Summary: Notice how Izzie is always sipping on coffee on the show? Alex plays a prank with her coffee mug and somehow they end up trapped in a closet together.

Pairing: Alex/Izzie, duh.

Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy and all related characters belong to Shonda Rhimes and the ABC network. I'm making no profit out of this.

A/N: This is inspired by the season 2 premier, though there's no real spoiler. I particularly love the nicknames they give each other ("Dr. Model" & "Evil Spawn").

Coffee

Dr. Izzie Stevens likes her coffee. She has to have one every morning, after she wakes up, at the start of her shift, during break, and basically any time she feels that kick for caffeine. She even brings her own favorite mug to work. It's a blue one with a cartoon of a female doctor, who, I unfortunately must say, is relatively unattractive. But Izzie thinks it's cute. Plus, it's big enough to satisfy her caffeine needs. And that's really what matters, isn't it?

Anyway, Izzie is currently sitting on a stretcher, in one of the more quiet corridors of the hospital, trying to finish a report that Bailey assigned her to complete that morning. All the other interns are on their rounds, so Izzie is alone, only accompanied by her trusty mug, filled with good old, warm, liquid caffeine. She enjoys these moments of silence.

Meanwhile, Dr. Alex Karev is walking the halls, looking for something to do. He finished his rounds surprisingly quickly this morning. It's a rare, quiet time in the hospital and Alex plans on taking full advantage of it.

He rounds a corner and spots one of his most favorite sights.

Dr. Model.

He really didn't like her at first. She seemed like a lightweight bimbo, who only got into med-school either on good looks or daddy's money.

How wrong he was.

After that little 'anatomy lesson,' he can't stop wondering what else she'll do if he continues pushing her buttons. She is like that blonde girl in kindergarten, whose pigtails Alex couldn't stop pulling.

As to not alert his presence, Alex takes a step back and peeks at her from around the corner. She doesn't seem to have noticed him. She is too absorbed on the papers on her lap, sipping occasionally from the mug at her side.

His eyes round on the mug. A proverbial light bulb blinks on above his head and a sly grin decorates his face.

Quietly, slinking like a lion on the prowl, Alex slides down to sit on the ground besides Izzie's stretcher. He takes a peek at her over the top of the stretcher. She still hasn't noticed him. His eyes are not focused on the mug in her hand; the mug that she is currently placing down, next to her crossed-legs… And immediately within Alex's arm-reach.

As her attention returns to the report on hand, Alex slowly reaches up his hand and carefully wraps his fingers around Izzie's mug.

He brings it down to him, resisting the urge to chortle. He looks at the thing and frowns.

What a butt-ugly mug.

He takes two big gulps, taking care to drink at the exact spot, on which Izzie has drunk, and actually marveling at her coffee-making skills.

Hmmm, delicious.

He sets the mug back quickly to its original position, just before its owner casts out her hand to pick it up.

Izzie doesn't seem to notice anything at first, but after Alex's third successful, uh, 'mission,' she wonders why her coffee is thinning up real quickly.

On the fourth time, after she sets the mug down, she purposely pretends to go back to work for a few seconds before snapping her head quickly on the direction of her mug.

Sure enough, she spots a tanned hand encircling around it, connected to a tanned arm, and connected to that tanned, smug of an ass known as her co-worker Alex.

"What the hell?"

Instead of looking like a deer caught in headlights, Alex's face lights up like a freakin' Christmas tree. He stands up smoothly, still holding Izzie's mug in his hands and treating her to one of his oh-so-charming smiles.

Izzie wants nothing but to deck him. She jumps up from the stretcher, ready to pounce.

"You make one hell of a coffee, Dr. Model."

"And you make one hell of an ass, Ass. Now give me back my mug. That's my coffee!"

She tries to grab it from his hands, but he moves it out of reach. Unfortunately, as tall as Izzie is, Alex is still taller.

Alex replies as if he hasn't heard her, " I particularly enjoy the added taste from trading spit with you. We were practically kissing, y'know."

Alex raises his eyebrows suggestively, while Izzie crinkles her face in disgust.

