ornaments & all those other glitters
An NCIS oneshot
by mew-tsubaki
Note: The NCIS characters belong to Donald P. Bellasario, not to me. Art I did for a different, previous (unrelated XD) oneshot led to this sweet Parknight hc, so I had to write it. :3c Read, review, and enjoy!
- ^-^3
"Y'know, if Girls' Night weren't sacred, I'd invite you in a heartbeat," Knight said as she rocked her wineglass in one hand, the liquid swirling around inside, and clicked through the TV channels with her other.
Parker did that endearing scoff-chuckle of his beside her on Knight's lumpy (but still lovable) couch. He shook his head and inched the arm slung behind Knight closer, practically tucking her in to his side. "Nah, that's for you and Kasie. I'm not gonna ruin the good thing you two have going already."
She paused long enough on a commercial to quirk an eyebrow at him. Had it been any other night, she might prod him a little for sounding like his early self, first joining the team and not thinking of himself as one of them. But Knight sighed. She didn't want to waste a single minute of tonight. "Well, I am sorry that date night at home turned out to be…kind of a dud," Knight said with a self-deprecating laugh.
"Hardly. We got out of the office early enough to cook together—"
"You act as if I were good enough to be your sous chef, Mr. I-Can-Do-Anything-If-It-Interests-Me."
"—and we ate that delicious dinner together." Parker shrugged. "So there's nothing interesting playing in theaters right now and nothing on TV to watch. Every decade, there are more channels, but still the same problem remains." He smirked.
She matched that expression with a grin and laughed again. "True!" But Knight eyed the shelves around her television display. "…also really wishing right now I collected more than random junk from my travels. Still can't believe the only DVD I have in its proper case is a cartoon belonging to my sister's kids from I don't even remember when."
Parker tried to stifle it, but his chuckle was more genuine this time, and his whiskered dimples gave him away when Knight swatted at him and stood to pop into her kitchen to top off her glass. "It won't always be like this, relegated to dates at either of our places. Our workload will lighten at some point, Jess."
"I know, I know," she said as she returned to her spot. She put her glass on the coffee table and slumped against her silver fox. "We'll have full weekends back hopefully soon, not just Sundays at best after maybe a partial day on Saturdays…" Knight huffed, but there was enough irritation behind it that the noise was guttural.
"Time for TV violence to alleviate that stress?"
"Yes, please."
Parker helpfully took over the channel-surfing while Knight snuggled close in an effort to better her mood. Still, they were back to square one, so once they'd cycled through the channels, he asked her, "All right, we're down to the usual suspects—true crime or the history channel?"
"I know we just discussed bringing you in on Wine and Misdemeanor, but…"
"Let's check in with the Visigoths then." Parker pecked the top of her head and blinked as the program came back from commercial. "…or not. It's the ancient weapons show instead."
Knight brightened at that. "Ooh. Repeat?"
"Looks like. It's one of the defense specials. Helmets and shields, those kinds of things."
Knight shrugged. "Still worth watching. Honestly, I'd love to carry some of these things on me, especially the different kinds of blades. Super useful when coming up against some suspects these days."
Parker settled her with a sideways stare. "…you talk of blades, but you were pretty handy with a staff alone, disarming a suspect ages ago when the Raven first arrived on our radar."
She sat up some then, preening at the attention and the memory. "It was only the handle I broke off a discarded broom in the alley."
"Jess, he had a knife. And you literally knocked him off his feet and the breath from his lungs for a moment."
"Then I guess it's a good thing shows like this got me interested in archaic things like working with a staff, huh?" She grinned at the eye roll he gave her, and she sipped her wine as a historic portrayal played while one of the program's regular historians narrated a history of Roman soldier equipment in comparison to the Britons'. Seeing the actors portraying Romans reminded her of another item from ages ago, though, and she patted Parker's scruffy cheek. "Though one thing those soldiers got wrong was the clean-shaven look. I definitely prefer you ruggedly handsome, Alden."
Parker rubbed his brow in exasperation, but his smirk was back, albeit tiny. "And I never would've known about that exchange between you and Torres if you hadn't told me yourself."
