Work Text:
The invite
“Game night tonight.” Angela says to Tim as soon as he walks into the station. “Will you be there?” She’s smiling widely and it’s a look Tim knows.. she’s up to something.
Tim sighs and rubs his temple. Since when did they do game night?
“I didn’t know we even did game night.” He says and Angela grins even bigger if that was even possible for her.
“Well we do.” She says in a matter of fact tone. “Lucy will be there if that interests you.” And it does, not that he would admit that to Angela. He and Lucy had been in this weird limbo since he danced with her at Nyla’s wedding. And then in a weird twist of fate they had both been dumped by their significant others after the UC op made them closer than ever. A kind of close that is blurring the lines between a friend and more.
They did everything together except sleep in the same bed. And kiss. Which he knows how Lucy kisses and sometimes he thinks he wants more. Scratch that he knows he wants more. Sometimes he thinks she wants more too.
“So are you in or not?” Angela asks waving a hand in front of his face. Tim glares at her.
“Sure.” He says shrugging his shoulders. “But I’m not doing anything ridiculous.” Angela grins at him again. “We will see about that Bradford.” And before he says anything else she walks away throwing him an amused smile over her shoulder.
*
Twister
Tim picks up Lucy at her apartment and she slides into the passenger seat. She’s grinning and she looks beautiful. And she’s just wearing jeans and a sweater. Her curly hair cascading down her back.
“What?” She asks him when she catches him staring. He looks away immediately he feels his face flush red.
“How did Angela convince you to come to game night?” Lucy asks him. He shoots her a look. You is on the tip of his tongue but he doesn’t say it. He doesn’t want to ruin his friendship with Lucy by admitting he has feelings for her.
He shrugs his shoulders. “Do you really think Angela would have let me say no?” He asks her and Lucy laughs.
“True.” She says. “But c’mon Tim it will be fun!” Tim gives her what he hopes is a incredulous look. She just reaches over and punches his arm. “Don’t be a sore loser though Tim. I’m pretty good at game night.” Tim rolls his eyes. Of course she would get competitive.
They get to Angela’s house and Lucy bounces up to the house. Tim stands behind her as she knocks on the door. Angela answers already holding a wine glass. She gives them both a once over and then grins. Tim shoots her a look but she isn’t looking at him.
“Welcome.” She says as steps aside. “Everyone is in the living room. We are about to play twister.”
Lucy walks in and winks at Tim over her shoulder. Tim’s heart starts beating fast. What the fuck is wrong with him?
Angela stops him just before he gets to the living room. “You drove together? Or you just arrived at the same time?” She asks. Tim furrows his eyebrows a little bit.
“Uh we came together.” He says. “Why?” Angela shrugs her shoulders and then grins like she did earlier. “No reason. Come on. Let’s go play twister.” She says and moves so he can keep walking. Once he gets to the living room, he sees everyone is here. Nolan, Bailey, Nyla, James, Aaron and even Celina. Wesley is perched on an arm chair talking to Nolan and Lucy is talking to Nyla. She looks up when he comes in and grins.
“Here.” She says handing him a beer. “I’ll go get another one.” She excuses herself and Tim takes a drink of the beer she handed him.
Wesley tilts his head at him and then his eyes go to Angela who just shrugs. Tim frowns but before he can say anything Lucy bounces back into the room.
“Let’s play!” She says enthusiastically. Tim can’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. She really is sunshine.
The twister board is already laid out and even though Tim hasn’t played this game since he was a kid, he knows it’s not a hard game.
“Right hand blue.” Wesley calls out. Tim signs and puts his right hand down on the blue dot. Lucy is near by and she gives him a smile.
“Left foot yellow.” Wesley says. Tim twists his body so he can put his foot on the yellow dot, he almost falls but he manages to stay upright. Lucy is near him but they aren’t quite touching. Yet.
“Left hand green.” Wesley says. Tim reaches out to put his hand on the green just as Lucy stretches across him. Now they are basically criss crossing each other. Their arms are brushing each other, and Tim feels a spark every time they do. He is so close to her, he can smell her soap. Lavender and vanilla. He hears Angela whispering but he can’t catch what she is saying nor can he look up to glare at her.
“Right hand red.” Wesley says loudly bringing Tim out of his daze of being close to Lucy. He moves his hand and it brushes Lucy’s and god he knows what it’s like to have her small perfect hands all over him.
