Disclaimer: I own nothing and I am making no money from any of this.

A/N: This was written for ShassieWeek for the prompt Domestic. This time the story behaved itself, as much as a story can behave anyway. Didn't think it was possible to have a sort of sexy story about housecleaning and puppies, but I was proven, proved(?) wrong. Read, enjoy and leave a review if you can.

"I'll tell you what, Shawn. You show me that you can clean up after yourself for an entire month, then we can get the puppy." Carlton looked from Shawn's sad hazel eyes to the puppy's pleading brown ones. He knew from personal experience that when Shawn really wanted something, he went full-throttle to get it.

He also knew that this was his chance to finally get Shawn to wash the dishes.

:::Week One:::

Carlton heard his fiancé struggle with the vacuum cleaner. When he had issued Shawn the challenge of proving he knew how to clean anything, he thought Shawn would do the bare minimum necessary to appease him. He was genuinely surprised to see that that Shawn was actually stepping up with the housekeeping and chores. Carlton knew Shawn really wanted to adopt that puppy.

"Would you like some help over there?" Carlton didn't want Shawn to break anything in his attempts to change the bag in the vacuum.

"Nope. I got it. I got THIS." The last word was growled out and Carlton heard a thump followed by, "Ouch. Shit."

Carlton put down the case file he'd brought home and went into the living room to check on Shawn. He still hadn't heard the vacuum turn on.

What he saw when he crossed the room, he found Shawn on his ass with half the vacuum bag in his hand. The other half was still attached to the vacuum. Dust and dirt was spilled everywhere and Carlton couldn't help but laugh at the situation.

"This shit is not funny."

"I tend to disagree." He stepped closer to Shawn and offered his hand to help pull him up and off the carpet. He took a look around at the mess. "I think you more than doubled the actual mess you were originally trying to clean, baby."

"Yeah. I know. The damned thing was stuck in there, man. I don't know who invented the vacuum, but they should be found, drawn and quartered. If they're not already dead."

Carlton pulled the attached bag half out of the vacuum and then took the piece that Shawn held and threw both into the trash. He groaned when he realized that now not only was Shawn going to have to vacuum up the living room, but also take out the full trash bag. When Shawn agreed to the terms of what he called 'The Puppy Project', Shawn had told Carlton that he would do all the housework for a month; not just picking up after himself as what Carlton originally requested.

Shawn had said that he wasn't allowed to clean up anything for the month.

Well, he wasn't THAT much of a jerk. He tied the trash bag closed and once heard the vacuum motor finally turn on, Carlton slipped out the back door and took out the trash.

He walked through the living room to get back to his office desk, but then stopped. What the hell?

Shawn was vacuuming, but he was doing so in his boxer shorts. No shirt, no socks; just his underwear. Carlton was going to shout over the noise of the motor, but decided to just watch as the man he intended to marry pushed the vacuum around.

Carlton never before found watching someone vacuum so erotic. He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms. Shawn caught him staring and added a suggestive hip wiggle as he turned the vacuum to do the other side of the room.

Work was forgotten and Carlton had to reach down the front of his pants to readjust himself. His erection visibly tented the material below his belt. Shawn would turn to look at him every few minutes, so he knew he was still being watched. Carlton got a nice view of Shawn's ass when he had to bend down and pickup a dime that very nearly got sucked into the vacuum.

He couldn't watch any more, so he walked into the kitchen and ordered dinner. Shawn had offered to make dinner, but Carlton had other plans for when his boxer-clad lover finished the vacuuming. He doubted Shawn would have the energy after that to make dinner, so he was doing him a favor, really.

The vacuum motor shut off and Carlton heard Shawn open the hall closet to put it away. When Shawn closed the door, Carlton grabbed him at the biceps and pushed him up against the wall. He pressed his hardened member into Shawn's hip as he kissed him.

"I didn't know watching me vacuum was such a turn on for you, Lassie."

"I had never seen you do it before, so how was I supposed to know, either?"

"Good point. Bedroom?"

"Yes. Now."

Forty-five minutes later, Carlton quickly threw on a pair of pants and a shirt to collect their dinner from the delivery guy. He was sorting it on the table when Shawn emerged from the bedroom looking thoroughly debauched. His hair stuck up in the weirdest places and he could see two dark hickeys forming at the base of his neck. Carlton smiled, knowing that there were a couple more in other places currently covered by clothing.

