Of Christmas, Kisses and Miracles- Chapter 4
A/N: I'm terribly sorry for keep you waiting on this story. College is slowly ending with my life (those of you who are in med school know how is it). Also, I've had writer's block for these past weeks, but my muse decided to wake up and light up my brain with ideas today (thank God, I was going crazy with this fic)! This chapter gets us a step closer to the main part of this fic, but I won't tell you what is it just yet ;)
I just hope you like it, this thing gave me countless headaches and rewrites (writing funny tiva is not so easy), but it's done, finally. Next chapter is in progress too, so don't worry I won't abandon a story of mine :)
Disclaimer: Life is unfair, so no I don't own NCIS or its characters (although I'd love to, so I can fix the mess they did out of my favorite show).
Chapter 4
Snowballs, Scrooge and Self-throwing boots
The night was quickly turning colder while snowflakes fell and fell onto the illuminated DC streets. The sight was almost magical; the street lamps casting light upon the white sidewalks, making the falling snowflakes stand out as beautiful pieces of shining white art before getting into the growing heap of snow in the sidewalk. People on the street were rushing now to get to the warm heat of their respective homes, trying to stay out of the cold night, which was turning colder by the hour.
But a couple rushed out of a complex, instead of staying inside, into the growing cold. To anyone, their conversation floating in the night air sounded like that of children excited to see their first snowfall, but the voices were those of adults. Aside from the occasional car driving by, the night was almost quiet, the falling snow casting a beautiful image of winter and something that was simply Christmas spirit in the DC winter air.
The man pulled the smaller woman's arm with enough force to cause her to stumble into his back and grab his coat to avoid falling onto the deserted sidewalk.
"Tony!" exclaimed Ziva, exasperated with the man in question. She huffed, standing straight with her hands on her hips while he turned around with an apologetic smile and barely contained excitement. "You should be more careful", her voice admonished, her breath fanning like smoke in front of her. Her cheeks were starting to turn pink because of the cold winter air, something she still couldn't get used to. She looked at his twinkling eyes and sighed, sometimes he acted like a child, and she asked herself what sick joke had her heart made to her mind for falling for this adult-sized kid. She had to admit though, that this childish man had gone to the ends of earth, literally, for someone as insignificant as her.
His high pitched voice interrupted her thoughts of going much further, when he pulled again at her gloved hand and spoke, "Sorry! I guess I am just excited", he grinned sheepishly, which made her want to kiss that smile off his face, but shook the wanted but uncalled for thought out of her head.
"Yes, I can see that," she laughed, wiping at a snowflake that had fallen on the tip of her nose, watching as his hand tightened on hers, and twitched, like he wanted to move it to her nose and take the offending snowflake off by himself. She met his eyes again. "What do we do now?"
His grin, if possible, widened, and he pulled her until they were off to a side of the sidewalk were the snow had accumulated quickly forming heaps at both sides of the sidewalk. He looked upwards to the sky and back down at her.
"Now we catch a snowflake. You just have to stick out your tongue and catch it when it's coming down," he explained, looking up again at the falling snow. He demonstrated by sticking out his tongue and catching one right in the middle, closing his mouth again and laughing. "Ohh, cold! See? It's piece of cake! C'mon!"
He let go of her hand while she shook her head but looked upwards too, trying to catch a snowflake on her tongue.
She saw one falling right in the direction of her mouth so she stuck out her tongue and caught the snowflake on the tip of her tongue, the cold flake melting in her tongue, sending small shivers down her spine. Was it the coldness of the flake, or the fact that she could see Tony watching her mouth intently? She just closed her mouth and looked at him, getting excited on the child's play. "I caught one! Did you see it?"
He smiled brightly at her, all pink lips and rosy cheeks, bundled up in winter wear, but still stunningly beautiful. "Told ya," he grinned, and they both set off to catch snowflakes on their tongues, a few steps separating them.
After a few snowflakes, however, Tony got tired of wandering around with his head bent upwards, catching snowflakes to feel them melt off in his mouth. He had done this countless times as a kid, anyways, so it wasn't anything new to him. Besides, it was way more fun to watch the former Mossad ninja assassin stick her tongue out to catch snowflakes like an eight-year-old girl. If it wasn't for the knife he knew she had on her snow boots, possibly another on her belt, and the tight trained muscles under that petite Israeli frame of hers, he'd think of her as sweet and harmless, instead of a 'femme fatale'.
He chuckled to himself, watching the frown on her pretty forehead when she failed to catch one. Luckily she was too engrossed with her new inner child experience to notice him blatantly staring at her. He looked down at her feet, watching out for icy surfaces she could accidentally slip on, but she was still on solid ground.
