"Okay, so," Jamie said, flopping across Bobby's legs and displacing one puppy, "I wrote you a poem!"

         Bobby grinned, shoving Jupiter aside as the mongrel came to lick his face. Jupe slid off the bed, landing on the floor with a thump, only to spring back to his feet. Archimedes jumped to the floor after him, and the two puppies started playing furiously. "Do you really?" Bobby asked, putting his arm back under his head and grinning up at Jamie.

         Jamie squirmed until he could reach the nightstand on the other side of the bed, then opened the drawer and pulled out a folded piece of notebook paper. He grinned and slapped Bobby's hand aside as it danced across his ribcage, distracting him. "Be serious," Jamie demanded, a suspicious twinkle in his own brown eyes.

         Bobby tried to school his face into solemn lines without success. "Read, then," he said, settling back on the bed.

         "To Bobby--stop looking at me like that, Robert Drake!" Jamie growled in mock-frustration.

         Bobby pulled his eyes off Jamie's very naked form and latched them back onto his face. "Like what?" he said innocently. "Go ahead."

         Jamie grinned, showing dimples that creased his cheeks, and looked back at his paper. "To Bobby, with love, love me."

         "Just you?" Bobby asked on a playful sigh.

         "All of mes," Jamie corrected, grinning.

         Bobby laughed, reaching out to grab Jamie and pull him closer, kissing him soundly.

         "No, no, no," Jamie huffed, pulling away--though he remained snuggled up much closer to Bobby's face. "I'm *supposed* to be reading a poem, not kissing you!"

         "There are other things you could do to me," Bobby suggested, a distinct lewd note to his tone.

         Jamie looked at him and quirked one eyebrow. "Later."

         Bobby grinned, blue eyes sparkling delightedly. "Read your poem, silly."

         Jamie sighed again, looking toward the ceiling and mouthing, 'why me?' "To Bobby. You have eyes the color of non-polluted oceans--"

         Bobby laid his head back against the pillows, laughing.

         "And hair the color of my tan socks--" Bobby was still laughing, and Jamie was trying desperately to smother his grin. He continued valiantly. "And when you smile, you have teeth as white as a white elephant! You have muscles that would put a normal, mid-size human-looking Tyrannosaur to shame, and you're so good with ice I would almost think you're a mutant!"

         "Almost, huh?" Bobby asked, grinning. He reached down and trailed the fingers of one hand along Jamie's body, and Jamie squirmed.

         "Stop that!" he hissed. "This is a very very serious poem! This is Noble-winning stuff here, okay?"

         "Can you win the Nobel Peace Prize for poetry?" Bobby laughed.

         "You can when it's this good!" Jamie answered, grinning. "Bobby, you make me laugh more than the clowns at the circus with their red noses and big feet," Jamie read, "and you make me happier than ice cream! Though, it's still a pretty close running with ice cream on a hot day . . . "

         "Oh, man, I don't think I can beat that," Bobby said solemnly.

         Jamie looked at him just as seriously. "I know. It'll be tough. But keep trying!"

         Bobby nodded, grinning.

         "So please, be my Valentine!" Jamie finished with a flourish, waving his paper in the air as it bent around his fingers.

         "I would love that," Bobby said, grabbing Jamie and pulling him a lot closer. "Now get over here."

***

         "Jupiter needs to go out," Jamie said sleepily.

         "So let him out," Bobby answered, picking up the paper Jamie had been reading from and glancing over the tiny lines of Jamie's writing. "This isn't a poem," he laughed. "It's an essay or something!"

         Against him, Jamie moved one shoulder in a shrug. "Whatever. Free verse, dude!"

         "'Dude'? Is that what it is, 'dude'?"

         Jamie grinned--Bobby could feel the other man's mouth move where it was nestled between his chest and neck. "I think you're making fun of me."

         "Never, 'dude,'" Bobby answered, smiling. He looked down at the head cradled so close, eyes closed, one arm and one leg tossed over Bobby possessively. "I need to let Jupiter out."

         "Don't move," Jamie protested instantly, despite the fact that he had only moments ago suggested that Bobby do just that.

