Disclaimer: I just want to play in the NCIS sandbox, okay?!
Spoilers: None.
Setting: S13, just after New Years (right after the breakup according to Sister City)
Relationships: Tony/Ziva
AU? No, not really. Just what I and every other Tiva Shipper want to happen at the end of the season.
Preview: He doesn't know that she's been in the states for a few weeks now, much less that she is waiting outside his apartment for him to get home from work. She doesn't know that he's been in a serious relationship, much less that he had ended it only a few days before her decision to finally go and see him.
Notes: So, I have two versions of this story. One where Tony goes to find Ziva, and this one, where Ziva comes to find Tony. The former will be posted sometime soon. I am still working on that one. More notes at the bottom.
Ziva sits in her rental car outside his apartment waiting patiently, knowing that he will have to come home at some point. Another twenty minutes of waiting proves her theory correct, and she watches as he ascends the small set of stairs to the lobby door. Her heart drops into her stomach at the sight of him. He hasn't aged much (physically,) but she can tell that he looks more fit; healthier than before. She waits a few (albeit very anxious and excruciatingly long) minutes before she exits her car and heads up to the familiar building. The doorman smiles and nods to her, noting that he hadn't seen her in quite a while, but he notices that she seems to be in a hurry, so he lets her go without another word.
She felt like she had been racing to his door, but now that she was just a few steps away, she thinks that maybe she should have taken a few more minutes on the stairs. She takes a deep breath before knocking lightly.
He's exhausted, this case, this day, everything has worn him out. Zoe called him on his way home to ask if she had left a sweater at his place. Talking to her was painful enough, but now that he'd gotten home and checked, he'd found the sweater, right where she'd said it might have been. Now he would have to see her again.
He took a deep breath and sighed it out, throwing the sweater over the back of a chair before going to his bedroom to change into something more comfortable. He hears a knock at his door just as he's pulling a clean white t-shirt over his head. 'That was fast…' He thought to himself. Zoe shouldn't be here for at least another hour.
He grabs the sweater on his way to the door, ready to hand it off without a whole lot of conversation, but when he swings the door open and holds the sweater out, Zoe's face is not the one that greets him. A quick intake of breath and he drops the clothing, startled by the warm chocolate eyes that are staring nervously at him.
Her gaze briefly drops to the floor along with her stomach and her nerve. "Hi…" She says in a barely audible whisper and he just stares at her at a complete loss for words. She looks up at him again, cocking her head to the side an inch; an invitation for him to say something, anything. She is caught off guard when he steps back and closes the door.
She hangs her head in resignation and tears prick at the backs of her eyes, takes a deep shuddering breath, and turns to leave. 'I suppose I was wrong…' she thought silently.
She scolds herself as she presses the call button for the elevator and waits for it to reach her floor. 'How could I have been stupid enough to think that Tony of all people would have waited for me?' She sniffles and the elevator dings, letting her know that it has arrived. She takes another deep breath and almost misses the panicked "Ziva?!" that comes from down the hall.
She does a double take and steps back out of the elevator. Tony's shuffling down the hall, checking each corner before he lays eyes on her curious form.
"Hey! Where are you going?" He huffs, trying to calm his heart beat.
Squaring her shoulders and crossing her arms, she asks quietly, "I…I thought you did not want to see me?" A pained look crosses his face. "That is why you shut the door in my face, yes?"
"N-No!" He shakes his head, holding his hands out as if to stop her from going anywhere. "No, I just… I thought I was seeing things." He rubs his arm nervously before taking a hand and running it through his hair. "I had to make sure you were real."
"Oh…" She drops her gaze to the floor again, gripping herself tighter. "It has been a while since we last saw each other, so I suppose I understand."
"Yeah…"
They stand in an awkward silence for a few minutes, stealing glances at each other, looking away when caught.
"So uhm… Do you wanna come in? I was gonna order delivery…"
"Sure," She couldn't help the flash of hope that shone in her eyes in that instant. "We have a lot to catch up on, yes?"
"Yea, quite a bit..." He smiled and held his arm out, motioning for her to head back to his apartment. She obliged, and they walked the short distance together. "So whaddaya think? Pizza or Chinese?"
She stifled a giggle, amazed at just how easy they seemed to be falling back into the swing of things already.
Tony groaned, regretting having eaten that last slice of pizza. Ziva shot him a halfhearted "I-told-you-so" glare, to which he responded with another groan.
"If you knew I would regret it, why'd you let me eat it?"
"Because it would have done me no good to try. I have not forgotten how stubborn you can be." She chided.
"Ugh. From now on, be more stubborn than me, okay? I'm gonna have to double up on the gym this week."
Ziva furrowed her brow at his statement. "The gym? You? Ha!"
"Hey! People can change, Zi. Didn't you notice? I look way hotter now." He quirked his lips into a signature DiNozzo grin. She shook her head with a silent laugh, not wanted to get be too flirty too fast. She wanted things to go right this time. She needed to take things slow.
"What? You don't think I'm hotter?" He said with mock astonishment.
"I am pleading the fifth." She mumbled, averting her eyes to the floor as she leaned forward to grab her wine glass and down the rest of its contents.
He gasped. "You do think I'm hotter! Come on, Dah-veed. It's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm quite proud myself."
She shook her head again and quipped, "Well, you should be…"
Tony took a deep, satisfying breath as he relaxed into the couch, one hand rubbing his overfull belly, the other slung over the back of the couch behind her shoulders.
They sat in companionable silence for a few moments before Ziva forced herself to relax and eased down farther into the cushions, letting his hand brush at the hairs on her shoulder. "This is… Nice. I did not realize how much I missed this. Us."
