drenching him from head to toe. Daniel laughs - he can't help it - climbing down off the rock more carefully and offering him a hand up. "Are you all right, my adventurer?"

John laughs, pushing wet curls of hair out of his face, and takes the offered hand. Suddenly Daniel finds himself yanked down into the water beside him with surprising strength as a suspiciously large wave knocks his feet out from under him. "Hey - !" He sits up and pushes his glasses up to wipe the water out of his eyes to the sound of John's laughter. "You cheated!!"

John's delighted laughter turns to a chuckle, low and throaty, the kind that always sends the most delightful shivers down Daniel's spine, and through his water-stained glasses, he sees John smirk, pulling him into his arms for a kiss, lips cool and salty with seawater. "Maybe just a little."

"Cheeky bastard," Daniel murmurs, and kisses him again.

His lover smiles against his lips, promising. "I'll make it up to you. Come on, we're almost there."

He lets John help him to his feet, smiling despite the water that sluices off his now soaked clothes. The summer day is perfectly hot, like it usually is, custom tailored to John's preferences, and they will dry off soon enough. He follows John back between the rocks, slipping sideways through a narrow gap to enter an enclosed area that quickly widens to around fifteen meters wide, and it's easy to believe that the rock under their feet has been rubbed smooth by hundreds of years of crashing seawater, believe that this cave has been here for centuries, instead of only a few months. The rock falls away almost immediately once they pass through the gap, the mouth of the cave and the stones outside forming a private, John-made lagoon, which they skirt around by way of a rock ledge to reach the cave proper.

John is already unbuttoning his sodden cotton shirt as they walk, and jumps off the ledge to splash through the shallows the last few feet to the mouth of the cave itself, laying the buff coloured fabric on one of the sun-drenched rocks to dry. "Here, I'll spread out your shirt for you."

Daniel follows more composedly, fingers working nimbly at the buttons of his shirt. "You're just trying to get me naked."

Green eyes sparkle mischievously. "You know you'll get naked anyway."

"Yes, but unlike you, some of us like to maintain some semblance of propriety."

"Propriety is overrated," his lover declares, taking Daniel's shirt from him and slipping an arm around his waist, pulling him in for a kiss that is warm and deep and more than a little promising.

They make love in the shallows of their little lagoon, hands stroking hungrily over skin wet and slick with the sea, water lapping sedately at their bodies in the calm of the enclosed area. This is the kind of experience Daniel appreciates very much, which is why he always agrees to come here when John asks. There's nothing here but the two of them, the sun and wind and water and John's hands on his body, exploring his skin for a much more private kind of adventure. The only soundtrack is the crash of the waves on the rocks beyond them, sighs and moans of pleasure that give way to soft, trembling cries as their bodies move together. Mouths and hands and hips collide, bodies joining, dancing familiar steps in a new place, seeking, giving, and sharing pleasure until they both reach the pinnacle of ecstasy, sensation crashing white hot and bright and hard through them like the waves on the cliffs.

There isn't much point in dressing afterward, not here with no one to see them but each other, not when they'll just end up nude again before they leave. They swim a little, then lean back against the rocks in the sun, blissfully, shamelessly naked, soaking up the rays of the sun they went for years without, skin slowly darkening to a healthy bronze in the heat. Daniel reads a book that John retrieves from the house for him, and after a while the dark haired man produces lunch as well - cool cucumber sandwiches and grapes and ice cold beer, and Daniel thinks there are definite, delightful advantages to partnering with the Master and Commander of their little world.