Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews, and thanks again to everyone who is indulging my rambling little story. I've gotten busy lately, with finals and papers and such, and as a result this chapter is pretty much a fluffy bit of nothing. Hey, our lives are too serious, right? Hope this makes your day a little lighter. Here we go...

Life was good for Seeley Booth. He had a good job, a nice apartment, and a healthy son. And he also happened to be currently dating the girl of his dreams. Yes, all in all, Booth was a lucky man—a very lucky man; the type of man that other men should envy. And Booth was happy. Mostly. There was only one minor hitch.

Booth was exhausted. Not just the 'I didn't get a great night sleep last night' kind of exhausted, and not even the 'my neighbor's dog/cat/child decided to spend the night barking/meowing/getting drunk and then driving their parent's car into my living room' kind of exhausted, but rather the 'I haven't slept in two weeks and now I'm pretty sure I can see purple spots when I blink' kind of exhausted. He was wiped.

And, not to place blame or anything, but this was entirely Bones' fault.

He wished he could claim that this exhaustion was coming from sexing his girlfriend in to a virtual coma all night every night, but sadly, the truth was much less macho. The truth was, he had learned something about Bones in the two weeks since their first night together on the floor of his apartment. He had learned that Bones, despite all her relationship-phobia, despite her cool demeanor, despite her standoffishness in social situations, was a cuddler.

It wasn't that Booth was opposed to cuddling. Hell, there were worse things than being tangled up in bed with sexy naked woman. But despite what TV shows portrayed, despite the scenes in all those sappy romantic movies, the truth was that sleeping was, in reality, a solitary activity. Really, when you thought about it, this was one act that really couldn't be a team effort. And when Booth went to sleep, he needed space. He needed to be able to move around a little bit—a fact that didn't comport with having someone wrapped around you. Having someone leaning on you meant that when you rolled over or changed positions, they necessarily had to change positions too. And, of course, it also meant that when they moved, you woke up and moved, too.

And really, Booth could live with this. He could. Maybe it wasn't ideal, but he'd dated girls who were cuddlers before, and it was fine. You got used to it; eventually, you learned to change positions in your sleep. Whatever, no big deal; but with Bones, that wasn't the whole problem.

The problem with Bones when she was asleep was a lot like the problems he used to have with Bones when she was awake. If he were to name it, he would call it "The Guy Hug Quandary."

Here's how it worked: Bones was a strong woman, there was no question; if put under the right conditions, she could drop most guys like a bag of dirt. She was also fiercely independent and self-sufficient. Not bad qualities, really, but add it together with just enough childhood emotional damage, and the result was that Bones had a hard time opening up to people, had a hard time being vulnerable. He had known this about her for a long time, but still, there were times when, no matter how strong you were or tried to be, vulnerability came out. There were times when you needed people. That's where the guy hugs had started—Booth trying to be there for her, trying to comfort her in any way that she would let him.

And the guy hugs worked, at least for a little bit, but, inevitably, they would come back around to the same thing: distance, Bones pushing him away. He knew this was her pattern, and he lived with it, because it was just...her. And that was fine; if that's what she needed from him, that's what he would give her. But now they were together, and that carried with it a new type of vulnerability. He had a fleeting wonder at the beginning how she would compensate for her need for distance, how her pushing him away would translate.

And now, he was figuring some of that out—the way it translated was that, in her sleep, she would seek him out. She would curl up around him, unconsciously let him hold her—and then kick the crap out of him.

Yes, Temperance Brennan kicked in her sleep. Hard. And, frankly...it hurt.

There was really nothing that could wake you up in the middle of the night like someone nailing you in the shin with their heel. Well, except maybe when someone nailed you in the ribcage with a knee...that was also a rough way to wake up. It had gotten to the point that in the morning, Booth was limping to the shower, delirious from lack of sleep, and looking for welts. Really, how she wasn't leaving marks was beyond him.

And, of course, this is where the quandary came in, because he needed to tell her to stop. He needed to tell her that she needed to stay on her side of the bed, or explain why he was suddenly going to start sleeping on the couch or wearing hockey pads to bed. But this was Bones...and he knew this conversation could go bad quickly. There was little that could make a person who already feels the need to push others away retreat faster than telling them that you need to push them away, but he didn't really have much of a choice here...he had to do something.

It was a Friday night, and Booth and Bones were in Bones' bed, both slightly out of breath, both feeling drowsy. Well, Bones was feeling drowsy; Booth was practically asleep already.

"I had a bad day," Bones said.

Booth kept her close, his hand tracing light circles on her back. "Yeah? What happened?"

"Just a long day. I think Angela and Hodgins had a fight last night, because they were completely out of sync today. Cam was upset, something about funding. Zach went to talk to her about something and accidently stabbed his hand with a scalpel."

Booth laughed, almost involuntarily. "How do you accidently stab yourself?"

Bones shrugged. "Who knows? Anyway, it was just a mess today. I feel like I didn't get anything done."

He smiled and gave her a light squeeze. "You always feel like you don't get enough done."

