Title: I Don't Care Who Sees

Rating: PG

Pairing: Nick/Hank

Spoilers: none

Disclaimer: Grimm & its characters are not mine

Note: Written for a Grim_Kink prompt, which requested: Nick/Hank public kissing

It had been five hours since Hank last saw Nick. Not usually a big deal, they'd gone whole weekends without seeing or talking to each other, but this? This was different. Five hours ago he and Nick had been in pursuit of a Wesen, a serial burglar who ended up killing the occupant of the house he hit last night. They saw him near the park or rather Nick saw him, Hank had been too busy driving to notice. Hank turned the wheel sharply, ignoring the screech of tires as he sped off in the direction of their suspect. Nick was out of the vehicle before he stopped. Hank sighed, fumbled with his seat-belt and ran after them as they disappeared into the park. At least there didn't appear to be many people there, just a few people walking their dogs. No kids. That gave Hank a measure of relief, especially if things got ugly. Or...weird.

The Wesen continued to run, Nick chased and Hank followed gaining up on them; gun at the ready, badge thumping against his chest with each movement. Hank heard Nick yell for the suspect to stop, that they were the police, but the man—Wesen, whatever—didn't pay him any mind. He lead them across the field and to the edges of the woods, where deep within were countless trails that criss-crossed and snaked over acres of uninhabited land. The last thing he saw, the last thing he remembered, was the pounding of Nick's shoes on the hard earthen ground as he, following the Wesen, disappeared around the corner of a trail. Hank couldn't have been more than 20 seconds behind, but whatever happened, 20 seconds was enough to make not only the suspect, but Nick disappear. Totally, completely...just poof. Gone.

Hank remembered coming to a full stop, his boots skidding over the pine-needled littered ground as he looked around. His heart pounded, his eyes blinked rapidly. Where the hell were they?

"Nick," he yelled. He turned to the left, the right, the left again, trying to locate his missing partner, but Nick was no where to be found. There was nothing but ferns and trees and foliage—an endless stretch of green and the occasional brown of tree trunks.

He walked forward, the hand not holding his gun was outstretched before him. His first thought, silly as it sounded, that there was some sort of weird force field at play, something that the suspect and Nick walked into, but after cautiously feeling around the air he realized that wasn't it. So that left the Wesen himself. Hank was just getting the hang of this new world and he knew there were countless Wesen out there, ones that even Nick himself never seen or heard of. This had to be one of them. Right?

He yelled out for Nick again and walked to the left. His foot stepped on something hard. He looked down where a large fern sat and saw that it was Nick's gun. Damn it! He thought. Worry started to gnaw at his insides. Nick was who knows where, without his gun and with a Wesen that already proved he could and would kill. This was bad. Really bad.

He took a deep breath and went for his phone, calling the Captain. "I lost Nick," he remembered saying before he told his Captain what happened. He was told to stay where he was, to keep looking and that more units were on their way. "Yes, sir," he said before hanging up and calling Monroe.

If anyone knew about Wesen, it was Monroe.

"Hey, man, sorry to bother you, but Nick...he's missing. I'm sure it's Wesen-related," he told the man. "Yeah. No. I was with him.," he said. "We were chasing after a suspect and as Nick and him ran into the woods, they disappeared before my eyes. Just poof. Gone. I was seconds behind them." He paused and listened to Monroe. "You think he's a what? I can't even pronounce that." Another pause. "So basically, Shadow-Walker? And this Wesen can disappear? Can make Nick disappear? Great. That's just great. No, I'm at the scene. They're calling additional units to find him. Yeah...You think you can find him? Right. I never said you were a bloodhound, but you do have a good nose on you..." A pause. "Alright man, see you soon."

Hank holstered his gun, put his phone in his back pocket and looked around. The woods were quiet, eerie. The sun was starting to dim, the clouds were starting to roll in. He scrubbed his face with his hand as fear, real fear started to set in. He'd lost his partner and more than that, he lost the man he...no, he wasn't going to dwell on that now. Now he needed to be focused, he needed to remain calm. Telling himself that didn't help all too much and as the seconds passed, he became increasingly worried.

