Fic: Dealing, 4/4
Jun. 2nd, 2005 03:27 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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nickngregTitle: Breakfast
Author: acroarcs
Rating: PG-13
Setting: Late season 5
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI, and I don't make money from it.
Summary: Greg tries to make sense of things, a breakfast is served, and the envelope makes another appearance.
Notes: I've decided to give the set of four its own title, which is nice since it's over. This story got finished tonight because it just wouldn't leave me alone. Maybe I can get some sleep now.
1: Denver
2: Broken
3: Clay
4: Breakfast
Greg could tell he’d woken up before the alarm. To start, there wasn’t any jarring noise, and the sun was still poking through the blinds at too high an angle. More importantly, he could feel that Nick was still in the bed beside him. Not exactly in the bed with him, but beside him would have to do.
“Tweezers,” Nick said softly. He had to be dreaming about work, which was par for the course based on how he normally talked in his sleep. Greg rolled from his back onto his side to look at Nick.
Nick’s back was still turned toward him. It hurt, even though the idea that Nick had intentionally stayed in that position the entire time he was asleep was a little farfetched. Greg let his eyes wander over Nick’s shoulders and back, tracing lines of skin and muscle that he knew by touch but so rarely saw. At least, so rarely saw coherently. Greg made a mental note to look at more of Nick more often. Of course, that would have to start with getting Nick to let him look, something that would take some talking, and there wouldn’t be a lot of time for that between when Nick woke up and when Nick left for work.
A sudden thought struck Greg, and he nearly laughed aloud as he worked out its implications. There’d be plenty of time for talk. Nick didn’t have his jeep, so he’d need a ride.
Greg wasn’t entirely sure what he and Nick were arguing about. About Warrick finding out about them, certainly, and possibly about Sara as well, even though Nick had said that Sara wasn’t a problem. Greg thought about that. Nick had said that, sure, but he’d definitely had a negative reaction to the news. So Greg was going to have to start paying even more attention to all the things Nick didn’t say. No small task, considering just how much Nick didn’t say out of some sort of argument avoidance technique.
The flip side was that he’d have to pay more attention to all the things Nick did say. If something was bothering Nick enough for him to actually say anything, that meant not only that he believed it down to his core but also that his core was shaken. Nick thought Greg was pressing him into uncomfortable situations. Greg nodded to himself. Once pointed out to him, he could pick out individual moments and see why. Nick didn’t like having an audience. Fair enough, if it was just that, but Greg suspected it was more specifically that Nick didn’t like having an audience for his homosexual relationship.
“Greg,” Nick said. His breathing was the same as before and he hadn’t moved. Greg waited a moment to see if Nick would say his name again, but there was only silence from the other side of the bed. Nick was still asleep, dreaming about Greg. Given that Nick had also talked about tweezers, it was still probably about work. Greg hoped it wasn’t, even though he wasn’t sure what could be happening in Nick’s mind that involved both tweezers and Greg if it wasn’t work. Whatever it was would definitely be out of the ordinary for Nick, and that would be good for him.
Closeted Nick. It had been a long time since Greg had felt like he needed to hide anything. He didn’t go around telling people, but that was because a lot of people reacted strangely to it. They’d be angry with you or they’d stop listening to you or they’d get supportive. The first group would find someone to blame and they’d be disgusted with you. The second would convince themselves that you were just going through some sort of phase and then they’d try to convince you of the same, no matter what you said. And the third would overreact and watch every little thing they said and do everything so correctly and sensitively that it was clear you were no longer their friend. You were their gay friend. Greg couldn’t decide which reaction he liked the least, so he’d just stopped saying anything at all. He still hadn’t felt pressured to not be gay, just to not bring up poor conversational topics. He’d never been pressured to not be gay. At least he hadn’t, not until he’d started dating Nick.
That had been a frustrating experience, but he’d put up with it for Nick. He hadn’t said a thing, and maybe he and Nick had more in common than he’d realized.
