"You're late." Billie was not impressed. "Was there a problem setting up the meet?"

"No problem," Van said quickly. He hoped Billie wouldn't figure he was lying.

She nodded and said, "Okay, good. So is everything set then?" She noticed the look on Deaq's face. He was bursting to say something and just barely keeping it in. It struck her as funny because this was usually Van's look when he tried in vain to keep quiet. "Deaq? Problem?"

"Nope, except Donnie thinks Van's a coke head," he couldn't stop himself from laughing.

"Oh my God, dude. It was no big deal. You told me it didn't matter."

Deaq kept laughing. Billie wondered what they were going on about but decided rather than ask she'd just let this one go.

"Just knock it off! You're such a jackass, man." To a stranger Van might have sounded mad, but both Deaq and Billie knew he wasn't angry in the least.

"Okay, BOYS," Billie interrupted, overemphasizing the term. "Was the meet compromised?"

"Naw, `s all good. No damage," Deaq said.

"Then maybe it shouldn't be brought up again, huh?" Van said. He had decided to let the mistake go and he realized that Deaq was just ribbing him, not blaming him.

"I want to go over the plans for the meet, but that can wait until Monday. So ..." Billie left a dramatic pause. "You're both done for the weekend. Go! Get out and do whatever it is you do to waste time when you're not here."

Van and Deaq just stared at each other wearing matching looks of confusion.

"Wait a minute. Are you saying we have the next two days off?" Van asked, totally shocked.

"Yeah, go. Be irresponsible."

After waiting all of half a second, Van and Deaq tore out of the office whooping and shouting all the way.

Billie just shook her head and grinned.

*************

"But you do get the irony here, right?" asked Deaq.

Van was driving slowly through the heavy traffic. He had pictured them cruising down the freeway, wind in their hair, no cares for the next couple days. Unfortunately, reality had reared its ugly head and they were stuck in a slow moving traffic jam thanks to some sewer construction. Van was thinking how he'd just about give his left nut for a party light right about now. Not that it would have done much good since traffic was nearly gridlocked going both ways.

Van sucked in a deep breath which smelled like it contained more gasoline fumes than oxygen. "Not lost on me. I get it. She tells us to be irresponsible for like the first time ever AND gives us two days off for DEFINITELY the first time and here we are, stuck."

"Not just that. We not headed home."

"And when were you planning to tell me this? Probably a good idea to let the driver know these things." Van sighed and continued, "Where do you want to go?"

*****************

After about half an hour they had finally cleared the traffic jam and made it to their destination. Walking toward the glass doors Deaq began, "You are about to embark on the most boring of all errands. The time sucking, emasculating, irritating activity known as grocery shopping."

Van had to try very hard not to laugh out loud. Deaq was dead serious and sounded so much more formal than usual. He knew Deaq really had a strong aversion to shopping in general and to grocery shopping in particular. As it was Deaq had put off this trip for the last few days and they'd been living off take-out.

Van, on the other hand, had been looking forward to this since Deaq had mentioned it. There was something so real and down to earth about it. Sometimes their lives were so wild Van felt as if they were living in some kind of big budget action movie. Having a real home and lover were exactly the grounding things he wanted in his life to balance it all out.

"I don't see why you think it's so bad," Van said.

"Oh you just wait. When we leave you won't be sayin' that," Deaq said sounding very ominous.

"Deaq, man, we've gone into a lot of seriously bad situations before. This isn't that big a deal. Come on it'll be fun."

"Oh, you think it'll be fun? Then here," Deaq pushed a shopping cart to Van. "You push this rickety hunk of junk."

Van grabbed the wobbly cart and they headed into the store. The cart pulled fiercely to the right and Van felt like he was spending more energy keeping it straight than pushing it forward. He started thinking about how you could fix the wheels so that wouldn't happen.

"Okay, here's the plan: We go down each aisle only once, so grab what you think we need when you see it `cause we ain't going back for anything. Got it? We do this as quickly as possible. In and out fast as we can. Don't drag this out."

"Whoa! Glad this is your plan of action for shopping and not your bedroom attitude!" Van laughed steering the unruly cart to the produce area. Van casually picked up the longest cucumber he could find and he pretended to look it over. He ran one hand up and down the length then rubbed at the end suggestively. Deaq grabbed the veggie from Van's hands and tossed it back into the pile as if he hadn't even noticed the suggestive display.

"Hey!" Van said surprised.

"We have some at home still. Now go grab some lettuce," Deaq said not amused in the least.

`Damn, friggin' lettuce. I can't make that sexy at all. Plus that little trick didn't seem to help any. Hmm, okay time to try another tactic,' Van thought. He looked around and noticed the store was not particularly busy.

Van grabbed a head of lettuce and dropped it into the cart. He then moved to stand right behind Deaq where he was picking out some veggies. Van raised up onto the balls of his feet to give himself that little extra height to make him level with Deaq. He leaned close, wrapped his arms around Deaq's middle and swiped his tongue up the side of his neck.

"Mmm," Deaq moaned out. He couldn't help but grind his ass back against Van's crotch. "Van, much as I'd like have a bit of fun right now something tells me the staff wouldn't be too happy with us screwing in the produce department."

