Almost Say I Love You, When They're Downtown Just a Little Bit Drunk
Brennan carefully balanced the large paper bags in one arm, so she could knock on Booth's door. It had been a long time since she'd used her key to just let herself in, not since she'd accidentally walked in on him and Dr. Byer having a romantic dinner. She had yet to consider asking him if it was appropriate for her to do so again even though she was quite certain he was no longer seeing Catherine romantically.
Her thoughts were interrupted when his door swung open, and she watched his confused smile as he let her in. "Hey Bones. What're you doing here?" he inquired, not unkindly, but clearly with some shock. "What's all this?" he asked, taking the bags from her and walking them over to his counter. Her eyes were quickly drawn to the way the black dress pants he wore and the way they stretched over his gluteal muscles. They were nicer than his usual work suit pants.
"I brought food." she told him, and at his tilted head, she realized she wasn't articulating herself well. "It is often customary, when going to the home of a friend or acquaintance, to bring offerings of food or wine or a gift in exchange for utilising their digital entertainment equipment to enjoy a televised event due to the superior nature of their technology to your own. For example, the Super Balls game." she explained, watching as the information began to settle in for him.
"It's the Super Bowl, Bones, and you came over because you want to watch my TV?" he asked, and she nodded, walking over to the counter and removing the ingredients she'd brought for her seven layer dip.
"There's a sperm whale necropsy being live streamed tonight. It… it is going to be amazing." She explained to him, unable to keep the excitement from her voice. Her face almost hurt from how much she was smiling.
He cringed with disgust, and she worried he'd be too squeamish to watch it after all. "I, uh, I mean, mi casa es su casa, Bones. You go right ahead and watch your– sperm… whale, but I've got plans tonight." he explained, hesitating on the word sperm like it was some kind of naughty term.
He did appear somewhat disappointed though. Perhaps, they were not enjoyable plans. Although, if that were the case, he wouldn't smell so alluring, nor would he be wearing such tight pants. Even his shirt was much nicer than his everyday wear, unbuttoned at the top and lacking a tie. Much more casual, sort of… sensual. This was his date costume, catered to attract female attention, to draw the eye to his well formed musculature and induce hormone secretions that would encourage intercourse. She'd recognize it anywhere, and it had certainly affected her.
"Oh." she said, trying to keep the disappointment from her voice. "Where are you going?" she asked, trying to seem casually curious and not at all jealous.
"Just to this bar downtown." he muttered vaguely, scrubbing a hand over the back of his neck in a tell-tale nervous action. Perhaps he was going on a romantic outing that he didn't want to disclose to her. Would he be bringing a woman back to his apartment while she was observing the sperm whale?
"Who are you going with?" she asked as she turned to his cupboard to retrieve a bowl to make the dip.
Booth laughed nervously, and she turned back around to really observe him as he spoke. "Bunch of friends are just meeting up." he replied, vaguely again. At her questioning stare, he continued. "Jared'll be there, a couple of guys we grew up with. Nothing, uh, too interesting." he explained, though it sounded very interesting to her. Booth's brother and some childhood friends socialising? They'd been friends for six years, and she'd never heard him mention any childhood friends that he was still acquainted with.
"Can I come?" she asked before she could even filter the words. She knew it was as presumptuous as showing up at his home to commandeer his television for the evening, but she was thoroughly intrigued now and simply wanted to go along to observe how he interacted with people who knew him as a young boy. Perhaps they were high school friends that would have stories of his athletic days and his sexual prowess as an adolescent.
His awkward chuckle as he shook his head told her that her question had been inappropriate, and he was simply trying to find a polite way to decline her request without hurting her feelings. "I– uh, Bones, you know I love– hanging out with you, right? Tonight…it's, uh, it's just a guy night." he stuttered, and she glared at him. "Listen, I know, you're all gung ho and can drink most guys twice your size under the table, but it's– we're going to a… a strip club." he stammered, and she felt her eyes briefly expand. He must have seen her shock at his words too because he continued stammering an explanation. "A kid we grew up with is getting married. It's his bachelor party."
"I see." Brennan nodded thoughtfully. "I enjoy watching exotic dancers." she reminded him. She had very much enjoyed watching Miss Strawberry Lust give Booth a lap dance. It had been incredibly arousing to observe him that way. It had also reminded her of the research she'd conducted for her paper. She'd performed a burlesque dance with large fans as the final piece, but she had become very close with the exotic dancers at that night club, and had even become quite adept at pole dancing.
