A/N: I provided translations at the end, however, I did test this on non-linguists ;) and you don't need to know exactly what's being said to follow the story ;D You'll just be in the same position as Kate, so whether you choose initially to read it without sneaking a peek or not is up to you.
I owe a huge debt of thanks to these users, who helped me correct and polish my exceedingly rusty Russian:
Miran-chan
Sheeks
mist shadow
Curse of the Ninth
Спасибо большое всем ❤️
All remaining errors are of course mine (hey, Gibbs' Russian probably isn't perfect, right? 8-o ;))
found in translation
"I don't speak Italian, Katie."
Tony had his butt propped against his desk, and was explaining it to her like he was speaking to a not very bright child, singsonging the nickname in deliberate provocation.
She scowled. "Considering how proud you are of telling people you're Italian, don't you think you should learn?"
"He has to get to grips with English first."
Gibbs grinned when they both jumped at his sudden appearance.
"That's unfair, Boss, you know McGee changed my spellcheck to French without telling me-"
"Yeah, and you didn't even notice."
Tony frowned, but he didn't have a comeback for that.
"If you got time to sit around, DiNozzo, go see if Abby's got those DNA results back yet."
Sulkily, Tony slouched off to the elevator, though Kate had a feeling he was glad to escape from the scene of humiliation.
"So what languages can you speak, Gibbs?"
The question popped out of Kate's mouth without premeditation, the second it occurred to her, but (amazingly) Gibbs didn't look as pissed as he sometimes (often) did when she made random enquiries into his life.
He shrugged. "Guess."
She rolled her eyes. "Spanish."
He pulled a face. "Badly."
"French?"
"If I really have to."
"German?"
"Ein bisschen."
She frowned, not wanting to admit she'd kinda run out of ideas. Sure, she could think of a bunch of other languages, but ones that Gibbs might conceivably know? What languages would be useful to an NCIS agent? So much must've changed over the course of his career... and really, she had absolutely no idea how good of a linguist he was.
"Arabic?"
"Нет, красавица."
She gave him a look. "And that was?"
"Thought you were s'posed to be guessin'."
Huh. "Could you say it again?"
"Nope."
"Giiiibbs!"
"Да, милая?"
"You're infuriating."
"Но всё равно, я очаровательный, верно?" He chuckled.
"I am gonna figure this out, you know."
"Ну, конечно. Ты же умница."
"If I find out you're telling me I'm stupid or something, Gibbs, I will hurt you."
"Да нет. Tы не глупая."
"Nyet. I've heard that before, I'm sure I have..."
"Ты красивая, умная, моя самая любимая девочка. И ты почти никогда не глупая, моя милая, моя Катя. Кроме того, что я тебе нравлюсь, моя Катюшенька..."
"Did you just say Katya? Is that like Kate? Are you talking about me in a language I don't speak? That's really not cool, Gibbs."
"И ты ещё не знаешь, что я люблю тебя. Потому что я глупец."
She growled under her breath. "You're so annoying."
"Hey boss, you practising your Russian on Kate?"
They both turned in unison to look at Tony, who'd just reappeared. "What?" He looked appropriately freaked out by their twin stares, then Kate registered what he'd said.
"Russian? Nyet! I knew I recognised that from somewhere." She turned back to Gibbs. "Talk to me in it some more, it's pretty!"
"Ahh..." He fumbled slightly, all of a sudden looking uncharacteristically nervous. "Я... я... не знаю что сказать."
"You need to go slower, Gibbs. And tell me what you're saying. What did you say before?"
He shrugged a shoulder. "Nothin' much... don't really remember." His eyes were shifty and she wasn't at all sure she believed him, which only left her more curious.
"What does nyet mean?"
"Uh, it means 'no'."
"How about yes, then?"
"Да."
"Da?"
"Да."
He went silent again.
"Come on Gibbs, you couldn't shut up before. Why did you stop?"
"Потому что я боюсь..."
She rolled her eyes. "At least teach me something. How would I introduce myself? That can't be too hard."
He sighed, then nodded. "You say меня зовут, then your name."
"Menya zavut?"
He nodded.
"Menya zavut Kate."
He smiled slowly, and she couldn't quite place his facial expression. Amused? Approving? Proud? "Катя."
"What?"
"Катя. It's what Russians would call you."
"Oh. Katya. Okay." Katya. She liked that, she realised, smiling - even if it did mean he'd been talking about her before. "Menya zavut Katya." And then she blushed. Gibbs just called her by a pet name, of sorts, even if it was because he was speaking a different language, and she had liked it? Bugger.
"Suits you," he said, and when she looked up his eyebrow was raised and his smile was edging to smirk. She could feel her cheeks flushing more and cursed herself for it.
"Boss, can you teach me how to sweet talk a woman in Russian?"
