A/N: Hey all! This one took me a bit longer because it's the first chapter I hadn't had any vague ideas about beforehand. The first version wasn't working out, but once I decided to start over for the most part, it came very quickly. One note about this chapter: it's the first I feel to truly earn it's T rating, potentially straying into light M territory (but tastefully so). Other than that warning, enjoy!

They're giggling like lovestruck teenagers which they might as well be. Schmidt's not home but Winston is, and he can almost certainly hear them, but it goes to show just how deep her incredible want for Nick runs that she really, really doesn't care.

It feels impossibly sexy, to have the hot steamy shower water running over them both as their lips crash together, along with the rest of their bodies. She likes him pushed back against the tiles and at her mercy. And they're kissing and still giggling because isn't this so naughty and won't Schmidt be mad? He's kissing her neck and she's very nearly undone when she notices his shampoo on the shelf. She's never paid any attention before – she keeps her stuff on the opposite side of the shower. She grabs at his shampoo on a whim, momentarily distracted.

"Baby shampoo?" she asks, and he gives her just, the biggest grin she's ever seen him give.

"No more tears, Jess." he says, and she laughs.

Maybe it's a decidedly unsexy thing to do, but she can't resist the impulse. She opens the bottle, reaches up with it, and squirts a good amount onto his head.

"What the-" he asks, but then she massages it into scalp, and he inhales sharply. "Yeah okay," he sighs happily, "I can roll with this."

Her hands slide through his hair as he kisses her hard and soft and with overwhelming passion. He flips their positions suddenly and now she's against the tiles and at his mercy. In all honesty, it doesn't seem like he should be capable of this much energy with the way he eats and the way he doesn't work out, but dear God, he is so very, very capable.

She's taken over the edge within moments, him following shortly after, and they hold each other up in the glowing aftermath. Then they let the shower actually wash them off until there's no more hot water left. They get out and towel off, dress, and try to sneak out of the bathroom, but Winston's just outside of it, waiting. "I've had to pee for the last twenty minutes," he tells them, clearly annoyed.

"Sorry Winston," Nick says, and Jess follows suit. "Yeah, sorry Winston." But neither of them can keep much of a straight face, and it's clear that neither one of them is very sorry at all.

Winston rolls his eyes and goes into the bathroom, and the two of them make their way to her room. Nick flops onto the bed and she joins him, both spent and exhausted. He closes his eyes and looks impossibly content there beside her. She loves seeing him this way. "I have work in a few hours," he sighs, eyes still closed.

"I know. And I have to get some things ready for class tomorrow," she says.

"Mmm. Let's just. Little nap."

She smiles and snuggles in beside him, and even that is so new that it thrills her. She hadn't realized how much she'd yearned to be closer to him until she actually could be. She thinks of Melon Nick and how even then it felt weird and wrong to be away from the real Nick so much so that she needed a substitute. And that was the same night he kissed her and shook the ground beneath her feet.

Nick smells good, and she dreams of sunny beaches and pleasantly warm sand.

She wakes up an hour later, Nick snoring in her ear. She glances at the time and is immediately grateful that Nick will still have enough of it to get ready for work without rushing. She smiles at him and impulsively runs a hand through his hair. It gives her a heady sensation as she recalls the memories they made just an hour earlier. His hair is dry now and impossibly soft.

Far softer than she can ever remember it being.

"Nick, wake up," she says. "Nick!"

And he does, jolting awake and upright. "Time?" he asks frantically.

"You're good. You've still got like a half hour."

He breathes in deep, settles back into the bed just a little bit. "Oh. Okay. Good."

She smiles. "Hey, I've got a question for you. How come your hair's so soft right now?"

"Well, you washed it," Nick reminds her with a little smirk. "Remember?"

"Yeah, but what, is that a new shampoo for you?"

He shakes his head, looking more and more confused by the minute. "No."

Jess thinks back hard. She knows she's touched his hair often enough before now, it should have at least been this soft once or tw—

"Nick!" she exclaims, understanding suddenly dawning on her. "Is this the first time you've washed your hair since we've been together? It's been three weeks!"

"Yeah, so?" he says, finally pushing himself up off the bed and ineffectively trying to smooth the wrinkles out of his clothes with his hand. "How often do you wash your hair?"

"Like every couple days! Like a normal person, Nick!"

"What? That's crazy!" he exclaims. "What a waste of shampoo! I bet you have to buy more like every month!"

"Yeah, and I do, like a normal person!"

"Well normal people waste their money on stupid stuff." he argues.

"I'm sorry if being clean seems stupid to you, but most adult humans would agree that it's really, really not."

He moves past her and she follows him, and they continue arguing even after he grabs his keys and wallet out of his room as he gets ready for work.

"Jess, you didn't even notice until now." he tells her. "Did it smell? Did it burn you when you touched it? No, I'm pretty sure you would have told me that. I know you like my hair just fine, Jess. You're always putting your hands in it when we're doing it! I'm probably gonna go premature bald because of it."

She rolls her eyes as she follows him towards the front door, "Yeah, that's why you'll go bald."

He reaches up to his hair anxiously for a moment, but then recovers. "Admit it, Jess. For all your talk about how often is often enough, you. didn't. notice."

He has a point. Perhaps his hair just doesn't produce that much oil, and it's certainly not long enough to ever dip into say, a food platter or two, which has happened to her on occasion. A shower on its own for weeks at a time apparently works for him. "Well, no," she concedes. "But," she says softly, reaching up and tousling his hair once again, "I do like how soft it is now."

A spark lights in his eyes and for some reason, Jess finds herself instantly nervous.

Nick leans in, just an inch or so from her face, a smirk playing across his lips. He smells good and his breath is warm against her skin. "Well then maybe we can talk about occasional repeat performances of earlier," he says, and she inhales deeply. Often enough she's let herself believe that Nick can't seduce his way out of a paper bag but damn, he has moves when he wants to.

And then he pulls back and grins goofily at her. "Well, gotta head out now," he says, and she can tell with certainty that he knows what he's done to her even though he has to leave. Now she's going to be home all night and thinking of him and how much he frustrates her and how much she kind of likes it. God, she hates him. Mostly she just hates how much she wants to rip into him right now.

"See ya, Jess." And he pecks her a kiss goodbye, and she's still so overwhelmed with conflicting emotions that she doesn't even kiss back.

"Nick," she warns him as he opens the door. "I'm not going to wait up for you!"

"Wouldn't want you to," he assures her easily, and then he's gone.

She actually does stay up all night, prepping her lesson plan and cursing him and his stupid soft sexy hair. Nick is going to pay, she promises herself, and sure enough, when he arrives home in the early morning and they're both beyond sleep deprived, she still manages to release all her pent up twirliness and frustration upon him.

Funny how he doesn't seem to mind.