Chapter Text
It’s Burgess who suggests it, because if you give her too many shots of tequila she turns into a giggling twelve-year-old.
“Truth or dare,” she says, and the smile on her face is so broad and disarming that it actually makes Erin want to take the alcohol away, because Burgess looks far too young to be drinking.
“I am absolutely not playing truth or dare,” Erin warns.
“You have to!” Burgess crows. She’s literally swaying in her seat. Someone has got to cut her off.
“Babe,” Ruzek says. “Careful.” He takes another swig of his beer and drapes an arm across Burgess’ shoulders.
“It might be fun,” Jay points out.
Erin glares at him. “This is ridiculous. We’re all drunk anyway-”
“But that’s when it’s fun!” Burgess interrupts. She points at Atwater. “Kevin. Come on. You want to play.”
Atwater is practically squirming in his seat. He’s had less to drink than the rest of them, which is probably why he looks so uncomfortable as he says, “Uh, I don’t know…”
“I’ll start,” Burgess announces. She is impossible to deter from her mission. “Adam. Truth. Who’s your favourite person?” She makes eyes at him when she says it, so it’s pretty obvious who he’s going to choose.
“Definitely you, babe,” Ruzek says, and the two of them lean towards each other and start kissing. It’s actually incredibly obnoxious.
Antonio arrives in the middle of the display. “What did I miss?”
“Truth or dare,” Jay explains helpfully.
Erin leans towards Antonio and mutters, “Get me out of here.”
He laughs. “No way. I want to watch this.” He settles himself on a seat and twists the lid off his beer.
“Okay, okay,” Ruzek says, stopping his blatant public display of affection to turn back towards the rest of them. “Atwater, man, I think I dare you to chug the rest of that cider.”
Atwater’s glass is half-full. It doesn’t seem particularly impressive to Erin, which is probably why Atwater looks so relieved. He can do the dare without disappointing the drunk power couple over in the corner. Erin thinks she preferred it when Burgess and Ruzek were pretending not to like each other.
“Burgess, why don’t you take a truth?” Antonio suggests. “How much have you had to drink tonight?”
“Come on, man, that’s a lame question,” Ruzek protests.
“It was a lot,” Burgess grins. “Hey, hey, I’ve got one! Halstead, I dare you to kiss your partner. No, wait, I double dare you, and I’ll kiss Adam!” She goes for it.
Jay, on the other hand, hesitates. He turns towards Erin and awkwardly says, “Well, in the spirit of the game…?”
“No way,” she snaps. “This is ridiculous. Why are we even playing this game?”
Honestly, there’s a part of her that's spent a lot of time wishing Jay would be brave enough to kiss her - without the added bonus of alcohol and peer pressure, that is. Another part of her thinks that maybe she should just take her chance and plant one on him. The rest of Erin – everything which isn’t alcohol-addled – is telling her that this is a bad situation; she should call it quits and get out now, before something happens that she’ll regret.
It’s a shame that Erin’s never been good at listening to herself.
“It’s just a dare,” Jay says. “Are you scared?”
Damn, he’s good at pressing her buttons. “No, I’m not scared. I’m just not drunk enough to act like an idiot yet.”
“You might like it.” Is he leaning in?
“I wouldn’t,” Erin assures him. The rest of the table has faded into background noise, although she’s pretty sure that Antonio has just taken Burgess’ drink away from her.
“How do you know if you don’t try?” Jay questions.
“Are you using toddler-eat-your-vegetables-logic on me?”
“Is it working?”
“I don’t know, but it’s definitely not sexy.”
Burgess knocks Antonio’s beer over and laughs hysterically as alcohol foams across the table. Even that noise can’t deter Jay from his stupid kissing mission.
“We both know you think I’m sexy.”
“I don’t think you’re sexy,” Erin tells him. “I think firemen are sexy.”
“Firemen… and me.”
“You are so wrong right now.”
“Am I wrong? Or am I sexy?”
Atwater and Ruzek struggle to haul Burgess to her feet. Erin doesn’t know if she’s actually too drunk to walk properly or just can't be bothered trying, but the guys are practically carrying her out of there.
“We’re going to get a cab!” Ruzek hollers as they head for the door.
“Admit it,” Erin says, “this has nothing to do with truth or dare.”
“Are you sure?” Jay asks her.
“Guys,” Antonio says, “did you hear me say I’m leaving?”
They don’t answer him, but he leaves anyway.
“You just want to kiss me,” Erin says.
“Would it be so bad if I did?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you just do it, if you want to?”
“Because I’m honestly afraid you’ll slap me,” Jay admits.
They’ve been making eye contact for a really long time. It’s starting to get weird. Slowly, without looking away, Erin shakes her head.
“I wouldn’t,” she tells him.
“That’s lucky,” Jay says. He’s not moving. Damnit, why won’t he move?
Erin’s had enough. This is pointless, and it's late, and she's tired. She slides forward off her stool and at the same time, Jay ducks down and catches the back of her head with his hand. Their lips meet. Involuntarily, Erin closes her eyes, but her head is tilted up at just the right angle so that one of the hanging lights over the bar shines through her eyelids. It’s bright, which might be metaphorical, or something, because this is a damn good kiss. It feels kind of stupid even when she thinks it, but hey, Erin’s drunk. She doesn’t need to think clearly, right?
Jay pulls back. “There,” he says. “I kissed you.”
“Great,” Erin mumbles, and tries to look like it wasn’t a big deal. “I think you won truth or dare.”
“Yeah,” Jay agrees. “Too bad everyone else has gone home.”
“We’d better go too,” Erin says, and then she realises what that sounded like. “I mean, I’d better go. To my home. And you can go to your home.”
“Okay,” he agrees.
“Okay,” Erin nods.
A couple of seconds pass before either of them actually turns to leave. Erin doesn’t realise that Jay’s hand is still on her waist until it slides away and he takes several steps back from her.
“Bye,” he says.
Erin’s head is starting to pound. “Bye,” she returns, and then she walks away from her partner and doesn’t look back.
Damn, she’s going to be embarrassed about this tomorrow.