A/N: Welcome! Enjoy a series of one-shot, unrelated drabble fics about kisses, hugs and other moments of tenderness between our favourite NCIS team members (I haven't watched enough of the new crew to get a feel for them yet.) Some will be romantic, others platonic, and hopefully a couple (if my muse plays nice) just plain awkward.
Pairing/Setting: Tiva & Tali (is that Tivali?)
Set post-S.17, after Ziva has reunited with Tony and Tali in Paris. Tali would be getting close to 7, I guess.
Tag for Flufftober 2022, Day 20 - Bedtime Stories
The Ninja And The Spy - A Tony, Ziva & Tali One-Shot
Tony gave an exaggerated groan and stretched himself onto the bedspread, shifting an array of pillows and stuffed toys to make space. "Come on Tali, you gotta be tired by now?" Elsa's printed face creased beneath his weight as he propped himself on his elbow, studying his daughter with a fond smile.
"Nope," the honey-gold curls bounced when she shook her head. She was already tucked in, but her dark eyes were still wide and filled with energy. "Will you tell me a story?"
He heaved a playful sigh. "You drive a hard bargain young lady. We've already done a movie, a bubble bath, and warm milk, and now you want a story?"
"Yep," she giggled. "I want the one about the ninja and the spy."
"Yeah," he gave an indulgent, slightly reminiscent laugh. "That's my favourite too, settle in." He rolled to his back and raised his arm.
Tali snuggled in alongside him as she had done almost every night for the past six years. She rested her head on his chest and waited a moment while Tony pulled the comforter up a little higher, smoothing Princess Anna out over her body with gentle hands. "Ready," she announced, her fingers closing around a well-worn stuffed dog.
"Okay," Tony wrapped his arm around her, his fingers beginning to draw small soothing patterns on the arm that flopped across his chest. "Once upon a time, in the Land of Olive Trees, there lived a beautiful princess. Now, she wasn't the kind of princess you'd normally find in fairy tales, locked in a high tower and waiting for her knight in shining armour to come to her rescue. Oh no, she was a ninja princess. She was smart, kind, and brave. She was strong, fierce, and a better fighter than all the knights in the kingdom combined. Oh, and did I mention that she was very, very beautiful?"
Tali gave a little snicker from beneath his arm. "You did, Daddy," already her voice was taking on a sleepy, dreamy tone. Tony smirked and kept trailing his fingers over her arm.
"Well, one day the ninja was sent to The Land of Liberty, which was far, far away, to work on international relations. Because it's important that countries are friends as well as people, y'know?" she nodded again, more slowly. "In this new land, the ninja made friends. She met the aloof warrior with the heart of gold, the court jester, the quirky alchemist, the kindly healer, and even the village idiot. But most important of all, she met a devastatingly handsome spy. Now, not only was this spy really, really ridiculously good looking he was..."
Tali lifted her head, "Even better than James Bond?"
"Stop me if you've heard this already," Tony chuckled. He lay a kiss on her hair and waited till she'd nestled back down before continuing. "That's right, even better than James Bond. So the ninja and the spy spent a long time working together and became friends. Sometimes the jobs they had to do were scary, but of course, they were very brave. Other times, they had more fun. The spy showed the ninja his favourite movies, and the ninja taught him to cook and play the piano."
"Keep going," Tali encouraged with a yawn. Tony's fingers left her arm and moved to comb through her silky curls instead.
"The ninja and the spy worked hand in hand for almost eight years. But then tragedy struck. Right when it seemed like the ninja and the spy were about to realise that they were in love with each other, the ninja's father died. The ninja had to go back to her home country, where she became a ninja queen. The spy was very sad and missed his ninja, but he didn't know that while she was away, the ninja queen had a baby, a princess of her own."
"Tha... that's me, right?" another long yawn interrupted Tali's sentence.
Tony dropped his voice another notch and slowed his speech to match her breathing. "It sure is, Principessa. The ninja queen adored her daughter, and they were very happy living in the Land of Olive Trees. But being a ninja had its drawbacks, and sometimes she made enemies along the way. After a while, these enemies seemed too close. So the ninja made a difficult choice to send her princess daughter to the Land of Liberty to be with her father, the spy."
"You and Pop-Pop," Tali murmured.
"Uh-huh, shh..." he traced his finger down the bridge of her nose slowly, hypnotically. "Now the very handsome spy was surprised to learn that he had a beautiful princess daughter with his beloved ninja. But he was also very happy because this princess daughter also happened to be very, very beautiful, just like the ninja. For a long time, no one knew where the ninja queen had gone, and some even thought she was dead. But not the spy. He was too clever for that; the ninja was his one true love, and he knew he would find her again one day. Remember, he was even better than James Bond. But until that happened, he had his new princess to care for, and he took her travelling to see the world and learn about her mother."
Tali's head slumped forward but jerked upright again. "Finish the story," she mumbled.
"In time, the ninja princess returned to the Land of Liberty, where she had one last task; to protect the aloof warrior. They worked together to defeat her final enemies and to return a kidnapped villager to his rightful home," Tony continued. He shifted Tali's head ever so slowly from his chest to his shoulder. "With the last battle won, it was time for the ninja queen to find the spy and her princess again. By now, the spy and his princess were living in the Land of the Frog, because of all the places in the world, the City of Love was the ninja's favourite."
Tali grumbled as Tony eased his arm out from underneath her heavy head. "Daddy, do the hap'ly e'r after," she insisted sleepily, dark eyes struggling to stay open.
"You know it, Lady T. The ninja queen joined the handsome spy, and their beautiful princess daughter in the City of Love. The ninja was so happy to see her beautiful princess daughter again that she cried, and this part's a secret, but the spy cried too. This time, the ninja queen could stay with her family..." one more careful manoeuvre that had become fluid with years of practice, and Tali's head was on the pillow. "And the three of them lived happily ever after. Ani ohev otah, Tali. Laila Tov," he finished in a whisper. Her eyelids didn't even flutter when he brushed a kiss on her forehead.
"Your Hebrew is improving," Tony glanced up at the voice in the doorway to find Ziva leaning against the doorframe, watching the cosy scene with a smile.
"Hey," he lifted himself off the blankets carefully and joined her in the doorway. "It's my very own ninja queen."
"My very handsome spy," she returned, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "I am glad that story has a different ending now." Tony slipped an arm around her waist, and they both stood silently for a moment, simply watching their daughter sleep.
"So am I, Zi," he answered softly. "My ninja queen wife and our beautiful princess daughter; what else do I need for a happy ending?"
Ziva laughed quietly in response. He felt her move beside him, drawing something out from her jeans pocket. She lifted a small plastic wand into his line of sight, a vivid blue cross sitting front and centre.
"Perhaps a prince?"
A/N: Hebrew translation. "I love you. Good night."
Yeah, I know the "how I met your mother" as a fairy tale bedtime story is overdone, but it's just so, so cute, I couldn't help myself!
Hope you enjoyed it - please feel free to leave some love!
Much love, M xx
