(no subject)
Title: Take You by Surprise
Rating: PG-13/T
Fandom/pairing: CSI, Nick/Greg
Spoilers: Not that I know of.
Warnings: moderate swearing :) But beyond that, nothing.
Summary: I talked to Archie. I fell in the mud, which is still caked to the clothes in the bottom of my locker. I apparently played a trick on Hodges. I realized that Greg dressed very attractive today. Greg takes matters into his own hands and makes an effort after nearly ten years of waiting.
It was raining heavily. The graveshift CSIs were searching for a murder weapon in a park, which had recently had the grass torn out in favor of woodchips. Unfortunately, that meant that the entire park was muddy, making it not only hard to walk, but hard to collect the evidence they could find, being that most of it was washed away.
“Whoa, careful there, Tiger,” Catherine says, reaching out an arm to help Nick up from where he’d fallen for the fourth time. “Don’t wanna break a hip.”
“It’s this damn mud,” Nick complains, taking off the fifth pair of gloves he’d put on and pulling another out of his pocket. “Honestly, who decides that they’re going to murder someone when it’s downpouring outside?”
Catherine winks and starts walking over towards Riley, who was waving her over. “Somebody who knows what they’re doing, Nicky. The more water that can wash away evidence, the better the chances of them getting away with it.”
Nick grumbles and flips his flashlight on. It quickly fades out. He hits it against the palm of his hand a few times before giving up and carefully walking back to his truck to get his backup pair of batteries.
“Need a hand?” a voice asks from behind him, and Nick turns his head to see Greg standing there, half smile on his face.
“Flashlight batteries burnt out,” he opens the glove box and rifles through it. There aren’t any batteries, and Nick remembers he’d given them to Riley when her radio went out the week before last. “Yeah, you have some batteries I can borrow?”
Greg’s already walking back to his car when Nick pulls his head from his car and slams the door. “What kind?” he calls back.
“C,” Nick replies, following him. There’s a strange air about Greg, one Nick can’t quite place, but before he can think too hard about it, Greg’s handing him two C batteries with a grin. Nick raises the batteries in thanks and proceeds to take the old ones out of his flashlight. He feels Greg watching him and he glances up and smiles. “What?”
Greg shakes his head quickly, shuffling his feet. “Oh, nothing.” But Greg keeps watching him, like he’s fascinated by what Nick’s doing.
Nick raises his eyebrows and screws the top back on the flashlight. “You alright? You seem a little…”
“Hey!” The two of them turn to look at Catherine, who’s holding a plastic zip lock bag in her hand, a gun inside it. “Riley found the murder weapon in the bushes. You and Greg can take it back to the lab and process the rest of the evidence.”
“Oh, thank God,” Nick mutters under his breath. Greg looks amused.
“How many times d’you fall?”
Nick blushes a little and takes off his gloves again, putting them back in his pocket. “I’d, uh, rather not say, Greg.”
--
When they get back to the lab, Greg seems a little more at ease. Nick thinks it’s a little weird but doesn’t mention it to anyone, only to have Archie comment on it when he walks in the A/V lab to look at the surveillance tapes the gas station across the street supplied.
“Damn. Have you seen Greg tonight?”
Nick swallows, taking a seat next to him. “Yeah, why?”
Archie grins, turning to look at the computer screen. “He looks like he has some hot date after work.”
“Well, you know Greg. He has another story brewing before the first one’s finished.” Nick says, effectively ending the conversation. He tries to focus on the tapes, but finds that he keeps trying to remember what Greg was wearing and why Archie felt as though it looked any different than it normally did.
He doesn’t actively realize how little he’s paying attention until Archie waves his hand in front of Nick’s face. “You still with me?”
“Huh?” Nick says, mentally telling himself he should never allow himself to be so distracted at work.
“Are you feeling alright?” When Nick nods, Archie frowns. “You should take a break. We’ve been looking at these tapes for forty five minutes. Go get some coffee.”
Coffee. Caffeine. “Yeah,” Nick says, standing up and scratching the back of his neck. “Sounds like a good idea.”
Archie slaps him on the back and is about to turn back to the tapes before he pauses and calls out, “Send Greg in here, maybe he has his head screwed on straight.”
Nick walks back to the break room, where Greg, Riley, and Langston are currently in. “Hey, what’d Archie find?” Greg asks upon seeing Nick enter, and takes a drink from the mug in his hands.
“Uh, not much, as far as I know,” he says, reaching for the coffee and grabbing one of the Styrofoam cups next to the coffee pot. “Said I’m supposed to send you in. I think he got a little sick of me.”
Greg grins and walks out. Nick watches him, analyzes what he’s wearing. As far as he can tell, it’s not anything different than what Greg normally wears to work. He shakes his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts and Riley breaks out in a frustrated groan. Langston looks surprised, even a little scared.
“Have you seen him today?” she asks, as though it pains her to say it. Nick takes a thoughtful drink of his coffee. “God. Shame he’s gay.” Nick starts choking on his coffee, coughing loudly and waving Riley to sit back down when she stands to help him.
Langston pretends to be interested in the case file, flipping through it like a magazine while Riley watches Nick, carefully. “Uh, sorry, what’d you say?” Nick asks for clarification. Because there’s no way what he heard was what Riley actually said.
“I said it’s a shame that Greg’s gay.”
Nick blinks a few times at her and refuses to believe it. Riley looks at him as though he’s supposed to continue the thought for her. When he doesn’t, she says, “…Because if he wasn’t, I’d be all over it.”
“It’s against departmental policy. Members of the same team aren’t supposed to get involved in romantic relationships,” Nick says before he even realizes he’s saying it. It sounds weird to his ears, and Nick realizes that if the situation arose, he wouldn’t care about the policy.
Langston announces that he’s going to go see what Doc Robbins has to say about their victim and leaves the room. Nick says “Later,” and watches him leave..
“So? Everybody breaks a few rules in their lifetime, Nick,” Riley replies, and when Nick looks at her, he’s positive that she winks.
He leaves the room again, with some excuse about going to check up on the evidence they’d left with Hodges, and tries not to think about asking her how she knows about Greg’s sexual orientation when she’d only been there for five months, and Nick had known Greg for years and Greg hadn’t even said a word.
Maybe that was why. Riley was new, Greg didn’t have to worry about offending her because if he came right out with it, it wouldn’t be much of a loss if she was disturbed by it. With Nick, it might be different. If Nick had a problem with it, Greg would lose a long-time friend.
Nick sighs and pushes the door to Hodges’ lab open. Hodges blinks at him a few times before saying, “Hi, Nick. Felt like dropping by?”
Nick smiles and says, “How’s the evidence coming?”
Hodges stops what he’s doing completely, raising his head to look at him straight on. “…Good.”
“Anything you can tell me?”
