Sorry for the delay in updating. Still having a serious lack of inspiration for this story. I'm continuing with this kissing storyline for now...but that can only go on for so long. We'll see what'll happen after that. Thanks so much to everyone who read and especially to those who took the time to review.
Still not mine. I have yet to make my peace with that little fact.
The Angelator was the only source of light. The features of the six people in the room were thrown into sharp relief from the artificial glow of the hologram, the rest of their bodies fading into obscurity in the shadows of the darkened room.
Angela was standing with her arms crossed, stance relaxed. Hodgins was positioned nearer to her than perhaps was necessary, but the artist wasn't complaining. Zach was standing further back than anyone else, his brow furrowed in concentration. Cam was leaning her hands on the edge of the ingenious machine, squinting into the picture's depths.
Booth had placed himself beside Brennan, but not too close so as not to invade her personal space. He still had the bruise from the last time that happened and the experience was not one he cared to repeat. His mind was full of the kiss he had shared with his alluring partner three days previously and the subsequent 'almost kiss' later that same night. He kept shooting furtive glances at Brennan, trying to gage her thoughts, but she was revealing nothing. The kiss hadn't been referred to by either of them since that night and he was starting to wonder if it ever would be. But it had meant something to her. It had to have. Given the way she had reacted, her little sighs and the way she had pushed up against him and gripped on to him as though she never wanted to let go… It couldn't be just him who was this severely affected by it…could it?
"How could you two miss something like…"
The sound of Cam's muttering jerked Booth out of his reminiscing. He looked wide-eyed at the floor and blurted out, "We didn't kiss…"
The beat of silence that followed this flustered denial extended into an infinity of thrumming nothingness. Taking care not to appear over-excited, so as not to scare anyone off, Angela bellowed, "KISS?! Nobody said kiss! Cam said, "miss". Ohmigod! Did you guys kiss? Like, seriously, kiss?"
Booth glanced around, utterly terrified. His neck looked like it was being held in place by some sharp pointy object, so determined was he to avoid looking at his partner, whose expression was a mixture of shock and incredulity.
He smiled weakly at the smug faces surrounding him. "Who said anything about kissing?" he squeaked piteously.
Subtle, as ever, as a mallet to the face, Zach dryly piped up, "That would be you, Agent Booth. One can only assume you were referring to your ambiguous partnership with Dr. Brennan."
Booth turned an "I-don't-even-need-a-gun-I-could-kill-you-with-my-bare-hands" look on Zach, causing the poor man to nearly fall over with fright. Hodgins leaned towards him and loudly whispered, "Now's the time to grow a pair, Z-man," which he seemed to think was invaluable advice but which, unsurprisingly, just made the recently accredited doctor angry as well as petrified.
For his part, Hodgins was looking delightedly back and forth between the embarrassed partners. He had every appearance of watching an extremely pleasing tennis match except for the fact that neither of these players were moving. They seemed to have completely lost control of their primary motor functions. Brennan, in particular, seemed to have forgotten how to close her jaw.
Angela settled herself cross-legged on the floor, pulling Hodgins roughly down beside her. Completely ignoring his grunts of protest and promises of grievous bodily harm, she stared raptly up at the flushing pair, her eyes shining. She looked like a child about to hear a particularly good bedtime story. Zach stood frozen to one spot, afraid to move lest Booth shoot him. Cam moved back to lean against the wall, loosely crossing her arms and muttering, "This should be good."
Booth heard her and growled, "No it won't coz we're not saying anything." Swatting away Booth's profession of silence as though it were an annoying insect, Angela turned her body to face Brennan, nearly dislocating Hodgins' kneecap in her eagerness.
"So, so, so…how did it happen? When did it happen? I can't believe you didn't tell me sooner, sweetie. And you, Mr. Silent but Deadly F.B.I. man. Didn't think it was a good idea to spill the best piece of gossip I've heard all year? So, was it very gentle and romantic or did he push you up against the wall and…" Angela's excitement was causing her to trip up over her words and muddle herself. She rambled into silence, blinking in confusion.
Hodgins took advantage of her temporary speechlessness to say to Brennan, "Yeah, that" he gestured towards Angela, who was now silently mouthing all of the words she had just said, to make sure she'd said it all correctly, "but, you know, in English."
