It was hot. Jane had removed her blazer hours ago, and she was slowly unbuttoning her blouse. Korsak and Frost were down to their undershirts, and every time Jane went to the morgue there was a queue of sweaty people trying to watch autopsies.
"I know you said you don't use the aircon but please, Mau. It's so hot. I haven't slept in days and Jo keeps trying to climb into the fridge."
Maura looked up at Jane sternly, then relented a little as she saw a bead of sweat roll along Jane's clavicle and down into her cleavage.
"Please, Mau," Jane begged. "You can sleep in the nude, it's none of my business, just please. Please can Jo and I come over and use the aircon. Just for one night. Just for a break. Mau, I'm begging you," Jane's voice cracked and Maura handed her a tissue to wipe the sweat from the firm brow.
She nodded quickly.
"But you have to deal with the spectators," Maura whispered, looking up at the extensive audience huddled around the morgue. Jane's face lit up - she was getting what she wanted, and she got to yell at her colleagues for being inconsiderate. It was a double win in her book.
"Ok, but I would have done that for free," Jane chuckled. "Alright, back to your desks or I'm video calling the governer in two minutes and he can ask you himself what you're all doing down here instead of working."
"You're down here," one foolhardy detective pointed out, and Jane rested her hand on the corpse's shin.
"It's my case, now scram."
The crowd dispersed, and a stressed Susie came in and sighed with relief, looking at Jane with shining eyes.
"That was truly heroic," Susie said. "I have some icecream, if you'd like it?" She asked, blushing a little as Jane turned her strong feminine gaze on her.
"Corpse freezer?" Jane asked, then flung her hands around. "No, all I need is a cause of death, please ladies."
"I'll be home by 7," Maura called after Jane.
Jane got called back to the basement twice more for crowd control. Each time her blouse was a little more unbuttoned, her undershirt wet with sweat, and Maura eyed it and the skin above it thoughtfully.
"Maura?" Jane called, stopping to let Jo down. She trotted happily over to Bass and they sniffed thier greetings before Jo curled up next to him.
"Hey Mau, I bought iced coffee and that icecream you like without the swirls," Jane called again, putting the bags on the counter, slinging her overnight bag onto the couch.
"I got sweaty coming over, I'm going to take a shower," Jane called again, again getting no response. She shrugged and pulled her tank top off, biceps rippling as she walked, clad only in a sports bra and pants, to the bathroom.
Jane came out, toweling her hair. She'd put on a fresh tank, forgoing the sports bra due to the heat.
"There you are," Jane said in relief, hand resting on Maura's shoulder. "Thanks for this. I was going to lose my mind if I didn't get a decent sleep." Jane pushed a coffee over to Maura who was... wearing very little. The shorts were too short to be booty shorts, and the sports bra Maura wore had a fancy brand over the whole one inch of skin it covered. Jane choked on her coffee, glad that Maura had the aircon on as she felt heat rising to her face.
"I still feel it's very wasteful, and to have the aircon on lower than ten degrees of the outside air is very inefficient," Maura said. "But it is pleasant to be slightly cooler," Maura conceded, eyeing the way Jane's tight tank top clung to her unsupported breasts. "Although perhaps it's too cold?" Maura asked in concern as Jane's nipples hardened, and Jane blushed again. "Or too warm? You've gone red, Jane," Maura said with concern, turning and using her hand to gauge Jane's forehead. "No fever, but you're hot," Maura said.
"So're you," Jane said before she could stop herself. Maura tested her own forehead, puzzled.
"No, I don't believe I'm significantly overheated," Maura assured Jane, who groaned.
"Do you really sleep in the nude?" Jane blurted out.
"Why, yes Jane. You know I can't lie. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know, it just seems..."
"Naughty?" Maura asked breathily. "Obscene? Wanton?"
"Hot," Jane said. She turned and filled Bass and Jo's water bowls, dug her spoon into the icecream tub. By unspoken agreement they left the kitchen counter in favour of the couch, and Maura turned on a game she'd recorded for Jane.
Jane was acutely aware of all of the bare skin on display, of the way Maura's bare thigh rubbed against her leggings, of the way Jane's hand kept accidentally grazing Maura's bare thigh and arms and back as she reached for the icecream, Maura holding the carton. She was painfully aware of how hard her nipples were, of how visible they must be against the plain black fabric. She'd always known that Maura had soft skin, but there was a difference between knowing and having that soft skin pressed against her.
"The guest room is being remodeled," Maura said, standing up and yawning. "You're welcome in my room though. I warn you, I do sleep in the nude," Maura said once more, and Jane's brain raced through details.
"I can sleep on the couch?" Jane squeaked. She coughed and tried again. "I mean, it's already cool in here, I don't want to put you out."
"It's no trouble at all," Maura said breezily, as though she hadn't been opposed to using the air conditioning in her home. "You know you're too tall for my couch."
"I'll make it work," Jane said firmly, flicking through the channels, not looking at Maura. Maura, with that expanse of golden, freckled skin bared for Jane - no, not for Jane, in concession to the heat. Either way, looking at Maura - no good would come from that, or from entertaining the idea that she could go to bed with a nude Maura and not have it torture her all night.
"If you change your mind," Maura said, but didn't finish. If Jane had looked up she'd have seen the disappointed look on Maura's face.
Jane got up a while later and looked in the spare room. The bed was gone, the bedframe leaning against a wall. It was also warm in there. Jane walked toward Maura's room but stopped when she heard the jingle of Jo's collar, took her out instead.
Angela came out, eyed Jane in her skivvies.
"Maura had aircon," Jane explained. It wasn't late enough to be weird, but it felt weird anyway.
"So does the guest house. You know she sleeps in the nude?" Angela asked.
