Nick stepped as quietly as he could into the kitchen of the bar. There had to be coffee around somewhere. He'd only managed a few short hours of sleep. Being in a strange place was hard enough, but knowing Monroe was just the other side of the wall and not having the first clue of what to do about it didn't help. The noise behind him made Nick jump.

"Couldn't sleep?" Eliot asked, leaning against the doorframe.

"Coffee?" was Nick's only reply when he got his breathing back under control. Eliot chuckled and moved into the kitchen. Nick stepped back and let him work. Watching Eliot's back, Nick asked as carefully as he could. "So… You and Monroe."

"We're friends," Eliot answered the unspoken insecurity. "That's all we ever were." Nick's sigh of relief was thankfully inaudible. "How about you and Monroe?"

"I, uh…" Nick really didn't know how to answer that. Taking a deep breath, he decided to start from the beginning. "Well, we first me when I accused him of kidnapping and physically assaulted him. He realised how out of my depth I was and decided to help me. From there it gets… complicated."

"The girlfriend?" Eliot asked, turning from the pot of coffee that was now percolating.

Nick gave a heavy sigh and leaned against the counter. "Monroe stuck by me through a lot of things. Wesen don't take kindly to one of their own siding with a Grimm. He got in trouble. A lot. Then this Hexenbiest… it was all downhill from there. I took away her power, so she poisoned my girlfriend."

"Where does Monroe come in?"

"Things with Juliette were strained long before the poisoning. She refused to marry me because I was keeping secrets. The more time I spent with Monroe…" Nick took another deep breath. He didn't understand why he was telling Eliot, a relative stranger, all this, but a sympathetic ear was something he hadn't had in a while. "I got close with Monroe. Nothing happened, but we both felt it. When Juliette was poisoned I had to tell her who I was. She thought I was nuts. She went into a coma, and when she came out of it three weeks later, she left me. I went to Monroe for comfort and it turned into something else."

"You kissed?"

"Barely," Nick laughed bitterly. "Monroe freaked. He kept talking about taking advantage of me, how I was only there because I was upset. I couldn't bring myself to disagree. I care about Monroe, I do, but I'm so damn tired of fighting for everything."

Eliot shot Nick a wry, knowing smile. He poured two cups of coffee and handed one to Nick before speaking. "Maybe you don't have to fight. Sometimes the best things happen when you just stop fighting."

It was Nick's turn to smirk. "Parker and Hardison?"

Eliot inclined his head and began to speak before Nick could ask. "I wasn't always such a nice guy, and being with me isn't smart even when you take out the Wesen factor. They didn't care. They still don't. It doesn't matter to them what I've done, or that someone somewhere might one day use them to get to me. They've stuck by me through some really bad stuff, and they don't love me any less for it."

"Must be nice," Nick sighed wistfully.

"They drive me crazy," Eliot replied with a laugh. "But I wouldn't trade it. Normal isn't something we do around here."

Nick was about to answer when Eliot straightened and looked towards the door. Nick turned to see Monroe there; bed headed and bleary eyed.

"I heard you get up," Monroe mumbled. "Is there coffee?"

Without thinking about it, Nick handed his mug over to Monroe. Their hands brushed as Monroe gratefully took the mug, and Nick flicked a look back to see Eliot smirking knowingly at him.

"I should go," Eliot spoke up. "Sunday morning means pancakes and waffles. If I don't deliver someone's gonna throw a fit."

Nick watched as Eliot left the room, a lightness in his step that the other man knew was from thinking of his lovers. Turning his attention back to Monroe, Nick was just in time to take the coffee mug as it was offered back. There was still half a cup left, and Nick sipped at it while Monroe blinked a few times to wake himself up.

"So what do you wanna do today?" Monroe asked eventually.

"Not sure," Nick replied. "If you want time to catch up with Eliot, I'm sure I could go bug the others."

Monroe seemed torn between wanting to spend time with Eliot and not wanting to leave Nick alone. After a moment's silence he came to a decision. "How about we meet up for lunch? Y'know, after I'm done with Eliot and you're done snooping."

Nick couldn't help smiling at how well Monroe knew him already. He was more than a little curious about what Eliot and his team did. Dipping his head to hide the smile, Nick mumbled "not snooping. More like getting to know the neighbours."

"Sure," Monroe laughed. "If that's what you wanna call it." The fell into a comfortable silence then, their eyes slowly but surely drawn to each other.

"So lunch then," Nick spoke softly, making no move to leave.

Monroe nodded but didn't move either. "Yeah."

Silence stretched for a few long moments as they looked at one another, neither man wanting to leave first. Only the sound of someone coming through the front door shook them out of their haze. As if he'd been shocked, Nick almost ran from the kitchen, mumbling a quick "later" as he brushed by Monroe. Not knowing what to do, Monroe stayed where he was, staring at the coffee mug they'd shared that Nick had left on the counter.