"Hi honey, I'm home!"

The door slammed behind Christian and he swept a wriggling Syed into a bear hug, raining loud kisses onto his face, before picking him up and throwing him onto the sofa.

Winded, Syed lay prone, watching the retreating back as Christian disappeared into the kitchen and began to noisily search through the fridge.

"You're very jolly. Have you had a good day?" Syed called after him.

Returning to lean in the doorway, Christian downed a glass of orange juice in one go, and Syed found himself mesmerised by the sight of his Adam's apple rising and falling in his throat.

Belching loudly, Christian dragged his hand across his mouth and grinned.

"I needed that!"

"So it would seem, filthy git. So, what's happened to make you this unbearably cheerful?"

Christian lifted Syed's feet and sat beside him, placing them down across his lap.

"Bog all, my lovely. But there are daffodil's and crocuses in the gardens, buds on the trees, it isn't dark at half past three anymore, little birds are singing, boy pigeons are puffing themselves up and making beady eyes at the ladies, or other boys. Do you get gay birds, I wonder? I didn't get rained on, my clients are great and are all getting fit, fit, fit, thanks to my magnificent training, the sun shone, I wasn't freezing my bollocks off…Need I go on?"

"I think you just might have.. Ha ha! Stop it, no Christian, don't…"

Syed flailed around helplessly, desperately trying to free his feet from Christian's tickling fingers.

He stopped and ran his hand's along the back of Syed's legs, beneath the fabric of his jeans.

"Plus, I had a genius idea…"

"Oh no, I'm scared now. Does it involve discomfort for me? Or vast amounts of money? Or embarrassment and humiliation? Something criminal?"

Christian set Syed off into paroxysms of agonised giggles as he began to tickle behind his knees. Deftly avoiding the kicking legs, he showed mercy and stopped abruptly, jumping up and pulling his vest off over his head.

"I'll tell you over dinner. What have we got in?"

Smiling at the spectacle of Christian's naked chest, Syed tried to search through his, now mush filled brain, to remember.

"How am I supposed to think, when you're standing there like that?"

Christian flexed one pectoral muscle, and then the other and grinned with delight.

"Good point.."

"Big head. Not much, I don't think. An egg, half a jar of pasta sauce. There might be some Dorito's left…"

"Oh yum, the makings of a tasty meal. Didn't you go to the Minute Mart on your way home?"

Syed stuck out his tongue.

"Didn't you? I wouldn't want to deny you the chance of visiting your Shangri La now, would I? We'll have to be inventive, Dorito's oeuf bologna, or get a take away…"

Stepping out of his track suit bottoms, Christian folded them neatly over his arm.

"I'm starving, shall we go out?"

"Yeah, great! Where?"

"Fargo's? The Café? The Vic? Obviously not the Bhajee…"

Wincing, Christian wished he hadn't mentioned the name when he spotted the hardly perceptible shadow of sadness flit briefly across Syed's eyes.

"Obviously…" He muttered the word thoughtfully, his voice low. Quickly perking up, he continued;

"… We could be daring and go up the High Street? We could even get on a bus! Radical I know.."

"Won't we need a visa and an armed guard if we choose to leave the square? We'll have to make a run for it and climb over the perimeter fence! That sounds great though, I'm up for that. There's that Bistro place, or the bar does food, or the Walford Tandoori, or the Kebab shop, or KFC… Sod it, I'm so hungry, lets go to them all…"

"On a food crawl. I take it you might be putting some clothes on before we go out?"

Christian snapped at the elastic in the waistband of his pants and pulled them down with a flourish.

"I thought I could go like this."

"Nice! You might want to be careful not to drop any hot food down yourself, and don't order sausages, in case you get confused.."

Christian chuckled and went to put his clothes into the laundry basket, pausing to say;

"I'm going for a shower. I think you should have one too."

Syed sniffed at his own armpits.

"Cheeky bugger, I had one this morning!"

"No, really. I think you should. You're not very good at washing."

Half sitting up, supporting himself on his elbows, Syed looked sweetly from under his eyelashes and innocently asked;

"Am I not?"

"No, you're not vigorous enough. You need help with the serious hard scrubbing, really getting stuck in, wielding that Loofah.."

"So you think I need some assistance with it then? A few lessons? Someone to show me how to scrub really hard? Which positions to get in for maximum effect? The best angle to hold the shower head? How to grip it firmly?"

"I think that would be very advisable, bit of sponge control, get to those hard to reach places…"

"Can you recommend anyone? Someone to help me hit the spot?"

Christian held out his hand and beckoned Syed towards him.

"I might be just the man you're looking for. Come with me, my rates are very reasonable, I'll teach you extreme ablution…"

Syed happily padded across the room, shaking with laughter.

"Extreme ablution? Is that you're genius idea?"

"No, I'll tell you that later. This one's not bad though, if I say so myself.. As you can see, I'm very much looking forward to giving you your first lesson, . Hurry up you delicious thing, I'm about to burst…."