Hodges kind of smiles and asks, “Is this a joke?” Nick looks confused. “I see. Good one. You almost had me there.”
“What are you talking about?”
Hodges goes back to the evidence he was working on and waves his hand at Nick. “You coming in here asking for evidence to get me all worked up. Really, I didn’t know you CSI’s could be so funny.”
Nick looks down at his coffee for a moment before looking back at Hodges. “You don’t have results for me?” Hodges shakes his head slowly. “Oh. Uh. Alright, then.”
His mind is really not with him tonight.
--
They’re standing in a room with the evidence when it hits him. Greg looks sexy. Comfortable-sexy, but sexy nonetheless. Like Archie had said, he looks like he has a date after work.
Greg’s looking through photos of suspects and trying to distinguish any kind of difference between twins when he catches Nick staring. He just smiles and looks back down at his work. “See something you like?”
“What?” Nick asks, blindsided. In all his ten years of knowing Greg - had it really already been that long? - he’d never heard Greg be so forward. At least, not with him.
“Ha!” Greg says, picking up the two photos and turning around the corner of the table to show Nick. “Found it! Michael has this really small scar next to his right eye. Mason’s nose looks like it was broken at some point.”
Nick swallows, tells him, “Good work, Greg,” and clears his throat. But Greg doesn’t move. Nick suddenly feels like his skin is trying to crawl away from him.
“I learned from the best,” Greg says, still looking at him.
“Grissom’s an amazing mentor?” Nick replies, and he swears he doesn’t it mean it to come out like a question, but it does, and Greg’s lips twitch upwards a little at the corners.
“I’m not talking about Grissom, Nick. I’m talking about-“
Catherine bursts in at that moment, and Greg all but jumps away from where he was standing so close. Catherine gives Nick a look like she knows, but all she says is, “Hodges figured out who killed Adam Greene. Michael Forest, we have a location. Brass is already on his way with Ray, you guys coming or not?”
Nick nods and drops the other photos, leaving Greg behind him, confused.
When Nick is on his way home, the killer locked up safely and Brass’s kind words still echoing in his mind, he feels like he could fall over and he hadn’t even done anything, not really, at least. He looks back on the day and thinks, I talked to Archie. I fell in the mud, which is still caked to the clothes in the bottom of my locker. I apparently played a trick on Hodges. I realized that Greg dressed very attractive today. Nick shakes his head and ignores his phone as it buzzes at his hip. He’ll call them back when he gets home because he’s only a few minutes away, anyway. The rest of the team had already clocked out, leaving Nick to do the paperwork. It wasn’t too big of a deal, considering Nick didn’t mind doing paperwork - it was the least exciting thing on the job, and to Nick, anything not exciting meant that nobody was causing chaos for anybody else.
He unlocks his door and checks his phone, holding down one to dial the voicemail as he kicks off his shoes and takes off his jacket.
Nick types in his password, presses one on the keypad to play all new messages, and waits.
“You have one unheard message, sent at 9:09 AM Thursday, March 19. First unheard message:”
“You, Nicholas Stokes, are either very blind or a complete asshole.” Nick pauses mid-step to walking towards his bedroom, surprised. There’s brief talking in the background of the voicemail message and Greg returns a second later and says, “I can’t believe you’d lead me on like that for nearly a decade and then not even have the fucking decency to tell me you’re not interested. God. And to think I ever thought I was in love with you.” Greg’s drunk. He has to be. “Well, you know what? Fuck you, Nick. I’m done.”
Nick listens to the voicemail lady ask him if he wants to delete the message or save it in the archive, shocked. He closes his phone, completely ready to call Greg back when it vibrates with another voicemail. He quickly calls it back, expecting some sort of apology from Greg, but it’s Riley.
“Nick, I’m really sorry about Greg. He’s hardly been here for an hour but he’s already had a lot of alcohol. I tried not to let him, I swear! Anyway, he doesn’t really mean any of that. Well, he doesn’t mean the bad stuff. I don’t think. I don’t know if I’d call him or not. I’m taking him home right now, I’m going to make him drink a bunch of water and send him to bed. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Nick briefly considers driving to Greg’s apartment and waiting for them, but comes to the conclusion that it might cause more harm than good. He needs time to process the whole “Greg Sanders is in love with you” thing, because while he’d been hoping that those words would some day be spoken to him, it’s kind of a big deal.
So instead of going to find Greg or going to wait for him until he got home, Nick changed his clothes and got into bed. He kept waking himself up every time he’d turn over. So much for a good night’s sleep.
--
“You look like hell warmed over,” Catherine states when he gets to the lab the next morning.
“Ha ha,” he says, filling up his coffee cup with coffee. Greg and Riley still aren’t anywhere near them. Langston’s talking to Hodges out in the hallway. Neither of them look particularly happy about it. “I couldn’t sleep,”
“Appears to be an epidemic.” At Nick’s raised eyebrows, Catherine continues, “Greg missed his alarm. He called in to say Riley was going to pick him up because he didn’t have his car.”
“Greg’s working today?” Nick asks. He’d thought the only reason that Greg was out drinking last night was that he didn’t have to work today. He doesn’t tell Catherine this, fearing that it would make her take drastic measures, and the last thing Greg needed was to have Angry Supervisor Catherine on his case for at least the rest of the night.
“Yeah. They’ll be here in twenty minutes, tops. I’ll hand out assignments then.” Nick nods as she leaves and drinks his coffee slowly. He doesn’t want to contemplate Greg’s voicemail. He’d listened to it twelve more times after that, trying to discover a hidden code somewhere in his voice, but there was none. He’d even listened to Riley’s message, only to decide that the emotions in both of them were completely real.
Langston enters the break room, shaking his head heavily. “Hodges is quite the character.”
Nick cracks a smile as he sits down on at the table. “Yeah, he really is. It’s a nice change from all the people around here depressed from the dark in the world, though.” Nick tries not to think how he used to say the same thing about Greg. How he still does, sometimes.
Langston pours coffee into his cup and shakes his head. “Oh, not that. He wasn’t comical at all. As a matter of fact,” he says, sitting next to Nick at the table, “he just kept going on and on about evidence he’d logged the other night. I have no idea what in the world he was trying to tell me.”
Nick doesn’t get a chance to answer, because Greg bursts in at that exact moment, Riley following behind.
“Look, if you’re not going to apologize-“
“I didn’t do anything!” Greg says, exasperated. He all but drinks directly from the coffee pot. Nick watches silently. “I checked my phone; it didn’t have any dialed calls other than who I called when I was on the case yesterday.”
“That’s because you used--,” Riley realizes they’re not alone and smiles. “Oh. Hi.”
