Title: The Day After
By: Yana
Disclaimer: Don’t own anything.
Rating: PG
Pairing: H/E
Spoiler: Ashes to Ashes.
Summary: This is a post-ep fic, for an episode that for me oozed out H/E action.
Dedication: To Katie, who is constantly showering me with new fics, and I have not yet attempted Horatio/Eric, I think it’s a shame there’s not more fics out there about them, so hopefully you and I can change that.

"Did I mention that we need to go grocery shopping?" Eric Delko exclaimed about two minutes before the Hummer would turn left on their block.

It was a bit too hot for a late October evening, and although Eric had grown up in Miami and never set foot over the state border, he couldn’t get used to the fact that in some parts of the world people were freezing their asses off.

He looked over at his counterpart, silent before the wheel, pressing his hands so tightly around it, so that his knuckles were turning white very quickly under the pressure.

Eric frowned. He knew the case had gotten to him but he hadn’t realized to what extent until he sat here, giving him slight worried looks from the corner of his eye, while Horatio seemed to be frozen in a world of his own, completely ignoring Delko’s reactions.

Whether he’d been doing it on purpose or not, Eric didn’t know and didn’t care, all that mattered was the fact that he felt like he was alone in the car when usually it was the one place he felt the most comfortable in.

The drug specialist recalled some of the events that took place in this very car. Their first kiss. The first I love yous, and a few other firsts never to be mentioned again under the watchful eye of god.

Delko smiled in spite himself and the situation as he thought of the wonderful memories, and decided that before they actually arrived home, he’d break the ice.

There was a first time for everything, the H2 proved to be a valuable place for those events.

The first fight wouldn’t be so bad either.

"I guess we can make due with what we have." Eric said after sometime, realizing he was not going to get a response, and though the only thing they had in their fridge was a bottle of hot sauce and some milk he didn’t think Horatio was too keen on digesting anything right now.

For that matter neither was Delko but he didn’t think it should be of issue right now, most importantly he first had to put a smile on his boy friend’s face.

Everything else would have to wait.

***

Unbeknownst to Delko, Horatio already kept in mind the fact that their fridge was empty, and right up until Eric mentioned it, Caine seemed to forget about it.

He didn’t know at what point the past day’s events came to form a puzzle in his head, but it happened so that he could not think about anything except the case. Nothing seemed to find a place in his mind other than the picture of that child.

That dead child.

He’d seen a lot in his day, put a lot of criminals away, and got justice for families, and received piece of mind in return so why was it that he could not get justice for this little girl and for her mother.

Why was the murderer allowed to wake up in the morning and face new experiences, walk without restrain or regret, as if he were innocent.

Horatio found solace in only one simple fact.

He knew he’d scared the man into never repeating that crime ever again, he knew it was of circumstance, and yet that didn’t let him rest.

For the first time solace didn’t allow him a breath of fresh air, didn’t lift the weight off his heart, and looking over at the man beside him he wasn’t even sure *he* could mend the ties ripped inside him.

Though he usually could, Horatio suspected Eric was just as helpless in this situation. They had worked the same case and Horatio had seen the other’s expression when the worst took over.

He’d seen in the look in his eyes, the one he only had the privilege of noticing in the confines of their own home, not in the busy halls of CSI.

He remembered the conversation so clearly possibly because it’d been one of his weakest moments. Horatio let himself slip, allowed the emotional aspect to attack him ferociously without letting him go.

He recalled the look in Delko’s eyes, the restrain in the russet iris, he knew Eric had used every bit of his will power not to lean in and kiss him right then, and for a second a slight fear rushed over Horatio.

He’d never experienced such a connection with anyone. Well, not anyone who had returned it, and here was this incredible man who surprised him every single day with something new.

Always an extra smile or an extra glance something to make Horatio feel loved, and at times the head CSI wasn’t sure if he deserved it.

Looking over at the Russian-Cuban now, he frowned detecting the obvious worry in the other man’s eyes. That’s when he noticed that he’d already pulled into the driveway of his house.

*Their* house, he’d never get used to saying that, nor thinking that Horatio concluded as he watched Eric push himself out of the H2, and toward the front door.

Using his spare key, the younger let himself in, not even waiting for the man still behind the wheel to join him.

Horatio frowned deeply at the turn of events but focused more on what led them to this breech in communication. He swallowed down the lump forming in his throat and once again grimaced at his own actions.

Since when did he, Horatio Caine, swallow down with regret?

"Since I fell in love." He thought out loud, and made his way inside.

***

Eric brought the carton closer to his face and winced at it’s foul smell, until he realized that this was the spoiled one, he promised he’d throw out but never got around to it.

He moved to the sink just in time for the front door to open and close with a persistent tug, he took a sharp intake of air and then returned to pouring out the spoiled milk into the drain.

He caught Horatio staring at him from the corner of his eye, but gave no acknowledgment of seeing him, a bit of his own medicine, or so Delko liked to believe.

"We really need to go shopping." He used a different tactic, hoping it would somehow set Horatio off.

The older man didn’t appear fazed but both of them knew he was, judging by the crease in his forehead, he was not all to thrilled that Delko brought up such a mundane subject twice in an evening, filled with nothing but abnormality.

"I’ll pick something up on my way from work tomorrow." He promised evenly, and also hinting on the fact that he may not even go home by himself tomorrow.

Eric gave him a pointed stare, and then slipped the carton into the garbage can, "Okay."

He turned to the cupboard and pulled out another cardboard box.

It was animated, colorful, in small letters on the bottom Horatio could make out the lettering, ‘artificially flavored’ but he didn’t need anyone to tell him that what his boy friend was expelling into a bowl was concocted sugary flakes, the tiger smiled at him as Eric placed him back into the cupboard.

Shut the cabinet door.

Horatio then watched him take another identical carton of milk out of the fridge and pour it over the contents in his green bowl.

Eric placed the milk away and took a spoon out of the cabinet wondering how best to approach the inevitable subject.

 

Horatio beat him to it. "I don’t want you to feel like you can’t talk to me."

Eric sat down and nearly threw the spoon on the table.

He didn’t however, knowing it would only piss Horatio off even further.

"I don’t."

he rebuked but of course both knew it was true, that’s why Delko couldn’t shake of his boss’s stare.

He pressed the spoon into the frosted flakes and took a generous helping, trying to ignore the probing stare he was receiving from the red haired man in the doorway.

"Seems like you do."

"Well I don’t, can we drop it now?" The spoon fell with a clink on the edge of his bowl and sank further into the mountain of cereal, Eric felt just as helpless.

"I just wanted to clarify."

"Crystal clear Horatio, crystal clear." Eric repeated to himself, murmuring, hoping and praying that Horatio would drop it.

No such luck.

"I, I, I just realized something today."

Eric looked at Caine and a forced smile formed on his lips. He figured if he was going to go down, he wouldn’t do it frowning.

"So did I, it’s a first time for everyone. I made Horatio Caine stutter."

And just like that instead of the inevitable sadness, only laughter illuminated the kitchen. Horatio relaxed, and that didn’t happen often.

Eric had tried so desperately to lighten up the mood, make him forget, put a smile on his boyfriend’s face, and now that he did, he really couldn’t care less about what happened tomorrow.

Tomorrow they’d wake up, and have to face the realization that yesterday’s work was in vain, they had not gotten any justice, and tomorrow when they wake up Eric knew Horatio will be frowning, or contemplating anything to place a scowl on his face.

It didn’t matter now, because for once he got him to smile, and that smile could last him until tomorrow too...

And the day after that...

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