jadesfire

"This is fun," Rodney said sourly. "If you don't like that--"

"We could play a game," John suggested. "Oh, I know! Now that we have four people, we totally can play--"

"All who oppose Fantastic Four and being lumped into roles at our 'leader's' arbitrary reasoning--" Rodney announced loudly, raising his free hand in the air. "--say 'aye'!"

"Aye." Without breaking her reading stride, Teyla raised her hand. "I am not invisible," she stated archly.

With a shrug, Ronon raised his hand, earning a betrayed look. "What?"

"This isn't fair," John whined.

"Majority rules is one of the tenets of democracy--"

"Does your mom read you a dictionary as your bedtime story?"

"Just because some of us want to expand our bright, young minds--"

Teyla managed to make a loud production of putting down her paperback novel. "We will play Lost City of Atlantis."

"But we played that last week," Rodney whined, earning himself a narrow-eyed look. "And I had such a great time!"

"But Teyla," John joined in on the whining, managing to drag her name out to five syllables, "underwater cities are no fun."

"Then it will rise to the surface."

"Oh, come on," Rodney scoffed, "when does that ever happen?"

"But I want to fly," John continued to whine. "Mr. Fantastic has the Fantasticar, and it flys!"

"Then you can have the Fantasticar."

"No, no, no, that's all wrong," Rodney interrupted. "Only the Fantastic Four can use the Fantasticar. It only works for them."

"Then he can have a spaceship," she explained patiently.

"Wait, wait, in Atlantis?" Rodney interrupted. "That's crazy, Atlantis is a city on a lost continent here on Earth. You can't have spaceships on Earth--"

"Then Atlantis will be set in space."

"But humans can't breathe in space!"

"Then it will be set on another planet, and John will fly us there in his spaceship," Teyla ground out.

"But I don't like flying, especially John's. He goes too fast, cuts off all of the other soap-box-turned-spaceships, and tries to make me throw up by taking really, really sharp turns--"

"C'mon, Rodney," John interrupted, "it'll be fun. We can be space explorers!"

"Like Star Trek?" Rodney asked hopefully.

"But better!"

"There's nothing better than Star Trek!"

"Can I have a sword?" Ronon asked.

"Yes, Ronon, you can," Teyla said patiently as she herded the two bickering boys toward the rope.

"And a gun that can shoot lasers?"

"Like phasers?" Rodney brightened up. "It could have a stun setting and--oh, I might have something that could work in my garage--"

"This is going to be so cool!" John crowed as he bounced on one of the lower knots.

"Stop shaking the rope!" Rodney cried, clinging tighter. "Oh, no, I'm getting vertigo!"

"So," Ronon said, "you beat them with sticks?"

"It's very effective at keeping them focused."

"Cool." Ronon grinned, before they both climbed down the rope to join the bickering duo in front of the soapbox Fantasticar/Batmobile/spaceship.

"We're not calling it that," John stated firmly.

"Well, why not?"

"Because it's stupid."

"Oh, and like Puddlejumper is a good name for a spaceship? Exactly what are you trying to imply with that name? We're going to break down at the first galactic turn-off on Athos Lane!"

"We only will if you forgot to oil the hinges that you promised to do last week--"

"I'll go get a stick," Ronon rumbled.

"Well, I wouldn't need to perform repairs on the thing if you didn't drive like one of the Duke Boys!" Rodney waved his arms frantically

"Ooh, that gives me an idea, we should totally jump the creek at Genii Drive." John grinned. "You know, let it earn its name."

"Oh, god, we're going to die--"

~Fin~