*******

Chapter 20:

Greg was a man on a mission. He knew they had better pancake mix in one of the drawers somewhere. He knew this because he'd actually gone out and bought the stuff himself. Nick kept things in weird places though and the only way for Greg to find out where said pancake mix was to call Nick up and that would ruin the surprise.

He would just have to make do with the omelets and potato wedges with bacon. If Nick was feeling particularly bread happy than Greg would make toast because at the age of thirty-four, as sad as it was, Nick couldn't even be trusted to microwave something properly. His fridge reminded Greg of Sara's, take-out posted on its available surface.

Greg was a little surprised that he didn't come home to find Nick in front of the couch, passed out in his baggy sweats. He thought about calling to see if he was alright, but figured that he must have gotten caught up in something Circle related. And it gave him the perfect opportunity to get his planning rolling.

He was in the middle of putting the plates down when he heard the front door creak open. He didn't even have to look to see that it was Nick. Greg put the biggest smile on his face and watched as Nick made his way to the kitchen, nose sniffing out potential food.

Nick smiled back at him when he reached the kitchen.

"What's all this?" Nick asked.

Greg looked around the kitchen. There were candles set in various places and the room was pretty clean.

"What I can't do something nice for you every once in awhile?" Greg asked.

"You're always doing nice things for me. I thought you'd be asleep. It's pretty late considering." Nick said taking a seat in front of one of the plates of food.

Greg sat down on the opposite side and shrugged.

"I thought the same thing before I got home. Guess we were both wrong. Go ahead and eat." Greg said.

Nick nodded and started to dig in. They ate in mostly silence, only talking about the case and how the day went and a few other weird topics like the weather and the traffic. When they were done, Greg took their plates to the sink and Nick stayed in his seat.

Greg could tell that there was something on Nick's mind, but he was too busy with what he was thinking about to ask.

"So I have something to tell you." They both said at the same time.

Greg smiled and Nick let out a small laugh.

"Well, you go first." Greg said.

"No, that's okay, you go first." Nick said.

Greg sighed and shook his head.

"Why don't we tell each other at the same time." Greg said, the whole thing starting to get a lot cornier than he had anticipated.

As it was there was a single rose in a vase on the middle of the table with candles and Greg's best attempt at cooking to date. If that didn't scream romantic then Greg didn't know what did.

"Okay, that seems fair."

"Right, okay so... here we go."

They both remained silent for a few seconds before Nick smiled.

"Maybe we should countdown or something."

"That's so cliched."

"I don't think we're going to get it out otherwise."

"You're probably right. Okay, 1..."

"2..."

"3... I want us to move in together."

"I want us to have sex." Nick said at the same time that Greg did.

Both stared at each other weirdly before they spoke.

"Wait, what?" Nick said.

"Yeah, what?" Greg said.

Nick felt himself blush.

"Nothing, what did you say."

"Nah uh, Nicky, tell me what you said."

"It's not important."

"Somehow I think it is important otherwise you wouldn't have tried to tell me right now. I'm thinking you said you want us to have sex." Greg said.

Nick's blush was all the answer that Greg needed.

"But... we've had sex." Greg said looking a bit confused.

"I know we have, but we haven't since the... well since the explosion." Nick said.

"Oh." Greg said.

"Yeah."

Nick was careful to avoid eye contact with Greg as he shifted around in his seat.

"I just... I don't want... we shouldn't move too fast where this is concerned you know. I don't want you hurting yourself or anything."

"It's been a month or so. The doctor said I was fine to go back to work. Why wouldn't it be okay for us to... you know."

Greg sat back in his seat. He looked like he was thinking it over and he folded his hands together.

"The doctor didn't say anything about this though." Greg said.

"Well, no, but I would think that if I was okay to go back to work, I'd be okay to do other things. Work's a lot more stressful than sex."

"Sex isn't supposed to be stressful."

"Exactly, so what's the problem."

"It's physical, Nicky. You're still healing."

