The revelation that Nick Burckhardt had played both sides of the fence even before Juliette didn't really surprise Eddie. The ease with which he accepted a same-sex relationship, the way he accepted full penetration or gave blowjobs, were indicators already.
"And you wanted the girl?" Eddie teased.
Nick shrugged. "Bi means I like both. At the time Juliette was the perfect partner."
Before his heritage had been triggered. Everything after that had been a complete mess. The companion of a Grimm had to know, had to be able to defend himself, had to accept. Juliette still didn't know and Nick had never planned on telling her.
The wolf's metaphorical ears pricked. "Back then, hm?"
Nick grinned. "Back then," he only said.
Eddie wanted to grab him and throw him against the wall, kiss him, taste him… The fact they had arrived at their destination, a run-down, decrepit building where Nick suspected a lizard-like creature resided that had been terrorizing the neighborhood and actually killing a guy.
"Nice," the blutbad muttered in disgust. "Smelly, too. You take me to the most charming places, Nick."
It was all business from here to the messy, shoot-the-creature end. Eddie let the Grimm handle the matter, his wolf stirring only once or twice as he watched Nick trying to talk the lizard-thing down. Always the talking, the soothing gestures, the calm voice… just the way he handled every encounter. So not Grimm-like. So very Nick.
In the end shooting the lizard was the only solution.
Nick hated it.
x x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x x
He went back into the forest a few days later. It was a cold, damp and foggy day. The fog clung stubbornly to the trees, obscuring the view, giving everything a quite mystical air. Nick had bundled up in thick clothes, the cold biting into his exposed skin. It was also quite refreshing and the short hike to the spot where he had last seen the waldgeist was good exercise.
He met no one else.
He was completely alone.
Eddie didn't know about his little excursion and he would probably tear him a new one for repeatedly exposing himself to this kind of danger.
But Nick was a Grimm; danger was part of his job now.
The forest was eerily silent. Nothing moved, the air was saturated with water, the fog barely moving. He strained his ears, but he caught no other sound than the occasional drop of water falling from the trees and splashing on the leafy ground.
Nick waited.
He knew he was being watched. Waldgeister were the forest, their protectors, and he was a Grimm. He stood out and they could sense him. In a way he felt them, too.
So much had changed in the past months. He had read all there was in Aunt Marie's trailer. He had learned to handle himself, to use his gift, his ability. The way Eddie looked at him sometimes, a mixture of respect, lust and thrill, Nick knew that things had truly changed. It didn't mean he went out to kill. He was still a cop and he handled the creature-related matters the same way.
Grimms had been meant as peacekeepers, as profilers to understand the creatures and to make sure both worlds didn't annihilate the other. Because they needed each other. As Grimm he kept an eye on matters and only intervened if someone got out of line. He wasn't judge, jury and executioner in one. He was the police, in both worlds.
Something whispered through the forest, but no sign of a waldgeist. Nick thought he saw a shadow within the fog, but maybe his eyes were playing tricks on him.
Nothing happened.
The silence continued.
He finally decided that the waldgeist was ignoring him and slowly made his way back up the game path.
There was a brief warning, like a tingle of alarm, then something curled gently around his wrist, tugging him to a stand-still.
Nick looked at what had touched him.
A vine.
As thick as a child's arm and holding him with deceptive gentleness. It would probably be able to break all the bones in his wrist if he made a wrong move.
The vine tugged once more, then fell away, slithering around his ankles and laying still. Ready to trap his feet.
"Where are you?" Nick asked, scanning the foggy foliage.
"Everywhere," the voice he associated with the waldgeist he had met before could be heard.
The creature stepped out of the fog. "You came back."
He waited.
"Because you have learned about yourself."
"How much about whole pairing and breeding is true?" Nick demanded.
The vines snaked over his boots and disappeared. The black eyes blinked slowly and Nick thought the forest around him moved.
"You have an edge that others don't have. The first Grimms knew they had to breed this, had to maintain it. Even when your child's mother or father is not a Grimm, the trait is dominant."
"So a creature's traits would always be dominated by the Grimm genes?"
"Yes."
"Do you know what my family line incorporates?"
"No."
Nick chewed on his lower lip. "Are Grimms actually… I mean, by origin, human?"
"No one knows where the first one came from. You have always been there. The name was given to you after two brothers wrote the fairytales humanity loves to read today."
"They weren't the first Grimms, right?"
"No."
A vine brushed over his hand, another touched his shoulder in an almost-caress. Nick didn't flinch away.
"You and the blutbad have mated," the waldgeist stated.
Nick felt something inside of him bristle, but he refused to be baited. "So am I human?" he asked instead.
No answer.
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"You are a lot of things, Nick Burckhardt. Foremost a Grimm. And Grimms are part of the creature world."
He swallowed. "No one kept a family tree," he heard himself say. "I don't even know much about my own parents, let alone Marie. Why?"
"Knowledge is power. In the wrong hands it can be fatal. Like us you exist in secret. You keep records of the creatures you interact with, their strengths and weaknesses. From the beginning it was decided to purge the records of the Grimms."
"So I'm as much a creature as everyone?"
"No. You are very much human with the abilities you need to do what you have to."
