Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I hope everyone enjoys this one as well. Personally, I had fun writing it, so maybe you guys will have fun with it, too. I hope so, anyway. Longer than the last one, hope no one minds. Not proofread...those who have read me before know that I'm just lazy :-) Thoughts, comments, and threats of physical violence (provided there is no real physical harm) are always accepted. Hope you enjoy it!

About twenty minutes later, Booth was standing in Temperance's office. She was at her desk, working on paperwork and clicking away on her computer. Her office was like a little pocket of light in the otherwise dark building, and Booth stood in front of her, hands on his hips, his temper threatening to flare again. Despite his best attempts at talking with her, he was quickly finding that his brain was moving swiftly into fight mode.

She saved your ass on this case, he reminded himself. Play nice. She's all about reason—communicate. She's your friend. You get along with each other. Reach out.

"Why don't you come to dinner with me tonight, Bones," Booth said. It was technically phrased as a question, though his voice communicated it as a simple statement, like 'tennis balls are yellow.'

"Why?" Temperance asked, glancing at him for a moment before looking back at her work. Her tone was somewhat skeptical, but if she was going to be honest, she had to admit that she was tired of arguing with him. They had done enough of that lately.

"'Why?' What do you mean 'why?'"

"I mean why—why do you want me to go to dinner with you?"

"Because you're my partner, and we just finished a hard case, and I'd like to buy you dinner." Booth kept his tone steady, even as a tiny light behind his eyes blinked red. Danger, danger, I'm starting to feel annoyed.

"Why are you buying?"

"Because…I'm the guy."

"That's so antiquated."

"Only you would use a negative four syllable word to describe what was meant to be a nice gesture."

"Should I be offended by that comment?"

"No, I mean…geez, Bones, it's dinner! Why won't you just come out with me?"

Temperance turned her eyes back to the paperwork on her desk. "Booth, the case was over two days ago. Why do you want to go out tonight?"

Here's your chance. Be honest. Be nice. "Because I just finished all my paperwork today, and because it's Friday and I can't let you stay here and work all night."

"Well, I didn't finish my paperwork today, so I need to stay here tonight and finish it. I've got to spend all next week catching up on my other work that I didn't get to during this case, so I don't have time to put this off." She didn't say it aggressively, and Booth did his best to avoid feeling frustrated. She was just being honest. Honesty was good.

Booth reached out and tried to block her pen with his hand. "We all know that if you don't finish it tonight, you're just going to work on it tomorrow anyway. And you need some time off…it was a long case."

Temperance sighed. "Listen, Booth, I really appreciate the thought. I do."

Progress, he thought.

"But the fact is I really don't have time tonight."

He gave her a lopsided half smirk. "Oh, I think you do."

She couldn't help the small smile in return, and when it appeared on her face, they both felt as though a water balloon had been broken over their heads on a hot summer day. This was the longest conversation they had had without fighting in two weeks. They started feeling like themselves again. "I'm serious. I have stacks of work to catch up on, not to mention all the new work that's going to be coming in while I'm working on the backed up work…"

"See that? Right there? That was you stressed out. C'mon, we're going to dinner. I'll buy you a margarita, we'll laugh at the people at other tables, it'll be great." He moved toward the door and grabbed her jacket.

"Booth…"

He turned around and smiled. "Bones."

Damn, why does he have to seem so charming? She sighed more heavily and dropped her pen. "Between you and your FBI cases it's amazing that I ever get any of my work done."

"Atta girl," he said with a smirk. "Mexican sound good?"

"I can't, Booth, not tonight."

"You know you want to, Bones," he said, giving her a teasing smile. "Admit it. You want to go with me."

"Why would I want to go with you?"

He gave her his best smile. "Because I'm such a dashing young lad."

Despite their arguing during the case, Booth and Brennan went to dinner that night and found a common ground. And the name of that ground was tequila.

After one margarita, they were talking, though carefully, still walking on eggshells. Two margaritas and they were laughing and talking, bantering back and forth like they always had. After three, they felt relaxed and completely back to normal, if not a bit more open. As Temperance took a sip from the salty rim of her glass, she couldn't help but smile. The case drifted away from their minds, bring much needed and welcome relief.

