Chapter 7: Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions (Dalai Lama)
The God of Mischief once more sighed as he brooded over the construction plans Thor had delivered a few days ago. The reconstruction of the Bifrost apparently was hindered by only one thing – the incompetence of Asgard's engineers and constructors.
Thor seemed to hope that he of all people would know how to even read the millennia old parchment, and wasn't it sad that the only smart person the God of Thunder could come up with was his estranged not-brother? The puppy-dog please-little-brother unfortunately still worked (and Thor actually also worked on mending their strained relationship), so he grouchily had started puzzling the pieces together, spreading everything out on the floor of the kitchen/living room of the Penthouse that the inhabitants of the upper 10 floors of Stark tower were sharing. He would never admit that he hoped for Anthony to come by chance and maybe help. He was a mage, for the Norn's sake, a strategist, maybe a warrior, definitely a trickster.
What he was not was a universal genius. He had no clue how to read the plans.
The genius at hand had only briefly glanced on the different pieces of parchment during his inevitable coffee run and had started rearranging a few of them which had obviously been in the wrong order, completely forgetting about going for either coffee or back to his workshop.
Well. At least now the connections within the machine connected and did not end in the middle of nowhere. Still, Loki continued brooding over it, while the mortal engineer started enthusing about the genius mind that had cooked up this machine. They numbered the single pieces, had J.A.R.V.I.S. digitize everything, and then went on by identifying the power source.
Loki only realized hours later when the inventor had long since begun to explain things to him in a way that the God could refer to the construction workers before getting up and regretfully telling him that he had to leave, that it had been quite some time since they had spent this much time together.
The Demigod invested a lot of time lately researching Thanos, trying to find a weak spot, appoint of attack to defend this planet… every realm against the Mad Titan.
Anthony was… to be honest, he did not really know what the mortal was doing all the time. The lovely Miss Potts appeared to own a lot of his time, being rewarded with a continuous flow of new inventions and enhancements to products Stark Industries was already selling.
The rest of his days he spent with Bruce and Loki, sharing lunch, discussing Avengers business, chatting about their daily life, before leaving before dinner.
And now the God tried to remember when was the last time the engineer had spent a night in the tower, asking himself what had made him back off.
Taking a sip from his cup that was holding the rest of some lukewarm coffee he sighed, unaware that the other person in the room was watching him for quite a while now.
"Everything alright, Loki?" Bruce was preparing dinner, every now and then glancing at their resident Asgardian who seemed to be in a mood. He'd been nursing the same cup of coffee for most of the afternoon now, something that caused a mild smile on the physicist's face. He still remembered Loki's first encounter with coffee… or, well… the coffee-flavored acid Tony was drinking. It had been hilarious, Tony had warned him and offered to brew something milder, but Loki insisted. They had needed a lot of milk and sugar to achieve something remotely drinkable… for somebody with an iron stomach. Bruce was pretty sure that J.A.R.V.I.S. was controlling the coffee-maker by now and serving Loki something that deserved the name coffee and would not melt his stomach.
Bruce rather stayed with his tea.
"Why, yes, Bruce… I am simply trying to figure out how to explain all of this to Asgard's constructors… I wish I could take J.A.R.V.I.S. and Anthony's holograms with me… it is so much easier than having all that parchment."
His roommate with the long dark hair just briefly looked at him, before turning his attention back to said holograms. Bruce just continued smiling when he turned back to his task of preparing dinner.
Loki would prefer taking his Anthony with him, but didn't have the balls to ask.
Tony obviously interpreted Loki's shy behavior as disinterest and backed off. He'd dialed down the flirting and innuendoes lately, and also the time he spent around the young God. During the week, they saw each other on most days, except for when Tony was on a business trip, at least sharing lunch, something which Bruce secretly appreciated – he liked Tony, but the engineer could be really exhausting sometimes with all his energy, his ideas, his… rather sloppy idea of personal space...
The physicist was not used to people, years of having to hide from General Ross having him turn into a hermit – and he was even less used to people who chose to spontaneously hug him every once in a while. The Hulk seemed to approve of those gestures of affection, but he loved Tony, anyway, even though Bruce was not quite sure whether his alter ego saw the engineer as a friend or an amusing pet.
Loki's subtle pining was rather cute, though. For Bruce it felt as if they were living in a soap opera, with the Demigod not even knowing that he had a crush on the other man.
