Title: Let’s Go Fly a Kite… And Send Greg Soaring
By: Gregisamazing
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: G… This is a little ball of fluff.
Disclaimer: CSI isn’t mine… Name was spawned from Mary Poppins also.
Summary: A windy Nevada afternoon, Nick, Greg and a power kite.
Word count: 2713
Notes: Based on my afternoon of Power Kiting in a field in the middle of no where… Twas very entertaining.

When Greg had suggested that they should find themselves something to do on the blustery afternoon; Nick had imagined a stroll through town or a trip to Lake Mead… He certainly wasn’t expecting to be driven out to the middle of nowhere and have a kite thrust into his arms.

 

“Come on Nicky.” Greg had said. “It’ll be fun!”

 

He hadn’t believed him then and he still didn’t believe it now. Only a few feet away, Greg was trying desperately to fight with numerous wires whilst trying to keep the kite from blowing away. He’d told Nick to stand away, let the master set it all up, and so that’s what he was doing… Even if it looked like Greg could use an extra pair of hands.

 

“You sure you don’t want any help?” Nick asked, leaning against the Denali.

 

“I’m fine!” Greg yelled back, his brow furrowing in concentration as he tried to figure out what connected where. “Just give me a few seconds.”

 

Nick sighed, deciding that it was probably better if he didn’t help, then Greg would give up and they could go somewhere else.

 

It wasn’t that Nick didn’t like kites, because he did. It’s just when people mentioned kites, he always imagined the little diamond floating in the sky, with its tassels streaming behind; not a 3 foot rectangular object with breaks and emergency cut off attachments. That wasn’t harmless fun like normal kites; this seemed a little more… dangerous.

 

“Done!” Greg declared proudly, still stood on the kite so it wouldn’t blow away. “Now you can come here; I’ll teach you everything you’ll need to know about power kiting.”

 

Nick sighed, resigning himself to the fact that they were actually going to do this. At least Greg had some experience with it, rather than buying it on a whim like so many other things. That way, they should both be a little safer.

 

“Okay, it’s simple really.” Greg began; thrusting the two coloured handles towards Nick. “It’s a little different to flying a normal kite.”

 

“Normal kites only have one handle, G.”

 

“So, it’s a lot different then.” Greg frowned at his less-than-enthusiastic student. “You see the top wire-” He pointed, “That controls the kite, if you want to turn left you pull the right handle and right you pull the left.”

 

“Opposites then?” Nick asked, eyeing it dubiously.

 

“Yep, so that’s steering. The brakes are the bottom wire. You hold the handles at 180 degrees when you want to let it fly, if it’s getting to much you just switch the handles to 90 degrees. It’ll kill the kite.”

 

Nick mimicked Greg’s actions with the handles, just to make sure what he was being told actually worked.

 

“Like that?” Nick asked and Greg nodded back at him. “This actually doesn’t seem to be so complicated after all.”

 

“It’s no more complicated than taking a fingerprint. Once you’ve got the right technique you can do it over and over without even thinking.” He picked up two wrist bands and passed them to Nick, who put them on. “They’re the emergency cut off. If you let go of the handles for any reason, it’ll pull the brakes and kill the kite for you. It’s only an emergency… That rarely every happens.” He reassured.

 

“Is that it?” Nick asked, looking at what appeared to be a complex contraption; it couldn’t possibly be that simple.

 

“There’s one more thing, keep it between the 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions otherwise the kite will dive.” He drew an arc above his head to illustrate the point. “That’s what we call the fly zone. But if it does come out, just try and get it back in.”

 

“Right,” Nick nodded, adjusting his grip on the handles. “I’m ready when you are.”

 

Greg picked up some of the kite and threw it up into the wind, and Nick immediately felt himself being dragged along the ground.

 

“Did I mention that the wind is strong enough to drag you along?” Greg said running back behind Nick. “You just have to keep yourself balanced.”

 

Nick grunted as the kite dived to the right and tried to rip his arms from their sockets. Remembering Greg’s words of wisdom, he pulled on the right handle and it righted itself to the 12 o’clock position.

 

“See! You’re doing it!” Greg cheered at his partner as he managed to keep the kite from slamming into the ground.

 

Another particularly strong gust of wind had Nick being dragged across the floor as the kite swerved in all different directions. Greg watched on excitedly, as Nick pulled and followed the kite around, trying to put it back into the fly zone.

 

“This is actually quite… brutal.” Nick grunted as he put all his effort behind it. “I thought you said this is family fun?”

 

“It is.”

 

“No way could a kid control this thing.” He said, digging his heels into the ground below, trying to gain the upper hand again. “They’d be blown away.”

 

“Papa Olaf used to take me out kiting all the time.” Greg said, “I never got blown away.”

