Title: Candy Hearts
By: Caroline Crane
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: R
Summary: Nick takes Greg home with him and spends a little time thinking about what he's gotten himself into.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been doing it; he wasn't even sure why he was doing it, especially when he knew how tired he'd be tomorrow if he didn't get some sleep. The problem was that every time he closed his eyes something else caught his attention – a sigh; the subtle shift of sheets when the body next to him moved; the low, incoherent murmur when Greg talked in his sleep. Usually he could sleep through all of that and more; if he was really tired he could probably sleep through a natural disaster. But it wasn't so much that Greg was keeping him awake, it was more a matter of not being able to stop watching him sleep.


Lying awake just to watch somebody breathe had never really been Nick's style. He'd seen Greg asleep before, sure; they'd been sleeping together for awhile now and he'd never been the type of guy to kick people out after sex. Only he wasn't sleeping with anybody else – hadn't even looked at anybody else since that first night with Greg, and that alone was enough to keep him awake at night.

It wasn't like they'd made a commitment or anything, but it was closer to one than Nick had made since college and he wasn't sure what it meant. He wasn't even sure how Greg felt about this thing between them, and he sure as hell wasn't going to ask. That was just asking for trouble as far as he was concerned, because the second he said it out loud it would be that much more real.

Only he'd already made it pretty real when he'd grabbed Greg and pulled him into that closet right in the middle of their shift. He still hadn't figured that one out, even though he was the one who'd done it. And sure, he liked Greg – liked him a lot more than he'd planned to – but he wasn't in the habit of risking his whole career just for a hand job in a broom closet. He'd imagined doing exactly that a hundred times before he and Greg ever got together, but the fact that he'd actually gone through with it surprised him. It just wasn't like him; he knew that as well as anybody.

The problem wasn't that he'd seen Greg pacing the halls like a caged animal and wanted to throw him down in the middle of the lab and tear all his clothes off. He was used to that; it was his usual reaction to seeing Greg when he wasn't expecting it. The problem was that he'd actually gone through with it – well, part of it, anyway – and right in the middle of a shift. Granted, it was a long, boring shift and they'd all needed to blow off a little steam, but he was pretty sure sex with a lab tech wasn't on the department's list of acceptable ways to goof off.

So the urge itself wasn't the problem, which meant that the problem was Greg. Rather it was the fact that Greg made Nick do things that he'd never do under normal circumstances. Crazy, dangerous things like letting his mind wander while he was supposed to be working, or wondering whether or not Greg was sleeping with anybody besides him.

Oh, and then there was the whole sex in the broom closet thing.

None of it made any sense, and he was starting to wonder if he could actually drive himself crazy just from wondering what exactly they were doing. The easiest way to find out would be to ask, but he couldn't just blurt out a question like that. It was too…pathetic, for one thing, and what was he supposed to do if Greg told him that he was seeing other guys? He didn't want the idea to bother him, but he was way beyond denial at this point. There was definitely something between them – he felt it, anyway, even though he had no idea if Greg did too. It was hard to tell with Greg, and that was the part that frustrated Nick the most.

There had to be something wrong with him, because he just didn't get this wrapped up in relationships, no matter who he was sleeping with. His job came first – it always had, and that was the way he liked it. Sure, it was hard for civilians to understand, but when it came right down to it he'd always chosen his job over his sex life. Only he hadn't been choosing very carefully lately, because his momentary lapse of reason during their last shift could have gotten him and Greg both in a lot of trouble. And the thing was that he couldn't really bring himself to be that mad about it; he knew he should be furious with himself, but the truth was that the memory just made him want to laugh.


It hadn't been that long ago; just a few hours since he'd kissed Greg one last time and made sure they were both completely dressed before they went back to the monotony of another night on graveyards. But the tedium of a routine hit and run hadn't seemed nearly so bad after those few stolen moments, and more than once Warrick had caught him grinning like an idiot and given him a weird look. So yeah, he should be sorry he'd done something so stupid when they could both lose their jobs over it, but he knew he wasn't above doing the exact same thing all over again.

Well, maybe not the exact same thing, because he kind of liked the image of Greg on his knees this time. He'd been picturing Greg on his knees a lot lately; pictured Greg doing a lot of other things, too, and it was starting to get a little distracting. He could be in the middle of sweeping a crime scene, his mind completely focused on gathering evidence, when out of nowhere a memory of Greg would blindside him. Greg naked and stretched out on his bed, Greg's smile when he was laughing at one of his own stupid jokes, even something as mundane as Greg's elbow was enough to distract him at the weirdest times. He had no idea what any of it meant, but it was starting to interfere with…well, everything.

Which led him right back to the fact that he'd been stretched out in the dark next to Greg for going on an hour, propped up on one elbow and stopping himself every so often from reaching over to touch. He had to keep reminding himself that at least one of them should get some sleep, because even though the thought itself didn't make any sense, it made him feel a little better about the fact that he was kind of getting off on watching Greg. It wasn't like there was anything interesting about it – Greg's hair was sticking out in all directions against Nick's pillow, his lips were parted just a little and one of his hands was splayed across his bare chest. He was just…there, but for some reason Nick couldn't explain, he hadn't been able to look away.

