Title: The Morning After (or, What Would Beyonce Pad Thai Do?)

Author: GageWhitney

Rating: T

Pairing: Danny/Mindy

Disclaimer: Very much not mine.

Summary: There is a bony elbow poking her in the ribs.

Note: First fic for this fandom, so I hope they're in character.

There is a bony elbow poking her in the ribs.

"Ugh, come on, dude," Mindy mumbles, shifting closer to the other side of the mattress.

The warm body attached to the elbow follows her, sliding an arm around her midsection and holding her close. For a minute, she allows herself to relax into the embrace, almost falling back to sleep – until she realizes she's being poked by something else.

"Really? Just let me slee – WAIT, WHAT THE HELL? WHO ARE YOU?"

She flips herself over and shoves blindly at the person in bed with her, resulting in a very groggy, very manly grumble from the lump under her covers. A swift kick to the shin, and the lump seems to wake up.

"Ow! Seriously?"

Oh, God. That voice. Mindy kicks again, more gently this time. "Please come out of there so I can see if you are who I think you are."

Danny Castellano pokes his sleep-mussed head out from under her comforter and squints in the harsh morning light. He blinks quickly, trying to adjust his vision. "Mindy?"

"Danny?! What the hell are you doing here?"

He pushes himself up a bit and looks around. "Where are we?"

"At my house, in my bed!" she shouts, and he grimaces at the volume she uses. "Where we are both naked and where you poked me with two different parts of your anatomy this morning!"

Danny groans as he sits all the way up, leaning heavily on one hand. He rubs at his eyes, and Mindy tries her best not to stare at his bare chest. She clutches the bed sheet tighter to herself.

"What time is it?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, do you have somewhere to be?"

He shrugs. "Not really. I was planning on hitting the gym this morning."

Mindy stares at him. "Are you not concerned about this at all?" she demands.

"I'm very concerned," he says in a groggy, not-very-concerned voice. He squints at her. "Do you maybe have some Advil or something before we get into this? Your voice is like a nail through my head right now."

"That's rude." She wraps herself in the sheet, leaving the comforter to Danny, and rises from the bed. "Just stay there, and maybe, like, put some pants on."

She comes back a minute later and throws the bottle of Advil at him, downing a couple herself. He dodges it and frowns, but pops the bottle and shakes a few out anyway. She hands him her water bottle and watches him take a long drink.

When he replaces the cap, she asks, "Are you ready to talk about this at a reasonable volume now?"

He grumbles again. "Do we have to?"

"Um, yes, we do," she says. "I mean, I don't remember all the details, but it's pretty obvious what happened here last night."

"Sex?" he croaks.

"Duh."

He blows out a breath. "Well, I remember we were at Shauna's party."

"Yes."

"You were ordering those stupid fruity-tuity girly," he waves his hand at her, "...whatever, drinks."

She rolls her eyes. "Malibu Bay Breeze, and they're delicious, by the way."

He pulls a face. "They put those little paper umbrellas in them."

"The umbrellas are the best part, Danny!"

"Yeah, whatever."

She gestures at him. "I remember that you were drinking your gross, weird, old man drink."

"What, an old fashioned? That's manly," he tells her. He squares his shoulders as he says, "That's what men drink."

"Yeah, during Prohibition, maybe. In a speakeasy."

"Maybe if you tried one –"

She throws up the hand not holding onto the bed sheet. "Okay, fine, whatever!" She sighs. "Ugh. How drunk were we last night? I can barely remember anything after Morgan twisted his ankle trying to do the Gangnam Style dance."

"I think that was the tipping point."

"Yeah." She nods. "That makes sense actually."

Danny's quiet for a long moment, racking his brain, while she does the same. Finally, he comes up with, "You were wearing a purple dress, right? With, like, little sparkly things on your boobs?"

Her eyes light up a bit. "Yes! I got it on Bluefly, like, six months ago, and I was totally psyched to finally have somewhere to wear it."

