HELLO :)!

I'm new in the "Almost Human" fandom, but I've been writing on FanFiction for a while now.

If you like "Gossip Girl" or Minka Kelly ("Charlie's Angels"), you can check my others fics too.

I got inspired by Val's seductiveness and John's awkwardness. This is a series of one-shots where Val gives John something and she receives a note from him, on different occasions. Other characters will interact too, but the main focus is #Stannex.

Feel free to leave me a review or a private message anytime!

Chapter 1: It's Val...At Least After Midnight!

It started off with an energy chew…and a note. And then it grew into a habit, a routine, a "thing". Valerie and John's thing!

For days Valerie was tormented by the mental image of her, smiling wide, like a child, when John had given her that note. In all fairness, she wasn't even planning to give him the stupid energy chew that, for some odd reason, she always liked keeping in her back-pocket. When she saw him in the precinct she couldn't help but tease him. Or to "pull his leg", as he liked to put it. It was just something silly, she wanted to see if he would be just as awkward and confused face-to-face as he had been earlier on the phone when he failed to read between the lines and he decided she was actually going to give him something. Oh, there was one thing he definitely wanted from her.

John felt sick to his stomach from the cuteness overdose that day. It was the best kind of "sick" that he had ever felt. For the first few seconds he didn't even register the fact that Detective Stahl, or simply just Val, as he liked to call her as of recently and, of course, when nobody was listening in, had given him an energy chew. He appreciated the fact that she had given him something, for real this time, she had. The chew was warm, it must have stayed in her pocket for hours. And that pocket was dangerously close to an asset of hers that he had grown fond of. Not that he would admit it to anyone, not even to himself, but he had caught himself checking her out a few too many times.

It felt weird, like he was living in a parallel world. Normally it was the women at his workplace checking him out. Now he put himself in their shoes and he couldn't help it. There was something about Valerie…the mystery, the sass, the way she spoke back to Richard, the way she held a gun, the way she spoke, that annoying little giggle she had and the fact that no matter what was happening that girl would always smile. It was almost like she was a breath of fresh air all the way through the drama that their job required. He couldn't possibly help checking her out.

And then there was the fact that they were so much alike. Secrets, undeniably strong characters, ironic one-liners, beautiful eyes. Not that John had been keeping up a list of all the similarities, but he was well-aware of them.

Days went by and everything was normal, on the surface. But looking in closely, he could see Valerie occasionally giving him a smile or a high-five for the job well done. Maybe it was just in his imagination, maybe she had always done that and she certainly did it with a few other coworkers, but he so desperately wanted him to be the only one. He had no idea why it was so important to him. Dating was way out of his life-plan at the moment and also for the near future. The noun "feelings" was crossed out of his mental dictionary with a firm double line in a flashy red color. The only thing he would "pursue" would be a criminal, chasing him down the streets of the city. He would never pursue a girl. He never had, he never will. John Kennex could be defined as many things: stubborn, insubordinate, witty, quick-minded, uncontrollable, handsome, but he could never be defined as mellow. He blamed his one-and-only mellow action in his life - giving Valerie the note, to a moment of temporary insanity. It must have been the pressure of the case he had just closed. Or maybe it was the fact that she was teasing and he would never back off without teasing her back. Or it could very well be the fact that pony-tail Valerie was his favorite kind of Valerie and he just couldn't help being mellow around her.

A week after his sweet little moment he thought he had gained control over his craziness. They spoke, occasionally, always connected to a case. Little that he knew, Friday came around and everyone was already feeling like it was the weekend.