He never would've thought that he was a soap-opera fan, and now he was living one…
Gibbs let his gaze stray to the empty desk across their office space. DiNozzo had announced his vacation two weeks ago, and made it exceptionally clear that he would go, no matter which case they caught. They had enough TADs who could step in for him, and Gibbs would have to deal with it.
The older agent had not known what to answer other than "okay". His SFA had stopped justifying what he did to anyone in the team, especially when no justification should be needed. He did not even need to say that he would go to Vance should Gibbs deny his request.
And Vance was pretty keen on his agents also using their paid vacation days or mandatory rest after cases that kept them in the office 24/7. He was adamant about having Tony at the award ceremony, though, talking the young man into joining by giving him another day off.
Dorneget was still on sick leave, Ziva was still doing FLETC training, and her reports were not that promising. He had known that she was no team player before, but that she was too stubborn and mulish to take the chance and learn something new had him contemplating whether he wanted to keep her on the team.
That left the remainder of the team with cold cases. Or… it left him with cold cases and a Probie that was so nervous around him that they couldn't have a normal conversation
He did have problems with McGee, and he was quite sure that those were not new ones. The kid was at least 15 years younger than Gibbs, and gasping for air like an arthritic retiree when he attempted running after a suspect. Gibbs with his bad knee was faster, even though Tony was doing most of the running, anyway. Not to mention the fact that the business end of the computer specialist's gun rarely pointed exactly into the direction he wanted it to point in. He had checked whether the little computer genius actually hit the gun-range, finding the answer to why he managed to qualify every single time.
McGee favored the modern version of gun range. No real bullets, no real recoil, almost like a computer game… and no clue how a real gun felt.
Thus, Gibbs felt like leading a kindergarten lately, Ziva bitching about everything, expecting him go get her out of FLETC training when she desperately needed it. McGee bitching about having to do his work – that he still could not leave all the techno babble out of his reports three months after Tony had stopped correcting them actually made him really angry and return the reports even when he would have accepted them before Vance had taken over.
His third problem child bounced into the bullpen just now. Abby's unprofessional behavior always had benefitted the MCRT, while the other teams were suffering under her favoritism, being put on hold until she was done with their stuff.
Vance had hired a second forensic specialist because of that – and Abby had tried bullying her out of her lab almost immediately. Then she had pouted because Dr. Elinor Akselsen not only received the new lab that was planned anyway without having to share for now, but also would be the one heading it once Abby's lab in the basement would undergo a very much needed renovation and modernization.
She also had pouted that after her dawdling with the analysis of the stuff DiNozzo and Dorneget had found at their crazy psycho Mom's house, Tony consulted Akselsen when he was calling the shots, actually becoming friends with the middle-aged woman of Norwegian origin. Gibbs had watched him joke with the woman, flirting, laughing. And turning back to the no-nonsense persona he decided to create to cope with all the bullshit his team was aiming at him.
And he did not know how to deal with this behavior from any of his subordinates – Tony had always dealt with any team sensibilities, at least all the times he could remember. On some occasions his memories concerning the younger man were still fuzzy, no matter how long he'd been back from Mexico now. The younger man raised some weird mixed feelings in him, somewhere between wanting to take care of him, so close the feelings he'd had for Kelly the moment he learned he would be a father… and lusting after him, something that freaked him out – he'd never had that kind of feelings for another man!
Abby made sure he remembered everything about her, regaling him with tons of tales. In the end, it had amused him, and he was still fond of her, but her behavior lately was something he might have to call her out on. McGee still was nervous around him. When the young man had started stuttering a few weeks ago when Gibbs had been exceptionally hard on him, he remembered how Tony had tried to toughen their Probie, managing to achieve that he at least was not fainting around their lead agent.
Ziva had told him that she saved his live, shooting her own brother, and that he owed her.
Ducky had shown him the cold shoulder, making him work for gaining his friendship back.
And Tony? Tony had had so many other problems when Gibbs was gone, and when he came back the older man just made everything worse. All in all, he remembered Kate Todd better than his second in command – mostly, because Abby also never shut up about her.
There were snippets and tiny episodes he remembered. He had found an OSU hoodie in his guest room, wondering why it was there until he learned that Tony had lived for a while in his house, first when he came to DC, later, when his flat had been uninhabitable in winter when the heating broke.
