Warning for spoilers through the current season and adult content (slash) and language. I don't own anything, obviously.
I was just bored waiting for classes to start up again next week and had a craving to write another Nick/Greg story. This is going to be a short one, just a few chapters, but should be good and sweet nonetheless. Hope you enjoy, and as always reviews are always appreciated!
It was all innocent enough, it really was. Nothing was planned out, it just happened the way that it happened. After pulling yet another double, Greg had dragged himself to his car, only to find that it refused to start. The engine wouldn't even turn over. Battery was dead. He left his lights on. He never forgets to turn them off, but tonight, he did. He knew he wouldn't be able to jump it again; he had done so too many times and the last time the mechanic said not to even bother the next time, it wouldn't work. So he gets out of his car, slamming the door in frustration. He pulls out his iPhone, holding down the button and asking Siri the find the number for the nearest tow truck company. DB walks by, on the phone with one of his kids or his wife, and briefly holds the phone away from his mouth to ask Greg if he was okay.
"Need a lift?" he asked.
Greg shook his head. "I'm fine, I'll just get a cab."
DB nodded once before returning to his phone call and walking away. Greg didn't blame him; if he had a family, he wouldn't go out of his way to prolong going home to them. Greg turned his attention back to his phone to see what the hell was taking so long to be met with a black screen. He held down the button to no avail. Another dead battery.
"This has to be a fucking joke," he said out loud as he seriously considered smashing the useless phone in his hand in the concrete below his feet.
Suddenly, another iPhone appeared in his view, in a hand unmistakably identified as that of Nick Stokes. "You alright G?" he asked with a small smile.
Greg sighed heavily. "Car won't start. Phone died. I need a drink.
Nick laughed. "Call a tow truck, get it out of here, and I'll help you with that drink problem."
Greg almost declined. He just wanted to go home, shower, have a few beers, and go to sleep. But there was something different in Nick's voice that he picked up on that told him Nick wanted to have a drink with Greg for his own sake, not just to help out a friend. He hadn't heard Nick sound like that in a long time, not really since Warrick had died. He was about to ask if Nick was alright when the older man handed his phone, which was already connected to the tow truck company.
"You don't have to wait with me," Greg said about ten minutes into them sitting up against the retaining wall in the parking garage waiting for the tow truck.
Nick shrugged. "Got nothing else to do," he answered simply enough. Greg decided not to push it because there was something up with Nick; he just couldn't quite put his finger on it yet.
The truck came about fifteen minutes later, and the pair were back at Nick's house within the hour. Greg collapsed on the couch while Nick went into the kitchen, bringing a six pack of beer back with him. He put it ont he coffee table, opened two bottles and handed Greg one silently. They sat there without saying anything for a very long time. They polished off the six pack relatively quickly, and not having eaten anything in quite some time Greg was already feeling a slight buzz. He let himself sink further into the couch as Nick got up again, this time returning with two six packs, putting one down in front of Greg and the other for himself.
Greg smiled widely and spoke for the first time since arriving at Nick's. "Got a brewery back there?" he asked.
Nick shook his head with a smile. "My brother was here last weekend. He went a little over board when I was at work. He doesn't get much time off and doesn't like to drink in front of his kids, so he took advantage here. Left me a lot behind, which I'm not complaining about."
"How many kids does he have?" Greg asked, taking advantage of the rare opportunity of Nick talking about his family.
"Three," Nick answered. "Three boys. Ryan's eleven, Carson's eight and Jason is four. They're more than a handful, I'm surprised he doesn't drink heavily when he's home."
Greg smiled. "I wish I had had a brother or a sister growing up. Being an only child sucked."
"Being the youngest of seven isn't all that great either," Nick replied. "But I'd rather it than no one I guess."
"Were you close with all of your siblings?" Greg asked.
Nick shook his head after finishing and opening another beer. "No, my two oldest sisters are older than me to the point where they were out of college and living in different states before I was even twelve. I barely know them at all. I was closest with my brother because we had to stick together against the three other girls. We all keep in touch as much as we can, but they're so busy with their families and work and everything that it's hard, ya know?"
Greg nodded, even though he didn't really know. They fell into a comfortable silence for the remainder of their fifth beer each, and upon being halfway through the sixth, Nick spoke again.
"Have you ever thought about quitting? Or leaving Vegas?" he asked so quietly that Greg barely heard him.
He was surprised by the question. He looked over at Nick, but the other man was staring down at the beer bottle in his hand that was resting on his thigh. "Yeah, I have," he answered honestly. "After the lab explosion I almost went back to California, and then after I got beat up I almost did again. Then Sarah left and Warrick died and Grissom left and then Ray..." he trailed off, knowing he didn't need to tell Nick how hard all of that had been.
