Fandom:	Houston Knights
Series:	Other Stories
Rating:	NC17
Pairing:	Joe/Levon
Archive:	Starwinder's
Title:	Birthday Blues/I>
Author:	Starwinder
e-mail:	starwinder2of7@gmail.com
Standard Disclaimer: Houston Knights belongs to Jay Bernstein and Michael Butler and Columbia Pictures. No copyright infringement is intended. This is fan fiction, written out of love for the shows. I am making no money off this. I have no money so please don't sue me. Any original characters who may appear in these stories are the property of the author.

Birthday Blues
By Starwinder

"You wanna talk about it, LaFiamma?" I regarded my partner over the plate of ribs I'd been eating.

We were at Chicken's, had been for over an hour. LaFiamma wasn't eating, just pushing his food around on the plate, picking at it. Same as he'd been doing at every meal, that he'd shared with me, for nearly a week now and with the case load we had at the moment that meant almost every meal he'd eaten in the last week. I was starting to get worried about him. He'd lost weight. He looked about ten pounds lighter than a week before, maybe more. His cheeks were hollowed, his face thinner than usual, his eyes dull.

He looked up at me and raised an eyebrow in question, "Talk about what, Lundy?" He asked innocently.

I shook my head, "About whatever it is that has you treating Chicken's good food, which by the way he made special for you, like it's some kinda alien concoction that you've never seen before and ain't sure you wanna try." I explained, patiently.

LaFiamma just sat there with his fork poised over the plate and looked at me ... like maybe I was an alien. Then he blinked, looked down at the plate and in a scrupulously neutral voice said. "I don't know what you're talking about."

For some strange reason my mind suddenly flashed on a line from a poem that I'd read in High School Literature, something about a 'Miss Forgerty's Cake'. 'We worked at it over an hour and couldn't get none of it loose.' I sighed. Some days you couldn't shut LaFiamma up, other days he could be like that damned cake, the harder you tried to get him to talk the less he'd say. Looked like this was gonna be one of those days. That didn't mean I was going to give up.

I propped an elbow on the table and pushed my plate back a little, before going on. "We ain't been together all that long and we ain't really jelled as partners, but it don't take a great detective to see that something's bothering you. You've been picking at your food for near a week now. You don't string two words together if you can get by with usin' one. You walk around like you're in your own little universe. Heck, Annie said hello to you twice this morning and you never answered her. You always answer Annie, always have a smile for her but today you walked past her like you didn't even see her. Plumb hurt her feelings."

He looked up at that. "I'm sorry, I'll make sure to apologize."

"To Annie?"

"Yeah." LaFiamma looked puzzled.

"What about me? I've been puttin' up with your nonsense for near a week now. You gonna apologize to me, too?"

LaFiamma's head came up, his expression set and belligerent. "I don't owe you an apology!" He snapped.

It wasn't the response I'd hoped for but it was a response ... and all of six words long. Which was at least two words more than I'd gotten the man to string together since the day before yesterday.

I didn't want to fight with him, but if fightin' was the only way to get him to open up ... well, I could give as good as I got. I'd opened my mouth to form a retort when damned if the contrary man didn't look up at me, his eyes all sad and hurt.

He looked straight into my eyes and said, "I'm sorry, Lundy. I'm just a little out of sorts. It not anything you've done. There's not anything you can do about it. This is just a bad time for me." He laid his fork down and quit playing with his food.

He fell silent for a long moment and I thought that, that was all he was gonna say then he smiled a sad little smile and looked away from me while he said, "Tomorrow's my birthday."

He paused again, still staring off away from me and blinked a couple of times. "In my family birthdays are occasions. If I was back home in Chicago, Uncle Mikey would've called me first thing this morning to remind me that I was invited to dinner at their house tomorrow night."

He smiled that sad smile again, "That's family code for, 'Your Aunt Teresa has planned and prepared your surprise birthday party. Everybody's been invited so you better be there ... on time.' This will be the first time in my life that I haven't had a birthday party. The first time I've been away from my family on an occasion." He blinked again, rapidly then before I could react; he popped up and headed for the back, toward the rest rooms.

Took me a couple of seconds to connect the dots then I went after him. Time I caught up he'd hit the rest room, seen it was full and was barging back out again, the tears already starting to spill from his eyes and slide down his cheeks. There's a storeroom opposite the men's room and I grabbed his arm and propelled him through the door to it, pushing it closed behind us.

One second he was twisting to get free of my grasp, his eyes wild with the need to escape. The next he turned and buried his face against my shoulder, desperate for comfort as the homesickness overcame him. His shoulders shook with muffled sobs. I weren't real sure what to do so I just held on, letting the crying jag run its course, while I stroked his back, reaching up from time to time to caress his hair.

Lord! It felt so good to have him in my arms, to have him so vulnerable and needy, leaning into my embrace. His skin where it touched mine felt feverish, hot. I'd've kissed him then if I hadn't been afraid he'd shoot me.

Finally the sobs subsided but he didn't pull away from me. He stayed there, gathered in my arms. I was suddenly and painfully aware of my erection, trapped inside my jeans, caught between us ... pressing hard against him. There was no way he couldn't know that it was there and what it was.

Still, he remained in my arms, resting there like he intended to stay for a very long time. Then he shifted, just a little, not pulling away but leaning more heavily against me. That was all the encouragement I needed. Gathering my courage up, I slipped my hand behind his head and turned it to me. His eyes were closed, his lips slightly parted, his face tear stained but relaxed.

I kissed him.

He opened his mouth and let me in.

It was delicious.

He tasted of the mingled flavors of the fruit plate he'd been nibbling at, an exotic mix of sweet peaches, tart apples, crisp pears and cinnamon spice.

I wrapped my tongue around his, licked and sucked on it. I wanted to drive my tongue down his throat. I wanted to suck his tongue down mine. I tried both and he offered no resistance.

Somewhere in the back of my mind a little voice was screaming, 'This in not the time. This is not the place' but it couldn't make itself heard over the hammering of my heart and the crackling of the fire that was burning in my loins. My hands were tugging at his waist, unbuckling, unfastening, unzipping, pushing down, and baring him to my touch.

He gasped and moaned as I wrapped my hand around him. He was as hard as I was.

I turned him, pushing him up against the door. He ran his hand down the frame until it found the latch and he pushed it to, locking the door.

He spread his legs a bit and bent at the waist, giving me a perfect target as I quickly dropped my pants and smeared the pre cum oozing from my cock all over the head of it for lubrication. I spit into my hand and used my fingers to open him up spreading the saliva in him. He felt snug but not too tight. I was glad he wasn't a virgin. I didn't have the patience to deal with a virgin. My need was much too urgent.

His need much have been equal to mine. As soon as I pressed my cock head to his opening, he pushed back to meet me as I surged forward. Grunting he took my full length in a single stroke.

He braced himself as I began to thrust and clamped his mouth shut, letting only the most minimal moans and gasps pass his sealed lips as I unleashed the full force of my lust on him, pounding him mercilessly. He met every thrust, driving back with the same fierce hunger that I rammed into him with.

It was far too intense to last. His knees buckled as I came. I rode him down, staying with him till we were both kneeling on the floor and his cum was splattering against the locked door.

He was sitting on my lap, my cock still hard and lodged inside him. He leaned back against me, sighing contentedly. "Feels like you're ready to go again, Cowboy."

His voice was soft and satisfied.

I nibbled on his ear a bit before replying. "I could screw you all night, Boy."

"Really?" The voice was amused and challenging.

"Really." I assured him.

"Then take me home and prove it."

Boy, definitely knows how make a man an offer he can't refuse.

The End.