"Why is it always a forest that they have to be in?" Ziva asked critically as she took another handful of popcorn.

Tony had decided that because it was October, he may as well stick to the whole spooky movie theme he seemed to have inadvertently started on their movie nights. Though, Ziva didn't seem to be too appreciative of his efforts. She was always scoffing at and critiquing the characters choices. Which, granted were stupid a lot of the time but it was a movie. They had to move the plot along somehow. She just didn't seem to see it that way.

"Because it's spooky, Ziva."

She snorted derisively.

"Forests are not spooky. They are trees."

"That hide the unknown," he tried to argue but Ziva wasn't having it.

"You can hide behind them but that does not make them scary. It would be scarier if someone jumped down from a tree not out from it."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Not everyone can climb trees like a ninja, you know."

"You would think that in movies they would because you can scare people easier."

"Not when you can scare people by just jumping out from behind a tree."

Why was he even arguing this?

"You should always expect someone to jump out behind a tree," she retorted. "Always be aware of your surroundings. Then it is not scary."

"Come on, you have to admit that being in a forest, split up from your friends would be really creepy! The shadows would be all spiky and weird. All the noises would freak you out, not knowing if something was coming for you..."

"I thought you said that in a horror movie something was always coming for you?"

"Yeah But the characters don't know that."

Another scoffing noise. She really wasn't appreciating this at all. Why could she not just sit back and watch the movie just as it was without any questions like a normal person? It really wasn't that deep.

"If I was alone somewhere dark where I could not see clearly then I would be aware of every little noise."

"Which is really creepy!"

Yeah, he wasn't letting this go any time soon. He had to get Ziva to appreciate this genre.
There was a pause as she thought about this, she even stopped eating her popcorn! Which he promptly tried to steal only to get his wrist grabbed and sharply twisted for his trouble. Yeah, he didn't know what he was thinking either.

"Well?" He asked impatiently, running his wrist.

That had hurt!

She shook her head. "Still not creepy."

"But you just said that you would be aware of every noise which means it would be creepy."

"Something to be aware of," she corrected.

"Not creepy."

"Those are the same thing."

"They are two separate things."

"You seriously wouldn't think that all those little noises wouldn't be creepy in a dark forest?"

He didn't care how much of a big, bad ninja you were. You were going to find that crazy no matter what type of person you were!

She shook her head. "No. I would not. I would make sure I kept listening to them just so I would be aware of what was happening around me."

"Because you would be scared!"

That got him an extremely ferocious glare. He actually recoiled a bit.

"I do not get scared," she told him firmly.

All he could do was nod vigorously at that. It wasn't like he was going to argue, that would obviously be very bad for his health. He wasn't stupid, after all.

"Of course you don't. You're a ninja."

At least she looked satisfied at that. Phew. Close shave.

"But other people do," he felt like he had to add

"Which is fine," Ziva told him. "People are allowed to be scare bit that does not mean that you should expect me to be scared."

Tony shrugged. "Fair enough. Can you just watch the movie now?"

"As long as you don't expect me to be scared."

"Fine then."

With that be grabbed the remote to unpause it. And then he realised that they had paused it too late because of their arguing and had to rewind. Once that was all sorted they settled back into the sofa.

Tony didn't know why he expected Ziva to have a normal reaction to a scary movie, she didn't have normal reactions to typical movies, but apparently he had. That was a mistake. He may as just sit back, enjoy the movie and watch Ziva just like he normally did. Even if she wasn't scared it should be still worth watching her reactions. He tried not to analyse too much why he would want her to be scared. There was a movie to watch.

There was not a movie to watch.

Compeltely fed up, Tony reached for the laptop and paused the movie.

"Hey!"

"You have no appreciation for this fine art," he said with a sniff.

"Because it does not make any sense! These characters are not making any sense!"

"Because they don't know what you know, Ziva," he tried to explain this again.

But all that got him was a rather explosive snort.

"You have all this training," he tried a different tact.

She shook her head. "You do not need any sort of specialised training to know that it is incredibly stupid to go for a walk in the forest in the middle of the night. That is just common sense."

"That not a lot of people have," he pointed out and she begrudgingly agreed. They saw enough prove of that on their cases. "Also that wouldn't make a good movie."

"This hardly makes it a good movie."

He sighed again and rubbed a hand over his face. Just how was he supposed to explain this to her?

He decided not to and to make a valiant effort to get to the end of the movie instead.

"We are never watching a horror movie like that again," Tony vowed as the credits began to play half an hour later.

"Oh, I do not know," Ziva said with this mischievous sparkle in her eye. "I quite enjoyed it."

He resisted the urge to dump the remaining popcorn all over her.