Thanks to: Angel , KB22, SpecialAgentJethro , Cam, Tinkerbellblu83 for their reviews!

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V

After that first evening together, organized because he had been asked for a dinner without expectations, they met other times. At the beginning Gibbs had been taken aback by his desire to renew his acquaintance with Tony after so long, especially considering the circumstances they had first met. This was no old buddy of his days at Camp Pendleton. This was the guy he had paid to fuck during one of the darkest times of his life. It was weird to want to be friends with Tony—yet it was exactly what Gibbs wanted, so he went for it.

The former Marine was a solitary kind of guy, meaning he didn't like to go in crowded places where he was obliged to dress and behave in certain way, to talk and be entertaining, and preferred his quiet home to bars and restaurants. But he liked to have company and Tony turned out to be just the kind company Gibbs favoured. He didn't ask stupid questions, didn't make even more stupid suggestions, and in general he knew when the older man wanted to talk or when he wanted to be left alone.

Gibbs enjoyed their dinners together. He liked to cook, but only if he had someone to share the meal with, and Tony was always appreciative of his culinary efforts, especially of his grilled 'cowboy style' steak, as the younger man called it.

After dinner, they sometime went down to the basement, where they talked a bit as Gibbs worked on some of his projects while Tony looked, or they watched a movie or a game, depending on what was available on his cable-less TV. Once or twice, they even played cards, which proved to be very engaging, for they were both good at bluffing at poker.

However, it soon became apparent there was an area where neither of them was good at bluffing: their feelings for each other. The liking was mutual...but it wasn't clear what either of them wanted from the other. Did they want just friendship or something more? Gibbs had caught some vibes suggesting they might both want to be more than friends, but neither of them had done the first step so far, uncertain of how the other would react.

The past between them, instead of smoothing things and removing the awkwardness two men might feel when they discover they feel attraction, but don't know if the other swings that way, made things more complex. It weighed heavily on them, and neither of them seemed inclined to talk about it. Gibbs because there wasn't really much to say about those hellish weeks, and he hated to talk about his past in general. As for Tony, maybe he didn't want to remember the time he had sold his body for money. Maybe they just wanted to start clean—because they were starting something, although Gibbs didn't know what it was.

Gibbs hadn't been upset by the rekindling of his attraction to the other man. While it was true he had never shown any interest for other men in the years before and after meeting Tony, he wasn't bothered to discover the younger man still was the exception to his heterosexuality. He took the new – or was it old? - development in stride and went on with his life. As a guy who had been hurt too many times – his break up with Hollis Mann, after he had thought he had finally found someone able to be happy with what he could give them, had been a bad blow—he was very cautious. As a man in his fifties who was no longer prey of raging hormones and his dick, he was also wise enough to understand sex wasn't everything.

He liked to spend time with Tony, someone who wasn't another LEO or former Marine, was always able to cheer him up, and was good company even when they ended up reading magazines sitting at the opposite ends of his couch.

His awkward teenager years long behind him, Gibbs was now very assertive in the matters of the heart. If someone interested him, he made his move and then watched what happened. But this time he couldn't just follow his attraction; he didn't want to jeopardize a potentially great friendship.

After all, Gibbs was well aware that none of his romantic relationships, except the one with Shannon, had lasted more than his friendship with Mike, Ducky or Abby. So he should probably settle for having Tony just as a friend and forget all about his attraction.

-x-

Tony watched amused as Jethro tried to hit the small golf ball with the club, but ended up only hitting the air. Truly golf wasn't a past time suitable for the former Marine.

"You must bend your knees a bit more and twist your torso like...this," Tony said, giving a demonstration and sending his own ball to land near the flag marking the hole. "See?"

Gibbs grumbled, positioned himself, swung his club...and dug a hole into the grass. The scorned expression on his face made Tony laugh, and Jethro threw him a murderous glance.

