Work Text:
Fourth Kiss
Vala liked kissing.
Not for obvious reasons, though those were fun, too. But there were a whole subset of other things kisses were good for besides sexual gratification.
First, it distracted people. If you kissed someone well enough, truly made it a work of art, you could have their wallet, their worldly goods and even their entire sector before they managed to get a decent breath drawn. It was the best sleight of hand she'd ever known. It had been a particular favourite tool of her Goa'uld master, and one that Vala had become adept at after years of practice.
Secondly, it upset the power balance and turned it in her favour. A truly skilled kiss threw people off their centre, and gave her a chance to gain some degree of mastery in the relationship, whatever that relationship happened to be.
Perhaps most importantly, how a person kissed was, in her experience, a good example of how they approached other things in life. It was a tell, if one were to use a Tau'ri metaphor, and since Vala always liked to have the winning hand ... well, kissing was useful in getting exactly that. She knew things about them that they would not otherwise have told her. Information was power, her favourite coin to spend.
After several weeks working with these backwater Tau'ri, this was what she knew so far: Daniel's kisses were entirely composed of questions. He opened wide and asked why? how? what is this? what are we? with soft incursions of tongue and teeth and wordless, breathless noises that rose up at the end. His fingers roamed, tracing glyphs and symbols only he could divine.
That was how Vala learned that if you offered a question, a mystery, he could be distracted.
Part of his charm was that he knew this, because he wasn't stupid, but he let himself get distracted anyway because more than anything, Daniel wanted to know.
Mitchell was something else entirely. The one time she cornered him he's held stiff and wary a scant few seconds and then had surged forward, taking her mouth with brash guile, with persuasion and passionate intensity. And the way he used his tongue, the way his hands slid carefully over her, as though searching for daggers and deadlier things, taught her that he was headstrong but not stupid. The slow smile when he pulled away told her something else, as well.
She was still puzzling it out.
Teal'c's kiss had been ... almost entirely different. He'd cradled her head when she'd kissed him, gentled his mouth and returned it with an almost chaste touch of tongue, a soft press of lips to the corner of her mouth.
And then he'd pulled away. "And what have you learned?" he asked patiently, after watching her over the candles for a very long time.
She hadn't answered, because she didn't need to; he already knew the answer.
Teal'c was a man who believed in great things, great causes. He was, perhaps, the most dangerous man she had ever met, because he could not be distracted from what he believed.
And now the fourth kiss, because really, if she were going to be fighting battles with these people, then it was best that there were no surprises.
When they kissed, Vala felt a rush of recognition, of startled joy as their lips touched. She let her tongue trace the soft "oh" of surprise and then she took the fair head in her strong hands and kissed with real intent. It only took a few moments before Vala found herself pushed back against the lockers, being kissed hard and thoroughly and with a great deal of knowing. Slightly calloused fingers ghosted over her bared abdomen, traced up under to the edge of her breasts and then down to where her trousers were slung low on her hips. They moved lower still, until the palm of the hand was cupped against her and pushing just hard enough to make Vala push her hips forward.
Sam bit her lip once, hard, before pulling away, and Vala smiled at her lazily. She found herself really liking the way the other woman's dark pupils were barely ringed by bright, bright blue. "Now wasn't that fun?" she said conversationally, reaching out to touch Sam's hard nipple through her shirt and bra.
"That's one word for it," Sam said finally. "Did you get what you wanted?" Her voice was a bit breathless, a little bit wild, but still entirely Samantha Carter.
"Not yet," Vala said after some thought, letting her finger trace idly up to Sam's red, red mouth. "Perhaps when we have more time? A lot more time?"
Sam's bit the tip of her finger, and Vala thought, how odd, that she should only be learning this now.
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