Title: Poetry in Motion
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ryan Wolfe/Jesse Cardoza
Fandom: CSI: Miami
Rating: PG-13
Table: 2, stories_a_z
Prompt: P
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Ryan Wolfe or Jesse Cardoza, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Ryan glanced up from where he was kneeling on the floor, bagging a piece of evidence, to watch Jesse as he moved through the room, taking photographs. He couldn't force his gaze away from the other man; to him, Jesse was poetry in motion.

He'd already fallen hard, even though they barely knew each other. They'd talked a little in the van on the way over, and Ryan had managed to find out a little about Jesse's background. But the other man was silent about a lot of things, and Ryan respected his privacy.

He already knew that Jesse had been married, and that his wife had been murdered. But that didn't mean that this man was completely straight; there was something about Jesse that made Ryan sure that if he dug a little deeper, he would uncover what he wanted to know.

The problem was, how did he do that without seeming intrusive? The last thing he wanted was to make Jesse feel that he was undergoing an interrogation; it wasn't easy to find out as much as he wanted to know without asking questions that might seem too personal.

As much as he wanted to find out more about Jesse, he didn't feel that he should simply ask the other man out, even under cover of it just being two friends hanging out. It would be far too easy for Jesse to figure out just what he had in mind.

But what choice did he have? It wasn't as though he could ask Jesse what he wanted to know upfront while they were working. So he had to find some way to spend some time alone with the other man, and formulate questions that would tell him what he wanted to know.

"I think we're about done here, don't you?" Jesse asked, his voice bringing Ryan back to the present moment. "Do we have time to go somewhere for lunch? I didn't eat anything this morning, and I'm starving. Unless we have to get right back to the lab, that is."

Ryan shook his head, feeling his heart leap within his chest at the thought of spending some time alone with Jesse so soon. Well, they'd be in public, so not exactly alone -- but there wouldn't be anyone else from the crime lab around them to overhear what they said.

This could be his perfect chance to talk with Jesse, to make a few oblique inquiries and find out if this man might swing his way. If he didn't, at least they'd be friends -- and if Ryan had learned one thing from working in the crime lab, it was that you could never have too many friends.

He had to force himself to look away from Jesse as the two of them walked out to the van to store their kits in the back; he loved the way the other man moved, so fluidly and gracefully, almost like a dancer. Poetry in motion, indeed, he thought longingly.

It was hard for him not to focus on Jesse's hands; he wanted to feel those hands on his body, roaming all over him. He wanted those hands to undress him, to lay him down and do all kinds of things to him. He wanted to feel Jesse on top of him, inside him ....

With an effort, Ryan jerked his thoughts away from that path. It wouldn't do any good for him to think that way, not until he was absolutely sure that Jesse could be interested in him. If his thoughts and desires got ahead of themselves, then he'd only be in for a lot of heartache.

"I know this great place that brings the food pretty fast, so we won't have to be out to lunch for too long," Jesse told him as he swung open the driver's side door. "But we'll still have some time to talk. From the way you've been looking at me, I've got a feeling there's something you want to say."

Ryan blinked, rendered speechless by Jesse's words. How had the other man known that he'd wanted to say something? Did Jesse have some kind of sixth sense -- or was he just so desperate to talk to this man that it was easy for Jesse to pick up on that fact?

As they got into the van, Ryan couldn't help glancing over at Jesse again -- and was disconcerted to find the other man looking at him, a small smile curving his lips. "Whatever it is you want to say, Ryan, I wish you'd just say it and get things out in the open."

Without thinking, Ryan blurted out the first words that came into his head. "Is there any chance that you'd go out with me? I mean, on a date?" The second the words were out, he wished that he could take them back. But they were out now; they couldn't be unsaid.

Jesse laughed softly, turning his head to look at Ryan as he stopped for a red light. "I thought you'd never ask," he said, reaching out a hand to rest it on Ryan's knee. "I've been wondering just how I was going to find a way to ask you out."