Langston smiles back in greeting. Nick nods his head. Before the tension is gone, Catherine returns with assignments.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re swamped today. Nick, you have a body in a dumpster. Ray and Riley, B&E on the strip. Greg, a little girl’s been missing for the last few days. There’s a few more still unaccounted for, so if you clear a case, get on another one.” She gives a final look to them all and leaves. Riley and Langston follow, leaving Nick and Greg alone in the break room.
Nick clears his throat and says, “I got your message.”
Greg just scoffs. “Riley’s got you in on it, too, huh? Good one. Has anyone told you guys that it’s not April 1st?”
“What are you-Look, do you want to hear the message so you know I’m not lying?” Nick fishes out his phone, dials voicemail, and types in his password again before giving the phone to Greg, who takes it with a heavy sigh. His eyes darken when he hears his own voice and he blushes a dark, deep red. Nick watches him.
“Oh, shit. I. Um,”
Nick takes back his phone and closes it. “I think… I think we have to talk about this, Greg.”
But Greg shakes his head, roughly. The coffee in his cup spills over the sides a little but Greg doesn’t seem to notice. “We don’t have to talk about anything. I have a case to attend to. And so do you.”
He leaves before Nick can say anything, and Nick leaves for his own scene feeling confused and a little hurt.
--
“Hodges, I told you, I need those results ASAP!” Nick says, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“I’m sorry; Catherine has me bogged down already. I’ll get to yours when I can,” Hodges replies, the hint of sincerity in his voice. Nick thanks him anyway and leaves his lab, running straight into Riley as he exits.
“Sorry,” he mumbles, starting to walk his own way when Riley’s hand latches onto his arm. “Hmm?”
Riley releases him and asks, “Have you seen Greg? I’ve been trying to get a hold of him; our case is crossing over into his.” Nick shakes his head, worry twisting in his stomach. “He hasn’t called or anything?”
Nick shakes his head again, asking, “Why would he call me, we’re not on the same case together.” There’s a short, quick pause before he continues. “You think he’s alright?”
Riley shrugs like it’s no big deal. “Oh, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s a good CSI. A great CSI. I’m sure he’s fine.” But she doesn’t look convinced and the worry in Nick’s abdomen gets worse. “He’s fine.”
Grimacing, Nick pulls out his cell phone. “I think that was one too many, Riley.” The phone rings, slowly. Nick waits impatiently for something to happen.
“-fucking decomp. Sanders.”
Nick can’t help the sigh of relief when Greg answers. Riley yanks his phone away and walks off with it a few feet, informing Greg of her findings. Langston appears beside Nick almost as though he’d came from nowhere.
“Is she talking to Greg?”
“Yeah. How’s your case?” Nick asks. Langston makes a “so-so” noise and continues on his way. Riley ‘mmhmm’s a few times at what Greg says before hanging up and returning the phone to Nick.
“He said he lost his phone when he was going through the garbage in the backyard - that had a body in it.” Nick cringes and shakes his head.
“He’s always stuck with the bad cases.” Riley shrugs and walks away. Nick sighs again, scratching his forehead. The worry in his stomach has been replaced with a weird sort of hunger that Nick just ignores in favor of going back to the evidence.
When his break comes around and he’s outside getting fresh air, Greg pulls into the parking lot slowly. The car sits in the parking spot without Greg getting out for such a long time that Nick starts to think something’s wrong. He rests his hand on the gun at his waist and walks to the car slowly, like it’s uncharted territory; like the police haven’t cleared the area yet.
He gets to the window and Greg’s just leaning his head against the steering wheel, saying something that Nick can’t hear or read. Nick licks his lips, knocks on the window, and suppresses a smile when Greg accidentally honks his horn. Greg rolls down his window.
“You’re not going to make me talk about this, are you?” he asks. Nick detects a miserable tone in his voice. He wants to talk about it, wants to so badly, but instead he leaves it.
“I’m not going to make you talk about anything. Need a hand?”
Greg smiles gratefully and opens his door. “I was waiting for someone to ask me that.”
Nine hours later and three more cases are closed. Nick is once again dead on his feet, and declines the offer that Riley gives him. Apparently the rest of them are going out to eat to kick off their days off, but Nick just wants to crawl into bed and sleep for the next twenty four hours. His mind has been on overtime most of shift, worrying about Greg and what he’s going to do, if anything, about the message he left on Nick’s voicemail.
Maybe he’s not going to do anything.
When Nick gets home, he immediately crawls into bed, his exhaustion overcoming his hunger. He sleeps for what feels like forever but is actually only six hours. He’s just waking up when his phone rings. He answers without checking the ID, and groans. “Don’t you dare tell me you need me to come into work, Cath.”
“Since when am I Catherine?”
Nick comes to full intention, even going as far to sit up in bed. “Greg.”
“I take it you didn’t check the ID, then?” Nick’s silence is enough of an answer for him. “Hah.”
Nick allows a few more seconds of silence before he has to ask. “Why’d you call me?”
Greg’s pause is a little too long. “What, a friend can’t call another friend without haven’t a hidden intent?”
“You never call me.”
Nick thinks he hears something about Nick not wanting him to before Greg covers it up with, “Okay, point taken.”
“So?”
“I think you were right. We do need to talk about thi-the message.”
--
Nick’s waiting outside the diner they frequent, waiting for Greg and feeling strangely like he’s waiting for a date. Greg said he’d be a little later than Nick, but that he’d show up just the same. Still, Nick was getting the worry he used to get all the time when he was still dating - is he going to stand me up? - which made it decidedly difficult to keep himself from thinking he was on a date.
Greg doesn’t say anything when he arrives, just motions for Nick to go inside. When they’re seated, Greg finally says, “I’m sorry. I acted like a prick.” Nick just smiles politely. “I guess. I figured if I ignored it, pretended it didn’t happen, I could make it all go away. I should know better than that, I know.”
“Things happen, Greggo. That’s life.”
Staring at him, Greg continues, “I’d really like it if we could just forget about it.” Nick didn’t want their conversation to be over that quickly. If it was just going to be this short of a conversation, he would’ve just told Greg to tell him over the phone.
Still, the dark brown of Greg’s eyes is telling him to listen and Nick can’t say no to Greg, not now.
He’s not sure if he ever will be able to again.
--
Nick’s almost pacing the bathroom floor of the diner, he’s so worked up. They’ve been here almost an hour and as soon as Greg gets him thinking about a difference subject, his mind backtracks and replays the entire message in his head. Every word sounds a lot more emphasized.
He has to do something. There’s no way he can keep living like this, with Greg’s voice echoing in his head. He opens the door with the full intent of telling Greg he can’t just ignore it, and comes face to face with the guy from the booth next to them talking to Greg, a deep, happy smile on his face. Jealousy spreads from his spine to his stomach and Nick tries to tell himself there’s no reason to get jealous because Greg’s not anywhere near his, and if things keep up the way they are, he never will be.
He sits back down and the conversation between Greg and the mysterious man ends, and Nick feels a little of the jealousy wash away when Greg sends him a grin.