 

Nick sent Greg a questioning look over his shoulder, but didn’t say anything as the kite dragged him off again.

 

Admittedly, this was nothing like Nick had expected, but it was a lot of fun. It was strange to finally be fighting for control, and he still couldn’t believe he was fighting against fabric and rope. It was certainly a work out too; he could already feel the burn of the work in his shoulders. It was certainly a little different to what he’d had as a child, there weren’t any tassels or pictures on the outside- but it was more fun than any ordinary kite used to be.

 

Greg watched as Nick battled against the wind, grinning to himself. This was definitely one of his better ideas of an afternoon activity for the pair of them to participate in. Whilst one battled against the element, the other could enjoy the view- and Greg was certainly appreciating the tensing and flexing of Nick’s muscles as he fought to keep it in control…

 

Nick looked up at the kite above his head, making sure he was back in charge, carefully shuffling towards the Denali, already having travelled quite a long distance away from it and Greg.

 

“How’re you finding it?” Greg asked as Nick came closer. “As bad as you expected?”

 

“No.” Nick grinned, “I never knew kites could be this much fun.” He pulled it back in line again. “I might even be able to get it to do figures of eight later on.”

 

“I can already do them. I’ve been able to do them for years.” He bragged, “I’ll show you my skillages after your go.”

 

“Skillages?” Nick laughed, “How about you show me them now?” He said, turning the handles to the 90 degree position and watched as the kite turned in on itself and collapsed to the floor.

 

“Sure, you just sit back and watch the pro.”

 

Nick handed him the handles and slipped the emergency straps onto his wrists.

 

“I’m looking forward to it.” Nick winked at him, before heading off to give Greg the kiting start. “Ready?” Nick called and Greg nodded; and Nick threw it up in the air…

 

But the kite just came crashing back down, only just missing Nick.

 

“How come it’s not working?” Greg asked, looking miserably at the heap on the desert floor. “It worked for you, did you break it?”

 

“No, I didn’t break it.” Nick said, wondering whether or not Greg was actually going to apologise for nearly killing him with the kite.

 

“I guess there wasn’t enough wind then.” Greg shrugged, and Nick rolled his eyes- there was plenty of wind- but Greg didn’t want to admit that he’d just generally crashed it already. “I’m ready for a re-launch!”

 

Nick sighed and picked up the kite again, waited for a particularly strong gust of wind before throwing it up in the air. This time the kite soared into the sky, and Greg whooped.

 

“Now to show you my skills!” He called out, forgetting for a split second about the flight zone.

 

“Greg, flight zone,” Nick reminded him, and the kite wavered in the air, “It only flies in the flight zone!”

 

But before Greg could even begin to alter it, the kite tangled itself and dived straight into the floor at full force- causing a sudden jolt in the handles and up Greg’s arms.

 

“I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off it.” Greg admitted, looking down at the tangled ropes. “Can I have another do-over?”

 

Nick nodded, beginning to wonder if Greg actually had ever been power kiting before, or whether he had just made two mistakes.

 

“It’s tangled though, which way should I turn it?” Nick asked, picking up the kite that seemed to be upside-down. Nick flipped it over, almost tangling his foot in the wires. “Is it untangled?”

 

“I think so.” Greg hesitated, looking at the wires, but before he had time to realise that it was indeed still tangled, Nick had let go and a vicious gust caught Greg and the kite and sent them both flying. Nick was still stood watching the kite, unaware that both Greg and the control wires were heading straight towards him. “Nicky, look out!”

 

Before Nick had time to react and run out of the way of the wires, he saw Greg come hurtling towards him, and watched as one of the wires caught him across the face. He ducked down to avoid anymore of the wires catching him, so he wouldn’t have to put up with anymore rope burn and watched as the Greg pulled on the handles randomly to try and control the kite that was spiralling out of control.

 

“A little help here,” Greg yelled, as the wires became more and more tangled as the kite began to spin faster and faster.

 

“Use the breaks,” Nick called back out, deciding now was the time to really come to Greg’s aid. “90 degrees Greg!”

 

Greg nodded, and pulled the breaks on. Once more the kite collapsed in on itself and hit the ground- this time unsettling some dust in its wake. Greg looked at it, and sighed… Maybe this wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be…

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Fine,” He said miserably. “I just can’t get it to work.”

 

He disconnected the emergency breaks from his hands and threw them down, the handles following quickly after.

 

“I give up. I can’t fly this one.”

 

Nick laughed at the pout that was fast forming on Greg’s face, as the younger man performed like a toddler. Nick had to admit that Greg was doing something very, very wrong… He just couldn’t figure out what.

