Disclaimer: Saban and Disney's, not mine.
Notes: Katie/Trip fluff and... that's it! Really! On a side note, I'm roughly halfway through with this claim for the LiveJournal community 30 Kisses, so yay. :)

When Trip began spending all of his free time locked up in his workroom nobody thought much of it. They had known him long enough to know that this was what happened when he was inventing, and during it all he still remembered to eat, sleep, and go to work. A few eyebrows were raised -- especially Katie's-- when he stopped eating with the four of them and going to bed at night in favor of late-night snacks and quick naps, but he never showed up late for work or shirked his duties as a Time Force officer. Yes, he was starting to look like he was about to nod off any second, but given the chance he would go on and on about his latest gadget with such enthusiasm that it would have been cruel to even suggest taking a break.

But when Circuit, the robot Trip had built, confessed to Katie that he was worried he was spending too much time with machinery, she decided it was time to do something.

--

"You. Dinner, then bed. Now."

Trip jumped in his seat, obviously startled by the sudden break in his concentration. "Oh. Hi." He turned around and smiled vaguely. "Sorry, but I'm--"

"Working? Yeah, I know. You've been working nonstop for the past two weeks." She folded her arms and leaned against the door. "You need a break. Can you even remember the last time you had a decent night's sleep?"

"I'm not--" he suddenly broke out into a huge yawn. "... Sleepy."

"Right." She didn't bother trying to keep the sarcasm from dripping into her voice.

Katie was not surprised to see his features harden in response to that. After all, Trip could be very stubborn when he wanted to be. "I want you to look at this." He repositioned himself so she had a clear view of the monitor. The outline for what looked like some sort of new weapon flickered onto the screen. She couldn't understood most of it (but she had yet to meet anybody who could understand what was just tinkering with old parts for Trip), but she did notice a very large number next to the word 'kilohertz'.

"See this? Once it's built, it'll be a huge help. We might even catch Ransik faster." He voice was calm, but the determination that had kept him going the past few days was very much there.

"Besides," he added with a shrug, "It's not like I'm much good for anything else, right?"

She wasn't sure what upset her more: what he had said, or judging from the way he sounded, he was perfectly okay with that. Katie sped to his side of the room, grabbing him by the arms. "What! Who told you that?"

He gave her a perplexed look. "Well... no one, but it's not like it was something hard to figure out."

"Trip." There were a lot of things she wanted to say at that moment. Like how she couldn't believe he had managed to convince himself of that. How they were a team, and she would go over every time he saved them if she needed to. Or how one smile from him could dull the pain of being away from her family. There was so much to tell him, but she knew that just words wouldn’t be enough.

So she settled for kissing him instead.

It was short, almost chaste, but Trip's eyes were huge when she pulled away. He blinked a few times, trying to think of something to say but coming up dry. "Um."

"My thoughts exactly." Katie stuffed her hands in her pockets. Kissing him had seemed like a good idea at first, but now she was starting to wonder.

"I-I mean... I'd always hoped, but never thought you'd feel the same, you know?"

A weight she hadn't known existed until now was suddenly lifted. "So does this mean I've convinced you to take some time off?"

Trip glanced at his computer longingly. "But my work--"

"Will still be there in the morning."

Still not convinced, he mumbled "I don't know..." But then something caught his attention. "Hey. Is that pizza I smell?"

"Yep. Wes and Circuit figured if I couldn't convince you, they'd try bribery."

Trip smiled brightly. "Maybe just one slice." He took her hand and together they left for a well-deserved break.