He turned his head to face her at her abrupt confession. "So you're admitting that there was an us?"
She sighed. She'd known this conversation would come up at some point, but that didn't mean she would ever have really been prepared for it. "Yes, Tony. Us. This." She opened her arms, indicating their setting. The two of them relaxed on his couch, half empty take-out boxes littering the coffee table, an almost empty bottle of wine, and some old movie playing on the TV with the volume only loud enough to be considered background noise.
"Oh…" He trailed off.
She noted his disappointment, turning to face him. "I have missed other things too. Us things."
He was silently hopeful. "Like what?" He said, turning his body to mirror her position facing him.
She played with her nails nervously, biting her lip as a way to buy herself a bit of time before sighing in resignation. "Like how different we act when it is just the two of us. The private us. I have missed that dearly. The way you are gentle with me, but always supportive. I missed the way that you always seem to find a way to touch me, whether it be your hand playing with the loose strands at my neck, or your shoulder leaning against mine…" She scoffed and looked down, blushing furiously. "I miss our time together in Israel." She looked up just in time to see the pain he was clearly feeling leave his features.
"Do not get me wrong. I most definitely do not miss the decisions that had to be made then, or the sadness we both felt. I just miss the way we were together, do you understand?"
"Yeah, I think so." He moved his hand from the back of the couch to cup her cheek, stroking it lightly with his thumb and she leaned into his touch.
She turned her face into his hand, kissing his palm lightly before whispering "I am ready, Tony."
Tony couldn't help the grin that overtook his face, and before she could register what was happening, he'd taken his other hand and cupped her other cheek, taking her face in his hands and pulling her to him, his lips crashing against hers.
God, she'd missed this.
She laughed, tears pricking the corners of her eyes as she reciprocated, wrapping her arms around his neck enthusiastically.
He broke the kiss a moment later, leaning his forehead against hers and breathing heavily. "Go out with me." He whispered bluntly.
She pulled away from him slightly, confusion overtaking her features. "It is after midnight Tony, where would we go?"
"I didn't mean tonight, Zi," He laughed. "Friday, maybe. Get all dolled up. Go on a fancy date with me."
She blushed again at the thought. "Dolled up? You do not like the way I look then?" She teased, already going through her currently small wardrobe in her head for suitable date attire.
He narrowed his eyes and grimaced, not sure if she were being serious. "I love the way you look, but it's what you do, you know, when you go on a date with someone you really like." He tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear.
"I know, Tony, I was only teasing." Her lips upturned, revealing a toothy grin while she leaned in a few inches and nuzzled her nose against his.
Tony wrapped his arms around her back, bringing her to his chest as he repositioned them so they were lying on the couch, his back against the arm, her half on top of him. She relaxed into him, tucking her head into the crook of his neck before letting out a contented breath.
"So… you're home, right? For good?" He asked after several minutes of comfortable quietness, unsure of her intentions after being apart for so long.
"I want to be," she breathed against his chest. "I cannot have the happiness I was looking for without you, Tony. Telling you to leave me in Israel has to be one of my biggest regrets, but I am glad that I did." She lifted her head so she could better look him in the eye. "I could not have grown as much as I have had you been there. I needed to hurt, to be motivated to come back to you. Being with you was always a part of my plan…"
He kissed her forehead, hugging her to him. "I know, Ziva. I understand why you did what you did. But we're here now, right? We're finally gonna have the us that we deser-"
"Yes." She responded before he could finish, replacing her lips against his for a passionately chaste kiss. "Though, there will not be a very happy us if you fall asleep on this couch." She said as she pulled away from him again. "I know what it does to your back." She sat up, trying her best to pull him with her. "You should go to bed, Tony. You are tired. And… I should go, too…"
"Unnggghhh… No…" He grumbled, already half way to passing out in his state of comfort. Tony pulled Ziva back down onto his chest. "Stay."
She couldn't help but revel at how adorable he was when he was so exhausted. "Tony, I do not think that two grown adults can comfortably sleep on that tiny bed of yours…"
"Don have to. Got bigger one. C'mon." He hoisted himself into a sitting position, bringing her with him. She laughed as he picked her up bridal style and headed for his bedroom.
"Tony! Put me down!" She cried out, but she couldn't bring herself to really mean it.
"In a minute."
She laughed and clung to him tighter, enjoying their new carefreeness.
He set her gently on the bed and headed over to his dresser and ruffled around in the drawers before finding the clothes he was looking for.
He handed her a plain t-shirt, a pair of NCIS sweats, and a pair of his basketball shorts for her to choose from before practically flopping into bed, saying "Jeans no comfortable for sleeping."
Ziva shook her head in resignation, smiling at his sleep-drunken silliness. She opted for the shorts and headed to the bathroom to change. When she'd finished, she folded her clothes neatly and laid them on his dresser before climbing into bed and tentatively snuggling into him. He was already snoring lightly, but at her motions, he snaked his arms out and around her, bringing her firmly to his side. "M'glad you're back, Zi."
"Me too," she whispered against his cheek, kissing him lightly before she too succumbed to her unconscious.
So? Whaddaya think? This is my second (posted) NCIS Fic, so. Hoorah! I have a few more One-Shot like chapters planned for this particular story, and like I said at the beginning, this plot bunny came to me two different ways, so I am also working on the alternate story along the same lines as this one.
Leave me some love! I will love on your love!
I take responsibility for any and all mistakes, and if you see anything that looks off or weird, PLEASE let me know so that I can do my best to fix it!
As always, thank you so much for even reading this far, it really means the world to me that people actually enjoy my writing.