“Hanging in there Tim?” Lucy asks smirking at him. He rolls his eyes at her, but then continues to study her as she looks away. And it’s not like Tim has never noticed how beautiful Lucy is, he has but he could never do anything about it and he technically still can’t. He’s still her superior officer. Her sergeant. He shouldn’t be thinking those things about her no matter how close they were both physically and in friendship.
“Right foot yellow.” Lucy is quick and moves her foot to the yellow before Tim can. He manages to get to a yellow dot but he’s at a very awkward angle. Lucy is now in front of him with her ass raised in the air.
And well…
“Right foot red.” Wesley calls out. Tim tries to move faster than Lucy this time but ends up losing his balance and falling. He groans as Lucy does a victory dance. His friends are laughing behind him. Lucy holds out her hand and helps him up, her eyes sparkling.
“Good game Bradford.” She says teasingly. Her hair is in her face and without thinking he brushes it out of her face. She rolls her eyes when she does and Angela makes an incredulous noise across the room. He spins on his heels to question her.
“What?” He snaps. Her eyes widen and she looks around the room at Nyla and Bailey who are also staring at them. “Why are you all staring?”
“You—” Nyla starts but then she just shrugs. “Never mind.”
Lucy gives him a weird look but he shrugs too. His friends were just weird.
*
Charades
The next game is charades which Tim is decent at. Sort of. He’s paired with Celina and Lucy is with Aaron. He watches as Lucy high fives Aaron when he comes over to perch on the arm of the chair Lucy is sitting in.
He tries not to feel the sting of jealously that’s rising up in him. He doesn’t even have anything to be jealous of except for the fact that Aaron is near Lucy and well Tim is not. He shakes his head of that fact and focuses on what Angela is doing while Wesley shouts out guesses. He gets it on the second try and high fives his wife.
Lucy goes up and acts out something. It’s a movie. He knows that much. He knows the movie and he knows if he were on Lucy’s team he would get it. Aaron shouts out the answer on the first try and Lucy squeals in excitement. And jumps into Aaron’s arms. Tim glares at them both and doesn’t hear that’s it’s his turn.
“Uh Sergeant Bradford?” Says Celina nervously and he turns on her quickly. She sinks back a little bit at his face.
“What?” He snaps. He sees Lucy look up from where she is talking with Aaron.
“Uh it’s our turn sir.” Celina says. And Tim closes his eyes and nods. He evens out his breathing and motions her forward.
“Let’s go then boot.” He says. Lucy is frowning at him but Tim ignores it as Celina acts out whatever she has chosen.
“It’s a movie.” Tim says and she nods smiling. Tim feels Lucy’s eyes on him but he does his best to ignore them.
“Uh.” Says Tim as Celina makes a flying motion. He tries to think of a movie with planes? Birds? He needs to be on Lucy’s team next time.
“Sixty seconds.” Says Lucy. He looks over to see her holding the timer. Her eyes on him, Tim racks his brain. Come on Bradford get it together.
“Top Gun!” He yells and Celina nods excitedly just as the timer goes off.
“Nicely done Juarez.” He says when she comes back over and Celina smiles proud. Fortunately Celina and Tim do make a good team and end up winning charades. He watches as Lucy goes into the kitchen to get some food. He takes a drink of his beer as she comes back in holding two plates. She hands one to him and then sits down on the chair next to him.
“Are you okay?” She asks him. He nods as he eats a chip.
“I’m fine. Why?” He asks. She studies him for a moment and the shrugs reaching over to grab a chip off his plate.
“Hey!” He says slapping her hand away. “Eat your own food Chen!” She giggles and grins at him bumping her knee against his.
“Who got you the plate in the first place hmmm?” She says. He rolls his eyes at her.
“Fair enough I guess.” He says and then reaches over and grabs a grape off her plate laughing as she glares at him.
He doesn’t notice the whole room staring at them until he looks up. Angela opens her mouth to speak but she clamps it shut.
He really needs to figure out what’s going on.
*
Drink or Dare
“What’s next?” Tim asks Angela. Angela gives him a look and then exchanges glances with Nyla who grins. She gets up and goes to the kitchen and then comes back with a tray of drinks. She looks over at Angela again who nods.
Tim looks between both of them and frowns. This couldn’t be good.
“The game is drink or dare. You can either drink or do a dare. And everyone has to do at least one dare.” Angela says looking at Tim directly. He frowns even more, he definitely liked twister and charades more than this.