Shawn stepped up to him and Carlton hugged him then kissed the top of his head. Shawn then leaned up and kissed him on the mouth. Carlton took a moment to tongue the inside of that willing mouth and enjoy the lingering tastes of each other.

When they pulled apart, Shawn looked up at him and appeared confused.

"I thought I was going to make dinner?"

"Do you feel like you have the energy to stand for an hour chopping vegetables and cooking right now?" Carlton raised an eyebrow with his question.
"No." Shawn kissed him again and then sat down at the table. "Thank you. You are a kind and considerate lover, Lassie."

"You bet your ass I am." Carlton smirked at Shawn

"Actually, my ass doesn't really share that sentiment at the moment, but I'm sure it'll come to its senses someday.

"So, why did you decide to vacuum in nothing but your boxers?" Carlton started eating and waited for Shawn to answer.

"When I spilled all that dust out of the vacuum bag, everything was filthy. I started to itch everywhere, so I took off my clothes. Seemed to work out for the best."

"You did a great job on the vacuuming, by the way."

:::Week Two:::

Shawn thought he'd do Carlton a favor and wash his clothes for him as part of 'The Puppy Project'. After last weeks foray into the world of vacuuming and actually mastering it by the end of the week, Carlton begrudgingly let him. Now, he was regretting the decision.

Carlton had no idea which article of clothing was the culprit, but he had a few suspects. He didn't personally own anything red except for a few ties and they were never laundered at home. So, obviously all of the suspects resided on Shawn's side of the closet.

Either way, having to go to work wearing pink boxer shorts wasn't the end of the world. No one was going to see them anyway. Carlton decided to help Shawn separate the laundry in the future, though. Just so nothing more embarrassing happened from when harsh colored clothing mingled with lighter shades.

When he was changing out of his work clothes back at the house, Shawn noticed the pink underwear.

"Again, I am sorry about those, Lassie."

"Hey, at least nothing important got ruined, baby."

"Yeah, but that color is offensive on your pale skin. They need to be removed at once."

Shawn came up behind him and quickly yanked the boxers off of him and stayed on his knees.

:::Week Three:::

After Carlton complained for the second time without any action taken by their landlord about the clogged gutters, Shawn took it upon himself to climb on their ladder and clean them. Carlton feared for his spastic and clumsy fiancé, so he held the bottom of the ladder for safety.

They managed to work together and nearly finished the cleanup when the unthinkable and unimaginable happened. Carlton held the bottom of the ladder and was admiring his view of Shawn's backside, fantasizing about getting that naked later on, when Shawn let out a loud screech that could have competed with Guster's.

"Oh my God, Lassie. Get me down. Get me down off this ladder now. It's gonna kill me."

"Shawn, ladders are made to support one person at a time. Just climb down."

"I don't think I can. If I break eye contact with it, it'll lunge and eat my face."

What the hell? What was up there?

"Okay, Shawn. I'm letting go of the ladder so I can get a look at whatever's up there. Just please, don't fall."

"Oh my God. Oh my God. It's licking its lips, Lassie. Hurry up with a plan before it makes it's move."

Carlton felt his blood pressure spike. Shawn was obviously freaking the fuck out. He'd never heard him act like this, even on a big case. The way he was carrying on, he would have thought a...

"A friggin' raccoon, Shawn? Really?"

Carlton told Shawn to hold on to the ladder and to not freak out any further.

"I'm going to throw a rock at it, Shawn and get it to walk away from you."

"Okay. If you think that's the best plan."

"It's the only plan since you're unable to move yourself down the ladder."

"Friggin' Raccoons." Carlton hurled three rocks one right after the other at the raccoon and it, indeed backed away from Shawn. He returned to the bottom of the ladder and coaxed Shawn gently down.

When he was again on the ground, Shawn threw himself at Carlton and knocked him down onto the grass. Shawn pressed himself so hard against him that he thought he was trying to climb inside of him. Probably to hide from the raccoon. Shawn proceeded to kiss him everywhere he could reach; lips, cheeks, chin and neck. His rocking movements were hard to ignore and Carlton was hard by the time Shawn started to unbutton his shirt.

Carlton didn't know what was going through Shawn's mind, but he was so consumed by his lust for the man on top of him that he didn't care that they were outside, in their backyard. In nearly no time at all the two of them were naked and Shawn had lowered himself onto Carlton's cock.

"Thank you, Lassie." Was the first thing Shawn said to him after he pulled up and off Carlton and rolled onto his back.
"I think I should be thanking you, baby. You do realize we just had sex outside?"

"We have a fence."

