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As much as he tried not to, Gus could not help but find himself attempting to grasp what he had observed between Shawn and Lassiter. Despite Shawn's frequent involvement with women, he had always suspected that his friend was not entirely heterosexual. Shawn flirted with just about everyone, all the time, regardless of gender. Gus could deal with the idea of Shawn being with a man. In fact, he was pretty sure that he'd caught a glimpse of a guy leaving Shawn's room once when his friend had been staying over at his place. The gender really wasn't the issue here. The thing that baffled Gus was that it was Lassiter. He was pretty certain that the head detective could not stand Shawn. And there was barely a moment when Shawn was not insulting or mocking Lassiter in some way or another. But maybe it was like one of those middle school things, when your mom would tell you that the boy or girl who spent all of lunchtime teasing you was only doing so because he or she liked you. Shawn did often exhibit that he had the general mindset of a twelve-year-old, after all. Even if that were the case, when the hell did that happen? How did Gus not know about it? He was going to find out what was going on. Forget propriety and awkwardness. This was Shawn Spencer he was dealing with. Those sorts of things didn't matter.

When Gus pulled into his parking spot at the Psych office on Monday morning, he found out exactly where those two-hundred and fifty dollars had gone. The door, gutters, and windows were lined with large colorful lights and accented with loops of sparkling garland. Unrealistically-sized candy canes stood along the base of the building and lighted wreaths hung in the door and windows. An inflated Santa Claus in a sleigh sat atop the roof. Gus nervously opened the door to the office, afraid of what holiday madness might await him inside. He entered and found the interior similarly decked in lights and garland, with a huge decorated tree that looked like it barely fit in the room. Shawn was standing by the window, arranging the multitude of dancing, singing holiday characters that he had placed there.

"Damn, Shawn," Gus said to get his friend's attention.

Shawn spun around and smiled, but instead of replying, he squeezed the foot of the Abominable Snowman, which proceeded to play "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" as it danced and lit up.

"I can understand the holiday spirit, Shawn," Gus said once the music had ceased, "but don't you think this is a little overkill?"

"To quote … well, someone I can't remember: 'Nothing succeeds like excess'," Shawn retorted.

Something about that quote jogged the back of Gus' memory, and reminded him of the question that he'd been dwelling on since Friday night. Already rather frustrated with his friend, he resolved to just cut to the chase and ask flat out.

"Shawn, what's going on with you and Lassiter?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Shawn replied. Gus was surprised by the nonchalance in his tone, until he recalled that his friend basically lied for a living.

"I'm talking about what the deal is with you and Lassiter dating or hooking up or whatever the hell it is," Gus clarified.

"Gus, don't be a miniature purple ostrich. Why would I be dating Lassie?"

"Nuh-uh, Shawn. You can't just laugh this one off. I saw you two sucking face when he dropped you off here Friday night."

Just for a split second, Gus caught a serious look of concern, or even panic, flicker across Shawn's face, before it bounced back into a derisive smile.

"Well, clearly your investigative skills have not improved since getting into business with me."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Gus, Lassie and I have been together since October," he laughed, "and it's taken you this long to figure it out."

"You could have told me like a normal person. Aren't we supposed to be best friends?"

"I preferred to think of it as an investigative training exercise."

"Investigative training exercise, my ass! You are so full of crap."

"True, true. But that's hardly the point," Shawn smirked. "The real point here is that you are oblivious."

He broke into a sing-song chorus of "Gus is oblivious" as he skipped around the office.

Author's note: Yay! I've got tons of alerts now! Don't forget to review too! I don't know if the next update will be in as short a time as this one, but it should be in the next couple days.