She didn't say anything, but he thought he felt her smile against his chest. They laid still for a moment more, and he felt her breathing starting to change, starting to get deeper.

Now or never...he cleared his throat. "Hey, uh, Bones?"

She roused a bit. "Hmm?"

"I, uh...I need to use the bathroom." God, you're smooth. He eased himself out of bed.

He walked into her bathroom, stood over the sink, and looked in the mirror. Her bathroom was very...her. Warm earth tones. Sensual, but not overly feminine; he knew there were candles under the sink. Attention to detail; there were thick towels sitting on a rack on the wall. Organized.

He splashed some water on his face, and then cupped his hands to take a drink, and waited another minute or two before heading back.

He walked back into her room and saw her laying under the covers on her side, her back to him. Yes! He gently eased in the other side.

Ahh...perfect. With his back turned toward her, he slightly curled his knees toward his chest, and crooked one arm under his pillow, beneath his head. With a deep breath, his eyes fell shut.

And 45 minutes later, he woke up. Freezing. What the...and then he realized what had happened. Apparently when she wasn't kicking him, she stole the covers. Perfect.

He hesitated...if he tried to steal the covers back, he would wake her up, and she would end up cuddling him again, which would lead to her kicking him. He couldn't do that another night. On the other hand, he couldn't go to sleep when he was this cold...and that's when his mind drifted back to the bathroom. The towels on the rack...

He slipped out of bed and grabbed two. She was still on her side when returned, so gently eased back in draped the towels over him, and fell back asleep.

Booth woke up the next morning feeling refreshed, human again. It was incredible what a good night's sleep could do for you. He stretched.

The room was fairly bright; the curtains had been closed, but the sun still brightened the room. Reaching for his tee shirt on the floor beside him, Booth pulled it over his head and padded out toward Bones' kitchen.

She was sitting at the table, eating a bowl of cereal, reading the paper. "Mornin' Bones," he said, opening the fridge to retrieve the orange juice to fill the glass she had left out for him. He took a swallow.

"Why were you sleeping under bath towels this morning?"

Booth paused mid-swig. "Hmm?"

"You were using a towel as a blanket when I got up."

"Oh, yeah, I just...got cold."

He expected her to push this further, and was surprised when she nodded and turned her attention back to the paper. Well, that had been easy...too easy. "How did you sleep?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Alright..."

He looked at her. "'Alright'?"

"Yeah."

"Not great?"

"I've slept better."

"Anything wrong?"

She sighed. "Alright, I didn't know how to say this but..." she looked at him. "You snore."

He coughed on his juice. "What?"

"You snore."

"I do not!"

"You do. Loudly."

He felt his brain sputtering. "I do not snore."

"Look, I don't want to make an issue out of this or anything, it just...makes it hard to sleep sometimes, that's all."

"I don't believe this..." She shrugged. "I know for a fact I haven't been snoring."

She looked at him. "How could you possibly know that for a fact? You're asleep when it happens."

He put his hands on his hips. "I know I'm not snoring because I know I'm not sleeping."

"What?"

"I haven't been sleeping, alright? You haven't let me get any sleep." She paused, staring at him, so he kept going. "You don't give me my space when you sleep, and I need my space, alright? I need to be able to move a little bit. And, you know, I'd fine with cuddling, I mean, I can live with it..."

"You 'can live with it'?" She was shocked. Was he seriously complaining about sleeping with a naked woman next to him?

"Yeah, but sometimes it's tough to sleep, you know?"

"Yeah, I know! I know it's tough to sleep sometimes. Sometimes like last night. When I was awake all night. While you snored so loud that the bed vibrated!"

Had he not been in the middle of this moment, had he had time to reflect, he would have laughed at the fact that they were having their first spat, and that it was over something this stupid. It was funny, really...but he was in the middle of this moment, so for now he missed the humor. "I can't believe you are complaining about sleeping with me!"

Brennan snorted. "Well, that's egotistical..."

"After what I've been putting up with..."

"'Putting up with'? So now you're just 'putting up' with me?"

"That's not what I meant, but...well, with your sleeping habits, yeah!"

"I don't believe this..."

"Believe it, Baby! You can be a pain in the ass to sleep with, okay? There—I said it. But I deal with it, because I like having you in bed next to me when I wake up!"

"I'm a pain in the ass? Really? Booth, you snore so much that I actually kick you at night just to get you to shut up!"

He paused. "Wait. What?"

She sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? But it gets frustrating...you're keeping me awake, and you know how it is...when you're that tired, you don't always act rationally..."

"You kick me...on purpose?"

"I'm not proud of it, but I have to do something to get you to be quiet..."

And then, he couldn't help it. He started laughing. "You kick me on purpose!"

"Um...Booth?"

He kept laughing as he walked over to where she was sitting. Putting his hands on either side of her face, he leaned down and kissed her.

When he pulled back, she was smiling. "What was that?"

He grinned back. "I just...I just like you. I like waking up with you."

She smiled. "Okay..."

"I'm sorry about the snoring."

"I'm sorry about the kicking."

He kissed her again. "You know what? I just realized that I don't care."

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