They stay a little longer, maybe not even fifteen minutes, before Greg announces, “I should go home. I’m, uh. I’m glad we could talk about this.”
Nick nods, licks his lips and looks up at Greg and says, “Yeah. Me too.” He watches Greg throw a few dollar bills onto the table and walk out. He feels his legs moving him to follow after, and he can’t stop them.
“Greg,” he calls when he’s outside. A few of the people in the parking lot turn to stare at him. Nick catches up with him. “Look, I… I want to do this again.”
Greg’s face lights up, but Nick sees a little hesitancy in his eyes. “Great! How’s next week, lunch sound?”
Nick shakes his head. “No. I mean, I want,” Nick sighs in frustration and tries again. “I want this. But… More.”
For a second, it almost looks like Greg’s going to agree. The jealousy twists out of Nick’s stomach completely and he feels everything go back to normal, and then-
“Fuck you. You think you can just come in here with your charms and your good looks and get me to go on a date with you? That’s not how things work.”
Confused, Nick says, “That’s exactly how things work.”
“Not for you!” Greg replies, grabbing at his hair with both hands. “You get women to sleep with you without even trying. All you have to do is look at them and they’re instantly attached. You don’t have to do the whole “charming” thing. It just happens for you. Women fall at your feet, and…” Greg looks defeated. “You don’t have to do this for my sake, Nick. Just let it be. I’ll get over you eventually.”
Nick lets him continue two, maybe three steps before he hears himself saying, “Maybe I don’t want you to.”
“Then that’s really selfish of you. You’d be torturing me.” Nick swallows and walks up to Greg, resisting from physical contact all he can.
“And you don’t think this isn’t torture for me?” There’s a hint of confusion in Greg’s eyes, and Nick has to turn away. “First, you don’t want to talk about it. Then, you’re all for talking about it, but you don’t want it to be brought up ever again. Then you start flirting with that guy in the diner-“
“Who, Gary?”
“Sure, Gary,” Nick says the name spitefully, even though he doesn’t mean it. “And you just expect me to take it all.”
“Hey, don’t make me the bad guy here, I did nothing wrong. You’re the one, like I said, with the good looks and the charm. I fell for you because you’re so perfect. You’re what every little kid looks up to, and you save lives, Nicky. You play hero and do it damn good. You’re amazing at your job.” Greg looks like it’s paining him to say this, but he charges through it. “You always have people falling for you. It’s not my fault I had to fall for someone like you.”
“But it’s mine?” Nick challenges. “Please, don’t put all the blame on me.”
Greg shakes his head, turning to go back to his car. “Alright. So it’s my fault, whatever. I’m going home. I’ll see you at work.”
Nick catches his arm and makes him wait. “Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“Stop your freaking out. You’re so worried about me rejecting you or only doing it to be a nice guy and you don’t even know how I feel about this.”
“I have a pretty good idea,” Greg mutters. Nick raises his eyebrows in question. “You’re probably laughing your ass off. You probably think it’s hilarious that I confessed my love for you in a drunken voicemail when my attempt to impress you didn’t work-“
“Wait,” Nick interrupts, holding up a hand to stop him. “You dressed like that for me?”
Greg blinks a few times before saying, “Yeah. Who’d you think I was dressing up for?”
Nick shrugs. “I don’t know. At first I thought it was Riley, but then she mentioned something about you being gay and I wasn’t so sure.”
Greg laughs a little. “So she did say it? I thought she’d chicken out.”
Nick smiles, releasing the grip on Greg’s arm a little, but not letting go. “I’m sorry I ruined your plan, G,”
But Greg just shrugs, waving it off. “Don’t worry about it.” He pauses. “If you’re really into It, I’ll just have to do it again sometime.”
“I’m into it,” Nick replies. “I have an idea, though.” He steps closer to Greg, still smiling. “How about this time, I take a shot at it, hmm?”
“Yeah?” Greg whispers. They’re not even an inch away. Nick didn’t remember moving closer.
“Yeah.” Before Nick can get his next sentence out, Greg closes the space between them and kisses him, soft and slow and just like Nick imagined it. It doesn’t last long, like they’re saving the best for later, but it’s satisfying just the same.
“I’m thinking we should maybe get back to work,” Greg whispers, his eyes still closed. Nick doesn’t have time to answer before Greg pulls away and opens the trunk to take out the evidence. Nick helps him bring it in, and they don’t say a word as they drop it off at Trace. Greg is just about to meet up with Riley and Langston again when Nick grabs his arm, stopping him from turning the corner.
“Does Sunday morning work for you?” Nick asks, his fingers lightly brushing across Greg’s elbow.
Greg smiles widely and nods. “Yeah. Definitely. Can’t wait.” Nick releases him with a wink and goes on his way. Greg watches him leave.
--
“Candles? Roses? You really went all-out,” Greg says, awed, when he walks in to Nick’s apartment after work the following Sunday. Nick carefully takes off his jacket and leads him to the table, where there’s nothing but unlit candles, roses, champagne and two glasses. They’d grabbed food on the way back to Nick’s, seeing that there would have been no time to prepare dinner this special and it wouldn’t be the same reheated.
“If I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do it right,” he says, lighting the candles. His smile crinkles the skin around his eyes. Nick pulls out a chair for him and kisses Greg softly before going to sit in his own seat. “How am I doin’ so far?” he asks, picking up the bottle of champagne and pouring out two glasses.
Greg swallows, clinking his glass against Nick’s when Nick raises his. “You’re amazing,” he gushes, blushing quickly and trying to cover it up with a cough.
Nick doesn’t say anything, just smiles at Greg over the rim of his champagne glass, and he does it until Greg gets uncomfortable, blushes deeper and looks away. “You look beautiful.”
Greg shrugs his shoulders. “Beautiful? You couldn’t have picked a manly compliment?”
Nick laughs and amends, “Alright, you look handsome. Does that better suit your tastes?”
“It’s a little better,” Greg answers, his voice a little husky. Nick pretends not to notice. For a while, they sit in silence, Greg admiring what Nick had put together, and Nick admiring Greg. “So, do you do this for all your potential partners?”
“Sometimes. Definitely never this early on, though,”
Greg feels a surge of pride, and Nick doesn’t miss the way his eyes light up. “Guess I’m special, then, huh?”
“Always have been, Greg,” Nick says.
“You didn’t have to do all this, you know,”
Nick shrugs and takes another drink from his glass. “I wanted to. It’s taken us this long to get this sorted out; I wanted it to be special. Of course, it’d be better if I could’ve had dinner made too, but a guy can only do so much.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ve got all the time we need for that later,” Greg assures, reaching across the table to entwine their fingers together.
Nick’s mouth twitches up at the corner and he asks, “Yeah?” Greg just nods. “I was really hoping you were gonna say that.”