"Ugh! You're gonna be kissing the bottom of my shoe, Evil Spawn, unless you give me my mug back."

She makes another move for it, but he steps back, moving the mug to behind his back.

"I didn't know you were into that whole Sado-Masochistic, 'Kiss my boots, slave,' Stevens, but it's kinda kinky. I can dig it."

"You would." Izzie tries to get her hands around him, but Alex moves out of the way again. She stops, hands on her hips and foot tapping impatiently at the floor. "Come on, Alex. I don't have time for this."

Being in the clear from her, Alex brings the mug back in front of him. "You want it? Come and get it."

He then tugs his scrub top out of his pants and brings the mug to the inside of his shirt, directly against his stomach.

Reeling in shock and contemplating thousands of ways to sterilize her precious mug, Izzie doesn't notice Alex turning around and taking off with her mug, chuckling loudly behind him.

"Alex! You come back here, you hear me!"

She quickly gathers up all of Bailey's report, making sure she's got everything – 'cause she'd just love to get another chewing from the Nazi for some idiotic thing Alex did – and sprints after Alex.

Izzie finally finds him in the break room, grinning his stupid smug grin and taking liberal sips of her coffee from her cup.

Tossing Bailey's report on the nearest bench, she marches straight up to him.

"Alex, give me back my mug!"

This time, she is too fast for him. She grabs the mug as it leaves his mouth and the abrupt force causes the mug to tip over, dumping the remaining content over Alex's top half.

Luckily for Alex, the liquid has sufficiently cooled, but unluckily for Izzie, the sudden movement was too quick for either of them. Her precious mug is left shattered on the floor as a result.

Izzie stands silently for a few seconds, feeling like a vein is about to burst in her temple. Alex feels a bit worried about her muted reaction. Just as he is about to say something though, she starts yelling at him.

"Why? Why do you have to be so EVIL? You clean this up! I'm gonna make myself more coffee."

And then she stalks out, not saying another word to him.

Stunned, Alex stands still for a few moments, before crouching before the shattered pieces and tossing them to the trashcan.

It really is ugly. You'd think I was doing her a favor…

It doesn't take long for Izzie to prepare another batch of coffee. She just needs a big mug to pour it into. The paper cups provided by the hospital just aren't big enough to satisfy her caffeine needs. She asked one of the orderlies and he said that there might be some ceramic mugs in one of the supply closets.

So here she is, inside a supply closet near the break room, searching for mugs. She hasn't been foraging for long when, out of anyone in the world, Alex comes in.

And not only Alex, but a bare-chested Alex.

What the hell?

"Alex, what are you doing here?"

"I need new scrubs. You spilled coffee on me earlier?"

"I spilled coffee? Listen, Karev… Wait, what are you doing? Don't close the door!"

For Alex has just shut the door. The orderly has warned her that this door jams all the time and that she should make sure it's not completely closed when she goes in.

Izzie shoves him out of the way and tries the handle. Sure enough, it's jammed. She pounds on the door and calls out for people outside, but no one seems to hear her.

She turns back to him, hands folded on her chest and a scowl on her face. Alex is busily scouring the shelves, obviously nonchalant about their predicament.

I bet he's enjoying this.

The thought just sets her off. "Can you possibly ruin my day more, Evil Spawn? Idiot!" She slugs him one upside the head and then leans back on the shelf next to him.

Alex groans in pain and rubs the point of contact. "You know, for a chick, Dr. Model, you hit pretty well. Better than O'Malley, I can tell ya." He too leans back against the shelf, still bare-chested. "'Can't find the scrubs."

He only receives an annoyed grunt in response.

"I have a name, Alex. Why don't you ever you use it?" Izzie says after several minutes of silence.

He sizes her up, noting how cute she looks as she obviously tries to avert her eyes from his bare chest. He can't help himself, "I don't know. Why are you trying very hard not to look at these great assets, Izzie?" And he flexes his muscle just for good measure.

She ignores this odd tingle on the back of her neck as she hears him say her name. As if taking him up on his dare, she stares dead straight at him and gives him a dismissing look.