She shrugged and knocked back the rest of her wine, though her cheeks were already aflame from the memory, both of confronting her friend and of telling Parker about it at a later, more intimate date. "Can't help it. It's just fun to confide in you," she teased, and she got up a second time to rinse her glass and leave it with the other dishes in her (thanks to Parker) mostly empty sink.
But when she went back to the living room to catch the last half hour of the defense special, she halted, because there was definitely something on her coffee table now that hadn't been there two minutes ago.
The item was a vinyl box, black, square, and a hair bigger than "small." Knight walked around the arm of the couch slowly, even rested one hand on it, and turned her head Parker's way, slowly enough that she thought she heard her neck creak. "Alden"—she locked eyes with him—"what's that?"
Parker held her gaze for two heartbeats before nodding at the item. "It's for you, Jess. You can open it."
She hesitated a second longer. It wasn't that alarm bells had gone off in her head, but she'd all but frozen, given what could be inside—and they had never talked about those sorts of things—and she and the team knew plenty about the skeletons in his closet, but she had yet to dust off all hers to put on display for him and—
He reached out and touched the hand she had clawing her couch's poor arm. Parker raised his eyebrows as he stared up at her. "Jess, really. It's just a…small something. That's all."
Ah. Okay. So he understood. Knight took half a second to appreciate that Parker understood where her panic had taken her, the other half to be embarrassed that she'd let her emotions pull her every which way just now, and she made a mental note that…perhaps they would need to have That Talk™ at some point. But not today. So Knight settled beside him once more and picked up the box and opened it. She blinked and gasped at the shiny pendant inside. "Oh, my— Alden, it's beautiful."
Knight caught out of the corner of her eye one of Parker's softer smiles. "I'm glad you think so. Not a lot of places have stock like that, so…"
Knight traced her finger over the rose gold circle on a delicate, matching rose gold chain. Inlaid was a smaller, silver circle, set amidst what seemed to be a silver plus. On each arm of the plus were tiny…diamonds? Crystals? It might even have been how the silver itself was cut, so things glittered, but Knight didn't care. She loved it—especially because she recognized the design. She smiled at Parker. "It's a targe, isn't it?"
He nodded. He glimpsed at the TV just long enough to put it on mute before returning his attention to her. "I thought a shield of some sort would fit you, my protective better half."
That smile turned blinding, and she laughed as she plucked her present from its box. Then she handed Parker the pendant and drew her dark locks over one shoulder. "Help a lady out?"
Parker affixed the clasp behind her neck, but his fingers grazed the skin there while Knight let her hair fall back into place and she admired her surprise. "Date night at home no longer a dud?" he teased, that scoff-chuckle of his back.
"I misspoke. It never is with you," Knight breathed against his lips.
- ^-^3
:3 SO. This and another WIP are my last ideas from April (then I have just a few left from early May to write). Originally, this would've been delayed until next week, but that other April idea is a) LONG and b) FIGHTING ME RN. GAH. Dx *save mew* On the bright side, this came rly easily, and I'm so happy to share some hcs here, primarily Knight donning this necklace! This pendant cropped up in the art I drew and used for the FFN cover for "A visit," and I knew then that I wanted to write about it, but I got to include a lot of nice passing deets here, too. ;3 The original premise stemmed from my noticing that Knight tends rarely to wear jewelry in the show, so… :3c (I think she'd wear this all the time, tho. ;D) Also, aside from lotsa refs to e13, "The Helpers," I wanna cite my pal, justtopostmyfic, for coining the descriptor "whisker dimples" (specifically in justto's AO3 story, "Parker's Whisker Dimples") for Parker bc that's SO DANG CUTE AND ACCURATE and I finally got to incorporate it in a fic…! X3 AhhhHHHH, I love them so much. TTwTT Also, not explaining Knight being a shield/protective in this fic bc I've done that in, like, nearly every other Parknight, *LOL*. It's basically canon. So enjoy this fluffy thing! Then come chat with me about them, pop over to the parknights tumblr, or even feel free to request a fic or art!
Thanks for reading, and please review! Check out my other NCIS fics if you liked this. And, as with my other NCIS fics, show your support via tumblr with a reblog~
-mew-tsubaki -w-