Title: Creatures of the Night
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Ryan Wolfe
Fandom: CSI: Las Vegas/CSI: Miami
Rating: PG-13
Table: 3, csi50
Prompt: 14, Night
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders or Ryan Wolfe, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

"Sometimes I really hate working all night," Greg said with a sigh as he leaned back against Ryan's chest and looked around them at the lush, verdant green of the grass in the park. "I feel like we miss so much because we sleep for most of the day during the week."

"Oh, I don't know -- I like our schedule," Ryan told him, leaning back against the trunk of the tree they'd spread their picnic blanket in front of and tightening his arms around his boyfriend's slim waist. "There's something that's kind of mysterious and seductive about working at night."

Greg laughed softly, shaking his head. "I should have expected you to say something like that," he mused, letting himself relax and enjoy being held. "You never worked on the night shift in Miami, did you? I've worked nights ever since I started here. It makes a difference."

"But you like working nights, don't you?" Ryan pointed out. "If you didn't, then you'd have requested to switch to the day shift a long time ago, before I even started working with you. So you don't have anything to complain about, pretty boy!" he finished with a laugh.

Greg laughed along with him, knowing that Ryan's words were true. He usually liked working at night, but now that he was in a relationship, he really wanted to have more days free to spend with his boyfriend, days when he didn't feel so tired in the morning that all he wanted to do was sleep.

But if he was honest with himself, he didn't mind working any shift, as long as he was partnered with Ryan. He had always liked his job, both in the DNA lab and as a CSI, but having Ryan here with him only made him enjoy his working hours even more.

And Ryan was right -- there was something seductive about working the graveyard shift. There were times when he felt like a creature of the night when he was working, slinking through the velvety darkness in search of clues to help find killers and bring them to justice.

Working at night had always seemed more interesting to him than working in the daytime; there was a sense of urgency to what he did, as though the darkness was pressing in on the CSI team, making it even more important to catch criminals than it was in broad daylight.

That wasn't true, of course, Greg thought with an inward smile. It was just as important to catch those bad guys in the daylight hours as it was at night -- but somehow, it seemed that murderers seemed to strike more often at night than they did in the daytime hours.

That was because it was so much easier to hide at night, he told himself with a soft sigh. It made their job even harder sometimes; as soon as they were on the trail of one killer, another would always seem to pop up when they didn't expect it. The violence never came to an end.

"What was that sigh for?" Ryan asked softly, bowing his head to brush a gentle kiss across Greg's hair. "It sounds like you're thinking about something that doesn't make you happy. I hope that doesn't have anything to do with me, because I always want you to be happy."

"I was thinking about how killers always seem to come out of the woodwork at night, and because that's when we're working, we always seem to end up on the trail of more of them every day," Greg told him with another sigh. "They never stop, do they?"

Ryan shook his head, his own sigh mirroring Greg's. "No, baby, they don't," he said, his voice very soft. "I learned that the hard way when I was on the police force in Miami. Killers don't have any compunction about when they kill, though. Day or night, it's all the same to them."

"They're creatures of the night here, more than anywhere else, because of the nature of this city," Greg said, a rueful tone to his voice. "And so are we, because we have to try to get into their mindset and know how they think so we can catch them. That's a little scary."

"Yeah, it is," Ryan admitted, shuddering and holding Greg closer against him. Greg could feel that shudder run through his lover's body; a shiver went down his own spine at the thought of the violence that was always too close to them, violence that they could never completely eradicate.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you, y'know," Ryan whispered into his ear, his breath soft and warm against Greg's skin. "Part of my job is to watch my partner's back, and to keep him safe. And since you're so much more than just my partner, you know I take that seriously."

"I take it just as seriously as you do," Greg said, his voice very soft. "I'm watching your back too, Ry. I've come way too close to losing you twice now. Three times, if you count the misunderstanding we had when you almost left. I'm not letting that happen again."

"Neither am I," Ryan whispered, his voice strained, breaking on the last word. "I'm not ever going to make those mistakes again, Greg. The ones that almost led me to leave. I trust you, and the next time I get upset about anything, I'm going to go to you with my feelings first."

"I'll do the same for you," Greg murmured, his hands resting on Ryan's at his waist. He closed his eyes as he relaxed back against his boyfriend's body, letting himself luxuriate in the feel of Ryan next to him, in the knowledge that this man was with him, that they belonged together.

That was another thing about the night, he told himself ruefully. It could lead to misrepresentations and too many misunderstandings; everything somehow seemed to look different in the dead of night than it did in the bright light of day. It was too easy to jump to the wrong conclusions.

But he and Ryan were both creatures of the night when it came to their work, and they would have to learn to see past the misconceptions that the dark could sometimes create. He was sure that they would; after all, they'd learned the hard way how wrong that was.

Greg was sure that Ryan would never jump to conclusions about him again, and he would do the same for his lover. Nothing was going to tear them apart, no matter how hard others might try to do that. They would always be together, through thick and thin, whatever life threw at them.

He settled back against Ryan's chest with another sigh, a happy one this time. He didn't want to think about the two of them being apart, breaking up, or any other disturbing ideas. He wanted to contemplate the golden future the two of them would have together, and nothing else.

The two of them laughed as Wolfie bounded up to them, insisting on getting his share of attention. The puppy barked and jumped up to lick Greg's face, getting dirty paw prints all over his clean shirt, but he didn't care. That was one of the joys of owning a dog.

"Well, there's something who doesn't care if it's night or day," Ryan said with a soft laugh. "As long as he's got us to pay attention to him, and to feed and walk him, he's happy. It's too bad we can't be that happy with such simple things. He's the lucky one."

"I think we can be," Greg said, turning his head slightly to look at Ryan. "We just don't let ourselves be. But we should. I mean, come on, we've got so much more now than either of us had before we met each other. We should just be happy with simply being together and being in love."

"That's the best advice I've heard in a long time," Ryan murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to Greg's cheek. "Whether we're creatures of the night or of the day, we can be happy just to be together. I know that I'm happier than I ever dreamed I could be every second that I'm with you."

Greg knew that he didn't need to answer those words; he simply turned his head and lifted his face to Ryan's for a deep, heady kiss that took his breath away. He couldn't help thinking that though they might be creatures of the night, the daylight didn't seem to hold them back.

***