He went downstairs to change into his casual clothes before leaving the precinct. Walking down the hallway he saw a bright light coming out of one of the conference rooms. It felt like a déjà vu as he neared the door and saw Valerie inside, with her feet comfortably resting against the empty chair next to her, her shoes on the floor, her pony-tail still intact and the only thing that shined brighter than the light that was coming from the big screen she was looking at was her lipgloss. It was the natural color one, the one with silicone that gave extra volume to her lips, the one she used when she was wearing bright colors, such as violet, which seemed to be her favorite, or red, so she wouldn't overdo the colors and end up looking like a Christmas tree. That was usually on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursdays she wore white or beige, sometimes she wore pale blue, like that one shirt that John really liked, the one with the three little triangle-shaped buttons on the back that could only be noticed if she had her hair pulled up. Not that he was keeping track of Valerie's personal style or anything. He just…noticed stuff. A lot of stuff, actually.

"Uh-hum…" He cleared his throat, opening the door slowly so he wouldn't interfere with the peaceful moment that Valerie was having.

She looked away from the screen and gave him a smile. "Detective Kennex!" She greeted him as she usually did.

"What are you doing down here this late?" He hadn't been invited in, yet he took a few steps towards her.

"Had to lock up some evidence." The conversation was a throw-back to a few weeks ago when the same thing had happened. But then it had been Valerie who walked in on John's peaceful moment while watching the game. Same conference hall. Same day, Friday. Same hour. If it wasn't destiny…then it would have to be planned. Maybe she did plan this recurrence. "What's your excuse?" She used the same words, same movements from before.

"Wait…wasn't that your excuse two weeks ago?" He raised an eyebrow quizzically.

"Yup." She confirmed. "There is evidence to be locked up every day. It just so happens that the game is on TV every Friday. Blame it on the network." She put her hands up in the air, in mock surrender.

"Right…" John didn't sound convinced, but he was grateful to whatever reason it was that brought Valerie there again. "Who's playing? Mind some company?"

"Oh, my favorite team and that other team that is about to get owned big time." A grin appeared on her face. "Sure, sure." Her feet pulled away from the empty chair, making space for him to sit.

"Ahh!" The sweet feeling of sitting down after a long day of work. John could get used to that. And to Valerie sitting next to him, too.

The end of the commercial break cut off their verbal interaction. Silence followed in the room as they were both equally interested in the game. John didn't have a favorite team. He usually liked the team that was winning, so his preferences occasionally changed. But he found himself secretly cheering for Valerie's team of choice that night.

"You know…I have something for you!" Valerie finally broke the silence and without even looking at her John could tell that she had this very specific half-smirk half-smile on her face again.

"Oh, come on!" This time he wouldn't fall for the joke. It wasn't like she owed him anything. He wasn't expecting anything from her. People normally didn't care enough to give John anything, let alone the beautiful people of the world…people like Valerie.

"No, I mean it. I do." She withheld a chuckle when she saw a glimpse of John's face with that child-like hopeful expression on it.

Her hand reached out to her bag and pulled out a bottle of Bourbon with most of its content vanished already.

"It's not much, but it'll do. And sorry, I don't have the fancy glasses here. I was actually drinking from the bottle." She took a sip and passed it on to him.

"Lucky for you, Detective Stahl, I'm not squeamish." He sounded believable, firm as he spoke. Yet he seemed a little too eager to quickly grab the bottle and feel it on his lips. Coconut. Since when did Bourbon taste like coconut? He glanced over at Valerie and once again he noticed the way the light fell precisely on her lips, the glitter of her lipgloss.

"You sure you're not squeamish?" She noticed he looked somewhat confused and that he was licking his bottom lip, probably not even realizing he was doing it. "Does it taste bad? Sorry, it's warm, I've been hiding it in my bag for hours. Maldonado was on a check today and I didn't want to get busted."

"No…not at all." He replied only to the part of her question about the taste. It was Bourbon and it tasted like freaking coconut. It was awesome! For a moment he let his mind fly away to that imaginary planet in which he would lean in and kiss her, feeling the taste of Bourbon on those pretty lips of hers, lips that taste like coconut lipgloss.

Passing the bottle a few more times made time fly. Ten minutes before the game would end he spoke up.

