Hey! This is my first fanfiction, and I had a hard time to actually convince myself to post it, but here we are. It's really short, and I feel like it's not really finished, but I have a lot of ideas and I never post them, so I wanted to be brave and start it somewhere. I love Jay and Mouse so much, and I wish the writers would show us more about their past and friendship.

English is not my first language, so please tell me if there's any mistake. I do not own the characters, they are belong to NBC.

_

It was a cold winter night in Chicago, the streets were almost empty because of the bone-chilling weather.

Light snow had begun to fall, and twinkle in the light, as he walked toward the building. The thin layer that already covered the road and the sidewalk made a crunching noise under his feet step by step. There was something magical about this night, he thought. Even if the weather was unpleasant and unfriendly, he felt relieved and calm.

Maybe it was the snow. It came to bury the mud and the dirty roads. And maybe, it came to clear his head too, to reflect and — after such a long time — move on.

Mouse stepped into the building, and he shivered by the sudden change of temperature. It was relatively late, buy he knew they were still upstairs.

He swallowed, a sudden wave of nervousness made his palms itchy and shaky, so he tucked them into the pocket of his coat. He wasn't sure why he was so nervous, maybe it was due to the fact that it had been such a long time since he last stepped in that door. At least, he most definitely felt like it had been years since.

But the familiar atmosphere almost immediately calmed him down a little, and Platt's genuine, welcoming smile did some magic too. Mouse talked with her a few hours ago over the phone, that's how he — partially — knew that everyone will be still in. The other person who he talked in the last couple of days was Jay's brother. He called Will when it was fixed that he can come home to Jay's birthday and he asked Will to let him know where is Jay gonna be that day — today. And, that's also the reason why Mouse talked with Platt, Will told her to call him, to let him know that Jay will be in the District.

With a quick greeting to Platt, Mouse went upstairs.

He was welcomed with Adam's loud "hey" and with smiles and questions from Kevin and Burgess, even Voight come out from his office to shake his hand. They introduced Hailey to him along the way somewhere, and Mouse felt kind of overwhelmed with the sudden attention. He noticed a cake on one of the table, chocolate with fruit topping, Jay's favorite.

Will, Antonio and Jay came from the back a few minutes later. Mouse didn't missed Jay's surprised expression, even if it turned into a half-smile pretty fast.

"Mouse, it's nice to see you" Antonio gave him a quick hug, then everyone moved back, started to converse among themselves and not so discreetly staring at Jay and Mouse. It was a little comical.

After a few seconds of silent eye contact Jay closed the gap eventually, and he engulfed Mouse into a warm hug.

A "happy birthday, brother!" was all Mouse could manage to say.

Emotions seemed to flood both of them, because not only they didn't break the hug for a long time, but Jay let out a huge sigh, "I was so fucking worried about you"

"I'm sorry" Mouse answered, and hugged his friend with a little more force after it.

Jay stepped back after a while, his eyes wandered to the dark green uniform and the tan beret that Mouse was wearing, "are you alright?"

It seemed like an easy question, you can answer it with a simple yes, or a simple no. And still, the answer came after a short pause.

"I'm gonna be" Mouse answered honestly, and Jay believed him.

"Now that everybody is here, let's go to Molly's" Will broke the serious — or rather emotional — atmosphere, and Jay turned to him with a wide smile on his face, "I knew you were up to something, you are a horrible liar."

They went to Molly's, and they had a great time. The night was filled with laughter and love. The kind of love that you are feeling when you are surrounded by family, the kind of love that never gonna disappeared, or fade over time. The love that stays, through hard days and sadness, through happiness and joy. It stays until the end of time, and maybe even after.

Jay was positive that this was the best birthday he ever had in a long time. A warm feeling bloomed in his chest, and it stayed for the whole night.

...

Will made sure Mouse was comfortable, he talked to him when he seemed to wander off and get lost in his own thoughts, and Jay was incredibly grateful.

"What do you want? I was about to sleep?"

"Come on, Will! It's my birthday, can't you be a little less.. grumpy?"

"Well, technically, your birthday ended 2 hours ago. And I have to go to work in like 5 hours, so.."

"I just wanted to thank you"

"What exactly?"

"For being so.. thoughtful tonight"

"Jay.."

"I mean it, Will. I'm really grateful"

"After everything, it's just natural for me to look out for him. He is like the most important person in your life, he is like a brother to you. You care about him, so I do too, it's that easy."

"I love you"

"I love you too. But as much as I enjoy this phone call, can you please let me sleep now?"

"Yeah, yeah, see you later"

_

It started snowing one day and this idea came to my mind.

It stared to snow again today when I'm finishing it.