Nyla passes out the drinks and they all sit around the room. “Okay.” Says Angela slyly “Lucy drink or dare.” She asks. Tim glances over at Lucy who is still seated next to him, she looks like she’s thinking it over but he knows what she’s going to say. She likes a challenge but she’s going to make them work for it.
“Drink.” She says grinning and takes a sip of her drink. Angela smiles at her and then Lucy turns to Aaron. “Drink or Dare.” She asks the younger man.
Aaron shakes his head probably wondering what he had gotten himself into. Tim is wondering that himself.
“Drink.” He says shrugging and takes a small sip. It goes on like that most people saying drink. Bailey says dare and Wesley dares her to see how long it takes her to finish her wine. It’s a little lame but if he gets a tame one like that he will be fine. Angela turns to him her grin wider than ever.
“Drink or dare Timothy?” She asks.
“Dare.” He says and he hears the mummery of surprise go around the room. He just wants to get it out of the way.
“I dare you to tell the person next to you that you like her.” Angela says and Tim’s mouth goes dry. He glances to his right where a lamp on a side table sits and then to his left where.. well Lucy sits.
He’s silent as he ponders how he’s going to get out of this.
“Tick tick Bradford.” Nyla says. Tim opens his mouth to speak. He feels Lucy’s eyes on him again.
“Uh can I change it to drink?” He asks lamely. But Angela shakes her head.
“Come on Tim. It’s Lucy, you can’t tell her you like her?” Angela says. Tim takes a deep breath because of course he can. He just wishes it wasn’t a fucking dare and all his friends weren’t staring at them.
He turns to Lucy and smiles feebly hoping she doesn’t notice. “Uh I like you Chen.” He says gruffly. Lucy frowns at him and Tim swallows.
“Geez thanks Tim.” She mutters. Tim turns back to Angela who is just shaking her head at him. Lucy moves over so they aren’t touching anymore and his heart sinks.
Fuck
*
Spin the bottle: Truth or dare
After drink or dare is over, Lucy moves over to sit by Celina and Tim is left all alone. He supposed he has no one to blame but himself.
Uh I like you Chen. How could he be so stupid? He wishes he could go back in time and tell her how he really feels. He’s about to go talk to her when Angela announces the next game. And now he feels like a teenager trying to talk to his crush.
“We are playing spin the bottle with a twist of course.” Says Angela. “It’s truth or dare.”
Tim is given the bottle first and feeling like he is in junior high again he spins the bottle and it goes around the circle, slowly moving and then landing on.. Lucy. He gulps as she turns her gaze to his face.
“Truth or dare?” He asks her. She studies him for a minute her eyes never leaving his face for a second as if she was trying to read what he was thinking.
“Truth.” She answers quietly. He nods and racks his brain for a question.
“Do you like undercover work?” He asks her.
Her eyes widen a little bit before she answers. “Yes. I love it. Especially when I do it with someone I trust.” She says. Tim feels a shiver down his spine. Especially with someone that I trust.
He nods at her smiling slightly. She gives him a half smile and he sighs. Lucy spins the bottle and it to his surprise it lands on him.
“Truth or dare?” She asks him. His mouth is dry again and he’s not sure he could speak even if he wanted to.
“Truth.” He says confidently. Lucy eyes him, her eyes flickering down to his mouth.
“Do you like me?” She asks. And this is his chance to redeem himself.
“Of course I like you Lucy. You are my friend.” He answers and her face falls.
“Right friend.” She says stiffly. He glances over at Angela who is staring at wide eyed.
“Lucy…” he starts but she’s not looking at him. He spins the bottle again and to his relief it lands on Wesley. It goes like that for awhile, never really landing on him to his relief. And when it does it’s once again Lucy who is asking the question.
“Dare.” He says and he sees a slight smile forming on her face.
“I dare you to kiss me.” She says boldly. Tim’s eyes flicker to her face and he realizes she’s serious.
“What?” He asks incredulously. “Why?”
Lucy frowns at his question. “Would it really be that bad to kiss me? You have done it before.”
No he thinks he wants to kiss her. He wants to feel her hands on his face and all over. He wants that…
“Of course not Lucy. But I don’t.. I don’t think I should.” He stumbles out and Lucy blinks at him.
“Okay. Fine then don’t kiss me.” She snaps and Tim sighs. He’s going to kill Angela for making them play this game.