"Bones, I– I'm sorry. You know any other time I'd invite you along, but this is– it's just one of those things… there must be some anthropological significance you can draw from, right?" he asked her, and she begrudgingly nodded. He was correct.
"In fact, you are correct. Bachelor parties can be dated back all the way to ancient Sparta. The soldiers would toast one another on the eve of their friend's nuptials; however, the debaucherous nature of bachelor parties wasn't recorded until the late 1800s when, ironically, Herbert Barnum Seeley's bachelor party was shut down because authorities learned that a belly-dancer would be performing in the nude for the guests." she explained, emphasizing his name as the fun factoid felt even more humorous to her now. "The more explicit style of bachelor party become much more prevalent after the Sexual Revolution in the 1960s, though." she continued, as she poured salsa into the bowl.
"That's fascinating, but I just want you to know that I'm just going to have a few beers and enjoy the company of some old friends. No debauchery for me." he explained pragmatically, and she flashed him a knowing smirk.
"And have you applied cologne to entice your male friends to find you more alluring or the female dancers?" she teased him, accepting that this was something she could not tag along with him for. It didn't mean she couldn't enjoy poking fun at his puritan nature though. "Your costume is very sexual." She commented, enjoying the slight flush that creeped up his neck.
"All right, Mom, I have to head out. Leave me some of that dip in the fridge for tomorrow? I have a feeling I'm going to need comfort food." he asked, flashing his charm smile at her like he thought it would work. She was immune to it by now… mostly.
Brennan rolled over to look at the alarm clock on her night stand, confused by what woke her up until her phone rang again. Squinting, she reached over and grabbed it, answering without looking at the screen. At this time of night, it was probably a murder.
"Brennan." She mumbled into the phone. "Hello?" She asked in confusion when all she heard was loud music, and glanced at her caller ID. "Booth?" She asked, sitting up slightly in her bed to get more comfortable.
"Bones." He said her name with laughter in his voice.
"Temperance!" She heard Jared yell into the phone. "Tell my brother he needs to grow a pair!"
"Booth, it's – it's very loud." she commented groggily, feeling a little annoyed at being woken up at 1:30 in the morning to the sounds of a nightclub.
"I'm sorry, Bones." he yelled into the phone. "I can't hear you! I'm going outside. Let me – let me go outside!" he continued yelling, and she held the phone away from her ear. It gradually became less chaotic on the other end of the line, and she assumed he'd made it outside when he spoke again, though he was still speaking well above a necessary volume. "Bones!"
"Yes, Booth." she replied in mildly amused exasperation. He didn't often let loose like this, and she could tell he was very much inebriated. "Are you having a good time?" she asked him quietly, feeling a surge of warmth at this more relaxed and jovial side he was showing.
"I'm havin' a good time, Bones, yea." he slurred with a laugh. "Are you having a good time with your… sperm whale?" he asked with a laugh. Perhaps being around people with whom he'd been a young boy was bringing out his inner child tonight.
"Yes, it was very interesting, but I'm home now." she informed him. "Thank you again for letting me use your television." she told him, unsure of what else to say. "I left you some snacks for tomorrow, and something to reheat for lunch." she informed him. In truth, she'd become hungry while watching the livestream and had decided to order in Thai. The restaurant had recognized her name and his address and had sent several extra items that she hadn't ordered this time. It was a kind gesture, and at least Booth would have something easy to make whenever he finally woke up.
"Bo-oneeesss." he said in a sing-songy type voice. "You're the best. Do I tell you that enough?" he asked her, and she laughed. "You are. You, Tempe, Temperance, Dr. Brennan, Bonesy-Bones, you are THE best. All right?" he slurred, and she laughed out loud at his drunk antics. "That's why– you know what, Jared is right. I need to grow a pair. I'm just– I'm gonna say it, I love you, Temperance–"
"You– what?" she asked, unsure if she'd heard him correctly.
"I love… like in an-an atta girl kind of way…" he clarified, and she nodded slowly to herself.
"You are very intoxicated, Seeley." she replied in a teasing tone, wondering why he was using her given name all of a sudden.
