Title: Surprise Parties
Summary: Mark has a particular affliction for surprise parties, and Lexie forces the story out of him.
Couples: Mark/Lexie!
Author's Note: I am working on the other story, I swear, but this was to tempting to pass up!

[ SURPRISE PARTIES ]

"So," Lexie said, her voice surprisingly teasing as she leaned against the bed, half-dressed and eying him with an amused expression on her face. Before she had the chance to finish her words, his shirt was off, thrown on the bed, and she, by habit, picked it up and pulled it over her bra, allowing it to hang loosely around her torso. "Do you want to explain your problem with surprise parties?"

Going to the gym every Sunday with him was clearly doing its job. As he stood in front of the bed, shirt off, he smirked. "I could tell you," he grunted as he stretched his way onto the bed next to her. He, too, leaned his back against the baseboard, his face planted a mere few inches from hers. "But, I don't want to." That said, he flipped over, curled the covers around his shoulders, and shut off the lamp with a satisfactory click.

She smacked him lightly on the arm. "Come on," she said, leaning over him, not to turn on the light - her eyes had long since adjusted - but to wrap one arm around him, the other in his hair. "Please? Please, please, please?"

"You sound like you're four." Nonetheless, he rolled over obligingly to glare at her in disapproval. "You can't hazard a guess for yourself? I mean, come on. You saw Arizona's party tonight. Hell, she cried."

"Well, yeah," Lexie admitted, as her hand gently trailed the contours of his face. "But her- her patient died, that's a big deal."

"It is," he relented. "But it would have failed anyway. Surprise parties are breeding ground for failure. You really want fifty people to jump at you screaming?" He shook his head. "It's like a damn haunted house. Without zombies." Smirking, he paused. "Well, Avery, after his fifth glass of God-knows-what, was a little zombie-ish."

She laughed softly. "Okay, I agree..."

"Woah, stop the train. Did Little Grey just agree with Doctor Sloan on something?"

"I-I resent that," she stammered, but her face softened. "Yeah. Well, I do agree..."

"So I heard. Say it a third time, and I'll whip out my phone to record it."

"I do agree, but that doesn't mean that you didn't have some kind of experience. And I want to hear about it." She propped herself up on one elbow, her brown hair falling neatly over her shoulders. In his Mark-Sloan-way, he eyed her and grinned.

"What's in it for me?" She leaned a little closer, so that her mouth was directly over his ear.

"The joy of seeing your girlfriend happy." It was a ploy, a trick; she knew he couldn't say anything to that one.

"I have different ways of making you happy." Up went one eyebrow, down went the other.

"You mean like shaving?" she teased, running her hand along his smooth jaw. "Because I have to say, I like the new look."

"I'm not talking about shaving." His voice was gruff. She didn't relent. "Fine. But it's not very interesting."

"I don't care." He raised an eyebrow in skepticism, so she felt the need emphasise. "I don't. I like hearing about your childhood. I-I like hearing about how you became this guy I met at the hospital a few months ago."

"Eight," he said, then shook his head, his eyes unmeeting to her surprised ones. "All right. For my fourteenth birthday, Derek's mother planned this whole surprise birthday party for me, and Derek..." He shook his head, mumbled something incomprehensible.

"Derek what?" she pressed.

"Nothing."

"Finish the story!" She tapped his shoulder again.

"'s embarrasing." This made her all the more curious.

"I'm sure it's not."

"It is." But he rolled his eyes anyway. "Derek got rid of Mrs. Shepherd and we played... games..."

"Like Monopoly?" she offered helpfully. He smirked.

"Yeah, let's call it Monopoly. And... Derek got his first kiss, but-none-of-the-girls-wanted-to-kiss-me," he said in a rush of words. Pushing back the urge to giggle, she stared at him deftly.

"That could have happened at any party," she pointed out.

"They didn't want to kiss me..." he mumbled. "Because, after they yelled surprise, I had to go change my pants." Shaking his head, he added, "Scared the shit out of me. Literally."

She didn't want to say anything cutesy or sympathetic, aware that he'd pull away. Instead, she reached out her hand again to stroke at his hair, a habit of hers whenever things turned bad. Over his head, she did smirk quickly, but recovered in time to look into his eyes in defiance. "I would have kissed you."

"You wouldn't have wanted to kiss me." As if proving him wrong, she leaned forward and kissed him gently.

"Based on the way you kiss? Yes, I would have."

"I crapped my pants, Grey."

"It could have happened to anyone."

"Mark Sloan crapped his pants and had to change because a few people yelled 'surprise!' You really think you'd want to have some one-on-one time with me after that?"

"Yes," she said simply. "Because you're you, and that's all I've ever asked for." There was silence for a while as he took his opportunity to play with her hair. Finally, laughing a little to himself, he smiled again.

"Damn, the weirdest things turn you on." After being sympathetic, this response was, apparently, unsatisfactory. She smacked him a third time.

"I can't be nice to you!" He winked.

"No, you can't." In case she didn't understand his meaning, he added, "Not in bed, anyway."

"I'm done talking to you."

"Little Grey..."

"I love you," she blurted out, an accident of the sorts. Almost immediately, she regretted her words, praying that he wouldn't run...

Plop. His head had disappeared from view, now immersed within his pillows. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn he was blushing. "Yeah." He cleared his throat, and, he hoped, the awkwardness in the air. "You, too."

Crisis averted. "You, too, what?" she teased.

"I l-" He propped himself up on an elbow again, looke at her with as much defiance as he could muster, and said, his voice surprisingly clear, "I... that you, too."

"You what me, too?" She was being cruel.

"I l-love you, too, damn it!" His words out in a rushed growl, he hurried one hand to the back of her head, pulled her close, and kissed her fiercely. Some time later, after all was said and done,and the two tried to sleep, Lexie could have sworn she could hear him mumble, almost incoherently, into his hair.

"I was supposed to say it first." Then, "Damn Derek and that damn surprise party."