Tony was trying to persuade her to do something, which, of course, meant that she was not doing it. One, because Gibbs would definitely not approve and two, there was nothing in it for her. Except to bicker with him which was quite fun.
"I'm telling you, Ziva, it's a good idea."
"It is not."
His ideas never were when they were on a case. On a case, his ideas were sometimes odd and fantastical but they usually had a point and sometimes furthered the case. Outside of cases, Tony's ideas just ended up causing chaos.
"You just aren't seeing the bigger picture."
"I am. I think you are the one not seeing the bigger picture nor thinking of what Gibbs would think."
Tony mouth made this 'o' shape as he thought about that. Great, he really had not thought of Gibbs' reaction. Then his mouth did that thing where it made all of the starting shapes for words but nothing came out as he tried to come up with a reason for her to join him in his idiocy. Which was not going to happen, by the way, even if he pouted at her like he was doing now. It was quite the effective pout too, if it was anyone but her that he directed it at. Though, it did sometimes work for her, not that she would ever admit it and it certainly wasn't going to work now. Because she was not stupid and she did not want to get into trouble with Gibbs. And neither should Tony for that matter because Gibbs was on a short fuse today after a meeting with the Director. He really should know better than to even think about riling Gibbs up when he was in that mood.
"Ziiiiii-vah."
She blinked and looked up. Further up. Back at his eyes. Where they were supposed to be. Because that is where you looked at people when they were talking to you. Their eyes. Not their mouths. You didn't watch the shapes their lips made when they talked and nor did you think about them. You should not be thinking about someone's lips at all when they were talking to you. You were supposed to be focused on what they were saying. Which she was.
Why did they have to get in each other's space so much again? She was just as guilty of it as he was but this was ridiculous. Their faces were literally inches away from each other and they ended up like this far too often. Was there such a thing as being too comfortable around each other? Argh, and there were his lips again. There should not even be an again! She should not be thinking of his lips! Why would she be thinking of his lips? She was not even thinking anything specific about them, she was just very much aware that they were there. Which was ridiculous because of course she knew he had lips. He talked enough for her not to be aware.
He shaved a lot more frequently than he used to. Not that he ever let himself grow a beard or anything but him coming in with a bit of scruff on his face every now and then wasn't unusual. Especially after a long case or if he was running late. It was something she was actually grateful of. She shuddered at the memory of coarse beard hair against her skin. No. She wasn't going to think about that. She was thinking about Tony. No! She was not thinking about Tony.
She scrunched her nose up when she was thinking. Had he known that before? He felt like he would have realised that before. Because they had always watched each other. Stared. Whatever. He would have definitely noticed that. Her brow still furrowed the same way. Made the same little crease marks at the top of her nose, between her eyebrows. He had already known that. They even left these little lines in her skin from her doing it so much. But the nose scrunch was new, wasn't it? It had to be because he hadn't been aware of it before.
There was this weird mixture of new and old behaviours with her. It wasn't quite like getting to know a whole new person but it also wasn't really the same Ziva as before. He snorted scathingly at himself. Who would be the same after all that had happened to her? And he doubted that he knew everything. He could guess but he didn't know. Ziva hadn't shared much. He wasn't sure what was worse, the guessing or the knowing. Both made his skin crawl. All he knew that whatever had happened made her eyes go sad and pained when she thought of it. It was only ever briefly but he caught it.
Look, he always, always said that her eyes were particularly expressive. Always had been. Still were. McGee got confused when he said that because, according to McGee, Ziva had a terrifying ability to close off her face. Yes, the man who made money off his ability with words actually said that. And yes, Tony agreed, Ziva's careful mask was very good. Except for her eyes. Her eyes gave everything away no matter what anyone else thought of her. What mattered was that he knew it was true and could read her as a result. Of course, it helped that her eyes were something that were hard to tear away from, being big and expressive and this deep, swirling brown with the tiniest flecks of darker -
Wait. What was he talking about again? Her eyes? No, how easy she was to read to him. Yes. That was it. That was something that hadn't changed even now. Somalia hadn't closed them off. Hadn't got rid of that light that was still there. Sure, it had gone missing for a while, replaced with dark, sad eyes, but the light was back. The interest in her surroundings was back. The playfulness, the joy, the mischief, they were all there. And he loved it. Wait, no, was love the right word? Yes, it was the right word. Because he loved having his partner back.
