Author's Note: Our B&B are halfway home, our story is halfway done, now it's time for a rest. :)
The Care and Keeping of Christmas Trees
Rule #7: Heat things up with hot cocoa
The culmination of their excruciating climb was Eddy the Bear meeting them at the top, gamely taking over Brennan's end of the rebellious tree. "Woo! Got yourselves a big one! Why don't you head on over to the fire there, Missus? You look like you could use a thawing."
Brennan's nose twitched at the presumption about her marrital status (it was just a mistletoe kiss, not a wedding ceremony). And were she truly in need of a thawing she would be incapable of the self-propulsion required to get herself to the fire pit. Booth met her frosty disapproval with a pleading pout, as if begging her not to vocalize her disdain for presumptive hyperbole. Fine. It wasn't worth the waste of already winded breath anyway. Sniffing (cursing the cold-induced rhinorrhoea), she approached the fire with stinging palms extended.
The Bear and Booth lugged the tree over to a scale and negotiated price. Though she did not pay close attention, Brennan was not entirely unaware of the contentious proceedings due to Booth's elevated decibel levels and wild gesticulations. Finally an agreement was reached, silence drifted, and eventually her partner joined her on the log where her knees had decided they would like to remain permanently flexed. Plus, her nose had finally ceased dripping.
"Here."
She blinked, brought out of her stupor by the scent of chocolate wafting upwards. Turning surprised eyes from the steaming paper cup to her partner's sparkling sepia gaze, she unconsciously leaned a little closer to both sources of warmth. "What is this?"
As if she didn't know. Wrapping her chilly fingers around it, she accepted the offering without further parsing.
"Hot cocoa," he murmured, tipping his own cup towards hers. "Energy for the road."
"Empty calories," she countered. But she took a sip anyway, enjoying the swirl of warm chocolate flooding her mouth.
"Like you need to worry about that," he snorted.
Lowering her cup, she frowned and attempted to explain that her current vitality was entirely the result of her stringent dietary vigilance. "Of course. Excellent health and fitness can only be obtained by ensuring the quality of my caloric intake. Foods with low nutritional value—"
"Are more fun," he interrupted. "And you look just fine. A cup of hot chocolate here and there is not going to ruin your figure. It's perfect. More than perfect, if you ask me."
"Who said anything about ruining my figure," she began, still hung up on health, but then the rest of what he'd said caught up to her. "Wait..."
He hid a grin behind a gulp of chocolate, swallowing quickly because it was still slightly too hot and he hoped she was gearing up for an inquisition.
"Did you just..." she shook her head, abruptly retreating. (Much to his disappointment.) "You didn't."
"Didn't what?" Not going to let her climb down off that hook, he thought. Flirting with Bones required a great deal of careful planning and an occasional effort at out-maneuvering just to get her to recognize that she was being flirted with.
"Compliment my hips-to-waist ratio. That is what is colloquially referred to as a 'figure,' if I understand the term correctly. But a figure can also refer to a person of indeterminate shape. I must assume that definition since I am not currently in possession of either a numerical or diagrammatic construct, which are the other definitions of 'figure.'" She paused, suddenly uncertain of what to say next, realizing that her sudden rush of words might indicate an unsettled state of mind.
Booth was looking at her with twinkling eyes. That is an indication of sexual attraction, her inner professor posited, so maybe he really did mean...
"Bones," he murmured.
"What?"
"Is that the way your brain works? Light speed, uber-analytical, and completely missing the forest for the trees?"
Brennan swallowed a larger dose of chocolate, glancing up at Booth to note breathlessly, "the trees are behind you. There's no forest, however, since this is a tree farm. I don't miss things, Booth."
"The farm is surrounded by forest," he countered. "And I think you missed it."
"Are ... are you speaking in terms of suffering the absence of something, or of mistaking a fact?"
"Both." He moved in before she could ask what he meant, showing her instead by taking her lips in a sweet, chocolatey kiss.
Heat flooded her body. Distantly, Brennan decided she didn't need the hot drink or the fire any further as her partner's brushing touch swept her pulse into a frenzy. She gasped, her lips parting and he accepted her invitation boldly. Licking into her, tasting hot chocolate, he sipped and then slipped away with most of her higher intellectual capabilities.
"Booth." Dazed, almost trembling, she opened her eyes to his. "There's no mistletoe here."
"I know."
"Why did you kiss me?"
"You missed it. And you taste like chocolate."
~Q~
Author's Note: Whoa, I bet they're both feeling a lot warmer now.
