nickngreg | (no subject)

Title: Still
Author: kieksterbanjo
Rating: Chapter 5: PG-13
Summary: There's no end to fatherhood...

A/N: Just enough of a break from schoolwork to finish up a chapter! Now back to my essay! Lol

Chapter 5

Nick woke up the next morning to find Greg’s back pressed against his chest. He sighed happily as he leaned his face into the crook of Greg’s neck and inhaled the scent he fell in love with so many years before. The exhaling breath that wafted over Greg’s skin obviously hit a nerve because Greg’s eyes fluttered open with a sigh as he snuggled back closer to Nick.

“Didn’t we fall asleep on opposite ends of the bed with two people between us?” Nick asked curiously as he slid a hand under Greg’s t-shirt to drag his nails softly over Greg’s stomachs muscles; smiling against Greg’s neck when he felt the muscles ripple and a shiver run through Greg’s body.

Greg’s eyes flicked to the clock on the bedside table, “It’s after nine. The dynamic duo never sleeps in past eight. They’re probably downstairs watching cartoons or something.” He said stretching to wake himself up a little before snuggling back against Nick.

“Mmmmm lucky us.” Nick mumbled nipping the flesh behind Greg’s ear lightly.

Greg groaned softly reaching a hand behind him to try and pull Nick closer, “Everyone’s probably up by now.” He sighed sadly as Nick’s hand on his stomach moved lower to push his thumb under the hem of Greg’s boxer and run it back and forth slowly.

“Mmmmm?” Nick’s hum may have held a question but he knew what Greg was implying; he just didn’t feel why it mattered.

“I can’t get into this knowing that people may be walking past the door. People like…your father?” Greg hated to quell the moment, especially after they had gotten a metaphorical cold shower the night before, but he didn’t want to be getting into it with Nick while he thought of Bill Stokes hearing as he walked down the hallway.

“We can be quiet.” Nick whispered and Greg chuckled with a groan as Nick’s hand continued lower.

“When did you become the horndog in this relationship? I thought that was my job.”

“You’re rubbing off on me.” Nick mumbled.

“And we can be quiet? When was the last time we were ‘quiet’ during sex?”

“There was that one time at work while we waited for the GCMS to finish.” Nick reasoned.

Greg half chuckled half groaned, “Seriously Nicky, we can’t do this now.”

Nick groaned and removed his face from Greg’s neck to lay his head behind Greg’s on the pillow, “No fair.” He grumbled like a five year old who was denied a cookie.

“Maybe tonight, love.” Greg placated, patting Nick’s thigh, “In the mean time I want you to hear this new song I downloaded.” Greg said moving to push up from the bed.

Suddenly Nick got hit with inspiration. He pulled Greg back down on the bed quickly, causing Greg’s elbow to connect with Nick’s stomach, “Okay that hurt.” Nick grimaced, holding his side.

“Serves you right. Why did you pull me back down?” Greg asked turning to face Nick on the bed and running a hand down Nick’s side slowly.

“I had an idea.” Nick said with a smirk before reaching past Greg to the bedside table and pressing a button on the alarm clock. The CD Greg had put in the day before started to play and Nick turned it up until the sound filled the whole room.

Greg burst out giggling as he shook his head, “You can’t be serious.” He laughed.

Nick raised his eyebrows and rolled over so that he was lying on top of Greg, his arm braced on either side of Greg’s head keeping him from crushing the younger man, “Never say your kids can’t teach you anything.” Was his answer and the laugh died in Greg’s throat as Nick’s lips connected with his.

-- -- --

“Good morning all!” Greg sang happily walking into the kitchen with Nick behind him.

“You’re in a good mood.” Aidan said surprised as he sat finishing off his orange juice, looking through a course selection book for Texas A&M.

“Is that a crime?” Greg asked, pouring himself and Nick a cup of coffee before pushing up to sit on the counter. Nick moved to lean against the counter next to him.

“No it’s just a little creepy.” Charlie reasoned looking at his fathers oddly.

Will laughed and pointed at Nick before saying, “You know Amanda says I get the same look on my face after we…” He paused as if just realizing what he was about to say and what it implied. His eyes went wide with horror and he looked back and forth between Nick and Greg who were smirking, “Ew. Ew. Ew!” He said as he shivered dramatically.

