"Oh come on, you have to be afraid of at least one thing, right."
"No."
"What about animals? Sharks, tigers, or bears. Wait, I've got it, spiders!"
Ziva David looked confused at her colleague. They were sitting at their desks, doing paperwork. They had been doing that for hours straight now. The past two days, they hadn't had a single case.
Special agent Anthony DiNozzo was once again distracted and this time he had chosen Ziva as his victim. It had started as just complaining about the amount of paperwork and it had gradually evolved into pestering her with strange personal questions.
"Spiders? How do they even compare to sharks, tigers and bears?" she questioned.
"What, so the great Ziva David can't be afraid of spiders?"
"I have no arachnophobia, Tony."
"I guess you have never seen the movie then."
"I'm going to regret this but what movie?"
He shouldn't be shocked but he was a little anyway. "It's a classic! The 1990 horror comedy Arachnophobia, the movie that can turn you into one after only 15 minutes. You seriously have never seen it?"
"Positive," she nodded, still focused on her computer screen.
Tony walked over and sat on the edge of her desk, playing with the little Israeli flag. "Then I suggest a movie night," he grinned.
"With you?" She laughed, now looking him in the eyes. She snapped the flag out of his hands.
"Oh come on, you know you want to." He wiggled his eyebrows.
She let out a loud snort. "You think that after a whole day here, I want to spend even more time with you?"
"Yep," he said confident, "anything to have more quality time with me."
She shook her head. "Fine."
"Great! You're gonna love it, I swear. So then I guess I'll be at your place tonight with the movie, you bring the popcorn."
"Wow, inviting yourself now Tony, are you?"
He flashed her a smile and went back to his desk, happy with his win.
A knock sounded at the door. Ziva David put the plate she was drying off down and walked over to her door. Peeping through the little hole, she could see a DVD case with the title Arachnophobia on it. She chuckled as her partner's big smile came in view.
"Come on in," she said as she opened the door for him. "You're here pretty early, it's only 7pm."
"Better earlier than late I guess." Tony DiNozzo stepped past her into the hallway and presented her a bottle of red wine. "Thought we might open this one up tonight."
"Are you trying to get me drunk, Tony?" she teased.
"I'd never," he laughed devilish. He really didn't planned on it but maybe it would be nice to see a different Ziva, a happier, more letting go Ziva.
"Why don't you take place on the couch in the living room, put the movie in the DVD player and I'll get us some glasses for that wine," she said as she walked to the kitchen.
"You wanna open the bottle?" she asked when she came back with the two glasses. She sat down next to him, only mere inches apart.
"Sure." He took the cork out and filled the glasses half. "Here you go," he said as he gave her one.
"Thanks. Where is the remote?" She looked around. It wasn't on its usual spot next to the DVD player or on the coffee table.
He fished it from behind him and pressed play. As the movie started, he looked to his right with a smile. He was sitting in Ziva David's living room on a Friday night watching a scary movie. There was little chance that his life could get any better right now.
Ziva felt his eyes on her and turned her head, only to give him a sheepish smile back. Yep, this was going to be an amazing night. She grabbed the bowl of popcorn she had brought with her from the kitchen earlier and placed it in between them. She sat a little more back to get comfortable and curled her feet up under her.
After half an hour, Ziva paused in the middle of the scene and stood up.
"Hey! What are you doing? This is a great scene," Tony exclaimed.
"Bathroom break," she simply explained and walked into the hall.
"Mind if I grab us some more popcorn?" He shouted the question, hoping she would hear.
"It's in the cupboard left to the oven," she said as she popped her head out of a door at the left of the hallway, the bathroom apparently.
He opened the cabinet and looked for the popcorn but everything seemed to be just stuffed into it. "Oh Ziva," he murmured to himself. He rumbled through the food but couldn't find the popcorn.
He walked out of the kitchen and crossed the living room into the hallway. Then knocked on the bathroom door and waited for her to answer. "Ziva, I can't find it in that mess. Come out and help me?"
No answer. No sound.
"Ziva, are you ok in there?" He started to worry. Checking his watch, he saw she had been in there for seven and a half minutes. "Ziva?"
The door creaked open and he couldn't believe his eyes. She had changed into a tank top and yoga pants with her hair tied up in a high pony tail. Was that make-up?
She looked so beautiful. So natural and so gorgeous. There was no doubt, she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen.
She saw the sparkle in his eyes, his mouth slightly opened. The expression on his face was priceless. She had meant to wow him a bit but this made her stomach tickle, a spark ignite in her eyes.
He broke himself out of the trance he found himself in. "Wow... Err... I can't find the popcorn."
She shook her head to clear it again, her ponytail swinging from left to right and back. 'Oh how sexy that was,' Tony thought.
"It should be there." She stepped next to him out of the bathroom. He followed her into the kitchen where she started rumbling in the cupboard just as he had. Then it popped into her head, after making some earlier, she had put it on the counter in the corner of the room.
"Sorry," she said as she grabbed the box and placed a bag in the microwave.
"We're out of wine too. Do you have any?" Tony said as he wanted to fill his glass again but the last had dropped in his glass when it was only half full.
"You really want me drunk, do you," Ziva answered laughing.
"I'm okay with soda or water too if you can't handle it." He tried to ease her(and mostly himself) by teasing her.