"You know…I have something for you too!" He stood up and searched through the drawers, much like he had done when she had given him the energy chew. Another déjà vu. He only found a piece of paper and he groaned at his inability to find the second object he needed.

"A pen, maybe?" She offered, holding a pen in her hand after retrieving it from her bag, that magic bag that had everything John needed, apparently.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, thanks!" He was this close to clapping his hands like an idiot when she made it easier for him.

He leaned in and started to write something, painfully slow. Casually she also leaned in, trying to catch a glimpse of it.

"Ah!" He shook his head, covering up the paper.

"Sorry. You know I'm nosy. It's in my job description." This time she chuckled. It was a distinct sound that, in any other case, John would be annoyed to hear. It was like the silent yapping of a newborn teacup Yorkie puppy. But he liked it.

He handed her the note, but this time also the pen. She opened it carefully, wondering if it would feature the same content of the last note. If so, that would be too mellow of him. Not that she would mind.

Surprisingly, she found a different thing written down, a little scheme.

Val's team vs. Owned team

John: 8 / 4

Val: ? / ?

This time she laughed out loud. Could he possibly be a bigger dork? She wrote down her prediction: 6/2. She was good at analyzing and guessing things.

The game ended with 8/2, clearly in favor of Valerie's preferred team.

"Oh, come on! I'm usually…Hell, I'm always right about the scores!" She whined a little. It was probably the Bourbon speaking. They had emptied the little content that was left in that bottle, in the matter of minutes.

"You still guessed half of it. I guessed the other half." In his mind this statement was supposed to make her feel somewhat better. He wasn't aware of exactly how independent Valerie was and how she never liked combining power with anyone else, in order to achieve success. She was a solo player, for the most part. That was one of the reasons why she butted heads with Richard all the time, because they both wanted to have the last word.

"Yeah…" She thought about it for a moment. Screw being on your own. It felt so much better to have someone next to you, helping you, even if it was just about a stupid soccer game result. "I guess we make a good team, Detective Kennex." Surprisingly, she admitted to herself that his interference in her analytic and deductive process was not that unpleasant.

"We do." He stood up and felt a little light-headed. "And it's John…at least after midnight." The words just poured out of his mouth before he could realize the double meaning that was hidden in them. All he meant was that after they finish work she could call him anything she wanted to, no need for formalities. He should have never pronounced "midnight". Was that why Valerie started to blush?

"It's past midnight!?" Panic took over her voice, as if there was somewhere she had to be at this time. She jumped up from her seat and nearly fell back down on it from all the alcohol she had consumed.

"Yes. Want me to…uh, escort you home…or something?" He put his hands in his pockets, casually looking around the room. He had seen that in the movies and it usually worked well enough to keep a girl from realizing how protective the guy was of her.

"I'm a detective too, John. A damn good one, at that. I can take care of myself." She winked. He blinked at the same time, plus, it was dark now that the light of the screen was dimmed after the game ended. But he was sure she had just winked at him.

"Alright. See you on Monday, Stahl!" He waved awkwardly as he exited the room.

"Hey?" She called out in the darkness, catching his attention one last time.

"Yes?" Two of the fingers on his right hand, the one that stayed behind his body as he immediately turned around to face her, were crossed. It wouldn't be a bad thing if she would ask him to take her home after all. Just to make sure she was safe.

"It's Val…at least after midnight!" She chuckled again, but the weird thing was that so did John this time.

He didn't want to ruin the perfect ending of the day, the perfect line she had come up with. So he didn't say anything. He just walked out and got back home. Down the streets of the city he realized two things: he had abandoned his car in front of the precinct and he had subconsciously started walking, to ease down the strong need for fresh air. And two, his fingers were still crossed, this time hoping that Valerie would return back home safely too.

Basically, it all started with an energy chew…and a note. And then it grew into Valerie and John's thing!

Did I earn myself a "Welcome to the Almost Human fandom!" cookie? :)