Title: the aimless procession of days
By: Caroline Crane
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: PG
Summary: Accidents happen. It doesn't have to ruin an entire vacation. Part of the Pancake series, just because.
A/N: This is just something silly I wrote to amuse rabidfan. It started as a joke yesterday, then she sort of challenged me to see it through, so I did. Inspired by the patches of pink currently decorating my skin. I spent the morning wrapped in warm oatmeal and Saran wrap again. Laugh if you want, but it really helps the itching.

No vacation goes unpunished. ~ Karl Hakkarainen

Until Greg moved in, there were a lot of things Nick didn’t know about him. He didn’t know Greg’s family was from Wisconsin, for one thing. As far as he knew, Greg grew up in California, end of story. But it turned out that his parents met at college in Eau Claire, and Greg spent most of his childhood going back there for summer vacations and as many holidays as they could squeeze in.

He knew Greg was close to his grandfather because Greg mentioned Papa Olaf all the time, but he didn’t know that up until college, Greg spent every summer with his grandparents at their lake house. And even though Greg’s grandparents had been gone for awhile now, the lake house was still in the family.

The first time Greg took him there was their first full summer together; Warrick had been gone for almost a year, Grissom almost as long. Ray and Riley were both settling into the team and things were starting to feel almost normal again, but they were still short-handed, so Nick wasn’t sure how Greg managed to land them a full week off at the same time. He had a feeling it had something to do with Catherine and emotional blackmail, but he didn’t ask because he was pretty sure he didn’t want to know.

Besides, all that mattered was the fact that they were going on their first real vacation together, and if Greg wanted to spend it on a lake in the Midwest…well, Nick wasn’t going to fight him. He did suggest that maybe they consider Texas, mainly because his mother had been nagging him a lot more to come home once in awhile ever since that whole mess with Gordon. But visiting his family would have been anything but relaxing, so Nick wasn’t disappointed when Greg frowned at him and said, “Babe, the whole idea is to get out of the heat for awhile.”

And he had a point, Nick admitted to himself as the breeze blew in through the open window, making the thin curtains billow in toward them. He watched the fabric settle back down again, noticing for the first time the tiny, faded flowers that at one time had probably been a bright red.

Cool liquid hit his back and he let out a sigh against the pillow, closing his eyes as soft cotton dabbed at the spot. A fresh breeze floated through the window, sending a shiver through him as it hit the liquid on his skin. Above him Greg laughed under his breath, and Nick frowned and curled his fist around the edge of the sheet.

“Bastard.”

“I tried to warn you,” Greg answered, fingers sliding down Nick’s back to the next spot of red. “You never play skins in Wisconsin in the summer if you can help it. Especially if you’re not sure where the woods start.”

It was true; Greg did tell him to leave his shirt on, but at the time Nick just figured he was worried about sunburn. Which was pretty funny, considering they lived in the desert, but he never said anything about the amount of poison ivy on his grandparents’ property. If he’d mentioned that in the first place maybe Nick would have sat out of the impromptu neighborhood football game, or at least been more careful.

“If we’d gone to Texas this wouldn’t have happened.”

“True,” Greg said, dabbing at another section of itchy rash with Calamine lotion. “If we’d gone to Texas you’d have a sunburn instead, and I’d be rubbing aloe all over you instead of this stuff.”

Nick opened his mouth to point out that he could handle a little sun, but the nagging itch at the center of his back was way too distracting. He squirmed under Greg, trying in vain to find a little friction to ease the discomfort. “Jesus, G, would you just scratch that spot in the middle? It’s driving me crazy.”

“No scratching,” Greg said, but he shifted a little and a second later the soothing coolness of the Calamine lotion landed on the spot in question. “If you break the skin you’ll just spread the rash and make it worse. Too bad we’re not near the ocean. I hear salt water helps.”

“Yeah, well, maybe we should have gone to California,” Nick muttered. Not that he was sorry they’d come to Wisconsin; the house was nice, and the first four days of seventy degree days and all the privacy they wanted had been fantastic. If he hadn’t fallen in a patch of poison ivy trying to complete a pass he’d be having the best vacation of his life.

“Don’t let my mother hear you say that,” Greg said, and even without looking Nick could hear his grin. “She’ll start expecting us to show up for every major holiday.”

Nick laughed at the thought of their mothers arguing over whose year it was for Christmas, turning his head just far enough to catch a glimpse of Greg’s face. “Yeah, well, she’ll have to get in line behind my mother. She’s badgered me about Christmas every year since I moved to Vegas. I usually just tell her I have to work, but I don’t know if she’s going to keep buying that now that you managed to land us a whole week off at the same time.”

“Well, on the bright side, you won’t be lying when you say you have to work this Christmas. Or Thanksgiving.”

“”Both of us? The whole weekend?” Nick asked as Greg moved on to a fresh patch of rash.

“Catherine drives a hard bargain. She didn’t say anything about New Year’s, but I wouldn’t make any plans.”

Nick sighed into the pillow at the thought of working the holiday season pretty much solid. But if they were both covering the holiday shifts so everyone else could have the time off, maybe that meant they’d at least get the same days off. Catherine wasn’t completely heartless, after all; she hadn’t enforced the rule that said one of them had to switch back to swings if they were going to live together, at least, and he could probably convince her to take pity on them six months from now.

Still, that meant this was pretty much the only vacation they were getting this year, and he’d managed to derail it halfway through with one lousy football game. “How long does this stuff last, anyway?”

“About a week, usually,” Greg answered, his hand sliding down what Nick assumed was a rash-free spot on his back. “The itching should get better after the first few days.”

“I’m sorry about this, G. Guess I should have listened to you and kept my shirt on.”

Greg laughed and leaned over him to set the Calamine lotion on the bedside table. Then he leaned in and pressed a kiss to Nick’s right shoulder, working away across the back of Nick’s neck until he reached his left side.

“I don’t know, you looked pretty good without your shirt.”

”Right up until I landed in a pile of poison ivy.”

“So we’ll have to think of some ways to keep your mind off the itching for a few days,” Greg said, hands sliding down Nick’s sides and surprising a breathy laugh out of him. The itching was still there, less intense than before Greg covered him in Calamine, but still nagging at the edge of his consciousness. Still, it was a lot easier to ignore while Greg’s hands were moving on him, so maybe they could salvage the rest of their vacation after all.