Disclaimer: I don't own them, I didn't create them, and I certainly don't profit from them; however, if it were up to me, the writer's strike would have never happened and we'd have had the best season of Bones ever, post kiss of course, even if they were sailing the ship Denial.
Author's Note: I couldn't get Booth's socks out of my mind and then I wondered what might happen if Brennan had a need to wear a pair of them, and of course my mojo decided to take a trip to Fluffland and here we are. Enjoy. Dedicated to Ashley just because she rocks.
It might have happened after the kiss underneath the mistletoe in Brennan's office if they hadn't had an audience in the form of Caroline Julian and if both of them hadn't clearly been in denial. Anyone who would seriously compare that kiss to a kiss you might share with your brother was most definitely not in touch with their inner feelings unless they suffered from other more serious neurosis and in this case that was definitely not the case.
New Year's Eve might have been another opportunity had both Booth and Brennan not been called away from Angela and Hodgins' party to investigate some remains found floating in the Tidal Basin in front of the Jefferson Memorial by some year end revelers. Any mood that one Angela Montenegro might have been trying to create so that her favorite non-couple might become an actual couple at the stroke of midnight certainly couldn't survive something like that. Well if Brennan had caught the mood it might have survived, but Booth definitely wasn't in any kind of mood except a foul one after seeing just how decomposed that particular set of remains was and the fact that said remains had been sealed up in a container for some time during decomposition making it smell something akin to hell just added to how much it ruined his New Year's Eve.
So who knew that an ordinary day in January and a misstep right into a puddle could be a catalyst for something that many people not only saw coming a long way off, but some had thought had actually happened quite some time ago?
"I didn't see the puddle myself, so how in the world could I have warned you about it, Bones?" Booth was only slightly annoyed at his partner as they dodged raindrops and ducked into his building. They had a pile of paperwork to finish up and Booth had suggested they go to his place, order some take out and at least relax while they were doing it. He hadn't anticipated a downpour between his SUV and the entrance to his apartment building.
"My feet are soaked," Brennan wasn't usually one to pout, but then again, she was usually prepared for weather and unforeseen circumstances. The day had been long enough already without having to look forward to spending the evening at Booth's working on paperwork with wet feet.
"Well then just take your shoes and socks off; they should dry by the time I take you home," Booth rolled his eyes ever so slightly as he unlocked the door to his apartment and gestured for Bones to go in ahead of him. Why she was making a big deal out of this he wasn't sure, but maybe it was just a sign that they'd both been under a little extra pressure of late. Oh, it wasn't that work was any different than usual and if he really thought about it he might see that they both seemed to be a bit more keyed up after that kiss they'd shared under the mistletoe, but since the kiss meant absolutely nothing, clearly that wasn't the cause; couldn't be.
"But my feet are cold," There was a distinct whine in Brennan's voice, but rightfully so because it was completely logical that wet feet in January in Washington, DC, would in fact be cold.
"You ever hear of socks, Bones?" Booth nearly snorted out a laugh that time. He had a solution for her problem if she would just stop stating the obvious and think outside the box a little. At least she hadn't tripped in the aforementioned stealth puddle and drenched a $1200 suit that he wasn't even sure his dry cleaners were going to be able to help.
"Mine are wet," Brennan wondered if he'd been listening; clearly if her feet were wet, that he should be able to conclude that both her shoes and socks were wet also. Even Booth should have been able to appreciate the logic of that.
"Well, I'm all wet, so if you'll excuse me for a minute, I'd like to change," Booth set the files down on his way to his bedroom and he hadn't been in there very long when he got a rather unexpected surprise. Just as he was pulling up his skivvies, Bones walked right in on him and nearly scared him right back out of them.
"Can I borrow a pair of socks?" Brennan couldn't help but take note of exactly how well structured her partner was standing there in nothing but his undies and she was sure that she was probably staring given the rather shocked look on Booth's face.
"Have you ever heard of knocking?" Booth couldn't seem to thread his legs into his jeans in the correct order with Bones standing there staring at him and he nearly tripped before he could get them on; damn distracting woman.
"I didn't think you would be naked," Of course he wasn't exactly naked, but in her mind he might as well have been.
"This is not naked, Bones," Booth had half a mind to show her exactly what naked was, but he was fairly certain that she was familiar with the concept. Besides that might actually provide some credence to that kiss they'd shared under the mistletoe nearly a month before and he couldn't possibly be thinking about that; not with the word naked flying around the room.
With Booth's chest just staring at her, Brennan was having difficulty gathering up a group of words and stringing them together to make a single rational thought, "The sex." She stuttered, "The socks, I mean, the socks." For some reason she was beginning to think that she would certainly prefer to go barefoot for the rest of the evening if it meant she could have Booth help warm up her feet by starting with the rest of her.
"Sex. Right." He shook his head to try and clear his thoughts. "No. Socks," Booth was beginning to pick up that Bones was thinking about exactly what he was thinking about and he was definitely considering making it a reality; what with the way she was looking at him with more than a hint of mischief in her eyes.
"No. Sex." Brennan threw all pretense of rational thought out the proverbial back door as she launched herself at Booth, knocking him onto his bed and meeting his lips in a rather feisty kiss; just like a kiss that she had replayed in her mind countless times since Carolyn Julian had pushed Booth right at her underneath the damn mistletoe.
Booth was taken by surprise for a fraction of a second before he returned her kiss with gusto; only barely cognizant of the fact that Bones was doing her best to help him out of the jeans that he'd just pulled on. By the time he'd reciprocated the gesture neither one of them was thinking about anything else but personifying the word naked and all that it entailed and in the process answering age old questions like boxers or briefs and sexy or sensible.
It was much later when the pair, who had completely forgotten about the mountain of paperwork they'd brought with them, lay all tangled up together in the chaos that was Booth's comforter in the satisfaction that this was pretty damn close to perfect.
Brennan glanced down at her feet and a smirk flitted across her face, "Thanks for the socks, Booth." She had gotten cold after they'd finally come back down from orbit and she'd taken great pleasure in taking in the firm structure of his ass as he'd gotten out of bed and fished out a pair of his wildest socks for her from his dresser before climbing back in next to her.
"Anytime, Bones," Booth was still smiling and thinking that this was exactly what he'd been thinking about since he'd been pushed under that mistletoe and he certainly hoped that this was going to become a regular occurrence, oh maybe for the next fifty or sixty years.
"Does that go for the sex too, because as much as I'm enjoying the socks, the sex was far more enjoyable," Brennan was ready to launch into a rational explanation that two such sexually compatible people who were clearly very good in bed should not squander something as amazing as this was.
Booth shut her up with a kiss.
The End.