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Nick’s blood ran cold when he heard the sound of a struggle and a loud smashing noise and then… nothing. Despite frantic calls back, nothing would connect, and Nick’s knuckles were white where they gripped the steering wheel. Monroe was in danger and it was all his fault and – oh God if Monroe died he didn’t think he could live with the guilt. Nick had to find Monroe immediately.
When he saw the headlights of Monroe’s car shine at his face, Nick was out of his own car with his gun drawn before even being aware of what was happening. The driver was clearly petrified as his face met the dirt, but it didn’t matter because Monroe was in danger and nothing would stop Nick from rescuing him. He couldn’t even remember what he told the guy as he jumped back into his car and raced off to the location he had been given, but he was pretty sure he had been yelling and the guy looked like he was about to piss his pants, so whatever it was would probably be effective. The entire fifteen-minute drive was an endless loop of guilt, fear, and anger, and it only worsened when he reached the farm and began investigating. In one room the sights and smells of numerous Wesen locked into small metal cages assaulted his senses, and worst of all, there was still no sign of Monroe. The only thing worse than Monroe being locked in a disgusting animal cage was him being missing with a murderous Wesen out for blood.
As he edged into the crowded barn, Nick slid the hand with the gun under his jacket. There were absolutely too many people to risk being detected before he was ready, and the last thing Monroe or Hank needed was his dead body ripped to shreds by a crowd of pissed off Wesen. As he had that thought, Nick realized exactly where Monroe was: the caged fighting ring at the center of the space. His blood roared in his ears and time seemed to slow down. As Leo started to turn his thumb down, indicating Monroe's execution, Nick had the cold barrel pressed into his pulse point.
“Fight's over. Let him go.”
Leo woged, but Nick didn’t budge.
“Leo, that's an appropriate name for a Lowen.”
“You're a Grimm. Unbelievable.” He spat.
“Monroe, get out of there.” Nick ordered.
“He stays.” Leo countered. “This is a fight to the death.”
“Yeah? If it is, it's gonna be your death.”
“Go ahead, shoot. Today is a good day to die with honor amongst my brothers, who won't hesitate to take revenge. The privilege of leaving the Lowen games alive belongs only to the champion. Those are the rules.” Leo said, tone cool and uncaring.
Nick saw another man approaching in his periphery.
“One more step and he dies.” He declared, not moving his eyes from Leo’s face. He was relieved to see Leo wave off his henchman.
“We're both gonna die. But the Blutbad dies first.”
“Stop it. I'll fight in the Blutbad's place, for both of us.” The words were out of his mouth before he had even thought it through.
“Wait!” Leo paused Monroe’s imminent murder and looked at him intrigued.
“You said the privilege of leaving alive belongs to the champion.” Nick said coldly.
“We don't allow guns.”
“And why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn't. But you don't really have a choice, do you? Give me the gun, get in the ring, or the Blutbad dies.”
Nick stared him down for a moment but ejected the magazine from his gun. He had no idea how he was going to take down Dimitri, but he would take his chances if it meant saving Monroe. As he was manhandled into the cage, Monroe looked up at him with wide eyes from where he was sprawled on the surface of the ring.
“Oh, dude.”
Nick violently tamped down on the surge of emotions suddenly overtaking him, instead stripping off his jacket and quickly scanning his surroundings.
“You're crazy, Nick!” Monroe declared, scrambling to his feet.
“Well, maybe that'll help.” He replied wryly. “Alright, what are his weaknesses?”
“He doesn't have any.”
Nick stared at him.
“Hank is coming here with backup. I just need to buy a little bit of time.”
“This isn't gonna take that long.” Monroe shot back as Leo began to yell some more Latin.
Nick grabbed the shield sitting next to him. Monroe shoved a mallet into his hand and then grabbed a fistful of shirt, and the only thing that prevented Nick’s brain from short-circuiting entirely was the fact that they were about to face their impending doom.
“Listen to me, alright? You are gonna have to dig deep within yourself, and like, pull up the history of your ancestors, and I mean all of them, man. Bring it and just do whatever you have to do, because whatever they have done to that guy over there, has removed any shred of humanity. You are dealing with pure killer.” Monroe’s tone was serious, painfully serious, in a way that Nick had never experienced before, and quite frankly never wanted to hear again.
