Disclaimer: I don't own them, I didn't create them, and I don't profit from them, but if it was up to me our favorite non-couple would start the season opener with a serious lip lock (even if it turned out to be a dream sequence). ;) But I won't hold my breath.
Author's Note: This is dedicated to all of the fans of Bones and is a special present written especially to celebrate the beginning of Season 3.
Special Agent Seeley Booth was feeling particularly pleased with his choice in flashy socks as he strode into the Jeffersonian in search of his partner; they didn't really have a new case, but he'd realized he needed to follow up on some paperwork and today was exactly two years to the day since they'd started working together. He thought maybe in honor of their partnership he might convince her to go out for lunch. He strode purposefully towards her office and smirked as he noticed her hunched over her computer screen, "Hey, Bones."
Temperance Brennan's head popped up from behind her computer and gave him a quick glance before returning her attention to what she'd been working on, "Do we have a case?" She reasoned that if they did it was all the more reason to quickly finish what she was doing; her editor had been bothering her for another chapter of the book she was supposed to be working on and she was behind.
"We just need to review a couple of the reports and sign them," Booth slid the files onto her desk and then leaned a palm onto the surface as he craned his neck to see if he could catch a glimpse of what she was working on.
"Oh," Brennan was only half paying attention to Booth as she pursed her lips together and with furrowed brows, continued typing.
Booth's curiosity was definitely piqued; he'd never been able to get a preview of one of her novels before it came off the press and all of his super FBI spidey-sense was telling him that she had a work in progress on the other side of her desk, "Whatcha working on, Bones?"
She didn't even look up, "My book, my editor wanted another chapter last week and I've had writer's block." She wasn't about to mention to him that part of her writer's block had more to do with the irrational thoughts she'd been having about him lately. They were partners, nothing more; it made no sense that she would be having more fantasies about him than usual.
"Oh, am I in this one?" Booth knew that despite her protests that he was in fact the inspiration for her books' FBI leading hunk.
"No, this is fiction," Brennan glanced up at him with a slightly annoyed look on her face, "You're a real person."
"And this real person is hungry," Booth grinned, "C'mon, let me take you to lunch."
"Booth, I have to work on my book," There was the smallest of whines in her voice as she gestured back towards the computer; she knew she should probably take a break and eat something, but her editor had called three times in the last two days; she needed to give them something soon.
"You need to eat," Booth knew that she was stalling; she'd sit there all day and forget to eat if he let her and he wasn't about to let his favorite forensic anthropologist waste away to nothing because she couldn't remember to stop and eat like a normal person. He dangled the proverbial carrot in front of her nose, "I'll let you drive."
"Fine," She'd known him long enough to know if he was offering to let her drive that he really wanted her to do something, "But you still can't read my book."
Booth would drop the book for now, but he knew how to get a hold of her password; if he really wanted to read it, he would, not that he'd ever done it yet, but he could, "I wasn't asking."
Brennan looked at him a bit oddly as she shut her laptop and reached for her purse, "Why are you letting me drive then?" He knew that she was perfectly capable of driving so it annoyed her no end that he never let her do it; why he'd volunteer without a reason to let her drive, temporarily abandoning his alpha male tendencies was a mystery to her.
Booth arched his brows and smirked, "It's our anniversary, Bones."
"I'm sorry, what?" Brennan looked at him as if he'd actually grown a second head.
"Two years ago today we started working together...as partners," He suddenly realized that he sounded extremely sentimental and he half expected Bones to tell him that it wasn't rational to celebrate something as ordinary as a work arrangement.
Instead, she smirked at him, "I never realized just how sentimental and ritualistic you are; I suppose that this is important to you." If she was honest with herself, it was suddenly important to her as well and there was no anthropological reason she could offer to explain it either.
"Nah, I just thought, you and me, a little lunch...maybe you'd notice my socks," Booth offered her a cheesy grin as he lifted his pant leg to show off his latest sock acquisition.
Brennan snorted out a laugh, "They aren't even anatomically correct."
"They glow in the dark," Booth gave her one of those 'see what I mean' looks, "I wore them in honor of you." He gestured towards the socks, "See, Bones...bones." And there right on his feet were a pair of black socks adorned with bones in an argyle pattern.
"I suppose you have matching boxers that go with those," She recalled Sully making a big deal out of something similar when they'd been seeing each other; she hadn't been nearly as impressed as he thought she should have been.
Booth had a deer in the headlights look on his face, "You can't see them through my pants can you; because they're glow in the dark too." He looked genuinely worried about it for a fraction of a second.