Rating: PG-13/T
Fandom/pairing: CSI, Nick/Greg
Spoilers: Not that I know of.
Warnings: moderate swearing :) But beyond that, nothing.
Summary: I talked to Archie. I fell in the mud, which is still caked to the clothes in the bottom of my locker. I apparently played a trick on Hodges. I realized that Greg dressed very attractive today. Greg takes matters into his own hands and makes an effort after nearly ten years of waiting.
It was raining heavily. The graveshift CSIs were searching for a murder weapon in a park, which had recently had the grass torn out in favor of woodchips. Unfortunately, that meant that the entire park was muddy, making it not only hard to walk, but hard to collect the evidence they could find, being that most of it was washed away.
“Whoa, careful there, Tiger,” Catherine says, reaching out an arm to help Nick up from where he’d fallen for the fourth time. “Don’t wanna break a hip.”
“It’s this damn mud,” Nick complains, taking off the fifth pair of gloves he’d put on and pulling another out of his pocket. “Honestly, who decides that they’re going to murder someone when it’s downpouring outside?”
Catherine winks and starts walking over towards Riley, who was waving her over. “Somebody who knows what they’re doing, Nicky. The more water that can wash away evidence, the better the chances of them getting away with it.”
Nick grumbles and flips his flashlight on. It quickly fades out. He hits it against the palm of his hand a few times before giving up and carefully walking back to his truck to get his backup pair of batteries.
“Need a hand?” a voice asks from behind him, and Nick turns his head to see Greg standing there, half smile on his face.
“Flashlight batteries burnt out,” he opens the glove box and rifles through it. There aren’t any batteries, and Nick remembers he’d given them to Riley when her radio went out the week before last. “Yeah, you have some batteries I can borrow?”
Greg’s already walking back to his car when Nick pulls his head from his car and slams the door. “What kind?” he calls back.
“C,” Nick replies, following him. There’s a strange air about Greg, one Nick can’t quite place, but before he can think too hard about it, Greg’s handing him two C batteries with a grin. Nick raises the batteries in thanks and proceeds to take the old ones out of his flashlight. He feels Greg watching him and he glances up and smiles. “What?”
Greg shakes his head quickly, shuffling his feet. “Oh, nothing.” But Greg keeps watching him, like he’s fascinated by what Nick’s doing.
Nick raises his eyebrows and screws the top back on the flashlight. “You alright? You seem a little…”
“Hey!” The two of them turn to look at Catherine, who’s holding a plastic zip lock bag in her hand, a gun inside it. “Riley found the murder weapon in the bushes. You and Greg can take it back to the lab and process the rest of the evidence.”
“Oh, thank God,” Nick mutters under his breath. Greg looks amused.
“How many times d’you fall?”
Nick blushes a little and takes off his gloves again, putting them back in his pocket. “I’d, uh, rather not say, Greg.”
--
When they get back to the lab, Greg seems a little more at ease. Nick thinks it’s a little weird but doesn’t mention it to anyone, only to have Archie comment on it when he walks in the A/V lab to look at the surveillance tapes the gas station across the street supplied.
“Damn. Have you seen Greg tonight?”
Nick swallows, taking a seat next to him. “Yeah, why?”
Archie grins, turning to look at the computer screen. “He looks like he has some hot date after work.”
“Well, you know Greg. He has another story brewing before the first one’s finished.” Nick says, effectively ending the conversation. He tries to focus on the tapes, but finds that he keeps trying to remember what Greg was wearing and why Archie felt as though it looked any different than it normally did.
He doesn’t actively realize how little he’s paying attention until Archie waves his hand in front of Nick’s face. “You still with me?”
“Huh?” Nick says, mentally telling himself he should never allow himself to be so distracted at work.
“Are you feeling alright?” When Nick nods, Archie frowns. “You should take a break. We’ve been looking at these tapes for forty five minutes. Go get some coffee.”
Coffee. Caffeine. “Yeah,” Nick says, standing up and scratching the back of his neck. “Sounds like a good idea.”
Archie slaps him on the back and is about to turn back to the tapes before he pauses and calls out, “Send Greg in here, maybe he has his head screwed on straight.”
Nick walks back to the break room, where Greg, Riley, and Langston are currently in. “Hey, what’d Archie find?” Greg asks upon seeing Nick enter, and takes a drink from the mug in his hands.
“Uh, not much, as far as I know,” he says, reaching for the coffee and grabbing one of the Styrofoam cups next to the coffee pot. “Said I’m supposed to send you in. I think he got a little sick of me.”
Greg grins and walks out. Nick watches him, analyzes what he’s wearing. As far as he can tell, it’s not anything different than what Greg normally wears to work. He shakes his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts and Riley breaks out in a frustrated groan. Langston looks surprised, even a little scared.
“Have you seen him today?” she asks, as though it pains her to say it. Nick takes a thoughtful drink of his coffee. “God. Shame he’s gay.” Nick starts choking on his coffee, coughing loudly and waving Riley to sit back down when she stands to help him.
Langston pretends to be interested in the case file, flipping through it like a magazine while Riley watches Nick, carefully. “Uh, sorry, what’d you say?” Nick asks for clarification. Because there’s no way what he heard was what Riley actually said.
“I said it’s a shame that Greg’s gay.”
Nick blinks a few times at her and refuses to believe it. Riley looks at him as though he’s supposed to continue the thought for her. When he doesn’t, she says, “…Because if he wasn’t, I’d be all over it.”
“It’s against departmental policy. Members of the same team aren’t supposed to get involved in romantic relationships,” Nick says before he even realizes he’s saying it. It sounds weird to his ears, and Nick realizes that if the situation arose, he wouldn’t care about the policy.
Langston announces that he’s going to go see what Doc Robbins has to say about their victim and leaves the room. Nick says “Later,” and watches him leave..
“So? Everybody breaks a few rules in their lifetime, Nick,” Riley replies, and when Nick looks at her, he’s positive that she winks.
He leaves the room again, with some excuse about going to check up on the evidence they’d left with Hodges, and tries not to think about asking her how she knows about Greg’s sexual orientation when she’d only been there for five months, and Nick had known Greg for years and Greg hadn’t even said a word.
Maybe that was why. Riley was new, Greg didn’t have to worry about offending her because if he came right out with it, it wouldn’t be much of a loss if she was disturbed by it. With Nick, it might be different. If Nick had a problem with it, Greg would lose a long-time friend.
Nick sighs and pushes the door to Hodges’ lab open. Hodges blinks at him a few times before saying, “Hi, Nick. Felt like dropping by?”
Nick smiles and says, “How’s the evidence coming?”
Hodges stops what he’s doing completely, raising his head to look at him straight on. “…Good.”
“Anything you can tell me?”
