Hi! This story is the only one I managed to finish lately, so I decided -obviously- to publish it.
It's based purely on one phrase Brennan said during the season premier.
It's not much, it's not really very exciting, it's not well written and it hasn't been proof-read, so grammar and spelling mistakes are highly possible. Last, but not least, one may say Booth is slightly out of character (LOL, I love when people say that and Booth ends up dressed as a Geisha singing Roxettes' Spending my time in a public library out of his own volition, meaning not undercover).
I'm giving you fair warning, you read at your own risk. I would still love it if you did, though.
Disclaimer: Bones is not mine. Neither is Booth, which I deeply resent.
She sipped her beer. It was cold and fresh, a little bitter as any good beer should. However, the taste went unnoticed. She had spent a few minutes now sitting in the darkness of her livingroom. Her eyes were open but out of focus. Her attention was undivided, concentrated on her thought alone.
It might have been that he just asked. He almost never asked for anything. Most of the time, she imposed on him. Whitout any external sign of of her own rectification, she told herself that it wasn't quite imposing. She simply made sure to be there when she thought he might need company. Which was something she had learned from him.
Anyway, this time, it was because he asked. He looked at her and plainly asked. And it wasn't that she was powerless to resist his requests. Truth was, she really did want to fulfil them. She liked to help. She liked to know that things could be better if she just did what he asked her to do. It didn't matter if it was standing in second line when he got his certification or trying Sundays instead of drinks after a case.
It was, she concluded, purely because he asked and she liked to help. It was not a big deal. It was just the way things were. The way they were. She sipped her beer. It was the kind of thing that made them them.
So when he asked, she agreed. In the middle of the sidewalk, at equal distance from their cars, she agreed. Because she wanted to help.
_______________
"Hey, Bones?" He called after she had taken only one step away from him.
She turned, not really surprised. It was something she was used to. He called her and then made a final joke as they went separate ways. She waited for it, giving him no verbal reply.
"Would yo do me a favor?" He asked after some hesitation, his hands buried deep in his pockets.
She frowned a little, trying to decipher if he was serious or the joke was coming shortly "Sure"
Booth's head tilted to the left and his shoulders raised "It's not really a favor... it's something you owe me"
He seemed a little bashful, she realized, which didn't fit his nature. She pondered what she could owe him, but nothing came to mind. "Ok..."
He looked away, to the street, and his gaze followed a car that passed by "You owe me a kiss" He said, only looking at her once the phrase was out.
Her jaw dropped just a millimeter or two, but her eyes remained motionless. She had learned that it was best not to look too shocked when he said things like that. If she let the surprise show on her face, he would say something in the line of in an atta-girl kind of way. "A kiss? I owe you a kiss?" She managed to voice in a very steady tone.
"Yes" Was the quick and assertive answer he gave.
Brennan could only think of the Museum, the Egyptian Exhibit and the situation that hadn't involved a kiss.
His expression was starting to change into one of those she had trouble reading and she tought he might say forget it.
He didn't say that. Instead, Booth clarified "You offered to kiss my forehead"
She relaxed and smiled, which relaxed him too. She remembered, she had offered him a kiss. She nodded and her lips tugged to the right.
"You're right, I do owe you" She said. She was not quite sure he meant it as a banter anymore, but if he did, he was waiting for her to either dismiss him or take him up on it. She decided to raise the bet, though he didn't bet anymore, because the kissing-on-different-parts-of-the-face thing reminded her of Caroline. It was harmless and humorous "Do you want me to kiss your nose too?"
Booth's eyebrows shot up "Sure" He replied faster than before.
The crooked smile was still on her face as she pondered. It was probably a banter, but he was, or at least had been for the past half hour, a little bit down, therefor it was also possible that he needed comfort. Either way, a couple of kisses were the least she could do. Because A) he asked –which was enough-, B) she liked to help - either by humoring him or actually comforting- and C) he always humored her when she was capricious.
And without much further ado, she took a step forward. Regardless her high heels, she had to stand on the tip of her toes and, to steady herself, she placed both hands on his shoulders. He bowed his head and she lifted hers. She saw him close his eyes, but she kept hers open. Her lips were a little tense because she couldn't stop smiling and she made an effort to actually shape them into a kiss and let them softly touch his forehead.
It wasn't that she didn't expect to feel tingly. She was aware of her reactions to physical contact with Booth. She just wasn't expecting it to be so strong.
She had to refocus, take her mind away from her body's signals and move down to his nose. She hadn't stopped smiling, but now it was a coy half smile, much harder to keep under control than a regular smile. She managed once again, and her lips formed a kiss that rested on the bridge of his nose. Perhaps for an extra millisecond. Perhaps because the tingling spreading from her lower back to her belly had distracted her.
It was only a millisecond, nothing that she couldn't cover up. Nothing that didn't fall into their usual interaction. They were always standing a little too close, talking a little to low, staring a little too much. She had learned to live with the tingle all those things provoked , to let the awkward moments afterwords pass and die down.
So she simply brought her head back to its natural position, let her arms fall, shifted her jaw to the right to minimize the shy grin that crept onto her face, kept her body still through the shivers and directed him a brightly eyed look.
"Debt sealed?" She asked, keeping the atmosphere light.
He smiled at her, with his eyes narrowed and his forehead a little wrinkled. It was the kind of expression she never quite understood.
Then it happened. Then he leaned forward and kissed her. On the lips. He closed his lips on hers, delicately. Without any warning. He just did it. It was a nothing of a kiss, not one second long, not sexy, simply his lips on hers. And he backed away, gave her his most charming grin, beaming eyes included, and walked away. To his car. No word was spoken. He simply drove away.
She was left on the middle of the sidewalk. Like a dear caught in the headlights. Jaw dropped, eyes rounded, arms dead at her sides. She could not move, nor speak, nor do anything. She was there, alone and with an overload of things, feelings, thoughts she could not name, label or comprehend.
She in that state, on the same spot for... she couldn't say how long. At one point she was able to leave. To get into her car and drive home.
_______________
She sipped her beer. It had happened. That was the sequence of events. Because he asked and she agreed. Now she was stunned, with the bottle in her hand and those... sensations. Her stomach flattened and rolled onto itself and electricity all over. Her arms, her toes, her face, her back, her thighs, her fingers, her neck. In her chest, on her chest, in her belly. All over.
And for the life of hers, she could not think of a reason other than... he had asked and she had agreed.
But then he had acted, without asking.
Had she been Cam, she would have kissed back. Had she been Angela, she would have wrapped her arms around him and sucked the life out of him. But, she told herself, she was Brennan.
If he had pushed her against the wall and then kissed her, she would have know how to react. Plain arousal was something she could handle, it had to do with instincts and instincts alone.
But Booth's twinkling eyes, charming smile and soft lips, god, his soft lips.... the undying electricity that rushed through her and made her aware of every single cell of her body, every square inch of her skin, every organ, every everything.... they were something different.
Her head finally moved and she blinked.
It was something different.
It was something different. It was not one of those things that made them them. She frowned. It was something else. He hadn't punched her shoulder, made a joke or any of the things she thought he should have done if he didn't mean...
As the beer warmed up and with her pupils completely dilated –due to the darkness that surrounded her, of course-, Brennan realized that Booth had kissed her. In a non partner-like, nor friend-like, not even them-like manner.
That's it. I hope you liked it. Let me know either way, OK? Otherwise, curiosity kills me. I prefer knowledge to uncertainty.