He had started reading old case reports, actually asked for DiNozzo's personnel file in HR, having Delores Bromstead glare at him in a way that made him want to run away. When he finally had read everything, he also knew why she looked at him like that.
Tony never corrected his colleagues when they belittled his education or his skills, and he was not sure whether it was a game between them or if he had given up correcting them. Actually, he wondered if his team mates even knew how qualified their SFA was. Except for seniority, he beat Gibbs in every other requirement for lead agent.
He actually contemplated looking up courses for team-management and mediation when Abby marched up to his desk, the inevitable Caf-Pow in hand, having to make her supply-runs by herself now since Gibbs refused to show any favoritism anymore.
"Heya Gibbs! Do you know where McGee is? I thought we'd go for lunch together, wanna join?"
He just looked at her neutrally, trying to figure out what this approach could mean. Was she trying to get back into his good graces? Did she even know why she had lost them? Why the heck did she think he didn't know where his agent was? He was the one allowing him to go for lunch, after all, trying to ignore the relieved look when he declined the offer of wanna join, boss?
"He already went. I already ate."
Abby's face fell slightly.
"Oh… okay… He's working pretty hard, lately. Just… just don't give him all the stuff Tony left, alright? He's working most evenings, and I miss my Timmy…"
Her confusion increased when Gibbs snapped a "What?!"
"Well… he's working so much lately, and he and Ziva have been doing most of his work anyway, so…" the scientist said, squirming under his glare.
"DiNozzo handed in all his reports before he left, and if anybody's been doing other people's work, it's Tony. David still needs a dictionary to correctly phrase a report, and McGee's writing instruction manuals for his computer instead of a case report. I don't know what put this bullshit idea of Tony being an incompetent idiot into your mind, but you know him as long as I do, and you better stop with this attitude. DiNozzo's the only one who knows what he's doing here, David and McGee are crappy investigators. You know why our solve rate dropped to 50% when he was not there? Because those two could not investigate themselves out of a corner! I did all the dangerous and hard cases, and left them everything that would not endanger anyone. They did not solve one single case. Guess where we're now? 94%. Not McGee's achievement, definitely not Ziva's, and your attitude also did not help! So you better change that, or I'll make sure that other things are changed!"
He didn't know how much he had been holding in until he finally exploded. Abby looked at him, her eyes filling with tears, her face still showing confusion and hurt – confusion, because this rant may have been the longest conglomeration of sentences Leroy Jethro Gibbs had ever said. Hurt, because she was at the brunt end of his anger.
"B-but, Gibbs…"
He just glared at her.
"I think you better leave now, Miss Sciuto."
She did exactly that, not knowing what to answer to this version of Gibbs who did not coddle her, while he tried to ignore the stage-whispered "Finally!" by Balboa behind the divider.
After staring into nowhere for a while he called Cynthia, taking off the rest of the day. He would shoot McGee if he had to deal with him right now.
Dino watched the man sleeping right next to him. All those years when he had to show up early in the office had primed his internal clock to wake up early enough to not be chewed out by Gibbs because he was half a minute late. He did this sometimes; sitting in bed and watching T sleep. It might be creepy, but after hearing that his best friend had suffered not only from PTSD, but also was having nightmares of flying into the portal and seeing the Chitauri army there, he sometimes watched him, feeling somewhat proud that right next to him, T slept like a stone. Every. Single. Night.
It had gotten rather chilly during the nights in Long Island, making Dino fetch another woolen blanket that T was hogging in the moment, bunching it up and using it as something to rest his chest on as he slept on his side, taking some of the pressure off his reactor. Reaching out, the agent ran his fingers through the tuft of unruly brunet hair that was more or less the only thing visible of the person rolled into the other blanket.
After they had arrived two days ago, he had appropriately woken a still naked T in the morning, paying his debt to an initially sleeping man, having him moaning and panting in his sleep until Dino decided to really wake him up by assaulting his prostate as he gently stretched his boyfriend's hole. After all, an actively participating lover was rather favorable for the great sex they shared. And what great sex they had…
Now, T sighed at his touch, burying his nose in the soft blanket, making Dino smile. The moment the thermometer had dropped, T had wrapped up in his silk pajamas and wore socks in bed while Dino died of a heatstroke only thinking about the additional layers of clothing and continued sleeping in his birthday suit. But then… he'd never had to survive in a cave in Afghanistan, and would've never believed how cold it could be there until T had told him about those three months.