“Don’t be so dramatic Willy.” Nick said with a laugh moving to sling an arm around his big brother.

“But you’re my baby brother. It shouldn’t be allowed.” Will pouted.

“You didn’t seem to mind when we were younger.” Nick laughed as he whispered in Will’s ear to keep Aidan and Charlie from hearing.

“Yeah well that was when I was a horny teenager and thought ANYONE getting it on was cool. It’s different now.” He whispered back.

“You do realize we can hear you right?” Aidan’s voice chimed in casually, not even bothering to look up from his book, making both Nick and Will jump.

Nick laughed nervously, “It’s not like you know what we’re talking about anyway.” He wasn’t sure if he believed that or just hoped.

“Oh we do. We’re just trying REALLY hard to pretend we don’t.” Aidan shrugged.

“Helps us sleep at night.” Charlie agreed.

“What helps you sleep at night?” Bill asked walking into the kitchen and heading towards the fridge; stopping to pull each of his sons into a one armed hug on the way.

“Nothing.” Nick, Greg, Aidan, Charlie and Will all said at the same time, which startled Bill as he pulled open the door to the fridge and he shook his head with a laugh before disappearing behind it.

Silence fell over the kitchen except for the sounds of Bill rummaging through the contents of the refrigerator and…humming? Bill Stokes was definitely humming a tune one could only classify as jaunty as he pulled his breakfast ingredients from the fridge and made his way to the counter.

He became aware that the five other members of the kitchen were staring at him and turned to look at them, “Can I help you gentlemen?” He asked.

The five men continued to stare at him, suddenly banded together, as if examining him like a piece of evidence before Charlie voiced their collective opinion on the situation so eloquently, “Gross!” He exclaimed as they all realized what the look on Bill’s face and his humming meant.

As a group, the five men made their way out of the kitchen, each with a look of mock disgust on his face, shaking their heads at the confused man holding the ingredients of his breakfast omelet.

-- -- --

“Did you ever wonder if your parents were getting it on when you were in bed when you were young?” Greg asked as he and Nick walked down the hall towards the family room, sipping their coffee.

Nick laughed and then groaned, “Sooo not the time for that question.” He said still getting a shiver at the thought of his parents having sex while they were just down the hall, “Though I don’t really know when a good time for that question is.” He finished as they reached their destination to find Austin, Isabelle and Angelica sitting around the television.

“I used to think about it.” Greg said with a shrug.

“Thought about what?” Angelica asked curiously.

Greg moved to sit next to her with a laugh at Nick’s shake of the head, “Nothing. What are we watching?” He asked pointing to the television.

“Teletubbies.” Isabelle answered.

“It was the only thing on.” Austin clarified when Nick and Greg shot their children an odd look.

The room was silent for several minutes as the five members of the family room sat and watched the colourful alien babies on the television until an exchange between Isabelle and Austin caught the attention of Nick and Greg. They watched, as the twins seemed to argue silently with each other. Austin pointing first to Isabelle and then to Greg with a stern look on his face. Isabelle then shook her head and pointed at Austin. The pointing continued until Isabelle sighed and rolled her eyes, getting up from the couch and making her way over to Greg.

“Daddy?” She asked and Greg laughed because he knew that tone. It was the ‘I need a favour’ tone accompanied by the ‘I love you, but I want something’ smile and tilt of the head.

“What do you want?” Greg asked with a smile.

Isabelle’s smile changed to the one she got when she knew she’d been caught trying to act sweet and she giggled slightly before answering, “Austin and I were wondering if we could go to the zoo today.” She said gesturing to her brother who, when Greg glanced over, had a hopeful look on his face.

“We were going to do something as a family today.” Greg answered.

“We can go to the zoo as a family.” Austin bargained with a shrug.

The comment got a snort out of Nick, “Do you really think your brothers will want to go to the zoo? We can pick something the whole family wants to do and then go to the zoo another day.” He reasoned.

“But tomorrow is the party and we leave on Saturday.” Angelica piped in, even though she didn’t seem too invested in the conversation; still staring at the television as if mesmerized by it.

“See? Today is the only day.” Isabelle eagerly grabbed onto the offered tidbit.

Greg sighed and looked at Nick who shrugged with a laugh, “Please Daddy?” Isabelle asked putting on her best puppy dog eyes.