"You looked nice." He cracks a crooked grin and adds, "I remember you weren't wearing a bra with it."

Her mouth falls open a little. "Danny!" She reaches over and smacks his bare arm.

"What? I'm just saying, I liked the dress," he shrugs. "It was… sexy."

She hides a smile behind her hand. "Thanks." A beat, and then, "Um, what was that cologne you had on?"

"Tom Ford."

"Well, I will say that I remember liking the way you smelled last night," she admits. She bites nervously at her thumbnail.

He nods. "My mom got it for me for Christmas."

"Oh, that's – okay."

It's awkward to just stare at each other, so Mindy starts picking at a stray thread on her blanket. She glances up after a few moments to see Danny staring at her.

"What?"

"Nothing," he says. "Just thinking." He smiles widely.

She smacks him again. "Ew, stop it."

He laughs. "What?"

"Don't be gross." Smack.

"I'm not being gross!"

"Whatever." She rubs her forehead. "Okay, so, like… what do we do about this?"

Danny groans. "Why do we have to do anything about this?"

"Because we work together, and we're friends, kind of?"

"Okay, but… we don't have to make a big deal out of it. You're single, I'm single. From what I remember, I think we both enjoyed it. Actually…" The crooked grin comes back. "I think you enjoyed it a few times."

"Oh my GOD." She picks up the pillow nearest to her. "Can you smother me with this, please?"

He rolls his eyes. "Look, I'm just saying. We can either freak out and let it destroy our lives and the practice, or we can just chalk it up to a drunken hookup between colleagues and never talk about it again."

"Oh, so you want to just pretend it never happened?"

"What? I thought that's what you'd want."

"I'm not saying we have to, like, Eternal Sunshine it out of our heads, like it was so horrible for you," she says. "Geez."

He eyes her, trying to size up her reaction. "You want to do it again."

"WHAT?"

"You heard me."

She holds up a hand. "Um, excuse me. If anyone wants to do it again, it is you."

"I'll do whatever you want, babe." He gives her a cocky grin.

"Don't call me that, Castel-lame-o." She flings the pillow at him.

He deflects it with his forearm and places it in his lap. "It's okay to admit you liked it."

"YOU liked it." She leans in and pokes her finger into his chest. "I rocked your world last night, man. Not the other way around."

"You sure about that?"

"My memory is a little hazy, but I seem to recall a lot of weird faces and noises coming from you – like, weirder than your usual self, I mean – so unless you want to tell me you faked it…"

He shrugs. "Maybe I did. Guys can fake it."

"Oh, you were so into it. Believe me," she says. She smiles at him. "I know from faking it."

He narrows his eyes.

"Do you know how many times I've seen When Harry Met Sally? Think about that, huh?"

She pokes him again, harder, and Danny grabs her hand away, holding it firmly in his own. He watches her intently, and Mindy just stares back, waiting for his next move.

Finally, she opens her mouth to speak, but he tugs her forward, and suddenly they're practically nose-to-nose. Her hold on the sheet loosens enough for it to begin slipping down her chest.

"Danny?"

He leans in a bit closer, his breath warm on her skin. His eyes flick down to her lips, and she feels her heart rate speed up, her eyes slipping shut in anticipation.

His mouth is brushing hers, centimeters away, when he asks, "You have anything to eat?"

Her eyes flutter open. "What?"

"I'm hungry. Are you hungry?"

"Uh… yeah," she says shakily. They're still face-to-face, and she has to look up at him through her eyelashes. "Um, I think I have some cereal and Eggo waffles."

He nods and moves away from her before scooting himself off the bed. "Don't get up," he says, waving her off. "I'll be right back."

He doesn't bother to put on pants. She watches him walk away with her bottom lip between her teeth.

"Okay, come on," she says to herself. She exhales. "Think. What would Beyonce Pad Thai do in this situation?"

Mindy breathes in and out deeply to calm herself and considers her options – and then she lays back down, flips the sheet off her body, and waits, wearing nothing but a grin.

"Bring it on, Castellano."