A/N: Thanks for the kind words!

Fake Perceptions

Gibbs had been fiddling with his cell phone for ten minutes or so when his doorbell finally rang. Slightly startled why anyone would actually ring it and not just come in, he realized that Tony didn't know that yet.

"It's open," he called out and was soon faced with the younger man standing in his doorway.

He was wearing comfy looking jeans and a button-down and Gibbs felt instantly glad that he wasn't underdressed as he was wearing almost the same – of course his clothes were probably a couple hundred of dollars cheaper.

"You ready?" Tony asked in lieu of a greeting.

"Sure," Gibbs answered and then grabbed his keys, following Tony out the door.

He walked a few steps and then let out a whistle as he took a look at the car that was standing in the driveway. It was a green old Mustang, if Gibbs had to guess, he'd say from the 1960s. Despite it being an old car, it looked like it was brand new and Gibbs didn't want to know how much money it had needed in order to get it look like that. For a second, he stopped short as he realized that this was really the first thing he had seen that really screamed money when it came to Tony. For someone who had that much of it Tony was surprisingly humble. Gibbs subtly shook his head as he started walking again – had really all of his prejudices that he had had against Tony in the beginning been exactly that? Prejudices?

"What's wrong?" Tony asked him as he was already halfway on his way to get into his car.

"Nothing," Gibbs grinned. "You've got a really nice car, that's all."

"I know, right? I've dreamed of this baby since I was about six when I first watched this Steve McQueen movie. 'Bullit'? You've ever seen it?"

"Don't know," Gibbs shrugged as he got into the car next to Tony. "Not really a movie kind of guy."

Tony raised an eyebrow as he started the car and backed out of the driveway.

"So that's why it took you so long to figure out who I was the first time we met?"

Gibbs chuckled at the self-deprecating voice before he answered. "Guess so. Though it didn't take me as long as you think. I knew I'd seen you before but I was internally going through all the feebs I know. And after I realized who you were I didn't want to give you the impression you are anybody important."

Tony laughed at that, shaking his head. "You didn't like me very much, did you?"

"No," Gibbs just said, earning himself a soft poke on his shoulder.

"What made you come around?" Tony asked after a while as he took a left turn onto the highway.

"I don't know," Gibbs shrugged. "You just weren't what you seemed at first."

"A pretty decent guy?" Tony checked back, humor clearly audible in his voice.

"You are," Gibbs replied emphatically.

"Good to know."

Silence reigned for a few minutes after that as Tony paid attention to the traffic and Gibbs checked out the car from the inside. It really was a great one and he would have admired a car like that as a kid if one just like it would have ever crossed a street in Stillwater.

"Where are we going anyway?" he finally asked, realizing that while the question had bothered him the whole day he had nearly forgotten all about it in the last couple of minutes.

"You'll see. It's not far."

A couple of minutes later Tony took another turn and then it was quite clear where he wanted to take the other man.

"We're going to watch a movie?"

"Yup, took me forever to find a decent movie in a drive-in theater. Hope you like 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'."

Gibbs turned to look at the other man and for a moment he could see the tension around Tony's eyes that eased when he answered with a simple "Yup."

They parked the car a little while later and just when Gibbs wanted to say something to cut the silence short, he realized that Tony was fiddling with the door handle of his car.

"I'll get us something to snack," Gibbs saved him from his dilemma. "What do you want?"

"Popcorn would be great. And a diet coke."

"A diet coke?" Gibbs replied sarcastically. "You sure?"

"Of course, Gibbs, you think this body," he gestured towards himself. "Just comes naturally? It's hard work."

Gibbs let out another laugh and then got going. Just when he thought he had figured Tony out, he threw him another curveball.

#

"Did you know," Tony all but whispered about half an hour into the movie. "That the real Butch Cassidy is only called Butch because he once worked as a butcher? Can't imagine why he didn't like to be called Robert Leroy. Do you?"

Gibbs let out a laugh as he gave Tony a slap upside the head. "Watch it, DiNozzo."

"What does your dad call you by the way?"

"Leroy," Gibbs answered. "Though if I had to choose, I'd prefer Jethro."

"I would, too. You insisted that these wives of yours call you Gibbs, too?"

"No, my first wife hated my first names just as much as I do. She only ever really called me Jethro when I was in trouble or she had something serious to talk about. The other three just didn't care what I thought. You've got everything from J to Leroy."

"I thought you said you were married three times."

Shit.

Gibbs turned towards the movie screen in front of them and closed his eyes for a moment, feeling his insides freeze. He hadn't slipped up like that in years. Hell, even Ducky and Abby didn't know about Shannon.

"Yeah, I said that," he finally answered slowly unable to come up with a convincing lie. He didn't think he could fool the guy next to him anyway.

Tony remained silent for a moment, his glance back at the movie, too. When he spoke again, his voice was almost soft as if he knew that Gibbs was suddenly torn inside.

"I guess you had a good reason to lie. I get that."

