Title: Persuasion
By: kateg123
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI...if I did Greg and Nick would have been a canon couple a long time ago!
Summary: Greg has been watching Nick recently...in a different way. Nick notices and is not sure what to make of it, perhaps with a little persuasion something could happen?

***

Nick carefully placed the pipette back in the stand and stood up stretching his hands above him to loosen up his muscles. He had been sitting in the lab for three hours straight testing time and time again for blood on every miniscule bit of clothing taken from the vic's house. He was positive he had just used up the lab's entire supply of Luminal.

"Tired?" Asked an amused voice from the doorway, he turned quickly to see the laughing face of Sara Sidle, his co-worker.

"Ha-ha, you have no idea how long I've been in here," Nick replied sarcastically, "I need coffee."

Sara smirked at him and said, "Greg's just put on a fresh pot, you're in luck."

Nick froze in the doorway and said hesitantly, "actually, you know maybe I should just stay here for a while and…maybe test more thoroughly."

Sara's smirk widened as she said triumphantly, "I knew it, you're avoiding him! What's the matter Nicky?"

Nick grimaced as he thought of the lab tech who had been plaguing his thoughts for the past few weeks. He and Greg had always been good friends but lately he had noticed Greg giving him more attention than was usual between guy friends. There was the occasional lustful look he often caught in Greg's eyes and more often than not he had turned around to see Greg quickly shifting his gaze as if covering up after checking him out.

Nick was used to this sort of behaviour in women, but he wasn't too comfortable with being looked at like that by a guy. No one else had seemed to notice Greg's sudden new behaviour and so Nick was trying to write it off as his overactive imagination but every time he was around Greg he couldn't help but think that every time Greg looked at him he was imagining a completely different scenario in his head.

Nick had questioned why he had felt so uncomfortable with this behaviour from a man and had come up with nothing. He was pretty sure he wasn't homophobic as he had plenty of gay friends. So why did he feel so damn uncomfortable?

"I'm not avoiding him Sara," and as if to prove his point he walked purposefully out of the lab towards the break room with Sara following close behind. "You don't have to come with me Sara; I am going to go in."

"I know, I want coffee as well Nick," she replied but he knew she just wanted to check out any awkward tension between the two men.

Nick pushed open the door to see Greg sitting alone at a table flicking through a magazine and clutching a steaming mug of coffee. He looked up as Nick and Sara entered and flashed them both a grin, was it Nick's imagination or did the grin turn into a slight leer when focused on him?

He shrugged off this thought and nodded at Greg before striding over to the coffee pot.

"So Greg, you guys had any fights lately?" Sara asked, subtlety be damned.

Greg frowned in confusion and said, "no, everything's fine. Why?"

"Oh no reason," she replied in an overly innocent voice before grabbing a mug and walking out of the room.

Nick gulped as he realised he was now alone in the break room with Greg who had turned around in his chair to look at him.

"So Nick, what made Sara ask if we were fighting?" He asked.

"No reason," Nick replied shortly avidly avoiding Greg's gaze.

"Nick?" Greg asked cautiously, "is something the matter, I kinda noticed lately that you've been avoiding me."

Nick gulped and sat down opposite Greg determined to prove to himself and Greg that everything was just fine and dandy between them.

"Look Greggo, everything's cool alright," here he resorted to that age old excuse, "I'm just tired, I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately."

Greg nodded in acceptance and took a deep gulp of his coffee. Nick watched as his eyes closed in bliss as the caffeine hit his system and looked on as he swept his tongue across his lips to gather up any drops…wait. Rewind….he did not just think that! He had not just watched Greg as he drank his coffee while thinking sensuous thoughts. Nick nodded, that's right. It hadn't happened.

He realised he was still looking at Greg and nodding to himself and Greg was watching him with an odd expression on his face.

"You alright Nicky?" He asked a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

Nick jumped up out of the chair and backed hastily out of the room nearly tripping over his own feet while saying, "I just remembered…err…there's a…um…thing!"