Wu and some other units arrived on the scene a few minutes later, breaking him out of his fog. He shoved the worry and fear that started to lodge itself within his belly aside and went into auto-pilot mode. He just had to pretend this wasn't Nick they were searching for, but someone else, a stranger. With that in mind, Hank and the others managed to canvas a quarter mile radius by the time Monroe appeared.

"Sorry man, I got held up," he said by greeting. Hank wondered just what would tie the man up for nearly an hour from something as serious as this, but held his tongue.

Hank merely nodded and directed Monroe to the spot where they disappeared. "Can you sense anything?"

Monroe took a deep breath in and exhaled. "Yeah, definitely a Shadow-Walker. That lilac scent? That's a tell-tale sign."

Hank didn't have a clue what he was talking about. All he smelled was earth and pine, but if Monroe said he smelled lilac, Hank wasn't going to second-guess him.

Monroe took another deep sniff. "Nick was here, I can smell him."

Hank cocked his head to the side and wondered what Nick smelled like to the Blutbad. Because to Hank he smelled like a the air after the thunderstorm, pine trees with tiny hints of spicy cologne.

Hank remained silent as Monroe took a few steps forward into the trail. "And the trail end here."

Monroe shook his head and mumbled something under his breath. Any hope Hank had of finding Nick was dashed. The fear that was tightly coiled, sprung free once more. His heart started to pound and his stomach danced with a horde of butterflies.

"So that's it? He's...gone?" Hank asked, afraid to voice is real fears, to ask if he was gone for good.

Monroe met his eyes and Hank could see the worry and sympathy within them. "I"m sorry I can't do more," Monroe said and ran a hand through his hair.

"It's okay. You tried," Hank said unable to keep the dejected tone from his voice.

Monroe nodded. "When a Shadow-Walker disappears they—and this is sort of speculation, they're pretty tight-lipped about this—sort of go into this Otherworld. It...It's like a defense mechanism. Camouflage. I don't really know, to be honest. They aren't a common Wesen."

"Otherworld?" Hank asked, feeling sick. Was Nick lost for good, trapped somewhere? Was be hurt? Or worse?

"Yes...no. It's hard to explain. They're here, but not." Monroe looked off into the distance, his eyes tracking over the woods. "It's not forever. They can't sustain it for that long. I'd give it about 6 hours tops?"

"Can they see us? Hear us?" Hank asked.

"No."

Hank sighed. "His gun was left behind. Is he in any danger?"

Monroe pursed his lips. "He's a Grimm," was all the man would say. Hank felt a chill race though his body. He may be a Grimm, but he was still human.

Hank nodded, afraid to speak. Afraid that his voice would betray the chaotic feelings racing though him.

Monroe walked towards him, placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a light pat. "I'm really sorry, man. If anyone can handle this, it's Nick."

"Yeah," Hank said and cleared his throat. "He'll be back here in no time."

That was four hours ago. Nick had been missing for five now. Would he come back after six? Or at all?

Hank, being unable to tell the officers gathered what was going on, watched as they combed the woods for his missing partner. They brought lights to illuminate the area marked off with yellow police tape, giving an unnatural glow to the dark woods. If only it were that simple, if only it was as easy as shining a light into the darkness.

Hank had been ushered away from the scene by the Captain, who sat with him on the hood of a car. He wanted to be in the woods looking for his partner, but he knew it was futile. Nick wasn't there. He was somewhere else. But the need to do something, anything clawed at him and made him fidgety.

They didn't speak, Hank and Renard, there wasn't really anything to say. He clued his Captain in on what Monroe said hours before and with a sigh, Renard nodded his head and went through the motions. And Hank was worried if he did speak, all the things he'd been bottling up for a long time now would just spew from his mouth. Things like, what if I never get to tell him how I feel? What if he doesn't come back? What if he's hurt? Why couldn't I have been just a little bit faster? He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes, feeling on edge and exhausted at the same time.

It was then that he heard yelling in the distance from the officers that were still in the woods. His head whipped up to look at the entrance of the trails. His heart started to pound again. Did they find him? Monroe never explain how and in what shape Nick would return. Hank berated himself for not asking. Was he...was he dead? Bile threatened to rise and he stood up, shoving his hands in his pockets to hide their shaking.