Gibbs turned to look at him. He could only make out his profile as he was still not looking in his direction. For a moment Gibbs wondered why Tony wasn't mad at him but then he realized that he really did understand. He didn't know why and how he was just so accepting, but he somehow jus was and Gibbs suddenly felt an unknown pull towards the younger man.

"Her name was Shannon," Gibbs finally started, the words haltingly coming out of his mouth because he wasn't entirely sure why he was even talking about her in the first place. "She was killed by a drug dealer in 1991."

At first Tony didn't look at him, just continued to watch the movie for a few moments. Gibbs could see him gulp and then nod before his eyes suddenly were on Gibbs.

"When I was eight, I went to see 'The little Prince' with my mom. As the theater wasn't far from our house, we walked. On the way back, there were two guys who threatened us with a knife so that we would give them our money. My mom did everything they told her to do but then there were sirens to be heard from somewhere and that one guy panicked. He stabbed her. She died two days later in the hospital."

Gibbs blinked. He was still staring at the other man. He had told the story almost emotionless but Gibbs was sure that it was a long practiced hiding mechanism. He didn't know what to say to that so he just remained silent as he brought his hand to Tony's shoulder and squeezed it softly.

"I'm sorry," he finally said knowing that it wasn't enough, but then again he was sure that Tony knew anyway, knew that if he could, he'd make it alright.

"Me, too," the younger man just said, his voice having gone soft. "About your wife, I mean."

Only now did Tony look at Gibbs again and his expression was so haunted that Gibbs only just held himself back from just hugging the man. But just when Gibbs wanted to say something – what exactly he wasn't all that sure – the look was gone.

"Do you notice how pale they all are?"

"Huh?" Gibbs asked at the non-sequitur, unable to follow Tony's train of thought.

"The people in the movie. Well, except for Paul Newman and Robert Redford."

Gibbs turned to look at the screen again, taking the diversion for what it was. Why did the guy always do that, though? Whenever he let something slip or whenever he just seemed to say something important, he just changed topics. Gibbs was hardly one to talk, though. He did the very same thing every time Abby was prying a little too deep into his personal life but Tony always seemed to want to talk only to stop doing it a moment later. But once more Gibbs let him because, well, he wasn't all too keen on talking about Shannon either after all. So he took a look at the actors on screen but couldn't really make out a difference between Paul Newman and the others.

"Why you're asking?" he said then, wondering if only Tony saw these things because he was an actor, too.

"They were all sick from Montezuma's Revenge. Only Newman and Redford had refused to drink the water in Mexico – that's where they shot the scenes that are playing in Bolivia. They only drank alcohol the whole time."

"Sound like my kind of guys," Gibbs replied grinning and he could see Tony next to him relax again as he grabbed for a handful of popcorn. "How on earth do you know that kind of stuff?"

"I'm interested in it," Tony shrugged. "I like knowing why the actors do what they do. It makes me better, too. When you pay close attention, you can sometimes see them actually read their lines from their hands or wherever they've planted their cheat sheet. It's fun."

"Hmm," Gibbs just made as he continued to watch the movie, noticing that Tony had finally settled again.

He felt himself lose some of his own tension, too. He didn't know what exactly it was about the other man but he didn't feel the need to elaborate on anything. He knew that Tony would have accepted it if he hadn't even told him anything about Shannon. He didn't know why he had done it in the first place, but with a start Gibbs realized that he hadn't met someone like that in a very long time. Someone who just listened and understood.

#

"So when do I get to see one of your movies?" Gibbs asked two hours later when he got out of the car.

They had watched the rest of the movie in relative silence, except for Tony's occasional input on one of the scenes. It was fun to watch, actually. He was like a kid at Christmas whenever he could tell a detail about the movie that Gibbs hadn't known before. It was great to see that a grown man could still be fascinated about something like that. It made Gibbs envy him.

"You ever see one?" Tony asked as he followed Gibbs up the driveway even though he had told him only minutes before that he had to get back to his apartment due to some conference call.

"Two," Gibbs replied as he stopped in front of the door that lead into his house. "I think it was 'Perfect Pursuit' and that one where you jump from the skyscraper at the very end."

"'The Innocent Man'. I hope you got the reference to the ending of 'Butch Cassidy' on that one."

"I did now," Gibbs grinned suddenly noticing the connection.

"Oh my," Tony laughed. "I guess you'd like the newest one. I'm a football player who wants to help out his friend who's in deep depth with the local gambling mafia. The others are just… dumb action movies? But we could watch that one if you wanted."

"Sure. Maybe you'll tell me when you were reading from the cheat sheets."

"I never do that," Tony grinned at him conspiratorially.

"Sure you don't," Gibbs laughed and was about to open the door when Tony spoke again.

"Hey, Gibbs?"

"Ye…?" he said as he turned around but before he could even finish the word, he felt Tony's lips on his own.

It didn't take particularly long and even if it had, Gibbs wouldn't be able to tell because he was too surprised, too stunned actually, to react to it. All he could feel were Tony's warm lips. It was over before he knew it and he couldn't even do as much as blink twice that Tony was already back in his car, speeding out the driveway. Gibbs stood there for a moment, watching the car drive down the street as he touched a finger to his lips.

What the hell?