"It's a chain link fence, Shawn. It doesn't provide any privacy."

"Well then I guess we should get inside before the neighbors turn their hoses on us."

:::Week Four:::

Carlton stood at the sink next to Shawn. Their dishwasher had broken down and the new one was to be delivered in two days. Shawn was washing the dishes and he was rinsing and drying. He had never before felt so domestic in his life.

"So, Carly-town?"

"Shawn."

"You know, it's been a month. And if you look around the place, it's clean. Nothing has exploded or been set on fire in weeks."

Carlton wondered when Shawn was going to collect on all his hard work. 'The Puppy Project' was over.

"Sure." When he didn't add anything to his response, Shawn smacked him square in the chest with the sudsy sponge he had been using. Carlton grabbed it out of his hands and smacked Shawn back.

"Well, I called the shelter yesterday and the little guy is still there."

"Shawn."

"Lassie, before you go all 'Wall of No' on me, just hear me out."

Carlton was going to interject, but decided to hear his soon-to-be husband's plea.

"I know a puppy is a huge responsibility and that he'd need to feed, cleaned up after and exercised. When I'm not home, Incan take him with me to the 'Psych' office. When we are working a case, Mrs. Kinsey has offered to dog-sit. I already asked her."

Shawn's eyes focused on Lassiter while he continued.

"I have read about what is the best type of dog food and where the local dog parks are and what not to let dogs eat and play with. And I heard that no matter how fun it looks to watch, feeding a dog peanut butter is not nice to their tummies. Please, Lassie. Please, please, please?"

With each 'please', Shawn had stepped closer until, with the last one his hands were on Carlton's chest.

"Let me think about." He turned and walked down the hall towards their bedroom. He heard the water run in the sink and Shawn finished up the dishes. He had brought his phone with him and dialed a number."

"Martha? Hi, it's Carlton Lassiter. Yes. Yes, could you please bring him over? Thank you so very much."

Shawn wasn't the only one who had done some research on puppies during the weeks of 'The Puppy Project'. Carlton looked up what breed the puppy was that Shawn wanted, he found the links that Shawn had read about the right type of food and even found a guy who could train the dog to be a good guard dog. Carlton Lassiter was not going to have some slacked, soft dog. If he was going to adopt a puppy, he was going to make sure he turned out to be the best trained dog on the block.

The doorbell rang and Carlton walked down the hall, but stopped in the doorway. He watched Shawn open the door and gasp.

"Mrs. Kinsey? What? Oh, hello, sweet one."

Carlton's heart leaped into his throat and tears threatened to spill out of his eyes if he didn't take control of himself. The smile on Shawn's face lit up the entire room as Martha Kinsey handed the puppy to Shawn.

The puppy wriggled in Shawn's arms, so he quickly asked Mrs. Kinsey and her teenage son, Adam, inside so he could close the door. Once the door was closed, Shawn put the puppy on the floor. It instantly started sniffing the place.

"Carlton arranged for me to hold on to the puppy for you. He wanted to surprise you. I see it worked?"

Carlton stepped into the room, the puppy ran up to him and placed his paws on Carlton's pant leg. Carlton scooped him up and rubbed his ears

"Yes. Yes he did. Thank you for bringing him over. And Adam, I meant it when I said you can help me walk him and play with him."

Adam set down the food and water bowls and the bag of dog food. The exact brand that Shawn had researched.

"Thank you, Mr. Spencer. Mr. Lassiter? Are you still going to let me help train him?"

"You bet, Adam." Carlton nodded to Mrs. Kinsey."Thanks for watching him today."

"Well. We will let you two get to know your new puppy. Let's go, Adam. Bye you two."

Carlton closed and locked the door, puppy still on his arm, and turned back towards Shawn.

"Carly, how did you...? When did you?"
"I saw your notes about talking to Martha and I knew you would be asking about him. I heard the shelter's message they left after you called to check if he was still there. I knew he would be. I actually paid his adoption fee after your vacuum incident."

"What?"

"I figured that if you were willing to fight with the machine as much as you did in order to stick with your 'Project', that he really meant something to you. It reminded me of how much you fought to be be with me."

"Lassie." Shawn stepped as close to Carlton as he could without squishing the puppy and kissed his lips. "You old softie."

Shawn lifted the puppy out of Carlton's grasp and squished their faces together.

"I love you too, Shawn. But if you let that puppy kiss you on the mouth, you had better wash your face and brush your teeth before you kiss me."

:::END:::