"I know I'm still healing, but..."

"But what Nicky." Greg asked.

Nick let out a frustrated sigh and ran his fingers through his hair making it mussed. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his brain of all the thoughts that were floating around in it. There was just so much noise going on in his head that he couldn't think properly.

He looked over at Greg who was sitting on the other end of the table looking at Nick expectantly. Nick wasn't sure what to say exactly. It had been much easier to talk to Catherine about the whole thing than it was to even try and explain to Greg what he was thinking, which Nick thought was a bit ridiculous. He and Greg were grown men and it wasn't like they hadn't had sex before.

"I just... I want..."

Nick stumbled over his words, but it didn't seem to matter because at that moment Greg was getting out of his seat and walking over to Nick's side. He knelt down on his knees between the open space of Nick's legs and sighed.

Greg rested his hands on Nick's knees and leaned forward to place a small kiss on Nick's lips.

"It's not that I don't want to... because I do... want to that is. It's just... I'm a little afraid."

"Of what?" Nick said in a confused tone.

"Of everything going back to being perfect and then something... bad happening again." Greg said.

Nick's eyes widened as he heard Greg's statement.

"But... I mean just because we have sex that doesn't mean something bad is going to happen. I mean, we're happy right now right?" Nick asked.

"Of course we're happy right now. This is the happiest I've ever been in my whole entire life. I've never felt this way about anyone, Nicky. I promise you that much. I'm just so afraid of screwing everything up or everything getting screwed up..."

"The world isn't gonna end if we have sex, Greg. One unfortunate incident doesn't mean there's a curse on us or anything."

Greg smiled up at Nick and kissed him again.

"I know you're right and I know I'm being ridiculous, but I just can't help it. I think about you getting hurt and what happened that day and I just... I panic. I think about a million things that can go wrong. I think about everything that could happen and I start calling it doomsday before anything ever even happens." Greg said.

Nick nodded. He had a lot of trauma from the explosion and not all of it was physical. He sometimes got a little jumpy in the lab. He never told Greg about it, but maybe it was something that they should discuss.

"I'm not gonna go anywhere, Greg. Not if I can help it."

"I wanna protect you, but I can't always do that."

"And what, you don't think I feel the same way. Your job is a lot more dangerous then mine, Greg. Just look at how many times you've had guns pulled on you or that whole stalker thing. It goes along with being in a relationship."

Greg nodded.

"And just because something did happen... it doesn't mean it's gonna happen again." Nick said.

"You're right... it doesn't. I just... I don't like feeling that helpless. There wasn't anything I could do for you."

"You don't get it."

Greg gave Nick a perplexed look and Nick sighed. He pulled Greg close and kissed him, hands bunching up the material of his shirt that covered his shoulders. Greg kissed him back, lips and tongues and the occasional clash of teeth and Nick felt like he could just melt into the kiss. Felt like her really was going to when Greg pulled back a little, breath coming in harsh pants.

Nick looked down at him through his eyelashes. Greg was looking up at him, eyes slightly clouded and lips wet and shiny from their kissing. Nick sighed and rest his forehead against Greg's.

"Everything that you've been doing for me... taking care of me... that's all you need to do Greg." Nick said.

He could feel Greg shaking slightly beneath his hands and his breaths becoming more like gulps as he tried to control himself.

"I was just so scared." Greg said.

Nick shut his eyes tight and took a deep breath.

"Please don't cry Greg."

It was a selfish request on Nick's part and he knew it. He hadn't seen Greg cry throughout the whole ordeal. He'd been calm and composed and he'd been there for all of Nick's little breakdowns, but Nick didn't think he was strong enough to watch Greg break down.

"I... I just..." Greg's voice stuttered and Nick knew that there were a few tears rolling down his cheek.

"It's okay... it's going to be okay. I'm fine. I'm fine." Nick said.

