Title: Welcome Home
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Nick Stokes
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: PG-13
Table: 5_prompts, Written in the Stars challenge
Prompt: G6, Remember: You deserve to be happy.
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 Nick Stokes, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

"Nicky, have you ever been perfectly happy and scared that happiness would end really suddenly?" Greg asked softly as the two of them cuddled on the couch, watching the end credits roll on the movie they'd just seen. "That's kind of how I've been feeling lately."

"What makes you think that being happy is going to end, baby?" Nick asked, his voice soft and soothing. That strong arm that held Greg close against him tightened around the young man's waist; Greg snuggled into the embrace, wishing that he'd kept quiet.

"I guess I'm just kind of scared about going back home," he said in a low voice, not wanting to admit his fear to Nick. "I keep feeling like Shane is just casing the place out, waiting for me to come home so he can grab me again. I don't want to go back."

Nick bowed his head to brush a kiss against Greg's forehead, making the younger man look up at him. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that," Nick said, his words coming out slowly. "How much longer do you have on your lease? Isn't it about to run out?"

Greg nodded, frowning slightly, wondering what Nick was getting at. "Yeah, at the end of next month," he said, his heart seeming to leap in his chest. "I have to give them a month's notice about moving out, though. That's in the lease. I can't back out of it."

"What do you say that we both chip and pay for next month's rent, and tell the landlords that you're going to be moving out by the end of next month?" Nick asked, his voice going a little husky. "Do you think you could stand living here with me, Greg?"

Greg blinked, the question coming at him from out of the blue. He hadn't been prepared for Nick to ask him that; he'd thought that the other man would offer to stay with him for a while when they weren't working, or have the police keep an eye on his place, just to be safe.

Moving in with Nick was everything that he could possibly want. He would be the happiest guy in the world if that could actually happen -- but he was already seeing at lot of snags in that happiness, flies that could get inescapably caught in the ointment.

"If I move in here, they'll more than likely have something to say about it at work," he objected, not wanting to be too optimistic about his chances of actually being able to live here. "Won't Ecklie say something? Move one of us to a different shift because we live together?"

"How's he going to know that we're anything more than roommates?" Nick asked with a shrug. "I'm not going to tell him, and I know you're not, either. All he needs to know is that you were looking for a new place, and that I decided I'd like to have a roommate."

"And since we already know each other, and I'd been staying here for a while after .... everything that's happened --" Greg had to swallow hard before he could go on. "He doesn't have to know that we're more than roommates. Nobody has to know."

"Would moving in here make you happy, Greg?" Nick's voice was quiet, very low and husky; the very air seemed to still around them, as though the world was holding its breath and waiting for what Greg would say in answer to such an important question.

"It would make me happier than I have any right to think about being," Greg answered, his own voice just as quiet and husky as Nick's was. "But isn't it risky, Nick? I mean, with work and everything. I don't want either of us to bite off more than we can chew."

"Greg, happiness is a state of mind," Nick told him, raising his hands to cup Greg's face and make the younger man look directly at him. "And I know that I'd be in a state of misery if you weren't here with me. I've gotten used to having you in this house. You make it feel like a home."

"I-I do?" Greg stammered, shocked that Nick could feel that way. He knew that this man loved him; Nick had said so, and Greg had no reason not to believe that his words were true. But he hadn't thought that he made Nick's house seem more like a home to him.

"I've always liked this house, from the day I moved in," Nick told him, smiling as he lowered his head to brush his lips against Greg's. "But it never really felt like a real home. Not until I carried you through the front door. Now, there's someone here for me to come home to."

"That's one of the reasons I got involved with Shane, you know," Greg murmured, the words coming out almost against his will. He hadn't thought that he could talk about Shane, especially not to Nick. "Because I didn't like being alone all the time."

"Coming home to an empty house is hard to do," Nick agreed, sliding his arms around Greg's waist and pulling him close. "But now, neither one of us is going to have to do that. We can pay the rent on your place for one more month, and move your stuff in here a little at a time."

Greg nodded, an indescribable happiness filling him. He couldn't believe that Nick was doing this; even with the love that existed between them, moving in with somebody was a huge step. And Nick was doing this awfully quickly, or so it seemed to him.

"Are you sure that this is what you want us to do, Nicky?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly. "I mean .... I'm sure, because I want to be with you. Not just because I'm scared to go back to my place. I just want you to be sure you're not doing this just to help me out."

"Greg, you deserve to be happy. And if moving in here is going to make you happy, then I want you here," Nick said, his voice firm and decisive. "And I know that having you here is going to make em happy. I've been trying to think of a way to ask you for days now."

"All you had to do was ask," Greg said, laughing softly and resting his head against Nick's shoulder. "I'd have said yes if you asked me the first day you brought me home from the hospital. I'd have said yes even before then, if I had known how you felt."

"Home?" Nick asked, his voice catching in his throat. "You just called this place 'home,'" he whispered, his eyes filling with tears before he rubbed a hand over his face, chasing them away. "And that makes me happier than I ever thought I could be. Welcome home, baby."

"This place felt like home to me from the start," Greg murmured, settling more comfortably into Nick's embrace. "And now, I guess it is." He closed his eyes, relaxing into his boyfriend's arms, a happiness that he'd never thought possible filling his heart and making its own home there.

***