DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Not even a smidge (smidgeon?)

Maura watched Jane over the remains of their shared dinner. Jane had invited her over after work, and the formal, half-shy way she'd phrased the invitation had Maura slightly concerned, and intrigued.

By the time they'd worked their way through the meal Jane had laughed a little too hard at her jokes, managed to spill a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and twisted her paper napkin into a shredded abstract sculpture. Maura had grown tense, waiting for whatever it was Jane was working herself up to.

"Maur, if you keep eyeballing me like that I'm going to throw your fancy French bread at you."

She bristled. "I wasn't eyeballing you. I was looking at you. There's a difference."

Jane leaned back in her chair and smirked at her, some of the tension leaving her body. "You were so eyeing me."

She huffed. "I was not."

Jane shrugged. "Yeah, you were."

"Was not."

Jane appraised her. "You were doing that thing you do when you think you have the power to X-Ray me with your eyes. I'm being treated like an abnormally large particulate. In my own home, no less."

She glared at Jane, trying to ignore the urge to laugh."I don't X-Ray people with my eyes."

"No, you don't, but you think you do." She pointed her fork at Maura. "It's a serious problem and I think we need to get it checked out."

She gave up. "Fair warning, I'm about to throw something at you."

Jane raked back her hair, then smiled innocently at her. "What, as a guest in my home? Maura Isles, I'm surprised at you."

She smiled angelically back. "I brought tiramisu. I can unbring it. There's still time."

They stared at each other, Maura struggling not to smile until she saw Jane's lips twitch. They broke out into laughter. Jane waved her mutated napkin in surrender. "Not fair. You know my weakness."

Maura batted her eyes at Jane, watched the laughter fade into something more focused, intent. "I know several of your weaknesses, Detective."

Jane held her gaze for a moment, then looked away, a faint blush colouring her features. "God, it took so long to get here, didn't it?"

She didn't pretend to misunderstand. "Yeah, it did. But I like to believe it was inevitable, in a way. Everything runs in straight lines, Jane. You just need to get the obstacles out of the way."

Jane snorted. "It doesn't feel like that to me. It feels like my life was full of things that didn't make sense, and then we became friends and then piece by piece all the things that fit the most added up to you." She stared at her hands. "But the piece that makes the most sense, it's... sometimes the things that are best for me take a while for me to process." She raised her head to look directly at Maura. "I'm sorry this has taken so long, Maur."

She smiled at Jane, unwilling to let this night involve sorrow or recrimination. "We're both assholes, Jane." As Jane blinked at her, surprised, she continued, raising a brow challengingly. "And everything does go in straight lines. You find the evidence that matches the crime, it leads to an arrest, it's simple." She stood up to get the tiramisu from the fridge, hoping that Jane wouldn't catch the flush she could feel creeping up her neck.

Jane rose to follow her into the kitchen. "Come on Maura, you don't really believe that. Evidence gets overturned, sometimes it doesn't fit. You know that A plus B doesn't always equal C." She paused, then paced towards her. "Take us, for instance.'

Maura studied her. Smiled sweetly. "I think that you're very simple, Jane. See bad guy, arrest bad guy." She smirked at Jane. "Insult bad guy, go drink beer. A plus B equals C."

Jane raised her brows, stepped up close. "Oh, we're feeling funny tonight, are we?"

Maura just grinned back. "Correction. We are funny tonight."

"Well, what about you?" Jane countered, sending a deliberate gaze along Maura's body that made all thoughts of further teasing falter.

She swallowed. "Me?"

"You are definitely not all straight lines, Maur." Jane reached out, delicately traced a curl that fell over her shoulder.

She took a breath, feeling excitement and nerves gather in the pit of her stomach. Tried valiantly to remember the gist of their conversation. "Well, if you're talking about physiology, it's well determined that not everyone can have a beanpole figure like some, and that curves are-"

She broke off as Jane eased forward, threaded a hand through her hair. She met Maura's gaze, and she felt the spark all the way down her spine. "Curves are what?"

Maura blinked, lost. "Um. There."

Jane nodded seriously, keeping Maura's gaze. Maura caught the spark of fear, saw it change to desire. Ceased to care as she felt Jane trace a slow path down her side, along her hip. "They sure are."

Maura closed her eyes involuntarily, then opened them to meet Jane's amused, curious look."Do you suppose that you could kiss me now?"

Jane's eyes dropped to her mouth, then quirked a brow at her. "Impatient, Doctor Isles?" She murmured.

She set her jaw, knowing that Jane needed to run this particular show but driven to distraction by how annoying she was being. "Well, if you came here to discuss physiology, Detective I'm happy to-"

She broke off as Jane pulled her forward into a kiss. Felt the warmth of Jane's mouth and the way they fit together. Felt her pulse start to pound, and the nerves being replaced by a strong desire to ensure Jane was just as lost as she in this moment...No. She broke the kiss, stared into brown eyes turned dark and half-lidded. "I found you." She breathed.

Jane rested her forehead against Maura's for a moment, then trailed her lips to Maura's ear, where she bit gently.

Maura's hands tightened in Jane's hair in reaction as Jane whispered roughly "We found each other." And pulled her back under.

She was aware only of Jane leading her back to the couch, awkwardly negotiating the apartment between kisses. Of laughing as Jane pulled her backwards over the arm to lie against her. By unspoken agreement they kept it slow, kept sex out of the equation until they'd figured out this new territory.

Sometime later, as they lay tangled on the couch and Jane's nails slowly dragged the length of her spine, she murmured against Jane's neck "We make sense, Jane."

Jane's hands stilled, then flattened against her back, molding her, pressing her closer. "Yeah. Yeah we do."

A/N: Statement: It makes me nervous trekking into relationship territory because I want to give them new stuff to tackle but still keep them "them." Will try to keep nerves in check in coming chapters by consuming much cookies and cream icecream.

All reads/reviews/comments/favourites are a very nice validation of the weirdness that comes out of my brain – I'm always surprised/stoked to see the story stat numbers go up and even more surprised/stoked that you guys take time to comment in such funny and lovely ways – thank you. Have a great week!