[] This, is fluff. Like completely flufftastic. Which is good, because I don't think the next chapters are going to be fluff. I hope it makes you grin, Tony gets to talk movies a bit, which is essential you know, and it's just darling. Enjoy.


"Annie is on the Hallmark Movie Channel." He didn't know whether to laugh or groan. Laugh because that was Ziva calling him for apparently no other reason than to update him on what movies were on TV or groan because it had to be Annie or laugh because it was Ziva or groan or freaking Ziva. In the end he settled on a confused tone and a grinning mouth since last time he checked even ninja's couldn't see through phones.

"What?"

"Annie is on the Hallmark Movie Channel," same tone, same clear cut words, he still didn't get it.

"Okaaayy …"

"You were …" and he could just see her waving her hand in front of her face in frustration that he wasn't getting it. "Surprised that I had not seen it before." She stopped and he stopped and wondered what exactly he was supposed to say to that. Drawing out okay again didn't seem like it was in his best interest. "I was attempting to find something to watch and I saw it and thought that you might … that we might … would you like to watch it with me?"

Well now. He choked on the coke he had been drinking and started coughing and spluttering.

"Are you alright?"

"One sec Zi." The phone went on the coffee table and he went for the kitchen. Cough. Choke. Cough. Choke. Water. Where the hell was water. Like a teenager he leaned over the sink and drank from the tap. Air returned to his lungs and he started breathing halfway normally again.

"Alright. Back. I was choking. Dying from inhaling coke the wrong way because you-"

"Never mind Tony." Icy cold tone. Short clipped words. She thought he didn't want to watch it with her.

"Hey! Don't hang up!" Silence. He counted to ten before she did anything but breath silently.

"Yes."

"You surprised me is all. Got any popcorn?" More silent breathing, this time on his end too while he waited to see if she was still going to let him share this. If he hadn't screwed up too bad with his coughing and hacking and general surprisedness.

"I do."

"Annie needs popcorn. And chocolate. And beer. Lots of beer." That thought had him pushing off the couch and going to look for all of the essentials for a movie night in. With Ziva. God he missed their movie nights. This was a start though. Over the phone movie night. Why did that feel like something teenage girls did? He shook that thought off as soon as it formed. She'd called him. Good enough. Way more than good enough.

"Peanut M&M's?" He froze with his hand on the refrigerator handle. The last time he'd seen her with those … nope. Stop Dinozzo. Not going there.

"Sure. Gotta love Peanut M&M's. Stick 'em in your popcorn. They're even better that way."

"Eww. No. There will be no mixing of … condiments?" Way too close to condoms there Zi.

"That's mustard and ketchup, mayonnaise. Not candy and popcorn."

"Well then what do you call them?" Popcorn in the microwave and pop, pop, pop, no that wasn't his popcorn. He'd just put his in.

"Are you making it on the stove?"

"Of course. It is better that way."

"You're hosting movie night next time." She chuckled, deep in her throat and he grinned as he tugged out a bag of baking chocolate chips.

"Because I can make popcorn on the stove?"

"No, no. Because you are making popcorn on the stove. I can, it just takes too long."

"But some things are better when you must wait for them no?" He froze with his bag of extra butter popcorn and cocked his head sideways so he could press his ear closer to the phone.

"Are we still talking about popcorn here Ziva?"

"Of course. What else would we be talking about?" Oh her mouth said no, but that tone definitely said something different. Since she was in a good mood, might as well joke a bit.

"Cause personally I think sex with you would be fantastic at any time, waiting or no waiting." She inhaled sharply and he was left trying to figure out if he'd overstepped whatever invisible line, or no line, or whatever they'd drawn. But then she exhaled on a chuckle and he guessed that he was mostly in the clear. The popcorn went in a bowl with the chocolate chips and he carried that and two beers back into the living room. Lights out, TV on. He flopped down on the couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table.

"But you are gay."

"Oh damn. That's right. Sex with McGeek then. My man crush."

"Only fantastic?" Lord she loved the questions that put his mind in the gutter and his head out to lunch.

"There are no words," he mumbled the phrase and heard her sigh just a tiny bit. There was a pause then, just a few brief seconds where he heard her inhaling and exhaling and could imagine the look on her face as something that was just a little bit more open than normally. A look that would have him going all goo puddle and wanting to reach out and touch her for just a second. Then the moment passed and they were back to joking as though it had never happened.

"If McGee is your man crush is Abby my chick crush?"

"The better question is who would be on top in that foursome."

"Me of course I-"

"-like it on top," he finished her sentence for her and grinned as Annie walked on TV with a dog that looked like it needed a bath and a brush. "I know."

"That is Annie?"

"Huh?"

"The dog?"

"What? No. Why would Annie be the dog?" And where the hell had she come up with that idea anyways? He shifted lower in the couch and tried to imagine a Ziva that would come over and lay with her head in his lap so he could play with her hair and good lord why did that sound like such a fantastic way to spend an evening? No sex, no kissing, no make out sessions involving groping and getting to home base if he played his cards right and really hit the ball out of the park, just sitting watching Annie and playing with her hair. What the hell was wrong with him? He must have left half his testosterone in Somalia.

