CRAVE
Summary: Bones has a craving that she just has to satisfy and Booth is there to witness it. I don't own anything, especially not the characters of Booth and Brennan (although I'd really love to have my own knight in shining FBI armor) so please don't sue me for borrowing them for a bit.
"Ah ha! I found it."
"You know, Bones, you really should not use the phrase 'ah ha'." Booth used his fingers to mimic quotation marks and emphasize his point. "It makes you sound even more like a geek than you usually do."
"What? It's a simple exclamation and an appropriate response. I was worried that Angela might have eaten the last of my secret sash. I'm already down to my last chocolate bar."
"Secret sash? You mean 'secret stash', Bones." This time he didn't bother with the air quotes. Sometimes it just wasn't worth the effort.
"What? Oh."
She barely looked up from the candy and he was sure that she was too distracted by it to learn his latest lesson in pop culture and common phrases. He thought briefly about repeating himself but dismissed the idea - it required too much effort and offered too little in return. She would just have to continue to refer to the middle drawer of her desk as her 'secret sash.' Besides, if he continued to discuss the treats that she had been hoarding, he might slip and let on that Angela hadn't been the only person raiding her 'sash'.
"Okay, Bones, you've got your fix. Now, can you eat it while we make our way over to the diner so that I can get something real to eat."
He held back a smile as she made a face at him and remained seated. The rumbling in his stomach would normally make him less tolerant of her defiance, but he knew that she was only reacting to his jibe at her weakness.
"So, Booth, you're trying to tell me that you never get cravings. You've never wanted something so much and known that nothing else will satisfy you?"
"I eat because I'm hungry - because I need sustenance - because I need nutrients to fuel my body. As long as the food is good, then I'm good."
"But, you've never wanted something so badly that no matter what else you try, you're still hungry?"
"No…"
"Because, you know," she interrupted, "it's been proven that it's better to satisfy the craving then to deny it. That if I didn't allow myself this little pleasure," she held up the still partially wrapped chocolate bar, "I would continue to feel this need for something more. If I just went and had a salad then I wouldn't be satisfied and then I would have a slice of pie, but then that wouldn't be enough and I might even have a doughnut with my coffee later. And you know what?"
She looked at him triumphantly and then returned her focus to the prize in her hands. He didn't bother to answer her question, knowing that she would probably interrupt him anyway.
"I would still eat this chocolate bar after all of that. So instead, I'm going to eat my chocolate bar and enjoy it."
She broke a square off and dropped it in her mouth. Her eyes closed and her head tipped back slightly as she savored the taste and he could almost imagine the chocolate melting on her tongue. He cleared his throat and tried to pull his mind away from its thoughts of her tongue and things melting on it.
"I don't know, Bones, I'm just not that big a fan of chocolate."
"It doesn't have to be chocolate to be a craving, although chocolate is one of the leading substances that is craved worldwide. There's a scientific reason for it."
"Of course there is." He watched a long, slender finger disappear between her slightly moistened lips. A slight tightening in his groin warned him to shift his attention from her lips to her eyes before he was lost in his imaginings of their warmth. Thankfully, she continued her lecture and he tried to focus on her words instead of the lips that were forming them.
"No, really, Booth. Studies show that the intake of chocolate is linked with the release of serotonin in the brain and elevated serotonin levels lead to pleasure."
"I don't live in a cave, Bones. I've heard that before, but I've just never found eating chocolate to be that pleasurable. Don't get me wrong - I'm always up for a scoop of chocolate fudge ripple, but I wouldn't let it replace other, more pleasurable activities."
She had dropped another square in her mouth and her only response was an "mmm" as her eyes closed again. He watched, entranced, as her throat shifted and she swallowed.
"Maybe you're not doing it right," she added, breaking another piece off. "There is a report that shows that part of the pleasure that comes from eating chocolate is because it melts at a temperature just slightly below human body temperature."
She paused to savor yet another piece and he thought about interrupting her diatribe on the proper way to eat chocolate but found that he couldn't. He was too enthralled with his watching to interrupt or distract from it in any way.
"Melting chocolate in your mouth can cause an increase in brain activity and heart rate that is more intense than the increase caused by passionate kissing."
"Well, then, you're just not doing it right." He had to interrupt now because he really couldn't handle watching her mouth while she talked about passionate kissing and all he could imagine was the taste of the chocolate that he knew he would find when his lips met hers.
If… if his lips met hers, not when. Definitely not when.
"And, the study showed that the effects lasted up to four times longer."
"Now I know that you really can't be doing it right."
He leaned forward and snapped a piece of chocolate from her fingers just before she could slip it into her mouth.
"Now, who has a craving?"
She smirked at him knowingly although she was completely unknowing. The chocolate was definitely not going to satisfy his craving; it was only a poor substitute. The flash of a suggestion entered his mind and this time he didn't instantly deny it.
"You know, Bones, I just don't think that chocolate is going to satisfy the craving that I have."
He moved the dark square closer to her mouth and she opened her lips invitingly. He dropped the chocolate in her mouth and her lips brushed his fingertips softly. Unable to suffer her temptation any longer, he pulled his fingers away.
She swallowed and smiled. "But, I thought you didn't have cravings, Booth? That food was just a form of sustenance for your body?"
He ignored the mocking tone of her voice, straightened and moved away from her desk.
"I didn't say that I didn't know what it was like to crave something. It just happens to be that the something that I crave isn't food." He opened the door to her office. "Now, Bones, can we please eat."
After all, he couldn't ignore all of his body's needs.
A/N: Okay, so I have to admit that this little bit was inspired by a car commercial. Not that I often use commercials for inspiration and not that I plan to do so more often in the future, but I wouldn't mind knowing what you thought. So, please review. And for those of you reading my other fic - To Hell and Back - it's not abandoned and not forgotten, just lost somewhere between hell and back. Thanks for reading, Scarlet.