Rating: PG-13

"I'm bored."

Jim had heard those words very often in the past few days.

"Read a book." He turned the page on his newspaper.

"I've read all my books so often I could tell you what words are on each page!"

Jim tried to ignore his lover. Blair had gone down with a virus; nothing serious, but it had left him feeling grumpy and unable to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. It hadn't helped that his computer had died at around the same time. As they co-habited, (and gone from best friends to lovers in the past month), Simon, their boss, had agreed that Jim should quarantine himself too. "If Cascade can't do without the cop of the year and his annoying, but useful, sidekick for a few days, it's a poor look out!" Simon had said, but added, "If there is an emergency, I'll call." Right now, Jim wasn't sure if he was wishing for an emergency!

Blair had thought it was 'very unfair' that Jim hadn't caught the virus as they had been together, in all manner of ways, a lot recently, but he reasoned that Jim had been inoculated with, and against, goodness knows what while he was in Special Ops. "You never know what they stuck into your arm, Jim! It could have been anything. In fact it's a wonder you didn't have a reaction every time they came near you with a syringe!" had been his words the other night.

"Try meditation then." It wasn't that Jim was unsympathetic; he just knew where this was going.

"Can't focus.... We could 'knock boots'."

Blair suggested it as though it was the answer to the great issue of boredom.

And it was true, that they had used most of their free time wearing out their bed, and christening many items of furniture around the loft in the past month. It was great; Jim had enjoyed himself immensely, until Blair had caught this virus and used 'knocking boots' as an excuse to work off some of his energy, as well as to pass the time. That was the bit that was grinding Jim down a little. He wanted to feel he was giving and receiving more than just a reason to work off energy. Okay, he was a romantic, and he knew Blair loved him, and what guy didn't want to get laid as often as possible, but Jim felt there was a time and a place to just 'knock boots', and he wanted to just share something else, something maybe more... meaningful.

"Okay," he said, with a sigh, and folded up his newspaper.

"Really? Great!" Blair had already started to pull his shirt over his head.

"No, not that," Jim said, quickly. "I have something else in mind, something I'd like to share with you."

"Oh...'k. Sharing is good."

Jim stood and went up the stairs to their bedroom, all the while feeling Blair's eyes on him, his lover's curiosity almost tangible.

He came down a couple of minutes later with a large, flat box. Blair was frowning.

"How did you hide that from me?"

It was true, Jim had hidden it from his lover, knowing full well that Blair's inquisitiveness would have somehow ruined the moment for Jim.

"I have secrets, Sandburg, some even you do not know...." and he wiggled his eyebrows.

"Sure you do, Jim," Blair replied, with a smug air in his tone, as if to say, 'you carry on thinking that, I know all.'

Well this was one time when Jim planned on surprising his friend.

"Come on, get your coat."

"What? We're not supposed to go out and mix, remember?"

"We're not mixing; we're going up on the roof." Jim took his jacket down from the hook and threw Blair his.

After locking the loft door behind them, Jim pocketed his keys and led Blair up the stairs and through the door to the roof.

Blair breathed out and lifted his face up, letting the wind blow through his hair.

"Windy old day," he said, smiling, with his eyes closed, just enjoying the moment.

"Yep, ideal." Jim had bent over and was cutting through the tape around the box with his penknife.

Blair watched with interest as Jim lifted out...

"A kite?"

"Not just any old kite," said Jim, "this is one based upon a Japanese fighting kite, though this is a small version and with no crushed glass or anything nasty in the line."

It was a beautiful object; six sided, about eighteen inches in height, no tail, with a koi carp painted on the skin in rich colors.

"This one is a single line kite. That adds to the challenge and thrill of flying it. I've had others, but I like this design."

"You never cease to surprise me, Jim. I'd never have taken you for a kite flyer."

Jim handed it over to Blair to examine, watching as Blair turned it to catch the light on the silky surface.

"I bought my first one as a way of keeping Stevie amused. As we got older, he got one of his own, a black one with a skull and cross-bones on it as I remember, but then he got competitive over how high he could make his fly. One day, the lines got tangled and both the kites fell into some trees. That was the end of that. I've bought the odd one now and then. I enjoy watching them fly."

He realized Blair was watching him with love in his eyes, and Jim blushed and looked away.

"So I found it in our storage in the basement. It's just the right weather for kite flying and I thought you might like a go. Have you flown many kites, Chief?"

"No," Blair looked at the kite in his hands, and then up and out across the city. "We went to Hamamatsu, in Japan, for the kite festival once, but Naomi got side tracked by some mystic who had a new idea of gaining enlightenment." He looked up again to Jim. "So are you going to show me how to fly this beast?"

"Sure," said Jim. "First you have to get it skyward...." He took hold of the kite and lifted it, telling Blair to keep the line taut as Jim threw it up into the air.

Blair described various histories of kite flying around the world; "Did you know that kite fighting is part of the Bangladeshi Shakrain festival in south Dhaka, oh and in Nepal, people engage in kite fights while celebrating Dashain, a variation of the festival called Dashera in India. Even in Brazil, they have kite fighting... I guess man has always wanted to fly and this was one way of experiencing it, before we developed manned flight."

But for the most part, the sheer exhilaration of controlling the kite just took his breath away.

And both men ended up laughing and grinning in pleasure.

They spent the best part of two hours on the roof, getting the kite to swoop and soar above the rooftops, and when they drew the kite in and folded it up, both had shining, glowing faces from the wind, and large smiles.

Once back inside the loft, Blair drew Jim in and kissed him gently but thoroughly.

"I love you. Thank you for that," he said, as they breathed in the same air.

Jim smiled and ruffled Blair's hair. "I love you too. So, you hungry?" he asked stepping into the kitchen. "What shall we have for dinner?"

"I could eat," Blair said, grinning, patting down his hair from Jim's playful ruffling. "How about we order in, and eat in bed?" His eyebrows doing a merry suggestive 'dance'.

He laughed, as Jim chuckled and said, "You win. I'll phone through an order and then after we can knock those boots anywhere you like, Chief."