Title: Relationships in D Minor
By: Gregisamazing
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I’m poor, my computer chip is a Dorito and my monitor says etch-a-sketch on the side. So yeah, CSI couldn’t be mine.
Summary: They could cope with everything else; it’s only the music that annoys.
Notes: Some random fluff I came up with after my friends complained about my music taste...

He’d learnt the golden rule of relationships was to accept one another for who they were. Nick had come to terms with the little habits that had been unexpected (and the majority of them turned out to be very annoying) because that was what this was all about. He had found himself someone that had seemed the polar opposite to him, and yet somehow they worked.
 
One was energetic, whilst the other preferred lounging about. One was outgoing to the others’ more reserved persona. But they learnt to deal with it all; because that was exactly what couples do. They’d managed to get around the fact that one slept spread out on the bed; whilst the other preferred being snuggled close together. They’d managed to get around the fact that the really didn’t have room for Dax as well as a second man in the house. They’d managed to do so many things that to anyone else, it would have spelt disaster. But they were just getting snagged on one tiny detail; just one thing neither had quite learnt to accept yet…
 
Music choices.
 
Yes, it sounded terribly petty- and to anyone else it would have been. Problem was their music tastes were just too different to get accustomed to. Nick preferred the mellow, singing of the beautiful country type… And Greg, his partner, preferred loud, head-banging music. He couldn’t see how the younger could call that music, if anything it sounded like someone decided to record themselves clattering items together whilst screaming about something or other; the majority of it made no sense. At least his music had rhythm to it.
 
Of course, it hadn’t really surprised him when he had first heard the noise that Greg claimed was music; it just seemed so... him. Their music just represented their personalities; and that is probably why they argued over it… Because it reminded them of just how different they really were. They couldn’t deny that in all reality they were very, very different people. The music just kept reminding them of those differences.
 
Not like they minded being individuals, it was just hard to see how they had managed to work around all the other personality clashes and yet they were getting hindered by the simplest little thing. Music wasn’t that big of a deal, right?
 
Well, Nick was wrong.
 
When they had first moved in together, he had ignored the dread that had appeared when he had seen the CD’s his bookcase was loaded with. His more refined taste had sprouted the odd Marylin Manson and Black Flag; a hideous spot upon his perfectly sculpted music collection. And, of course, people had looked at them with particular interest.
 
“I never pegged you as a Manson fan.” They’d always quip, and he could to nothing but roll his eyes and come up with a reasonable excuse as to why they were in amongst his collection.
 
“They’re not mine; someone just left them over my house.” Because of course, Nick and Greg weren’t public yet and just saying anything else would really screw things up for them both.
 
So they had to look for a solution; because all conflicts were solved by a compromise… Or at least that was what Nicks’ humanities teacher had taught him back when he was thirteen. They’d compromised many times before; they’d managed to compromise that they’d sleep snuggled- but if he ended up spread-out the other couldn’t complain at the flailing limbs; they’d compromised that they’d have to clean out some of their clutter under the stairs to make room for Dax.
 
Compromise number one:
 
An equal number of CD’s from each others’ collection will be put into the CD changer in alternate order.
 
That had lasted a few weeks, and really Nick thought it was going to be successful. The alternate CD’s were definitely a good idea, because they only had to sit through 11 tracks of the others music before they could bask in 11 tracks of their own.
 
It was just when they’d both really got sick and tired of having to sit through 11 tracks; that was about 10 too many; that things started to deteriorate rather rapidly. He’d come home and notice that somehow, miraculously, there weren’t alternate CD orders anymore… His were suddenly between 10 and 20 in the changer… Making them last in the changer, and also last to listen to.
 
Or when he’d discovered the skip-button, and Greg had protested wildly because his suddenly started to vanish mid-song; that wasn’t allowed. It had just gotten worse though, because Greg had finally rediscovered the lost remote for the changer and one would have the remote pressing ‘skip’ to get to their CD whilst the other pressed at the machine.
 
The day it had started to skip, smoulder and smell of burning wiring… They’d realised that this compromise was not such a good idea after all.
 
Compromise number two:
 
Mix CD’s; equal number of songs from each others’ taste on the disk and in alternate tracks.
 