Greg's body stopped shaking after a few minutes and he rose to his feet. He pulled Nick out of the chair and on to his feet. Greg placed a kiss on Nick's nose and grabbed his hand in his own. Nick knew Greg was pulling him to the bedroom and part of him was happy with that.

It was what he had been waiting for, what he'd asked for just a few seconds earlier, but it didn't mean that he couldn't be a little nervous about the whole thing. It'd been awhile and although he could never really forget how it was when he was with Greg, it had still been awhile.

It was more anticipation waning on his nerves than anything else, Nick guessed and when they made it to the bedroom, Greg lightly pushing him onto the bed as he started to take off his clothes right in front of Nick like a private little show only Nick got to see, Nick had almost calmed down the part of him that was nervous.

Greg stripped himself and then took careful slow time to strip Nick, every once in awhile peppering a certain area of Nick's exposed skin with kisses. Nick let him, more because he wasn't exactly sure what he should do then because he didn't want to participate. Something about what was happening made Nick feel like Greg needed to take control of the situation.

"Lay on your side. It'll be easier on your back." Greg whispered against Nick's lips.

Nick nodded and obeyed, laying on his side like he'd been doing for the past month or so when he went to sleep. Greg hummed slightly and Nick watched as he scooted down the bed till his face was right next to Nick's cock, intent look marring his features.

It only took a couple of seconds of hesitation before Greg's mouth was on him and Nick let out a choked sob, body shuddering at the feel of the wet heat that was Greg's mouth and tongue swirling around the head of his cock.

Nick could only vaguely remember the last time he felt this good, of course that time being with Greg as well, and that just seemed like a shame because the feeling of Greg's warm, wet mouth engulfing his cock as Greg sucked him and the added feeling of Greg's fingers pushing into him at such an odd angle had to be one of the best things that Nick had ever experienced in his thirty four years of living.

Each stroke of Greg's fingers hit his prostate and Nick had to fight to keep from thrusting his hips too much into Greg's mouth. Greg was so very good at the whole blow job thing. It was something that Nick just couldn't get the hang of entirely, but Greg had gotten it down to an art, his tongue swirling around the veins, the light sucking, the way he took practically all of Nick into his mouth, the way he used his free hand to stroke the small part of Nick's cock at the base that he couldn't take into his mouth.

All of it was just too good and too much for Nick to handle. With a straggled sound he came, cum spurting into Greg's mouth and Greg swallowed all of it, cheeks hollowing slightly at the effort all the while his fingers still pushed into Nick and Nick wasn't sure he was going to ever stop coming.

When Greg pulled away, mouth leaving Nick's spent cock, Nick felt himself more than heard himself whimper. He watched in glazed post-coital fascination as Greg moved behind him, spooning his chest to Nick's back. He let his fingers glide across the scars there and Nick felt himself shiver at the light wispy touch. He shivered even more when he felt Greg's lips kissing the areas that seemed to be the most affected by the explosion and couldn't hold back the moan when he felt Greg's tongue lave at the scars.

He barely even noticed Greg lifting his leg slightly and placing it around his waist. He almost missed Greg pushing into him, blunt cock head slowly pushing against Nick's tight ring of muscle before Greg was inside and still pushing in slow, like he thought Nick was made of fine China or something. Nick's breath hitched when Greg was buried all the way inside of him and it didn't seem like he had any thoughts about moving.

He just stayed there, cock buried deep inside Nick, chin resting lightly on Nick's shoulder and Nick really wished he would move because the feeling was getting to be a little too much.

"Are you gonna move?" He whispered to Greg.

"I was thinking about it." Greg said in a playful tone.

"Well, as much as I like the idea of you staying there forever... you're going to have to move sometime, Greg." Nick said.

He felt the hand on his hip tighten a bit and felt even more the light thrust of Greg's cock inside of him, just barely grazing his prostate. Nick let out a shuddered sigh and let his head lull back slightly till his cheek was pressed against Greg's. He tried kissing Greg's mouth, but couldn't reach.

