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They celebrate well into the night. There are toasts and tears and dancing and singing, and through it all, he barely leaves her side. It’s not entirely intentional, but her laughter is addicting and her smile is dazzling and she squeezes his arm any time he moves away. Not that he wants to move away from her. Not ever.
The thought startles him into a moment of clarity.
From day one, Penelope had it in for Luke. She hated him. Or, hated what he represented. And then somewhere along the line, the animosity shifted. Her tone was playful when she called him “Newbie.” She smiled at him. Cried with him. Sassed him less like he was her nemesis and more like he was someone she genuinely cared about.
And somewhere along the line, Luke’s feelings for Penelope shifted too. He didn’t notice it at first. He just wanted her to like him. He wanted to fit in. And then he was staying late to see her out. He was offering to call her for information just so he could hear her smile at his snark. He was going out of his way to stop at a coffee truck to pick up her favorite drink. He chalked it up to being a kiss-ass, mostly as a way to ignore the root cause.
If their friends noticed, they didn’t bring it up.
But now, as they sway together with the music, his hand finds her hip and hers settles on his, and he’s face to face with what exactly Lisa had meant when she left.
“You still don’t talk to me. Not like… not like someone you want to talk to. Not like someone you want to be around.”
The words echo in Luke’s mind and he feels like an asshole as he looks down at Penelope. He owes Lisa several drinks. Later though. Now, he steps back and beckons her to follow. “I don’t know about you, but I could use a break.”
She just smiles and nods, following after. “Yeah, lead the way, Newbie.”
“C’mon, after this week we won’t even be coworkers anymore. You’re still on that?”
She huffs. “You’ll always be my Newbie,” she replies.
He doesn’t have to turn around to know she’s got a huge grin on her face.
When they get to the bar, he pours a glass of water for her and then one for himself. And before he can talk himself out of it the words come out of his mouth.
“So… I was thinking. Since we’re not gonna work together anymore, that… maybe I could take you to dinner.”
Penelope, for once in all the time he’s known her, is speechless. Luke thinks she may have short circuited and is about to pull the plug with some excuse about it being platonic when she finally nods.
“...Yeah,” she finally says, and that grin is back and he knows his face matches.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah!”
“We’ll eat!”
“Yeah! Yeah!”
“Cool.”
He barely has time to gulp down the rest of his water before she’s grabbing his hand and tugging him back out to the dance floor. Even if he wanted to leave her side, she wouldn’t let him. Her fingers lace through his and she keeps him close as their friends surround them for one more raucous singalong.
***
It’s a long, difficult case, and her absence is felt everywhere. But they make it back and the first thing he does when the plane lands in DC is dial her number.
“Newbie!” she exclaims by way of greeting, and he could cry when he hears it. Her voice is the respite he needed after this case. He must have been lost in it for a moment too long because the next thing he hears is a much softer “...Luke?”
“I--hey, sorry, I’m here,” he replies weakly. “We just landed. And we… I missed you.”
“What can I do?” she asks. “How can I help?”
“Don’t worry about it,” he replies on instinct. A beat passes and he knows she’s scowling at him, he can practically feel it. “Sorry. It’s just… it was a tough case. Kids, y’know? And I know I promised dinner when I got back but… Could we maybe--”
“For your information, I’m already on my way over,” she interjects. “And I hope Thai is okay because that’s what you’re getting. Understood?”
He smiles softly. “That... sounds perfect,” he says. “Thank you, Penelope.”
She huffs out a laugh. “Don’t think I’m letting you off the hook that easy, Newbie. You promised me a first date and I still aim to collect.”
***
It would have been a perfect night, except that everything goes completely haywire.
First, he trips coming down the stairs at his building and lands right on his face. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal except that he skinned his hands and got mud on his favorite shirt. So he’d had to run inside to change, wherein he discovered a cut on his forehead as well. The whole ordeal sets him a good fifteen minutes behind schedule. And then he hits every red light on the way to her place, because of course he does.
Penelope doesn’t mind, because she’s Penelope, but she also makes sure to give Luke crap for it, because he’s Luke.
He starts to think the night has maybe recovered itself but by the time they get to the restaurant, they're so late that they’d lost their table. Luke is frustrated and embarrassed as they walk back outside and he’s ready to scrap the whole night when he hears Penelope start to laugh.
“Alright, let me have it,” he says, turning to look at her. “Go on, Sassmaster, tell me how you expected this night to totally blow.”
She laughs again and walks up to him, putting her hands on either side of his face. “Newbie, this is entirely better than the situation I’d been imagining,” she says. He looks at her in confusion and she giggles. She gives his cheeks a squeeze then drops her hand to his and leads him up the sidewalk. “Come on, can you really imagine us sitting in that stuffy restaurant, being all awkward and pretending like we haven’t been totally crushing on each other for the last four years?”
He laughs despite himself and squeezes her hand. “I guess you’re right,” he says. “Wait, four years? What, since we met?” He glances down at her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk tugs at the corner of his mouth.
Her cheeks turn pink and she purses her lips. “That’s entirely besides the point,” she says. “The point, Luke Alvez, is that this is way more us.”
He smiles and lets go of her hand to sling his arm around her shoulder. “We’re gonna talk about that later, but you’re right,” he says with a contented sigh. “This is more us. But… you know we parked in the other direction, right?”
She pokes his side. “There’s nothing to talk about, I’m always right, and of course I know that. But you still owe me a date and lucky for you, my favorite diner is on the next block.”
“Lucky indeed.”