Title: Monogamy
Author: hen3ry
Pairing: David/Greg
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Greg doesn't do monogamy. David tells himself not to be jealous.

***

David tells himself not to be jealous.

He tells himself a lot, but that doesn't mean it works.

It's none of it his fault, technically. It's not his fault Greg doesn't 'do' monogamy.

(Though it is, sort of. It's his fault for knowing it and still letting himself get involved anyway.)

He repeats to himself that he's being pathetic, but it doesn't help.

Jacqui tells him that she's going to stop talking to him if he doesn't stop moaning.

Archie doesn't say it, but David can tell he feels the same.

Bobby actually knows the situation (being the trustworthy one), and doesn't pass comment when the subject comes up, but neither will he indulge David's constant pity-fests by discussing it in private.

David keeps telling himself to get proactive about the whole thing, but it doesn't happen.

They're leaving the cinema and he's about to open his mouth to start yet another conversation on the subject when Greg yanks him into an alley and presses him into the wall. He barely has a chance to think before Greg's mouth covers his, stopping speech. David gives in (again), because… He's not sure why, but the hand cupping him through his jeans probably factors in there somewhere.

They're still as dressed as they were going in to the theatre, and David's about to comment on that when Greg shifts his angle, pressing the two of them together, and shifts his hips just enough to change David's observation to a breathy gasp.

Neither of them last much longer after that, and as they come (together, and David can't decide whether that's hot or ironic) Greg breaks the kiss, their foreheads pressed together and David can fell his hot panting breath against his cheek and decides tonight isn't time for that conversation.

He's starting to think that maybe it'll never be time. And there are some mornings he doesn't really care, some mornings where he tells himself that the old line "it doesn't matter who he goes out with, so long as he comes home to me" is the truth.

It's not though. David does do monogamy.

He tells himself that Greg's still young, that it's just a phase, that he'll get over it.

(The back of his mind tells him that Greg's thirty-one, and if he hasn't changed yet he's not going to.)

He looks up compersion on the computers at work, and Sara checks over his shoulder and asks him if he isn't being a bit optimistic. David rolls his eyes and replies with a cutting remark silencing her before she leaves. He decides that while it's a lovely idea, he still doesn't think it'll work for him, and makes up his mind to talk to Greg.

They're driving back from work one day when Greg pulls over, straddles him in the front seat and the conversation gets put back on the back burner.

For a few more months, David doesn't think about it. He's getting good at ignoring that voice in the back of his head. He bumps into Greg in the break room to find a giant hickey covering half his neck. Just for a second David doesn't react.

Greg shrugs his shoulders, but David can see the tiniest shred of guilt in his eyes before he stalks back to the trace lab.

David tells himself he'll give Greg one more chance.

(The sixteenth final chance.)

He does love Greg. It wouldn't be a problem if he didn't. Greg says he loves him, which is where it starts being an issue, because David believes in the whole 1+1 scheme of relationships, regardless of how unenlightened that makes him.

(He tries it himself once. He doesn't go through with it though, because he knows he's not doing it for himself.)

He finally manages to have the conversation. Greg says he doesn't love anyone else, that he doesn't want to love anyone else. But he doesn't do exclusivity. Greg says he'll never leave him. That's not what David's worried about.

In actual fact, he's not sure what it is that he's worried about. He can't put a finger on it, but he knows that no matter how much he loves Greg that it can't work for him, not like this.

Greg doesn't do monogamy, that's all there is to it.

David asks if he's ever tried.

He doesn't need to, apparently, to know.

Right then, more then anything, David wants whatever Greg is willing to give to be enough. 80 or whatever it is.

It isn't though, and he knows it never will be. He supposes that makes him selfish, but he can deal with that. Eventually.

Greg doesn't want to end things. He loves David. With everyone else, it's not about love, its about sex.

David thinks that if he presses hard enough, he can probably get Greg to agree to what he wants. He knows it won't work though. That something will happen, and then it really will be finished, forever, with far more anger then right now.

Greg says he doesn't do monogamy. But David does, and that's all there is to it.

***