This time though, when he enters the kitchen, he picks up a different topic of conversation. "What do you know about colognes?"
Lisbon is a little taken aback by this sudden question. She subconsciously lifts her arms to smell her armpit, wondering if this is Jane's way of telling her she stinks. She doesn't, though, and so she has to ask. "Why?"
Jane shakes his head. "Question for a question won't get us anywhere, Lisbon."
She stops for a moment and thinks, tries to figure out where there is coming from. Does this have something to do with her house? Something on her shelves, maybe? Or maybe this is about the murder? Well, during the investigation, he was…. He was smelling things. It suddenly hits her. "You think you caught a whiff of the murderer's cologne?"
His eyes twinkle with pride to see that she figured it out, figured him out. "You're learning", he says, and just because he's Jane, adds, "Though this was pretty obvious."
"Can you describe the scent?" she asks, grabbing her pen and note-pad from the cup-board, like he will forget if she doesn't write it down now. Which is kind of stupid, because Jane never forgets, but her cops instincts just jump-started before she could stop it.
"What do you know about colognes?" he repeats.
She purses her lips and glares, putting the notepad back down. "Not much", she admits.
He grins. "Then it's useless describing the scent to you. You won't be able to identify the cologne."
She lets out a frustrated sigh, wanting to scream out the fact that she woke up at freaking midnight, has been working the case without any progress, and now that he has a clue, he's torturing her by not telling her. "I'm not useless, I'm your boss, you need to tell me. I can make Cho look it up."
"No need, I know what cologne it is." He declares, and for the first time that day she breathes a sigh of relief. Jane's hunches are usually never wrong, and it seems like they are finally getting somewhere. Good, they need this case over with as soon as possible, after all, this was one of their one.
"One of my former clients used to wear it." Jane explains. "It's specially designed foreign imported cologne. Only a few people in the city have it."
"Do you know the name?"
"No, but I can find out", he smiles sweetly, "let's take a trip to my ex-client's house tomorrow and find out the dealer."
She thinks for a moment. There is a high chance that the client would be highly pissed at the fake psychic Jane, and there may be unpleasant circumstances. But she's a cop with a gun and badge, it's nothing she can't put down. "Sounds good", she finally nods.
He nods back and walks back into the living room, grabbing the newspaper and pen and trying to finish off her unfinished crossword from the previous day- he knows this will probably annoy her, but then, doesn't he annoy her anyway?
Lisbon manages to focus on cooking, with her mind only thinking about this murder investigation and the trip tomorrow. She smells the dish she's cooking, and is delighted that it smells good. It's not that she's a fancy cook- she orders take out most of the days, because, hey, who likes to cook just for themselves?- but she did used to cook for her father, and does cook occasionally even now. Some of those days, she leaves the dish on the oven for a bit too long and the bottom of it chars just a bit, but today it's just perfect. Which is good. Not because she wants to feed Jane properly or anything. But just because now he can't make fun of her cooking.
She takes it off the stove and places it on the plates- the semi-good ones, because the regular ones are too ordinary, and she doesn't trust Jane not to accidentally break the expensive ones. At first, she decides to set it on the dining table, but when she goes to the living room and sees Jane in front of the TV, she decides they can just eat on the couch.
"Ooh, smells good, thanks", Jane compliments, grabbing the plate from her, along with the fork, and taking a bite. "Tastes good too. Why didn't you tell us you could cook, Lisbon?"
She half shrugs, finding herself happy with the little compliment, like a little child who was just told that her drawing was pretty. She starts eating too, and glances at the TV to see what he's watching. It's the news, and she rolls her eyes. She never really watches the news after work, it's like taking work home.
The news changes to the homicide of the Agent soon, how it was gruesome and the killer is still on the loose, and they show photos of the victim and the crime scene, and it's hard to eat while hearing about the death of the colleague.
Thankfully, Jane gets the cue and swiftly changes the channel.
To wrestling. Seriously?
She watches him wide-eyed as he watches the gruesome battle, half-wondering if he is trying to take lessons from it or something, and half-wondering if she finally lost it.
The rest of the evening is spent in silence, with friendly chit-chat now and then, small talk. Jane offers to do the dishes, and she gladly accepts, on the condition that he will pay for anything he breaks, besides the frying pan, which leads to the argument about how she threw it, and how it isn't really broken.
And then it's time to leave, and Jane finds himself feeling uneasy. It's not she can't protect herself, and it's not like he can protect her any better, despite the wrestling. But leaving her alone… "Be careful", he voices his concern.
She nods. "Don't worry."
"I'll see you at the office tomorrow then?"
"Yeah."
And it's awkward. Because it's not like it was a date or something. No, they just had dinner together and watched some TV. People do that all the time, it's not a big deal.
And yet, they don't know how to say goodbye. Should he kiss her on the cheek? Nah, that would be too inappropriate, right?
So he does what he does best, which is tease her in the perfectly annoying way that she hates- "Try not to watch too much reality TV. We don't need you hurling curses at a crime scene."
"I do not watch reality TV!" she hisses immediately, and then adds, mumbling. "At least not every day."
He grins. "Don't be ashamed of it. It's human nature to find it fun watching people fight and bitch against each other."
"You were watching an actual fight!" she accuses, sending a glare in his direction. "I never thought you were into wrestling."
"Wrestling is a form of sports, Lisbon, unlike reality TV." He counters.
And they both know this argument can go on forever. Which she doesn't really mind if she is being honest, but she needs to catch some much needed sleep, she's so tired. And so must be he.
"Whatever", she rolls her eyes. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight", he nods, gives her one final smile- which she returns, and finds herself staring at his twinkling eyes while she does- and then he's on his way.
She watches him walk away, like she is captivated by him, which she suspects she may be- not that she'll admit it- and closes the door only when he's out of sight.
And why does her apartment suddenly feel so empty?
A/N: first of all, I'm SO sorry in the long delay in update. I had a writer's block, and then I was waiting for my country to pick up the last season, but it still didn't. So I went ahead and updated anyway. I hope you remember the story and still like it. PLEASE review and let me know. Thank you everyone for sticking with me, thanks for all the reviews, alerts and favs, I really appreciate it :)