He knew if he woke Greg up that he'd be ready to go again; he was like a bottomless pit of energy, which was something else that confused Nick as much as it turned him on. But he didn't even want to wake Greg up so he could fuck him again so much as he wanted to keep watching him sleep. He wanted to listen to him murmur nonsense words whenever he started dreaming, and he wanted to watch his fingers twitch against his chest as he breathed. He liked watching the vein in the side of Greg's neck pulse, and he liked watching the patterns the moonlight made on Greg's skin.

And he was definitely in way over his head if he was thinking about moonbeams, but at least there was no one there to hear him slowly going crazy. He laughed at that thought, a muted, surprised sound in the back of his throat. It was enough to make Greg stir, though, and Nick spared a moment for regret before Greg opened his eyes and he forgot what it was he was regretting in the first place.

As soon as Greg woke up enough to take in what was going on he smiled that smile that usually made Nick wish he was sitting down. Only now he was lying down and he still felt his knees turn to jelly. It made him want to smack himself until he got a grip, but mostly it just made him want to kiss Greg until neither of them could breathe anymore.

He decided to go with door number two; it was easier than explaining to Greg why he was lying awake in the middle of the day torturing himself, and anyway he spent way too much time at work resisting the urge to kiss Greg. There was no reason he had to resist it when they were alone in his apartment – in his bed, even – and when he stopped to think about it later he'd have to admit that it was stupid to try to resist something he'd already done more times than he could count.

Besides, Greg had a really nice mouth. He had nice hands, too, and even though he'd just woken up he was already doing things with them that Nick was pretty sure were illegal in at least a few states. He had great skin; soft and smooth against the hard muscles of Nick's abdomen, his pelvic bone jutting sharply into Nick's hip. And even that was nice, Nick decided as he pulled Greg a little closer, just a little further underneath him until they were pressed as close together as he could get them. True to his word, Nick only pulled away to gasp for breath when it was absolutely necessary, and even then Greg looked like he could have waited awhile longer before he let something as pedestrian as breathing concern him.

He was smiling again, though, and Nick decided to take that as a sign that he didn't need to move, possibly not ever. He could think of worse ways to spend the rest of his life than with Greg's arms around his neck and their legs tangled together; that was exactly the thought that should have sent him running, but instead it just made him press close enough to drop a kiss on Greg's collarbone.


"Is this another experiment in spontaneity? That's twice in one day; you might wanna pace yourself, you know."

Nick rolled his eyes but Greg just grinned up at him, and there wasn't much he could do in the face of that kind of assault besides grin back. "I think I can handle it."

He thought about being mad, or at least insulted that Greg was making fun of him. It would be easier if he could get mad, because at least then he'd be back on familiar ground. If he started a fight maybe the weird feelings would go away long enough for him to remember why he'd always thought a relationship with Greg was such a bad idea in the first place. He couldn't do it, though, not when Greg was smiling at him like that. Greg's smile was like some kind of secret weapon, and the worst part was that Nick didn't have anything that even came close to matching it.

"So is this whole sex at work thing gonna be a regular thing now?" Greg asked, and it killed Nick how he could look so artless even when he was being a smartass. "I'm just asking because I should probably schedule Grissom's stuff around it. You know how he gets when nobody's around to jump when he snaps his fingers."

"You know, mentioning my boss when we're in bed is probably the best way to guarantee sex won't be a regular thing at all. Anywhere," Nick answered through gritted teeth.

"Hey, he's my boss too. Besides, I'm not the one who got grabby in the lab last night. You still haven't told me what that was about, you know. Not that I'm complaining."

He wished he had an answer for that; he really did, because if he could explain it to Greg that meant he'd be able to explain it to himself. He could make a joke of it, chalk it up to Greg's irresistibility and hope that would be enough to distract the other man from any more questions. Or he could just go with the direct approach, which involved more kissing and a lot less talking. When Greg's lips parted under his he got the feeling that he wasn't going to get a complaint, so he swallowed a sigh of relief and pushed the nagging question as far back in his consciousness as he could.

Knowing Greg it wasn't the end of the conversation, but Nick knew how to stall for a little while. He wasn't even sure he wanted to stall forever; just long enough to figure out an answer that made sense, at least so he wouldn't make a fool of himself when he tried to explain it. Then again, maybe the specifics didn't even matter, because the longer he let things go the less control Nick had over where they were going. And the funny thing was that he didn't really mind that much; the out of control feeling took some getting used to, but Greg had a way of making it worth his while.


Finally he pulled away long enough to look down at the other man, smiling unconsciously at the swell of Greg's lips and the slightly dazed look in his eyes. "You're off tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah," Greg answered, although Nick had a feeling he could have just asked for Greg's first-born and gotten an immediate yes.

He shifted against the warm body pinned underneath him, taking a moment to admire the curve of the other man's neck before he continued. "So do you wanna hang out here? I just got NHL 2K2 for Sega."

Something told him that Greg's grin wasn't entirely happiness, but he wasn't going to dwell on the fact that he'd just asked the other man out. He wasn't going to dwell on how lame he sounded, either; it was too late to take it back now, and anyway he didn't want to take it back. The truth was that he didn't really care what they did, as long as they ended up right back where they were at some point during their day off.

"Yeah, okay," Greg finally answered, coaxing a gasp out of Nick when he shifted against him. "But you should probably know that I'm so gonna kick your ass. I've had that game forever."

"I'll take my chances," Nick said, swallowing Greg's laugh with another kiss. And maybe he'd regret staying awake all day when he was fighting to stay awake at work, but right now sleep didn't seem so important anymore.