Author's Notes: More outtakes from Home. This scene starts right before when Briggs arrives home for sauce night.
Just to throw it out there, if anyone wants to make me a PIKE music video for writing inspiration, I would be quite grateful. Songs that I'm currently wanting to see done are, "It's not about you" by Scouting for Girls, "The Other Side" by Jason Derulo, "Peace" by OAR, and "Cowboys" by Counting Crows." (I would make them, but I don't have the software for downloading videos.)
"Are you trying to get me drunk?" Mike asks, as Paige comes around his shoulder pouring extra tequila into the margarita mix he's preparing.
"What if I am?" Paige cannot keep the flirtatious grin off her face. Maybe she's a little drunk. She leans in, fully aware of how he's reacting to her close proximity. She places one hand on Mike's arm to whisper in his ear with a grin, "We still have to eat the sauce remember?"
"Well in that case, I better get you a refill on that Margarita." He grins at her conspiratorily as she hands him her glass, licking the tequila residue off her fingers.
"I haven't been sleeping well recently." She says so casually it take's Mike off guard. They do not casually chit chat. There is always some underlying tension. She's up to something. Mike's just not sure what.
"Me neither." Mike admits.
He feels a flood of concern for her, wondering if it's memories of the tinkerbells and her time with Sulla that's keeping her awake. They never had discussed what happened to her when she was under, but from the bruises he'd seen and the experience of being under there and witnessing Sulla's brutality he had a guess.
"You know what always made me sleep better?" She grins over at him suggestively, clearly not in as dark a place as Mike.
"Yeah, but I don't think it's a very good idea." Mike looks down at his glass with a smirk. He wonders how drunk she is.
She's up to something. He's smart enough to know what she's getting at. She's playing with him. It feels like old times, but those flirtatious days are gone, and Mike's waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for her to ask about Lina again.
"Why?" She asks, and she can't be serious. The two of them can barely hold a civil conversation, let alone make love.
"Aren't you mad at me?" Mike asks, unsure of what her game plan was at this point.
"So?" She asks.
He just stares at her in disbelief. She couldn't be serious.
"Oh grow up Mike I'm not talking about getting back together. I'm talking about-" Paige's sentence instantly dies in her mouth as Jakes comes over to get himself a margarita as well.
"What are you two up to now?" Jakes asks, eyeing them both suspiciously.
"Nothing." Paige says in an innocent tone, that is clearly not nothing. Walking away with a grin to help Johnny set the table, she looks back at Mike with a gleam in her eyes that makes his breath catch in his chest. "Don't drink too much, Levi. Leave room for the sauce."
Once Paige walks out of earshot, Jakes turns to Mike harshly.
"Ok, cut the crap. You two haven't been civil in weeks. What's going on? You messing with that girl's heart again?" Jakes leans in to whisper to Mike in a quiet threatening tone that the rest of the roommates can't hear.
Mike nearly laughs bitterly at the question. He doesn't think Paige cares enough about him for him to 'mess with her heart'. If anything it's the other way around.
"Nothing's going on. We're just calling a truce for the night. Don't ruin it, ok? Let's all just have one night of peace." Mike says, focusing a little too intently on the drink preparation.
"Forgot my glass!" Paige chirps, skipping back over to the two men, winking at Mike she grabs her glass from him with a smile that Mike can't help but return.
"Here you go." Mike laughs as he hands her the full glass.
"That's not nothing." Jakes grumbles as she walks away. He rolls his eyes after seeing the way the two of them smiled at each other secretly, ignoring him like he wasn't even there. Jakes does not want to go through this drama again. "Mike! You can't do this-"
"Hey Briggs is here! We can start!" Mike realizes he sounds way too cherry as he turns away from Jakes lecture to where Briggs is conveniently standing in the doorway. He can't wipe the stupid grin from his face. Tonight might not be so bad after all.
Everyone makes their way over to the table, but Mike approaches it nervously. He's not sure where to sit. Paige is not sitting yet, so he's not sure if he should stall and try to sit next to her, or just chance it and sit down to see if she sat next to him. As he stands there staring at the seats, Paige comes up behind him again.