As his eyes traveled down, he couldn't help but notice for the hundredth time that night how nice her jeans fitted her body. He was a man after all. But watching her, all of her, made possessive thoughts wrestle their way in his brain, which was frightening, to say the least. She wasn't his on any way, and he knew that. Hell he knew that more than anything else, but if some other guy did so much as approach her, he felt the urges to growl like an animal and mark her as his territory. It wasn't something he could control; it just forced its way out of his body and he had to force it down every time it happened, these events getting more pronounced every time. One day he knew he would snap and pummel some jackass's face just for trying to flirt with her.
Not that she slept around or anything. Hell, she didn't even acknowledge the line of men forming pretending to get somewhere with his ninja. The most she did was flirt back but he knew at the end the poor guy did not get her number, she just did it for fun, and probably to watch Tony cranky. He knew (and was embarrassed about) that she knew watching her with other man made him pissed. But she never mentioned it to him; it was another thing of their twisted-as-hell relationship they didn't talk about.
He snapped out of his thoughts as a car honked while speeding down the street, and focused his gaze on her, noticing her back was to him and she was barely two feet away. Smirking, he crouched down, taking a handful of snow on his hand, and approaching her from behind. She probably heard him coming (she was a ninja after all) but she didn't have a clue on what was going to happen to her. He just hoped the knife on her boot would stay there.
With amazing speed, knowing he didn't have much time until she realized what was going on, he pulled the back of her coat with a hand, and dropped the handful of snow with the other, skipping away quickly to avoid reflex punches while she screamed.
"AH! DINOZZO!" she jumped around, shaking the back of her coat, shivering from the freezing snow trailing down her back, trying to get the snow out. When most of it was out, she stared hard at him doubled over laughing. "You're so going to get it", she smirked, picking up a handful of snow, and throwing it right at the top of his head, which was visible by him bending over laughing.
Tony yelped and tied to shake the snow that had hit his neck too. He glared mockingly at her, who was laughing merrily at him. "Oh, it's on, Miss David".
And so it began, both of them, full grown adults, throwing snow at each other and laughing, their yelps and laughs floating up in the night air. Tony had to admit she had a damn good aim, shaking snow off his face after the third blow straight to his face, now flushed from the cold. But he was not so bad himself, he mused, throwing a snowball that fell square in a side of her head, hitting her ear and cheek, and immediately throwing another one, this one hitting her on the center of her chest.
She wiped her head and stared at him, and he winked and blew her a kiss, calling out, "right on the heart! I win, sweetcheeks."
"That is not on the rules," she laughed at him, throwing a snowball that he blocked with his arm.
"It's in my rules." He claimed, raising his gloved hands in peace. "Accept your defeat, and I will treat you with mercy." He grinned.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes at him, dusting the snow off her hands on her pants. "Will you ever grow up?" she mused smiling lightly, walking towards him.
He seemed to actually think about it, lolling his head to the side. "Hmm," he hummed, "but grown-ups are so boring!" he whined like a child, and she outright laughed at him.
He smiled. He loved the sound of her laugh, even more when he was the one to cause it. He opened his mouth to mockingly defend himself, when she slipped just in front of him, and he reacted immediately, grabbing her to avoid her to fall on the snow, but it was too late and they both fell with a surprised yelp and a dull thud as the mass of the two bodies hit the snow on the side of the sidewalk.
Her eyes widened when she fell on top of him, noticing his 'oommphh' at falling with her weight on top. She looked at his closed eyes and scrunched up face. "Oh God, Tony, I'm sorry, are you ok?" she tried to get off him, but something kept her pressed down to him. Before she could figure out what it was, his green eyes were staring at her, and she couldn't help but stare back.
"I think so. I thought ninjas didn't slip."
Laughter bubbled up from their chests, and their breaths mixed in white smoke as they both laughed their asses off at their fall. She let her head fall forwards and touched his freezing cheek with hers, trying to catch her breath after laughing so hard. In that moment she heard his intake of breath right on her ear, and she felt whatever was holding her down onto him tightened considerably, sending electricity jolting through her limbs. Her eyes widened just a second later when she realized what was holding her down, two of them to be exact, and where they were positioned. She gasped, and he surely heard it, because she had her mouth close to his ear.