Greg rolled his eyes. He really wasn’t going to get anywhere talking to himself, and he needed to be talking about this with Nick anyway. He made himself more comfortable, preparing to go to sleep again, quietly watching Nick’s back move in time with his breathing as he drifted away.
It figured that that was when the alarm would go off.
Nick reached for it with one hand as he sat up, instantly awake with the sound as always. After he flipped off the alarm, the hand went to his head. Greg heard him groan.
“Good morning,” Greg said quietly.
Nick turned. A smile touched his lips and lit up his whole face, although there was some sort of pain evident in his eyes. “Morning,” he said. They looked at each silently. “Look, about this morning…” Nick started, but his voice trailed off. Greg almost spoke up to say not to worry about it, but he kept the thought to himself. He wanted to hear Nick and listen to him, provided the man was actually going to talk.
“Most of that was just blowing off steam,” Nick said. “I’m sorry, you don’t need to worry about it.”
That was going to cause some problems down the line. “No,” Greg said. He propped himself up on one elbow. “It takes a lot for you to say things like that. A lot of alcohol, maybe.” He smiled at Nick’s grimace. “But also a lot of pent up tension. So we’ll talk about it, and we’ll worry about it, and we’ll work on things.”
Nick smiled again and slowly leaned over toward Greg. Their lips met, both mouths slightly open. It wasn’t really a kiss, just hovering, each of them slowly grazing against the other, but Greg didn’t want to argue semantics with himself during a kiss. Nick’s mouth tightened and stretched into a smile as he started laughing. “I don’t want to move,” he whispered.
His words sent stale morning breath into Greg’s mouth, but Greg didn’t care about the taste. With the scare over the letter from Denver, he’d realized that each kiss with Nick had the possibility to be the last, and now with this unexpected argument he mentally added that he should treat them as such. So he just lingered on Nick’s lips and smiled in return. “Neither do I,” he said.
“But,” Nick said, in that tone that meant neither he nor Greg could control that there was a ‘but,’ “I have to get ready to go.” He finished the hovering with an actual kiss before pulling away.
“I know,” Greg said. “Go take your shower. I can get some breakfast for you or…” He paused, running through the morning’s argument in his head. “Or I could call Warrick and find out where your jeep is. Or not.” He tried to gauge Nick’s reaction. “Or both, or just one, or…”
“Sssh,” Nick said. He laughed softly, shaking his head. “I can’t believe I don’t even know where the jeep is.” He cocked his head to the side for a moment, as if considering. “Go ahead and give him a call if you want.”
“You don’t mind that he…?”
“It won’t make things any different.” Nick stood up, stretching and bringing out the definition in his arms and back. And yes, Greg was definitely going to have to look at that back more often.
Greg watched from the bed as Nick crossed the room in his boxers and went out the door. He could still just see an arm when Nick stopped at the linen closet for a towel, draping it over the visible shoulder before he disappeared completely. As Greg got out from under the covers, he could hear the shower start. He pulled on the clothes he’d carefully folded and set aside that morning before heading to the kitchen.
The bread was sitting right next to the toaster, just asking to be put in. Greg obliged it, taking out four slices, two for each of them. As the bread toasted, he took a look in the refrigerator for something to go along with it. He pulled out a jar of strawberry jam and a carton of eggs. He set the jam aside and found a pan and a fork to make scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs and toast. He’d promised breakfast, but Nick had to know it wasn’t going to be fancy.
All in all, a satisfactory afternoon, Greg decided. Nothing resolved with Nick, which they would have to work on. Otherwise they’d just ride that yo-yo right back to the same place and the same argument, which would probably be a minus. But for now they were having breakfast together and going for a ride to some unknown location, and that hadn’t looked likely six hours before. Greg would take what victories there were to be had.
He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, pulling up Warrick’s number and calling it. Warrick picked it up, sounding very much hung over. “Sanders,” he said with surprise.