"Oh I didn't say I couldn't. I'm not a lightweight, Tony," she returned. "I have a few bottles in the storage room. I'll get one if you take the popcorn out of the microwave and put it in the bowl."
"Of course, your majesty." He bowed for her and a chuckle escaped her throat. She was surprised herself and hoped be hadn't heard it. But he did. He thought it was cute. He was seeing this whole other side of Ziva and he liked it, a lot. He was in total awe of her, more and more every the minute.
They watched the rest of the movie silently next to each other. Even though she wouldn't admit it, the part where the spiders came up out of the drain in the bathroom sink and out of the old people had Ziva shivering and shifting a little bit in Tony's direction. He had protectively laid his arm around her shoulder and his comforting warmth had calmed her down completely.
"So what did you think?" asked Tony once the end scores appeared on the screen.
"It was…" Ziva honestly didn't know what to think of it. It was creepy but in a nice way.
"Did you like it?" He was worried he had made the wrong decision of showing her the movie. What if she hadn't liked it at all?
"I did. Thank you for coming over and introducing me to the genre."
"You're welcome. Wait, so you've never watched a horror film before?"
"Not really, no."
"Well maybe I should show you some more then," said Tony as he grabbed a big folder with DVDs in them.
"How many did you bring?"
"About 25. Which one should we watch?" he asked as he started to go through the little piece of his collection.
"Who says I want to watch another horror movie with you…"
"You want me to go?" Tony asked disappointed. He thought they were having a great night so far.
Obviously he hadn't heard the teasing in her voice. "No, it's just… Could we maybe see something else?"
"Sure," Tony said happy again, "I have Romeo and Juliet…"
Ziva shook her head.
"Or The Princess Bride?" That one got a more positive reaction. After he had changed the DVDs, he took his place back next to her. She had taken the blanket from the back of the couch and spread it over their legs.
Tony DiNozzo woke up with something tickling his throat. He opened his eyes but had to close them again right away because of the bright sunlight in his eyes. Slightly opening his right eye and then his left, he saw a bundle of curly brown hair. Ziva was laying half on top of him, her head in the crook of his shoulder. A happy smile appeared on Tony's face at the sight of his relaxed partner. He watched her like that for a while.
At first when Ziva woke up, she didn't exactly know why she had been sleeping on her couch. Feeling her head going up and down in a steady rhythm, she remembered again. They had watched another two of the movies Tony had brought and apparently had fallen asleep doing so. The blanket she had draped over them now lay on the floor, the tv was still on and showed the DVD sign spinning around on the screen.
"You comfortable?" he whispered.
"Hmm." She snuggled further into his chest. It was very comfortable indeed. His scent relaxed her. She had grown to like it over the years they had been working together and by now it was all she needed to feel safe.
Tony let out a sigh of contentment. "That was quite some movie night, wasn't it. I had fun."
"Me too," Ziva mumbled. She turned her head a little to face him.
If only he would never have to stop staring in those beautiful eyes, wake up like this every day for the rest of his life. He would be the happiest man on the planet.
"Mind if I use your bathroom?"
"You know where it is." It was more a statement than a question.
Tony nodded. "Ziva, I can't get up."
Reluctantly, she sat up and let him make his way to the hall. "I'll take a quick shower in the mean time!" she shouted.
Grabbing fresh underwear, a t-shirt and some pants in her bedroom, she went into the main bathroom and started the water in the shower since it always took a while for it to heat up.
It wasn't until she had undressed herself and was about to step into the shower that she discovered the little friend. "TONY!"
A few seconds later, he raced through the door. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
She didn't reply, only pointed at the bottom of the shower cubicle.
Tony started laughing. "So our little ninja is afraid of something!"
"Just kill it, or take it out, I don't care as long as it is out of my apartment...building."
He grabbed a towel and took the spider in it. He opened the window and shook the towel out. "That's it, he's gone now. I wonder what spider heaven looks like."
Ziva rolled her eyes at that. "Thanks, Tony."
"No problem. By the way, you can yell really loud." He grinned again. Not just because of the way she had just acted but also because she was dressed in only a towel.
"Eyes up here please." She pointed at her face. "And I wasn't afraid, I was just really excited to see him."
"That's not how I'm gonna tell it." Ziva made a move to hit him. "Okay okay, I won't tell anyone," he said, holding his hands up in surrender.
"I think I'll skip the shower for now."
After spending the rest of the morning and a big part of the afternoon together, watching some more movies and playing board games, Tony and Ziva were standing at her front door.
"We should do this again some time."
"Yeah I'd like that." She said with a big smile plastering her face.
He returned it and started walking to the stairs.
"Tony."
He turned around to find her only mere inches from him away. "Yeah?"
"Thanks." And she kissed him before closing the door.
He smiled smugly and made his way out. They should definitely have another movie night, soon.
AN: This started a few months ago as a plot twist on twitter. I said I was gonna write a fanfic about it and this is it. Sorry for the delay girls(I'm sure you had forgotten all about it by now xD). This is my first Tiva fic. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
PS The ones who get the Taylor Swift reference deserve a hundred of her homemade cookies! *cough* She's awesome *cough* Listen to her music *cough cough* Sorry I've got a bad cold ;p
REVIEWs are like tiny hugs from you. I love having a group hug with all my readers…
Xo Kezzie
