Title: Hangman Drabble
Author: Dr FooFoo
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: PG-13
Note: Each drabble focuses around a word I got in Hangman. :P

***

- Coloratura -

Nick took one step into Greg's apartment and turned around again, heading back out the door. Before he could get very far, however, a hand stopped him, and he turned around once again to face Greg, who was beaming as he swayed to what seemed to be a high-pitched whine coming from the stereo.

"G, what is that?" Nick asked, wincing as he tried to escape while covering his ears. Greg looked offended and pouted dramatically.

"It's my mother, Nicky, jeez..." he said back, rolling his eyes. Finally, to Nick's partial relief, he turned back to the stereo and turned the noise down a little. "Didn't I ever tell you she used to sing opera? She's a coloratura."

Nick raised an eyebrow and shook his head. He felt somewhat better now that he knew Greg didn't listen to 'Annoying Birds In Nature' during his spare time. He also felt a little embarrassed after unknowingly insulting Greg's mother.

"Wanna see how high I can sing... in bed?" Greg asked, flashing a mischievous grin, and Nick instantly forgot about opera.

***

- Orphan -

Nick was asleep on the couch when Greg snuck into his apartment late one night. He was carrying something small, round, and black, but it was too dark to make out what it was. Nick awoke with a start when Greg accidentally kicked his shoe off and it hit the wall.
"Greg...?" Nick mumbled, rolling over to peer into the darkness. "Is that you, G?"

Greg winced and swore under his breath, then sighed and trodded over to the couch, kneeling down in front of it and depositing his furry parcel on Nick's chest. Nick's eyes went wide and he squirmed suddenly when the black fuzzball moved.

"Greg, what the hell is this?" he asked, sitting up quickly and staring at the tiny black kitten in his lap. It stared up at him with huge, shiny eyes and mewed softly, then began to rub its head on Nick's thigh. Nick whimpered.

"Nick, jesus, it's just a cat..." Greg rolled his eyes and picked up the little kitten. "I found her downstairs by the front door; I think she's an orphan... She's so sweet, huh? We should name her... Jakal Moonbeam Nicholas the Third..."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "... Nicholas?"

***

- Tremendous -

Greg glances up from his favourite microscope when Nick saunters into the lab, and smiles a little, subtly. Nick, however, doesn't look pleased, and even frowns a bit, slapping DNA samples down on the table. Greg winces and gently organises them into a pile.

"Something wrong, Nicky?" he asks quietly, checking first to see if anyone else is within earshot before using that nickname. Nick glares at him and Greg pouts.

"I'm on a double homicide that involves two children under ten years old, the killer's still on the loose, I have nothing at all, and Grissom's taking Sara off the case for counselling," Nick spouts, rubbing his forehead with one hand. "I've got a tremendous headache and I need those samples in an hour."

Greg looks down at the samples and rolls his eyes subtly, then mumbles under his breath, "I've got a tremendous urge to give you head, but you don't see me complaining..."

Nick's halfway out the door when he stops and turns around, a faint blush already rising into his ears. "What did you just say?" he demands, thinking maybe he heard wrong, but Greg just smiles sweetly and shakes his head, then looks back down into his microscope.

Nick hesitates for a few minutes, but can't help smirking and shaking his head before leaving the lab.

***

- Phenotype -

"So... the phenotype of the Miller girl doesn't match what it should be, right? So she's not actually their daughter..."

"Greg, would you give me some space, please? I'm trying to work here..."

Greg pouts and backs off, flopping over onto the couch, but continues to stare at Nick working away at the kitchen table. He's wearing his vest for some reason, but Greg's totally not complaining.

"You know, Nick..." Greg starts, smirking when Nick rolls his eyes and looks up from his laptop screen. "I'd say your phenotype's pretty damn fine."

Nick turns to look at him and the familiar blush creeps its way up his neck. Greg grins and stands up to grab at Nick, dragging him towards the bedroom. Nick follows obediently, for when it comes to science-geeky pickup lines, Greg always wins.