"C'mon, Bones, just tell me."

Temperance balked at him, mouth slightly open. "What? No! Why would I tell you that?"

He smiled broadly at her, amusement clearly showing in his eyes. "Oh, c'mon, I'll tell you."

She leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms, arching an eyebrow. "Really?"

He mimicked her pose. "Really."

She looked at him for a moment, narrowing her eyes as if she were studying him to see if he was telling the truth. After a long moment, she said, "okay," and leaned back up, resting her elbows on the table where her plate had been sitting thirty minutes before. "Go ahead."

"Why do I have to go first?" he asked.

"Because if I go first, you might not tell me."

"Well, using your logic, how do I know that you will tell me?"

"I'm giving you my word."

"Hmm…should I trust that?"

She gave him a surprised, open mouthed expression. "Why wouldn't you?"

"Well, I did see you steal that bone from the Chinese woman's house…"

"Borrowed. And that was different, we thought it was a murder victim!"

"And then at the same house I find out that you have just been pretending that you didn't know Chinese…"

"That…that's different."

He laughed. "Alright, alright. I'll pretend that I have every reason to trust you."

She had to smile back. She then took another sip of her margarita and looked at Booth expectantly.

Booth leaned back up to the table, resting his forearms on the edge. He looked at the tablecloth, and Temperance could see an almost childlike glint come into his eyes as he started to speak. "Her name was Lindsey Taylor. She lived two doors down from me. She had brown hair, brown eyes, freckles…" Booth smiled a bit wider. "And she had—and I remember this distinctly—a pair of red sneakers, with white stripes on the sides." He chuckled. "She was two years older than me, had no idea I existed. Her family moved in in May. On the fourth of July everyone went down to this park where they set off fireworks and stuff, and so I snuck into my dad's room and practically bathed in this God-awful cologne he had." He chuckled again. "He was pissed when he found out; you could probably smell me halfway down the block. Anyway, I showed up for the fireworks, and she was there with some other girls. I waited until she was alone for a minute, and then I just kinda snuck up on her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around, and I didn't know what to do, I hadn't really planned it out, so I just went for it and kissed her…well, I was aiming for her lips, but I was kind of short then, so I hit her somewhere around the chin. She looked so horrified. She told me to go away, I was the object of ridicule…but you know what? I didn't care. I was in love."

Temperance smiled, and laughed slightly. "How old were you?"

Booth took a sip of margarita. "Seven."

Temperance laughed a little harder. "You were seven years old the first time you fell in love?"

Booth shrugged with a smile. "What can I say? I'm a romantic."

Temperance shook her head. "What happened with her?"

"Well, eventually school started again, and I feel in love with Mrs. Price, my teacher. I lost track of Lindsey after that."

Temperance couldn't help laughing.

"Okay, okay," Booth said. "Laugh all you want. She was hot." He gave Temperance a wide smile, settling back. "Alright, your turn. Who was the first person you fell in love with?"

Temperance twirled her fingers around the stem of her half empty glass. "Ken Kohen."

"Jewish?"

Temperance nodded with a smile.

"And how old was young Bones the first time she fell for the charms of this fine Jewish boy?"

"Ten."

"And you made fun of me for falling in love at seven."

"At least I was old enough to stay up past eight o'clock when I fell in love."

"Well said. So go on, tell me about the gentleman."

"He was a friend of Russ'."

"Let me guess—the smartest kid in his class?"

"The class clown."

Booth leaned up, intrigued. "Really?"

Temperance nodded. "Curly black hair, brown eyes…he was one of Russ' best friends, so he came over a lot."

"So what did you do?"

Temperance smiled, still twirling her fingers around her glass stem. "I asked Russ about a million questions about him. And when he was around, I would kind of follow Russ, too. It really got on his nerves. And I practiced writing 'Temperance Kohen' in cursive." Temperance blushed, wondering for a moment why she was telling Booth all of this.

"I thought you were against marriage."

"I was ten, Booth."

"True. So, did he ever find out?"