For the second time in less than a minute, Brennan snorted out a laugh, "You do have matching boxers..." It was almost more than she could handle, "Let me see them." She wanted to see if they were the same set Sully had, but it didn't occur to her until the words were out of her mouth how it must sound.
"Bones!" Booth was definitely flattered that she wanted to see him in his underwear, but these weren't exactly the circumstances he'd had in mind; he was thinking that a little wine and candlelight might be involved.
Brennan felt her cheeks flush, but she quickly recovered, "It's not like I haven't seen men's underwear, I just want to see if they're anatomically correct." It was a bold face lie, but he didn't have to know that.
"I don't think anatomy is the problem," Booth puffed his chest out as he considered just which part of his anatomy was going to be seriously compromised if he agreed to her ridiculous request that he had secretly fantasized about for months now.
"Then let me see them," Brennan quirked a single eyebrow at him and then crossed her arms over her chest, "I can just stay here and work on my book you know." She had no explanation for why this was suddenly more important than driving Booth's SUV or eating lunch.
Booth stared her down for a good minute with his hands on his hips and she simply stared right back at him. When she turned away, Booth thought he'd won, until she went back to her desk and opened her laptop. He knew when he was beat, "Fine."
Brennan glanced over her shoulder with a smirk, "Fine?"
"Yes, fine, but hurry up, I don't want the entire lab to see me showing you my underwear," Booth couldn't believe that she'd talked him into this and as she walked back over towards him he quickly unfastened his belt and unzipped his pants to give her a peak of his glowing bones boxers, "There." With a quick flash, he reached for his zipper to pull it back up.
"I hardly saw anything," Brennan reached over to pull at his fly so she could actually see the boxers rather than Booth's hands blocking his boxers.
Booth thought she seemed to study them for a long time; long enough to make him uncomfortable, "See anything you like down there?" It was a legitimate question given how long she seemed to be staring.
"They're not glowing," Brennan seemed disappointed.
At this point, Booth could have easily zipped his pants back up and they could have gone on their merry way to lunch with no one the wiser to the little exchange that had just occurred. Could have that is because Angela Montenegro just happened to walk into Brennan's office to ask her a question just as Brennan was trying to get a better look at Booth's underwear. Her mouth was agape and it took her a moment to find her words, "Well, this is certainly interesting; did I interrupt something or do you two need to get a room?"
"I was just looking at Booth's new boxers," Brennan wanted to clarify that nothing sexual was going on here; at least outside of her mind that is.
"Do you inspect all of Booth's new underwear, or just these?" Angela was perfectly delighted and she firmly planted herself in the doorway of Brennan's office to ensure that she got every single little juicy detail that these two would no doubt try and deny.
"Bones does not inspect my underwear," Booth quickly refastened his pants and buckled his belt; this was very quickly turning into one of his top ten most embarrassing moments.
"But she'd like to, wouldn't you, Bren?" Angela arched her brow suggestively; she knew the truth even if these two were in complete denial.
Brennan hissed at her friend, "Angela." What they talked about in private and what Angela chose to postulate about was one thing, but she did not want her to do it in front of Booth.
"Hey, I wasn't the one trying to get in Agent Hot Stuff's pants," Angela smirked even as both Brennan and Booth seemed to glare at her.
"She wasn't in my pants," Booth sputtered, "Ok, so technically she was in my pants, but not the way you're talking about." Angela could be so infuriating; here he trying to take his Bones to lunch to celebrate the anniversary of their partnership and Angela was trying to make it sound dirty. Well, actually his thoughts had drifted there a couple of hundred times in the last few minutes; especially as he silently prayed that she would keep her hands in a very neutral zone as she inspected his glowing underwear.
"Sure, you just keep telling yourself that, Seeley," Seeing at how flustered her favorite non-couple were, Angela reasoned that her work was done for the moment and she turned and walked away without another word.
It took a moment before either of them said anything and then Booth cleared his throat, "Lunch?" He was trying to act nonchalant, but he certainly didn't feel it after all of that.
"Uh, yeah," Brennan was mulling over everything that Angela had implied and it finally occurred to her that she really wouldn't mind inspecting more of Booth's underwear and a few other things too. They walked toward the garage without saying much of anything each of them sort of lost in their own thoughts. It wasn't until Booth handed her the keys to his SUV that a smirk finally flitted across her face, "So do they really glow in the dark?"
Booth felt suddenly emboldened at her question, "I guess you'll just have to find out for yourself," To his surprise, she smiled mischievously and that gave him a small glimmer of hope that maybe lunch wasn't the only way they'd be celebrating their anniversary.
The End