Title: Time Bomb
Author: nigaishin
Pairing: HodgesxGreg
Rating: PG
Disclaimers: not mine, or else it'd be called "CSI: the orgy lab from hell" -- yeah, I know, more sleep, less smut.
A/N: Thanks go to redleaf0 for beta'ing, and for being a great muse... these are all for you.
Summary: Inspired by "Time Bomb" by Rancid.

***

Hodges leans against the counter and raises a single eyebrow at the CSI-wannabe standing in the hall just outside the lab, shuffling on his feet and trying to hide it.

The older man doesn't smirk, even if it's kind of hard not to, and makes no move other than cracking his neck, his eyes never leaving Greg.

It's been weird, the past two weeks-- a weird kind of tension between the two of them, a weird combination of events that led the two of them to meet rather more often than one would think normal, even with Hodges in the Trace lab.

The boy is lanky, his hair some kind of nature-meets-dye-and-watch-out-for-radiations mess. He listens to obnoxiously loud music, if such term can be applied to a sequence of screeching noises on CD, that make test tubes shake and a refrigerated centrifuge almost unnecessary, if it wasn't for the refrigerated part.

But hell, even Hodges has to admit that when Greg is standing over there, looking for once out of place and ready to run for it and yet brave enough to face him even if that leaves him so open, dressed in a black coat, faded grey tee and jeans, white sneakers and a black gangster hat pulled low on a side of his face, well, he's just this side of *hot*.

The boy's a fucking time bomb, and Hodge's going to make sure he explodes in all the possible naughty ways he can conjure in his mind.

Maybe it's that they've been waltzing around each other long enough to know that neither of them is actually going to give up control easily, that made them realise they needed to do something about it because everytime they pass each other in the hallway, or their eyes meet for more than a couple of seconds, their ability to reason wears thinner and thinner, and they're gonna blow up one time or the other and just jump each other right then and there in the labs, under the rest of the Graveyard shift's shocked eyes.

Hodges dismisses that thought straight away. No need to *butcher* the mood there.

They laid their cards down, Greg staying behind in the locker room the day before, waiting for Hodges to show up before going home.

He was just, well, you know, wondering if he was doing anything the next day, because there was this absolutely great place on the Fifth that made great bagels for breakfast, and Nick and Warrick were pulling a double to cover for Cath and Sara going to a con, and well, maybe, they could check it out together.

Hodges finally allows the smile he's been fighting up to then to surface.

He got Greg to make a fool of himself and ask him out.

From there on, things could only get better. He'd make sure of that.

He shoots Greg a lusting look, leaves the folder he came to drop off by the microscope and gets the hell out of the lab, smirking a bit as he hears Greg swear softly and then laugh before following him.

Oh yeah. Time for fireworks.

***