CSI Great Grid Challenge Fic

Lightening

The first time Greg ever had sex in public he was sprawled in the grass of a state park during a lightening storm. He couldn’t have run if he wanted too as bright bolts of light seared his eyes because Janice Parker sucked him off with expert efficiency.

Greg knew he was in love with Nick the first time he got a ride home in the rain. Fucking in a car during a thunderstorm in Las Vegas is like fucking in the shower, pounding water drowning out his thumping heart and hot wet air stifling the words on his lips.

Sun

No one said anything, but everyone noticed. The man lived in Las Vegas and looked pale as a ghost. Greg was the only one who knew Nick wouldn’t use the tanning bed passes they had bought to get a nice base for their trip to Acapulco.

Nick said he was too busy and maybe they should just postpone it and Greg knew Acapulco wasn’t the problem. Their relationship wasn’t the problem, as some people were too tactless to mention out of ear shot.

It was the night shift and the fucking coffin that still made Nick wake up sweating and kicking the sheets away.

But if Greg couldn’t get Nick to leave the building, he could bring the sun to Nick.

When Grissom finally found them on one of their secluded breaks, he didn’t have the heart to berate Greg for jeopardizing the life of his specimens. He thought maybe it would make for more interesting science because as William Ralph Inge once said, ‘We must cut our coat according to our cloth, and adapt ourselves to changing circumstances.’

He left Nick and Greg napping head to head on the work table with the sun lamps glowing warmly above them.

Epiphany

“Hey,” Nick chided, but he had greasy fingers so he couldn’t stop Greg from straddling his lap without their sofa becoming a casualty.

“Hey, yourself,” Greg replied. Before Nick could warn him, Greg leaned in for a kiss. He pulled back, licking his lips.

“Not French fries,” Greg surmised, eyeing the plate on the sofa arm. He saw the ketchup and just assumed. “Onion strings?”

Nick nodded, “I tried to wa—you don’t like onions,” he reminded Greg when the other man picked up a few and popped them in his mouth.

Greg chewed thoughtfully. “But I like onion strings.”

Hot

Greg hated being hot. He knew he lived in Vegas, but that’s why God invented air conditioning and fuck, where was the air conditioning?

He jumped down from the table in the break room, there was still no air conditioning coming out of the vent and it was just hotter up by the ceiling. It had to be at least a hundred in the building as it was. He wiped his brow and slumped in his chair, head thumping on the table.

He was just wishing Nick would come along and--

“Aw…” someone clucked a moment later, dripping cold water on the back of his neck.

Greg stiffened for a moment, then sighed, arching into the cool relief. Ask and ye received one hot boyfriend with cool refreshments. “I love you, man. Really. Don’t stop--” He turned his head and saw Hodges instead of Nick.

Hodges looked horrified that his plan to torture Greg had obviously backfired and he was backpedaling out of the room so fast he didn’t notice Nick and Warrick standing in the doorway behind him until they collided.

“I love you too, man. Do me next?” Nick pleaded as Warrick chuckled.

Hodges scowled at them and pushed his way through. When he dropped his soda can he almost bent over to pick it up but then glanced over his shoulder at Greg and just left it.

Warrick dropped down in the chair opposite Greg and slid his ice cream sandwich to him.

“What’s that for?” Greg asked suspiciously, and carefully not making eye contact with Nick still leaning against the doorway. He was so going to get his ass chewed in an unpleasant way later.

Though technically he’d only outed himself to Hodges. At least he hadn’t made a pass back!

“Your reward,” Warrick snickered. “That was priceless, Sanders, we won’t see Hodges for at least a week now.”

“Grissom’ll probably give you a citation,” Nick chimed in, “for going above and beyond.”

“Har, har,” Greg snorted miserably, but he took the ice cream sandwich. It was almost completely soft and squished in the wrapper when he touched it. “It’s melted!”

