Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Thursday was the night of the Santa Barbara Police Department holiday party. Since it was only one week before Christmas, it had been more sensible for the department to make arrangements for a weekday. They had booked at hall in the Fireside Inn, a nice rustic restaurant, located just a few blocks away in case of emergency. The room was decked in warm reds and greens, with a large evergreen and twinkling white lights and Nat King Cole's melodic carols playing softly in the background. Carlton surveyed the scene around him as he paced back and forth. Nearly all of the department was present, most accompanied by friends, dates, or spouses, save for a handful of new officers who had bargained to work that night rather than the Christmas holiday itself. His date, however, had yet to arrive.

Just a matter of hours ago, ha and Shawn had spoken, clearing up that the latter had a few things to take care of and would meet the detective at the party. Carlton glanced at his watch. It was 7:02. Shawn had said that he and Gus would be arriving by seven o'clock. Not around seven; by seven. He should have expected that Shawn would be late. He always was.

"Lassiter," Juliet called out, approaching the head detective with a glass in hand, "You look a little on edge. What's up?"

"Nothing, O'Hara," he snapped. "And I am not on edge."

"Whatever you say," she said, shrugging and shaking her head. "Try to relax, though. This is supposed to be fun – remember?"

He stole a look at his watch again. 7:03. He was starting to have second thoughts about inviting Shawn in the first place, regardless of his stress-inducing tardiness. Perhaps he was not quite as ready for this as he had thought he might be. He was just beginning to toy with the idea of leaving early when the heavy wooden door creaked open and Shawn and Gus entered the room. He froze as Shawn made eye contact from across the room. Cracking his neck and adjusting his shoulders, Carlton took a few slow steps. Shawn likewise headed towards the detective, pausing to exchange pleasantries and one-liners with those he passed.

"You're late," Carlton grumbled, stopping a few feet apart from the other man.

"Am I? Are you sure your watch isn't just a little off?" Shawn joked. "You're definitely the type to set all your clocks exactly four minutes fast so that you'll always be on time, even when you're running late."

Carlton glared, not amused. He looked at his watch yet again. It was now 7:04. And it was true – he did, in fact, set all of his clocks four minutes ahead for that precise reason. Shawn knew him well, a fact that simultaneously disturbed and thrilled the detective.

"Well…" Carlton paused, feeling his nerves tighten.

"Well," Shawn said, placing his hand around Carlton's waist and leading him towards the crowd, "let's go have a little fun. This is a party, after all, even if it is a cop party."

Carlton cautiously followed Shawn's lead as they approached Juliet, who was currently engaged in a conversation with Gus.

"Shockingly, I see Gus has managed to effectively socialize without my presence for once," Shawn interrupted.

"Shawn!" Gus exclaimed, both out of frustration at his, albeit expected, rudeness and out of surprise at the sight of the two men together there. "Wh – what?"

"Jules, I hope you haven't been too traumatized by Gus' social ineptitudes and that it will in no way negatively impact you holiday celebrations," he continued, ignoring his friend's comment.

"Wait – what on earth is going on here?" Juliet inspected the sight in front of her.

"I think it's obvious that I'm insulting Gus."

"Shawn, don't be an idiot," Carlton muttered. He paused to take a deep breath and wrapped his arm around Shawn's shoulder. "O'Hara, well, you see, Shawn and I… we're…you know…"

There are often those unfortunate moments when, in a crowded and talkative room, all other conversations fall into a lull at the same time, leaving one uncommonly awkward statement audible to all present. This was one of those moments.

"You're dating?" Juliet blurted out into the suddenly silent room.

All eyes immediately turned to Carlton and Shawn. Gasps and murmurs began to fill the quiet.

"Well, that was definitely not how this was supposed to happen," the detective said.

"That was also not what I had in mind," Shawn chewed his lip.

"No?" Carlton's voice dripped with bitter, exasperated sarcasm. "If you didn't want it loudly announced to the entire department by my partner, how would you have preferred it go?"

"No, my psychic senses had told me that it would be a little more like this…"

Shawn wrapped both arms around the detective's waist and kissed him. The shocked faces of the other officers faded into the background as Carlton shut his eyes and kissed Shawn back, entwining his fingers into his hair.

Author's Note: First of all – thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate it! Also, I'm sorry that this one took a bit longer than the others. I had a lot of schoolwork over the past couple days. But you can definitely expect the next update sooner. :)