He stared as the other man spoke, and let the gravity of his words sink in. Monroe was allowing him – no, telling him – to do absolutely anything necessary to save their lives. That… was not something to be taken lightly, but before Nick could ruminate on it much more Monroe’s hand was on his shoulder.
“Oh, wait, wait, one more thing. His right hand is weak, okay? You can do this… I hope.” He chose to ignore the last two words, instead focusing on the tidbit about their opponent’s right hand and coming up with a strategy. Monroe believed in him, and that would have to be enough.
And then they were fighting, and with every clang of metal-on-metal Nick felt his teeth rattle. Quickly he found himself sprawled out on his back, desperately using the shield to protect his head. When Dimitri knocked Nick’s shield away, he let adrenaline and instinct take over – grabbing for the mallet he slammed it down on Dimitri’s foot and scrambled to his feet. Nick swung the hammer with all his might, not even wincing as it made sickening noises meeting flesh.
“That’s it!” Monroe yelled from the other side of the ring, and he let that power him even further, throwing bare-knuckle punches as Dimitri backed him into the cage surrounding the ring.
The man flung him across the ring once more, but Nick was dialed in. He grabbed a shield from the ground and flung it at Dimitri before grabbing another and slamming it into his opponent’s face.
“That’s it, Nick. You got him!”
Nick spun around frantically searching the ring before a sword caught his eye. Kicking the flail out of his opponent’s hand, he held the blade to Dimitri’s throat but went no further.
“Dimitri, I am not your enemy. I don’t want to kill you.”
Regardless of what Monroe had said, Dimitri was just as much a victim as they were, and Nick wasn’t about to kill him if he could help it. As he spoke, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and before he could even react Monroe was slamming his shield into one of Leo’s grunts’ face, causing him to collapse into a heap.
“Hey man, what happened to a fair fight?!”
Nick then knocked Dimitri out with his elbow, and he and Monroe stood back-to-back in the center of the ring. Monroe’s back was warm where it pressed against him, and Nick spared a second to mourn what could have been; all the times he would never get to experience that sensation again. They pressed against each other, staring out at the hoard of angry Wesen desperate to get their hands or claws or whatever else on their flesh.
“Hey man,” Monroe interrupted his thoughts. “I just wanted to say thanks for saving my life back there.”
“Yeah, however long that lasts.”
“Here they come!” Monroe announced.
“Bring it on!” He yelled in response, readying his sword. If they were going down, then goddammit they were going down fighting.
Right as the gate opened, so too did the barn doors, and suddenly the building was filled with the sound of sirens and yelling. The relief was immediate but temporary as Nick shifted his focus to making sure Monroe got out of sight quickly and safely.
--
Once the case was wrapped up, Nick found himself pulling into Monroe’s driveway. It was an ungodly hour of night and his body felt like one giant bruise, but a restless energy thrummed under his skin nonetheless. He had to make sure Monroe was okay.
He knocked on the door and nearly jumped out of skin when it opened almost immediately. Monroe looked marginally better than he did – at least showered and in clean clothes, but it was obvious from his posture that he was hurting too.
“Sorry!” Nick apologized sheepishly. “I hope I didn’t wake you. I just wanted to make sure you were okay, I guess.”
His excuse sounded pathetic even to his own ears, but Monroe didn’t care, or at least had the decency not to show his true feelings. Instead, he seemed to soften slightly and moved out of the doorway.
“Come on in. I was making some tea, would you like a cup?”
“Sure.”
Nick sat at Monroe’s kitchen table and the house was silent beyond the quiet clinks as Monroe prepared their drinks and the ever-present ticking of clocks. Nick had surprised himself with how quickly he had adjusted to the endless ticking. At first it set him on edge, but within just a few visits he found it… comforting almost. He found Monroe as a whole comforting, actually, and it almost made him nervous. He had spent so long on his own, and then when he found Hank and was finally making a nice, happy life for himself, Aunt Marie showed up out of the blue, was killed, and suddenly thrust him into a nightmare world where all sorts of terrifying fairy tales were real and he was the only one who knew. But then Monroe stumbled into his life – or he stumbled into Monroe’s – and immediately became an open book, and soon a friend. No matter what, Monroe was there and ready to help, simultaneously educating Nick about being a Grimm and becoming a dear friend… and maybe more.
Nick twitched, trying to shake that thought from his mind. Monroe was caring, sweet, smart, funny, and secretly tough as hell – not to mention attractive – but he was far too dear of a friend to risk over a likely-doomed attraction. A Grimm and a Blutbad? There was no way that would ever work, as much as it hurt to admit it.