"No, no, no. You– you can't call me that." he insisted, sounding very serious, or at least as serious as one could sound when one was as drunk as Booth seemed to be. "You– you can't call me Seeley, see, cause, it reminds me of– of when I was in school– and the nuns… the nuns would scold me and whack my hand with a ruler and say 'Seeley Booth, are you having impure thoughts?'. You– call me Seeley, and it just… chases all the impure thoughts away. Like an impure thought exorcism." he told her as she tried to absorb what he was saying, to make any sense of it.
"Are you experiencing impure thoughts?" she asked curiously, wondering what the context of his explanation was.
"Uhm, I'm in a nightclub full of women who are taking off their clothes and waving their naked ass–ets in my face. Yea, I'm having some impure thoughts tonight." he said with a laugh, and she felt a twinge of something deep in her chest. It was altogether unpleasant and odd.
"Which begs the question, why are you outside talking to me?" she asked, her question coming out a little snarkier than she'd intended.
"Seel!" someone shouted from behind him.
"Let's go, Lover Boy! Hang up the phone!" Someone else's voice called to him and the noise levels increased as if a door had been opened.
"Impure thoughts." he laughed. "G'night Bones." he told her before the line went dead.
Brennan awoke again to the sound of a loud banging, and bolted up in her bed, startled as she looked around the dark room.
"Wilmaaaaaaa!" a shout came from her front door followed by more loud pounding.
Glancing at the alarm clock, she realized she'd only been asleep for two hours since Booth's drunken phone call.
"Wilmaaaaaa!" The shouting came again, the voice suddenly became very familiar, and she climbed out of bed. Stalking barefoot to her front door, she looked through the peephole to see a swaying Booth, leaning on a man she didn't recognize.
"Booth." she grumbled, opening her door. "Booth, stop shouting! You'll wake up the whole building." she scolded him as he meandered past her into her apartment.
"He still owes me for the cab fare." the stranger said with an expectant brow raise as Booth continued straight back to her bedroom.
"How much is it?" she asked, reaching behind the door to get her purse from the coat hook as the man told her his final tab was sixty bucks and included the two friends they dropped off on the way. Reaching into her purse, she handed the man $75 with a glare that said he'd better take it and get lost.
Groaning, she closed and locked her door, padding purposefully back to her bedroom where Booth had already kicked off his shoes and climbed under her blankets. Rolling her eyes, she climbed back into bed, and flicked off the lamp.
"You're not going to regurgitate in my bed are you?" she asked sardonically, turning on her side to face him. He shook his head, offering her a sloppy smile that reached his squinted eyes. "You'll be the one to clean it up if you do." she warned him, eliciting a chuckle from him.
"I won't throw up." he assured her, but his mumbled words were less than convincing.
"Why did you give the cab driver my address?" she asked him, snuggling her cheek into her pillow.
Chuckling, he shrugged. "I don't even remember giving him any address…" he said with a strange awe-sounding tone. "Maybe Jared did." he suggested thoughtfully.
"Did you have a good time with your old friends? With Jared?" she asked, genuinely curious about the dynamic of the Booth brothers in a social setting, as just a couple of guys catching up with their old friends.
He nodded, smiling at her. "We had fun." he told her simply, and she smiled at him as she realized he didn't do that very often, have fun. "Did you have fun tonight?" he asked, shifting closer to her until he was on the very edge of his pillow.
"Yes. I had a very good evening. I had to set your PVR to record the remainder of the sperm whale necropsy stream though. It was running into three hours and they'd barely even started." she explained, becoming excited once more. "I think I'd like to contact their research department and see if I can participate in one of their next necropsies." she told him. "They use a very large blade, called a flensing knife, to cut into the skin, much like Cam would use a scalpel, only much larger. Then they cut through the blubber and separate the ribcage, just like we would." she knew she was babbling, but he didn't seem to mind. He was simply laying there smiling at her. "Did you know that the blubber, meant to keep the whale's internal organs insulated, can actually become so hot and pressurised during decomposition that cutting into the whale can actually cause it to explode. Unfortunately, that didn't happen this time." she continued on, wondering if he'd watch the rest of it with her tomorrow. "Oh! And they use a winch on a 4x4 to remove each organ. Imagine if we had to use a winch everytime we wanted to remove an organ in the lab?" she laughed. It had truly been an entertaining program.