For once in her life, Kate was relieved for a DiNozzo interruption.
Gibbs glanced up at the ceiling, as if petitioning heaven for patience. "Боже мой..."
Okay, she didn't have a clue what that meant, but she definitely recognised the tone. "Get back to work, Tony," she said, preempting Gibbs' likely growl.
Tony opened his mouth to protest, abruptly closed it again when Gibbs head-slapped him, and peace descended on the bullpen once more.
Despite the active case they were working, Kate hadn't been able to put the conversation out of her mind. Gibbs could be- well, complicated, to put it mildly. After all this time working with him, she still felt like she was doing well if she followed his thought processes fifty percent of the time, and no one would ever accuse him of being easy to get to know.
It was often frustrating, but there was something annoyingly intriguing and occasionally fascinating about the man. She couldn't seem to stop herself liking him. It was a guilty habit to be forever trying to figure him out.
But babbling at her in Russian (the idea she'd ever be able to accuse Gibbs of babbling in any language was so ludicrous all by itself that it already deserved - demanded - attention), then suddenly going back to his regular, monosyllabic self? Well, she'd always been a naturally curious person. Under his careful tutelage she'd become an investigator. Curiosity honed to a razor sharp edge. Nosy, as her mom would say.
Leaving her with a mystery on her hands? He should've known better.
She looked at her notes, the scribbled guesses she'd made of what she remembered. She didn't have a lot to go on, but it was a start, of sorts.
There were certainly other people in the building besides Gibbs who spoke Russian, but she really didn't want to have to explain her queries to anyone else, not if she could help it. At a loss what else to do, she opened a browser window and found an online translator. Highly unlikely to be especially reliable, but maybe it would assuage her curiosity.
Milaya. She typed it carefully into the translator and clicked the button.
Did you mean милая? She frowned at the screen. Did she? How was she supposed to know? Who would ever have guessed that getting to grips with Gibbs would require learning Cyrillic? At a loss for what else to do, she clicked 'yes'.
Pretty. Sweetheart. Darling.
For a moment she just stared. That... simply could not be right. That had to be a mistake, she had to have misheard or maybe the program was faulty or something had gone wrong because she'd typed in English letters and it had messed with the program...
She suddenly realised her chin had dropped to her chest, and she quickly shut her mouth, checking to make sure no one was watching. Fortunately, neither of her teammates had reappeared.
She looked down at the scrap of paper in her hand, almost afraid to try any more. "Don't be such a wimp," she admonished herself, and typed in the second word on her list.
Maya. This time when it asked if she meant мая she didn't hesitate.
May. (Month of the year)
She let out a shaky breath. The translator was obviously just bad. There was no reason Gibbs would've been talking about May, so she could discount the other translation as well. She tried to tell herself what she was feeling was pure relief.
Unless... unless she'd misheard.
She clicked on the speaker icon by the Russian word and... no, it really didn't sound like what Gibbs had said. She tried a couple of different ways to type out the sounds as she remembered them, and had about given up when suddenly; Did you mean моя?
She clicked on the icon again, and grinned to herself when this time it sounded something like what she remembered. "Translate that, sucker."
pronoun: my, mine
No... no... that had to be a mistake.
She looked down again at her piece of paper. She had one more snippet to try, and she was so truly freaked out it couldn't make things worse, could it? And maybe she would get some clarification. Or some proof this thing was just plain old broken. No way could this all be accurate. The idea made her head spin.
Unfortunately the last word was incomplete, and though she was sure she had caught something of it, it was only the start of the words he'd used, and she wasn't sure if she'd heard right or if this would even work with partial matches. Still, she'd got this far. She had to try...
Krasi. 'Did you mean краси?' Crazy.
"Charming."
It was offering an alternate. Translate from: Ukrainian. Well she had no reason to believe Tony was wrong about what language Gibbs had been speaking, but just in case... click. Beauty.
She glared at the screen, then toggled back to Russian. Clearly, he hadn't randomly thrown in a couple of Ukrainian words just to throw her off. She might as well try the other version too, all the same.
Krasa. "Yes, of course I meant that," she growled when it offered her краса. Click... Beauty.
Oh. Suddenly feeling very peculiar, she leaned over her desk, head in her hands. None of this made any sense, none of it. She felt both scared and hopeful. And confused. So confused. Her heart was pounding, and she had no way to figure out what was going on.
After a minute of silent panic, she suddenly sat up straight, closed the browser window, and pushed herself up from her seat. Maybe she did have a way to figure this out, if she didn't mind potentially looking like an idiot. Given the situation... maybe she could live with that.
The piece of paper was carefully folded up and slipped into her pocket, and she was moving so fast she almost barrelled into DiNozzo when he wheeled around the corner.
