Gigi Sinclair

"Did you get a gift when you bought that stuff?"

"What?" Jack's eyes flicked up, meeting Daniel's in the locker room mirror.

"Your makeup." Daniel pointed at the collection of camouflage- coloured face paints on the counter. "The makeup people are always advertising gifts if you buy a certain amount of their product. Actually, they advertise 'free' gifts, but since that's redundant…"

"It's not makeup, smartass," Jack cut him off. "It's camouflage paint." He dipped his fingers into the olive green cream and spread a line across his forehead.

"Ah. That would explain why it was so hard to see you when I first came in."

Jack sighed. When Daniel was in "witty" mode, there was no stopping him. Usually, Jack enjoyed this relaxed, happy side of Daniel. They didn't see it nearly as often as Jack would like. Now, however, wasn't the moment to be trading wisecracks.

"Daniel, in an hour we're leaving for P0Q-715. If you want to stand out like Teal'c at a kindergarten graduation, that's your business. I'm going for a more subtle approach."

"Right. Subtle. Of course, Jack." Daniel rolled his eyes. Jack ignored him and studiously blended a few streaks of black in with his dark green. "You do know P0Q-715 is a desert planet, right?"

"What?" Daniel grinned, and Jack could have kicked himself for being so gullible. "Hilarious, Daniel. Let me know if you want to take over the job of team cut-up, OK? Then I can be the sexy troublemaking genius."

Daniel considered this. "I don't think Sam's ready to give up that position. Teal'c might trade with you, though. You'd be a shoo-in for 'intimidating hulk with a heart of gold', although you'd have to work on the eyebrow thing."

Jack ignored him, which didn't discourage Daniel in the least.

"You know," he said thoughtfully, as Jack applied a couple of smudges under his eyes, "This reminds me of watching one of my foster mothers getting made up. She was a Mary Kay saleswoman…"

"Daniel!"

"OK." Daniel stood silently by Jack's side for a moment.

"Are you putting some on?"

Daniel smiled, then lunged forward and grabbed Jack by the front of his T-shirt, pressing their mouths together. Suppressing his natural instinct to flatten the man, Jack slid his hands up to Daniel's shoulders, squeezed a little, and pushed Daniel away. "Are you insane?" Never on base, that was the cardinal rule. And certainly not on base an hour before a mission.

Daniel's glasses were skewed and there was smeared makeup—camouflage paint, Jack corrected himself—on his face, especially around his mouth. "Just following orders, sir."

"You're nuts," Jack repeated, but couldn't help a grin as he turned back to the mirror to adjust his paint.

"Maybe," Daniel admitted. "But I'm not the one willingly covering my face in chemical compounds and animal byproducts."

Fine, Jack decided. If Daniel wanted silliness, then silliness he would get. "I don't know, Daniel. You seemed pretty willing a second ago."

"Because that method of application is more entertaining than yours."

"Less efficient, though. We'd have to kiss for a long time to get enough on you."

"I suppose." Daniel didn't look completely put off by the idea. "You'd have to make sure to cover all of my face, too."

"I would indeed."

There was a lengthy pause, during which Jack finished applying the paint and packed it up into the kit. Daniel's playful look had been replaced by the more usual, studious one, and Jack waited.

Finally, Daniel came to the conclusion he'd been seeking. "We're scheduled for P6R-088 next week," he declared. "That's a fairly wooded planet. Maybe we could, ah, get together beforehand to make sure we're adequately camouflaged."

"Sounds good to me," Jack agreed.

"And," Daniel continued, still with the studious, serious expression, "It's quite a warm planet, so we should probably cover our legs, too. In case we decide to wear shorts."

"Naturally."

"And you never know, we might end up having to take off some of our other clothes while we're there. So, ideally, we should put paint on our entire bodies."

"Using the patented Daniel Jackson application process, of course."

"That's a given." Daniel glanced down at the bulge clearly visible through Jack's thin fatigue pants. "In the meantime, though, why don't I help you hide that?"

"I don't know if I have that much paint."

"In that case," Daniel replied, tongue appearing between his teeth in a movement that did nothing to help Jack's ever- growing "problem", "We'll just have to use the all-natural method."