Hodges kind of smiles and asks, “Is this a joke?” Nick looks confused. “I see. Good one. You almost had me there.”
“What are you talking about?”
Hodges goes back to the evidence he was working on and waves his hand at Nick. “You coming in here asking for evidence to get me all worked up. Really, I didn’t know you CSI’s could be so funny.”
Nick looks down at his coffee for a moment before looking back at Hodges. “You don’t have results for me?” Hodges shakes his head slowly. “Oh. Uh. Alright, then.”
His mind is really not with him tonight.
--
They’re standing in a room with the evidence when it hits him. Greg looks sexy. Comfortable-sexy, but sexy nonetheless. Like Archie had said, he looks like he has a date after work.
Greg’s looking through photos of suspects and trying to distinguish any kind of difference between twins when he catches Nick staring. He just smiles and looks back down at his work. “See something you like?”
“What?” Nick asks, blindsided. In all his ten years of knowing Greg - had it really already been that long? - he’d never heard Greg be so forward. At least, not with him.
“Ha!” Greg says, picking up the two photos and turning around the corner of the table to show Nick. “Found it! Michael has this really small scar next to his right eye. Mason’s nose looks like it was broken at some point.”
Nick swallows, tells him, “Good work, Greg,” and clears his throat. But Greg doesn’t move. Nick suddenly feels like his skin is trying to crawl away from him.
“I learned from the best,” Greg says, still looking at him.
“Grissom’s an amazing mentor?” Nick replies, and he swears he doesn’t it mean it to come out like a question, but it does, and Greg’s lips twitch upwards a little at the corners.
“I’m not talking about Grissom, Nick. I’m talking about-“
Catherine bursts in at that moment, and Greg all but jumps away from where he was standing so close. Catherine gives Nick a look like she knows, but all she says is, “Hodges figured out who killed Adam Greene. Michael Forest, we have a location. Brass is already on his way with Ray, you guys coming or not?”
Nick nods and drops the other photos, leaving Greg behind him, confused.
When Nick is on his way home, the killer locked up safely and Brass’s kind words still echoing in his mind, he feels like he could fall over and he hadn’t even done anything, not really, at least. He looks back on the day and thinks, I talked to Archie. I fell in the mud, which is still caked to the clothes in the bottom of my locker. I apparently played a trick on Hodges. I realized that Greg dressed very attractive today. Nick shakes his head and ignores his phone as it buzzes at his hip. He’ll call them back when he gets home because he’s only a few minutes away, anyway. The rest of the team had already clocked out, leaving Nick to do the paperwork. It wasn’t too big of a deal, considering Nick didn’t mind doing paperwork - it was the least exciting thing on the job, and to Nick, anything not exciting meant that nobody was causing chaos for anybody else.
He unlocks his door and checks his phone, holding down one to dial the voicemail as he kicks off his shoes and takes off his jacket.
Nick types in his password, presses one on the keypad to play all new messages, and waits.
“You have one unheard message, sent at 9:09 AM Thursday, March 19. First unheard message:”
“You, Nicholas Stokes, are either very blind or a complete asshole.” Nick pauses mid-step to walking towards his bedroom, surprised. There’s brief talking in the background of the voicemail message and Greg returns a second later and says, “I can’t believe you’d lead me on like that for nearly a decade and then not even have the fucking decency to tell me you’re not interested. God. And to think I ever thought I was in love with you.” Greg’s drunk. He has to be. “Well, you know what? Fuck you, Nick. I’m done.”
Nick listens to the voicemail lady ask him if he wants to delete the message or save it in the archive, shocked. He closes his phone, completely ready to call Greg back when it vibrates with another voicemail. He quickly calls it back, expecting some sort of apology from Greg, but it’s Riley.
“Nick, I’m really sorry about Greg. He’s hardly been here for an hour but he’s already had a lot of alcohol. I tried not to let him, I swear! Anyway, he doesn’t really mean any of that. Well, he doesn’t mean the bad stuff. I don’t think. I don’t know if I’d call him or not. I’m taking him home right now, I’m going to make him drink a bunch of water and send him to bed. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Nick briefly considers driving to Greg’s apartment and waiting for them, but comes to the conclusion that it might cause more harm than good. He needs time to process the whole “Greg Sanders is in love with you” thing, because while he’d been hoping that those words would some day be spoken to him, it’s kind of a big deal.
So instead of going to find Greg or going to wait for him until he got home, Nick changed his clothes and got into bed. He kept waking himself up every time he’d turn over. So much for a good night’s sleep.
--
“You look like hell warmed over,” Catherine states when he gets to the lab the next morning.
“Ha ha,” he says, filling up his coffee cup with coffee. Greg and Riley still aren’t anywhere near them. Langston’s talking to Hodges out in the hallway. Neither of them look particularly happy about it. “I couldn’t sleep,”
“Appears to be an epidemic.” At Nick’s raised eyebrows, Catherine continues, “Greg missed his alarm. He called in to say Riley was going to pick him up because he didn’t have his car.”
“Greg’s working today?” Nick asks. He’d thought the only reason that Greg was out drinking last night was that he didn’t have to work today. He doesn’t tell Catherine this, fearing that it would make her take drastic measures, and the last thing Greg needed was to have Angry Supervisor Catherine on his case for at least the rest of the night.
“Yeah. They’ll be here in twenty minutes, tops. I’ll hand out assignments then.” Nick nods as she leaves and drinks his coffee slowly. He doesn’t want to contemplate Greg’s voicemail. He’d listened to it twelve more times after that, trying to discover a hidden code somewhere in his voice, but there was none. He’d even listened to Riley’s message, only to decide that the emotions in both of them were completely real.
Langston enters the break room, shaking his head heavily. “Hodges is quite the character.”
Nick cracks a smile as he sits down on at the table. “Yeah, he really is. It’s a nice change from all the people around here depressed from the dark in the world, though.” Nick tries not to think how he used to say the same thing about Greg. How he still does, sometimes.
Langston pours coffee into his cup and shakes his head. “Oh, not that. He wasn’t comical at all. As a matter of fact,” he says, sitting next to Nick at the table, “he just kept going on and on about evidence he’d logged the other night. I have no idea what in the world he was trying to tell me.”
Nick doesn’t get a chance to answer, because Greg bursts in at that exact moment, Riley following behind.
“Look, if you’re not going to apologize-“
“I didn’t do anything!” Greg says, exasperated. He all but drinks directly from the coffee pot. Nick watches silently. “I checked my phone; it didn’t have any dialed calls other than who I called when I was on the case yesterday.”
“That’s because you used--,” Riley realizes they’re not alone and smiles. “Oh. Hi.”
Langston smiles back in greeting. Nick nods his head. Before the tension is gone, Catherine returns with assignments.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re swamped today. Nick, you have a body in a dumpster. Ray and Riley, B&E on the strip. Greg, a little girl’s been missing for the last few days. There’s a few more still unaccounted for, so if you clear a case, get on another one.” She gives a final look to them all and leaves. Riley and Langston follow, leaving Nick and Greg alone in the break room.