         "Okay," Bobby answered happily. "But when he pees on the floor you have to clean it up."

         Jamie rolled over off of Bobby in an instant, eyes still closed. "You'd better let Jupiter out," he said.

         Bobby laughed, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "Get up and grab Archimedes. He'll have to go out, too."

         Bobby didn't wait to see if Jamie did so or not--he grabbed the dark purple leash and whistled for Jupiter, who came bounding to the edge of the bed with the energy only a three month old puppy had. He looked up at Bobby adoringly, all black except for his white stomach, white paws, and the straggling white stripe that wandered over his nose. Bobby reached down and snapped the leash onto the little purple collar, then stood and dropped it.

         Jupiter dragged it happily to the door while Bobby pulled on clothes, grabbing his jacket as well and throwing Jamie his trench coat before stepping on the trailing end of the leash, picking it up, and walking out the door.

         Jupiter bounded along the hallway, pouncing on anything and everything that got in his path, floppy ears going this way and that.

         The mansion was quiet this early; most of the couples were in still, and what was left of the team was mostly off with their particular girl- or boyfriends.

         "Wait up!"

         Bobby stopped and turned, grinning at the sight of Jamie running out of the room, Archimedes at his feet with his orange leash dragging along behind. Jamie shrugged the rest of the way into his green trench coat, then grinned and hurried to catch up with Bobby. Archimedes barked at him, tongue lolling out of his dusty black muzzle happily. "Hey, 'Medes," Bobby said, reaching down to pat the hound-like brown head, fading to black on the nose and ears. "You got your mittens?" Bobby asked Jamie, eyes twinkling.

         "In my pocket," Jamie responded, patting the bulge at his hip.

         "Damn. I thought you were just happy to see me . . . "

         Jamie laughed and rolled his eyes, then trotted again to hurry down the stairs.

         "Go out the front!" Bobby yelled, stopping Jamie mid-turn. Jamie shrugged and twisted around, heading for the front door with both puppies hot on his heels.

         Bobby reached the bottom of the stairs and grabbed at the hook where his car keys belonged, only to find that they had, again, disappeared. He sighed and patted his pockets; within, he heard a familiar jingle. He grinned wryly at himself and started out the door, closing and locking it behind him. Jamie was crouching on the front lawn, trying to convince Jupiter to eat snow. Archimedes was sniffing bushes around the side, looking like he was doing doggy business. "We need to get them neutered before they start marking everything and 'Ro kills us," Bobby shouted to Jamie, who stood and shook off his trench coat.

         "Not until they're done growing," Jamie said, boots crunching over the snow. "Breeder said--remember?"

         Bobby nodded and unlocked the car doors.

         "Where we going?" Jamie asked, turning then to whistle at the puppies. They both came bounding, dragging their leashes behind them.

         Bobby grinned. "It's a surprise." He held the door open as first Jupiter and then Archimedes leapt in, snow scattering all over the back seat. "Sit, boys!" Bobby said, and after a little while they actually responded. Bobby hooked them into their seatbelts, then slid into the driver's seat himself. Jamie had already gotten in and buckled up, and they started off down the drive without delay.

         "We almost there?" Jamie said, grinning.

         Bobby laughed. "Almost!"

         Jamie grinned, propping his foot up on the dashboard of the car and watching as the snow-covered world zipped by outside. In the back, Jupiter and Archimedes alternately played and sat quietly, bound in their seatbelts and unable to go very far.

         "Here we are," Bobby said thirty minutes later, as they pulled up outside a park. There was a swingset, unused, a dusting of powder sitting precariously on the top bar. Three children ran and screeched, jumping through the snow and clambering all over the plastic and wood jungle gym. Jamie recognized the park as the same one he, Bobby, Sam and Hank had played in with their water guns (and boy had *that* been a cold night--even with Ororo's power holding the winter at bay!).

         "What are we doing here?" Jamie laughed, opening the door and stepping out. He nearly slipped on a patch of ice, but grabbed onto the car and made his way precariously to the snow-covered sidewalk.