"Hey Kittykat." He grabbed her shoulders so she wouldn't lose her balance trying not to collide with him. "Where you off to in such a hurry?"
Well, at least it was just Tony.
"Gotta check something quickly with, uh, the Eastern European desk," she managed, then shrugged him off and made a run for the stairs.
Kate chewed on her lip and tried to tell herself again she was just going to confront him, plain outright ask what he'd said and why. The case had come together once their DNA results had come back, but she was still aware she'd spent the rest of the afternoon fidgety and easily distracted, and similarly aware Gibbs had noticed. She wondered if Tony had told him where she'd gone earlier, and cursed herself for the slip up. Suppose Tony had mentioned it? Exactly how obvious could she make it that she was completely intrigued by what Gibbs'd said to her?
With the small amount she'd picked up, the agency's other russophones hadn't even been able to set her mind at ease, or at least tell her she was right to be freaked out - not that she'd told them why she'd been down there asking random questions.
So now she was reduced to ambushing him - if she could summon up the nerve - in order to not go entirely crazy. And he was in a bad mood, if the tone of conversation she could hear was anything to go by. Which was just... wonderful.
She heard him growl, then he was heading toward where she was totally not hiding, honest. She saw him stride past, then gave herself a mental head-slap and emerged.
His legs were considerably longer than hers, she wasn't going to catch up with him before the bullpen without breaking into a jog, and having finally found her courage, she wasn't ready to let it go to waste.
"Gibbs?"
He swung around, one eyebrow raised, and she stopped dead so she wouldn't crash into him. At least his expression when he saw her wasn't angry or grumpy, so maybe she'd been wrong about his mood.
"Kate."
"I, um, wanted to ask you something."
"Yeah?"
He looked amused, and she could feel herself turning pink.
"When you were talking in Russian before..."
His eyes narrowed warily. "Yeah?"
She licked her lips and swallowed a couple of times. Suppose she was wrong? Was she about to make a complete fool of herself?
But suppose she was right? She couldn't decide if that was better or worse. Well, it would be better. She thought. But certainly a good deal more confusing.
She took a deep breath. "Did you... did you tell me I was beautiful?"
His eyes went huge and shocked for a second, then he looked at the floor. It seemed as likely an indicator of guilt as anything she was going to get.
"Why?"
He shrugged a shoulder. "Because y'are," he replied quietly, still not raising his head.
"Oh." She thought about it for a moment. "Why... why would you tell me in Russian, though?"
"'Cause..." His voice was even softer now, and she leaned in to hear him better. "'Cause I din't think you'd wanna know I thought that."
"Then why would you say it at all?" Why are you so confusing, and why do I care so much?
Slowly, cautiously, he lifted his gaze to meet hers. He seemed a little surprised by how close she'd gotten. (She was a little surprised herself.) "Just... wanted to tell you. Even if you didn't understand."
"Oh." She found herself captured in the intense look he was giving her. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?"
"Don't think there's anything you'd wanna know."
She swallowed. "What if I said I did want to know?" She smiled, shrugged her shoulder, instinctively took another step closer. "You already told me. You must've wanted to tell me, even if you did say it in Russian. You might as well translate."
He looked at her, studied her face for a moment, took a deep breath. "Я хотел бы сказать... что ты должна быть моей, Катя. Пожалуйста." He shook his head. "Что я тебя люблю всей душой. Что я отдал тебе свое сердце. Я хотел бы сказать, что не знаю, могу ли я жить без тебя. И я не знаю как признаться в этом." His voice was quiet, wistful, even yearning. "Я боюсь спросить. Если ты ответишь 'нет'..."
Kate blinked up at him. She hadn't understood a word, and yet... "Gibbs?"
"Yeah?"
She wasn't sure she'd ever heard him say that much in one go before. It made her want to learn Russian just to hear him speak it. "Keep talking." How had no one ever told her before that Russian was so beautiful?
"Моя дорогая. Моя Катенька. Любовь моя..."
Maya... She recognised that. Mine. He was searching her face, looking for something, and she suddenly desperately hoped that he'd find it, whatever it was. His fingers came up to brush against her cheek and she gulped.
"Ты здесь, но при этом так далеко. Мне ещё не хватает тебя, Катя. Ты так очень нужна мне..." Seemingly gaining in confidence at her continued proximity, he tenderly cradled her face, his thumb touching her lip for a moment, coaxing her head up so she had no choice but to look at him or close her eyes.
"Моей. Пожалуйста, Катюшенька, стань моей? Я..." He trailed off and made a helpless gesture with his free hand.
She didn't know what he was asking, but he was asking in such a tone of voice, with such an expression, there was only one possible answer. Whatever it was he wanted, she was suddenly absolutely certain she wanted it too. She nodded minutely. "Yes. I mean- da? Gibbs, I- yes."