“Yeah, Warrick, it’s me,” Greg said. He kept scrambling the eggs with his free hand. The toast popped up behind him.
“What do you want?” His tone wasn’t unfriendly, just uninviting and unpleasant.
“I need to know where Nick’s jeep is,” Greg said. “So I can take him to it.”
“You’re still there with him.”
“Yeah,” Greg said. He pulled two plates out of a cabinet. “Well, sort of. He’s in the shower.”
“You’ve been there all day.”
“The whole time, yes,” Greg answered.
“At Nick’s.”
Greg decided Warrick was reacting along the lines of both anger and failure to listen. “Yes,” Greg said. He tried not to growl in frustration. This was getting repetitive. “Do you remember where the jeep is?”
“Hunter’s,” Warrick said. “Over by the old…” Greg thought he recognized the place and the start of Warrick’s directions confirmed it, so he knew he could get there. He let Warrick drone on anyway as he arranged breakfast on the plates. At least as long as he was being helpful he wasn’t saying the same thing again and again. When he finished, Greg thanked him quickly and hung up.
Dealing with Warrick would not be the same as dealing with Sara. Of course, Nick had said as much in the morning.
He pushed the thought from his mind as he cleared space on the dinette for the plates and forks. The movement of newspapers and magazines exposed something that looked familiar. Greg put down the eggs and toast and fished an envelope out from under the pile of paper. It was the one from the Denver Police Department, only now it was open. He thought about reading it, but Sara’s offhand comment that he’d stolen Nick’s mail before stopped him. He hadn’t even read it that time, and there was no need to start now. He put it in between the two plates, out in the open where it would stare Nick in the face when he came to breakfast.
A couple minutes later, Nick appeared, all dressed for work. His hair was still damp from the shower. “Smells good, Greg,” he said as he walked into the room. He took a chair. “You didn’t need to wait.”
“I didn’t,” Greg said. He hadn’t, either; he’d been distracted by the envelope. “I just served myself a whole lot more and started early.”
Nick laughed and reached for his fork. The laughter stopped when he saw the envelope. “That’s still bothering you?”
“You opened it,” Greg said.
“And you think I want to leave Vegas,” Nick said. He put a forkful of eggs in his mouth.
“No,” Greg said, slightly annoyed that Nick was eating. “You said you didn’t, and you said you wouldn’t. But it’s still unsettling.”
Nick smiled around the fork as he pulled it back out of his mouth. He swallowed. “I was just looking to see what they’d sent. So I’d know what the market rate is.”
“And?”
“I don’t know,” Nick said. He started laughing again, and he just looked good when he did that, no matter how irritated Greg was. “They mailed me to say they have a record of receiving my resume, but they can’t find the resume itself. So if I’m interested in a job, I should resend it.”
Greg laughed despite himself. “Is that really why they sent you that? Everything because they can’t keep track of paperwork in Colorado?”
Nick shrugged. “Guess so,” he said. “But you know, I think I’m okay with that. Maybe we needed that. Or at least I did.”
“Maybe so,” Greg said. He picked up his fork and dug it into the eggs. He was about to put the first mouthful away when he noticed Nick staring at him and smiling. “What?” he asked.
“You see what we just did?” Nick said. “That thing where we talked about a problem and now it’s gone?”
Greg nodded slowly.
“It was kinda nice,” Nick said. “Maybe we should see if it works a little more often.”
Greg smiled. “Maybe we should.”
“And you know something else?” Nick pointed at Greg with his fork before motioning to the plate with it. “These eggs are damn tasty.”
“Thanks,” Greg said. He finally got the fork into his mouth, and found that Nick was exactly right.
Author: acroarcs
Rating: PG-13
Setting: Late season 5
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI, and I don't make money from it.
Summary: Greg tries to make sense of things, a breakfast is served, and the envelope makes another appearance.
