A/N: Hello, readers! For this story, each chapter will be a new story involving a scene from an episode that I think could have led to Ziva and Tony starting a relationship. Thus, it will start in canon and then go AU. Each chapter lives in its own universe. Do not expect it to be chronological (if you have read any of my previous stories, you know how I like to jump back and forth). Each chapter will be named with the corresponding episode's title.
I will be working on this series and Colour Me In at the same time. Cross-posting, as usual, to AO3 under user name Elsie_Snuffin.
Disclaimer: Not my characters, I don't own NCIS, etc. Borrowing some dialogue from various episodes.
Prologue.
Nothing is inevitable. When two people meet and instantly feel chemistry between them, there may be many factors that keep them from acting on that chemistry. Circumstance, obligations, rules, fear, and on and on. All of this can lead to unspoken feelings, missed opportunities, misunderstandings. Maybe they move on and, at the end of their lives, feel fulfilled. Or maybe they look back with regret.
But maybe they shoulder past all of those factors, all of the excuses, and they act on the chemistry, on their feelings. Maybe it is brave of them, irresponsible, selfish. Maybe they fumble, make mistakes. They are human, as we all are. Who are we to judge?
Through the chaos that is the universe, two people can collide. Whether they create a new solar system or a black hole is up to them. Opportunities may abound but unless at least one of them grabs one, they all dissolve into nothingness, never to reappear.
It is up to them, up to ourselves, to make connections that matter, to act on opportunity, to live without regret. Our destiny is our own to be written, and whether we follow rules, real or perceived, is our decision. In the end, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Maybe each decision we make fractures the universe just a little, creates infinite alternate universes where we live with the consequences of our actions and inactions.