"Did Angela make this pie?" Booth looked over at Bones quizzically as they shared the apple pie from the pie plate; neither one of them had thought to find plates to put slices of it on, but Booth was beginning to think he was alright with that; it allowed him to sit quite a bit closer to Bones than he might have otherwise and she didn't seem to mind at all.

"Probably not, Angela isn't what you'd refer to as very domestic," Brennan was quite sure that her friend wasn't capable of creating a pie this good; she was an artist, but not a culinary artist. "I actually think that Hodgins made it."

"Hodgins? Really?" That surprised Booth; he would never have thought of Jack Hodgins, conspiracy theorist and super squint could bake a pie that reminded him of his grandmother's apple pies. "The crust is so flakey."

"He's full of surprises, or so Angela tells me." Brennan wasn't going to go into details about all of the other talents that Angela claimed Hodgins had; Booth had made it clear earlier that there were just certain things he didn't want to know. She was doing her best to try and ignore the butterflies that had taken up residence in her stomach; something that had been happening with increased frequency when she was around Booth.

"Well, let's just leave that can of worms closed, ok?" Booth did not want to learn anything more about the extracurricular activities of Angela Montenegro and Jack Hodgins. Right at this moment he was far more interested in his own extracurricular activities, especially if they happened to involve one Dr. Temperance Brennan who was sitting next to him and devouring far more pie than he ever considered she might be capable of consuming in one sitting.

"I'm not sure I understand how a can of worms is supposed to relate to Angela." Brennan looked out across the mall sure that she had never seen this many people there at any one time before in the entire time she'd live in DC and thankful that she and Booth had opted to come to the Jeffersonian instead of trying to find a place among the enormous crowd. They had managed to find a spot on the roof that had a good view of the Washington Monument, which Booth had said would be the focal point of the fireworks.

"It's a figure of speech, Bones...it means that it's just something you don't want to talk about." Booth noticed that they'd almost finished off the entire pie and he let out a soft chuckle, "I guess that pie was better than either one of us wanted to admit."

Brennan smiled back at him and let out a laugh of her own as she noticed that Booth had a blob of the apple filling and some whipped cream at the edge of his mouth, "We should have brought napkins."

"What?" He looked at the expression on her face and concluded that either she was trying to give him a complex or he'd missed his mouth somewhere in the middle of the pie, "I have something on my face?" Booth worked his tongue around his mouth to try and find the offending blob and when Bones giggled and shook her head, pointing towards his mouth, he wiped at it with his fingers, still coming up empty. He quirked an eyebrow in her direction, "There isn't anything on my face is there?"

"Yes, there is," She smirked as she watched him repeat the whole process, still missing the gooey blob.

Booth pointed at his face, leaning in towards Bones probably far closer than he ought to if he wanted to see the dawn's early light, "Did I get it?" He could tell from her expression that he'd probably missed again.

"No, it's still there," She restrained herself from reaching up and wiping it off of his face by pointing at her own face, "just at the corner of your mouth." She realized just how close their faces were as she glanced up and her eyes locked with his for a very long moment. The flurry of butterflies in her stomach surged in a whirlwind of nerves and she felt her cheeks flushing warmly as she considered how much easier it would be if she just nibbled it off of his face.

Booth licked the wrong corner of his mouth; he had thought he was being pretty damn thorough but given the amused expression on Bone's face, he was fairly certain that he was failing miserably. He arched both brows and looked at her expectantly, "Can you...I mean, I'm obviously not getting it and you have a birds-eye view."

She smirked. "A birds-eye view would imply that I was above you, but as you can see that's just not the case," Brennan's fingers trembled slightly as she reached over and cupped his cheek and brushed at the glob with her thumb.

Booth felt a little buzz of electricity at the innocent touch against his face and as her thumb brushed over his lips he unconsciously flicked out his tongue against it.

Brennan's eyes snapped to his as she felt him lick the blob off of her thumb; she wanted to kiss him, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions that he was willing to step across that invisible line. She felt her heart catch in her throat as she realized he was looking at her with a hunger in his eyes and she wondered if he could see straight into her soul. She glanced away at the weight of the emotion she felt just then, "I got it." She let out a nervous laugh and pulled her hand away from his face.

Booth simply reacted; he didn't want to dance around the issue any longer, this was his Bones and he wanted her to know that he wanted to be with her. His hand enveloped hers and his voice was soft, enticing her to glance up and meet his eyes, "Temperance." He didn't say her name often, but somehow at this juncture it seemed appropriate.

"Booth," She desperately wanted to protest, but she just didn't have the will to do it anymore. She was entranced with Seeley Booth; it made absolutely no logical sense to her but it was true. Somehow in the middle of examining remains and solving crimes he had found a place deep in her heart that she hadn't realized was still accessible.

"Shhh, don't say anything, ok, Bones." His voice was almost a whisper and Booth knew that if she thought about this too much she would find some reason to rationalize the little jolts of electricity that seemed to be sparking between them.

"Ok," Brennan found herself feeling an exquisite kind of anxiety at what was happening here. As he leaned in closer, she blinked, it was almost too much, "But Booth..."

He let out a soft chuckle and rested his forehead against hers, "What part of don't say anything did you not get, Bones?" This banter between them felt as natural as breathing and while it certainly had the potential to break the mood, somehow he knew that this time it wouldn't.

"Are you going to kiss me? Because if you are, I just..." Brennan felt a smile spreading across her face at the prospect of it all and she let out a nervous laugh as she once again locked eyes with Booth. Sometimes she just needed to think things through longer than the average person before she jumped in with both feet.

"You what?" Booth laughed and as if reading what was in her eyes, his expression softened and he smiled, "Yeah, I'm going to kiss you, Temperance." And he leaned a little closer trying to commit it all to memory in case this was just a dream.

Her eyes fluttered shut in anticipation and in the next instant Booth's lips pressed softly against hers, tentatively at first, and then as she found herself responding in kind, the kiss deepened. As first kisses went, this was much different than any kiss that Brennan could remember; it wasn't a prelude to simply satisfying some biological urges, the kiss in and of itself held such meaning because of who she was sharing it with and as they pulled away from each other a few moments later she couldn't help but smile, "That was pretty incredible."

Booth laughed and pulled her close to him, "I'd have to say that I completely agree." The thought occurred to him that he might just kiss her again when he was started by the sound of a loud explosion, "What was that?" He reached for the gun that wasn't there as he reoriented himself to their surroundings.

Brennan couldn't help but laugh at him as she pointed to the sky and slipped her arm around his waist, "Fireworks, Booth." Her smile was a bit smug as she realized that kissing her had unsettled him; the big strong handsome FBI Special Agent had been undone by simply kissing her.

"Right...yeah...Independence Day...fireworks." Booth's grin was huge as he leaned in and kissed her again; somehow the fireworks he was feeling inside made the ones exploding above them in the sky pale by comparison.

The End

Author's Note: I had so much fun writing Booth and Bones together that I might just have to do it again.