They’d settled down on the floor on the Saturday they both had off from work and started to sort through the CD’s. It was just then that they had both realised what a mammoth task they both agreed on setting themselves as there appeared to be mountains of CD’s and the collection was much larger than either had ever remembered. Now Nick had no doubt why the shelf was bowed in the middle; it wasn’t just Greg’s bad handy-work after all.
 
However, it had ended happily, both compiling a list of tracks they wanted to put onto the CD’s- and Greg got to work on making the CD’s whilst he worked at creating a wild night. Both of which panned out particularly nicely, without complaints.
 
That had been a temporary fix too; because the new CD changer had a skip-button too, and they both learnt to use that pretty quickly. But after a small fight which resulted in Nick straddling Greg’s waist; they both had agreed never to use the skip button again because it was resulting in the break-down of their wonderful compromises.
 
The problem occurred when Greg decided that he was the one that made the CD’s; and Nick couldn’t. So if he broke the rules of the compromise then Nick couldn’t really go out and do anything about it, because he had no idea how to create a mix CD did he?
 
So when the next batch of CD’s came out; Nick was not in the least bit happy with his lover. 10 out of 20 tracks used to be his, now it was more like seven… He really didn’t like it, and so three days later all the compilation albums were shredded and ended up in the bin.
 
Compromise number three:
 
Listen to a radio station that plays ample amounts of both tastes in music.
 
That didn’t work, did it?
 
There were no radio stations that played a mixture of Country and Western, as well as Rock and heavy metal. None in the Las Vegas district, none in the Nevada district, none in the country… Even in request hour they could never get it to work and were instead faced with an abomination Jo-Jo had come up with; and they both agreed that it wasn’t worth making their ears bleed.
 
Compromise number four:
 
Use headphones
 
Headphones had looked like a quick fix; what was really to go wrong there? If they both had headphones in, they wouldn’t be able to hear each others music and that meant no debates over what music to have on. They could both have their individual music tastes, and not disturb one another.
 
It cut down on social interaction indefinitely; because they couldn’t hear each other to talk. It also defeated the whole idea of whispering sweet nothings in one another’s ears- because nine times out of ten it had to be repeated once they’d taken their headphone out.
 
But that wasn’t the only downside… It was only a quick fix because within three days it had failed when Nick had fallen over the wire coming from the stereo to Greg’s headphones and had knocked himself unconscious on the coffee table.
 
When he’d come to, Greg was hovering over him nervously, pressing a bag of peas to his forehead and the first thing he had said was:
 
“Don’t worry Nicky, all the headphones are in the bin.”
 
He couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the memory, because that had to be the cleverest thing he had done in a long while.
 
Compromise number five:
 
Stop listening to music whilst in the presence of the other.
 
Neither really thought that it was going to work- it was a last ditch effort for the pair. By this time the post-it note on the fridge had evolved into a sheet with lots of scribbled ideas- and Greg’s ever mutating signature agreeing to all of them.
 
So they cut out music whilst together; the rides to anywhere in the Denali where either to be ridden in uncomfortable silence, or where to be filled with the nonsense chatter of Greg. As amazing as it sounded; Greg eventually ran out of things to say and Greg generally did all of the talking for both of them. Nick had always wondered what silence was actually like- because since Greg moved in, things were rarely ever quiet; but he soon found out silence wasn’t golden.
 
But when they weren’t around each other, they could listen to their music as much (and as loudly) as they wanted to. Greg revelled in the moments when they weren’t together because he could indulge himself in the loud, pulsating drums and guitars. Nick meanwhile could sing along with the music that reminded him of his home.
 
However, the time when they were together and Greg had run out of gas for his mouth- the silence that settled was too much for either of them to cope with…
 
So that ploy failed on the grounds that they were being smothered by the silence.
 
Solution:
 
Listen to our music whenever and wherever.
 
This wasn’t a compromise; this was what would be the solution to all their problems… Not changing a thing.
 
Greg loved Nick’s silky, rich Texan singing- and he couldn’t get that if Nick listened to Heavy Metal.
 
Nick loved the way that Greg moved to the music- and he couldn’t get that if Greg listened to Country.
 
So they’d just have to put up with the music they hated to see the things they loved about one another… The music just defined who they were; the vast differences between Nick and Greg; the really defining of their relationship was realising that sometimes keeping things exactly the way they were, was better than trying to compromise and ruin the sweet symphony they created together.