Title: Innocent Laughter
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Gil Grissom
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1drabble
Prompt: 34, Innocence
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 Gil Grissom, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Gil couldn't hold back his smile when he heard Greg's laughter.

That innocent laughter made his heart sing.

He went to look out of the kitchen door into the back yard of their house, where Greg was playing with Aghra, throwing sticks for the puppy to fetch.

Even with all that he saw every day at his job, and all that he'd personally been through in the recent months, Greg still retained a kind of innocence about him, an innocence that warmed Gil's heart. His boyfriend was still enough of a child to enjoy playing with a puppy.

Aghra seemed to be having a marvelous time, too, he told himself as he watched the puppy bounce around the yard, chasing the sticks Greg threw.

Watching the two of them made him feel young again.

His own innocence had disappeared long ago, even before he'd been the head of the crime lab and had seen horrific sights every night when he went to work.

But maybe he was gaining some of it back by being with Greg. Maybe some of his boyfriend's exuberance was rubbing off on him. It certainly seemed to be that way; he felt so much younger when he was with Greg, and he had the feeling that anything was possible.

Would he have felt like this a lot sooner if he had followed through on his feelings for Greg when they had been working together at the crime lab? He'd often wondered about that.

Of course, he would have. But it hadn't been the right time, not for either of them, even though they had both wanted each other back then.

There would have been too many problems with being a couple when they had worked together. Not only the obvious problems of him being Greg's boss, but also the fact that the age difference would have seemed even more of a chasm between them at the time.

Greg had needed the time to grow up a bit more, and he himself had needed to be able to come to terms with who he was, and feel comfortable in his own skin.

They'd achieved all of that, and now, their partnership felt right.

They still had a long way to go, and both he and Greg acknowledged that. But Gil was satisfied with the way that their relationship was developing.

There was still an innocence about the two of them that he enjoyed, and he hoped that once he and Greg began to become more sexually involved, that innocent side would still be there. He didn't want his boyfriend to lose that childlike exuberance he had; it was sweet, endearing.

He couldn't help but smile as Greg went down on his knees to take the stick that Aghra brought back to him, laughing as he ruffled the puppy's fur.

Yes, he loved that sweetness, that innocence. And he never wanted it to go away.

Something told him that in some ways, it never would.

***