Van backed up, but as Deaq took over pushing the cart he slipped his hand into Deaq's. He would rather have put his arm around Deaq's waist as they walked but there was no point in drawing that kind of attention. Van knew he'd probably earn them a few nasty looks just by holding hands.

"Before we came in I should have returned the favor you gave me this morning. I've left you hanging all day," Van said now realizing why Deaq had been so easily turned on when he'd rubbed against him.

"Didn't think it was an option. We were late and with the way you'd been grindin' your teeth I figured your jaw was probably not gonna open that wide."

Dropping Deaq's hand, Van began to protest, "Okay first, I don't grind my teeth. I just clench my jaw ... a little bit ... once in a while. And second, couldn't open that wide? Ego much?"

"But you know I ain't wrong," Deaq replied tossing a loaf of bread into the cart.

"True. That's why I stay around," Van said teasing.

Deaq stopped the cart, gave Van a mock serious look and said, "You only love me because of my cock?"

Of course as life would have it an elderly lady chose that exact moment to reach behind Deaq for a jar on the shelf he was standing by. On catching part of their conversation she swung her heavy handbag and whapped an unsuspecting Deaq on the back of the head.

"You watch your mouth in public young man! What would your mother say? I should call the police!" she chastised, then walked off down the aisle.

Deaq stood there watching the old lady walk away down the aisle. His eyes were bulging out of their sockets and he just stared, dumbfounded. Van, on the other hand was busy braying like a donkey, laughing so hard he was nearly doubled over.

"Why you gotta do that? Huh?" Deaq said as Van continued laughing. He resumed pushing the cart. Talking quietly as if to himself Deaq continued, "God damn hyena. Way to protect your partner, stupid little-"

Van, who had just finished his laughing fit, heard Deaq's comment and interrupted him. "What, did you want me to take her out? You feelin' threatened by a senior citizen with a plastic hip?"

Deaq was a few paces ahead and he continued to toss items from the shelves into the cart. He ignored Van, intent on finishing up as quickly as possible and hopefully without any more customers attacking him. He heard Van hurrying to catch up with him.

Van fell into step beside Deaq. "Look, man, you want me to go straighten her out? I saw her go down that way."

Deaq stopped to look at Van. "No, I don't. This is just another fine example of why I HATE shopping."

"Oh come on, dude. It's not THAT bad. On an average day at work you get attacked by much bigger, scarier people, right?" Van said. He grabbed a couple things and dropped them into the cart. "Seriously, do you think I should go warn that old bat not to go hitting people like that? I mean what if she does that to some gang-banger or nut- job?"

"Maybe you right. But somehow I don't think she'd take you too seriously."

"What? I can be serious," Van said. He was standing there with a bag of Oreos in one hand and a jar of cheese whiz in the other. The food, combined with his bright green and teal leopard print shirt, jeans with the knees ripped out and sneakers, didn't really make Van look very serious or official.

"I know you can be serious, despite the fact that you've used this whole day to laugh at me." He gave Van a look then continued. "But somehow I don't think she'd buy that you really Officer Ray, not dressed in that shirt anyway."

Van looked down at his shirt. He had thought it was really nice, if a little flashy. "Yeah, I guess not. Let's just hope she doesn't go hitting the wrong person with her bag."

Rounding the corner to the last aisle, Van and Deaq found a young man with crazed eyes holding the old lady hostage. He had her pulled against him as a human shield and held a handgun to her head.

"Well," Van said quietly to Deaq. "At least you can't say this trip was boring."

****************************

"Okay, but that doesn't explain the salsa." Billie said.

She had received a call that her guys were mixed up in a situation in a grocery store. When she got there the suspect was being carted off under guard in an ambulance with non-life threatening injuries. She found Deaq seated on the sidewalk curb out front of the store with a big white bandage on his forehead. Also, he was covered in what looked like soup and had an expression on his face that was not too impressed.

Billie flashed her badge and ducked under the plastic tape. "Deaq?" she asked in a concerned voice. "Are you alright? Where's Van? Is he okay?" Now that she was closer she could smell it was half dried salsa that covered Deaq's shirt and hair.

Deaq looked up at her, not bothering to stand up. "I HATE grocery shopping," he said. Deaq jerked his thumb to a group of people behind him. "Van's over there."

"Just stay here, okay?" Billie said as she headed over to talk to Van. She found him finishing up a conversation with one of the uniformed officers. Billie interrupted, "Van? What happened? What's wrong with Deaq?"

Van and Billie walked a bit away from the people. Van kept his eye on Deaq as he spoke to Billie. "We ran into a little situation. Everything's fine. Deaq's just pissed off, but didn't get hit all that hard."

Van quickly told Billie what had happened. They had successfully disarmed the guy without the old lady, or any of the other customers, being hurt.

"Okay, but that doesn't explain the salsa," Billie said.

