Title: Secret Depths
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Ryan Wolfe
Fandom: CSI: Las Vegas/CSI: Miami
Rating: PG-13
Table: Romance, mission_insane
Prompt: 9, Chocolate
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 Ryan Wolfe, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Ryan looked over at Greg as the two of them walked slowly through the park, eating ice cream cones that they'd bought only moments ago. He was surprised that Greg had ordered plain chocolate; he'd expected his boyfriend to get a cone that had several different flavors.

It always surprised him to find that Greg had a mellow side; he was used to the man he loved being a little bit "out there," different from everyone else. Finding out that Greg had such moments of what others would probably term "normalcy" always felt a bit odd.

He himself had gotten a scoop of raspberry and one of creme bruleé -- that was pretty exotic for him, but they were his two favorite flavors of ice cream. He had been more than a little surprised when Greg had gotten two scoops of chocolate, with nothing to top it off.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Greg's voice brought Ryan out of his thoughts and into the present moment; he hadn't realized that he was staring at his boyfriend as they ambled along. He blinked, wondering whether or not to tell Greg exactly what he'd been thinking.

He should be able to tell Greg anything he was thinking, Ryan told himself firmly. If he couldn't, then there had to be something wrong with their relationship. He and Greg should have no secrets from each other, especially when it came to something silly like this.

"I was wondering why you ordered two scoops of plain chocolate," he said with a shrug. "I just thought that you'd be the type of guy who would get something more exotic when it came to ice cream. Not that there's anything wrong with chocolate, though!" he hastened to add.

"There sure isn't!" Greg agreed with a laugh, licking his ice cream cone again. "I like chocolate. It's always been my favorite flavor of ice cream -- and even though it's plain, it always tastes great." He licked the cone again, obviously enjoying the ice cream.

"That's a good enough explanation for me," Ryan told him, licking his own cone again. The raspberry flavor was almost gone, but he didn't mind that; he couldn't have said which of the two he liked better, and he was enjoying every moment. He felt like a kid again.

He and Greg didn't do enough things like this, he told himself as he cast another surreptitious glance over at his boyfriend. They spent far too much time dealing with the seamier side of life when they were working; they needed to kick back and have fun more often.

He didn't want the two of them to become old and jaded, thinking of nothing but all the horrible things that happened in the world. He had seen too many cops do that, as well as CSIs. They got to the point where the bad always overshadowed the good, until they never saw the good at all.

Ryan shuddered at the thought of himself and Greg developing an attitude like that. He hadn't liked it in other people, and he definitely didn't want to take on that hopeless attitude himself. He wanted to see Greg become like that even less. It wasn't worthy of either of them.

But it was hard not to become jaded, with all that they saw around them every day that they went to work. Maybe they should both look for other lines of work, he mused silently as they walked along, licking their ice cream cones. Something that would be .... well, happier.

In his heart, Ryan knew that neither of them would ever leave their jobs. Yes, it was hard not to become jaded and see the worst in everything because of what they did -- but he also knew that they did a lot of good for people, and that neither of them wanted to stop.

Before he'd become a CSI, he had thought that he'd been born to be a cop. And he still was, in a way -- after all, they worked closely with the police, and he did have a badge and carry a gun. He did enforce the law -- just in a different way than he had when he was on the force.

He was proud of what he and Greg did, and he knew that if either of them decided to leave the crime lab, something in them would go unfulfilled. He didn't want to leave the job that he loved -- but he did wish that there were more bright spots in that job.

Still, he wouldn't want to quit. He didn't want to let the darkness of some of the things he saw get to him; leaving his job would only be conceding to that darkness and letting it win. He wouldn't let it get the better of him; he would find a way to make his job brighter.

That wouldn't be the easiest thing in the world to do, given the things that he saw on a daily basis. But he was lucky in that he had a generally easygoing personality; he didn't let all that he saw get to him in the way that some people might. He could deal with the darker side of life.

Greg could, too, Ryan told himself, a slight smile curving his lips. His boyfriend was a lot stronger than he gave himself credit for; Greg had been through hell in the past, and he'd come out on the other side with a will and a spirit that had been forged in iron.

Greg had been a strong person when he was young, too; Ryan knew that few people would have been able to deal with what had been done to him for all those years without telling anyone. But Greg had managed to put it behind him as best he could, and make a life for himself.

His boyfriend was beautiful, brave, intelligent, loving .... all of the qualities that Ryan prized. And he loved Greg more every day; the longer they were together, the more he treasured and respected the man he'd fallen in love with. He was sure that love and respect would only continue to grow.

They had both licked their way nearly to the bottom of their ice cream cones by now; Ryan felt a little sad that the treat was over with so soon, but it had been nice while it lasted. And somehow, he had the feeling that even a tiny thing like eating ice cream had brought him closer to Greg.

Sharing little mundane things like this made him feel as though his heart and Greg's were entwined; even if they weren't cuddling, or talking, or even looking at each other at the moment, they were still bonded, still sharing a bit of their lives and their souls.

It seemed silly to think that they could share their hearts and souls, bonding over something as silly as an ice cream cone. But Ryan couldn't help feeling that everything he and Greg did together brought them closer, in ways that he couldn't even begin to describe.

He finished his cone, crunching it and wiping his fingers with the napkin before he tossed the cloth into the nearest trash can. He reached out a hand to take Greg's napkin, throwing it away with his own, then taking his boyfriend's hand with a smile.

"It doesn't bother me at all that you like plain chocolate," he said softly, leaning over slightly to press a kiss to Greg's cheek. "Because if there's one thing I've learned about you, it's that you have a lot of hidden depths. And so does chocolate. It's deep and dark and .... kind of mysterious."

"Maybe that's why I like it so much," Greg told him, raising an eyebrow. "Maybe I have my own secret depths that you don't know about yet, and chocolate is more like me than you think. Or," he continued, his dark eyes sparkling with laughter, "maybe I just like how chocolate tastes."

"Either way, it's cool with me," Ryan told him, squeezing his boyfriend's hand. They continued to walk through the park, holding hands, not caring who could see them. Ryan could feel Greg's fingers twining with his own, pleasure coursing through his body at the touch.

He couldn't help but wonder if his boyfriend did have secret depths that he didn't know about yet -- but if he did, that didn't matter, Ryan told himself with an inward smile. He would enjoy delving into those depths -- and he was sure those depths would turn out to be even better than chocolate.

***