"I wanted to leave a few times," Nick admitted, "but I didn't have anywhere to go. Going back home wouldn't solve anything, and starting over in a new city would have made me miss Vegas, which would have pissed me off because half the time I hate it here."
"Agreed," Greg responded. "I hate that I can't leave here."
Nick took a long drink from his bottle before finally looking over at Greg. "I probably would have left if you had," he said. Greg was so stunned by that statement that he didn't say anything. He just sat there in silence as Nick guzzled down the rest of his beer before continuing. "After Warrick died, I realized how often I took you for granted. You were always so willing to help in any way you could and I never appreciated what a good friend you really are. After everything that's happened, it just wouldn't be the same without you around. I wouldn't be able to handle it, you just make things easier I guess."
Having no idea what to say, Greg finished his beer as an excuse to break eye contact with Nick and try and stall to think of something to say, but he couldn't. He had always wanted to be buddy-buddy with Nick and Warrick, and for a time the three of them were fairly good friends, but when it came down to it, it was always Nick and Warrick as best friends. Not to mention the underlying fact that Greg had always wanted to be more than friends with Nick, but he had kept those feelings at bay for so long that he had gotten good at pretending they didn't exist at all. And he probably would have been able to continue pretending that they didn't exist if Nick hadn't kissed him when he turned back to face the older man.
After having described Nick's revelations as shocking and stunning, Greg was left with no possible explanation for how Nick kissing him rendered his mind. There were no words that existed to explain the shock, excitement, confusion, and joy that radiated through his body immediately. He had barely had time to fully register that Nick was kissing him before the other man pulled away enough to look into Greg's eyes, but close enough that the younger man could hear his heart racing in his chest.
"You're drunk," Greg said, unable to think of anything else.
Nick shook his head. "Not really. Not that drunk."
"What does that mean?" Greg asked. Nick didn't reply, he just swallowed hard and kept looking at Greg. "You didn't just kiss me because you're drunk?"
Nick shook his head slowly. "No. Not entirely. It gave me the balls to finally do it, but it didn't just pop into my head like 'hey I'm kinda drunk so let's make out with Greg' or anything like that."
Greg was still very, very confused. "What are you trying to say Nick?"
"I don't know," he answered lamely, but honestly. "It's never really made any sense to me. I've never been attracted to a guy before, never even thought about it. But there was just something about you, and I thought it was just your personality because you're a cool guy and everything, and then I kept catching myself checking you out and thinking about you..in that way..and I don't know. So yeah, I'm drunk because I never would have told you any of that if I were sober, but that doesn't mean I'm lying. I'm not lying."
"Are you saying you have feelings for me?" Greg asked, subconsciously hearing in his head an objection from an imaginary lawyer claiming he was leading the witness, but he didn't care because he needed to know.
Nick just stared at him for a very long time before slowly nodding in response. "Yes. I'm sorry, I know it must be fucked up for you to hear that but it's true and I have absolutely no idea why I decided to tell you, but I did. I know you flirt with everyone, but sometimes it felt like you were really flirting with me and I'm sorry if I took it wrong but I just-"
Nick's sentence was cutoff by Greg kissing him hard, and once the confusion wore off Nick responded readily. Before either of them had realized that it was happening, they fell off the couch onto the floor, with Nick on top of Greg, who was eagerly trying to change that fact. He was about to roll them over when Nick suddenly stood up, leaving Greg on the floor to stare up at him in confusion. Nick just shook his head silently before stepping over Greg and walking away, headed for his bedroom. But Greg quickly got up off of the floor and rushed past Nick, stopping him before he got to the bedroom door.
"What's wrong?" he asked nervously. Nick didn't say anything, he just looked at the floor. "You don't want to do this, do you," Greg stated more than asked. "You're drunker than you thought you were."
Nick shook his head. "That has nothing to do with it," he said, still looking down at the floor.
"Then what's it got to do with?" Greg asked.
Nick turned around to walk away again, but Greg grabbed his arm, keeping him in place. After a brief hesitation and a heavy sigh, Nick turned back to face Greg so quickly that the younger man wasn't prepared for Nick to kiss him again, or pin him up against the wall in doing so. Greg was immensely confused, but couldn't bring himself to care about that at the moment because Nick's tongue was in his mouth and their bodies were pressed up so tight against one another. And then suddenly, Greg wasn't against the wall anymore. Nick had backed up, pulling him away, and steered him towards the bed. They were still locked in a heated kiss when the back of Greg's knee his the edge of Nick's bed and he fell backwards, pulling the other man down on top of him by holding onto his belt. Nick quickly removed his own shirt before getting rid of Greg's. His hands moved down Greg's slim, toned body and came to rest at the spot where Greg's skin ended and boxers began. That's when Greg noticed the older man's hands were shaking.