He turned around and walked quickly to the locker room where he sat down heavily on a bench and leaned back against the lockers. What the hell was that? Was that the reason Greg's new attentions were affecting him so badly? Was it because Nick actually liked them?!

No but that couldn't be, he was Nick Stokes and he was damn well straight. Straight as a long straight thing, like a tree! Yes he was Nick Stokes and he was a tree. Nick frowned, that wasn't right. Sighing he flopped his head down into his hands and shut his eyes tight. Was it possible that he might actually fancy Greg? They had been friends for a long time and he definitely trusted him.

"Nick are you alright?" He looked up suddenly to see Sara standing there.

"Are you stalking me?" He asked with a feeble attempt at humour.

Sara smirked and just sat down next to him, "is there something you want to talk about?"

Nick stared at him, trying to gauge her response to what could possibly be him coming out.

"Look, I like women okay?" He said. Sara just looked at him and nodded. Nick had the feeling she might already know what was coming. "They're soft and curvy but then there's…not women."

Sara smiled encouragingly at him and said, "You mean men Nick?"

Nick squirmed in his seat and said, "well yeah but I don't know. It's only recently right? There's this one guy and he seems to like me, I mean he does all the stuff women do to get my attention right? Just in a more man-ish type of way."

He was interrupted here by Sara who queried innocently, "who? You mean Greg?"

Nick looked at her quickly, startled and said, "What? Greg? No, I don't….what?"

"It's okay Nick…so you like Greg and you think he likes you…what are you going to do?"

Nick stared at the opposite locker in bewilderment, "I don't know Sara! I only found out I could possibly be gay ten minutes ago! I guess for me to be sure I'd have to try…dating him. And that's sure as hell never going to happen."

Nick slammed his head back against the locker behind him in frustration and they sat there together in silence thinking.

Any passer-by walking past the entrance to the locker room would have been puzzled to see Greg Sanders punching the air in mock victory and mouthing 'yes!' as if he had just heard something very interesting from inside the room.

***

Nick had spent the whole night worrying about what he was going to do. He had gone home and turned on the TV ready for some mindless action to take his mind off of his dilemma. However he couldn't watch anything without wondering whether he found the main actor attractive. Now that he was gay was he supposed to find every guy attractive? He had turned off the television in defeat and gone to sleep but was plagued by dreams of Greg doing things he did not want to remember. Mostly because, in his dream, they had felt extremely good.

Now he was hiding in the garage with a car he was supposed to be examining wondering how he could ever face Greg again without reliving his dream. As he crawled into the backseat of the car shining his torch over the seats in a vain attempt to find stray hairs or blood he thought he heard a door slam. Suddenly he got that prickly feeling on the back of his neck that signified someone watching him. He backed out of the car quickly and turned around to see the one person he really did not want to talk to just then.

Greg smiled at him and waved a piece of paper saying, "I thought I might find you here, I've got your DNA results for the blood from the crime scene."

Nick managed a feeble smile in return and reached out for the piece of paper, "thanks."

Greg however stepped back so Nick couldn't reach the paper and waved it tauntingly in his direction. "Come on, you have to do better than that!"

"Look Greg, I don't have time for these games now I need to examine this car," he said in an exasperated tone of voice.

Greg just smirked at him and said, "It's either this or guess the suspect!"

Nick rolled his eyes and reached again for the piece of paper hoping to catch Greg by surprise. Greg stepped back again but tripped over a loose tool on the ground and fell backwards. Nick watched in slow motion as Greg's eyes widened in surprise as he fell and he grabbed for the closest thing to hold onto. Which just so happened to be Nick's shirt.

The next thing Nick was aware of was laying on top of Greg their faces just inches apart and their chests pressed firmly together. Greg's hand was still clutching a handful of his shirt and had his eyes squeezed shut as he said softly, "ow."

Nick watched as Greg slowly opened his eyes and his cheeks suffused with blood as he noticed their proximity. There was a moment of silence as they both stared at each other both definitely feeling something. Nick could feel Greg's heart beating beneath him but he himself felt strangely calm as if this moment was just normal. He could feel Greg's breath warm on his lips and although he was balanced on his arms which were now burning with the effort of holding his weight up he made no movement.

