Prompt: Becker/Jess, a restaurant, and the color blue

On Tuesdays they took lunch together. It started after Becker gave Jess a lesson in shooting and she'd insisted upon treating him to a meal as thanks. Feeling her gratitude was unnecessary, Becker had steadfastly refused to select where they should dine. Keeping her safe was his job and he didn't approve of how long she had managed to get away with not being formerly trained in self defense. Jess hadn't been able to decide for them, every place that came to mind she had argued herself out of just as quickly. Claudio's was too fancy, Secret Bakery was too casual, fast food was definitely out.

"We could always try someplace new to both of us." Becker settled the issue by taking her elbow and steering her out of the ARC and onto the street.

Career-driven and focused as both were, they had never paid much attention to the neighborhoods around their workplace. A few blocks past the anonymous office buildings that surrounded the Anomaly Research Center, they had discovered a quiet, shady street with a few small boutique shops, a tailor, and a hole-in-wall family-owned Japanese restaurant.

Remarking that she had yet to try sushi, Jess was utterly surprised to learn that Becker himself was an aficionado. He had always seemed rather a meat-and-potatoes sort of guy. Soon they were seated inside and his warm, strong fingers were on hers as he explained how to hold the chopsticks. She wasn't about to let him know she ate enough take-away Chinese food to know her way around a pair.

"However did you discover you have a fondness for raw fish and rice?"

Becker told her about his brief stint in Japan, a fleeting moment of relative peace and beauty before he'd been sent back to the Middle East. She laughed at his stories of old comrades who had lived on military field rations for a week before deigning to sample the local cuisine. Becker insisted she sample a roll before he told her what was in it and Jess was surprised how delicious eel could be. Mimicking his actions, she dipped the fish of her nigiri rather than the rice into the soy sauce and wondered if it was a particular etiquette or merely a personal preference

That had been the start of the love affair between Jess and sushi.

A week later the first craving hit. It niggled at her all day and her usual lunch seemed entirely devoid of flavor. When she was done with work for the day Jess headed straight for Kimura's, determined to satisfying the compulsion. A few rolls to take home to a bottle of wine and a bubblebath, what more could a girl ask for?

But she hadn't been the only one with the craving; she ran into Captain Becker as she entered the restaurant. They exchanged pleasantries and Jess noticed his smug half-smile as she'd studied the menu intently. But his order was ready within moments and he left to take his meal home.

A few days later, the desire for more dragged Jess out of the ARC at noontime. He ran into her as she returned with her goodies in paper box bearing the Kimura's logo. Becker was much too straight-laced to openly salivate over another person's lunch but she did catch him glancing it and suddenly wished she had thought to bring some back for him.

Having made a mental note to do so next time, Jess wasn't willing to wait for a craving to hit for the excuse. She waited exactly two days before dropping by the armory to casually ask if she could pick him up a bite while she was out. As Jess suspected, Mama Becker didn't raise a man who made a woman fetch and carry for him and she was pleased when he invited himself along. It was pleasant walking at his side, outside the ARC and away from the rest of the team.

The next week she had made the offer of fetching his lunch again with similar results, and the following week she didn't bother with the pretext. Before too long, it became an established routine. Without actually making the plan or setting a time, on Tuesdays they met at Kimura's when they got hungry.

When Jess got there first she always sat in a booth but wouldn't admit even to herself that it was in hopes of feeling his knee brush against herself under the table. In general Becker preferred to beat her there so he could seat them at the bar. Whoever invented the bar stool was clearly a leg man but Becker's poker face ensured Jess would never know how much he enjoyed watching the petite woman climb up on to the tall chair and primly cross one pretty little stocking-clad leg over the other.

But today he was running late. Literally running, and very noticeably late.

"Not very punctual, Captain." Jess called to him as he entered the restaurant.

"My apologies." Becker crossed to her table, making his excuses as he slipped out of his jacket and into the seat across from her. "I was planning to be here half an hour ago, but then Abby needed help in the menagerie and one thing led to another and I didn't get a chance to call. Did you order?"

Jess only gaped at him.

"Jess?"

"Wh-what are you wearing?"

"Hmm? Oh." Becker glanced down and smoothed a hand over the soft blue jumper covering his torso. "Things got a bit out of hand with the mammoth. That's why I was late, after a wash I only had a clean undershirt so i had to borrow this from Connor. Its a bit colorful but it fits well enough i suppose."

Jess almost choked and fumbled for her drink.

"Fit well enough" were not the words to describe it. She was having trouble thinking of any that didn't trend towards the obscene. Connor preferred his jumpers to be large and baggy so the fit wasn't as bad as she would have guessed, but he was lean where Becker was solid. And the blue knit clung lovingly to his muscular form. The color made his ever-changing eyes shine a color she hadn't seen in them before.

It wasn't until Becker sat back and stretched his arms along the back of the booth's upholstered seat that he realized the cause of that expression on Jess Parker's face. Her eyes followed the play of muscles in his shoulders, visible through the borrowed shirt. He pretended to smooth the shirt down, watching as her eyes followed his hands down over his abs before darting away as the blush crawled into her cheeks. Jess turned her attention to her drink but it wasn't long before her gaze was back on him.

"So, did you order?" Becker asked once more.

He had to school himself not to grin. She was so distracted by him she was having trouble following the conversation.

"Jess?"

Somehow she managed to drag her eyes away from his godlike form. Jess shook her head to clear it and snapped back the rest of her drink before she smiled at him.

"Right. Yes, I did. And you know what the price of leaving me to order is don't you, Captain?"

"Don't tell me. Asparagus."

She grinned cheekily and brandished her chopsticks with a flourish. Jessica's fetish for asparagus in her rolls was unrelenting. Becker had lost several arguments against its inclusion in their shared meals, but today he ate his half of the roll without complaint.