 

“Let’s go and have something to eat and we’ll have another go after lunch, okay?” Nick reasoned, and Greg slowly nodded- glaring at the kite once more before hopping into the back to get them something to eat.

 

-------

 

Nick regretted suggesting having another go as soon as he began again; because Greg wasn’t getting any better, but he definitely was getting moodier- and was throwing more temper-tantrums too.

 

The first go had resulted in the kite crashing to the ground, much like the second, third, fourth and fifth until Greg had literally thrown the handles at Nick and jumped into the Denali- refusing to come out or go near the kite.

 

It was funny, Nick mused, that he had been the one dreading the kiting day- whilst Greg had been bounding around excitedly and yet it was complete role reversal when they’d actually got to grips with the kite. Nick had to admit, this was fun… But it would have been better if Greg was enjoying himself too.

 

“Come on G, one more go.” Nick said, trying to open the door that Greg had locked. “I’ll teach you okay?”

 

“I don’t need teaching. I taught you. You can do it and I can’t.” Greg sulked, “How is that fair?”

 

“I wasn’t going to give you a theory lesson. I was going to be a little more hands on.”

 

Greg raised his eyebrows at the subtle undertone in Nick’s voice, and unlocked the door.

 

“Okay, but only one more.”

 

Greg clambered from the car, and trundled over to the kite, eyeing it suspiciously. He had a very bad feeling about this, and he didn’t want to get embarrassed any further in front of Nick. But Nick had sounded so supportive… And Greg couldn’t help but feel a little guilty, Nick had a go when he asked- the least he could do was do it back.

 

“Okay, you wear the emergency brakes,” Nick attached them to Greg’s wrists and gave him the handles. “You hold on okay? We’re going to do this together.”

 

Greg gripped onto the handles tightly, wondering how they could possibly fly a kite together. That’s when Nick’s hands covered his own, and he felt Nick’s body behind him.

 

“See, we’re going to do this together. On three start walking backwards: one… two… three.”

 

The both started walking backwards and the kite took off, and Greg could immediately feel the pull on his muscles as it flew upwards gracefully.

 

“It’s working!” Greg said happily, grinning from ear to ear, “It’s actually flying.”

 

Nick smiled, helping Greg steer the kite, and keeping him stable enough on the floor. The kite danced gracefully in the wind, gliding left and right but never once crashing to the ground. Nick slowly let his grip loosen on the handles- making sure that Greg was in control- before stepping away completely and leaving Greg to fly it alone.

 

“You’re doing it.” Nick said, feeling proud that he’d managed to help Greg fly the kite. “It’s not that bad, is it?”

 

“Nope,” Greg shook his head, admiring the contraption above his head. Right now it looked perfectly harmless dancing in the light breeze.

 

Nick felt the breeze begin to pick up, the dust becoming unsettled and rushing past. That’s when he began to worry; because he was almost certain that Greg wouldn’t be able to control the kite in any windier conditions than before.

 

“Greg, I think you should land it now.” Nick advised, “The wind’s picking up.”

 

“Just a few more minutes…”

 

“No, bring it down now.”

 

“In a second.”

 

“Greg, seriously.”

 

“I’m fine Nick.”

 

“The wind’s getting stronger. I don’t think you’ll be able to control it in higher winds.”

 

“I’m okay, I can control it.”

 

“Greg…” He warned, the rest of his sentence being cut off as the kite began to shudder and swerve erratically in the wind. “Brakes, now!” He yelled, but it was too late as Greg began to get dragged along by the sheer force of the kite. “Greg! Kill the kite!” He yelled, running after his partner that was travelling at a very fast pace and disappearing quickly into the distance.

 

Greg wasn’t quite willing to cut it off yet, determined to show Nick that he could control the kite- even in the high wind. He was trying to tell himself that he wasn’t being dragged along. He dug his heels into the floor, trying to balance himself to gain control again.

 

Another gust of wind and Greg couldn’t feel the floor anymore. Well, he could at intervals.

 

“Emergency brakes cut the emergency brakes!” Nick was yelling behind him, watching as his partner kept loosing his stability on the ground. “Greg just do it!”

 

He grimaced and let go of the handles, his knees buckled as he landed back on the ground; kite following closely behind. Nick run up to his side, pulling his partner to his feet.

 

“Are you okay?” Nick asked,

 

“I hate kites…” Greg spat. “I never want to see another one again.”

 

---------

 

“You never did fly a power kite with Papa Olaf did you?” Nick asked later that evening, after Greg had thrown the kite in the bin.

 

“I did…”

 

“But…”

 

“He always helped me. I wasn’t strong enough.”

 

Nick laughed, kissing him on the forehead.

 

“Next time we have time off; can we do something that doesn’t involve kites?” Greg asked.

 

“You’ll never have to see a kite again, I promise.”