"Is there any chance you gonna to stop that bouncing around SOME time today?" asked Deaq. He didn't exactly sound irritated, but Van's extra fidgeting was starting to grate on his nerves.

From the moment he had woken up that morning, Van had been very revved up. He had finally checked out of his hotel the night before and moved into Deaq's house. While Deaq was also excited (and maybe just a tad apprehensive) about the change he certainly wasn't as obvious in his actions.

"Hey, I'm sorry, dude. I guess I must be getting right on your last nerve, huh?" The last thing Van wanted to do was make Deaq regret asking him to move in and, considering the less than impressed look on his partner's face, Van figured he screwed up on that one. At least he hadn't compromised the case, but he'd come close.

About half an hour ago Van and Deaq had been setting up a buy for next week with a drug smuggler named Donnie. They were there to make plans to purchase 3 million dollars worth of coke. The case had required a significant amount of preparation, most of which had been done by Billie. The actual meeting had been almost casual, as their target hadn't had any reason to suspect they were cops. It probably would all have been fine if it hadn't been for Van's inability to act relaxed.

Thirty Minutes Ago

"What's your problem, man? You lookin' all nervous bouncing around like that," Donnie said.

Only then noticing that he'd been bouncing both knees and squirming around, Van replied, "My bad, man."

"Yeah, he's just had too much coffee," added Deaq. He didn't like the suspicious look Donnie was now giving Van.

"Really?" he sounded totally unconvinced. "`Cause, see I don't think that's it. I don't buy that too much caffeine's causing this," he said looking right at Van. "Damn, you look like a rookie undercover cop bouncin' all nervous like that."

Deaq and Van felt their hearts nearly stop.

"Okay, not that nervous until now," Donnie finished seriously seeing his two new business associates freeze up. Then he burst out laughing. "Common, relax. I'm kidding. What? You think I'm gonna have my guys blow you away for bein' nervous? `Cause you two sure as hell aren't no cops."

"That's for damn sure," Deaq said forcing out what he hoped sounded like a casual laugh. "Ain't no pigs with a sweet ride like that." Deaq jerked his thumb towards their very expensive wheels de jour. The car was visible through the wrought iron fence, out on the driveway.

"Yeah, that too. What I meant was no cop's got a reference list like you two. Aquarius said he seen you get over 25% street value on three shipments before. That's damn good."

"What can I say? We ARE the best," Van said grinning. "Seriously, man, I'm real sorry if I seem nervous. It's just that this is a bit larger volume than we usually deal with. But no worries, we can handle it."

"You wouldn't be here if I didn't know you could handle it," Donnie said, again serious. "Just make sure you can handle your little fun on the side. Don't want that coming back to cause problems for me."

"What?" Van asked. He wasn't sure what the guy was referring to. He wondered if somehow Donnie had figured out what was between him and Deaq.

"Coffee, right?" said Donnie with a wink. He then rubbed his nose in what was supposed to be a subtle way but really was obvious in it's meaning.

Back in the car after the meet:

Van finally stopped fidgeting and let out a sigh, "I can't believe I nearly messed everything up."

"It's a'ight. Actually him thinkin' you like to sample the product isn't all bad. Hey, just makes him more sure we not cops."

"Yeah, but, we could have done without his-"

"Just stop. A'ight? I get it. You think you fucked up. But what did I just say? It's no big deal. So just stop."

"Fine," said Van. He crossed his arms and stared out the window. Now, rather than fidgeting, around he was sitting stiffly in his seat.

Deaq glanced over and saw Van was not only all tensed up, he was also grinding his teeth a bit. He had thought before that Van just clenched his jaw sometimes when pissed or stressed but he'd come to notice that it was actually him grinding his teeth.

`Better fix this before we meet Billie,' thought Deaq. He checked his watch and since they had some time to kill he decided to pull the car into a lot.

"Where are you going? There's like nothing down here," Van said when Deaq pulled into an empty lot.

"Really? Well I better check, just to be sure," Deaq said putting the car into park in the empty lot. He reached over and started undoing Van's jeans.

"Deaq, man, this isn't a good time, okay? You know what? We gotta meet Billie and, uh, oh, yeah, fuck yeah." Van pretty quickly stopped
his objections as Deaq's hand grasped him.

Deaq gently stroked Van's erect cock which obviously had less objection to the impromptu detour than his mind did. He leaned over and quickly engulfed it in his warm mouth.

Van had been relaxing into what he assumed was going to be a hand job. He'd just closed his eyes and leaned back into the firm leather seat when Deaq caught him totally by surprise. He let out a long groan as he felt Deaq slowly work his mouth up and down the length of his shaft. Deaq wasn't in any big hurry, as he knew they still had plenty of time before their meeting with Billie. The point of this was to get Van to relax. Deaq knew he could have talked it out but this way was more time efficient.

`TIME EFFICIENT? You really look at sex as a more time efficient way to deal with Van problems?' Deaq asked himself. `Yeah, but that's not the best reason for doing this.'

He heard Van let out another drawn out groan. It was the most beautiful sound he'd heard in quite a while. He reached one hand up under Van's tee shirt and rubbed his stomach and lower chest. While Van had never told him about it Deaq had discovered some time ago that Van really liked having his stomach rubbed when he was tense and stressed out.

After several minutes Deaq stepped up his actions and began to really suck in earnest. He soon felt Van tense up beneath him then heard him groan softly as he came. Deaq continued to suck and clean him off. When he was finished he sat back up and moved back to sit in his seat. He noticed that they were now definitely going to be late, having taken much longer than he had originally figured. He glanced over to see Van looking back at him, muscles limp and eyes half lidded. It was the blissed-out grin on Van's face that really won Deaq over. `Screw time efficient. THAT'S why.'

