Happy birthday, Python!
~~~
When Lennie Briscoe woke up that morning, he almost wished he hadn't. He knew the date, without even having to look at the calendar. It was that time of year again.
With a deep breath and a look to the ceiling that didn't see the cracks in it, he carefully dislodged himself from his bedmate and padded his way to the bathroom, flicking on the light. After relieving himself, he took a fortifying breath, and looked into the mirror.
Tired brown eyes stared back at him, out of a face that had begun to look more hang-dog than usual in recent years. His lips were thin, mostly from years of shooting off one-liners, and there were more wrinkles. His skin looked more like a leather hide, a light tan from being out in the sun, or so he would've liked to have thought. All in all, he could see the evidence for him, and it didn't take a jury of his peers to know one thing: he was getting old.
He glanced back into the darkness of his apartment, in the direction of his bedroom, his thoughts drifting to his lover. Jack McCoy had been also been showing signs too. His once salt-and-pepper hair was now looking more salt than pepper, and the man's brown eyes, which still gleamed mischievously after a long day at One Hogan Place, were surrounded by crow's feet. His step was still spry in the courtroom, his arguments still winning juries over day after day, but there were times when Lennie dropped by Jack's office that he could see the other man slumping into his chair in a way that he hadn't seven years ago. Or those rare times when those dark brown eyes clouded over with exhaustion that it looked like he wouldn't be able to move in the next year.
They were *both* getting old. It was almost enough to make Lennie wonder if it was worth it to just keep going with his life. It was so tiring most of the time, with few (if any) benefits. Turn in his badge, collect his pension, end his clandestine affair... end it all. He was past his prime. Out in the wild, the pack would've left his saggy butt to die a long time ago.
Lennie turned back to the mirror, and it wasn't until after he mechanically wiped his lips after brushing his teeth that he heard footsteps approaching, and a pair of arms wrapped themselves around him.
"'Morning." A dark, sleepy voice murmured in his ear before a pair of lips lightly touched themselves to his neck.
"Mmm, thought you were still asleep." Lennie kept his voice low, unconsciously mirroring Jack's husky tenor.
"You weren't in bed." A nuzzle into his neck. "It's hard to sleep without you there."
"It's almost time for me to head for work." Lennie told him, just like he had been telling him every morning since he and the EADA started sleeping together. Lennie opened his eyes to look into the mirror, only to see Jack's eyes peering at his reflection with heavy lids.
"You look beat." Lennie told Jack's reflection. "Go on back to bed."
Jack's reflection gave him a sleepy quirk of the lips that would've been a smile had the attorney been more awake. "Mother hen."
"Somebody's gotta be." Lennie returned easily with a shrug of his shoulders. Jack rested his head against Lennie's shoulder for a moment before the arms around the detective's waist tightened, and Lennie felt Jack's lips again, this time against his cheek.
"Happy birthday." The lawyer's reflection looked at him with another smile, this one much more devious, and before Lennie could say anything, one of his lover's hands dipped down to cup his crotch suggestively and then Jack was gone, his footsteps fading away as the man padded back to their bedroom.
Lennie turned back to the mirror slowly, a smile beginning to blossom on his lips before he realized it.
//Then again, there's still life in this old dog yet.//
Lennie gave his reflection a defiant smirk before turning off the light and heading back to bed.
END