He closed his eyes fiercely when she had touched her cold cheek with his, her cold breath caressing his ear and neck and sending shivers down his spine. He inhaled sharply when he realized he was holding her down with his hands on her ass, and he wasn't letting go. His body didn't respond to the little bit or reason and self-preservation he had in him. The bigger, manly, animalistic part of his brain won out. He tightened his hands on her butt, pressing her hips into his, and he sent a prayer for control to the heavens, something he lacked in that moment. He fought the urge of burying his head in her neck and kiss and lick every patch of skin he found. Soon, though, she gasped, and he knew she had realized what was going on. Oh hell.
"Tony," she whispered shakily, her thoughts scrambling in her lust-filled mind. She raised her head, propping up her hands on his chest, intending to get up even when her body and brain screamed at her to stay there. But she knew it wasn't the time, they had to talk before going further than harmless flirting (and as of tonight, kissing too). It didn't occur to her that when she pushed up her chest off his with her hands, she was pressing her center right into his groin.
He groaned (or was it a whimper?) and closed his eyes for a second, his hands involuntarily, pressing her down onto him (he didn't know how he still had them, considering he had them on the ninja's ass). He felt himself getting hard under her, and cursed his luck. "Ziva," he groaned.
She saw his eyes close and heard his groan, her shock evident on her face when she felt him harden under her. She wanted nothing more than to rip his clothes off and let him take her right then and there. She saw his eyes open, with an apologetic look on them, but it was minuscule, because the usually green orbs were dark with need, and the change of intensity in the color surprised her.
Her hands gave out and she tumbled down on top of him again, their faces just inches apart. Her lips parted in a barely audible gasp, her cheeks flushed for far more than the cold. Just as she was going to close the gap between them, a voice sounded close enough for them to startle apart.
"Get a room, you two," grumbled a man passing by, rolling his eyes at them.
Tony and Ziva sighed at the same time, both thanking and cursing the interruption. Tony cleared his dry throat and murmured, "Scrooge," which made Ziva (who actually knew the reference Tony had just mentioned) laugh in his face. The laughter died soon, though, while she looked at him trying to guess what their next step would be. Tony noticed it was getting colder and colder by each passing minute. The snow was falling harder; it looked like a storm was coming. He sighed. "We should get inside, a storm is settling in."
She looked up to the sky and back down at him, nodding. But when she made another attempt at standing up, his hands still prevented it. "Could you please remove your hands off my ass? I can't stand up, Tony." She said, trying to sound stern, but her light smile eased the words, and Tony smirked.
"I like where they are, Zee," he grinned and squeezed her butt for good measure, settling down and closing his eyes like he was going to sleep in the freezing sidewalk.
She gasped and hit his arm. "Yes, I can feel how much you like it. Off. NOW."
He groaned at her reference to the bulge at the front of his pants, and let his hands fall to his sides. He couldn't do anything about that for the time being. She stood up and helped him stand up too, doing her best not to look down, not that it was noticeable due to extra layers of clothes. Tony whimpered as his back muscles protested the movement, he'd regret this in the morning.
This time it was Ziva who grabbed his arm and pulled him up the front steps, into the building, and up the three flights of steps up to her apartment (with him stumbling some steps because of his eyes glued to her ass). She let them both in and closed the door behind, both sighing at the welcomed warm of the apartment.
"We have to take these clothes off, I'm freezing, and you look like a wet dog." She said and when she got no response she turned around and looked at him.
His eyes focused on her after a while, his mind just having registered the 'taking the clothes off' part (what?). "Huh?"
She rolled her eyes but grinned inwardly, glad she was the one to cause that kind of reaction out of Tony. She was aware that men saw her as 'hot', but the only opinion that mattered was Tony's and she was proud he obviously was physically attracted to her. She strode to her bedroom, stating a "follow me," behind her, sure he would be following indeed. She opened a few drawers and retrieved socks, a pair of sweatpants and a Ohio State hoodie he had left in her apartment a while ago. She turned around and handed him the items, signaling to the bathroom on the other side of the hallway instead of the one in her bedroom. She had to change too. "Go in there. Change." She didn't wait for him to step out and starting taking off her boots and coat.
He nodded and grinned,
"Do I get to touch your butt again, ninja?"
He had to duck to avoid a boot flying his way.
A/N: phew, I'm done. The last part occurred to me while I was writing, and I'm glad I added it. Also, I try to make the titles of the chapters in the same way, this one has the three words starting off with the same letter! Okay, let's see, next chapter we will have… Hot chocolate, blankets, another Christmas tradition (Tiva-style), cold feet (preview line: "Put the socks on, woman!"), ninja movements, and dun dun dun! Blackout! o.o
Stay tuned for next chapters, I'll get them done as soon as I find the time in the middle of my over-filled schedule. Stay safe,
Eve
P.S. please write your review down here, let me know what you think!