"Yeah, keep laughing...Wonder if you'll be still so cheerful when it looks like this piece of grass has been assaulted by a hoard of moles," the older man growled.

"Come on, Jethro, where is your sense of humour? It's nice for us common mortals to discover there is something a big, bad Marine turned Federal Agent isn't good at. However, since I don't want to see my golf course reduced like a piece of Emmenthal Cheese, I've a proposal for you. What if we forgot about golf and we go to try the pool? Did you bring your swim trunks?"

"Yeah, I did. I may be older than you, but I'm not deaf and my memory works well," Gibbs retorted, trying and failing again to hit the golf ball.

"Gee, I must remember not to tease you. Now let's go and change."

They left their golf clubs to the caddies and returned to the hotel building in amicable silence. Once there, they went to their respective rooms to change, agreeing to meet each other in the corridor in ten minutes.

Alone in his room, Tony took a moment for a long, deep calming breath. Going to the pool with Gibbs had been his plan all along. As a matter of fact, it was the main reason he had invited the older man to spend a weekend with him at his resort in Virginia Beach.

The past couple of months had been among the happiest of his life. He and Jethro had seen each other often, having dinner together, going to see a couple of games and, one weekend, they had gone sailing on the boat Gibbs had built with his bare hands. That trip had been a wonderful time. The older man had been relaxed, ready to joke, happy to be on the sea—and Tony had fallen in love with him again. Or maybe he had never fallen out of love, and all he needed was to stoke again the fire that had been dormant under the ashes.

Tony knew it was love and not just lust. He didn't dream just of steamy sex, but also of the warm kisses Gunny had never given him, of cuddling together in front of the fireplace, of walks hand in hand on the beach. He wanted all of it: the steamy sex, the kisses, the cuddles and the walks—but he wasn't sure about what Gibbs wanted.

Tony knew Jethro liked him and spending time together. He was aware the older man didn't do anything out of simple politeness or correctness...if he did, he would probably be the NCIS director by now. Gibbs did things he didn't like out of duty and seeing Tony in his free time wasn't among them. But did he want more than friendship or not?

While talking with the older man, Tony had said more than once he was good at reading people, and it was true—but apparently not with Leroy Jethro Gibbs. The guy was very difficult to read. The more personal or private the matter, the more difficult it was to gauge what he really felt or thought. That made things terribly frustrating for Tony, who wished to know where he stood with Gibbs. Could he hope for something more, or should he just be grateful for what he had—because Jethro wasn't a man who gave his friendship easily, and given their past, that was a lot more many people could ever hope to get?

In the end, the need to know had pushed Tony to make the decision to act, but in a subtle way, one that wouldn't cause irreparable damages if things didn't go as he hoped.

His plan required for Gibbs to see the tattoo Tony still had on his left hip, the one he had got while Gunny had been away on a mission, but which he had never seen. The tattoo Tony had never gotten removed, in the same way he had never thrown away the creased photo he still kept in his drawer.

By the way Gibbs would react to the sight of tattoo, Tony hoped to understand what the older man thought of it...and him.

So the whole weekend at the resort had been orchestrated to get both of them in the swimming pool, where Tony would have been able to show Gibbs his tattoo, in a way that was much nicer than simply asking Jethro if he could use his bathroom and then walk out with his jeans still open and his briefs low on his hips. Tony had been a whore, yes, but he was also a romantic, and if the tattoo would cause the reaction he hoped for, well, the indoor pool would be a perfect place for their...reunion.

And now the moment had come. A few minutes more and he and Gibbs would be in the pool, which Tony had reserved for their personal use because he didn't want anyone in the way, and he would finally know.

His palms were sweating as the changed in his red swim trunks, chosen for how they perfectly left his tattoo uncovered. Tony put on his bathrobe, briefly crossed his fingers, and then left the room.

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HA-HA! Little cliffie! Will Tony's plan work? How will Gibbs react? Let me know what you think and remember reviews make me update faster!