Vala flopped down on the sandstone block and rummaged through her pack for the MRE she'd already eaten but hoped had re-materialized. After finding nothing but empty wrappers, she looked over at Daniel, who'd taken a piece of fruit from his own pack. The fruit was almost perfectly round, with an orangey-rose color and a matte texture.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Mine," he grumbled, somewhat possessively. "Got it from the organic farmer's market this morning on my way to work."

"Is it any good?" She sidled over to where he was leaning against a blast-damaged pillar.

"I'm not sure." He held the fruit against his nose and inhaled deeply. "Smells ripe and sweet, but sometimes they can be hard, bland, mealy, or too tart."

Vala watched in fascination as he bit into the soft fruit, his teeth easily sinking into its fragile, fuzzy skin and creamy yellow flesh.

"Mmm, it's good," he moaned, chewing and talking around a mouthful of obvious pleasure.

Vala fixed her most convincing kitten-eyed expression on him, but he bent his head back and kept munching. A few drops of juice sluiced from the fruit to his wrist, and after swallowing, he licked the rivulet. Vala couldn't help but stare at the way the tip of his tongue smoothly slid from above the cuff of his jacket to the cup of his palm, his lower lip dragging behind to catch anything his tongue missed. Then he took another bite, careful to form a seal with his lips around the first bite, to keep the juices from escaping. As he drew his mouth away, she saw his tongue flick out to lick the gap he'd just bitten off. The way Daniel's long, slender fingers wrapped around the fuzzy skin and cradled the tender fruit made Vala's hunger shift from gastronomic to something... not gastronomic. She stared at its wetly gleaming, bright golden flesh and imagined its taste, and then at the way Daniel chewed, his closed lips shining with the liquid he hadn't licked off.

"If you'd tell me what kind of fruit that is," she said, nonchalantly fiddling with her tac vest, "then perhaps I can pick one up from the commissary when we get back home..."

"They buy only canned peaches," Daniel replied.

"Peaches. It's a peach, then." Vala frowned as she recalled the cloying, syrupy slices she'd dismissed as inferior to the fresh bananas, oranges, and apples the commissary stocked. "I suppose it can't be much different from canned."

"Nothing compares to a fresh, ripe peach," he countered, and took another bite. "Here." He held out the partially-eaten peach to her.

Before he could react, Vala feinted a bite at it, then dove toward his mouth and licked the juice from his lips.

"Mmm," she moaned, smacking her lips. "I think you'll have to take me fruit-shopping as soon as we get home."

Daniel stared dumbfounded at her, his mouth hanging open with a morsel of unchewed peach still on his tongue. She exploited her momentary advantage to bite into the fruit in his hand.

"Hey!" he protested, trying to withdraw his offering. "You forfeited your free taste when you--"

Vala dove at his mouth again, this time sealing her lips around his and plunging in her tongue to stir the unswallowed tidbits. Daniel one-handedly tried to maneuver her away, but held high his half-eaten peach from her sudden onslaught. Vala's two free hands grasped his head steady as she relentlessly tasted the ambrosial sweetness of every corner of his mouth. His feeble attempts to push her away soon gave way to compliance as she straddled one of his legs and pressed herself against his body. He leaned into her, curled his tongue deep into her mouth, and scooped her morsel of peach into his. Vala retaliated by grinding her hips against him and trailing one of her hands from his face to his neck, thumbing at his pulse-point.

Daniel responded by pulling away from her lips far enough to lick the transferred flavor from her chin. "We need to find that damned Ark soon so I can get you to my place and show you how a peach is properly eaten," he murmured.

"We'd have found it by now if you'd listen when I tell you to where to dig," she said, moving his free hand to her waistband. "There's nothing on this planet but dusty old--"

"Daniel, Vala," Sam's voice interrupted through their radios. "Any progress on finding the Ark?"

"Not much, but I'm doing peachy, Samantha," Vala said into Daniel's radio, proud that she'd finally tasted the fruit behind the colloquialism.

Daniel swallowed, cleared his throat and spoke into Vala's radio. "What she means is, we're not likely to find anything as old as the Ark this far from the old city. Have you and Mitchell and Teal'c finished scanning the main site for unstable rubble?"

"Almost done. You can head in soon and start on the temple. Maybe grab a bite before we start breaking rocks."

"Roger that," Vala said, taking a bite from the forgotten fruit and moving toward Daniel's face for another kiss, delighted that she'd bitten off more than she could chew.