The team was returning from Montana by plane as usual, and Penelope got a text from JJ as they landed, she smiled and shot one back, wishing them a safe drive back to Quantico. Penelope organized her stack of reports and shuffled off to Emily's office, putting them on her desk. She sighed heavily and made her way back down to her own office, she had computers to shut down and a bag to pack, maybe she could even get a little cleaning in before she left, she did have a lot of sticky notes of things to look up she no longer needed.
Penelope began re-organizing her desk toys and discarding old post-it notes into her little pink waste basket. "Hey Penelope." a voice said, causing her to jump a little. She knew that voice, and she turned to look at him. Kevin Lynch, a friend but also her ex-beau. He joined that list a long time ago, and a few months ago Sam joined it too. "Hello Kevin." She said quickly. "I was wondering if you'd want to get coffee or maybe some dinner. There's a Thai place that's open still, you'd like the pad thai." Kevin said, leaning in the doorway. "What about uh, Gina, aren't you ehh, dating?" Penelope asked as she re-arranged a few things, putting a few interestingly decorated pens into an equally interesting cup. "Eh, we're off again."
Penelope sighed "Look, Kevin, I can't be here every time you dump Gina or Kelly or some other third female name I can't think of because I'm busy." Penelope started as she organized piles of files she had yet to start that were irrelevant to the current case. "You don't look too busy, and I didn't mean right now, I meant in a minute. Well, whenever your team arrives, I know you like to see them off." Kevin said, watching her back as she moved. Penelope's personal phone went off and she checked the message.
"Do you want to come over for dinner, Angel?"
it said, Penelope smiled.
"You know I do my spicy little chili pepper, just come back to my office when you get here & we can go."
"I've got plans for dinner already, Kevin." Penelope said as she started shutting her systems down. Kevin sighed. "With who?" he asked, Penelope spun around to look at him, a frown on her bright pink lips. "I don't have to answer that to you." she explained, tossing a few personal items into her purse.
"Oh you're going out with Sam aren't you?" Kevin asked, Penelope rolled her eyes. "No, Kevin. Sam and I broke up months ago, okay?" she said, her phone dinging, only Emily asking if the reports were on her desk. Penelope text her in the affirmative and began pulling her coat on. "Look, Kevin, if you mustknow, I'm going to join a teammate for dinner at their place." she explained, hoping he'd get off her back, but all the statement did was invite him deeper into her lair. "What happened to trying to be friends, huh?" Kevin said, putting his hand on the table. "You seem to be avoiding my eyes too, are you hiding something?" he asked, prodding the issue further.
Penelope didn't get a chance to answer because there Luke was in her doorway, looking at his phone. "Hey, Angel, you ready to go?" his voice called out. Penelope looked up. "Yeah, uh just a sec let me find my work phone." she said, searching her desk, she just had the damn thing where did it go? Kevin stopped and looked. "Oh, I see, you got yourself another Derek Morgan." he mumbled, Penelope spun around to look at him again. "Excuse me?" she asked, all this whipping around to be confrontational with him was really starting to make her dizzy. "Oh you know, another muscle bound hottie that you spend all day flirting with and ignoring the fact that someone actually wants to date you."
Penelope finally found her work phone and dumped it in her purse "Kevin!" she said loudly. "Kevin Lynch you bone head, I can flirt with whomever I want, for one! And two, we will never be anything more than friends again, it didn't work out and I won't do it again, especially not when you're just going to go back to Gina, I know you're not done there." she scolded, before she started motioning them both out of her office, locking it behind herself. Kevin checked Luke out, "Yeah but really? This is really what you wanna do?" Luke was too confused by the dynamic to say anything to Kevin, he just looked at Penelope with a set of desperate chocolate eyes. "Are you ready to go, Roxy is waiting, I bet she'll be excited to see you again." Luke said, holding an arm out for her. "I was born ready my little corn muffin." she said, grabbing his arm. "Goodbye, Kevin. Try apologizing to Gina with some flowers!" she said as they walked away from him. They stopped by the bullpen so Penelope could wave goodbye to the others and wish them all a good night before they left for the weekend, promising Emily and Jennifer they just had to plan something soon.
JJ watched them go as she sat on the edge of Spencer's desk, Emily and Dave stood nearby. "I guess she's warmed up to him." Dave said, taking a sip of some well deserved coffee. "I'm glad." Emily said, a little smile on her face. "It's nice having her adjust to him she needs someone to flirt with." she added, Spencer looked up to his teammates. "They way they their body language is around one another these days and the way they've been talking lately, not to mention the multiple texts and what I'm assuming are meals in her office I'd wager they're into each other." he said. "Statistically it's within the realm of possibility that they're already dating, I've overheard him call her angel several times." Spencer added, flipping a few folders closed as he stood up, looking at his watch. "Typically they couldn't go an entire five minutes without finding some way to prod each other but they spend an entire hour in her office for lunch about twice a week, when we aren't away, just chatting and sharing food." Spencer said, pulling his coat and scarf on. The others looked to him, dumb founded. "How do you know about the meals?" JJ asked, putting her arm out to stop him from walking away. Spencer shrugged "I made a promise to eat lunch with Garcia, Alvez came in and he must have figured he'd look suspicious if he just left so he went through with it. He called her angel almost thirty times and she had about seven different flirty nicknames for him, just like she used to have with Derek except her tone of voice denoted actual interest throughout the entire meal, as did his. I just kept quiet." Spencer explained, looking at them. Dave shook his head. "What are you going to do if they are dating, Prentiss?" Dave asked, taking another sip of his drink. Emily just exhaled and shrugged. "She already dated Kevin Lynch, and honestly, I'm not too bothered by it. Anything that stops them from arguing, and as long as they're not up to anything actually kinky on the clock I suppose we're fine." she said, making the retreat back to her office.