         Bobby unsnapped the two puppies from their seatbelts, grabbing both leashes as they bulleted past him. "Head to the cabin!" Bobby yelled, locking the doors with some difficulty as the dogs did their best to wind him up. After untangling himself, he managed to follow Jamie up a bank and under a tree, where there was a small wooden "house" built beneath the overhanging branches, hiding from easy view by draping leaves.

         "What is this?" Jamie laughed, standing in the tiny doorway and peering inside.

         "Go in!" Bobby returned, then slid back down the bank to meet a boy of about thirteen. "Give me an hour," Bobby said, handing the boy the leashes and a ten dollar bill. The boy grinned, grabbing the puppies and the money, then went running off toward the other playing kids. The puppies ran alongside, yapping excitedly.

         Bobby turned and hurried up the slope, bending almost double to fit through the doorway and into the "house."

         Jamie sat in a small plastic chair at a small plastic table, his knees bumping the underside. One hand covered most of his face, hiding a grin, and the other was crossed over his ribs. "Bobby," he said, "what is this?"

         Bobby grinned, incredibly pleased with himself. "Happy Valentine's Day!"

         Jamie laughed and buried his face in his hands. Bobby stood up straight--the peaked roof was just tall enough to let him--and eyed the spread before them. Pie was tucked in an insulator to keep it warm, with ice cream in a cooler packed with snow nearby. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches--boysenberry jelly, which was Jamie's favorite--and strawberries with whipped cream. There was even a rose in the middle of the table, along with paper plates and napkins checked with red and white.

         "Bobby, you are something else, you know it?"

         Bobby's grin widened. "I think so, thank you. Open that," he said, pointing to an envelope laying nicely on Jamie's plate.

         Jamie grinned, doing so. He looked at the note inside--a note promising two tickets to whatever things Jamie wanted to go to, at whatever time--and another stating reservations for McDonalds, for lunch. Jamie started laughing. "Oh, classy," he said, eyes twinkling.

         "Well, I admit it's not as good as your poem," Bobby responded, grinning, as he walked around the table and came to a crouch beside Jamie, "but you can trade it in for dinner at Alberto's."

         Jamie grinned. "That's that Mexican place, isn't it?"

         Bobby nodded.

         "You do love me." Jamie laughed and reached over, hugging Bobby with one arm. "So, if I want to go to the opera--" he said, eyeing his vouchers, "--you'll take me?"

         Bobby nodded.

         "Or if I want to go to a Yankees game instead, you'll take me?"

         Bobby nodded again, a smile playing at his lips.

         "Wow. I'm liking this."

         Bobby laughed, pulling Jamie out of his plastic chair, landing on the cold ground with the other man on top of him. "You should!" he crowed. "I went to a lot of trouble for this!"

         Jamie laughed, struggling to untangle himself from the table, chair, and Bobby. "I thought you said I wasn't supposed to buy you anything!" he yelped after a moment, giving up his struggle. Bobby was only tangling him more at every opportunity.

         "I did," Bobby said, grinning.

         Jamie poked him and Bobby flinched away, still grinning.

         "See, I had a master plan."

         Jamie eyed Bobby in mock irritation. "Really?"

         "Yup. I got rid of the dogs--we have a whole hour here--and I got you stuff."

         "Yeah?" Jamie asked warily, still trying to figure out Bobby's master plan.

         "Right. So now that I've earned all this gratitude from you, after dinner I'm going to take you home and do horrible things to your body."

         Jamie perked up. "That's your master plan?"

         "Uh huh." Bobby smiled.

         "Oooh. I like that plan."

         "Uh huh," Bobby agreed, still smiling.

         "So that means, you planned this whole thing so that my gift to you is . . . me."

         Bobby just grinned wider, showing all his teeth. "You can plan next Valentine's Day."

         Jamie hesitated. "That implies we have to stay together at least a year."

         Bobby leaned back on his hands, Jamie still sitting on his lap. "Yup. Still another part of my master plan."

         Jamie laughed, leaning forward and kissing Bobby lingeringly. "So . . . " he said, hands slipping under Bobby's heavy winter jacket, "just how much heat can two people produce? And how long do we have in here?"

         Bobby grinned.