Booth took a step forward, waving a hand in front of his body, and loudly declared, "Look, we didn't kiss. Nothing happened." At the same time, Brennan looked in utter astonishment at Angela and whispered, "How did you know about the wall?"
Angela did a little sitting down jig of happiness. Hodgins let out a low, approving whistle. Zach let out a quiet little gasp then quickly looked around him as though to distract from the fact that he had acknowledged the information. Cam's eyebrows had shot towards the ceiling, a smile dominating her amused face.
Booth had smacked his palm loudly against his forehead. He looked slightly cross-eyed as he glared at Brennan and grumbled, "Well, she knows about it now." The anthropologist gazed wide-eyed and innocently at Booth, while gently pointing a finger in Angela's direction, "Yeah, but, she… Anyway, I didn't say anything important because it's not as though you kissed me then anyway. You were just teasing me."
Booth gave a bug-eyed look to their crestfallen audience, nodding significantly. "Listen to the lady. She speaks the truth."
Brennan nodded in agreement and continued, "You kissed me earlier. In the shop."
Booth groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Not the whole truth! You're not meant to tell them the whole truth."
Brennan cast him a very angry look. "Well, I'm sorry, you should have specified that."
Booth grunted and muttered something about how people should have the cop-on to know these things without being told.
Brennan's face darkened and she stated loudly, "If I'd been telling them the whole truth I would have said that you barged in on me while I was changing. Then you kissed me. When I was just wearing my underwear."
For a moment the room was completely silent. Then Angela seemed to explode in a very high-pitched and squeaky manner. Hodgins stuffed his fingers in his ears and lamented, "I'm never gonna hear the end of this." Zach had a very satisfied expression on his face, as though something had just become clear to him. "That's what he was talking about at the dinner," he murmured to nobody in particular.
Booth took a step towards Brennan, his body shaking with rage. "What the hell did you go and say that for? Some things are meant to be private."
Not one to be intimidated, Brennan took a step forward of her own and spat, "What, so private that they can't even be mentioned between the two people concerned?"
Booth took another baby step forward, his shoes stopping mere centimetres from hers. "I'm not the one who wasn't mentioning it. You haven't said a word about it."
Not to be outdone Brennan edged herself towards her partner. Their chests were now pressed tightly together, Brennan having to nearly look vertically upwards in order to see Booth's face.
"So, after you initiate things and later embarrass me and then try and…I don't know…seduce me later…" Booth started yelling loudly in protest at this point "I'M meant to be the one who starts the conversation about it?"
Booth didn't reply. He simply glared down at her while she glowered resolutely back. The air surrounding them seemed to crackle with their undeniable chemistry. Their frenzied, angry breathing sounded through the room like thunder.
The tension was suddenly broken by Hodgins poking Angela painfully in the ribs with his elbow and loudly declaring, some might even say screaming, "Looks like we might be getting an encore…"
This effectively shattered the uncertainty between the two. Booth roughly straightened up, pulling his face back from where it had slowly been inching towards his trembling partner. He backed away quickly. Brennan stumbled backwards too, gasping slightly as though something very powerful had just released her.
Refusing to look at anybody, Booth barrelled towards the door and left. After a split second, Brennan raced after him. A moment was taken by those remaining to wonder if they should give the two some privacy. Then they all tore after the retreating pair, tripping up in their eagerness to get out the door.
They joined the proceedings just as Booth was reaching the exit. Brennan was visibly flustered, standing about fifteen feet behind him, apparently at a loss for what to say. Then, suddenly, her anger won out and she yelled at his hunched back, "You like kissing so much, Booth, why don't you just kiss my ass?" Booth turned back to her, an angry and gleeful smile stretched across his shining face.
"Gladly!" he roared back. With that he marched through the door, slamming it behind him. Brennan turned on her heel and strode off to her office, the sound of her heels pounding off the tiles reverberating around the spacious lab.
The others were left shaking with laughter at Brennan's ridiculous attempt to use derogatory catchphrases, of which she knew next to nothing, and of Booth's inadvertent admittance that he found his partner physically attractive. They all nodded at each other in a very pleased way. An extremely productive day indeed.