Haiku 3

Author's Note:

Sorry it took so long to load this!

I wrote the first 2 ½ chapters in one setting, but had the WORST time finishing this one off. It still feels uneven to me, but I'm gonna be busy for a few weeks and won't be able to post for a while so I wanted to get this out.

Hope you enjoy!

Although Brennan was initially anxious about sending the email to Booth, Angela had assured her (after reading it rapturously several times over) that it was the right thing to do. Feeling better, Brennan returned to her office and became immersed in work until nearly lunchtime when the sound of tapping on glass interrupted her.

She looked up to find Booth standing in her doorway, silhouetted against the harsh lights of the lab. She looked at him for a moment then asked, "What prompted you to write that, Booth? It was.…" She struggled for a moment to articulate her feelings into a single word. "It's… wonderful."

He hesitated for a second before asking quietly, "What made you write those things about me, Bones?"

Suddenly grateful she kept the lights in her office so low, she blushed slightly, but held his gaze and whispered, "They're true, aren't they?" She cleared her throat and stood up, starting to shuffle papers on her desk. "Anyway, when I received your haiku, Angela suggested that I respond in kind. I simply recorded a few of your characteristics I felt were most defining." Her voice strengthened as she backed around the desk. "Anyone who spends five minutes with you and has basic observational skills could see it."

Booth stood there and nodded silently. "Anyone," he finally repeated softly.

"Of course!" Brennan answered more loudly than she meant to. "In fact, I had a difficult time limiting them to the confines of the haiku when I was writing." Why can't I control what I'm saying? she thought furiously as her teeth clamped down on her tongue in a desperate effort to stop speaking.

"I see," Booth said. He put his hands in his pockets and walked into the office. He sat down on the corner of Brennan's desk, right next to where she was standing, and crossed his arms over his chest.

She shuffled the papers in her hands then glanced at him surreptitiously before saying carefully, "You didn't answer my question."

"Did you really mean those things you wrote?" he asked.

"I mean everything I say…and write," she added dumbly.

"You've never really told me how you feel about me," he said in a slightly hurt tone.

"I don't know how you feel about me," she said somewhat bitterly.

In response, he placed his left hand on the desk behind her and leaned over until their noses were nearly touching. His right hand reached up and caressed her cheek before moving to the back of her neck. Unable to stop herself, Brennan closed her eyes, lost in his touch. "I'd hoped that'd be obvious by now," he murmured.

Brennan felt the breath catch in her throat and her eyes flew open. What's wrong with me? she screamed in her head.

It's not that they hadn't been this close before. They had…many times in fact. And it wasn't even the thought that they might kiss—they'd already done that, too, even if it had been under Caroline's watchful eye.

But for the first time there was something real, tangible, and passionate in his eyes. And for the half-second prior to his lips touching hers, she felt something more intense than anything she had ever before felt or could have anticipated possible.

Her head spun lazily and for a period nothing else, not her office or her work or even time itself, existed except for her and Booth. All her senses were trained on him: what he smelt like, how he tasted, the feel of him touching her, the rustling of their clothes and the memory of his eyes burning into hers just before she closed them. It was impossible for her to imagine there was a place where he ended and she began, for surely they were the same being, a new entity created. In one kiss she was experiencing something deeper and more intimate than any of the sexual encounters she had had.

And she never wanted it to end.