A/N: Hello! Just a heads up, this is set around season five, just pre-official Shules. I'd say expect this to be only a few chapters, but every writer knows those are famous last words. We'll see! Hope you enjoy.
At the sight of the two Psych employees, Detective Lassiter sighed. "What are Spencer and Guster doing here?"
"Probably picking up their check from the Goldman case," Juliet said. "Or maybe they're getting assigned a new case?"
"We haven't even been assigned a new case."
Calling from across the room, Shawn corrected Juliet's previous statement. "I believe you mean the Kindergarten Cop case?" Now with the attention of the two detectives, he sauntered up to Juliet's desk, Gus in tow. "I know, speak of the devil, am I right?" He smirked at Lassiter. "Yes, we were picking up our paycheck, and no, we're not on a new case."
Juliet's eyes widened, while Lassiter's narrowed.
"While Gus has his super sniffer," Shawn explained, casting a glance at his best friend, "I have excellent hearing."
Gus said, "you do not. They were talking at a perfectly normal volume - the station is just extra quiet today."
"No fair, why can't I have a super sense?"
"Are you kidding me? You're a psychic, remember?"
Shawn rolled his eyes. "I know, but that's a sixth sense. I meant a heightened version of one of the five basic senses."
"Well, we can't pick our gifts, Shawn. Some of us can talk to spirits, and some of us can smell like a bear."
"A bear?"
"They have the best sense of smell of all land animals."
Lassiter cleared his throat, but before he could say anything insulting, Juliet cut him off. "So, is there anything else we can do for you today?" She smiled sweetly.
"Nope," Gus said. "We just came for the paycheck."
"Actually, Gus just came for the paycheck, I came for the paycheck and to ask the chief for the weekend off," said Shawn.
Lassiter didn't even bother to look up from the old file he was pretending to read in an attempt to ignore them. "That's not a problem considering you're not on a case right now, Spencer."
"Ah, yes, Lassie, but I had a vision this morning that we'd get a new case."
Against his better judgement, Lassiter took the bait. "Assuming you do, why do you need the weekend off?"
Shawn shrugged. "A little spirit birdie told me I'd be sick."
Juliet crossed her arms and leaned against her desk. "Uh huh...and this little spirit birdie, that has nothing to do with the barcade opening near Psych Saturday night?"
"No!" Shawn protested, with a fake laugh. "Of course not. But since you brought up - Jules, you wanna go to the barcade with me?"
This earned him a stern look from Gus.
"I thought you were going to be sick Saturday night," Juliet said.
Lassiter rolled his eyes. "Dare I ask what a 'barcade' is?" He said, putting air quotes around the word.
Shawn pretended to think. "Bar... Arcade..." He held out one hand, then the other, before clapping them together. "Barcade! Duh. It's pretty self explanatory if you ask me."
Juliet added, "It's basically Disneyland for grown ups."
"Uh, no," Shawn said. "Disneyland is Disneyland for grownups. But the barcade is a wonderful place to revisit all of your childhood favorite arcade games while drinking from an excellent variety of beers."
Lassiter put down the file and started walking back to his office, saying, "Spencer, I think your vision meant to tell that you would be hungover, not sick."
"That's a risk I'm willing to take, Lassie!" He waited until the detective was out of view before turning back to Juliet. "So, Jules, what do you say? The tokens are on me."
"Um..." She looked up in thought. "You know what, sure. Sounds fun."
"Great! How does eight o'clock sound to you?"
"Sounds like a date. Unless you're sick of course."
"Of course. Unless that. But you know, the spirits can be hard to read sometimes. Lassie might have been right."
"I'll have to tell him you said that. It'll make his day." She grinned at him, and found herself looking deeply into his eyes until Gus cleared his throat. "I'll see you Saturday. Bye, Gus."
"Goodbye, Juliet, always a pleasure to see you," Gus said before dragging Shawn away and hissing "I thought we were going to the barcade together!"
"Buddy, the barcade isn't going anywhere. You and I will totally go together. This way I'll scope out the best machines for us to play."
"Do you think they'll have Dig Dug?"
"Obviously. Don't sweat it, Gus. I took a shot and it paid off. Can you blame me?"
"No," he sighed. "But a little spirit birdie told me you owe me the first round of drinks when we go."
"Deal."
Gus unlocked the Blueberry and got into the driver's seat. Once Shawn was in the passenger seat, Gus turned on the engine and said, "I'd be careful if I were you."
"I know; Dance Dance Revolution can get pretty dicey after a few drinks, especially since I'm not a master dancer like you. I'll proceed with caution on all non-joystick games, promise."
Gus gave him a look meant to say really, Shawn? "I meant using the spirits as an excuse to play hooky. If you want to keep fooling people, maybe keep the spirits at bay when we're not on a case."
"So I lied about a psychic vision, what else is new? They knew I was just joking about that spirit birdie thing."
"Mmhmm," Gus said, unconvinced. "Just don't come crying to me when karma bites you in the ass."
"Karma swarma," Shawn waved him off. Then he gasped. "Hey! We should pick up some chicken shawarma!"
"Now, that's an idea I can get behind."
A/N: Thank you for reading! I've only just recently gotten into this show, so I hope I did a good job portraying the characters. Next chapter, we'll have the Shules date and the beginning of sick Shawn. Leave me a review if you enjoyed! Until next chapter, have an excellent week.
