Work Text:
“Labels don’t matter, all that matters is you.”
His words play in her mind as they separate, Jess reaching for her bento box and thinking about all the time she’s spent down here in autopsy with Jimmy.
It’s always the little moments that mean the most to her, fitted around updates, lunches shared, plans made.
And their first date arranged.
She remembers that day clear as anything. He’d called her brain mystical, implying that he didn’t quite understand her but he found her… intriguing? Mysterious? Fascinating?
Now, he’s proved that he does know her, much better than he had then.
“Am I still mystical?”
She knows it’s out of the blue but Jimmy doesn’t miss a beat, he just looks at her with a twinkle in his warm eyes and replies, “Sometimes,” a smile tugs at the corners of his lips, “although I may be more inclined to describe you as melodious… majestic… mesmerising.”
While the sentence starts out almost joking, it ends up soft and honest, the words kept carefully between the two of them.
And the look shining out of Jimmy’s eyes – Jess can’t really describe it (she’s not sure she’s ready to describe it) but it makes her want to pull him close again. So she does, pressing their lips together and running a hand through his hair, only moving away when she reminds herself that they may be on their lunch break, but they are very much still at work.
“Is there a reason I can only be described with words beginning with M?” she asks, amused, as she catches her breath.
Jimmy grins warmly at her, reaching for his bento box, “Well, if I allowed myself the whole alphabet then we’d be here for a long time.”
It’s not even the heartfelt way he says it that catches her off guard, it’s the casual way he says something so heartfelt. Like she’s supposed to already know what he thinks about her but in reality, it astounds her because it’s been a while since anyone felt so deeply about her and, if she’s honest with herself, the idea does terrify her ever so slightly.
Watching him fight with the lid of the box is reassuring in a weird way though, especially when he holds it out to her with a wry smile of defeat.
Easily pulling the lid off, she retorts teasingly, “Flatterer.”
Accepting the box with a smile of thanks, Jimmy reaches out and gently boops her on the nose with the end of his chopsticks.
“No,” he counters lightly, “just honest.”