Title: Paint It Blue
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Nick Stokes
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: PG-13
Table: Liquids, mission_insane
Prompt: 2, Paint
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.

***

"Are you sure this color is going to look okay?" Greg asked, turning to Nick with a worried expression on his face. "After all, we want to make the hallway look wider. I still think we need a lighter color, like a cream or an eggshell. This blue looks a little dark."

Nick shook his head, smiling at his boyfriend as he gestured to the expanse of wall they still had to paint. "No, I don't think it's too dark at all," he countered. "I like blue. You do, too. So it's a color we can both agree on. And the others would get dirty too easily."

Greg nodded slowly, still not looking convinced as he turned his attention back to the roller he was coating with paint. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said, sounding reluctant. "I'm just not sure I'm the right person to do this. I don't want to screw anything up."

"Come on, Greggo." Nick moved closer to his boyfriend, putting down his own paint roller and sliding an arm around his boyfriend's waist. "You know I couldn't do all of this by myself. And I like sharing the household chores with you. Besides, painting isn't just a chore. It's fun."

"You think so?" Greg asked, looking a little less anxious. That look tore at Nick's heart; it was something that he'd noticed more and more since everything that had happened with Shane. Greg had lost so much of his happy-go-lucky, effervescent personality since those days.

He was slowly regaining that joie de vivre that had always been so intrinsic to his personality, but i twas hard-won. Shane had taken away his ability to believe in himself in so many ways, and Nick was determined to give that back to the man he loved.

He hated that Shane had taken so much away from Greg, so much of what made Greg who he was. A lot of that had slowly been coming back, but Nick didn't like to think that Greg had been so changed by the time that he'd had to spend with that bastard.

He wanted Greg to be the way he'd been before all of this had happened -- but, of course, he knew that wasn't possible. Being with Shane had changed Greg in so many ways; he'd grown up a lot, and he'd had experiences that no one should have to live through.

Maybe little things like this, painting the house, feeling that he was more a part of Nick's life than he'd ever been before, would help that sense of playfulness that Greg seemed to have lost to come back in full force. Nick certainly hoped that it would.

He'd tried everything that he knew to bring that back -- and even though there were times when it didn't seem as though Greg had changed so much, at other times, he was cautious, unsure of himself, holding back more than he would have done before the disaster with Shane.

It was times like this, when Greg's usual decisive nature seemed to be overshadowed by doubts, when Nick most noticed how much he had changed. He wanted to wipe those self-doubts away, to give Greg back the confidence that Shane had torn to the ground.

Maybe doing things like this would help, he told himself, glancing towards Greg again as his boyfriend knelt by the paint, making sure that the roller was fully covered with it before rising to begin rolling the color onto the wall. At least it was something they could do together.

He lifted his own roller, concentrating on getting the paint evenly on the wall for the next few minutes, before looking over at Greg again. The younger man was standing away from the wall, contemplating what he'd done, his hands on his hips and his head tilted to the side.

Nick just wanted to stand there and drink Greg in, to never take his eyes off his lover. He had always thought that Greg was the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen, but for some reason, at this moment he looked even more gorgeous than he ever had before.

How could a bastard like Shane have been allowed to mistreat someone as beautiful as Greg? Nick's heart ached at the thought of all that Greg had been through -- and he didn't even know the half of it, he was sure. Greg hadn't been willing to talk too much about that part of his life.

Nick wasn't going to push him to do so. He knew from experience how hard it was to talk about things that would be better off left in the past, and unless Greg wanted to open up about them, he wasn't going to force anything. Greg would talk about it when and if he was ready.

"I think you're right about the blue," Greg said, turning to face Nick. "I didn't think powder blue was going to look quite right, but I should have known that you had the right idea." He flashed Nick that insouciant grin of his, the one that Nick had always loved to see. "I defer to your superior judgment."

Nick couldn't help laughing at Greg's words -- and feeling relieved at the look on his boyfriend's face. It might take a while for Greg's sunny personality to reassert itself, but it was still there, still shining through. Shane hadn't managed to kill it off, not by a long shot.

"At one time, I'd even thought about painting the house blue," Nick told him with a laugh. "But I think we'd better keep this paint job to the inside. If we get the whole house painted one day, we can hire professionals to do it. I doubt we'd do that much of a bang-up job."

Greg nodded, smiling as he dipped the roller into the paint again. "I like doing things like this," he said, his voice very soft, not looking up at Nick. "Mainly because I can do them with you. It makes me feel even closer to you than I already am."

"I know another way that we could be closer -- if you want to," Nick said softly, his heart seeming to leap into his throat. He never wanted to push Greg for sex, but if his boyfriend might be hinting at something he wanted to do, then Nick wasn't going to turn him down.

"I wouldn't mind that at all," Greg said with a soft laugh. "I've been thinking of that for the last half hour or so. But don't we need to finish painting the other side of the hallway first?" He gestured towards the wall; only one side had been painted so far.

Nick shook his head, unable to hold back his grin. "We can let this side dry first, and then work on the other side," he said, not really caring when they got the paint job finished. Right now, he was more interested in taking his boyfriend to bed and making love to him all afternoon.

Greg returned the grin, stooping to carefully lay his roller down on one of the rags he'd put on the floor for that purpose. "Maybe we can stay in bed so long that all the painting we've already done will be dry by the time we get to the other wall," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's a distinct possibility," Nick answered, reaching for his boyfriend's hand and drawing Greg close to him. "And if it's not, then we can just start painting it anyway. I'm not in too much of a hurry to get this thing done, are you?" He knew that he really didn't need to ask.

Greg shook his head, his arms sliding around Nick's waist as their lips met. At that moment, Nick couldn't have cared less about the paint job, what color it was, or anything else. Nothing mattered but spending the day in bed with Greg, and being lost in each other.

***