Notes: I've decided to give the set of four its own title, which is nice since it's over. This story got finished tonight because it just wouldn't leave me alone. Maybe I can get some sleep now.
1: Denver
2: Broken
3: Clay
4: Breakfast
Greg could tell he’d woken up before the alarm. To start, there wasn’t any jarring noise, and the sun was still poking through the blinds at too high an angle. More importantly, he could feel that Nick was still in the bed beside him. Not exactly in the bed with him, but beside him would have to do.
“Tweezers,” Nick said softly. He had to be dreaming about work, which was par for the course based on how he normally talked in his sleep. Greg rolled from his back onto his side to look at Nick.
Nick’s back was still turned toward him. It hurt, even though the idea that Nick had intentionally stayed in that position the entire time he was asleep was a little farfetched. Greg let his eyes wander over Nick’s shoulders and back, tracing lines of skin and muscle that he knew by touch but so rarely saw. At least, so rarely saw coherently. Greg made a mental note to look at more of Nick more often. Of course, that would have to start with getting Nick to let him look, something that would take some talking, and there wouldn’t be a lot of time for that between when Nick woke up and when Nick left for work.
A sudden thought struck Greg, and he nearly laughed aloud as he worked out its implications. There’d be plenty of time for talk. Nick didn’t have his jeep, so he’d need a ride.
Greg wasn’t entirely sure what he and Nick were arguing about. About Warrick finding out about them, certainly, and possibly about Sara as well, even though Nick had said that Sara wasn’t a problem. Greg thought about that. Nick had said that, sure, but he’d definitely had a negative reaction to the news. So Greg was going to have to start paying even more attention to all the things Nick didn’t say. No small task, considering just how much Nick didn’t say out of some sort of argument avoidance technique.
The flip side was that he’d have to pay more attention to all the things Nick did say. If something was bothering Nick enough for him to actually say anything, that meant not only that he believed it down to his core but also that his core was shaken. Nick thought Greg was pressing him into uncomfortable situations. Greg nodded to himself. Once pointed out to him, he could pick out individual moments and see why. Nick didn’t like having an audience. Fair enough, if it was just that, but Greg suspected it was more specifically that Nick didn’t like having an audience for his homosexual relationship.
“Greg,” Nick said. His breathing was the same as before and he hadn’t moved. Greg waited a moment to see if Nick would say his name again, but there was only silence from the other side of the bed. Nick was still asleep, dreaming about Greg. Given that Nick had also talked about tweezers, it was still probably about work. Greg hoped it wasn’t, even though he wasn’t sure what could be happening in Nick’s mind that involved both tweezers and Greg if it wasn’t work. Whatever it was would definitely be out of the ordinary for Nick, and that would be good for him.
Closeted Nick. It had been a long time since Greg had felt like he needed to hide anything. He didn’t go around telling people, but that was because a lot of people reacted strangely to it. They’d be angry with you or they’d stop listening to you or they’d get supportive. The first group would find someone to blame and they’d be disgusted with you. The second would convince themselves that you were just going through some sort of phase and then they’d try to convince you of the same, no matter what you said. And the third would overreact and watch every little thing they said and do everything so correctly and sensitively that it was clear you were no longer their friend. You were their gay friend. Greg couldn’t decide which reaction he liked the least, so he’d just stopped saying anything at all. He still hadn’t felt pressured to not be gay, just to not bring up poor conversational topics. He’d never been pressured to not be gay. At least he hadn’t, not until he’d started dating Nick.
That had been a frustrating experience, but he’d put up with it for Nick. He hadn’t said a thing, and maybe he and Nick had more in common than he’d realized.
Greg rolled his eyes. He really wasn’t going to get anywhere talking to himself, and he needed to be talking about this with Nick anyway. He made himself more comfortable, preparing to go to sleep again, quietly watching Nick’s back move in time with his breathing as he drifted away.
It figured that that was when the alarm would go off.