Captain Renard rose as well and started to walk towards the woods. Hank stood frozen. Tears started to coat his eyes and he blinked furiously. He looked up again and saw, like a miracle, Nick walking—no, limping—out of the woods, his body illuminated by the flood lights. His pants were dirty, his coat gone, his shirt torn. Hank sucked in a breath and nearly choked. He didn't think, just ran towards Nick. As he got closer, he saw the dirt smudging his left cheek, temple and neck. Saw his hair tousled and wet. Saw a small scrape near his hairline, already scabbed over with dried blood.

Hank didn't stop running. Not until he had Nick in his arms, had him enfolded in his fierce embrace.

He heard Nick's sharp intake of breath as their bodies snapped together and his arms wrapped tightly around his partner's torso. "I thought you were gone. I thought I lost you," Hank said softly in Nick's ear, voice thick with emotion. Nick wrapped his arms around Hank and held him close.

Hank pulled back and cupped his cheek with his hand, gently wiping at the streak of mud with his thumb. "I—I thought. I was—"

Hank licked his lips and swallowed. Words failed him. He leaned down and brushed his lips across Nick's, relishing in their softness, their warmth. He felt Nick sigh as their lips touched and since he didn't pull away, he leaned in and deepened their kiss. Hank felt Nick's hand at the base of his neck, cool on his flushed skin. Felt him pull him closer, deeper. Hank nearly groaned at the pleasure of it. Nothing ever felt so good, he thought.

"Guys?" a voice said. "Guys? As cute as this little reunion is, you might want to—"

Hank pulled back slowly, regretfully. Nick gave a disappointed huff.

"What do you want, Wu?" Hank asked.

"Nothing, just...you got an audience," he said, hand waving though the air in an arc.

Nick and Hank looked around, eyes wide as they look in the officers surrounding them, most of them from patrol. There were about ten of them, not counting the Captain, Wu and some others from his department.

Nick blushed. "Well...," he said, but made no move to disentangle himself from Hank.

Captain Renard walked over to them, placed a hand on Nick's shoulder and smiled. "It's good to have you back."

Nick cleared his throat. "Thanks, sir. The suspect—"

"Put it in your report, Nick. We'll deal with this later."

Nick nodded, understanding the subtext. They'd have to go over this later, come up with an explanation.

"Did you get the guy?" Hank asked him in a low voice, face still close to Nick's.

Nick looked into Hanks warm, brown eyes. "You can say that. Things were...interesting there to say the least."

"You'll have to tell me about it," Hank said. "I was worried something happened to you."

Nick smiled. "Yeah. I could tell," he gave a chuckle.

Hank released Nick and took a step back, wondering if Nick knew what he was doing. He seemed to be a bit too happy, a bit too pleased with the situation. Maybe he was under the influence of something? That thought caused a stab of pain to piece Hank's heart.

"Hank, what are you doing?"

"You should get looked at by the medics," he said instead, not looking at Nick.

"Hank?"

"You probably want to get home. It's been a long day, right? I should head home too. Get some sleep," he rambled.

"Hank?" Nick asked, his voice more insistent.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and come here," Nick all but growled as he pulled on Hank's shirt, bridging the distance between them. "What's wrong?"

Hank pursed his lips. "Are you, yourself?" he asked. "I mean, are you drugged or anything?"

Nick raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side. "I'm fine, Hank. Totally myself. Why?"

"So you really are happy that I kissed you. In front of everyone?"

Nick flashed him a smile. "I don't care who sees. I've been wanting to kiss you for...a long time."
Nick said and reached up to cup Hank's jaw, bringing his face closer to his own.

"You—you did?" Hank sputtered out.

"Yes," Nick whispered against Hank's lips.

"Still? God, guys, you should really get a room!" Wu said as he walked into the clearing once more.

"Thanks, Wu," Hank said in a dead-pan voice.

"No, thank you. I get get $100 because of you too."

"You bet on us kissing?" Nick asked, a bit surprised.

Wu gave him a look. "Yeah, I knew it was going to happen eventually. It was obvious."

"Well, that's interesting. Who else bet on us?"

"Oh, the lots of people. The Captain for one. He actually made off with $300. Lucky bastard."

Hank and Nick looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Come on, Hank. I'm starving," Nick said, taking Hank's arm and leading him away from the woods.

"Your place or mine?" Hank asked as they walked off into the darkness.