Everyone is staring at both of them and Tim sighs in frustration as he gets up and goes to stand in front of Lucy. She stares up at him, her eyes searching his face again. He gets to her level and leans forward to kiss her softly on the mouth. He means to pull back but Lucy pulls him in closer and deepens the kiss and it’s like he’s finally able to breathe. It’s like she’s the oxygen that he has been needing. He knows their friends are staring, he’s starting to realize this whole night was probably a set up but he doesn’t care. He’s kissing Lucy and all he feels, sees and needs is her.
She pulls back and looks at him tears pooling in her eyes. “Was that really that bad?” She asks breathlessly.
He stares at her but doesn’t say anything. She signs loudly and gets up pushing passed him and disappears around the corner.
The room is silent before Angela is on him pulling him to the kitchen. “You are an idiot.”
“I know.” He says dully.
“If you know then why are you being so…” Angela trails off. “Go fix it before I hit you.”
Tim nods and heads towards the hallway where Lucy disappeared to. The bathroom door is closed.
“Lucy?” He says quietly. “Can we talk?” He’s not expecting her to answer but he’s thrown off balance when the door is yanked open.
“What?” She snaps her eyes red. “What the fuck do you want?”
Tim sighs. He’s not used to Lucy being mad at him. “Look I’m sorry okay? I’m sorry I didn’t want to kiss you. I’m sorry I said I like you that way okay?” He says. Lucy stares at him her eyes hard.
“That’s it?” She says. “That’s all you have to say?”
Tim stares back at her. “What else is there for me to say?” He asks her and she scoffs.
“There’s a lot for you to say Tim. A lot. I mean we have been in this weird dynamic situation since the UC op and I’m not sure where you stand. You say we are friends but then you drive me here and you joke around with me. I let you have my beer and get you food..”
Tim licks his lips nervously. “Isn’t that what friends do? I mean.. I..” He asks. He thinks back to Angela and how he never did any of those things for her or any of his friends for that matter. But with Lucy he never even hesitated. He knows she’s right about being in the weird dynamic thing and it’s awkward but he thought it was okay because had her. He didn’t lose her as a friend, but he wanted more. He takes a deep breath. “You wanna know the truth Luce?” He asks her and she sucks in a breath and nods. He lets out a breath too letting all the tension and frustration out. “The truth is I like you more than a friend. I have feelings for you. I have since the first kiss maybe before than and you are right this is a weird dynamic but I thought it was okay because you were still my friend. But—”
He’s cut off by Lucy’s lips crashing into his. He almost falls down pulling Lucy with him but then he balances himself and pulls her closer to him. He deepens the kiss like she did in the living room except this time he doesn’t pull back or hesitate. He pushes Lucy against the wall and laughs as she pulls back.
“Thank god.” She says breathlessly like last time but this time she’s grinning from ear to ear. “Thank god thank god.” He kisses her again cutting her chant off.
“You have feelings for me too?” He asks her. She cups his face and nods.
“I was scared to admit it because you are my favorite person and the most important relationship in my life. And I didn’t want to mess it up. So I went along with it but…”
“We could have been doing this all along.” Says Tim nuzzling his nose into her neck and breathing her in. Thank god thank god thank god.
“Yeah. I guess so.” She says quietly. “I’m sorry Tim for getting so frustrated. I just—”
“I was an idiot Luce. I mean I—” He trails off but he knows Lucy understands. She always does.
She opens her mouth to say something else when he hears Angela’s voice behind them. “It’s about damn time.”
Tim glares at her and Lucy buries her head into his chest laughing. “You set us up.” He accuses her. “This whole night.”
Angela shrugs. “Are you really complaining Tim?” She asks and he looks down at Lucy who is looking at him, her eyes sparkling.
He pulls her closer to him. “No I’m not.” He admits. “It was.. a roundabout way to get here but no I have no complaints. Do you?” He asks Lucy.
She snakes her arm around his neck and reaches up to kiss him gently. “No. I do not.” She answers.
Angela snorts. “Are you coming back to join us or are you going to make out all night?”
Tim rolls his eyes and waves her off. “We will join you again.” He says looking down at Lucy. “What do you want to do.”
“I just want to be with you Tim. Whether it’s here with everyone or at my apartment. I just want you.”
“Okay.” He pulls on her hand as they go back into the living room to join their friends. And Tim thinks. Game night isn’t so bad after all.