Title: Silence But Unsinging
By: Caroline Crane
Pairing: Speed/Tyler
Rating: PG
Summary: He likes their routine.

This is his favorite day of the week, because even though he's got dance class and it means getting home later than usual, when he finally does get home the apartment's not empty. Most days he gets home before Tim, to an empty apartment and it always feels a little unreal until Tim walks through the door. And he should be used to it by now, but it hasn't been that long and he's still expecting Tim to change his mind.

Every time he catches himself thinking it he tells himself he's just being paranoid, that this was just as much Tim's idea as it was his. Tyler brought it up first, but it hardly took any time for Tim to suggest they make it permanent, and that counts for something. It doesn't help to still the butterflies in his stomach when he lets himself into the apartment, though, and he's talking before he even gets the door shut.

"Hey," he calls into the silence, "I stopped and picked up a movie. I thought about getting dinner, but I figured you'd already have that covered."

He stops when he reaches the kitchen, leaning against the doorframe and just watching. Tim's shoulders are tense, attention focused on the knife in his hand and Tyler's pretty sure Tim doesn't even know he's there. "Hey."

Tim starts at the sound of his voice, the knife stopping in mid-air as he looks up. "Hey. When'd you get here?"

"Just now," Tyler answers, pushing himself off the doorframe to cross the kitchen. "Where were you?"

"What?"

"When I came in, you were a million miles away. Anything you want to talk about?"

He expects Tim to say it's nothing, to shut down the way he's so used to doing. Because he's doing better with the whole communication thing, but Tyler still has to drag things out of him often enough to expect to have to do it this time too. So he's surprised when Tim sighs, shoulders drooping and he sets the knife down before he turns to look at Tyler. "I should've put him on the first plane back to Syracuse."

Tim doesn't talk about his brother much, not even now that he's in town. Tyler knows he's looking for a place of his own – not hard enough, according to Tim – and he knows Tim's talked to him at least a few times over the past couple weeks, but other than that Tyler doesn't know much. So he has no idea what Matt did to piss Tim off now, but judging by the look on Tim's face it's pretty big.

"What happened?"

"I ran into a member of his fan club today. Some cop who was on duty the night he got arrested."

He can tell from the sound of Tim's voice that he's more than just annoyed. They both knew something like this could happen, that there was a possibility somebody at the station that night recognized Tim's last name. What he doesn't know is if anyone's connected Tyler to Tim and his brother, and he's not sure how Tim will react if that happens.

"Was this at the lab?"

Tim shakes his head, leaning back against the counter and crossing his arms over his chest. "While we were on a call. But Delko was standing right there, so now he knows."

"He knows about us?"

"No," Tim says, but he doesn't sound all that relieved. "The cop didn't mention you, she was too busy making sure Matt got the message that she was interested. But if she noticed, other people probably noticed."

And they've never really talked about this – they've come close a couple times, but they were always interrupted before the conversation could degenerate into one of those big, noisy, relationship-ending scenes. That's the last thing Tyler wants, and he's pretty sure Tim doesn't want that either, but he knows better than to push Tim for something he's not ready to do. Only it's too late, because they're living together and that complicates everything.

"We're allowed to be friends, though, right? I mean just because I did you a favor…" He stops talking when Tim looks at him, expression unreadable but if Tyler didn't know better he'd think Tim was trying not to smile. But he can't be, because he's not supposed to be taking this well. He's supposed to be panicked at the idea of anyone finding out about them; that Tyler can deal with, but he doesn't know what to do with a Tim who's laughing at him. "What?"

"Nothing," Tim says, trying and failing to wipe the smirk off his face and now Tyler knows he's missing something. "The point is I have to tell H before somebody else does."

"About us or about your brother?"

Tim's smirk fades at that, some of the tension creeping back into his shoulders and Tyler's sorry he asked. But he needs to know, because it affects both of them, and he wonders sometimes if Tim remembers that. He knows it's hard for Tim, hard to remember that he's not all alone anymore, and hard to remember that Tyler isn't going to sit back and let someone else make all the decisions. Because he's been pretty laid back so far, but there's only so much he's willing to give before he gets something back.

"He's going to find out sooner or later," Tim answers, voice resigned and Tyler knows he's dreading it. Then again, it's probably the first time he's come out to anyone except maybe his parents, and even though they've never talked about it Tyler's pretty sure how that went.

"I could tell him." Tyler grins at Tim's skeptical expression, pushing off the counter to close the space between them and tug Tim's arms open. Strong hands land on his hips, pulling him close and Tyler decides to take that as a good sign. "I'll tell him it was all my fault. You were powerless in the face of my charm."

"That's one word for it," Tim says, hands sliding under Tyler's shirt to skim across his skin. "Besides, I have to give him my new number, eventually he's going to notice it's the same as yours."

It's a good point, because they all get called in early during big cases and someone's bound to notice that they have the same phone number listed, because even when they call cell phones they always call the second number too just to be sure they reach as many people as possible. And he doesn't really like the idea of Tim being forced to out himself on a technicality, but they both knew this was coming, and as long as Tim's not changing his mind about them, the circumstances don't really matter.

"You sure you don't want me to tell him? He already knows I'm gay, so I'm halfway there."

Tim laughs at that and shakes his head, hands still splayed across Tyler's back and it's hard to focus on the conversation when Tim's breathing against him. He wonders sometimes if he'll ever get used to this, if he'll ever get to the point where his heart doesn't skip a beat every time he sees Tim. He hopes not, because he likes this feeling, like he's rushing down a waterfall at full speed. He likes feeling like he's the only person in the world every time Tim kisses him, and he really likes the way Tim can't seem to stop touching him whenever they're alone together.

And he would tell Horatio if Tim wanted him to, but he knows this is something Tim has to do. He knows how hard it's going to be, because it's been years since he found himself in that position, but he still remembers how terrifying it was. He remembers how it felt after, too – it was still terrifying, feeling time slow to a crawl around him while he waited for a reaction, but a weight had been lifted off his shoulders that made him feel lighter even than when he was dancing.

"And hey, if he fires you, you can always open a restaurant."

He grins when Tim rolls his eyes, leaning in for a quick kiss that stretches out until his head starts to spin. When Tim pulls back he's smiling, that crooked half-grin that makes Tyler want to spend the rest of his life just making Tim smile.

"Speaking of which, dinner's gonna be awhile," Tim says, and Tyler follows his gaze to the chicken still sitting uncooked on the counter behind him.

"Let's save it for tomorrow. I'll order take-out and we can watch the movie I picked up on the way home."

"What movie?" Tim asks as Tyler pulls out of his grip and reaches for the phone.

He dials the number of the Chinese place down the street before he answers, listening to the phone ring and pretending he doesn't notice the way Tim's watching him. "Hollow Man. You'll love it, it's a horror movie."

"It's a Kevin Bacon movie," Tim says, accusation clear in his voice and Tyler fights back a smile as the line connects. He takes his time placing the order, asking as many questions as he can think of about the specials before he finally orders the same thing they always get. And he knows when he hangs up Tim's going to be watching him with that same suspicious expression, but he's not going to put up a fight when Tyler puts the movie in. He'll probably laugh at what he calls Tyler's 'crush', but in the end they'll still be pressed together on the couch, eating take-out and listening to Tim discount the science behind every special effect in the movie, and Tyler can't think of a better way to spend the night.