He started to smile, a slow, disbelieving smile, then he was bending down to brush his lips across hers, and she was horrified for a moment at the sound of pure need she made. Then he tilted his head and kissed her, gentle and sweet and heartfelt and she had no room left in her body for a single negative emotion.
When he pulled away, just a fraction of an inch, just enough to give her room to breathe and the ability to focus on his face, her heart was racing and she was smiling like, she suspected, a complete idiot.
"You kissed me." Oh, she sounded so utterly mind blown. Probably because she totally was.
"Да."
She swallowed a couple of times, trying vainly to retrieve her sanity from wherever the kiss had chased it. "Um. Do you want to do it again? Maybe over dinner?"
He grinned. "Конечно."
Kate giggled. "Gonna tell me what you were saying before?"
"Think you worked it out."
"I still want to hear you say it."
He rolled his eyes and the corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk. "Always wantin' more."
"Get used to it."
He pulled her in toward him, slid one hand into her hair and tangled the fingers of the other with hers, leaned in until his mouth was right by her ear. His sudden proximity, his breath tickling her skin, made her gasp. "I said... I said I love you, Katie." His voice was soft but full of feeling. "I said I want you to be mine."
She'd more or less guessed the gist of it, but she hadn't quite imagined he'd translate it so... unambiguously. Or realised how it would make her melt. It was tempting to do a little dance of joy. She let her forehead drop down to his shoulder to hide her pleased grin. "I have one condition."
He paused. "Yeah?"
"You have to teach me Russian."
After a moment of surprised silence, he laughingly leaned down and kissed the side of her neck. "Y'know what, Katie?" he said, his voice low and rich with amusement. "Sounds like a damn good deal to me."
~ конец ~
Translations of the German sentence and all the Russian sentences that aren't explained in the story are here for those who can't access the hover translations.
I've left the Russian in Cyrillic. Transliteration is always a compromise, and I'm just not convinced the gain is worth it with such large chunks.
I've translated the various Russian affectionate diminutives as Kate/Katie as it seemed appropriate, since we don't really have good equivalents in English.
If you want to know how the Russian sounds, I'd recommend cut and pasting it into a Text-to-Speech engine like Google translate Ivona .com or similar. TTS engines are imperfect, but will give you a way better idea than me transliterating whole sentences of Russian how they'd work in my accent. :)
Also I've tried (emphasis on tried...) to favour colloquial/natural forms of both languages in most cases, not word for word translations. It's not perfect - for example, how many times he says "my (something)" sounds a little odd in English, and just the nature of it... in Russian this all sounds normal and in character (to my ears) where in English it sounds a little too florid - but I did my best.
"Ein bisschen" - A little bit
"Нет, красавица." - No, beautiful.
"Да, милая?" - Yes, sweetheart?
"Но всё равно, я очаровательный, верно?" - But all the same, I'm charming, right?
"Ну, конечно. Ты же умница." - Well of course. You're clever.
"Да нет. Tы не глупая." - Of course not. You're not stupid.
"Ты красивая, умная, моя самая любимая девочка. И ты почти никогда не глупая, моя милая, моя Катя. Кроме того, что я тебе нравлюсь, моя Катюшенька..." - You're beautiful, clever, my favourite girl. And you're hardly ever stupid, my sweetheart, my Kate. Except for the fact you like me, my Katie.
"И ты ещё не знаешь, что я люблю тебя. Потому что я глупец." - And you still don't know that I love you. Because I'm a fool.
"Я... я... не знаю что сказать." - I... I... don't know what to say.
"Потому что я боюсь..." - Because I'm afraid.
"Боже мой." - Oh my God.
"Я хотел бы сказать... что ты должна быть моей, Катя. Пожалуйста. Я тебя люблю всей душой. Я отдал тебе свое сердце. Я хотел бы сказать, что не знаю, могу ли я жить без тебя. И я не знаю как признаться в этом. Я боюсь спросить. Если ты ответишь 'нет'..." I want to say/I'd like to say... that you should be mine, Kate. Please. I love you with all my soul. I've given you my heart. I want to say that I don't know if I can live without you. And I don't know how to admit it. I'm scared to ask. If your answer is 'no'...
"Моя дорогая. Моя Катенька. Любовь моя..." - My darling. My Katie. My love.
"Ты здесь, но при этом так далеко. Мне ещё не хватает тебя, Катя. Ты так очень нужна мне..." - You're here, but still so far away. It's still not enough for me, Katie/I still miss you (Lit. There is still not enough of you for me.) I need you so much.
"Моей. Пожалуйста, Катюшенька, стань моей? Я..." - Mine. Please, Katie, be mine? I..." - Mine. Please, Katie, be mine? I..."
"Конечно." - Of course
конец - the end!