Nick reached for it with one hand as he sat up, instantly awake with the sound as always. After he flipped off the alarm, the hand went to his head. Greg heard him groan.
“Good morning,” Greg said quietly.
Nick turned. A smile touched his lips and lit up his whole face, although there was some sort of pain evident in his eyes. “Morning,” he said. They looked at each silently. “Look, about this morning…” Nick started, but his voice trailed off. Greg almost spoke up to say not to worry about it, but he kept the thought to himself. He wanted to hear Nick and listen to him, provided the man was actually going to talk.
“Most of that was just blowing off steam,” Nick said. “I’m sorry, you don’t need to worry about it.”
That was going to cause some problems down the line. “No,” Greg said. He propped himself up on one elbow. “It takes a lot for you to say things like that. A lot of alcohol, maybe.” He smiled at Nick’s grimace. “But also a lot of pent up tension. So we’ll talk about it, and we’ll worry about it, and we’ll work on things.”
Nick smiled again and slowly leaned over toward Greg. Their lips met, both mouths slightly open. It wasn’t really a kiss, just hovering, each of them slowly grazing against the other, but Greg didn’t want to argue semantics with himself during a kiss. Nick’s mouth tightened and stretched into a smile as he started laughing. “I don’t want to move,” he whispered.
His words sent stale morning breath into Greg’s mouth, but Greg didn’t care about the taste. With the scare over the letter from Denver, he’d realized that each kiss with Nick had the possibility to be the last, and now with this unexpected argument he mentally added that he should treat them as such. So he just lingered on Nick’s lips and smiled in return. “Neither do I,” he said.
“But,” Nick said, in that tone that meant neither he nor Greg could control that there was a ‘but,’ “I have to get ready to go.” He finished the hovering with an actual kiss before pulling away.
“I know,” Greg said. “Go take your shower. I can get some breakfast for you or…” He paused, running through the morning’s argument in his head. “Or I could call Warrick and find out where your jeep is. Or not.” He tried to gauge Nick’s reaction. “Or both, or just one, or…”
“Sssh,” Nick said. He laughed softly, shaking his head. “I can’t believe I don’t even know where the jeep is.” He cocked his head to the side for a moment, as if considering. “Go ahead and give him a call if you want.”
“You don’t mind that he…?”
“It won’t make things any different.” Nick stood up, stretching and bringing out the definition in his arms and back. And yes, Greg was definitely going to have to look at that back more often.
Greg watched from the bed as Nick crossed the room in his boxers and went out the door. He could still just see an arm when Nick stopped at the linen closet for a towel, draping it over the visible shoulder before he disappeared completely. As Greg got out from under the covers, he could hear the shower start. He pulled on the clothes he’d carefully folded and set aside that morning before heading to the kitchen.
The bread was sitting right next to the toaster, just asking to be put in. Greg obliged it, taking out four slices, two for each of them. As the bread toasted, he took a look in the refrigerator for something to go along with it. He pulled out a jar of strawberry jam and a carton of eggs. He set the jam aside and found a pan and a fork to make scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs and toast. He’d promised breakfast, but Nick had to know it wasn’t going to be fancy.
All in all, a satisfactory afternoon, Greg decided. Nothing resolved with Nick, which they would have to work on. Otherwise they’d just ride that yo-yo right back to the same place and the same argument, which would probably be a minus. But for now they were having breakfast together and going for a ride to some unknown location, and that hadn’t looked likely six hours before. Greg would take what victories there were to be had.
He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, pulling up Warrick’s number and calling it. Warrick picked it up, sounding very much hung over. “Sanders,” he said with surprise.
“Yeah, Warrick, it’s me,” Greg said. He kept scrambling the eggs with his free hand. The toast popped up behind him.
“What do you want?” His tone wasn’t unfriendly, just uninviting and unpleasant.
“I need to know where Nick’s jeep is,” Greg said. “So I can take him to it.”
“You’re still there with him.”