***

- Convince -

"Please, Nicky?" Greg cooed, pouting overdramatically and tilting his head. Nick refused to look at him, as his face was already flushing and he needed to get work done; he stared down at a folder with crime scene photos scattered, and sorted them on the table.

"G, I told you..." he sighed softly, risking a quick glance up at Greg's puppy-face, which he immediately regretted. His blush darkened. "I have to finish this..."

He trailed off and Greg smirked slightly. Breathing out a huge, exaggerated sigh, Greg leaned against the table and subtly shifted until his crazy orange tshirt rode up his tummy a little; just enough to tease Nick and make him drop his photos in exasperation. Greg smirked again and gently rubbed his ass on the edge of the table, winking at Nick when he looked up. Nick glared, but he couldn't help a tiny little smile.

"Alright, quit it," Nick said quietly, shaking his head and glancing over Greg's shoulder to make sure no one was in the hallway. "You've convinced me..."

Greg grinned wolfishly and blew a kiss at Nick before waltzing out of the trace room and skipping down the hallway to wait for Nick in the locker room.

***

- Afterlife -

"Nick... do you think there's such thing as an afterlife?" Greg asked quietly, breath puffing from his lips in steamy lines. His teeth chattered a little and he turned to Nick, huddling a little closer.

"An afterlife...?" Nick repeated, his own body shivering faintly from the cold, despite the warmth of the blanket and Greg. "I haven't really thought about it..."

Greg nodded a little, but stayed silent and looked at Nick for a second before glancing up and out the window of their bedroom. Nick studied his face, then leaned forward and kissed his lips softly.

"Why?"

Greg shrugged slightly and couldn't suppress a small grin. "Cause I wanna know what to expect if it gets any colder in here..." he said finally, squirming into a little ball in the covers and rubbing his arms rapidly. Nick grinned back and looked almost embarrassed for a second, then flushed faintly and kissed Greg again.

"I'll warm you up..."

***

- Metabolism -

Sometimes Nick takes Greg out for dinner and orders large, extravagant amounts of food and Greg never eats all of it. Nick doesn't mind though, and when he asks Greg about it, Greg just says he has a slow metabolism and he doesn't want to ruin his girlish figure.

Sometimes Nick does this thing with his tongue that Greg just can't stand. It makes him crazy and he always comes way too soon when he does it. When Nick laughs softly and asks him about it, Greg just pants and whispers that he has a high metabolism.

***

- Firsthand -

Usually Greg has no problem working when Nick's in the lab, because he's pretty much trained himself to ignore everything going on around him when he gets really involved in samples. But Greg's never had to deal with Nick sitting right beside him for four straight hours, peering into a microscope and making notes, and he's definitely never had to deal with his leg brushing up against Nick's every couple minutes, or the bittersweet smell of Nick's aftershave he catches every so often.

He wants to tell Nick to leave because he's distracting, but he knows Nick has to work too, and Hodges doesn't let anyone touch his microscopes, so the DNA lab is pretty much the only available spot. Greg wants to stop touching Nick's shin with his foot too, but he's afraid Nick will notice if he moves.

It doesn't help when Nick gets up and returns several minutes later with two cups of coffee and sets one down in front of Greg, smiling slightly before going back to work. Greg really needs to stop staring at Nick's mouth every time he picks up his cup and takes a sip, but he's tasted those lips firsthand and he knows if he stops now, he won't be able to wait until the end of shift.

Usually Greg has no problem working when Nick's in the lab, but on days like this, it's all he can do to stay in his seat and avoid ravaging him. Just for a few more hours anyway.

***

- Gossip -

The first time Greg kissed Nick at work, he thought they were alone. He scouted up and down the halls several times before convincing Nick to go and have a look at the centrifuge. There, Greg leaned in and kissed the corner of his mouth, just lightly, but hard enough for Nick to feel it and look up, surprised. Nick's eyes had been wide as he glanced around through the glass walls, checking if anyone had seen. No one had, so he smiled a little and went back to work.