This time it was Greg who pulled away and broke the kiss. He looked up at Nick, but he was looking down at his hands. Greg followed his eyes to confirm that Nick's hands were in fact shaking, so he covered them with his own in an attempt to get them to stop.
"It's okay if you don't want to do this," Greg said softly. "You're drunk, and you'll regret it after. I understand."
Nick shook his head almost as soon as Greg had started speaking. "You're wrong," he replied. "I want to do this, I have for a while. I just..." he trailed off, not knowing how to explain it.
Greg sat up slowly, allowing Nick to shift his position and sit on the bed next to him. "What's wrong?" Greg asked again, trying to look Nick in the eye but the other man wouldn't allow it. Not knowing what else to do, Greg started to move to get off the bed, but Nick grabbed his hand.
"I've never done this before," Nick said quietly as he slowly looked up to meet Greg's eyes. "Not with a guy. I have no idea what I'm doing because it's so different. In a good way, but still different. I don't know. I'm just really nervous because I..." he trailed off again and averted his eyes away from Greg's. "I don't want it to suck, for you, because I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I have no idea what to do. Have you done this before?" he asked.
Greg nodded slowly. "Yeah, a few times. Mostly in college."
Nick swallowed. "Do you, I mean like were you..."
"Did I take it or give it?" Greg asked with a small laugh, noting how cute it was that Nick was so shy about the subject.
Nick laughed nervously. "Yeah, I didn't know how else to put it but yeah, that's what I mean. I don't want you to have to do something you don't want to do, ya know? I clearly have no idea."
"I've done both," Greg answered. "But you can do..what you normally do, with women..so it won't be too weird for you or anything."
Nick sighed. "It's not like it's weird because you're a guy, I'm not like grossed out or anything, it's just different. I've never been attracted to another guy before, and there was just always something about you. I really want to do this, I swear, I guess I just don't know how," he said, laughing lamely.
Greg smiled. "It's okay," he said, squeezing Nick's hand reassuringly. "We don't have to do this now. We can take our time and work up to it and wait until you're comfortable and sure that it's what you really want to do."
"I know it's what I want," Nick replied. "You're what I want. This isn't just about sex Greg, I have feelings for you beyond that. I never really understood them, but I guess it doesn't matter because it won't change them. I don't understand why you're the only guy I've ever been attracted to in anyway, but I don't care why because I know I definitely do. I want to be with you, in every way, and if you don't feel the same I completely understand and I'm sorry to throw this all at you at once but I know you need to know before you decide to do anything with me."
Greg slowly leaned forward and kissed Nick softly, effectively calming the Texan's nerves and relaxing him slightly. When Greg pulled back, he was smiling widely. "I've wanted to be with you for so long that I was able to convince myself not to even think about how I felt and pretend that we were just friends so I wouldn't mess anything up. I went out of my way to talk about girls to you so that you wouldn't know and we would have something to bond over, ya know?"
Nick laughed. "That's funny because I was going to ask out that teacher, who turned out to be a stripper, just so that you couldn't. But then I didn't want to be a jerk and have you hate me so I didn't because I wanted you to be happy."
"She wasn't a stripper man, and you can't really say anything considering you slept with a hooker."
Nick smiled. "That's when I first started realizing I liked you more than a friend."
Greg frowned. "When? After you slept with Kristy?"
Nick nodded. "Yeah. I went in to thank you for helping out, you helped Catherine keep me out of jail. I went in and thanked you and left really confused because you looked..jealous."
"I was," Greg said with a laugh. "But didn't think you'd notice. You noticed that?"
"Yeah, I did, and I was confused because I liked that you were jealous and I had no idea why. I thought it was just because I had bragging rights or something, but I knew that wasn't it. I kind of just ignored it for as long as I could, and I can't anymore. None of the women I've been with ever made me feel like you do, and we've just been friends for the last fifteen or however many years."
Greg shook his head slowly. "I never thought in a million years that this would ever happen."
Nick laughed. "Me either, but I'm glad it did."
"Me too," Greg said, smiling as well.
Suddenly both very tired, the pair laid down against the soft pillows, sighing contently, hands still intertwined. They both let their tired eyes close, not needing to say anything else at the moment. Everything that initially needed to be said had been voiced, and when they woke up they could continue to discuss whatever they felt needed to be discussed. For now, they were both happy drifting off to sleep, together, not having to worry about anything else for a change.