Title: Reminders of the Past
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Steve McGarrett & past Nick/Greg
Fandom: CSI: Vegas/Hawaii Five-0
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1drabble
Prompt: 20, Bittersweet
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders or Steve McGarrett, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Greg sighed as he leaned back in the chaise longue, looking out over the beach as the waves rolled in. If anyone had told him a year ago that he would make a life here in Hawaii, living right on the beach, he'd have scoffed and told them they were crazy.

Yet here he was, living in Hawaii, working with a great team of people, loving what he did. And most important of all, he'd found love.

Not the kind of love he'd had with Nick, a love that had been largely one-sided -- and very transitory on Nick's part. No, what he had with Steve was deep and true -- and it was something that would last. Steve wasn't going to place his job over his relationship.

Steve wasn't going to be another Nick.

Even though he still considered Nick a friend, and would be civil to him when and if they saw each other again, Greg wanted to keep his distance from his ex-lover. That was one of the main reasons he had moved here to Hawaii, to make a clean break.

He'd done enough crying over the end of his relationship with Nick; now, he had moved on, and he was no longer letting the memories of the time they'd had together rip his heart to pieces. Steve had put those broken shards back together again.

Greg sighed at the thought, lifting the bottle of water in his hand to his lips and taking a sip. The memories he had of being with Nick were still bittersweet; they would probably ache for a long time to come. But they no longer hurt as badly as they once had.

Nick had written to him again, giving him the date and time of his arrival in Hawaii, as though he somehow expected Greg to be there at the airport to pick him up, or to at least greet him. Greg knew that he would be doing no such thing.

It was time for Nick to realize that they were over.

He couldn't just come back into Greg's life as though he'd never put his job and his ambitions ahead of Greg; he had to realize that they couldn't pick up where they'd left off. He had to understand that Greg was never coming back to Vegas -- or back to him.

Greg had made a life here, one that he loved and wasn't going to leave. Nick would have to live with that, and deal with his own bittersweet reminders of the past.

Greg smiled as he heard Steve's car pulling into the garage; his boyfriend had gone out to pick up dinner, and it hadn't taken him long. He got to his feet, heading back inside, feeling comfortable with the decision he'd made, a decision that he knew was the best thing for him.

***