A/N: I was encouraged to continue by Dee2387 and I thought that's awfully sweet but what else is there to happen? But then I thought, Nick is hilarious when he is uncomfortable and this is the result. Please enjoy!
The discussion about the kiss went phenomenally well, perhaps too well, because Nick and Jess were suspiciously nice to each other the rest of the week. As much as they said the kiss wouldn't affect their friendship, it was obvious that's exactly what it was doing and neither of them was willing to talk to the other again to fix it. Schmidt and Winston had noticed, but they were waiting for their friends to do something so ridiculously uncharacteristic before they confronted them. That happened three days after Nick and Jess had had a secret conversation in Winston's room.
It was amazing how often Nick and Jess all of a sudden got in each other's way. The number of "after you's" Winston was hearing was getting excessive, but he decided to put his foot down when he saw Nick and Jess trap each other in the kitchen one morning. Winston was sitting on the couch and he was grateful he was the only witness. Schmidt had already gone to work and he would not have taken what Winston saw as well.
Jess had been rummaging in the fridge, blissfully unaware of her surroundings until she turned around and Nick was right in front of her, making her jump violently. "Sorry," Nick said. They both giggled nervously and went to move around each other in the same direction. Then they scooted back the other way. Then they laughed without looking at each other and shuffled in the same direction again.
Jess decided to escape the corner by curtsying with her pretty red dress. "Excuse me," she said with a bow of her head and she used Nick's temporary surprise to scoot around him.
"Did you just curtsy?" Nick chuckled, incredulously. Suddenly he was assaulted by plainly nervous giggles.
Jess was clearly embarrassed but she tried her best to defend herself. "So? It's polite."
"It was polite three hundred years ago," is what Nick should have said. Instead he said, "You're right. Excuse me Miss Day." And he bowed. Actually bowed.
Jess laughed in delight. "Not at all Mr Miller," she said, putting on a terrible cockney accent. Nick chuckled as she left the room and continued to chuckle quietly as Winston got off the couch to talk to him.
"I know what you're going to say and don't you dare," Nick said, still in a sickly polite voice.
"I have to," Winston said seriously.
Nick shook his head, his smile turning slightly mad and his eyes twitching. "No you don't my friend, you certainly don't."
"I can't live with this Nick, it's too much." Winston told him.
"You can't Winston? You? I just bowed to a girl in my own kitchen." Nick said, suddenly sounding mad and a lot like his old self. "That should never have to happen!"
"Yeah do you mind explaining that?"
Nick immediately put on his turtle face. "No way," he said, and he headed straight for the fridge, a habit all three guys had when they were avoiding confrontation.
"Nick it's too late to look for a way out of this." Winston told him. "You're not distracting me with bacon this time. Just tell me what's wrong."
"I can't it's too terrible," Nick called from the fridge.
"What happened? Did you see her naked again?" Nick started moving jars and Tupperware in the fridge around at random, making them clatter so he could block out Winston's voice. "You gotta tell me now otherwise I'll go ask her."
"No!" Nick said urgently and he left the fridge and hurried over to Winston again. "You can't ask her. We're completely happy with the way things are you can't question it Winston."
"Nick you laughed at her curtsying to get away from you. No one in this loft should encourage Jess curtsying. That's an unspoken rule you made up. What is going on?!" He said, his voice rising out of frustration.
Nick made wild, panicked gestures at Winston to keep his voice down. "Listen," he said in a hushed voice. "She's just in the other room can we please not talk about this here?"
"You're not going to take me somewhere cool so I'll forget about this are you?" Winston asked him suspiciously.
Nick sighed loudly, "Well not now I guess, let's just go somewhere else ok?"
"Fine," Winston said finally, still eyeing Nick suspiciously. "But you're telling me what's going on as soon as it's safe."
"I will tell you." Nick agreed, although he still looked uncomfortable.
"And you're buying me an ice cream." Winston added.
Nick was outraged. "Who's doing who a favour here?" He said, gesturing between them.
"Enjoy it ya bug-eyed clown," Nick was grumbling at Winston eating his chocolate chip ice cream. They had gone to a diner down the road. Nick had his hood up to avoid recognition despite Winston saying that they weren't doing anything secretive and they weren't being followed or spied on.
"Out with it Nick," Winston said, still preoccupied with ice cream. "What did you do?" Nick suddenly got extremely restless, absentmindedly rubbing the back of his neck out of discomfort. "Did you walk in on her and Sam?"
"No!" he replied immediately.
Winston's eyes widened with a possibility. "You didn't... you know..."
"What? Of course not she has a boyfriend!" Winston's eyes widened even further and Nick finally conceded. "I kissed her, ok? When everyone else was asleep after Strip True American." He winced and rubbed his face, which had suddenly gotten itchy and hot.
Winston took in his friend's restlessness with disbelief. "You kissed her?" Nick nodded, rubbing his eyes, clearly in pain. "What's the big deal Nick we were forcing you to kiss her a couple hours earlier."
Nick's squeezed his eyes shut. "I know! But I didn't want to and then I really did want to and we both said it was nothing..."
"But it's something?" asked Winston, finishing his thought.
Nick threw his hands up out of hopelessness. Then his gaze rested on Winston's ice cream. "Can I have some of your ice cream?"
"Uh uh," Winston said, taking another bite and keeping it closer to his chest.
"Winston, I'm telling you the loft dynamic is changing and you're not even going to give me a bite? I need some ice cream."
"Get your own ice cream-"
"I got you that ice cream, technically it is mine!"
"I licked this ice cream all over man you're not getting any of it, that's nasty – wait!" Winston stopped with a sudden realisation. "You're changing the topic."
"No I'm not I just want some ice cream Winston."
"Do you have feelings for her?" The words hung in the air for a moment.
Then Nick sighed deeply. "I don't know," he conceded. "I mean its Jess, I care about her a lot but..." he went back to rubbing his neck. "It wouldn't work out between us we're already at each other's throats a lot, sometimes we're barely friends. It would just be too much."
"Wow. I can't believe we're having this conversation," Winston said heavily.
"Yeah well we could have been arguing about ice cream," replied Nick sarcastically.
A/N: That's all I have right now but Nick and Jess are a lot of fun to write so I think this might become an AU story! Pleeeease review!