Ryan was once again stunned into silence for a few moments. When he could finally speak again, he took a deep breath, trying to formulate words that wouldn't make him sound like a complete idiot. "I didn't think you would be interested in guys," he began, his voice tentative.

Jesse raised an eyebrow, his attention once again on the road. "Just because I've been married doesn't mean that I can't appreciate both men and women," he said, his tone mild. "And I do. I don't put limits on who I can fall in love with, or just be attracted to. And I'm attracted to you."

"That's a good thing, because I'm attracted to you, too," Ryan told him, relief flooding through him. So, Jesse was interested. Well, this was making things go a lot faster than he'd thought they would. "I was kind of knocked out the first time I saw you."

"You too, huh?" Jesse laughed again, glancing at Ryan as he pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant that Ryan had never been to before. "When you walked into that room, you took my breath away. The first thing I thought was that I had to kiss you."

With those words, he swung the van into a parking place and turned the ignition off before turning slightly to face the man sitting beside him. Before Ryan could say a word, Jesse reached out to take his face between his hands, then leaned forward to place his lips on Ryan's.

The kiss was so unexpected that Ryan couldn't think for a few moments; he couldn't even breathe. If he had tried to form a coherent thought, he couldn't have done it. His senses reeled, the world around him shrinking so that it only contained Jesse and himself.

He wanted this kiss to go on forever; he wanted to stay here in Jesse's arms for the rest of his life. If only the seat belt wasn't holding him back, he would have climbed over into Jesse's lap -- never mind that the steering wheel would make things a little uncomfortable for them both.

When they finally broke away from the kiss, Ryan had to wait a few moments before his brain could form the words he wanted to say. "Wow, you sure move fast," he breathed, panting a little. Slowly, he unfastened his seat belt, though he didn't want to leave the car just yet.

"I always go for what I want," Jesse said with a shrug. "I learned a long time ago that life is too short to spend it wishing and wanting. You have to go for it if you want to find happiness." His gaze bored into Ryan's, those dark eyes seeming to see into his soul. "And I think I'd be happy with you."

"I hope so," Ryan whispered, unable to speak any louder. "Because I intend to spend the rest of my life trying to make you as happy as you can possibly be." The words came out in a rush, as though he couldn't wait to see them and have them out in the open between them.

"What about you, Ryan?" Jesse asked softly, his gaze not leaving Ryan's face. "Do you think you can be happy with me? Because if you've got any doubts about that, I don't want this to start. I don't want to get my heart broken. And I don't want yours to break, either."

"it won't," Ryan assured him, reaching out to take Jesse's hand and twine their fingers together. Somehow, it felt natural to hold Jesse's hand, as though fate had always intended for them to find each other and to be together. For all he knew, maybe it had.

"Then let's make each other happy," Jesse told him, a smile breaking over his handsome features. That smile took Ryan's breath away all over again; he couldn't speak, couldn't think, couldn't breathe. All he could do was look at that smile and marvel that this man wanted him.

"That sounds like a great plan to me," Ryan said with a smile as Jesse opened the driver's side door to get out and slowly disentangled his hand from Ryan's grasp. He didn't want to let go of Jesse for even a moment, but he knew that he had to, at least for the time being.

Ryan watched as Jesse got out of the van and closed the door, unable to tear his eyes away from the other man. He was more than just poetry in motion; he was everything that Ryan had ever wanted or needed, all rolled into one delectable man.

This somehow felt right, more right than anything else in his life ever had. Some kind of fate had led him to work with the crime lab, and that same fate had led Jesse here, too. It had taken a while, but Ryan firmly believed that their meeting had been written in the stars.

What was going to happen with them? Ryan asked himself as he got out of the van and followed Jesse into the restaurant. He had no idea how this was going to work out, but he had the definite feeling that Jesse was going to be the best thing that had ever happened to him.

***