"Better sit down. Don't want it to get cold." Paige informs him, a mischievous gleam in her eye. She is definitely flirting with him. This gives Mike the reassurance he needs to take control of the situation. He walks forward and pulls a chair out for her.
"Ladies first." He says, and his voice holds a playful challenge that she raises an eyebrow at, but sits down as he helps her scoot her chair in.
Mike prepares to sit in the chair next to her, but she knocks her napkin to the ground. Instinctively he bends down to pick it up for her. She leans down as well and whispers in a low voice to him, "One quick hit. Get it out of our systems. Maybe it'll help ease the tension around here or something."
Mike hands her the napkin and gives her a curious look. The whole proposition happened so fast, he's afraid he may have imagined it. She just turns back to face the rest of the table as Johnny and Charlie bring out the last dishes.
Mike sits in his chair dumbfounded as he considers it. Her words sounded very brisk and impersonal. Much like the "You've done it once you can do it again" argument she made about Jess. Mike is beginning to suspect Paige doesn't actually knows how sex works. It's not like he can just do it on command with someone he doesn't have feelings for. On the other hand, he does have feelings for Paige.
He's not naive enough to think this will help things. Them sleeping together at this point will probably make things worse, but quite frankly he doesn't see how much worse things could get than they are already. Plus, things had gone downhill so quickly he hadn't seen it coming. If he had known that their last night together would be their last he would have done things differently.
They hadn't even had sex their last night together. They'd sat in his room while he worked on cases and bitched about his work frustrations to her. She'd tried to get him to put his laptop away and come to bed and he'd just kept working, until she finally fell asleep on his floor on a case report on sex trafficking rings. He'd tucked her into his bed, and kept researching. He was such an idiot.
Tonight, he would do nothing with work. Tonight would be all about her.
…Which means he needs to get all his work stuff out of his system now at dinner so he can focus on her later.
"Hey Johnny was that Lucita or Carlito?"
"That must have been crazy." Mike can't help but smirk as he stares Briggs down at the end of the table. Between Paige and the buzz he has going on, he's feeling cocky. He can't help but notice Briggs is distracted. Mike can't miss the chance to dig at him.
"What?" Johnny asks innocently.
"When Sid called and tipped off Carlito's little side project." Mike says, his eyes still glued to Briggs.
"Actually the timing couldn't have been more perfect."
"How so?" Mike asks, watching Briggs squirm.
"No work talk on sauce night." Charlie lectures.
"No, if Mike wants to talk about work. Let's talk about work." Paige says with an underlying aggression in her tone.
Mike is pretty sure that she too may be remembering his inexcusable behavior of choosing a case file over her in his bed on their last night together. Her tone reminds him this was still not a sure thing. Her bad mood could return any minute.
Immediately Mike changes the conversation, "No you're right Chuck. We spend so much time. So what's going on? Anyone got anything going on in their lives they want to share?"
Paige can feel Mike's foot rubbing against her's under the table, sliding up her leg, towards her lap, even as he acts like nothing is happening above the surface.
She looks down at her plate, and tries to ignore the thrill the secretive touch brings her. Clearly she is fooling everyone at the table except Mike, who is enjoying her reaction, or lack there of, far too much. Damn him.
She manages to choke out some answer about a knob to Dale, barely able to focus on what's being said, trying to act cool and casual by shoving a large spoonful of spaghetti in her mouth. She wasn't sure what was going on her personal life with Mike. But she certainly didn't want to share with the table that his foot was currently nudging her thighs apart. What was wrong with her? How she could hate someone so completely, someone she knows is lying to her, being a complete asshole and still she wanted nothing more than to excuse herself from the table, take Mike upstairs, gag him with that stupid napkin around his neck, and then fuck him within an inch of his life.
"Well in lieu of that stimulating conversation… I guess work it is. Sorry Chuck." Mike shoots Paige a knowing look, biting his lip playfully.
Paige keeps her eyes trained on the plate in front of her. She should have known her proposition would go straight to his head. He's getting cocky. And unfortunately for her, she forgot how hot cocky Mike was. She would make him pay for that later tonight.