“Hey,” Warrick threw up his hands, pointing a finger at each of them, “keep that monkey business between yourselves.”

Lovers

“Hey, guys.” Nick brushed past Sara and Greg as they entered the break room.

Greg gave an abbreviated wave with his wrist as he dumped his lunch sack on the table and Sara asked, “How’s it going?”

Nick frowned. He wiped the crumbs from his mouth as he swallowed the last bite of his sandwich and shot the wadded napkin into the trash. “Not good, I’m heading back to the scene. See you later.” A little flash of tongue peeked out from under his mustache as he worried his top lip with his teeth when he left.

Geez, Greg closed his eyes. The double shifts were a killer.

He wouldn’t watch Nick walk away because that was too pathetic. He sat down and opened his soda.

Sara dropped down across from Greg and stirred her yogurt. “Why do guys think facial hair makes them better lovers?” she asked.

Greg choked as he swallowed a drink of soda down his windpipe. He wiped the soda from his chin and blinked at her through watery eyes as she lunged over the table and patted his back. “What?” he rasped.

She sat back down, eyes amused but serious. “Nick’s little,” she wiggled her finger over her lip and made a vaguely crude face, “mustache. I know guys think a little thigh tickler gets women hot, but Nick never struck me as that crass.”

“Nick? No.” Greg’s face was still red, feeling warmer by the moment and he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. His fingers were cold from the soda can and felt good on the hot skin. “He says ‘thank you, ma’am’ before the wham bam. He’s a real gentleman.”

“Yeah,” she agreed with the little almost sad smile they all shared after Nick’s attack. He was still a good man when none of them could say they’d be the same if it had happened to them.

Greg knew Nick had left the building, but he still glanced down the hall to see him.

Sara continued, “That’s what I mean, so why the sudden--”

“How should I know,” he shrugged defensively. Greg got up from his chair and threw his sandwich wrapper away. They were alone in the break room so he sat back down closer to her, leaning with his elbows on his knees. Sara instinctively leaned closer to him too. He could smell the faint scent of apples from her shampoo and it used to have the same effect on him as Nick’s mustache was having on her. “Why do you care?” he asked.

Her head dipped forward to lick her spoon and his head titled forward to still see her face as black hair fell like a veil. Sara swallowed, averting her eyes. “I don’t.”

“You think it’s hot,” he pressed, teasing her with a brotherly poke in the arm. “And you don’t like that.” They never talked about it, but he knew about her feelings for Grissom. If you liked the bear-type.

Teddy bear anyway.

“No,” she shook her head. After taking a sip of her bottled water she turned back at him. “It feels like sandpaper on your skin and it’s flypaper for bits of food.” She grimaced. “And little hairs all over the sink from trimming in the morning. No man I sleep with should spend longer in the bathroom than me.”

Greg sat back perplexed. “Huh. You really don’t like it.”

“I don’t know a woman who does.”

“Now wait a minute,” he protested. He rubbed his chin. “I used to have a little--”

“Chin rat?”

“Goatee,” he corrected. “Babes dug it when I--” He made a face back at her when she laughed. “That’s not why I had it!”

“I know,” she ruffled his hair as she stood. “You just wanted to play with the big boys.”

He ducked out of reach and Sara laughed harder as she headed back to the lab. He rubbed his reddened neck again, lightly scratching the faint burn from that morning in bed. Little prickles of sensation flared hotter and he had to force himself to stop before he started thumping his leg like dog in heat.

Or before someone else noticed it was more than a bug bite he’d been scratching at.

They had to be more careful now, and mostly were. His back was even worse and he sighed as he indulged a moment longer and rolled his shoulders. His tee-shirt rubbed lightly over abraded skin and he shivered.

So he lied, he knew why Nick had the mustache.

He liked it.

Weeks

Nick didn’t want to think about why, or how that ended up being his first coherent thought after the loud bump woke him up.

“Ouch,” Greg grumbled from the end of the bed.

