Title: Childhood Indulgences

Author: SplishySplash, Ihave207Bones

Pairing: Booth/Brennan

Spoiler: Hero in the Hold

Rating: K

Summary: His smile softened as he leaned back on his forearms. "I'm alright, Bones." He said. "How about you, how are you feeling?" It was both of their first day back to work, making both slightly nervous. Booth and Brennan take Sweets advice on relieving stress.

Booth had decided to walk to the Jeffersonian, which wasn't an uncommon occurrence. It was the first sunny day in March and the sun was high in the sky bringing its warmth and bright blue sky along with it. As he walked along the sidewalk a spring came to his step and because in the three days since he was taken by the gravedigger, his wounds had faded and now he had a new reverence for life.

As he neared the building, a familiar figure walked out of the building and sat on the steps with a small round bottle in their hands. He stopped at watched for a moment as the lid slid off the top of the bottle and found its way to the step as their long dainty fingers slid in to the opening and pulled out a bright magenta colored bubble wand.

The wand was brought up slowly to their lips as it dripped onto the ground and a swarm of bubbles escaped from the hole, surrounding the figure whose smile shone brightly on her face. She brought the wand back to her lips and released a second horde of bubbles before he caught her attention, she waved him over and placed her hands into her lap.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, placing the bottle of bubbles down as he took a seat next to her as her hand went to his face to examine the cut that was left by shrapnel.

His smile softened as he leaned back on his forearms. "I'm alright, Bones." He said. "How about you, how are you feeling?" It was both of their first day back to work, making both slightly nervous.

"I'm alright, Booth." She reciprocated before picking up the bubbles and allowing for them to escape from the wand by the thousands. He watched as they flew down the steps, on to the side walk before one by one popping.

She dipped the wand into the bottle and blew at it slowly, allowing it to expand to a larger bubble before releasing it and it too disappeared. His curiosity got the best of him as he watched more bubbles fly across the veranda. "What are you doing?"

"Blowing bubbles." She answered, her smile turning coy.

"That's not what I meant." He said, bumping her with his shoulder. "Why are you blowing bubbles?"

She didn't answer at first only surrounding them with the soapy weightless mass. "Because."

"Because why?" He asked with a smile, it wasn't often that she was acting childish.

She sighed and set them down, allowing for all the bubbles to disappear. "When I was a child, before my parents left and before I was in the foster system, I loved to blow bubbles and when I was upset about something Max would take me outside and we would blow bubbles until it would look like it was snowing." She explained looking into her hands, suddenly looking uncomfortable. "Sweets suggested doing something that we enjoyed during our childhood would help coping with the stress of the. . ." Her voice cracked.

He took the bottle from her hand and set it on the other side of him and enveloped her into a hug. Her arms circle his waist and her head rested on his chest, listening to the rhythmic beating of his heart. One of his hands rested on her back as the other one rested in her auburn hair as their knees touched in the middle. He held her contently until he heard her sniffle and he moved his hand to cup her cheek, to see that her eyes were as bright as ever and a small smile rested on her lips. "It has helped you know, blowing bubbles." She commented as she turned to grab the bottle that had been pushed behind them.

"Really?" Booth asked surprised, she didn't often listen to the young psychologist let alone sell his remedy for stress.

"Don't believe me?" She asked with a raised brow and her eyes sparkling with amusement as she opened the lid, pulling out a blue wand and handed in to him. "You're in luck, I have an extra wand."

The extra soap dripped onto the ground between his legs as he gave her one of his charm smiles before bringing it up to his lips and exhaled through pursed lips causing the bubbles to be freed and float across the steps. She watched the bubbles float and pop before she too brought it up to her lips, doubling the bubbles that surrounded them.

They stopped and allowed for the bubbles to disappear. He held open his mouth to allow one to pop in his mouth, gaining a giggle from Brennan. "You're not supposed to eat them, it's a mixture of soap and water. You can get sick if you ingest too much of it." She said as if she was talking to a child, his smile grew wider.