Van told her the rest of the story. Unfortunately, the guy had been high on something and it had taken both of them to get him under control. During the scuffle the guy had grabbed a big jar of salsa and broken it over Deaq's head cutting him and covering him in the dip. Van then shot the guy in the leg. He had hoped to take him down without firing his weapon but that was just not going to happen. In the end the guy was carted off to the hospital en route to jail and Deaq had received a cut on his forehead and a bath in fermented tomatoes.

"So Deaq's alright then?"

"Oh, yeah he'll be fine. The EMT's took a look at his head and it didn't need stitches. We're gonna have to toss that shirt though."

"Take him home," Billie instructed. "Can't you two do anything without causing a shoot out?"

"One shot does not equal a shoot out. `Sides we took care of it and the old lady got out just fine."

"She'll be too scared to grocery shopping ever again I bet," Billie said spotting the elderly woman who was talking to a couple of officers.

"Oh, she's a fiesty one. I had a talk with her. But she won't have to go shopping again, I talked to the owner."

"Whatever. Just, please, can you guys just stay out of trouble for the weekend? I don't want to have to come to any more crime scenes for the next couple of days."

"Why? You got a hot date?"

Billie didn't answer but instead headed back over to where Deaq was still seated.

********************

Van drove them home and Deaq sat in the passenger's seat looking grumpy with his salsa covered shirt sticking to him.

"Hey, I think Billie's got a hot date and that's why she gave us the weekend off," Van said. He hoped to get Deaq's mind off the disastrous shopping trip.

Deaq spoke slowly, enunciating his words more clearly than he normally did. "I am never going grocery shopping again. Ever."

"You don't have to, it's taken care of."

"How's that?"

"Well the store owner was talking to Beatrice, that's the old lady, and he told her he'd have someone deliver whatever she needed from now on. So I asked him if he'd do that for us too." Van waited for a response and not getting one he continued, "He said it was the least he could do for us. That guy was really nice. He told me to tell you thanks since you were, uh, waitin' outside."

Deaq sighed. He looked out the window for a moment watching the world speeding by. "Good, so I never have to go shopping again."

"Never."

"Good."

"Except for tomorrow."

"No. Hell no!"

"Common man, you said you'd help me pick out a new playpen." Van had accidentally broken the playpen that Deaq's sister Cherise had brought over.

"No."

"Well, who am I supposed to get to help me now?"

"Ask Billie," Deaq said, not being serious.

**************

Once they were in the house Van steered the still cranky Deaq towards the shower. He pulled off the bandage on Deaq's forehead.

"This isn't too bad," Van said as he recovered it with a clear waterproof bandage. "They cleaned it really well - no bits of tomatoes or peppers in it. Now your hair, that's another story." Van pulled Deaq's salsa covered shirt off. Deaq actually looked funnier standing there shirtless, scowling and with bits of spicy vegetables still caught in his short hair. Van quickly stripped down as Deaq did the same and they got into the steamy shower.

Feeling the hot spray hit his body, Deaq felt his anger and tension being washed away along with the salsa. "I know I've been a bastard all afternoon."

"Not that bad. Besides, if you had to put up with me acting like a stupid spazz this morning it all evens out, right?" Van grabbed the soap and began to lather up Deaq's chest and shoulders, massaging lightly at the same time.

"Mmmmm," Deaq groaned out. "Have I told you yet today how happy I am havin' you living here with me?"

Van leaned into Deaq's chest and trailed his tongue down the wet skin. He started at Deaq's throat and continued down his chest, past his belly button coming to stop just above where the hair started. He paused to look up at Deaq, water raining down on both of them. In answer to Deaq's question he said, "Not `till now and I'm happy with it too."

With that Van took Deaq's cock into his mouth and started sucking full force. His cheeks hollowed as he grabbed the backs of Deaq's thighs to pull the man tightly against him. Deaq braced his hands against the shower walls and just barely resisted the urge to call Van his little Hoover.

As Van sucked he thought about what Deaq had said. He'd told him that he was happy about him moving in. What's more he said it unprompted so Van figured it wasn't Deaq just telling him what he wanted to hear to reassure him. For Van that's what made it so great, it was totally unexpected right then. He'd have to think of something nice and unexpected to do for Deaq later.

Knowing that Deaq was getting close Van relaxed his throat. He pulled Deaq against him harder on each stroke. Deaq threw his head back into the shower spray and began to thrust into Van's throat quickly and jerkily as he came. He continued for a few more thrusts before he stopped and Van pulled back, letting Deaq's now spent cock slide from his mouth.

As Van grabbed the soap and began quickly cleaning them off Deaq leaned against the wall. "You gonna do that every time I mention that I like having you live with me?"

Van reached around Deaq and shut off the water. "Do I look like a drooling dog?"

"Well you do get that wounded puppy look when you all upset `bout something."

"I do not!" Van said indignantly. He knew it was, unfortunately, true.

*******************

After dinner (groceries having been delivered and free of charge) Van offered to clean up and Deaq took him up on the offer. Van did the dishes in record time. He needed them out of the way as quickly as possible. He began pulling a select few items out of the cupboard and refrigerator.

"Yup, this is gonna work great," he said, putting is plan in motion.

Five minutes later Van called for Deaq to come into the kitchen.

Go to: Part 3 - Playing

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