Monroe set a steaming mug down in front of him, bringing Nick back to reality. He hoped the warmth on his cheeks wasn’t visible, but once again Monroe made no comment. It was only after a few more moments of silence that the other man finally spoke.
“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.
“I’m fine. Bruised, but fine.” Replied Nick nonchalantly.
Monroe saw right through him, and once again Nick refused to analyze how that made him feel.
“I meant, like…” he gestured at his head.
“Monroe, I mean it. I’m fine.”
Monroe sighed.
“Well, you know that it would be okay if you weren’t fine, right? I know you’re Mr. Tough Grimm and all that, but this is some wacky crap you’ve gotten into.”
“I know.” Nick replied plainly and took a long sip of tea to delay having to say more.
“Okay.” Monroe paused. “I just wanted to say thank you again for today. You… didn’t have to do that. I mean, I hope you would have saved my life regardless, but you didn’t have to offer yourself in my place. That was…” he trailed off with a shake of his head.
Nick stared down at his drink, resolutely avoiding eye contact. What was he supposed to say? What could he say? ‘yeah no problem man, you’re just my closest friend and also I think I’m a little in love with you’? Yeah, no.
“It’s late, I should go.” He said instead, though making zero effort to move.
“Nick.” Monroe said carefully. “I need you to listen to me, and preferably not punch me until I’m finished at least. Okay?”
Nick frowned but nodded.
“I know we’ve only known each other for a few months, but I consider you one of my best friends. I enjoy helping you out and just being around you and I quite literally owe you my life a... disturbing amount of times already. I hope to stay your friend for a very long time - given that no Wesen criminals murder us first, of course. Today’s near-death experience made me realize that I need to tell you something. Something that I can’t hide any longer, and I really, really hope you don’t hate me for it.”
Monroe stopped to catch his breath and Nick was pretty sure his heart was about to beat right out of his chest. He gave what he hoped was an encouraging nod, not trusting his voice.
“I… care about you. A lot. More than a friend should, in fact. I think I’ve felt this way for a while, I just… didn’t want to make you uncomfortable or ruin our friendship or anything. And I don’t expect anything from you! You don’t have to do or say anything, I just had to get it out there. All I could think about when I was sitting in that awful animal cage and then when I was getting my ass kicked was you. That fucks with a guy’s head, you know? Anyways, please don’t hate me?”
Monroe’s voice was so uncertain and nervous by the time he finished speaking that the small part of Nick’s heart that wasn’t going into cardiac arrest was breaking. Mostly though, he just felt shock. He couldn’t believe that what he was hearing was real, and that he wasn’t hallucinating or projecting or anything like that.
“I… um…” He began, and cleared his throat.
Monroe practically jumped up from the table and busied himself with washing his mug.
“Sorry! I shouldn’t have said anything. We can forget this ever happened and go back to normal. We can just blame this on a concussion or something.” He prattled on anxiously.
Nick stood and walked over to Monroe, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. He was totally screwing this all up and he cursed himself for it. Monroe looked like he was about to have a panic attack.
“Monroe, stop.” He said gently, and the man froze, hands gripping the half-washed mug for dear life. “I’m not mad.”
Monroe gave him a wary, side-eyed glance.
“You’re not?”
“No.” Nick sighed. “Look, I’m not very good at this. Ever since my parents died, I’ve been used to being alone, and then when Aunt Marie was killed, I truly was alone. She was the only family I had, and I don’t have many friends. I’m not good at talking about my feelings or any of that, but you… you somehow make me feel… safe. You make Portland feel more like home than anywhere else.” His voice was practically a whisper by the end, and neither he nor Monroe so much as moved a muscle.
“Nick…” Monroe breathed.
“What I’m trying to say is that… me too. I don’t know how the hell this became my life or how we’re going to make this work, but yeah. I care about you as more than a friend too.”
He didn’t realize how tight his grip had gotten on Monroe’s shoulder until the man turned and gently eased it off before pulling Nick into a hug. He let himself go easily, wrapping his arms around Monroe and letting himself soak up the warmth of his chest. He felt… safe and quiet wrapped in Monroe’s arms. He felt like it was just the two of them against the world, and that they’d somehow make it through anyways. It was impossible to know what chaos the next days, weeks, months, years, would bring, but Nick knew they’d be okay as long as they had each other to come home to.