That answered… nothing at all. Well, except for the little tidbit that his ancestry was rather mixed and that whatever his gene pool contained, it wasn't simply human.
The vines had disappeared, slithering back and becoming one with the forest, and the creature was almost obscured by the fog.
"Your alliance with the blutbad is a rare one, Grimm. Your trust in his loyalty even more so. Be careful."
And then it was gone. One blink to another and the waldgeist was just a memory.
Be careful? Why? Because the waldgeist thought Eddie might betray him? Kill him?
Nick didn't believe it. Something, maybe his instinct, told him that the blutbad would rather die himself than harm Nick.
The Grimm stayed where he was for a moment longer, then walked back to his car.
x x x x x x x
The drive back was filled with whirling thoughts, about his heritage, about his family, about his future. About Eddie Monroe.
Eddie wouldn't have been Eddie if he hadn't picked up on it when Nick had, almost like on automatic, gone to his place. He sniffed, probably able to tell exactly where Nick had been, and from the scowl that was just that.
A large hand pushed Nick against the wall, the dark eyes boring into his gray ones, and for a brief moment Nick felt like slapping the hold away and walking off. Emotions were churning and from the expression in Eddie's face the wolf was very much aware that he needed to tread lightly.
One wrong word and Nick would be gone. And Eddie might need an icepack for whatever bruise he might feature.
"Calm down," he rumbled.
Nick screwed his eyes shut, fighting with himself.
Eddie leaned forward, cheeks brushing together, his lips whispering against Nick's ear. "Whatever this thing said, it changes nothing." He buried his nose against the crook of Nick's neck.
Nick knew nothing could change. He couldn't change. He had been born like this and he would always be a Grimm. Knowing that there was nothing on his family history, on Grimms in general, out there hurt.
"At least you know your heritage," he murmured.
"Not a good argument," the blutbad answered, the hand on Nick's chest slipping around his waist, holding him lightly.
Eddie was still careful. Thrilled by the Grimm in his hold, but careful. Nick found it amusing that the big bad wolf got off on being with a human; who happened to be a Grimm. Or maybe it was whatever creature ancestry might or might not be in Nick's bloodline. Maybe he had some blutbad somewhere, maybe his ancestors had found some other creature highly attractive. He didn't really want to get into all that.
"I'm not proud of my family," Eddie went on. "Not at all. Even for blutbaden they went a little too far. I never knew my grandfather, only that Grimms finally brought him down. But the stories…" He shuddered. "Really bad."
Nick leaned up and kissed him, gently biting the lower lip when they parted. He felt Eddie's fingers press into his back.
The blutbad let his head fall against Nick's shoulder with a groan. "You bring out the worst in me, Grimm."
"Hm, so far I didn't think it was bad," Nick purred, running teasing fingers over the hair on Eddie's neck. The wolf shuddered. "It's actually fantastic."
"Only you would think that getting pounced by a blutbad and fucked senseless is fantastic."
He chuckled. "It is. You are. I wouldn't do this if I didn't want you to be yourself." Eddie raised his head and their eyes met. Nick relaxed against the wall, all too well aware that his whole posture screamed 'take me' at his partner. "And you want this, Eddie. You want me. The Grimm."
The blutbad rumbled a little. "You're more than that."
"So are you. But it gets you off in a good way." Nick pulled him close by grabbing a handful of shirt. "And me, too. You have no idea what you do to me, Eddie. None at all."
Eyes flared red as Nick slipped a hand underneath the loose shirt, warm skin under his touch.
"Screw whatever they bred into your ancestors," the blutbad said roughly. "I don't care."
Their lips clashed, teeth nipping at softer flesh, and Eddie had to hold back not to rip Nick's clothes apart.
As it was, fucking his partner against the wall, hard and fast, was one way to calm down both of them. Nick simply let go, forgot all he had heard lately, had discovered about himself, and he simply felt. He felt Eddie. He felt himself. He let their shared pleasure erase everything.
x x x x x x x
"A warning, hm?" Eddie enjoyed the gentle caress of blunt fingernails over his back. Nick was drawing aimless patterns that didn't try to arouse.
They had made it to bed somehow.
"I'm not sure."
"Of me?"
"I don't know."
He turned his head, looking at the man at his side through narrowed eyes. "Do you think I would betray you? Sell you out?"
Nick stopped the caress. "No! Of course not!"
"Because I wouldn't," the blutbad grumbled. "I'm not that cheap!"
Nick leaned over him and kissed his neck. "I know you aren't. I trust you, Eddie."
A curl of warmth spread through his body and Monroe smiled. "You do," he stated.
With everything.
Nick gently bit one shoulder. The expression in his eyes was almost proprietary. Eddie knew the game when he saw it and his inner wolf was quite pleased with the current situation.
"I trust you," Nick repeated, voice soft, low, very intense. "Completely. Without question."
Eddie knew he was lost. Utterly. There was nothing he could say, though instinct yelled 'You shouldn't!' at the Grimm.
"I know I can," Nick told him, as if reading his mind.
Yeah, he could. Absolutely.
Words were stuck in his throat he couldn't get them out. Words that…
Nick kissed him. Slow. Sensual. Staking a claim like no one else had before.
The words weren't needed.
