Title: Negotiations
Fandom: NCIS
Author: Alidiabin
Words: 838
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Warnings/ Spoilers: nothing major really. Hints of 7x01.
Parings: Tony/Ziva.
Summary: Tony catches Ziva doing something naughty.
Negotiations
They had been living together for three weeks now and the honeymoon phase had definitely worn off. Ziva was used to a much cleaner home. Tony was used to much more freedom to do what he wanted at home. Most of their bickering since they moved in together, had been about Tony's inability to clean up after himself and Ziva's controllingness. Tony was also growing sick of Ziva's version of tidying, which almost always involved moving his stuff to where he could not find it. Which only caused more mess when he tried to find his things.
They had just had another fight. Another draining fight. Another pointless fight. As Ziva had walked off she had muttered that she wasn't sure they should live together anymore. She was not sure if it was worth it. But Tony did not want to wake up to an empty bed again. He liked living with Ziva (when they weren't arguing). And he was sure she liked living with him too. He knew, he could not live without her.
After giving Ziva nearly half an hour to cool off, Tony walked out of the safety of their bedroom. He looked across the lounge to find it empty. His eyes then drifted toward the small kitchen. Ziva had started to cook dinner. As far as he could tell it was pasta with bacon. His favourite. With that gesture he knew she was trying to apologize too.
Tony watched her for a while. She had her iPod in and was dancing to whatever foreign music was playing on it. She collected the vegetables from the fridge and kicked it shut whilst moving her hips. A few seconds later she opened the fridge again. She picked up the orange juice. She looked around the room checking to see if anyone was around. Tony slid behind the book case as he wondered what she was up too. He could only just see Ziva through one of the empty shelves. She took the orange juice carton and a put it straight to her lips. Her shirt rode up exposing her flat olive stomach. She took a long drink from the carton.
"Ha," Tony said jumping out and revealing his hiding place. Ziva dropped the orange juice on the floor in shock. "You give me so much crap for my mess and you drink out of the bottle,"
"You are acting like a child," Ziva replied angrily, as she grabbed a cloth to clean up the orange juice. Tony moved toward her and the kitchen. He then got down on the floor as she cleaned up. He grabbed a paper towel and started cleaning too.
"Ziva," Tony said, "You have to admit you can't tell me off for leaving my crap everywhere when you drink out of the carton," Ziva looked at him with her not impressed face which dissolved his victory smile.
"No, I cannot" she finally relented, "But you cannot leave your mess everywhere,"
"No one ends an argument on but," he replied as he furiously chucked his now soaked paper towel in the rubbish bin.
"I was not ending it," Ziva replied. Her voice told him she was still angry but it softened as she continued to speak, "We need to come to a compromise,"
"You're not gonna leave?" Tony asked as Ziva got up.
"Why would I leave?" Ziva responded as she leaned across to take the lid off the pasta before it boiled over.
"Because it's too hard," Tony said as he stood up. "That's what happens with me and other people, it gets too hard and they leave." Or die, he mentally added thinking about all those that he had lost. He had nearly lost Ziva too.
Ziva looked at her him. Her chocolate brown eyes softened as she looked into his emerald ones. At that moment, Tony was convinced that Ziva could read his mind as her expressions responded to his thoughts. Her eyes glazed over. She put the tea towel on the counter and reached out to touch his hand.
"Well too bad," Ziva replied softly. She might have said she wanted to leave to him during their fight but she had not meant it. She knew that he could not live without her and she could not live without him. "Because I cannot live without you,"
"Just not with me either," Tony responded with a smirk. Ziva nodded.
"That too," she said in a lighter tone "But I think we can negotiate living together,"
Tony wrapped his arms around her waist. Ziva smiled as he leaned into kiss her. As he did the pasta boiled over, making a sizzling sound. As Ziva turned off the pasta, she noticed the bacon was now burnt.
"And our first negotiation will be what take out we're getting for dinner," Tony uttered as Ziva cleaned up the new mess.
"I vote Chinese," Ziva responded as she chucked the wasted food into the bin.
"Pizza," Tony replied.
It was going to be long negotiation.
A/N: "Forty-seven per cent of people drink straight from the carton when there is no one else around," – random fact I read and the inspiration for the story.
Reviews/comments/ a friendly you suck.