“Would you want to go to the zoo Jellie?” Greg asked and watched the eleven-year-old shrug.

“It could be fun.” She said.

Greg sighed again and turned back to find Isabelle and Austin both giving him puppy dog eyes and it startled him, “Why am I the only one getting attacked by the puppy dog eyes? It’s your Dad’s decision to.” He chuckled and laughed harder when Austin shuffled over to target Nick.

“Please Dad?” Austin asked, moving to kneel next to Nick on the couch in order to get his face closer to his father’s.

Nick sighed heavily and looked side long at the eight year old before shrugging, “If you can get your brothers to agree, we’ll go to the zoo.” He bargained and Isabelle and Austin cheered.

“Come on Iz, let’s go ask Aidan!” Austin said happily, getting up and gesturing for Isabelle to follow, which she did, giggling happily along the way.

“Charlie’s never going to agree to go the zoo.” Angelica observed casually and Nick and Greg nodded, knowing she was probably right.

-- -- --

“Did you know that a lion’s snout is like a fingerprint? No two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.”

“Well I do now.” Nick smiled as he leaned his elbows on the railing outside the lions’ cage next to Angelica later that afternoon. She smiled, proud of herself: before turning back to watch the lions.

“When can we go back to the ranch?” Nick sighed and turned to his other side where Charlie stood kicking at the dirt with his shoe; facing away from the cage with a frown on his face. The fourteen year old had agreed to go to the zoo after some cajoling but had reverted back to the angry, brooding persona he’d had when they’d first arrived at the ranch.

Nick felt Angelica push off the railing and turned to watch her roll her eyes at her brother before turning to join Greg, Isabelle, Austin and Aidan at the tiger cage.

Nick turned back to Charlie, “Could you be any more sullen?” He asked.

“Probably.” Charlie mumbled, defiantly, to the ground.

“Hey.” Nick said warningly moving to stand in front of Charlie and lifting the lowered LVPD baseball hat off the teenagers face. Charlie looked up with wide eyes, as if scared of getting in trouble; “How many times do I have to tell you I do not deserve to be spoken to like that.”

“Sorry.” Charlie mumbled.

“Excuse me?” Nick asked expectantly.

“Sorry.” Charlie said louder.

Nick nodded curtly and sighed; “Now I know this isn’t how you wanted to spend your day, but your brother and sister really wanted to come. Can’t you get over the need to be cool for one afternoon? You don’t even know anybody here.”

Charlie looked around, almost as if he was confirming the fact that none of his friends from Vegas had followed him thousands of miles to Texas, before turning back to look at Nick, “Only if we go see the snakes.” He bargained and Nick smirked.

“I think we can arrange that.” He said setting the hat back on Charlie’s head with the brim off to the side. Charlie laughed and readjusted the hat back to its original position.

“Hey Charlie!” Both Nick and Charlie looked up at Aidan’s voice to find him beckoning Charlie over, “Come on! We’re going to the bat cave!”

Charlie looked back at Nick, silently asking if their talk was done. Nick smiled and patted his son on the back before tilting his head towards Aidan. Charlie smiled and took off at a jog to catch up to his brothers and sisters.

Nick followed and fell into step next to Greg behind their kids, “What was that all about?” Greg asked gesturing back to the lion cage.

Nick shook his head and bumped his hand with Greg’s softly, “When do we get to be done with the teen angst that is our life?” He asked and Greg laughed.

“I THINK that part comes when we’re so senile we can barely remember to do up our pants or put pants on at all.”

Nick groaned with a laugh, “That’s a LONG way away.”

“Not so long for you.” Greg cracked looking side long at Nick to see his reaction.

“Oh you are so going to pay for that.” Nick warned pushing Greg’s shoulder to make him stumble slightly.

Greg righted himself with a laugh, sticking his hands in his pockets as they continued to walk. He smiled at Nick, who smiled back, and then winked before he and Nick turned to follow their children into the darkness of the bat caves.

TBC

A/N: So I wasn’t going to have this chapter but I decided to give you guys a relatively angst free chapter before we get to the next couple of chapters… …I’m not saying anything but I wanted something nice and light so you all don’t hate me for the next couple of chapters. lol. So I hope you all are having a great day and if you’ve got some feedback leave it in the usual place! =D Thanks!