"Because America has a lot of movies about dogs named human names." He snorted.

"No we don't little Miss. Israel."

"Air Bud." And the way she drew those words out was kind of funny so he did have to laugh and that made her huff.

"Okay. Okay. Air Bud. Where the Red Fern Grows. Maybe there are some-"

"You named two without thinking."

"Well yes but this is me here Zi, the movie god." Tony could just see her eyebrows going up at that overreaching statement.

"God? Are you sure you're good enough to be a god? And by good enough I of course mean hot enough." He clutched a hand to his chest even though he knew she couldn't see it.

"Ouch! Oh Ziva, you've mortally wounded me here."

"Aren't gods usually immortal?"

"Okay you've immortally wounded me." She laughed this time and he tried to figure out what was funny because he didn't get it.

"Tony, that does not even make sense."

"Well you can't have it both ways. It made sense the way I had it at first then you went all 'gods are immortal' and now it doesn't make sense and I'm so lost and so not in the mood to argue right now that we're just going to drop it." Annie started singing on screen and he winced, little girl screeching was slightly painful to the ears. There was a reason he didn't watch this movie very often and it was largely due to red head there with the pipes.

"You must be in a certain mood to argue?"

"Sure. Usually have to have at least two things, pissed at you and sexually frustrated."

"Are you ever sexually frustrated?" And that had been the completely right thing to say and the completely wrong thing to say all at the same time. And idiot that he was he answered anyways.

"Lately? Yah." There was a pause as the movie went to commercial and all her attention shifted to him, he could nearly hear her thinking through the line, wondering if he had meant that the way it had sounded. Yes, he wanted to say, he had. He'd meant it just exactly that way.

"Yeah. I know," the words were whispered and it still made him grin like a fool and toss his head onto the back of the couch because damn did it feel good to hear that. "Do you have this movie on DVD or purple-ray or whatever it is now?" Purple-ray sounded like purple-rain and that was way cooler than blue-ray so he left her messed up phrase alone for once.

"Course I do. I think I might have an old copy on VHS somewhere. Really old school stuff. Like before you were born old school stuff." He heard the huff through the line.

"I am not that young."

"Baby."

"Do not call me baby."

"What if it was in a different context," he muttered and she got that he was teasing apparently because she answered immediately even as the movie came back on.

"I prefer more … imaginative endearments."

"Tesoro?"

"Italian. Everything is better in Italian is what they say yes?" Tony laughed.

"You tell me mio amore." And that little endearment had definitely slipped out. "I didn't-"

"I am also not in the mood to argue."

"Thank god, I can't do it tonight. Too relaxed and … boneless. You know what would make this perfect though?" Annie started singing again and he reached for the remote to turn the damn thing down. Little children just should not be given microphones.

"McGee in yoga pants?" He groaned.

"Ziva did you have to? I'm scarred for life. McGee in yoga pants. How can you even think about that without feeling sick?"

"But he has a very nice butt!" He was whimpering at this point, eyes closed, trying to envision anything but McGee in freaking tight pants. And then she said that and his mind went back to a very, very, very old conversation.

"Hey. I thought you liked my butt." She snorted and he could imagine the eye roll.

"Really Tony?" And she wasn't asking if he was really asking that, more making fun of him for his … oh god … insecurity regarding her but still he answered anyways.

"Yah really. I've never had any complains about that backside. Women always see me leaving you know? My backside not my front?" No laughter so he kept talking. "Because I'm always walking away? And they don't see me … cause of the whole relationship issue junk right? It's a joke? You get it?" Silence.

"Women never get to see you come yes?" He dropped the phone. He freaking dropped the phone. Head desk. Die. Gibbs slap him into the next century. God did she have to make that joke?

"You are going to be the death of me," he mumbled, searching the couch cushions for his phone. "Zi?"

"Why am I going to kill you?" She questioned and he dropped his head in between his knees.

"Not kill me. Be the death of me. Two totally different things."

"I do not see how. They both end with your demise."

"Okay yah but the … connotations are different."

"Oh."

"Mmm." And Annie started singing again and he had to sit through a whole verse of wailing before Ziva spoke again.

"Does she sing the entire movie?"

"Yup."

"Is it always so-"

"-painful? Yup." Tony raised his head as someone knocked on the door. "Hold on a second Ziva. Somebody's at the door."

"Okay." He left the phone on the coffee table and stumbled towards the door in the dark. Whoever it was at … the clock said 9:45 … could deal with shirtless Tony in holey sweats. He didn't bother checking the peephole before he opened it because really only a few people showed up at his door ever and none of them were people he wouldn't let in if he knew it was them. When he pulled the door open though he started wishing that he had checked first because the person standing there definitely wasn't anyone he expected.

"Ziva?" She moved inside his apartment as he stood staring at her. What the hell was she doing here.

"I brought you real popcorn," she muttered before dropping down on his couch and tucking her feet underneath her. "My phone was also beginning to lose charge." He was still standing by his door staring at her when she turned her attention entirely to the movie. Then she popped a handful of real popcorn in her mouth and he shrugged. Well then. Movie night it was. The door was shut, his feet padded into the living room and he dropped down onto the couch right next to her without making a big deal out of it at all because that was where he had been sitting originally and she could scoot towards the arm rest if she wanted to.