Nick clears his throat and says, “I got your message.”
Greg just scoffs. “Riley’s got you in on it, too, huh? Good one. Has anyone told you guys that it’s not April 1st?”
“What are you-Look, do you want to hear the message so you know I’m not lying?” Nick fishes out his phone, dials voicemail, and types in his password again before giving the phone to Greg, who takes it with a heavy sigh. His eyes darken when he hears his own voice and he blushes a dark, deep red. Nick watches him.
“Oh, shit. I. Um,”
Nick takes back his phone and closes it. “I think… I think we have to talk about this, Greg.”
But Greg shakes his head, roughly. The coffee in his cup spills over the sides a little but Greg doesn’t seem to notice. “We don’t have to talk about anything. I have a case to attend to. And so do you.”
He leaves before Nick can say anything, and Nick leaves for his own scene feeling confused and a little hurt.
--
“Hodges, I told you, I need those results ASAP!” Nick says, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“I’m sorry; Catherine has me bogged down already. I’ll get to yours when I can,” Hodges replies, the hint of sincerity in his voice. Nick thanks him anyway and leaves his lab, running straight into Riley as he exits.
“Sorry,” he mumbles, starting to walk his own way when Riley’s hand latches onto his arm. “Hmm?”
Riley releases him and asks, “Have you seen Greg? I’ve been trying to get a hold of him; our case is crossing over into his.” Nick shakes his head, worry twisting in his stomach. “He hasn’t called or anything?”
Nick shakes his head again, asking, “Why would he call me, we’re not on the same case together.” There’s a short, quick pause before he continues. “You think he’s alright?”
Riley shrugs like it’s no big deal. “Oh, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s a good CSI. A great CSI. I’m sure he’s fine.” But she doesn’t look convinced and the worry in Nick’s abdomen gets worse. “He’s fine.”
Grimacing, Nick pulls out his cell phone. “I think that was one too many, Riley.” The phone rings, slowly. Nick waits impatiently for something to happen.
“-fucking decomp. Sanders.”
Nick can’t help the sigh of relief when Greg answers. Riley yanks his phone away and walks off with it a few feet, informing Greg of her findings. Langston appears beside Nick almost as though he’d came from nowhere.
“Is she talking to Greg?”
“Yeah. How’s your case?” Nick asks. Langston makes a “so-so” noise and continues on his way. Riley ‘mmhmm’s a few times at what Greg says before hanging up and returning the phone to Nick.
“He said he lost his phone when he was going through the garbage in the backyard - that had a body in it.” Nick cringes and shakes his head.
“He’s always stuck with the bad cases.” Riley shrugs and walks away. Nick sighs again, scratching his forehead. The worry in his stomach has been replaced with a weird sort of hunger that Nick just ignores in favor of going back to the evidence.
When his break comes around and he’s outside getting fresh air, Greg pulls into the parking lot slowly. The car sits in the parking spot without Greg getting out for such a long time that Nick starts to think something’s wrong. He rests his hand on the gun at his waist and walks to the car slowly, like it’s uncharted territory; like the police haven’t cleared the area yet.
He gets to the window and Greg’s just leaning his head against the steering wheel, saying something that Nick can’t hear or read. Nick licks his lips, knocks on the window, and suppresses a smile when Greg accidentally honks his horn. Greg rolls down his window.
“You’re not going to make me talk about this, are you?” he asks. Nick detects a miserable tone in his voice. He wants to talk about it, wants to so badly, but instead he leaves it.
“I’m not going to make you talk about anything. Need a hand?”
Greg smiles gratefully and opens his door. “I was waiting for someone to ask me that.”
Nine hours later and three more cases are closed. Nick is once again dead on his feet, and declines the offer that Riley gives him. Apparently the rest of them are going out to eat to kick off their days off, but Nick just wants to crawl into bed and sleep for the next twenty four hours. His mind has been on overtime most of shift, worrying about Greg and what he’s going to do, if anything, about the message he left on Nick’s voicemail.
Maybe he’s not going to do anything.
When Nick gets home, he immediately crawls into bed, his exhaustion overcoming his hunger. He sleeps for what feels like forever but is actually only six hours. He’s just waking up when his phone rings. He answers without checking the ID, and groans. “Don’t you dare tell me you need me to come into work, Cath.”
“Since when am I Catherine?”
Nick comes to full intention, even going as far to sit up in bed. “Greg.”
“I take it you didn’t check the ID, then?” Nick’s silence is enough of an answer for him. “Hah.”
Nick allows a few more seconds of silence before he has to ask. “Why’d you call me?”
Greg’s pause is a little too long. “What, a friend can’t call another friend without haven’t a hidden intent?”
“You never call me.”
Nick thinks he hears something about Nick not wanting him to before Greg covers it up with, “Okay, point taken.”
“So?”
“I think you were right. We do need to talk about thi-the message.”
--
Nick’s waiting outside the diner they frequent, waiting for Greg and feeling strangely like he’s waiting for a date. Greg said he’d be a little later than Nick, but that he’d show up just the same. Still, Nick was getting the worry he used to get all the time when he was still dating - is he going to stand me up? - which made it decidedly difficult to keep himself from thinking he was on a date.
Greg doesn’t say anything when he arrives, just motions for Nick to go inside. When they’re seated, Greg finally says, “I’m sorry. I acted like a prick.” Nick just smiles politely. “I guess. I figured if I ignored it, pretended it didn’t happen, I could make it all go away. I should know better than that, I know.”
“Things happen, Greggo. That’s life.”
Staring at him, Greg continues, “I’d really like it if we could just forget about it.” Nick didn’t want their conversation to be over that quickly. If it was just going to be this short of a conversation, he would’ve just told Greg to tell him over the phone.
Still, the dark brown of Greg’s eyes is telling him to listen and Nick can’t say no to Greg, not now.
He’s not sure if he ever will be able to again.
--
Nick’s almost pacing the bathroom floor of the diner, he’s so worked up. They’ve been here almost an hour and as soon as Greg gets him thinking about a difference subject, his mind backtracks and replays the entire message in his head. Every word sounds a lot more emphasized.
He has to do something. There’s no way he can keep living like this, with Greg’s voice echoing in his head. He opens the door with the full intent of telling Greg he can’t just ignore it, and comes face to face with the guy from the booth next to them talking to Greg, a deep, happy smile on his face. Jealousy spreads from his spine to his stomach and Nick tries to tell himself there’s no reason to get jealous because Greg’s not anywhere near his, and if things keep up the way they are, he never will be.
He sits back down and the conversation between Greg and the mysterious man ends, and Nick feels a little of the jealousy wash away when Greg sends him a grin.
