Bodie hated stakeouts, Doyle hated stakeouts but, sometimes, there were compensations.

Bodie lifted his head from the camera and peered down into the street below. "Oi, Ray. I reckon we've got a new winner."

Doyle unfolded himself from the battered armchair in the corner and slouched over to join him. In the street below, on the opposite pavement, a woman of quite resplendent beauty was just pushing her way through the smoked-glass doors of the hairdresser-beauty place opposite.

Doyle shook his head. "Nah, that redhead yesterday was better."

"You reckon?"

"Yeah, better legs." Doyle scratched his chest though his shirt and stretched. "You want a cuppa?"

"Yeah, go on." Bodie bent back over the camera and let off a few more shots as someone came out of the salon. "Ray?"

"Hmm?" Doyle was crouched over the kettle, trying to jam the wires back into the socket with matches, the kettle they had found had been plugless.

"Do you miss women?"

That brought his head up. "Bodie, you can't think I didn't mean what I said."

"Yes, yes, I know. Sorry, wrong question." Bodie was bent over the camera, fiddling with it, his voice careless. "I know you're not on the prowl anymore. I just wondered, this is all different for you. Is there anything you miss about women?"

Doyle considered. "No, not really. I get to look, I get to talk to 'em if I want to." He shrugged. "I'd quite like to go dancing sometime; we could make up a foursome if you fancied it." He kept his voice light too, waiting for whatever it was that was worrying Bodie to appear.

"What about in bed? Is there anything you miss there?"

Bingo! There it was, the back of Bodie's neck was bright red and for the life of him Doyle couldn't think where this was going. Surely, after the last three months, he wasn't still expecting Doyle to pack up and leave. Insecurity was one thing, but that was ridiculous.

"Um... cunnilingus then."

"What?"

"That's where you lick... "

"I know what it is, you prat, why that?"

"I liked the taste, I liked the way it drove 'em bonkers." Doyle rubbed his nose and grinned sheepishly. "And, to be honest, there's so few blokes know how to do it properly, I liked how surprised and, well, grateful they were." He looked over at Bodie and noticed without noticing the tension in the solid shoulders. "What about you? Anything you miss?"

Bodie shuffled uneasily and when he did speak, Doyle wasn't sure he had heard right. "Gentleness."

"You what?"

"You heard, I said gentleness." Bodie sounding goaded. "I miss gentleness."

In two strides Doyle was across the room. "I thought that was how you liked it."

"It is." Bodie still wouldn't look at him. "Just... not all the time."

"Oh hell, have you been letting me hurt you?"

Bodie turned at that. "Don't be a fucking idiot. If I didn't like it I'd soon bloody tell you." He swung back over the camera and peered down into the street. "That first time after Ojuka, I was so bloody glad and angry and, you know, alive. I just wanted it, all of it there and then and no messing around. And I do like it like that, just, like I said, not every time."

Doyle considered that. Then he went to stand behind his lover, wrapping his arms round him and resting his head on Bodie's shoulder. Time to calm things down, time to show that this was okay. "Hey, does that mean I get to kiss you as much as I want?"

"Reckon so."

He brushed his thumbs over the spot on the jumper covering Bodie's nipples, rubbing gently but with intent until he could feel them rise and press back at him. "And I get to lick and suck these instead of biting 'em?"

"You could always, sort of, alternate."

He slid his hand down over the zipper and slipped his fingers between Bodie's legs, letting his palm cover the length and strength of him. "And I get to explore and...and... taste and everything."

"Everything and anything." They rocked slightly and Doyle buried his nose in the back of Bodie's neck,

"I didn't know, you know. This is all new to me. I thought maybe that was how it was supposed to be. You should have told me."

"Don't go all guilty on me, Ray. I've told you now."

"Yeah you have, haven't you?"

"I'll tell you something else."

"What?"

"That's Palmer's missus down there."

"Bloody hell!" Doyle grabbed for his RT as Bodie fired off a last barrage of shots and then, together, they were out of the door and down the stairs, three at a time.

-- THE END --

February 2001