"You're so smart, Bones." he told her, shifting closer again. A tug on the string of her sweatpants drew her eyes down to find Booth toying with the knot at her waistband, twirling the loose end of the string around his finger. When she glanced back up to meet his eyes, he had a flirty smirk on his face, and she raised an eyebrow at him, challenging his antics.
"What are you doing?" she asked, smirking at him as she shifted her face closer to his, close enough that she could almost touch the tip of her nose to his.
His breathy chuckle tickled her face, blowing across her lips and chin. "I'm having impure thoughts." he told her, his eyes twinkling as he tugged again on the drawstring, this time releasing the knot. "I wanna kiss you." he confessed quietly, and she was reminded of another, very heated, very intoxicated kiss that they'd shared, so many years ago.
"Where?" she whispered, glancing down as his fingers continued to tug and twirl the strings, never straying any further.
He laughed, his whole chest shaking. "Now who's having impure thoughts?" he asked, rubbing his nose against hers. "Can I?" he asked, tilting his chin so that his lips were dangerously close to her. She nodded, almost imperceptibly, wondering if he'd remember any of this tomorrow, wondering if perhaps she was taking advantage of his inebriated state, but when his lips brushed across hers, all logical thought felt far, far away.
"That's it?" she asked when it ended after such a brief, nearly chaste encounter, but he shook his head, his smile seemingly a permanent fixture upon his beautiful face. "You're far too intoxicated to have sound judgement." she informed him quietly, before leaning closer to him and brushing her lips over his.
He sighed, sucking her bottom lip into his mouth. His loud groan when she slid her tongue into his mouth told her it was time to stop; this was becoming much more than two friends sharing a drunk kiss. She wasn't even drunk. Not on alcohol anyways, though she felt somewhat intoxicated. She pulled away slowly, meeting his mouth again for a gentler peck when it followed her.
"Goodnight, Seeley." she whispered, leaning up to kiss his forehead this time, watching his face, observing his reaction to what had just happened.
He laughed quietly, shaking his head and giving her a knowing smile. "All right. I'm exorcised." he murmured, releasing her drawstrings and bringing his hands up under his pillow.
"Bones." he whispered into the darkness long after she thought he'd fallen asleep. She cracked one eye open to look at him and took his furrowed brow. "It– it was weird." he told her, his voice staying in that quiet whispered tone. "Being around those guys again, guys that knew me, you know before we went to live with Pops and Grams. When– when my mom was still around."
"Did it bring up a lot of bad memories?" she asked, feeling a renewed pain in her chest for her friend's past-self.
He nodded, but gave her a half smile. "Some, yea, but also reminded me that not all of the times were bad during those years, ya know? Outside of the house, we– we had some good times with these guys, and I– I guess I had forgotten about that." he explained, and she nodded in understanding. There were a lot of memories about her childhood with her parents that she knew were good, but they were often overpowered by the negative connotations of them abandoning her and the subsequent abuse she'd suffered in the foster system because of that.
"I'm glad you got your good memories back, Booth." she told him, trying to keep her own stormy thoughts off of her expression. "What?" she asked as his silly drunk smile returned.
"You look sad." he commented so candidly that it took her aback. "C'mere." he murmured, reaching out to pull her closer.
"What? No.. Booth.. We– we shouldn't do that." she reminded him with a laugh.
"Not that." he laughed, pressing his forehead against hers. "I just wanna cuddle," he told her. "I'll even let you be the little spoon." he added conspiratorially.
Smiling as she rolled over and shuffled back into his arms, she looked over her shoulder at him. "Do you often prefer to be the little spoon?" she asked, watching in amusement as he squeezed his eyes shut and chuckled, nodding in silent admission.
"Open."
"Open."
"What?" Booth asked, grabbing the pillow under his head and trying to fold it over his eyes.
"Open your mouth." Bones demanded, and he complied, wondering what the hell she was doing until he felt the chalky tablet fall into his mouth. "Sip." she instructed him, as a straw entered his mouth. He sipped the cool water and swallowed the pill blindly. "I'm going for a run. There are donuts and coffee on the counter." she told him.
"You're amazing. Have I told you lately that I love you?" he joked, cracking one eye to peek up at her as she crawled off of the bed… her bed, apparently.
"Yes." she told him, standing in the doorway. "You told me last night." she mentioned casually before closing the bedroom door behind her.
"What?" he wondered out loud, trying to remember what happened last night. "Bones?" he called, wincing at the sound of her front door slamming.