He got to Annie singing 'Tomorrow' before he actually got comfortable with Ziva just showing up at his apartment and sitting down on his sofa like it wasn't a big deal. By then half the popcorn she had brought was gone.

"Let me hold it." Her eyebrows went up and she refused to relinquish the bowl he was tugging on.

"No. It is my popcorn. I will hold it. How do I know you won't put your chocolate in with it?"

"Sabotage by popcorn. Really?" She finally turned to look at him and speared him with one of the most exasperated glances he'd ever seen. He laughed, despite how detrimental that probably was to his health, and she huffed.

"Why does everyone like this movie so much?" With her licking butter and salt off her fingers he didn't have a clue.

"Classic," he managed to strangle out and she gave him an odd glance like she didn't really get what had suddenly gone wrong with his voice. Then she smirked and he sat back hard on the couch. "Wipe that grin off your face or I'm going to lick your fingers for you."

"Is that a threat or a promise?"

"Aren't they the same thing?"

"The connotations-"

"-my line! You're stealing my line!" A commercial came on with a singing mop and broom and she laughed. Tony couldn't tell if it was over her own joke or the stupid commercial. With her grinning he couldn't honestly say he cared. Today was a good day. She was in a happy mood. They were on the right side of the swinging pendulum at the same time for once. If they could just do this balancing act more than once in awhile they'd be set. Unfortunately the ground between this side of happy and the other side was really wide and without markers; they spent a lot of time in the wasteland.

"You cannot 'own' a line."

"Can too. America Zi, we own way dumber things than lines here." The movie came back on and she pressed her fingers to her lips when he tried to open his mouth to say … something that evaporated as soon as she pressed her fingers to her lips. Fingers and lips on anyone were distracting, throw them on Ziva, which made it sound like she'd never had any of them which was ridiculous on all levels of ridiculousness, and he couldn't really find much else to think about. Or not really think because blatant, open, googling wasn't really thinking. Her term actually worked in this situation.

"Why would anyone have a child climb a ladder like that?" It was good that he'd seen the movie before and didn't have to turn and see what she was talking about because she still had one of those fingers pressed to her lips and he was pretty darn sure she was doing it on purpose at this point.

"She's trying to get away from the bad guys."

"By climbing a ladder? That is foolish." Tony quit staring at her fingers when she started frowning. His serious radar was going off. Danger, danger, Will Robinson, window to the past, better peak while it's open, she's going to snap it closed and seal it shut in about three seconds.

"Why?" Apparently his tone was serious enough because she turned her head very slowly from the TV and met his gaze. The frown intensified and the fingers dropped to her lap. One distraction; gone.

"It's a dead end. They call them that because you die at the end yes?" He visibly flinched. Felt like he had been slapped in fact. Well.

"In the movies someone always saves you when you get to the dead end." Ziva held his eyes for a count of three seconds before she nodded. And with that nod her mask fell back in place, her frown slipped away as though it had been only a wrinkle in a sheet and she turned back to watch the movie. He continued to watch her as she watched Annie get to the top of the ladder and get saved by the dude in the heli. Her face didn't change as the movie cut to the final scene with singing and dancing and she didn't smile softly when the credits started to roll.

Eventually though she turned to look at him again and gave him one of the largest smiles he'd seen on her face in a long time.

"Sometimes it happens in real life too." That made him go mushy so quickly he couldn't stop the slight slump his shoulders did or the little soppy grin the crept up on his face.

"Yeah. Sometimes it does dreamcatcher." He half grinned when she crossed her legs and rotated towards him, sideways on the couch and closer than she'd been since … well since Paris which worked because that had been where the whole image of her hovering over his bed slaying his nightmares for him had started and that was all kinds of nice because if she was slaying then there had to be leather involved and he was pretty sure she'd look even better than Kate Beckinsale in Underworld did in leather. And boy had there been a hot sex scene in there and back to freaking real world Anthony Dinozzo. Her voice helped tug his brain back inside his head.

"Dreamcatcher?"

"New nickname. I thought I'd try it out. Suits you I think." The hand wave thing in front of her face that he'd been envisioning earlier made him grin and brought his brain more firmly home; it was just like he'd imagined actually. Weird.

"Explain." He rolled his eyes.

"You catch the nightmares Ziva. My own personal dreamcatcher." And that was certainly more personal that she'd expected because she looked sort of taken aback and pleasantly surprised all at once. He waited the shock out though and was rewarded with a sort of accepting nod.

"Oh."

"Oh." There wasn't really much else to say, and for once in his life he didn't try and push the silence into corners and crowd it with words that didn't really mean anything and just made noise anyways. Because for once, he found that he didn't really mind the silence all that much; they'd always been pretty damn good at talking without talking anyways.


[] See? As I said, fluff. Collective awww, andddd now we're done. :) I think the next chapter may be somewhat depressing just as a head's up. We must go backwards before we go forwards. Review if you're so inclined to. Which rhymes. Delightful.