Title: Sharks and Monsters
By: staticdisturbed
Rating: PG
Summary: Nick wants to watch Shark Week, Greg just bought Monster Squad on dvd. A fight, little bit of angst, revelations and some fluff ensue.

***

"I'm home."

"Hey." Nick had only been home from work for close to thirty minutes, freshly showered and lounging on the couch. On the television screen a Tiger shark rammed the camera. He glanced towards the apartment door Greg had just entered. His boyfriend kicked off his boots and dropped his messenger bag by the door. He had gotten off work the same time as Nick, but had gone to run some errands that Nick had been too tired to even ask about.

Greg had obviously gone straight to Best Buy after work; he was clutching the plastic blue bag like gold. After flopping down on the couch he pulled a plastic box from the bag and thrust it at Nick like he was offering him the meaning of life on DVD.

"What is it?"
"What is it? That, Nicky, is the 20th anniversary special edition DVD of Monster Squad," Greg put such emphasis on the words that Nick almost felt guilty for not knowing, or caring, what his boyfriend was talking about.

"Never saw it," he finally admitted, flipping over the case to scan the synopsis. He immediately gathered enough information to know that film had something to do with Frankenstein and a bunch of kids. Greg gasped and then shook his head disappointedly.

"It's a cult classic. I should have assumed you wouldn't have the cinema tastes to appreciate it."

Nick rolled his eyes and offered a tight-lipped smile. "I'm beginning to question my taste in a lot of things, like boyfriends."

Greg mustered a snarky ‘haha' in response and then grabbed the movie back from Nick and crossed the room towards their entertainment center.

"Greggo what're you doing?"

"I'm putting it on, gonna show you a thing or two about a thing or two about movies."

"No way," Nick stood and grabbed the remote from where it had been sitting on the coffee table. "Greggo, it's Shark Week. You know I love Shark Week. Watch it in the bedroom."

Greg turned to him with the most exasperated facial expression Nick had ever seen, "How many Goddamn hours of shark footage can you watch? I swear to God I feel like these shark freaks live with us, I'm sick of their voices. Besides the TV in the bedroom is too small."

"Those ‘shark freaks' are marine biologists, fellow scientists," Nick insisted, his voice growing more and more agitated.

"Yea, well this scientist spent the last seven hours scraping brain matter from the inside of a dumpster and would really like to lay down and watch his new movie with his boyfriend."

"That's a DVD you can watch it whenever you want. Besides, this is educational!"

Greg scoffed in the back of his throat and turned to Nick.
"We don't even live near an ocean," he dead-panned, "Why do we need to be educated about sharks?"

"You know I had a really bad day too and I was looking forward to coming home and relaxing, not watching some stupid kid movie with you."

There was finally no response from Greg's side of the room, he stopped peeling the cellophane from the package and the flash of hurt in his eyes wasn't lost on Nick. He immediately started to stumble over apologies but Greg waved him off and turned toward their bedroom.

"Greggo, I'm sorry. What're you doing?"

"I'll just watch it in the bedroom, leave you alone so you can relax. Watch the sharks."

For several minutes Nick sat and tried to focus on the dangerous sea life on the screen, tried to absorb the information but he suddenly didn't care at all.

The TV was on when he entered the bedroom but the DVD menu was still on the screen, flashing still shots from the movie Greg had been so excited to watch, waiting for someone to press play. Greg was curled up on his side in the middle of their bed, hugging a pillow. He had changed out of his work clothes and into black mesh basketball shorts and a faded Stanford t-shirt that had grown a little snug since he'd started working out. When he saw Nick he immediately swiped at the tears on his face and rolled over so he was facing the other direction.

"Babe, I'm sorry." Nick climbed into the bed beside his boyfriend, reaching out to touch his shoulder. "Greg, look at me."

After a few minutes of hesitation Greg rolled over and sniffled loudly.

"I'm sorry I made you cry, I'm just in a bad mood. It has nothing to do with you," Nick insisted sincerely whilst he felt a small tinge of worry grow in the put of his stomach. It had been years since he'd seen Greg reduced to tears over a fight before. They'd had way worse, especially in the beginning of the relationship. For as long as he could remember Greg had never been much of a crier; in fact he'd always been more prone to shouting and, during one particularly bad spat during their rocky first year of dating, throwing plates.

"It's ok," Greg whispered, offering a shaky smile.

"No it's not. You're crying. Greg what's really wrong?"
Greg sighed and rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling and trying to find the right words.

"I don't know, I mean… I've changed. I'm different then I used to be, the old me. Funny Greg, fun Greg. I want to be him again. I've been trying to be him again but that obviously backfired."

"Babe you're still fun. You just grew up is all, nobody stays 22 forever."

"No, it's different. After everything that happened, you know with Demitrius…I'm a different person now and I don't want to be," his voice cracked on the last word and he rolled back towards Nick, the tears cascading crookedly across his face, "Hodges keeps pointing it out too, how different I am. He's right though. I'm never going to be who I was again, and I'm scared."

Nick wiped at Greg's tears gently with the pad of his thumb.

"Scared of what?"

"That you won't love me anymore," he finally admitted, "That I'm not the person you fell in love with."

Nick felt his heart break a little with the statement. Greg stared at him with those wide brown eyes, red from crying, looking completely vulnerable.

"After the Gordon case," he couldn't really bare to call it anything else to this day, "I was different, I'm different now. We both know that. Do you love me any less?"

Greg could only smile softly at the words, obviously having got the reassurance he needed.
"No, I don't think I've ever loved you more." Nick smiled.

"I'm never going to stop loving you. You don't need to try to be ‘old Greg' for me, ok? The only negative difference I see is that for some reason you're suddenly listening to the noise that comes out of Hodges' mouth."

Greg grinned and leaned forward to press a quick kiss on his boyfriend's mouth before pulling away.
"You can go watch the sharks, I know they make you happy," Nick moved to speak and Greg covered his mouth, "If you say something like," he transformed his voice into his best Nick impression, deep and exaggeratedly Southern, "‘Sharks don't make me happy babe, you do', I might die from all the corniness in the room."

"Fine, fine," Nick laughed and sat up, reaching for the DVD remote from the nightstand. "But I don't wanna watch the sharks, all that shaky ocean footage is starting to make me sea sick."

Greg chuckled and adjusted himself so his back was against the headboard and he had a good view of the TV. As the movie started the play, Nick found himself watching his boyfriend's face more than the actual screen anyway, listening as Greg recited lines along with the characters from memory. He wasn't sure if he was with old Greg, or new Greg or what the real difference was between the two. It didn't really matter to him, as long as it was his Greg.

***