[A/N: Gah! I really don't know what to say, except for thank you to every single one of you! I'm so horrible at putting my feelings into writing. xD

Disclaimer: Never in a million years would I own the Mentalist or any of its characters.]

They worked in silence to make sandwiches, dish out potato chips, and untwist bottled water caps. The quiet was comfortable, for once. They were simply content with the task at hand, away from all the worries, regrets, and serial killers in custody that lay just below the surface.

It wasn't until they began to eat that the silence grew awkward. Every sound was heard, from the birds tweeting in the canopies to he crunch of a chip in a mouth.

Finally, Jane broke the ice. "We never finished our game." he stated matter-of-factly.

"Hm."

"Shall we continue?"

"Nah, let's play something else." That phrase coming from Lisbon was on the list of "Top Three Things I regret saying today." She certainly knew what was first, and she assumed she'd know the third soon enough.

"Twenty Questions?"

"Meh."

"Truth or dare?"

"What are we, thirteen?"

Jane simply grinned mischeviously.

Lisbon glared at him. "No."

"Hmph. Read my mind?"

"What the heck is that?"

"Simple. You think of a color and I read your mind."

Lisbon rolled her eyes. "Sure. Why not?" (Ah, there was number three.)

"Okay...Think of a color, Lisbon."

Lisbon, in fact, did not think of a color. Instead, she thought of the first car accident she was in, when she was eight.

Jane narrowed his eyes, frowning."You cheated. You're thinking of the car wreck you were in when you were eight."

Lisbon shrugged apologetically.

They fell back into silence, each minding their own, eating their own sandwiches. Drinking their own drinks. Thinking secrets they would never reveal.

Xxxx

They stood awkwardly on Jane's porch, Lisbon shuffling her feet and Jane running a hand through his blonde curls. Both were staring at the ground.

Jane didn't recall a time where things had been this awkward, with this much tension, between them, except for maybe the first time he'd dropped her off from work at her home. He had pulled over on the curb nearly two years after they had met, and Lisbon had sighed, her freckled face seeming to glow in the light shining from the street lights. It had been the first time Jane had really studied her facial features, and maybe the first dip he took into slowly, yet surely, falling in love. She'd cleared her throat then, glanced at him with a distant look in her green eyes.

"Good night, Mister Jane." she had nodded her head in a business-like manner then patted his arm awkwardly and climbed out of the car.

Things were so different now, Jane realized. For one, Lisbon no longer called him "Mister Jane." Now he was simply Jane. And maybe, in another decade, he would be Patrick.

Or maybe not.

"Well, uh, thaks Jane." Lisbon coughed.

Jane smiled slightly. "I had a good time."

"Me too." she paused for a moment, then waved slightly, taking off down Jane's steps. She turned around at the end of his driveway, calling, "Same time tomorrow?"

Jane suddenly sprouted a playful, mischevious look.

"It's a date!"

"It's not a date!"

[A/N: So...tell me, what did you think of Jane and Lisbon's first date?

I mean, outing? xD]