Greg seemed intent on not paying attention to Nick's mouth, his concentration set on the slow, even shallow thrusts into Nick's body. Nick moaned every time Greg moved and that seemed to make Greg concentrate more.

"This what you want. You want me inside you, moving, slowly fucking you. This what you been thinking about in that head of yours."

"Yes."

"Did you think I didn't want this... didn't want you?" Greg whispered the question against the skin of Nick's cheek and Nick gulped.

He let out a shuddery breath and shook his head.

"How could you even think I didn't want you... want this. God, Nicky, baby I want you all the time. Can never get enough of you."

"Me too, Greg... want you so bad... all the time... never enough."

Greg's thrust sped up a bit and his hand came to stroke Nick's cock lightly.

"You're trying to kill me aren't you." Nick whispered.

He felt Greg laugh, his body shaking against Nick's.

"Not quite." Greg whispered back.

"God... Greg... nothing's ever felt this good... fuck... feels so good."

"Feels fucking great... oh fuck... oh... Nicky..."

Greg's thrust started to increase in speed, each push brushing against Nick's prostate and it made Nick push back and see stars. He moaned and mewled and felt Greg's hand lightly stroking his cock and he could feel himself getting hard again.

He just fell into it, the rhythmic push of Greg's hips, his cock thrusting in deeper with each move. Greg's hand on his cock stroking him hard and long and just right and it was better than Nick remembered.

"Oh... Greg... fuck... so good, so good..."

And Greg was still thrusting and his lips were kissing and licking Nick's neck and ear and he was moaning and Nick was moaning back and it was all so good.

"I love you... God I love you so much... never loved anyone like I love you... fuck... Nick..."

It was probably the words that did him in, though Nick never remembered coming before just because someone whispered something in his ear, but the way Greg said them, the total tone of reverence in his voice like Nick was something to be cherished and Greg couldn't believe he got to cherish Nick... well that certainly helped.

"Oh... Greg... I love you... love you... love you..."

Nick came, Greg's name falling from his lips as he did so. He felt Greg thrust inside him a few more times before coming as well, his body shuddering for long seconds afterward. His lips still traced patterns on Nick's skin as he came down from his orgasm.

"So... that was fantastic." Greg whispered.

"Yeah, it was." Nick said a little sleepy.

"Everything you were waiting for?" Greg asked.

Nick thought his tone would have been teasing if he weren't so dazed.

"It always is with you, Greg."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Nick woke up feeling hazy, but also pleasantly satisfied. He looked over at the clock and noticed that it was close to four in the afternoon. Nick knew he was working that night, but he wasn't sure if Greg was. He'd pulled doubles and Grissom was known to put the CSIs on call if they'd pulled more than their fair share. It really messed with the days off schedule.

There was still sometime before Nick had to be at work so he stretched a bit and settled back into a comfortable position, back resting comfortably against Greg's chest. Greg moaned slightly in his sleep and tightened his grip around Nick's waist. Nick smiled at that. He closed his eyes and was going to go back to sleep when he remembered something Greg had said earlier.

"Greg, Greg wake up." Nick said pushing back against Greg, his arm reaching over and behind to shake him.

Greg groaned in his sleep and opened his eyes blearily.

"What?" He asked.

"Did you say that you wanted us to move in together?" Nick asked.

"Yeah." Greg said yawning slightly, his eyes still halfway closed with sleep.

"Seriously." Nick asked.

He heard Greg sigh and turned around in Greg's arms the task made a little more difficult with his back in the shape it was. When he looked at Greg's face, his eyes were still slightly closed with sleep and Nick shook him again.

"Greg stay up."

"Nick, we've gotta be at work in a few hours and I haven't gotten that much sleep. Also, the sex, that kind of wore me out a little more than I was already worn out." Greg said.

"Greg this is important. This is life-altering." Nick said.

"Nicky, baby, it really isn't."

"Yes it is. This is us talking about moving in together. That's a big step."

