coffeebuddha | Daily Drabble 11 (Reply)

Title: Shawnie Went A-Courtin'
Author: coffeebuddha
Rating: PG-13/FRT
Characters/Pairing: Carlton Lassiter/Shawn Spencer
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me.
Word Count: 602
Prompt: "Carlton doesn't realize it's a date until it's too late." Requested by

topetine.

***

Spencer's in his kitchen making what looks like chicken breaded with corn flakes when Carlton gets home. That should bother him at least enough to make a show of waving his gun and yelling, but it's almost routine at this point. Instead, Carlton barely shoots Spencer a glance as he stalks past him back into the bedroom to change. He has no idea how Spencer keeps getting into his house. He's changed the locks, installed an alarm system, done everything short of buying a rottweiler, but every few days of the last couple months, he's been popping up anyway, completely unperturbed by everything Carlton's done to keep him out. At first he'd shouted and thrown Spencer out with threats of what he'd do if he came home and found him there again, but now...

Well, it's not exactly the worst thing in the world to come home to a hand made meal, even if the hands making it do belong to an obnoxious fake psychic. He probably has some ulterior motive-when does he not?-but for now Carlton plans on taking full advantage of it.

Things are different when he goes back out to the kitchen. Everything's sort of soft and fuzzy around the edges, and it takes him a minute to realize that his lights are dimmer. He didn't even know his lights had a dimmer. Another second and he spots the candles, which set off tiny alarms in the back of his head, although those are mostly drowned out by the smell of the food Spencer's laying out on the table. Cereal covered chicken breasts shouldn't smell that good, but somehow they do. He's just digging in when Spencer fills a wine glass-and that he must have brought with him, because Victoria has all their fancy wedding dishes, and he's never seen the need to replace them-and slides it in front of him, then fiddles with the flowers on the table for a moment before taking his regular seat across from Carlton.

Carlton's busy wondering when the hell it got to the point that Spencer has a regular seat in his house when he takes a sip of the wine and all the clues start to fall into place. He stares at the glass, then glances at the candles and the dimmed lights and the flowers and Spencer, who's been rambling about some movie he saw in high school for the past five minutes at least. The clink of glass on wood is almost unnaturally loud when Carlton sets his drink down, and Spencer pauses and looks at him. And the idea is ridiculous, beyond ridiculous really, but he has to ask.

"Is this a date?"

Spencer grins like he's just done something really clever and unexpected, the way he does when Carlton's just figured out some microscopic vital detail in a particularly complex case, and for a second Carlton thinks he might start clapping his hands and cheering. Instead he only nods and says, "Well, yeah, Lassie. Thought I'd do something really special. After all, today's the two month anniversary of when I started courting you."

Carlton blinks, because, when viewed from a certain angle, he supposes that it does look like they're in some sort of relationship, which means that the last couple of months Spencer has been trying to woo him, which is alarming and bizarre, and he really has no idea what to do with that. In the end, he says "Oh," takes another piece of chicken, and lets Spencer list the reasons why Billy Zane's hair is clearly superior to Val Kilmer's.

***

Thank you for reading! Feedback is always appreciated!

First commenter gets to pick the next prompt!

IMPORTANT: Because of classes, I'm several episodes behind on Criminal Minds and won't be able to catch up until after exams. If you request something for Criminal Minds, PLEASE keep that in mind and keep the spoilers AWAY from my journal. Thanks!