The silence stretched on and it felt like it had been minutes even though he knew it had just been seconds. Neither knew what was happening but surely there was….something?

The moment was ruined though when the door to the garage banged open suddenly and Sara walked in yelling, "Nick, you in here? I need to talk to you about the results….oh"

She cut off abruptly as she noticed their position on the ground. Nick hastily pushed himself up as Greg released his hold on his t-shirt.

"Sara, hi!" He said willing her not to comment on the now very awkward situation.

"Oh…well, I just wanted…you know never mind, I'll talk to you…err…later," she said obviously uncomfortable at disturbing what looked like a very 'private' moment.

Nick dusted off his trousers and hastily rushed after her without a backwards glance at Greg saying, "Don't worry I'll come with you now."

He could feel Greg's eyes boring into his back as he walked out of the garage but didn't know what the hell had just happened and he felt he needed time to think about it.

"So what the hell was that Nicky?" Sara asked curiously albeit with a wide smile on her face, "Did something just happen that I should know about? Actually scratch that, did something just happen?"

Nick just shook his head and said morosely, "I wish I knew what just happened. He fell over and grabbed me and then I was…on top of him and I don't know…there was a connection."

He paused as he replayed his words in his head and then added, "That sounds so cheesy but that's exactly what it felt like!"

"You're not still worried about the fact that you might possibly like guys are you? Cause that's perfectly normal you know." Sara said in a reassuring voice.

"I know it's just…confusing," he sighed in exasperation and pushed open the door of the locker room saying, "I'll catch you later I just have to get something."

He walked over to his locker and opened it grabbing a sandwich he had made earlier before turning around…only to come face to face with Greg Sanders.

He dropped his sandwich in shock and opened his mouth to say something but then couldn't think of anything to say and just stood there with his mouth open…like a fish. Great, now he was a fish.

"Uh…" he said for want of anything better to say.

"Nick, I have to talk to you," Greg said in a matter of fact tone of voice, "about what just happened."

Nick just nodded uncomprehendingly.

"Something happened right, it wasn't just me?" Greg knew he was taking advantage of the conversation he had overheard yesterday to instigate this conversation but he didn't care. If he hadn't heard that Nick Stokes might possibly be gay he would never have had the courage to even think about talking to Nick about this, "so maybe if you want to give it another go?" He leaned closer and whispered in Nick's ear, "without interruptions?"

Nick knew his cheeks were probably bright red from the ideas Greg was putting in his mind but he didn't care. All he wanted to know right now was if Greg's lips were as soft as they looked.

Turning his head he looked Greg straight in the eye and leaned forward until he was centimetres apart from Greg's lips. This time he didn't hesitate and kept going until he actually felt them against his own lips. It wasn't as awkward or stiff as he thought kissing another man might be. In fact he was surprisingly soft; he parted his lips wanting more and was encouraged by Greg parting his. Greg then seemed to take over the kiss and tilted his head so as to gain better access to his mouth. To no surprise at all Nick was pleased to find out that Greg tasted like coffee.

Greg had by this point slammed Nick flush against the locker behind him and had his hands placed firmly on either side of his effectively trapping him between his arms.

Nick was not entirely sure what to with his arms, if this was a woman he would be attempting to grope her breasts right about now. Attempting being the key word.

However, Greg did not have any breasts and Nick settled with placing his hands on Greg's hips.

The pulled apart eventually panting slightly and Greg said in a husky voice that sounded completely unlike his normal voice and caused a slight stirring deep within Nick, "I guess you wanted to give it another go then."

Nick didn't say anything but just pulled Greg back towards him to capture his lips in another bruising kiss.

They were interrupted yet again however by a voice saying, "That is so hot."

They turned abruptly to see Sara standing at the end of the row of lockers with Catherine who was nodding fervently in agreement.

Nick flushed slightly but Greg just looked at Nick and smirking said, "Well ladies you've had your look now move along, nothing to see here."

With this he lunged forward again to capture Nick's lips oblivious to anyone who might be watching.

***