"Good enough for me." Dave said, making his way back to his own.
"They'd be an aesthetically admirable couple." Spencer said as he went off, he had a train to catch.
JJ just watched everyone vanish from around her, she picked up her bag and started off, Will wasn't going to believe this.
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The car ride to Luke's was uneventful, but some quiet, smooth jazz played as they drove, Penelope smoothed out her dress as Luke made the stop to pick up food. He must have ordered it on the way into her office, how thoughtful! They made their way to his place. Upon entering they were greeted by Roxy who was excited to see them both, Luke redirected her to Penelope as he made his way to the kitchen to put their food out. "Oh hello my finest furriest friend!" she exclaimed, bending herself down to give Roxie some love. "Ohh-ho-ho! I know, I know!" Penelope said, smoothing out the beautiful fur, getting licked in response "Oh you! Yes, I love you too!" she laughed, Luke watched them and smiled, a pang of longing hit his heart, he wanted her to say that to his face while he was peppering her with kisses. This was the first time he was jealous of the attention Roxie was getting. Luke, jealous of his own dog, imagine that.
Penelope made her way to the kitchen to wash her hands off, "What did you get?" she asked as she washed her hands off with some warm water. "It smells super yummy!" she added, drying her hands off on an available towel. "Oh, I ordered from a Thai place!" Luke said, "I figured you'd like pad thai, so I got us some of that, it's got vegetables in it. There's some fried rice, no meat. Oh, green curry, no meat.. Oh, and there's this uh, gang som pak raum. It's a soup. One has veggies, the other has a deep fried omelet with it, we can share." Luke said as he pulled everything out. Penelope smiled and looked it over. "You're so tolerant of my vegetarianism, I love it." she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Luke blushed a little and got them some utensils. "That's what you do when you date someone, right? You accommodate them?" Luke asked opening the boxes for them. "To be honest since we first started eating together in your office the only meat in my home has been for Roxie." he admitted, Penelope looked at him, dumb founded. "You've been living the vegetarian life since then?" she asked, they'd been doing that for months now, nobody had done that for her before. "Yeah." Luke said, smiling for her. "I didn't want to make something you couldn't have on accident. And I've found that I really enjoy it, not to mention anything I could possibly lack has a vitamin supplement." he said, starting in on the green curry. Penelope melted a little, he did that for her before they were even dating. "You're such a good guy, Luke." Penelope whispered as she started in on the food with him.
After they ate and cleaned up, they sat on his couch, Roxie at their feet. "That was amazing, I didn't know I could love thai food so much." Penelope sighed, patting her stomach. "Kevin actually suggested thai to me when he came to my office, right before you text me." she said, looking at him. "It's really funny, you even got me pad thai like he suggested to me." she chuckled, shaking her head a bit. Luke smiled, putting an arm around her. "That is funny." he said, rubbing her shoulder. Penelope smiled and cuddled into him. "I'm so glad it's the weekend." Luke admitted, "I felt a little bad having been the one to drive you to Quantico and kind of left you there for a week." he added. Penelope laughed. "No worries, a friend helped me home in the middle of the week, I actually took a train in, kind of wanted an excuse to see you again." she said. "I couldn't let you go home after that case without spending time with your angel." she cooed, moving to plant another kiss on his cheek. "Oh? Well I'm glad you thought of me, Angel." Luke purred, returning the kiss with one to her cheek.
All of a sudden there was a commotion outside, and a knock at the door. Luke raised an eyebrow and got up, Penelope got up and followed behind him with Roxie. When he opened the door Luke was met by a city official, that couldn't be good. "I'm from the city and I hate to interrupt your evening, but the water main burst about 20 minutes ago, and you'll be unable to get water in your home for a while until it's being fixed." the official said. Luke sighed and shook his head. "Alright about how long would that be?" he asked, the official sighed "A week, give or take a day or two. We'll put out a notice when it'd been fixed." they said. "Alright, thank you." Luke said as he began to close the door. A week without water? This was going to be horrible. Penelope shook her head. "You can't stay here without water." she said, suddenly a light bulb went off in her head and she clapped her hands together . "Oh! you can stay with me while it's getting fixed!" she exclaimed, bouncing on her heels a bit. "You a Roxie can stay with me and Sergio while the pipe is being fixed!" Penelope exclaimed. "Really?" Luke asked, "I'd hate to put you out, Angel." he sighed. "Nonsense!" Penelope said. "You can pack things for you and Roxie, any food you'll need for her, and bring it to my place." she added, giving him a playful push. "It'll be the best sleepover, you'll love it." she added, Luke sighed and nodded. "Alright, Penelope." he said, bringing her back to him room to start packing what he'd need for a week, getting a fresh set of clothes for his go bag just in case.
With Penelope's help Luke got his and Roxie's weekly necessities into his vehicle, and made the trip to her place. After setting the bags down by her couch Luke found himself amazed by the sheer cacophony of colors in her home while Roxie investigated Sergio who had no problem with the large visitor. "I don't really have a guest bed and my couch can't pull out so you can camp out on me bed with me." she said, nodding towards it. Luke blushed, he'd never slept in the same bed with a girlfriend this soon, but this was an innocent thing. They weren't ready to move to a physical relationship, so this was just a girlfriend letting a boyfriend and his dog occupy space while the water main to his street was being fixed. This is innocent, he reminded himself as he set his bags down. One way or the other, Luke was guaranteed to be in for an interesting week.
A/N: I know this was kind of delayed, I've just been busy with some personal business, like my bio says it's either every other day or not for a while, pretty much ig... I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review if you did and I'll work hard on pumping out another chapter.