Those three months also were the reason that shower-sex was a no-go. Washing his hair was already hard enough after being waterboarded, and the NCIS agent did understand that water in his face was something T would rather avoid.
They had taken a stroll through Sag Harbor after lazing around in bed and a quick shower, going for lunch and then catching up on their visit to the cinema, before buying a few supplies for dinner and going for a walk in the park. T had commented that it felt like they were an old married couple, all boring and lame.
Both of them had enough action going on in their life that boring and lame was really appreciated. So they kept going, holding hands, giving in to the urge to kiss every once in a while, eventually reaching the beach, trudging through the sand, actually discussing the kitchen shelves, if they should change the living room setup because somehow the window and the tv were lining up and if the sun was shining in in a disadvantageous angle, you couldn't see a thing.
Kate the fish and her new companion Yinsen would get a bigger aquarium and a J.A.R.V.I.S.-controlled feeding automate rather than having to depend on the food-for-a-week blocks.
It started raining about ten minutes from their cottage, and both of them were wet to the bones and shivering when they finally reached the house, sharing a shower to warm up, and then bundling up in warmer clothes.
Dino had just started on dicing up onions when T entered the kitchen in Dino's black cashmere turtleneck. The sleeves were a bit too long, only T's fingertips were visible, but otherwise he was filling the pullover rather nicely, showing off all the muscles in his upper body. Almost letting go of the knife (and almost dicing off one of his fingers when catching it) Dino ogled his boyfriend, appreciating the way his jeans hugged his hips, smiling as his socked feet patted into the kitchen, moving up to Dino and closing his arms around him from behind, resting his forehead against the taller man's back.
"Hmmm… you're warm…"
Dino smiled, returning to his task.
"My pullover suits you", he then said.
"It's soft", T answered, not changing his position, his hands firmly staying above the belt. Well, they'd already figured out that feeling the other one up and sharp knives did not match well.
"I really like the way you look in it… in a keep the pullover on while I fuck you, ass in the air, on the sofa kind of way." Dino's voice dropped an octave as he told this phantasy to T, who groaned his approval in return. The engineer still did not move.
"Can we eat first? I'm hungry from all the walking. I have a driver for a reason, you know?"
Dino laughed at that, affirming that yes, they would eat first, and also would clean up afterwards to appeal to T's need of having everything in its place.
But after they were done with that, he did use his larger frame to his advance, doing exactly what he had promised, never before having felt that urge to kiss, and feel, and own, simply because someone was wearing his clothes. He'd never have thought that this was a turn-on for him, to be honest. When Wendy had been wearing his shirts to bed he was rather annoyed, mentally labeling these shirts as hers because she was filling them in all the wrong ways, shoulders too narrow, her breasts leaving weird dents…
Huh… might have been a clue already back then that she was not the one…
Dino still smiled, his fingers once more caressing over T's hair before he got out of bed, actually putting on some clothes and socks, because it was really a bit chilly.
Realistically, both of them knew that their honeymoon period would end sooner or later – they still were jumping each other's bones the moment they were in the mood, but that would not last forever. They'd had their little disagreements already before they became a couple, but the important stuff was discussed before any of them could work up any resentment. Their last really big fight had been ages ago when Dino had unintentionally broken one of T's inventions. They had been 8 or 9, the argument had ended in tears, and the boys had decided that they were smarter than that.
Well… they would enjoy any phase of their relationship, as long as it felt good.
T was woken by the smell of coffee and breakfast, briefly contemplating to ignore the angelic odors and stay in his warm cocoon.
When the bed dipped right next to him, he at least chose to turn around, being greeted by a smiling Dino and a tray with breakfast.
"You're spoiling me" he smiled as he sat up, wiping the sleep out of his eyes and reaching for the cup that contained the dark fuel of his life.
Dino simply smiled back, receiving a kiss that tasted of T's acid-coffee that he had diluted for himself with water, creamer, sugar, and the hazelnut crap Gibbs despised so much.
"I left you the kitchen to clean up", he then grinned, having T laugh as the agent scooted in under the blanket with him and placed the tray on their legs.
As they continued eating, both couldn't help the smiles on their face.
Being happy was actually quite easy when you did not allow anybody to interfere.
