4After buying a new bed, Lucy decides to go a few steps further. She buys some new artwork for the living room, moves around some of her furniture to give the apartment a new feel. She thinks she should fix up a dedicated area for studying in her bedroom – since she's deep into studying for the detective's exam - so she can study away from distraction when Tamara's busy binging TV in the living room. She turns the table that's always collected makeup and random items into a desk and area for study, adds a corkboard above her desk so she can stick notes and reminders, post a calendar, and stick up a few things that inspire her.
She knows just the poster to add.
The first time Tim enters her room after she's done decorating her board, he does a double take while she smirks as she waits for his reaction.
He notices the poster immediately, of course.
He looks dumbfounded for a second, in the way that amuses Lucy because it looks like his brain is broken.
"Where did you get this?!" Tim asks, voice higher than usual.
"Get what?"
"Lucy."
Lucy grins, eyes sparkling with mischief. "What? You really thought that I never knew about it?"
He'd hoped so.
"You were in Seattle!" he grumbles, recalling how after the entire Cop-Cake incident he had, of course, thought of her and how much she would've loved to have relentlessly teased him about the ridiculous posters plastered all over the station and how he'd gotten lucky she'd been away from Mid-Wilshire when it happened.
(Maybe – maybe – he had been kind of disappointed she'd missed out on it and he didn't get to hear her tease him.)
"Oh, come on – you have to know me better than that."
"And you never said anything this whole time?" He thinks about how long she must have been sitting on this – waiting for the perfect time to strike.
She bites her lip and laughs. "I don't know, things were… weird… between us then so I just… kept it in my back pocket. Then we got together…"
He squints at the poster. "You know that's not even my body."
She snorts. "Oh, I know. I'm very well acquainted with your body."
"So, what's even so funny about it? Really, it's just my head."
She grins. "I like it."
"You like to tease me about it."
"I like to look at it, and then I like to think about how I know what the actual Cop-Cake looks like and then I picture the real thing, so…"
He lets his thoughts catch up to her. "But you've had this."
"So?"
"So, you've had this since before you knew what the real thing looked like."
She quirks an eyebrow at him, daring him to continue. "And?"
He looks smug. "You were imagining, before."
She can't really deny it – of course, she was, and she doesn't even have a leg to stand on because they're here, together, now, so it's clear she had to have thought about him in that way before. But still, she fights back.
"I just thought it was funny before," she reasons. "Now I like to think about-"
"Liar," he says, reaching forward to kiss her while simultaneously ticking her hip, causing her to laugh and back away from his lips in surprise.
"I'm not lying!" She did find it funny, that much was true. He tickles her side this time. "Okay, I'll admit it, if you admit you imagined me, too!"
He pulls away to frown at her, challenged. "I did not."
"Oh, come on. The green dress?" she says as she quirks an eyebrow knowingly.
Her accusation, so much longer before they had ever admitted feelings for each other, an image of a body that actually belonged to her, seems more dangerous.
"What green dress?"
She busts out a laugh. "Tim!"
"Fine," he relents, a lopsided smile forming on his lips. "Yes. The green dress."
"I'll wear the green dress again if you take a real picture for me."
"Absolutely not."
"We'll put a cupcake over it!"
"I've never given a more committed 'no' in my life."
She pouts. "You're no fun."
"Who gave it to you?" Lucy shakes her head in refusal to answer. "It was either Smitty or Thorsen."
"I'll never tell."
"My money's on Smitty because Thorsen's at least a little scared of me." Lucy laughs and mimics locking her lips with a key. "You think I can't make you talk?" he asks, his voice heated.
"Oh, I'd like to see you try," she returns with a mischievous glint in her eye.
"I'll show you how I'm no fun," he teases and she laughs as he pushes her to the bed.