Balfour Spectre stepped off the elevator, raking a hand through his auburn hair as doors slid close behind him. A throng of interns cutting across the passageway glanced at him interestedly - he ignored the odd ogle, ears still burning at the distant memory of the last time[1] he had worn this particular pair of trousers. Not exactly regulation attire Skylar and Alex had made him regret it but...

The whole point of this entire affair was to be ridiculous. Besides - he told himself they were only staring at his guitar (not a euphemism). The wizard held it by the neck as he headed towards the office space where he'd been in the past whilst collecting his lover for some engagement or other. Typically an easy task to wind noiselessly through the multitude of desks, past heads bowed over parchments, to meet with the only one for whom he ever had eyes.

He swung the guitar into playing position, cradling it as he straightened his back and breathed deeply. A pair of wizards at the table closest to the entrance glanced up as Balfour entered with a look of such intense resolution that one would hardly suspect there simmered an embarrassed laugh underneath it all.

The wizard strummed once, loudly,  as if to announce his arrival.

A few curious gazes lifted in confusion and he took this as a cue, continuing to carefully plucking the chords to Moon River while he made his way towards Johann's desk - surrounded as it was by the usual heaps of documents, tomes, red tape and forms. Chairs were pushed back and confused onlookers across the room stood up for a better look.

Previous correspondences with Gabrielle assured him that the other man would surely be there, waiting on eleventh hour translations papers that did not exist and would never arrive. He'd been careful not to let anything slip of these clandestine plans.

Flowers were conveyed to Johann in bed earlier that morning, as a diversion of birthday celebrations, when in truth Balfour had arranged for them to spend more than the weekend at a vineyard in Tuscany. Everything was fixed. Clothes, what little they would need, were packed. Pets brought to the estate. He wanted only for his beautiful wizard now, as always he did.

Balfour strummed at the last notes of the song as he came to a halt in front of the desk and smoothly swung the guitar down to lay across the turmoil of paperwork. His cheeks were red, flushed with both self-consciousness and obvious pride. Hardly the former: what did it matter if they stared? This was all for Johann.

"Happy birthday, my love..." he grinned boyishly. "I've come to kidnap you."

1.	Hogwarts Career Fair 2010

"I could have had an extra hour in bed… two…" Johann grumbled much to his colleagues' amusement. Pinn trailed round the back of his desk, surveying the clutter and the line of sight from Joh's desk past hers and across the open plan office.
"I'm sure the papers will arrive soon," she sympathised and winked over his head to co-conspirator Kelly. The pair were tasked by Gabrielle that morning to ensure their senior stayed put and didn't go on a wander, as he was prone to doing when bored.

She squeezed his shoulder in a familiar way, "I promise, as soon as it's done there'll be a long drink waiting for you, birthday boy." Pinn wandered back and took a seat at her desk opposite, Johann's gaze trailed her, a half-finished, rather simplistic job on his desk to translate advice on the British floo system for foreign tourists. It was taking a lot of effort not to embellish it with humour. He was only here on his birthday because of some urgent legal papers that nobody else was up to handling in a short deadline, according to Gabrielle. Sometimes being indispensable was a real pain in the bum, he mused, unaware that the papers were entirely fictional, and that Gabrielle had needed to inflate his arrogant ego a little to ensure his co-operation. Despite his workaholic ways, prising himself from bed with Balfour and flowers had taken a monumental effort.

There was a titter of giggles across the office that caught his momentary attention, but Kelly asking aloud for clarification on something distracted him coincidentally from spying Balfour too early. He was about to reply to Amelie when a guitar strummed loudly. All heads at nearby desks raised to the source and Johann's eyebrows shot up, his mouth hanging open from speaking to his colleague.

Leather, guitar, Balfour - guitar -

… birthday

"What on…" His gaping turned to a massive grin of anticipation that whatever the interruption was, it was the most welcome thing in the entire world. There was a peal of applause from his female colleagues as Balfour finished his performance of Moon River the other side of Johann's cluttered desk. The marginally younger wizard had sat back in his chair with inky fingers of his right hand pressed to his bottom lip beneath an enormous, charmed grin. His gaze shifted throughout from admiring how clever and dextrous his lover's hands were to play a guitar, to the fact he was wearing the leather trousers of legend to gazing affectionately.

Behind Balfour, Pinn and Kelly were admiring just one part in particular which they could see. One of the photos they were snapping would have a few copies taken and circulated before they were handed over to the wizards, put it that way…

"And you call me devious." Johann chuckled quietly, on his feet. His knuckles propped him up as he leaned forwards over the clutter on his desk and Balfour's guitar to kiss him, one foot lifting from the floor on his side as he stretched across. Three days of newspapers toppled off at one end but nobody noticed.

"Merlin," Johann exclaimed with a happy laugh to Balfour, still inclining towards him, "do you have to wear those in public, I've entirely indecent thoughts that I need to carry out with immediacy." He chuckled and blushed, and he was pretty sure it was Pinn who wolf-whistled. "Hang on…"

Johann leaned back and rounded his desk in a few long strides, casting a glance to his colleagues, who by their expressions had been in on something. He swept his arms around Balfour, inhaling the stronger than usual smell of leather over familiar notes of aftershave. "I love you." He murmured into the other wizard's neck, still grinning, "Kidnap me, please, I'll go quietly, but don't mind if you bind me…"

He grinned into the first kiss, unable to stop himself from feeling a trill of excitement upon laying eyes on Johann's surprised countenance - how it melted into one of fondness. Nothing could convince Balfour that he deserved such a look but it hardly mattered for he received it gladly all the same.

The grin only grew in response to mention of leather trousers - ears burning at the wolf whistle behind.

"You may carry out each and every one, my love." Balfour remarked without even trying to lower his voice, at this point entirely given to the showman inside him; the same one that had seized his lover on the dance floor at Le Masque. Admiring, intense eyes followed Johann around the desk and he slid his arms around the other wizard's waist with a soppy smile.

Smitten. Unashamedly smitten.

There might have been an ulterior motive to this. After that ridiculous nonsense about Ira in Witch Weekly, even though he very much did not care a knut for what Lil Snigger wrote, it seemed a wise thing to correct any public misconceptions. Johann's was his and he belonged to Johann. No question about it.

"I love you." The warm breath against his throat stirred a pleasant, vaguely carnal hum in his chest.  "Kidnap me, please, I'll go quietly, but don't mind if you bind me…"

Gods. Johann always knew the right words. Balfour tilted his head back and then bowed slightly, leaving a light kiss against the bridge of that elegant nose.

"Have I ever wanted you to do anything quietly?" he murmured in earnest. "Now do prepare yourself. I promised our audience that I would make a scene, and I do so hate to disappoint." Guitars and passionate kisses were all beautifully dramatic but how could he pledge a kidnapping without fulfilling it in every respect?

Even if this involved a bit of manhandling. He cleared his throat and released his partner with some ceremony, stepping back. Stretches had been done for this moment. And, well, while he had plenty of mutual physical experiences to gauge Johann's total weight, even a beast handler would find it tricky carrying another grown man in their arms. They were both over six feet!

"Onwards, then!" Balfour exclaimed before looping an arm around Johann's shoulders, and another reaching down to swiftly swoop the linguist into his arms. The breath rushed out of his lungs, and he felt the strain of weight all throughout his frame. Oof! That was going to smart later.

Johann reached around his neck and he tried very hard not to laugh at the sight they must have been.

"We take our leave!" he yelled this out across the office space, cheerful, for the benefit of onlookers - a little applause came up at this ridiculous effort of trying to walk forward. "Adieu! Expect no messages! Send no owls!"