Title: Lightning in A Bottle
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Nick Stokes
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: PG-13
Table: Un-themed 8, mission_insane
Prompt: 8, Fireflies
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.

***

"I love looking at fireflies," Greg murmured, settling back against the pillow that Nick had put on the picnic blanket. "When I was really little, I used to wonder what made them glow. I thought they were electric. They're one of the reasons I wanted to become a scientist."

"Were they, baby?" Nick couldn't help smiling at his boyfriend's words as he sat down beside Greg, moving to take the younger man into his arms. "When I was little, I'd collect them in a glass jar. My mom always told me that they were lightning in a bottle."

Greg laughed, glancing up at his boyfriend and snuggling more closely into Nick's embrace. "My mom told me the same thing -- but she never expected me to believe it," he murmured, shaking his head. "She always knew that I'd go out of my way to figure them out for myself."

"I think you must have had a lot more intellectual curiosity than I did when I was a kid," Nick told him with a soft smile. "I didn't care how they worked. I just thought they looked really cool, and I wanted to use them as a lamp in my room at night."

"I could never have made myself do that," Greg said softly, watching one of the fireflies as it hovered in front of them, its light blinking off and on in the dusk. "I'd have felt like I was robbing them of their freedom. I wouldn't have wanted anybody to do that to me."

Nick shook his head, amused by his boyfriend's way of looking at fireflies."All I thought about was that it would be cool to have a firefly lamp. All my friends came over to see it, and I got to brag about how I was the only kid in school to have one."

"Yeah?" Greg couldn't help laughing at that, turning his head to gaze at Nick. "I'd never have thought of that. I knew that people around my neighborhood used to catch them in bottles, but I always thought that seemed really cruel. I could never make myself do it."

Nick considered Greg's words, feeling a little ashamed of what he'd done so long ago when he was a child. "I guess it is cruel, in a way," he murmured, reflecting on how he'd chased fireflies around his family's front yard, eager to capture as many as he could.

He had never really thought about what the fireflies captured in that jar might feel. Could Greg be right in saying that the creatures had actually felt panic, that they'd wanted to escape back into the freedom of the night air that he'd plucked them out of?

He'd never do anything like that now, he told himself. Especially not knowing that his tender-hearted Greg would think it was a cruel way to treat the fireflies. Besides, he had no longing for a firefly lamp, or anything else of a similar sort. That had only been a childhood desire.

"Lightning in a bottle isn't really an apt description, but they remind me of lightning," Greg murmured after another few moments of watching the fireflies in the air around them. "The way their lights go on and off, just like flashes of lightning during a storm."

Nick could feel Greg's muscles tighten when he spoke; it was obvious that something about the mention of thunderstorms made his boyfriend tense and nervous. He tightened his arms around Greg, wanting to soothe him, to make him feel safe and protected.

There had been something that Greg's ex-boyfriend had done during a thunderstorm that had made Greg wary of them, but Nick wasn't going to ask about it now. Not when they'd had such a romantic dinner on a picnic blanket here in the park, and the evening was just beginning.

He wished that he hadn't brought up the idea of lightning; any mention of a storm could always make Greg either change the subject, or get tense and nervous, which made him pull away and become distant. Nick didn't want those walls between them. Not tonight.

Tonight, he wanted the two of them to live in their own little romantic world -- a world lit by fireflies, a world that included only the two of them, where they could sail away on flights of fancy and leave the real world that the usually lived in behind for a while.

He brushed a gentle kiss across Greg's cheek, smiling inwardly when the younger man sighed softly and closed his eyes, relaxing in Nick's arms. The point where their evening might have gone astray was past; he'd have to be careful not to bring up any more dangerous subjects.

However, Greg didn't seem to be willing to drop the subject of fireflies. "I wonder what it's like to be able to light up the night like they do?" he murmured, holding out a hand as though he meant to catch one of the winged creatures. "They must be pretty proud of themselves."

"You light up everything around you when you smile," Nick told him, his tone soft and loving. "Aren't you proud of yourself for that?" He was only half-joking; in his eyes, Greg did light up a room just by virtue of walking into it and being there.

He could almost feel the blush heat Greg's pale cheeks; laughing softly, he hugged his boyfriend closer against him. "I'm not kidding, Greg," he whispered into his lover's ear. "For me, you light up the whole world whenever you're around me. You're lightning in a bottle yourself."

"You do the same for me," Greg murmured, turning his head to brush a kiss against Nick's cheek. "Any time I feel like I'm scared or nervous about anything, all I have to do is look at you. You're my light, Nicky. You always have been, from the first time we met."

Nick could almost feel his heart swell with love when Greg said those words; a lump formed in his throat, keeping him from speaking for a few moments. All he could do was hold his boyfriend tighter, burying his face against the softness of Greg's hair.

After a few minutes had passed and he was sure that he could speak again without a quaver in his voice, he lifted his head and reached out for a firefly, letting one of them land on his hand. He laughed as the tiny creature lighted up for a moment, then flew away into the night air.

"Would you look at this," he said, a bit of wonder coming through in his tone. "Our own personal little display of lightning in a bottle, without the bottle. I think you're right, Greg. I like them better this way, just roaming free like they should be."

Greg nodded, smiling as he closed his eyes and leaning back into Nick's embrace. "I'd rather see any kind of creature like that flying free than being in captivity," he said softly, his gaze on the fireflies. "This is how they're meant to be. How we should see them."

Nick nodded, unable to take his eyes from the tiny lights that flashed around them again and again. He'd never really thought about the wonder of fireflies, not since he was a child. But they were indeed like lightning -- though they weren't currently in a bottle.

Greg was a lot lke those fireflies, he thought to himself. He needed to fly free; he couldn't be kept captive and contained. Shane had tried to do that, and even though he'd succeeded for a while, Greg had ended up running from him in the end.

He would never do that to the man he loved, Nick vowed. He would never try to cage Greg, or keep him in any kind of captivity. Greg was always free to make his own decisions, to do as he pleased. He would never take that right away from his boyfriend.

He'd never do that to anybody, Nick told himself, but least of all Greg. He would never hold his boyfriend back, never try to contain him. He'd seen what kind of damage that could do -- and he would never inflict that sort of pain on the person he loved the most.

Fireflies were meant to fly free, not to be kept in a jar as lightning in a bottle. Nick wished that he had understood that when he was a boy. Greg had always understood; maybe it was because he was a little like those fireflies himself.

Closing his eyes, Nick drew Greg closer against him, letting himself relax in the quiet of the dusk that had descended around them. The fireflies continued to light up the night around them, the tiny points of light reflecting the glow that they both felt in their hearts.

***