Crumbs were all that was left of her sandwich. Jane picked at them anyway, crushing each toasty fleck into dust one by one. The TV was on, something stupid- something smart- that Jane had tuned out.

When she sighed for the third time since the last commercial, Maura hit the mute button on the remote, and deliberately craned her head slowly until she met Jane's eyes. Of course when she did, Jane immediately looked away, into her plate of crumbs.

A crystal ball it wasn't.

"I know we said we wouldn't do this..."

Maura made a little noise, a hiccup colliding with a laugh, intersecting with a sob.

"No, you said we wouldn't do this."

"Whatever. We agreed, though. We did."

"We did."

"But it bothers me. More than it should. I know I have no right to... no right to you."

Maura drew up one foot and tucked it beneath the opposite thigh and turned her shoulders to face her. Jane raised her chin as if it were weighted by a hundred tons, pressing her lips together tightly so the lower wouldn't quiver.

Her bare arms were so inviting. Jane wanted to touch them, run her fingers up and down them. To fall into them as easily as she might have a year ago. Maura was beautiful. Even Tommy could see it.

"But I told you, Jane," her voice was soft; she was babying her. Kid gloves. Jane shook her head at it, but Maura ignored her. "I like your brother, but I love you. No agreement can change that."

It was supposed to make Jane feel better, but all it did was cause her to scowl at the silently glowing television screen.

"I don't want you to live like that. I mean it. I don't want to stand between you and … romance. Happiness. Whatever." The fact that the alleged romance in question involved her idiot little brother did nothing to remove the grimace from her face.

Now Maura grunted, a dissatisfied, irritated sound.

"Martyrdom doesn't suit you, Jane."

Her head whipped around. "And just what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means..." There she went again with that soft, delicate tone, her irritation vanishing instantly like Jane wished her snarling countenance would. She even smiled for good measure. "It means I much prefer brave Jane. Commanding Jane. Stop-at-nothing Jane."

She was being coy, teasing Jane, flirting with her. And it was hard to be angry at her for it, even if it would be justified.

"I don't want to fight with you," Maura leaned back, easing some of the now-palpable tension. "We agreed not to go there because it would be too complicated. And a corollary to that arrangement is that I won't be sleeping with your brother. Either of them."

"Eww," Jane turned her up nose. "God. Like I said. Straight to the breeding. I don't even wanna think of him kissing you, much less..."

"Oh, Jane," Maura laid her hand across Jane's knee, and they both stared at the spot the way Jane stared at her grandfather's casket when she was twelve years old. Sad, yet excited. Wondering what's inside. "I'm just glad you don't hate me anymore."

Jane rolled her eyes. "The only thing harder than hating you is..."

She swore she saw Maura brace for it before it came.

"...loving you."

The other woman tried to hide her slight smile, and the blush that was dancing over her features.

"That's the first time you've said it. Without qualification. Without distraction."

She sounded so happy, and Jane couldn't get her mind around it. They couldn't be together, a thousand excuses made up to sound like reasons, and yet Maura was happy. Right now, with Jane.

They sat like that for a few minutes, eyes like magnets of the same pole, careening closely but never meeting. Finally, Jane groaned.

"Ah, god. What was it like? What did he do?"

Maura just watched Jane squirm, smug.

"You can't help yourself, can you?"

"No!" she whined. "I can't. I can't, okay? I want to know every last detail. Where were you? Where was he? How close did he get?"

"I don't know, Jane," Maura was stalling, and Jane prodded her once with a locked-out finger.

"Yes, you do know. You know down to the millimeter. That's one of my favorite things about you."

"In my kitchen. He..." she trailed off, the tinge of longing in her eyes unsettling Jane. "It doesn't matter. I stopped him."

"How? How did you stop him?"

Maura laughed. "What do you mean, how? I just..."

Jane was expecting her to hold her hand out to demonstrate. But no, he must've gotten closer. Close enough to smell her perfume. Close enough to feel her breath. Jane hopped up and closed the space between them.

"Well, what then? He leans in," Jane swept her hair back behind her shoulder before she moved. "He leans in...?"

Maura's eyes widened as Jane drew closer, until they flicked lower to the neck of Jane's shirt. When they returned, they were hooded. Defenses lowered, permission granted.

Maura was terrible at faking anything.

She let Jane kiss her. She let Jane's lips capture her own, let her suck lightly- involuntarily, Jane swore- and taste the sweetness there.

Maura must've known. She must've known this would happen, that Jane would come so close she'd have to see it all the way through. Why else would she have disappeared into the bathroom and glossed those lips, tossed that hair, made sure to smell nothing like grilled cheese or even bad wine?

The answer, though, Jane already knew. That was just Maura. There was no premeditation in her, no pretense, no malice aforethought. Maura was as cunning as a lamb. The sly flirtation hadn't been sly at all; Maura wasn't putting her on. She loved her, and she couldn't help it.

"I was supposed to stop you."

She whispered it more to herself than to Jane, and Jane breathed a laugh that moved a curl of her hair.

"Yeah, you were supposed to stop me."

"I couldn't."

"I got that." She smiled.

Maura drew a hand to her mouth. Smiled back.

"A lot of firsts tonight."

"Yup."

Green eyes examined her intensely.

"Lasts?"

Jane chewed the inside of her cheek. "Eh, too early to tell."