Nick blinked against the bright light filtering through the half-opened blinds. “You’re awake,” he stated dumbly, his brain trying to comprehend why Greg was looking up at him with sleepy eyes and a twisted grimace.

“Gotta take a leak,” Greg mumbled around a yawn, rubbing his foot. “Get ready to go.”

Nick grunted in agreement as his eyes roamed Greg’s naked form. He remembered licking the edge of Greg’s tan across his belly and along his hips. Their clothes were still piled on the floor as evidence so that wasn’t just wishful thinking. But as soon as they fell onto the bed he must’ve fallen asleep because he couldn’t remember anything else beyond that.

Greg stumbled to the bathroom and Nick lay back down and stared at the ceiling. Greg only spent the night these days because it was closer than going all the way home and then just turning around again.

When had Greg become more of a roommate than a lover?

****************************

Greg’s hands were flat on the counter of the bathroom sink as he leaned onto his extended arms and stretched his back. The light glaring off the mirror was still too harsh and he stared at the swirls of cold marble instead. His eyes drifted shut tiredly and he shivered in the cold morning—afternoon?—air. Air conditioning.

Greg forced his eyes open, feeling as if the lids were being peeled off, and shivered again when he saw the line of purple bruises, an arrow of light to dark, starting at his navel and leading to his stirring cock. Nick had been gagging for it until he passed out and now they needed to be back at work again. He really needed to look into just getting a cot at the lab. Or maybe a hotel room across the street. Maybe he’d get laid if they could cut out the travel time back and forth.

Greg poked his head out the door. “Nick? You gonna shower?” It would save time if they did it together. He was so exhausted he didn’t think he could manage to just stand and jerk-off anyway, let alone try any coordinated frottage. “Nick?”

He crossed the hall and stuck his head back in the bedroom. “Hey,” Nick said, pulling the blankets back for him. “You look cold.”

Common sense said no, but he was never one to actually turn down an engraved invitation so Greg crawled back under the covers.

Nick wrapped around him, rubbing large warm hands over Greg’s arms and chest and Greg sighed when soft lips grazed the scar along his shoulder from the explosion a few years ago. Seemed like a different lifetime.

“You hungry?” Nick asked, maybe planning ahead for the lost time, but one more drive-thru breakfast burrito would definitely finish off his stomach lining.

Besides, Greg was comfortable again. “You got room service?” Too comfortable to move unless it was just to spread his legs for Nick’s wandering hands.

Nick laughed, shaking his head in disbelief and Greg could feel the stubble on Nick’s chin scrape the back of his neck. He shivered as Nick replied, “I’m looking at him. I think there are still a couple of butter croissants on the counter.”

“Aren’t I the guest?” Greg replied, turning in Nick’s arms. He loved how Nick grabbed his hips and pulled them closer together. Nuzzled his ear.

“Are you? I was thinking you should just move in.”

****************************

Greg’s moan turned to a half a gasp as he blinked at Nick. “What? Are you serious?”

Nick nodded slowly, hoping he hadn’t made a terrible mistake. “It makes sense. No one would question it if we said it was just so you’d live closer to work and save money. The house is big enough.”

Greg rubbed his hands over his face. “Okay, I can’t think about this right now.”

Nick shrugged, trying not to show his disappointment. “Yeah, I get that.”

“No,” Greg quickly clarified. “I mean, we have a hard enough time just being together as it is and I’m enjoying this.” He canted his hips. “Moving means way too much thinking so let’s just table it until next month, okay? My lease is up in January so we’ll have all next month to plan sock drawers and kitchen duty.”

Nick could agree with that plan and he gave Greg a quick kiss to seal the deal before moving lower. When his mouth closed over Greg’s dick he arched up, fingers clutching Nick’s hair. “Maybe I could—uh—bring over a few bags tonight. Fuck… You’re gonna be sorry,” he warned through panting breaths. “I’m not ever leaving now.”

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