The second time, Greg got careless. He'd been watching Nick strut around in his vest all day and he didn't even think before grabbing Nick's arm in the locker room and melding their lips together. It was quick, but Nick was panting when they came up for air. After that, Greg realised he needed more of Nick and took every opportunity to touch him throughout the day.

The third time, Sara saw, and she said she wouldn't gossip, but it just so happens that she's very ticklish and apparently Catherine knows just where to tickle, because soon Catherine was smirking about it, and the next thing Greg knew, the whole lab was snickering every time he came in for work.

The good thing, though, about everyone knowing about he and Nick was that no one ever asked questions when both of them took sick days at the same time.

***

- Starve -

It's not that Greg doesn't like forensics conferences... He likes them, in fact, but they're always so long and they drag on like nobody's business. It's one thing to further one's knowledge of the procedures of crime scene investigation, but it's another thing entirely to lose brain cells by sitting in a room staring at the wall for three days. It doesn't help that Greg hasn't gotten laid in well over 72 hours, and even though he said he wouldn't, his right hand's looking mighty nice right now.

Finally the last speaker of the evening is done ranting about the striations of a toenail, and Greg shuffles out of the lecture hall with everyone else, and makes his way to the elevator. He's considering skipping the last conference day and just flying back to Vegas right now, but then he remembers Nick saying to give him a call if Greg needed anything. Greg's never been one for phone sex, but he's so starved for contact right now that he'll do just about anything.

When Nick doesn't answer his phone, however, Greg remembers that he's probably at work. Damn time difference... The answer machine picks up, though, and Greg grins coyly as he imagines what Nick's face is going to look like when he gets this message.

"Hey Nicky... Whatcha wearing?"

***

- Gesture -

Greg's only been on the field once, and he totally messed up then. As soon as he saw blood spewing out of that bus driver's mouth, he froze, and didn't even hear Nick yell his name the first few times to tell him to get an ambulance. The guy was alright, but that doesn't make Greg feel any better or any safer when Grissom asks him to tag along in the field with Nick today.

Of course, it's a textbook robbery, and Greg practically doesn't have to do anything but take photos of the convenience store and ask a witness a few questions, but he can't help noticing Nick's eyes on him, and that makes him wonder if he's doing something wrong. It's like that all afternoon, and even when they head back to the lab in Nick's Chevy Tahoe.

But something's different because Nick's acting weirdly, and when Greg asks him if he's okay, he practically jumps out of his skin. Greg just figures he was up too late working a different case, but maybe he's wrong about that, because then Nick's asking him if he'd like to go to dinner sometime. Greg knows he can't take it as anything serious, and he knows it's just a friendly gesture, because Nick's not that kind of guy, right? Nick's not the kind of guy who asks his male coworkers out on... dates. Right?

But Greg will take whatever he can get.

***

- Cheerleader -

Nick has to wonder at times like these why he puts up with his coworkers. Then again, when he thinks about it, accompanying Catherine to a middle school football game just to see Lindsey and her cheerleader friends do a dance at halftime isn't the worst way he could be spending his night off. Granted, it's not the best way either, but with Eddie gone, it's the least he can do for Catherine.

Buzzers sound and it's halftime - kids scatter everywhere and the mini cheerleading squad runs out onto the field, screaming heartily. Catherine starts cheering and Nick claps a little - it's nothing he hasn't seen before. He was on the football team for a while in high school, after all, but then the squad does a human pyramid and Lindsey's stuck at the very bottom on her hands and knees, and Nick can't help himself.

"Greg can do that."

