The Face with Two Skeletons
By: Tropicwhale
Disclaimer: Mine? Ha!!
Author Talk: Poor Booth. Basketball, ice cream, beer, and Zack....I couldn't resist....could you?
Chapter Three
Booth, meanwhile, was having a small coronary. After what that waitress at the Diner said it was very easy to think that this was Zack's seduction technique. Basketball, chocolate ice cream, and beer. That was….and the way that Zack had phrased everything. It was so innocent sounding! Just a kid asking a guy to hang out a little longer because if said guy didn't then said kid would be alone on a Friday night because he lacked the social skills to make friends outside of work. Or so Booth had thought. Zack had said 'Hodgins and [his] basketball teammates'. So it couldn't possibly be what Booth perceived as a come-on via the Blazers (there were better basketball teams) and Bud Lite (Booth hoped not) and chocolate ice cream. It was just Booth's dirty old mind twisting everything the kid said because a sick waitress at the Diner had opened her big mouth. Zack had 'Naomi from Paleontology'. He wasn't gay and neither was Booth. So he could totally spend a Friday night with a poor lonely kid with eating ice cream and drinking beer watching a basketball game they both had missed because of work. It was like community service! With beer!!! Booth put the car into park, took the key out of the ignition, got out, and locked it up. Then he caught up with Zack. "Wait." Zack turned and waited under a yellow lamp that had moths flying all around, house key in his hand. Booth caught up with him "A beer sounds good." he said. Zack nodded and turned back to open the door. Beyond the door there was a flight of stairs that was dark until Zack turned on the light. The stairwell was long, white, and narrow and ended at a bland white door at the top that was also apparently locked. Zack shut the first door behind them and started up the stairs to the second, flipping through his keys as he did. Booth followed him feeling like a giant in a hobbit hole. Zack opened the door and lead Booth through to his apartment which was surprisingly massive. Booth was shocked. It was like he was Alice going coming out of the rabbit hole into Wonderland "Holy crap!"
The apartment was about the size of a small loft like the ones one could find in the city proper along the Potomac that cost way more than they should. There was a dresser peeking out behind one wall that covered about half of the far side of the apartment and a large kitchen unit along the same wall as the door with a bar/island separating it from the rest of the room. The door to the bathroom was open and set along the same wall as the bedroom which also hosted the largest CD and DVD collection Booth had ever seen. There was another wall opposite the DVD collection with a massive entertainment system set into a whole huge library with a couch and coffee table. A bunch of work out equipment including a treadmill and a full set of free weights were against the window that looked out over the driveway and front yard and there was a modest piano tucked away in the furthest corner from the door. The middle of the space was large and empty and everything was either white or some other white-adjacent neutral color. "Most of this stuff isn't mine. Hodgins technically provided the entertainment equipment, the sofa, the coffee table, the-" Booth held up a hand to stop the list.
"Zack, don't need a rundown."
"Okay." Booth stepped further into the apartment as Zack closed the door.
"Wow, this place is amazing."
"It is on top of a twenty-four car garage." Booth turned and started at the younger man. "Hodgins says that there a great many of them that have been in the family for three generations and that many of them are very valuable collection items in certain circles." Zack moved to turn on the television and flip through the TiVo menu. "Make yourself at home." Booth moved toward the couch and pulled off his jacket and toed off his shoes to kick them under an end table so no one would trip over them.
"Got a closet I can hang this?" Zack looked over at the jacket that was very limp without Booth's form to fill it.
"In the bedroom, help yourself." Zack finally answered and turned back around to focus on the television screen and the remote control in his hand. Booth took a deep breath. He could go and hang up his jacket in Zack's room. That was easy. It's not like the kid asked him to bed. Booth walked into the bedroom and stopped. There were two doors on either side of a bed with a thick purple cover and lighter purple sheets. The doors were painted the same light shade of purple as the walls and there was a massive purple and blue area rug that was thick and shaggy. The dresser was in one corner angled so that it blocked the sight of the piano if someone was laying on the bed and formed an impromptu wall so that Booth was standing in a sort of doorway from which the workout equipment could be seen. Booth picked the door furthest from the wall that separated the room from the rest of the apartment and it turned out he was right, it was a closet. He hung up the coat and after a moment's thought took off his tie and belt as well and hung them on the same hanger. He then untucked his shirt so that it wasn't obvious he wasn't wearing a belt. He closed the closet door and went out to join Zack in the living room. Zack had the TiVo set up and was in the kitchen making himself a bowl of ice cream and had a beer ready for Booth. As Booth came out of the bedroom Zack looked up from the tub of ice cream and his look was very….it was very disconcerting. There wasn't anything special about the look other than it occurred as Booth came out of Zack's bedroom. It was the same look Zack had when he was standing over a corpse and discussing trauma. It was a work-Zack look.
"That for me?" Booth nodded to the beer to cover up his nervousness. Zack nodded back.
"Yes it is." Booth nodded too and approaches the island. He stopped when he saw what Zack's putting on his chocolate ice cream. Zack caught Booth staring. "What?"
"Wet nuts and whipped cream?"
"It's very good. Unfortunately, I don't have bananas right now otherwise I'd put them on as well." Booth had a suddenly dry throat.
"You like rich food?" Booth guessed.
"Not usually. But on occasion it can be quite enjoyable such as wet nuts and bananas on chocolate ice cream covered in whip cream. It is one of my favorite guilty pleasures." Booth's brain threatened to quit. Booth considered it might be because this conversation seemed like they were talking about something two male co-workers shouldn't talk about so they were talking about it in code. It was all very confusing. Zack put the tub of ice cream away and took his bowl and the spoon he used for the wet nuts to the living room. Booth went to take a swig of beer to suddenly find that it was specifically the brand he favored. Instead of calming him down like it should have the swig only made him more nervous. Booth put the beer down and shook it off. It was just Zack Addy, Bones' Boy Wonder. There was no need for Booth to start acting like a high schooler with his first date that had brought him home to a house with no parents in it. Booth grabbed the beer, took another gulp, stuffed his free hand into one pocket, and slouched over to sit next to Zack on the couch, attempting to allude as many masculine vibes as he was able.
Author After Talk: Hehehe.....I mean *clears throat* hi?
Tropic