"That we've already kind of taken." Greg pointed out.

Nick opened his mouth to say something, but frowned when he realized Greg was pretty much right. It was rare for Greg to even go home. A lot of his clothes were at Nick's. A good portion of hair products, both for shower use and out of shower use, were in located in Nick's bathroom as well as an extra toothbrush, tongue scraper, generic mouth wash, two packages of floss and a water pick. Greg was really bad when it came to his teeth and hair.

But besides that stuff, Greg had books and CDs and movies and all sorts of different things scattered around Nick's house. It was like they were already living together only they just hadn't said anything. It was like a mutual understanding that they would just sort of live together. Neither had said anything. It was unspoken.

"I guess you're right, but then, why bring it up?" Nick asked.

"Well, I couldn't very well just give up the lease on my apartment and move everything in here, change my address at work and on my license and all that crap without at least saying something to you about it first." Greg said.

Nick shook his head.

"I guess you're right."

"So not a big deal anymore. I can go back to sleep?" Greg asked in a hopeful tone.

Nick rolled his eyes and sighed.

"No, it's big deal Greg. You must have thought it was otherwise you wouldn't have made the whole breakfast thing." Nick said.

Greg blushed a little and smiled.

"Well, I was planning on telling you I loved you, but the plans kinda got changed in that aspect. It was going to be a whole speech where I was going to say that we should move in together and then I was going to say that we should because I love you and I've never loved anyone in my life and I know that because I've never felt half of what I feel for you with them so I know that it couldn't have been love because with you it's real and I just know that I want to spend the rest of my life being in love with you.

"Just... you know being in love with you is better than anything I've ever done in my life and the whole being with you thing is the best thing I've ever done and I was hoping that because I loved you that you could possibly love me back."

Nick felt his throat constrict and his eyes get a little watery. It was such a girl response but he couldn't really help it when Greg started talking like that.

"Then I was going to go into this whole thing that us moving in together and just me trying to make you half as happy as you make me. It was a speech I'll tell you that. Filled with various declarations. I was gonna have you crying." Greg said with a smirk.

Nick sniffled at bit at that and Greg's eyes widened slightly.

"Well I wasn't really expecting you to cry. Geez, Nick please don't cry." Greg said tightening his grip around Nick's waist.

Nick let his forehead fall on Greg's shoulder and took in a shuddery breath.

"It's just... I mean you've got all the words for everything you're feeling and I'm not really good at... I mean this is the first real relationship I've ever really been in. But I do love you Greg. I love you so much." Nick said.

"Hey, I know that. We're good here. I think we've been in love with each for a really long time and we just never really noticed it. Kind of funny when you thinking about it."

"Yeah real funny."

"You don't think that's funny? I think it's hilarious. I mean all this time... but I guess we've still got time to make up for it." Greg said leaning down to kiss Nick's nose.

Nick smiled and let out a little laugh.

"Yeah. You're probably right." Nick said as he snuggled closer to Greg.

"Of course I'm right. From here it's all technicalities. Course I'm going to have to try and talk Warrick into helping me move my stuff." Greg said.

"Greg, my place is big, but I don't think the amount of stuff you have can fit in here."

"Well, my furniture will definitely go into storage... if I don't sell it."

"You'd sell it?"

"It's not like I'd need it anymore." Greg said.

They'd been talking about love and moving in together, but somehow the mention of Greg selling his furniture made the whole thing more real. Nick's eyes widened a bit as he realized that the whole thing was going to happen and it was going to mean that he and Greg would be together for a long time.

"It's just... you know... maybe you'd want to keep it... just in case..."

"Just in case what? Come on, Nicky, you and I both know that this is the forever kind of deal here. Keeping my furniture would just take up a lot of money in storage."

"I know, but... how are you so sure about this?" Nick asked.

Greg seemed to think about it for a second and then shrugged his shoulders as best as he could.

"Because it's you and me." Greg said simply.

And for Nick... it was enough.

FIN

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