"Well, he did eventually, Russ found one of the sheets I had written 'Temperance Kohen' on and showed it to him."

"What did he do?"

"He said it was gross, Russ thought it was hilarious."

"Oh." Booth looked at her for moment, wondering why she was still smiling.

"Then Russ left the room, and he kissed me on the cheek." Temperance smiled at Booth, and he couldn't tell if the rosy hue on her cheeks was from the memory or from the alcohol. "He eventually moved away, I don't really know what ever happened to him."

Booth smiled. "So both of our first kisses were with our first loves, huh?"

Temperance smiled, taking a sip of her drink. "Who said that was my first kiss?"

Booth, to surprised for a moment to answer, just looked at her. Temperance laughed back in response to his expression.

After received multiple dirty looks from the wait staff for sitting at their table long after they had finished eating, Temperance and Booth got up and left. The evening air was cool when they walked out, but with the warm undertones of summer. Booth called them a cab and instructed the driver to take them to Temperance's first. When they arrived, Temperance turned to Booth.

"This was fun."

"You sound surprised," Booth commented.

"I am."

Taken aback, Booth answered, "hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

Temperance smiled. "See you later."

Booth smiled back. "Yeah, see ya."

And with that, Temperance climbed out and head for her apartment, fishing her keys out of her bag as she went. The cab pulled off, and Booth settled into the brown seat, allowing the smooth motion of the ride to wash over him.

Temperance was sitting in her apartment, working on the last of the paperwork from her case with Booth. She had gone to the Jeffersonian earlier that morning so that she could pick up the work, as well as her car, which she had left after having dinner with Booth the night before. She was just finishing the next to last page when she heard a knock on her door.

She got up, crossed the room, and pulled the door open to find a bored looking teenager standing in her doorway, holding a red thermal pizza bag.

"Delivery for…" he checked his slip, "…T. Brennan?"

"I didn't order any pizza," Temperance said, confused by the boy presence.

She then heard the ding of the elevator somewhere behind him in the hallway, and few moments later a man's voice saying, "whoa, whoa, yeah, hi, I ordered that." Booth was now behind the boy, pulling out his wallet. "How much is it?"

"10.50," said the kid. Booth handed him the money and his tip, accepting the pizza.

"Thanks," Booth said as the kid walked away. Temperance just looked at Booth, confused. "Hey, Bones, I got us a pizza."

"Uh, I can see that." She paused. "Why?"

He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a rented DVD. "Because we need something to eat while we watch this."

"We can't watch that here, Booth, I don't have a TV."

Booth paused for a minute. "Oh. Right. I forgot that."

They stood for a moment in the doorway, Temperance looking at him expectantly.

"Well, can I at least come in? I did get a pizza."

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Temperance said, stepping out of the way. Booth walked in and set the pizza in the kitchen. He then walked back and glanced at Temperance's stack of paperwork. "Finished it yet?"

"I would have," Temperance said. "Did I know you were coming?"

"Well, I figured you'd have had enough of working on all this by now, so I thought I'd, you know, liven up your night a little bit."

"Why?"

"Why do you always have to ask 'why,' Bones?"

Temperance sighed. "Okay…so, you're just here to visit?'

"Exactly. That's what friends do. They visit." He gave her a cocky half smile and dropped onto the couch.

"Okay…" Temperance sat down beside him.

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Soo…" Booth said eventually, breaking the quiet.

"So?"

"Who was your first kiss?"

Temperance just laughed in response.

Booth and Temperance spent and easy evening at Temperance's that night. They laughed, talked, and by the time Booth left at midnight, he couldn't remember why he had felt so angry at her before when he had been talking to Dr. Wyatt. Being around her was…relaxing. The time seemed to melt away, and before he knew it, his eyes were getting heavy. He saw Temperance's eyes grow weary as well, and he decided it was time to go. They bid one another a quick goodnight, and he left.

Temperance cleaned up the dishes and leftover pizza as Booth drove himself home. Though neither knew that the other was thinking the same thing, they both had a moment when they realized that during all the time they were together, they hadn't stopped smiling once.

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