“Yeah,” Greg said. He pulled two plates out of a cabinet. “Well, sort of. He’s in the shower.”
“You’ve been there all day.”
“The whole time, yes,” Greg answered.
“At Nick’s.”
Greg decided Warrick was reacting along the lines of both anger and failure to listen. “Yes,” Greg said. He tried not to growl in frustration. This was getting repetitive. “Do you remember where the jeep is?”
“Hunter’s,” Warrick said. “Over by the old…” Greg thought he recognized the place and the start of Warrick’s directions confirmed it, so he knew he could get there. He let Warrick drone on anyway as he arranged breakfast on the plates. At least as long as he was being helpful he wasn’t saying the same thing again and again. When he finished, Greg thanked him quickly and hung up.
Dealing with Warrick would not be the same as dealing with Sara. Of course, Nick had said as much in the morning.
He pushed the thought from his mind as he cleared space on the dinette for the plates and forks. The movement of newspapers and magazines exposed something that looked familiar. Greg put down the eggs and toast and fished an envelope out from under the pile of paper. It was the one from the Denver Police Department, only now it was open. He thought about reading it, but Sara’s offhand comment that he’d stolen Nick’s mail before stopped him. He hadn’t even read it that time, and there was no need to start now. He put it in between the two plates, out in the open where it would stare Nick in the face when he came to breakfast.
A couple minutes later, Nick appeared, all dressed for work. His hair was still damp from the shower. “Smells good, Greg,” he said as he walked into the room. He took a chair. “You didn’t need to wait.”
“I didn’t,” Greg said. He hadn’t, either; he’d been distracted by the envelope. “I just served myself a whole lot more and started early.”
Nick laughed and reached for his fork. The laughter stopped when he saw the envelope. “That’s still bothering you?”
“You opened it,” Greg said.
“And you think I want to leave Vegas,” Nick said. He put a forkful of eggs in his mouth.
“No,” Greg said, slightly annoyed that Nick was eating. “You said you didn’t, and you said you wouldn’t. But it’s still unsettling.”
Nick smiled around the fork as he pulled it back out of his mouth. He swallowed. “I was just looking to see what they’d sent. So I’d know what the market rate is.”
“And?”
“I don’t know,” Nick said. He started laughing again, and he just looked good when he did that, no matter how irritated Greg was. “They mailed me to say they have a record of receiving my resume, but they can’t find the resume itself. So if I’m interested in a job, I should resend it.”
Greg laughed despite himself. “Is that really why they sent you that? Everything because they can’t keep track of paperwork in Colorado?”
Nick shrugged. “Guess so,” he said. “But you know, I think I’m okay with that. Maybe we needed that. Or at least I did.”
“Maybe so,” Greg said. He picked up his fork and dug it into the eggs. He was about to put the first mouthful away when he noticed Nick staring at him and smiling. “What?” he asked.
“You see what we just did?” Nick said. “That thing where we talked about a problem and now it’s gone?”
Greg nodded slowly.
“It was kinda nice,” Nick said. “Maybe we should see if it works a little more often.”
Greg smiled. “Maybe we should.”
“And you know something else?” Nick pointed at Greg with his fork before motioning to the plate with it. “These eggs are damn tasty.”
“Thanks,” Greg said. He finally got the fork into his mouth, and found that Nick was exactly right.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2005-06-02 08:16 am (UTC)That's so perfect. I can totally see Nick saying something like "tasty".
& this fic is perfect as well, I'm enjoying it immensely. (:
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Date: 2005-06-03 04:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-03 06:04 am (UTC)Just so long as you don't say you're a Cowboys fan.... :)
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Date: 2005-06-03 06:07 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-06-02 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-02 08:39 pm (UTC)haha... the resume thing was fab. looove.
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Date: 2005-06-03 04:57 am (UTC)More important, though, is your icon Jason Varitek!? That picture is hot hot hot.
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Date: 2005-06-02 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-06-05 06:17 pm (UTC)