After several minutes of silence, Izzie pipes up again. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you keep on making my life a living hell? What? Am I just that kid in grade school, whose ponytail you just have to pull?"

Alex can't believe how right on the money she is and smiles in spite of himself.

She continues on her rant though, without waiting for his answer, "You know, I had to put up with a lot of crap all my life from pricks like you; always telling me, I'm nothing but a pretty face, never good enough…"

The memory of these so-called "pricks" seem to make her suddenly angry, for Izzie starts to round on Alex, shoving her hands against his chest, pushing him back.

"Some of them I even stupidly dated. But I got myself out. I put myself into med school, fair and square. Why can't anyone just accept that?"

She keeps pushing him until his back hits the door, effectively pinning him against her. Alex feels slightly worried. He takes one hand behind him, feeling the door. Unknown to Izzie, Alex actually knows the special tug-and-push movement that's needed to open the door; one advantage of being the hospital's "player," undoubtedly. He just wanted to mess with Izzie, seeing her squirm from being stuck in a closet with him.

Well, it looks like he's getting the desired effect.

"And you," she says, suddenly looking at him. "Every time I starts thinking you're not as bad as everyone makes you out to be, you go and do some ass-like thing to piss me off. Why can't you just leave me alone?"

Alex looks at her, cheeks all flushed and waiting for some grand explanation of his behavior.

Ah, hell.

"Because it's the only way I know." He smirks.

"For wha-"

But before she can finish her question, he slides one hand to the back of her head, pulling her face close and capturing her lips with his. He lets it linger for a few seconds before he uses the hand behind his back to do the tugging motion required to open the door.

Sure enough, a second later, both of them are sent tumbling out the door, Alex landing on the floor and Izzie falling on top of Alex with an 'oompf.'

Before they can say anything about the kiss or anything else that happened in there, both spot a pair of feet standing immediately beside. They look up to see the Nazi, hands folded on her chest, with a determinedly non-amused expression on her face.

"Nice to see you two using your free time wisely."

Izzie tries to explain herself, "Dr. Bailey, it's not like it loo-"

"Stevens, untangle yourself from Karev and hand me the report I told you to do. Karev, put some clothes on and get back to work. You two get to spend lunchtime today, moping up the mess on 1840."

Dr. Bailey then walks away, muttering something about "a bunch of oversexed interns."

Izzie doesn't have time to say anything to Alex, for she has to rush after Bailey, but Alex can't help noticing that she looks a little flushed.

They do not have a chance to talk during lunchtime either, since the "mess" that the Nazi wants them to clean is really a handful. Literally.

Izzie doesn't miss the odd glances that Alex keeps throwing her though.

The word of what happened, like always, spreads like syphilis and, by the end of the day, Izzie cannot stop hearing it from Meredith, George, and Cristina. Apparently her new title is "Mrs. Evil Spawn." She doesn't speak to any of them for the rest of the day.

She goes to bed that night slamming the door on Meredith and George's stupid chuckling faces.

The next day, she comes to work in a bad mood. Meredith and George have taken the hints and shut up about it, but she remembers that she no longer has her trusty blue mug and therefore can no longer take her morning coffee.

When she opens her locker door, however, she finds the most amazing surprise.

A blue coffee mug.

It is as big as the last one, but this one has a picture of an attractive blonde girl in a sexy doctor's outfit. Inside, she finds a little note.

You're smart. You're hot. Don't be ashamed of it. Looking forward to our next coffee break together.

There's no name, but there is a doodle of what Izzie supposes must be a little Satan on the bottom.

She looks up across at Alex, who gives her a wink and a smile. Unsure of what to do, Izzie picks up the mug, examining the picture. She smiles in spite of herself.

She checks her watch. She has just enough time to make a nice mug of coffee before her rounds this morning.

A/N: I thought I've quit the fanfic business, but I suddenly have this inspiration. So keep in mind that I'm quite rusty at fics and this is my first time writing Grey's Anatomy. Tell me what you think. Sooo… Does anyone else like Alex/Izzie? I'm surprised that we barely find any fics for them. Spoilers from ABC look good for them :D