"Where did you find these?" He asked surprised that they tasted different from when he was a child, dipping the wand back into the bottle and blowing more bubbles, before pulling the bottle out of her hand and pointing to the small print on the front. "They are non-toxic Bones, the ones I used as a kid probably was full of lead and asbestos."

She huffed at his incorrect information. "They also say use under adult supervision." She said taking the bottle back and shoving the wand back inside. "I don't want to hear it if you get sick."

He shrugged it was a chance he was willing to take as he let another one pop on his tongue. "You never answered my question, where did you get these?"

"They were sitting on Sweets' desk." She answered in between streams of bubbles. Booth stopped and watched her for a moment longer with an incredulous look on his face. "What?"

"Did you steal them from him?" He asked in shock, she shrugged not answering his question, only surrounding them with more bubbles and a chuckle escaped his lips. She stopped and looked at the bottle in her hand and tilted her head to the side like she did when she was examining a set of remains. "What is it?"

Her eyes met his and she smiled brighter. "I don't know how accurate the name Gazillion bubbles is." She said gaining a bump from Booth as they broke out into laughter.

*~*

Sweets' day wasn't going too well.

After a rough start of waking up late, burning himself with coffee, ruining his favorite shirt and spilling toothpaste on his favorite tie, he was not in the mood to deal with the mountains of paperwork that set on his desk. The majority of the paperwork repeated itself with the same two names: Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan, the cost of being kidnapped and stealing evidence and the FBI expected a full report on the incident before the end of the week.

He sat at his desk and work diligently through the pile of paper until his stomach rumbled signaling that he had missed lunch and with a sigh, he pushed back from his desk and stood up, surveying his work. Something was missing and he couldn't place his finger on it, he concluded as put his jacket on and left his office.

He strolled lazily down the street after stopping at his favorite hot dog stand that stood near the Jeffersonian and as he looked for a bench to sit down on he saw to figures sitting on the stairs. The first smile of the day crept up on to his face at the man and woman surrounded by clear bubbles in a carefree manner and their laugh echoing down the street.

Sweets stopped, his jaw dropping slightly as he sat on bench. Sitting on the massive steps was the two people he recognized, none other than the familiar names of the people in his mountain of paperwork. He watched as Brennan blew a large bubble and before she could free it from its prison Booth took his wand and pulled it from hers. She tried to frown, amusement evident on her face, as he blew a bubble inside of hers.

She took her finger and poked it before Booth could finish causing it to pop and splash up into the agents face. So in retaliation he took the sleeve of her over shirt and tried to wipe his face on it, bringing a very un-Brennan like squeal as tried to shift away from him, but was pinned to the railing.

Brennan gave him a shrug and he stopped before pulling his wand and blowing bubbles in her ear. She flinched as the suds made contact with her skin and her hand immediately went to her ear to block the attack as the other one pushed his again, causing the wand to fall out of his hands and on to the pavement. He frowned and did what was called the 'puppy dog' look, gaining another shove from the anthropologist.

Sweets smiled as he watched the interaction between the partners as if it was choreographed as she glared at him, the bottle of bubbles forgotten between them as Booth picked up his red tie and wiped the side of her face with it. She smiled softly and her eyes fluttered closed when his tie was replaced by his lips.

The hot dog that was in his hand fell onto the side walk as his jaw dropped again, it was something that he had predicted would happen because of the emotional trauma that had occurred to any other set of partners in the world, but not these two, they worked outside of statistics.

The partners froze suddenly and looked nervously at their respective hands before Brennan said something, bringing another smile on the agents face before they both stood up. She didn't move as he ran down the steps and throwing the now empty bottle into the recycle bin before trotting up the stairs, his hand going to the small of her back like normal and the pair disappeared into the building.

Sweets stood up with a giddy smile as he had just witnessed the single most important evidence for his book, as if everything fell into place making his day better. He reached down to the ground and picked up the paper tray that once surrounded his hot dog, which had magically disappeared and with a spring in his step he tossed it into the same garbage, taking note of the blue bottle inside.

"Hey, those were my bubbles." He said to himself as his attention turned back to the door where they had disappeared.