I've made it obvious,
So finally I'll sing it,
I'm not so good with words,
And since you never notice the way that we belong,
I'll say it in a love song

There he was standing on the stage holding a microphone in his hand and staring at the man next to him. "I can't believe we're doing this," Nick whispered under his breath to Greg.

"And I can't believe that Sara took us to this cheap karaoke bar for her birthday," Greg replied.

Greg looked up at Sara who had just entered the break room.

"Hey there, birthday girl."

Sara smiled back at him. "Do you have any plans for today yet?"

"Nick and I wanted to meet up and try out this new computer game," Greg answered while he was pouring himself some coffee.

"Why, that's perfect, so both of you are free to …" But Sara was cut off by Greg turning around and saying, "What? No, I said, …"

This time it was Sara's turn to interrupt her friend, "I am going to celebrate my birthday tonight and I really wanted the two of you to be there." She gave Greg an enticing smile.

Greg sighed, "Well, if it means that much to you. But I can only talk for myself here. You have to ask Nick himself."

"Ask me what?" Nick asked standing in the doorway of the break room.

"Sara asked us to sacrifice our evening to celebrate her birthday today." The young CSI explained to him.

"Of course we'll come along," Nick told Sara. "We can always meet up some other time, right?" Nick looked over to Greg.

"Sure," Greg replied. "So where's the party again?"

"It's at this new karaoke bar, I told you about."

"Wait, no one said anything about karaoke," Nick interrupted. "I don't do karaoke!"

"Come on, man, it's for Sara!" Greg said.

"Yes, it's for me, your best friend. How could you say no?" Sara pleaded with her eyes.

"Wait, I thought I was your best friend," Greg jumped in.

"Well," Nick looked from one to the other, "actually, it's Warrick." and then he quickly turned around and left the room.

"What! What?" Greg nearly screamed.

"Calm down! You know, he didn't mean it. He just wanted to give you a hard time," Sara said in a soothing yet amused voice. She got up and patted Greg on the shoulder on her way out. "See you tonight."

"You made it," Sara got up and hugged Greg. Catherine, Warrick and Grissom sat around a table near the stage while some guy was declaring his undying love for his girlfriend on stage.

After Greg had settled down next to Cath it was Nick's turn to hug Sara, "Happy birthday, Sara!"

"Thanks! Did you two arrive together?"

"Yeah," came Greg's reply, "Nick's car's still in the garage."

Sara looked at Nick who only nodded and made to greet Warrick. "What's up, man? Where's your lovely wife?"

Warrick grimaced, "She had to work." He quickly made to change topics. "Why didn't you tell me about your car? I'd have given you a ride. We finished shift at the same time after all." Warrick asked his friend.

Sara glanced at Nick.

"Ah, you know, Greg already offered, so …" he trailed off.

"But you had to wait at least an hour for his shift to end, didn't' you?" Sara inquired.

"So what? I had enough paper work to fill out." He shrugged.

"Hey, no more talk about work," Greg interrupted Nick's questioning, "this is a karaoke bar and that's why we're going to sing a song for our birthday girl, right guys?"

The team looked at Greg like he had told them to strip in front of everyone in the bar.

"What?"

Sara turned to the young CSI, "That's a great idea, Greg. I actually hoped you'd sing for me. I've already had a specific song in mind. And before you ask, it's a song I like."

Greg made a face.

"Come on. It's my birthday," Sara begged. "What does it matter anyway? You can sing Marilyn Manson songs to your heart's content after this one."

"She's right," Nick cut in, "we'd all love to hear you sing, right guys?" He looked at his colleagues.

Cath smiled and Warrick grinned at Greg. Grissom on the other hand seemed to be the only one who seriously pondered Nick's question. "I've always wondered what your singing voice would be like after all the screaming you did when you were still in the lab."

Cath rolled her eyes and Sara grinned. "See, I'm not the only one, even Gil wants to hear you sing!"

Greg sighed.

"Come on man, after all the bragging it's time you showed us some proof," Warrick added.

"What song?" asked a defeated looking Greg.

"You know, the one we were listening to the other day, the one you absolutely hated," Sara answered triumphantly.

Greg's eyes grew wide. "No way I'm gonna sing this. Not even if I could save the world by singing it!"

"What song do you mean," asked a more than curious Catherine.

"It's called Obvious and you know why I'd like to hear it from Greg after listening to it."

Greg paled. "Look Sara, any other song is fine just not this one, OK?" he nearly pleaded.

Warrick looked at Nick with a devilish grin. "Hey, I've got an idea. What do you think about Nick joining Greg on stage?"

Nick's eyes widened. "Hey!"

Sara searched Warrick's eyes for a second. Not finding what she was looking for she turned to her young friend. "That's actually a great idea. What do you think, Greg?"

Greg seemed to have found another approach to the situation and stood up. "You know what, why not, OK? It's just a stupid meaningless song. Come on Nick, let's show them how karaoke is done!" He held out his hand to a confused looking Nick. The Texan took it after a moment's consideration and was dragged to the stage by his young friend.

I'll sing until the day you're holding me,
I've wanted you for so long but on and on you get me wrong,
I more than ado..re you and since you never seem to see,
I'll say it in this love song

Nick had long ago stopped singing. He just stood on the stage looking at Greg, looking at his friend, the man he spend so much of his time with, the man who had become so important to him, sing about unrequited love.

Greg had noticed, too that he'd been the only one to sing on the stage yet somehow he couldn't stop. The song had struck a chord, a chord that had been struck the first time he had heard it. He had locked eyes with Nick while singing. Nick, his friend, the man he had admired from the start, the man he loved to spend time with, ... the man he loved.

The last chords of the song ended but neither of them noticed it. Both man stood on the stage eyes focused on each other. Nick's heart beat fast. All he could see, all he could feel was the young man in front of him. With one long step he closed the distance between them. They were so close now that he could feel Greg's breath hot against his lips. His eyes drowned in the chocolate depths of Greg's and all he wanted to do was get even closer.

That's when Greg blinked and the world came back to him. Nick could hear the cheers from the crowd not sure if they cheered because of their performance or because of what they had been about to do just then. He turned his head towards their table and saw their friends' expressions. Gil observed them like some of his insects, Warrick looked extremely confused and Cath and Sara seemed to wait for something to happen. He merely sensed a movement from Greg and turned his attention back to him.

Greg had already turned his back on Nick and was about to leave the stage when he felt a hand on his wrist holding him back. He was spun around so quickly his body crashed into Nick's and he was blown away by the look in the older man's eyes. He didn't really know which one of them closed the distance first. All he knew was that he was kissing Nick. He was kissing the man he loved and he knew that Nick loved him, too, knew it with all of his heart.

A.N.: Ah, I know the end is a bit abrupt but, well, ...
Anyway, thanks to everyone who read, especially to the ones who took their time to review ;-)