"Do I want to know how you know that?" Jane asked. "No, I don't, goodnight Ma."
"Goodnight Janie. Sweet dreams," Angela said, smirking as she went back inside.
The temperature inside was drastically cooler, and Jo happily lay back down next to Bass's cool shell. Jane snuck out a cold cabbage leaf and Bass took it in the slow, deliberate way he took everything. Jane rested her hand on his shell for a moment, wondering if she could curl up with him, like Jo, before she turned and lay down on the couch.
Maura was right. She was too tall for the couch.
She tried to get comfortable but it wasn't happening. All she could think about was Maura, alone in her bed, in those cool silk sheets, completely nude. Completely nude, as opposed to how nude she'd been earlier, which was almost. Almost nude, after letting Jane invite herself over. Nude, in her bed, after letting Jane stay over, knowing the couch was too small, knowing the spare room was being remodeled. Nude.
Maura came in then, a silk kimono covering parts of her, and filled a glass from the fridge cooler. She brought one over to Jane.
"You really do need your sleep," Maura said, watching Jane drink. "You've been very snappy and sarcastic."
"I'm trying, ok?" Jane burst out, putting the water down. "It's not easy. I'm used to your spare room, I guess."
"Jane, don't be stubborn. Come on." In a tone that brooked no argument, Maura took Jane's hand and tugged Jane after herself into her bedroom. "See? You've slept here before. It's cooler than your apartment by..." Maura's head tilted "at least 25 degrees, given the afternoon sun and insulation. And we've shared a bed plenty of times. You need your rest."
Maura shrugged off her robe and hung it on a hanger. Even in the darkness of the room Jane looked away, feeling the blush returning. Maura slid under the covers, and Jane hesitated. She could go back to the longue room, pretend this hadn't happened... Or she could get into the bed like Maura so clearly wanted her to. She sighed and slid under the sheet too, facing away from Maura, holding herself stiffly on the edge of the bed.
"I'm not nude," Maura said finally. "It seemed to be bothering you, and I suppose with the aircon on I can wear at least this," Maura took Jane's hand, pulled her onto her back and ran that same hand across her torso. Jane's fingers caught on impossibly soft cotton - no, bamboo - covering Maura's breasts. Which meant Jane's hand was touching Maura's breasts.
"Does the idea of my nudity upset you?" Maura asked seriously.
Jane was unable to parse the question, let alone formulate a response. Maura's breasts. Jane's hand was on - oh god - Maura's breast. It shouldn't affect her like this - Jane had touched them before, mostly accidentally while hugging or labelling or wiring her gorgeous friend, and she'd even had the opportunity to see them in person before, thanks to the decontamination showers they'd had to take together.
But this was now, this was quiet, this was alone and in bed. This was intimate in a way the other opportunities Jane'd had to touch Maura's breasts hadn't been. Maura's hand dropped from Jane's, but Jane's hand remained on Maura's breast, feeling the pebbling of Maura's nipples against the palm, against the scars Hoyt had put there - Hoyt, who'd treated Maura like Jane's wife.
"Your nudity is fine," Jane said finally. I'm just not usually... Involved with it "
"That's not true, Jane, we've been nude together before."
"But always for a good reason, like airborne poisons," Jane pointed out.
"And a heatwave isn't a good reason?" Maura asked, and Jane moved her hand reluctantly onto Maura's shoulder instead.
"Not for a straight woman to be nude in bed with another straight woman, no," Jane said.
"About that." Maura took a deep breath. "There's a scale, of heterosexuality. With heterosexual being zero, and gay being six. Most people fall between those two numbers, with very few people being a true hetero or homosexual."
"Interesting study," Jane said nervously.
"So I did a test, and I came out - well, not zero." Maura let out a deep breath.
"I don't know that I'm a zero either," Jane said quietly. "Because I've been thinking about you being nude all day and it's... appealing. But you're my best friend. If I was going to experiment, I'd take a much lower risk. I'd go to Merch, or try a dating app. I'd make sure before I made a risk on... on someone like you."
"Like me?" Maura breathed.
"Yeah. Someone important like you " Maura melted into the silk sheets. "I thought about it a few times - I already have the profile - but there's no other women that I find attractive."
"You find me attractive?" Maura asked curiously. "I do wonder. You look at my breasts more than Susie does."
"Why is Susie... doesn't matter. Of course I find you attractive! You're gorgeous and always look like a runway model. And in the morning, when you're not ready for the outside world and it's just us - I love that I get to see you like that."
"But do you find me sexually attractive?" Maura asked. "I know I find your musculature very intriguing, and you are optimally proportioned."
"Mau - optima... wait, you said you didn't want to sleep with me. When you were going on about Giovanni's 'long bones'."
"Things change," Maura said, and Jane felt Maura's hand rest on her ribcage. "I didn't want to - not in Giovanni's car outside the precinct."
"So you lied?" Jane asked. "You're very tricky."
"I have to be, sometimes. You looked like you were ready to kick me out if the car if I didn't say no," Maura's hand crept down and under the hem of Jane's tank. "I'm going to assume you're aware that I'm trying to get to second base?" Maura asked nervously.
Jane leaned in and kissed her.
"This I why I don't play baseball with you," Jane said when she came up for air, intoxicated by the taste of Maura, the feel of her willing, patient mouth against her own, the soft hand resting on her back, under her shirt, the cool sheets against her bare arms and Maura's smile against her mouth, the contented noises Maura made as Jane kissed her, slow and thoughtful. "You're always skipping bases."
Notes:
It's canon in one episode that Maura had AC but refuses to use it as she sleeps in the nude and Jane begs to come over 'for the AC'.
It's a heatwave here and if it wasn't for all the spiders I would probably just be nude.
This was just a sleep-deprived one-shot.