Portraits

"My hair's sticking up in the back."

"Your hair always sticks up in the back."

Casey rescued the photo Zeke had tossed onto the table and studied it critically. "This one has the best expression and the lighting is good. Most of the others are too artsy or just plain crap."

"Thank you for the compliment, Case. Nice to know my lover spent three hours of my life making me look like crap."

Casey lowered the picture and gave Zeke a single-finger salute. "I told you you should have gone with Janie. She's much better at pretentious portraits."

"Like I'd want to spend three hours doing anything with Janie. She's got the personality of a tripod and she wears enough perfume to qualify as a threat to the ozone." Zeke strode around the table, eyes locked onto Casey's. "I wanted you."

Casey sighed and surrendered the photo to the pile on the table. "You know I hate this."

"You just don't want to choose. You never have this problem with your other photos, only with pictures of me."

"You have to be rational when choosing your best work. Nothing about you is rational, not even your picture."

"I think that might be a compliment." Zeke gave Casey one of those grins - the kind that made Casey want to blush like a schoolboy...or throw Zeke down on the table and make him very late for his next meeting.

"Somebody's having naughty thoughts." Zeke looked down and grinned. "Is that a telephoto lens...?" He prompted with a smirk.

"Or are you just an idiot?" Casey snarked in reply, leaning past Zeke to pick up one of the photos. He waved it in front of Zeke. "Here's your pretty picture, now go away."

"I look demented," Zeke complained, frisbeeing the picture in the vague direction of the trashcan. "The lighting sucks. Pick another one."

"Here. Pretty. Leave."

"Did someone get up on the grumpy side of the bed?" Zeke taunted in his little boy voice. He ran one hand down the side of Casey's neck, sliding it around to gently cup the back of Casey's head. "Were you lonely in that big bed all by yourself?"

"You know I just love cold sheets at 6am." Casey leaned in a little and let his hands press against Zeke's chest. "And using all the hot water again was a nice touch. Really, all your little reminders are so thoughtful."

"They want these photos by 5, you know."

"Yeah."

"It's after 4."

"Yeah."

"You're not moving, are you?"

"Yeah."

"Stimulating conversation as usual, Case."

"Yeah."

"Looks like I got held up in a conference." Zeke decided as he tossed Casey's shirt across the room.

"Yeah," was the last thing Casey said for a very long time.

It was much later that night that Casey sat across from Zeke at the dining room table, both of them eating cereal for dinner while they studied the same set of photographs.

"My hair's still sticking up," Zeke complained, pushing aside the photo that Casey favored.

"You're right," Casey agreed with a giggle.

It took Zeke a few seconds to realize that Casey wasn't looking at the photos.

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