There's a house that sits on the shore of Lake Mead, four bedrooms and three bathrooms and if David had any use for three extra bedrooms he likes to imagine living there. It's a sort of perfection he's dreamed about since he left Los Angeles, pale beige with dark brown trim with a yard that opens to the lake. If he's not too tired after his shift he drives down just to admire it, because even though he thinks the paint is ugly, the sun is just rising and he thinks it might be a nice home.

He tells Nick about it after working a double, and it's not that he means to it's just that he's tired and no one should be expected to keep their desires secret after being around death and destruction all day. So it slips out when he's pouring what he swears is his last cup of coffee and Nick says that he saw that house just the other night, and did David know the owner had put it up for sale?

It's more than he'd like to pay, but not out of his price range, so he makes an offer two days later and in a little over three weeks it's officially his. He starts packing the following day and mentions it to Nick in passing, accepting Nick's offer of free labor without hesitation because he loathes hauling boxes around in the hot Nevada sun and if someone else will do it for him, he won't complain.

On the Big Day he stands in front of his apartment door and closes it for the last time before joining Nick and Greg in the truck. Bobby and Warrick follow them in their respective cars, because it turns out that David had more stuff in storage than he previously thought, and Greg isn't really any help when it comes to moving. In fact, David had caught him opening up boxes to inspect the contents three times before he regulated him to truck duty, and he thinks Greg may have looked through more when they were busy hauling things out, but he has no secrets from Greg so it doesn't matter anyway.

Warrick carries in the last chair at half past eight before he leaves with Greg and Bobby, citing work and a host of other excuses as a reason to go. David knows it's true of course, but it doesn't stop him from mentally cursing them for leaving him with a house full of unpacked boxes.

Nick orders in pizza and David tells him he should go, because he can't be late and he won't have Grissom blaming him if his whole team is late. But Nick smiles before saying he took the night off, and then directing David to locate the boxes with the linens and towels, while he does the grunt work, as he puts it, and puts the bed together, piece by piece.

He's good at unpacking, David finds out later, because when it's three in the morning they've managed to set up the bathroom, bedroom, and the kitchen is half stocked with food before Nick says they should probably get some sleep.

He tells Nick to just stay over, because they've been working all day and he doesn't want him falling asleep while he's driving, and Nick smiles gratefully when David hands him a blanket.

When he wakes up the next morning he sees Nick in the kitchen, standing over the stove and frowning at whatever's in the pan. They're at the nearest café twenty minutes later, laughing about past culinary disasters when Nick lets it slide that he's taken the night off again, and if David still needs help unpacking he's welcome to do it.

Nick hangs around David's house a lot in the next few months, helping him paint when they both decide that the beige is too ugly to look at anymore, but it's not until Nick is on his knees building a deck in the backyard that David realizes this has got to be something more than friendship, because friends just don't decide that a deck would be good in the backyard and then set about making it.

And God only knows why he goes to Greg for advice, but he does and he's very pleasantly surprised when Greg just smiles and tells him he must be doing something right, so why not just keep doing it?

Months come and go and Greg had actually given him good advice, because Nick's still around. Nick's still around and David's got new bookshelves and his car has its oil changed every three thousand miles and his deck has been stained twice and when he brings in the mail, half gets sorted out for Nick.

Only somewhere along the line he's started thinking about it as ours, and he thinks Nick has too, because December is right around the corner and their tree is tied to the top of the truck, waiting for Nick to drag it in the house and David to bring out the decorations. They spend an hour putting lights before they get bored and start throwing tinsel at each other, and for the rest of his life he won't remember how it happened but that doesn't matter, he doesn't care. Because he's lying on his back with tinsel across his eyes, and Nick is kissing him like they'll stay that way forever.

And he thinks he'd like forever.