Deaq quickly put his seatbelt back on and headed for the Candy Store.

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

After a few minutes Van pulled himself out of his stupor. When he spoke even his speech was relaxed and slowed down, well slow for Van anyway. "That was great. Did you do that just to get me relaxed?" Van figured he knew what Deaq had been trying to do. At first he'd thought maybe Deaq was just trying to show that he really wasn't pissed about the meeting. He knew that Deaq was right. It really wasn't a big deal. Still, he had been really angry with himself for not focusing on the job. He'd stupidly put them both in danger. But just when he was well on his way to mentally berating himself, Deaq had totally made him forget about his mistake that morning. When he felt Deaq gently rubbing his stomach as he sucked him Van knew it was probably more about comfort than sex.

"JUST to get you relaxed? Right, `cause there's no other reason for doing it," Deaq said, voice full of amused sarcasm. "Not like I got anything out of that, right?"

"Okay, fine. You're right, but seriously, thanks. You always know just what I need."

"Not too tough since you pretty much always need a blow job from me," Deaq said still amused.

"That's `cause I'm pretty much always WITH you, genius. Just about the only time I don't think about us getting it on is when we're working." Turning more serious Van continued, "And look how that turned out. I couldn't keep my mind on task this morning."

"What, you were thinking about us havin' sex during the meetin' with Donnie? That's why you were so jittery?" Deaq had pegged Van's extra fidgeting as nervous energy, not sexual tension.

"No. I was just ... I don't know. I was thinking about us and living together and stuff. I mean it was so cool this morning, waking up with you right there. I know we've spent the night together like a gazillion times before but it was different. It was like I belonged there, like you-you really wanted me there."

"Baby, I always wanted you there," Deaq said to reassure Van.

"But this was different. I-I just don't want you to regret it, lettin' me move in. I just feel like for once I've got this real family thing going. You, me, a house. I know I sound retarded but it's what I've always wanted. It's just, you know, stable or something."

"And that's what it's gonna be. We're stable, nothing gonna cause a problem. Not you, not me, not even the job. You got it?"

"Yeah," Van replied. He wasn't at all convinced and his tone reflected that.

They drove on in silence for a few moments. Deaq started to feel a little trapped in the oppressive mood that had fallen over them.

"So," he began lightly. "You really think about us gettin' in on that much?"

"Uh, yeah. But don't worry man. It's like once we're working I just sort of put it on hold, you know?"

"I get it. I do that too."

"`Cept for this morning. Man, I really screwed up."

"Van," Deaq's voice sounded commanding. "Will ya let that go already? Lookit, it doesn't matter. Hell, I've seen you get distracted before when we in meetins."

Deaq turned his head away from the road to give Van a look. He saw Van's staring back at him quizzically.

"Etoby, for example."

"Okay, yeah, but this is different."

"How?"

"Cause this is something ... I," Van sighed. "I just don't want you thinking that I'm gonna screw up when we're working just because we're living together."

"I'm not worried about that. `Sides, I've seen you wound up before. It's just that Donnie noticed. No big. No harm no foul, you get what I'm sayin'?"

"So you're really not mad then?"

"No, but if you keep askin' I just might get that way."

"Alright, alright I'll drop it."

They drove in silence for a while. Van finally couldn't take the quiet any longer.

"So, do you think about us? Like when we're not at work and stuff?"

Deaq thought about it for a few moments before responding, "Sometimes."

"Only sometimes?" Van sounded very disappointed.

"Okay, so pretty much all the time when we aren't together," Deaq admitted.

"Like when?" Van asked. He could see that Deaq was starting to feel embarrassed about admitting how much he thought about them together. While he'd never see Deaq blush, Van was very good at picking up on Deaq's non-verbal signals. Right now he could tell that Deaq was a bit uncomfortable. Van just couldn't resist pushing him a little. After all, he knew when to stop before Deaq was really embarrassed.

"In the supermarket for one place."

"The supermarket?!?" That was not what Van had expected. He wasn't thinking Deaq was going to spout poetry to him about how clouds or flowers reminded him of them together but the supermarket was still not the answer he expected. "What, you see some big zucchini or cucumber and it reminds you of me?" Van asked, grinning ear to ear.

"Now you makin' me feel all stupid for sayin' anything," Deaq said. He tried to make it sound like he was offended but only managed to come off as cranky and petulant. This made Van burst out into laughter.

When he had finally calmed down a bit and could breathe enough to speak without giggling, Van said, "I'm sorry, dude. I-I just, you look so funny when you do that."

"Do what?" Deaq asked. He wasn't really angry with Van but he was trying his best to show that he was not amused by the other man's teasing.

"That thing, with your lip, all pouting and stuff," Van laughed again. "It-it's just it looks so funny on you."

"Well I'm glad I amuse you," Deaq said. "That's real nice by the way. Askin' me a question like that then yucking it up when I tell ya' the truth."

"I figured you'd say you thought about us in the shower or something not when you're waiting at the checkout between the little old lady buying twenty five cans of cat food and the soccer Mom with three crying babies."

"Yeah, well maybe when I see the tabloids with the three-headed-monkey-space-baby as the headline it makes me think of you!" Deaq had long since given up the offended act. He didn't sound at all serious now, just really sarcastic.

"Gee, it's nice to be loved," Van said smiling broadly.

"You're a freak, you know that?"

"Yeah, but I'm YOUR freak," Van said. Deaq could swear it actually sounded like Van had said that with pride.

Go to: Part 2 - Spicy

~~~~~*~~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~