#asdkajhskd i love this prompt thank you

[valdomarx]

For the pining prompts, 7 and/or 36 for McShep if it strikes your fancy? 👀

McShep + 36. Characters are tied together

"Will you stop fidgeting?!"

"Oh, I'm sorry if my entirely reasonable fear of imminent death is making me twitchy! I'll sit here in perfect stony stillness while we wait for the Wraith to come back and suck the life out of us, shall I?"

"That would be preferable, actually, yes. And if you could do so quietly, even better."

"Are you ordering me to shut up, Colonel?"

"If I thought that would work for even a second, McKay, I would have done it long ago."

McKay huffed. Typical that they’d managed to get captured on a routine recon op, on the one mission when both Teyla and Ronon were busy elsewhere. Bad enough he and Sheppard were in the life-sucking hands of the Wraith, but even more mortifying that they’d been trussed up and tied together like a pair of hogs.

Not only were they squished together, back to back, but their hands were bound as well, and the angle was pulling at his shoulders horribly -

“Sheppard!” Rodney’s voice jumped a few octaves in an admittedly inelegant manner. “What are you-”

“I’m trying to get to my knife,” Sheppard growled. And right. Okay. That made sense. That would be why there were suddenly hands where there had not been hands before.

“Must you -” Rodney was not going to blush, he was not, he was not.

“Yes, McKay, I must. If you ever want to get out of here, that is.”

“Fine! You could have warned me, is all I’m saying.”

Sheppard exhaled heavily. Rodney could feel him slump. “I can’t reach it. Do you think you could -”

“Me?!” Rodney’s voice did the jumping octaves thing again. Damn it.

“I don’t see any other volunteers! Look, the knife is in my pocket. You should be able to reach it if you... Oh.”

Now Sheppard’s voice broke, and hah, that would teach him. McKay focused resolutely on twisting his body and wiggling his fingers toward their goal and he did not, he did not think about what else he might be touching.

“That’s it, you’ve almost got it.” 

Sheppard was clearly trying to be encouraging. They probably taught that in officer training.

“Yeah, right there. You’re so close.”

This was probably all highly motivational or whatever.

“Come on, Rodney, just a bit deeper -”

“The commentary is not as helpful as you think it is!” he snapped, and he was definitely blushing now.

He had to twist his hand, and that was, well, that was definitely closer that he’d imagined his fingers would be getting to Sheppard today, but it was fine, he could do this, he was a professional, and he really, really didn’t want to die.

“Rodney.” Sheppard sounded breathy. “Please hurry up.”

“I got this, I got this.” He had to wriggle and readjust, inching closer, then one more painful twist and finally, his hand closed around the cool metal of the blade. With a hum of triumph he yanked it out and flipped it around to cut the bonds around Sheppard’s hands, and then his own, then it was a simple matter to disentangle them both.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Rodney was already running through the hive ship schematics in his head. He was pretty sure he could get them to the dart bay, and from there they could steal a dart and escape through a space gate, assuming there was one nearby.

“Ahh. Maybe I’ll just. Wait here for a moment.” Sheppard’s voice was scratchy and he was hunched over, almost as if he was in pain.

“What the hell, Sheppard, we need to move!” Since when did he become the sensible one on missions? What a terrifying thought.

He grabbed Sheppard around the arm and yanked him upright, and Sheppard stumbled into him.

The problem Sheppard was dealing with became suddenly immediately, pressingly apparent, and Rodney knew it was bad form to stare at a man in a certain... state of discomfort... but still. That was. That was really quite a prominent -

“Shut up, McKay,” he snapped.

“I didn’t say anyth-”

”You were staring.”

“Well I wasn’t going to say anything, but since you, uhh, brought it up -”

“I don’t suppose we could pretend this never happened?”

“I mean. We could, but where would the fun in that be?”

Sheppard growled, and honestly that sound that wouldn’t be unwelcome under other circumstances. “Let’s just go, before we become Wraith food.”

“Fine.” Rodney risked one last glance down, just to confirm that that really was -

“McKay! Eyes front!”

“Fine! Honestly!”

They jimmied open the door and checked out the corridor, ready to make a run for it. Before they left, though -

“I have to ask, as a matter of scientific curiosity: Was it the being tied up that did it for you? Or was it, uhh, me?” Rodney swallowed. “Or was it the imminent danger of Wraith feeding? Because if it’s either of the first two options, well, perhaps that warrants further consideration at a later time and place, as it were, because admittedly here might not be the ideal location. But if it’s the third option, we might need to book you in to see Heightmeyer.”

“McKay!” Sheppard held up a hand to silence him. “Tell you what. You keep quiet for the next ten minutes and we can discuss this later.” The tips of his ears went pink. “Deal?”

Rodney grinned. Perhaps this mission wouldn't be a total bust after all. “Deal.”