***

- Derriere -

Greg pulls on his vest slowly and sits back on the bench that runs down the aisle between the rows of lockers, wincing slightly. He's definitely not looking forward to going out in the field today - or walking. At all. Or sitting, for that matter. In fact, all he really wants to do is go home and snuggle up in his bed with his ass in the air. It would be the most comfortable thing to do, anyway. Unfortunately, he was called in this morning and now he has to go meet up with Sara and Nick for some robbery on the strip.

Not that he's belittling robberies, it's just that he has a feeling he's going to have a hard time hiding the fact that his derriere sticks out more than usual when he walks today.

Right on cue, Sara walks into the locker room just as Greg's walking out.

"Something wrong, Greg?" Sara asks after regarding the way he's walking for a minute. Greg shakes his head.

"Huh?" And Greg really must be having a bad day, because Nick choses that moment to enter the room, and he avoids Greg's gaze immediately - predictable as ever. Sara frowns slightly, perplexed by Greg's strange walk.

"Were you at a ranch all weekend or something?" she asks, still guessing, and Greg knows where this is going... Luckily, he sees his chance to avoid all future questioning when Sara adds, "It looks like you rode a horse for a day."

"You could say that..." Greg replies, glancing pointedly at Nick, and the last thing he sees before leaving the room is Nick's familiar Texan blush creeping up his neck.

***

- Primal -

Nick was alright on his own - he could do his own laundry, cook his own meals, tidy his own house. He could take care of himself. And then he met Greg. Greg caused everything Nick had learned to go flying gracefully out the window.

Greg never cooked. He either ordered pizza or Chinese or took Nick out to some trendy little café that Nick had never heard of before. Nick wondered how Greg still had enough of a paycheque to buy a new shirt every couple weeks. Greg also never, never did laundry. When Nick went over to Greg's apartment, all he found were clothes everything. Everywhere; Nick found a sock in the shower once. And when Greg stayed over at Nick's? There was always a suspicious trail of clothing lining the hall from the front door to the bedroom.

If there was anything Greg did on a regular basis, it was definitely not clean his place. Trying to find one's way through the stacks of dirty dishes and old food and video games was like trudging through a battlefield. It completely contradicted everything Nick had grown up learning. And he couldn't get enough of it.

When Nick was with Greg, something strange came over him. Some kind of weird, primal urge that clouded his mind and made him completely forget about food and laundry and money and cleanliness. When Nick got like that, all he saw was Greg - creamy pale skin and funky hair and deep brown eyes.

Now, whenever his sister comes to visit, or his neighbour shows up and asks why he has clothes scattered all about and plates piling up, Nick just smiles and says he was inspired by a beautiful muse.

***

- Removal -

Nick and Greg have always been almost polar opposites in every way. Nick's family was always strict about tradition and doing things right the first time, while Greg's mother just wanted Greg to be happy with his choices in life. Nick was tidy and kept everything in its place, while Greg's apartment was a mess of clothes, books, food - everything he was too busy to clean up. Most of the time these differences frustrated Nick and amused Greg. Nick was always suppressing the urge to pick up after Greg and Greg always had to think twice before leaving a dirty plate in Nick's living room.

But one difference that neither complained about was the removal of clothing. Nick tugged off his shirt like it disgusted him; always pulling it up over his head and tossing it away immediately, then going for his belt. It was like a ritual or something. Not that Greg minded. He kind of liked watching Nick struggle with his clothes while trying not to blush too obviously at the attention - it was cute though Nick would blush even more if he knew Greg thought that.

Greg, on the other hand, took his time with things. He loved watching Nick get all hot and bothered while he slowly pulled up one corner of his shirt, or unzipped his jeans and left it at that. Nick would paw at his thigh or try to take matters into his own hands, and Greg would just shush him and push his troublesome mitts away. He laughed when Nick sometimes whimpered softly or squirmed around, and kissed him and told him to be patient.

Eventually, no matter the method of removal, all clothes would come off, and both Nick and Greg could silently agree that a difference like that was hardly one to get worked up about.

***