It was one of the most ridiculous commands she had ever heard.
"Kiss me."
Two simple words that made her jaw drop and she was truly, for the first time, speechless.
He had showed up on her doorstep, soaking wet from the thunderstorm raging outside. His hair was slightly matted to his forehead, and he was definitely out of breath. His jeans were completely soaked, giving them the darkest of the blue color. His sweatshirt, apparently originally a light gray, was a dark shade as well, not a dry spot to be seen.
The knocking at her door was unusual at ten o'clock at night, but she had been up reading in the living room anyway, the TV on quietly in the background. Through the peephole she saw Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo in a very ragged state. Fearing the worst she opened the door hurriedly. She expected him to tell her of some dramatic happening with one of their friends, her mind running through a dozen scenarios at once.
"Kiss me," he got out in-between his breaths.
He didn't smell like he had been drinking, though it could be argued that he definitely had the crazy eyes as if he had. He stood, staring at her, with his hands at his side as if he hadn't just said the most ludicrous thing in the world she could hear in the middle of the night. Her brow was furrowed, mouth hanging slightly open. She still had one hand on the door, which she now used to support as she half-leaned on it out of confusion.
"What-?" She wasn't even sure if she said the full word.
"Kiss me." He stared at her and it seemed as if not a muscle in her body flinched. "Ziva, I'm serious."
"No you're not, you're drunk." She immediately regretted saying this, kind of like waking a sleepwalker, you never should correct a drunk because they're already irrational. He just laughed, holding his hands up and spinning around.
"I am not drunk!" the huge grin on his face confused her even more, his actions not matching up with his words. He stopped himself, took a deep breath and dropped his hands to his sides once more then crossing them loosely across his chest. "I told you before, I'm tired of pretending. And right now, at this very moment, I want to stop." He looked in to her apartment, and she nodded slightly and stepped aside and he walked in. "I can't explain it, I could speak 50 languages and not find the right words." He turned to face her. She had closed the door but not taken a single step. "I know I seem crazy right now, I get it, I do. But I can't keep acting like I'm okay when I'm not. I can't act like I'm happy when I'm not. I said once that I couldn't live without you, but where we are right now, how we are, I can't live with you either."
"Tony, I…"
"No, see, that's not how this works," he grinned as he cut her off, "I don't want an explanation. At this point I don't need one. I get it. I've tried to talk to you about this before and all I hear are your alibis, but I'm getting this feeling now… We've tried the talking before, Ziva, and it didn't get us anywhere. So kiss me." He took only half a breath, "or I'll walk out that door and I'm done with holding on. But you better kiss me, cause you're going to miss me when I'm gone."
Definitely one of the most ridiculous commands she had ever been given.