His finger trailed along the side of the table as he slowly paced around the room. He had seen Ziva's old apartment many times but she had never invited him to her newest place of residence. Technically, she still hadn't, but he chose to overlook this fact. If he believed that he had a legitimate reason for being there, then he stood a greater chance of her accepting it too.
His eyes roamed greedily around the room. So far, he had contained his curiosity to the living room but his eyes kept being drawn towards the bedroom. The kitchen was messy, the counters hidden under groceries and the cupboard doors held ajar by the bulging contents. The living room was sparser, and almost seemed unlived in.
The kitchen was almost barren; the counters plainly visible and the cupboard doors open, revealing empty caverns behind. The living room was no cosier with plump seats, not squished by a lazy body, and the TV remote where it should be, on top of the TV. The scene was a stark contrast with Tony's own home, where the seats where permanently indented and the remotes lost beneath the stacks of magazines.
Finally, he glanced through the window to check that Ziva was not approaching and allowed himself to go into the bedroom. He heaved a sigh of relief once he saw the messy space; all worries of a Ziva who spent no time at home because she slept in other people's beds had vanished. Judging by the differences in mess, Ziva lived mostly in her bedroom. Clothes were strewn across the floor and the sheets were tangled at the foot of the unmade bed.
Stepping carefully through the mounds of fabric, Tony reached the bathroom. He delved straight into the cabinet under the sink and was instantly gratified. His hand emerged and he held up a vibrator. He raised it up with his index and thumb, gingerly examining it for regular or recent use. He grinned to himself and shook his head at his partner's secret dirty habits. He laid the vibrator on the toilet lid and reached into the cabinet again. His eager fingers curled around something cylindrical, presumably a sex toy, but one he was not familiar with. He extracted it from the toothbrushes and toilet rolls and pulled it out into the open air. This time, when he realised what it was, no smile appeared but a look of pure horror.
He dropped the offending article onto the bath mat and stared at it in dumb disbelief. His eyes narrowed and his brows knitted as he surveyed it. It took the click of the lock and female footsteps to jerk him back into reality and his numb hands tried to hide all evidence of his snooping. Ziva seemed to sense an unwelcome presence because she called out and walked straight into the bedroom. Tony straightened up and flushed the toilet, kicking the cabinet door shut. Ziva barged into the bathroom, not giving Tony time to zip up his fly, had it been undone, and began to shout at him.
Tony waited for the tirade to end before attempting to protest his innocence.
'I was waiting but you were taking ages and I had to pee,' he explained.
'Tony, that is breaking and entering,' she argued. 'You can't break into my house.'
'I really had to pee,' he repeated insistently.
She opened her mouth to continue but paused as she noticed the rumpled bath mat. 'What have you been doing in here?' Her eyes swivelled to the cabinet, seemingly untouched. 'Where did you look?' she accused.
'Nowhere,' Tony tried to look innocent. 'Why?'
'Tony, this is you we are talking about. You did not come in here and not look around.' Her voice was sharp and tense and Tony almost felt bad for invading her personal space. Almost.
'I had to pee and then you came back. I had no time to look anywhere,' he protested.
She eyed him suspiciously for a second before pushing him out of her bathroom. 'Wait outside,' she commanded.
Tony sat down in the unused armchair and shuddered as he remembered what he had found the second time he delved into the cabinet. Why did Ziva have that? What was she not telling him?