They stay a little longer, maybe not even fifteen minutes, before Greg announces, “I should go home. I’m, uh. I’m glad we could talk about this.”
Nick nods, licks his lips and looks up at Greg and says, “Yeah. Me too.” He watches Greg throw a few dollar bills onto the table and walk out. He feels his legs moving him to follow after, and he can’t stop them.
“Greg,” he calls when he’s outside. A few of the people in the parking lot turn to stare at him. Nick catches up with him. “Look, I… I want to do this again.”
Greg’s face lights up, but Nick sees a little hesitancy in his eyes. “Great! How’s next week, lunch sound?”
Nick shakes his head. “No. I mean, I want,” Nick sighs in frustration and tries again. “I want this. But… More.”
For a second, it almost looks like Greg’s going to agree. The jealousy twists out of Nick’s stomach completely and he feels everything go back to normal, and then-
“Fuck you. You think you can just come in here with your charms and your good looks and get me to go on a date with you? That’s not how things work.”
Confused, Nick says, “That’s exactly how things work.”
“Not for you!” Greg replies, grabbing at his hair with both hands. “You get women to sleep with you without even trying. All you have to do is look at them and they’re instantly attached. You don’t have to do the whole “charming” thing. It just happens for you. Women fall at your feet, and…” Greg looks defeated. “You don’t have to do this for my sake, Nick. Just let it be. I’ll get over you eventually.”
Nick lets him continue two, maybe three steps before he hears himself saying, “Maybe I don’t want you to.”
“Then that’s really selfish of you. You’d be torturing me.” Nick swallows and walks up to Greg, resisting from physical contact all he can.
“And you don’t think this isn’t torture for me?” There’s a hint of confusion in Greg’s eyes, and Nick has to turn away. “First, you don’t want to talk about it. Then, you’re all for talking about it, but you don’t want it to be brought up ever again. Then you start flirting with that guy in the diner-“
“Who, Gary?”
“Sure, Gary,” Nick says the name spitefully, even though he doesn’t mean it. “And you just expect me to take it all.”
“Hey, don’t make me the bad guy here, I did nothing wrong. You’re the one, like I said, with the good looks and the charm. I fell for you because you’re so perfect. You’re what every little kid looks up to, and you save lives, Nicky. You play hero and do it damn good. You’re amazing at your job.” Greg looks like it’s paining him to say this, but he charges through it. “You always have people falling for you. It’s not my fault I had to fall for someone like you.”
“But it’s mine?” Nick challenges. “Please, don’t put all the blame on me.”
Greg shakes his head, turning to go back to his car. “Alright. So it’s my fault, whatever. I’m going home. I’ll see you at work.”
Nick catches his arm and makes him wait. “Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“Stop your freaking out. You’re so worried about me rejecting you or only doing it to be a nice guy and you don’t even know how I feel about this.”
“I have a pretty good idea,” Greg mutters. Nick raises his eyebrows in question. “You’re probably laughing your ass off. You probably think it’s hilarious that I confessed my love for you in a drunken voicemail when my attempt to impress you didn’t work-“
“Wait,” Nick interrupts, holding up a hand to stop him. “You dressed like that for me?”
Greg blinks a few times before saying, “Yeah. Who’d you think I was dressing up for?”
Nick shrugs. “I don’t know. At first I thought it was Riley, but then she mentioned something about you being gay and I wasn’t so sure.”
Greg laughs a little. “So she did say it? I thought she’d chicken out.”
Nick smiles, releasing the grip on Greg’s arm a little, but not letting go. “I’m sorry I ruined your plan, G,”
But Greg just shrugs, waving it off. “Don’t worry about it.” He pauses. “If you’re really into It, I’ll just have to do it again sometime.”
“I’m into it,” Nick replies. “I have an idea, though.” He steps closer to Greg, still smiling. “How about this time, I take a shot at it, hmm?”
“Yeah?” Greg whispers. They’re not even an inch away. Nick didn’t remember moving closer.
“Yeah.” Before Nick can get his next sentence out, Greg closes the space between them and kisses him, soft and slow and just like Nick imagined it. It doesn’t last long, like they’re saving the best for later, but it’s satisfying just the same.
“I’m thinking we should maybe get back to work,” Greg whispers, his eyes still closed. Nick doesn’t have time to answer before Greg pulls away and opens the trunk to take out the evidence. Nick helps him bring it in, and they don’t say a word as they drop it off at Trace. Greg is just about to meet up with Riley and Langston again when Nick grabs his arm, stopping him from turning the corner.
“Does Sunday morning work for you?” Nick asks, his fingers lightly brushing across Greg’s elbow.
Greg smiles widely and nods. “Yeah. Definitely. Can’t wait.” Nick releases him with a wink and goes on his way. Greg watches him leave.
--
“Candles? Roses? You really went all-out,” Greg says, awed, when he walks in to Nick’s apartment after work the following Sunday. Nick carefully takes off his jacket and leads him to the table, where there’s nothing but unlit candles, roses, champagne and two glasses. They’d grabbed food on the way back to Nick’s, seeing that there would have been no time to prepare dinner this special and it wouldn’t be the same reheated.
“If I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do it right,” he says, lighting the candles. His smile crinkles the skin around his eyes. Nick pulls out a chair for him and kisses Greg softly before going to sit in his own seat. “How am I doin’ so far?” he asks, picking up the bottle of champagne and pouring out two glasses.
Greg swallows, clinking his glass against Nick’s when Nick raises his. “You’re amazing,” he gushes, blushing quickly and trying to cover it up with a cough.
Nick doesn’t say anything, just smiles at Greg over the rim of his champagne glass, and he does it until Greg gets uncomfortable, blushes deeper and looks away. “You look beautiful.”
Greg shrugs his shoulders. “Beautiful? You couldn’t have picked a manly compliment?”
Nick laughs and amends, “Alright, you look handsome. Does that better suit your tastes?”
“It’s a little better,” Greg answers, his voice a little husky. Nick pretends not to notice. For a while, they sit in silence, Greg admiring what Nick had put together, and Nick admiring Greg. “So, do you do this for all your potential partners?”
“Sometimes. Definitely never this early on, though,”
Greg feels a surge of pride, and Nick doesn’t miss the way his eyes light up. “Guess I’m special, then, huh?”
“Always have been, Greg,” Nick says.
“You didn’t have to do all this, you know,”
Nick shrugs and takes another drink from his glass. “I wanted to. It’s taken us this long to get this sorted out; I wanted it to be special. Of course, it’d be better if I could’ve had dinner made too, but a guy can only do so much.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ve got all the time we need for that later,” Greg assures, reaching across the table to entwine their fingers together.
Nick’s mouth twitches up at the corner and he asks, “Yeah?” Greg just nods. “I was really hoping you were gonna say that.”