i. In The Beginning

The first time Gibbs meets Tony is in Baltimore. Gibbs is trying to catch a serial killer named Jeanette Margo who has a thing for little boys. Detective DiNozzo is reckless, obnoxious, smarter than he looks. He threatens the integrity of NCIS.'s investigation, and catches the bad guy. For the former, Gibbs clocks him with a strong left hook that knocks a tooth loose. Tony spits blood into his face in response. They glare at each other for a tense few moments amid the sound of the fading sirens taking Ms. Margo away. Gibbs wipes the blood off his face with his sleeve and then grips Tony's chin hard to keep him from looking away, and Tony bares his teeth in a feral smile full of challenge. Gibbs pats him on the cheek and decides to recruit him.

"Good work, kid. Maryland sucks. Lookin' for a job?"

DiNozzo tilts his head thoughtfully and then nods. "Thank you, sir."

Gibbs pulls his keys out of his pocket and turning toward where he's parked his car. "Don't call me sir."

"Sure thing, boss."

"Get in," Gibbs says, gesturing to the passenger door for Tony to let himself in. "And DiNozzo?"

"Yeah?" DiNozzo asks distractedly.

Gibbs waits until they're both in the car and belted in before he levels Tony with a casual stare. DiNozzo doesn't notice, busy playing with the buttons on the side arm of the door. Gibbs starts the car and shifts it into drive. "You ever spit on me again, I'll shove my boot so far up your ass you'll taste the steel toe."

DiNozzo looks at him with a smile that drops when he realizes Gibbs is serious. He clears his throat and looks ahead. "Noted."

Gibbs grins.

They go to Denny's, and then to D.C. Gibbs lets Tony pick whichever desk he wants in the bullpen. Tony buys a Mighty Mouse stapler; Gibbs cuffs him across the back of the head. It begins a kind of pattern.

ii. Casual Moment

Coming home after a late meeting to find Tony in his house wasn't anything special...Not that Gibbs didn't think Tony was all shades of special like a snowflake, but Gibbs and Tony had been GibbsandTony for going on three years, and the latter's showing up in the former's home was less surprising and more along the lines of expected by now. Usually, Tony would already be mostly undressed, and sprawled comfortably and terribly sexy on Gibbs's bed, ready with a suggestive smile and some bullshit quote from some bullshit film at the ready.

This time, however, was not the norm, and Gibbs found Tony downstairs in the basement, sitting on one of his workbenches in the corner, and staring at the boat-in-progress with a dazed expression on his face. From the bottom of the stairs, Gibbs stared at him, an eyebrow raised. Tony didn't move for a few long seconds, and then very suddenly he sneezed and broke all the tension. Gibbs rolled his eyes fondly and approached as Tony scrunched up his face to fight another sneeze and shifted where he sat on the table.

"Something on your mind, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked mildly, leaning against the edge of the table next to the other man and pressing a warm, familiar kiss to Tony's temple.

Tony sighed dramatically and gestured to the boat. "You love it more than you love me," he said sadly.

Gibbs stared at him. "What?"

"You love it more than you love me," Tony repeated in a very melancholy voice. "You didn't ever try to woo me, but you woo it all the time." Gibbs stared some more, now rendered speechless. Tony sighed dramatically again and nodded knowledgably. "Yep. I can tell just looking at it. It's wooed."

"Tonyâ€""

"Get it?" Tony's disappointed façade broke away into a sly grin that tugged the corners of his mouth upward, and he looked at Gibbs out of the corner of his eyes. "It's wooed. Like, made of."

Stunned and irritated and reluctantly amused by the truly heinous pun, Gibbs smacked Tony on the back of the head and then tugged on his hair once hard for good measure.

"Boss!" Tony cried out indignantly, swatting Gibbs's hand away from his head.

Gibbs just leveled a stern look on him. "Did you really come down here just for the chance to try and make me feel guilty?"

"No!" Tony answered at once, and then looked curious. "Did I make you feel guilty?"

"No," Gibbs lied.

Tony studied his face for a moment, and then broke into a grin and stood up, wrapping both arms around Gibbs's shoulders and pressing a smacking kiss to his forehead. "I so did," he said smugly.

"Did not," Gibbs groused, shoving Tony off of him. It was a harsh gesture, but he softened it by grabbing Tony's hand and tugging him along toward the stairs. Tony followed willingly, but then stopped short and pulled away, turning to retrieve the bottle of bourbon he knew that Gibbs kept down there.

"This," he said, passing it on to Gibbs with a charming smile, "is what I actually came down here for. Makin' you feel guilty was just an added bonus. Are you gonna try and woo me now?"

By way of answer, Gibbs took the bourbon and smacked Tony on the back of the head with the other hand, and then resumed climbing the stairs. Tony was a few steps behind him, and Gibbs turned the lights off in time to make him stumble. He caught Tony by the wrist before the younger man could fall, but Tony still let out a decidedly unmanly yelp of surprise before he caught his footing, and Gibbs relished a little in laughing at him.

"Bastard," Tony said once they were safely out of the basement.

"Admittedly," Gibbs agreed, searching cabinets for clean glasses. "You got a problem with that?"

Tony grinned, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed casually over his chest, his eyes on Gibbs. "Nah, boss," he said honestly, still smiling because, yeah, he was so stupid in love he couldn't help himself. "No problem at all."

iii. Contract Law

"Boss," Tony said seriously in a voice a few octaves deeper than his own.

"Tony."

"I, heretofore referred to as Party B, have come to negotiate-"

"Tony."

"-to negotiate the terms of my new relationship contract with you, heretofore referred to as Party A."

"DiNozzo!"

"Party A, that tone has taken on a certain hostility that I believe will only hinder the proceedings," Tony said firmly. He pointed an accusing finger at Gibbs and looked around to address an imaginary judge. "Motion to strike!"

Gibbs, newly-awakened, sitting up in his bed in a t-shirt and boxers, in the dark, at three-thirty in the morning, could only stare in stunned irritation at his...well, his Tony. His Tony, who was currently very awake, in the three-piece suit he'd been wearing at work hours before, looking sharp and acting like a moron. Business as usual, he supposed.

"It has come to the attention of this court," Tony continued in the deep voice, "that a certain change has taken place among-"

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs shouted.

Tony cleared his throat and straightened his tie, cheeks reddening just slightly as he glanced at Gibbs out of the corner of his eye. "Ah, um. Yeah, boss?"

Gibbs didn't bother to hide the note of stunned disbelief from his voice. "What the hell are you doing?"

Tony took a breath, and then rubbed ruefully at the back of his neck as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. "I couldn't sleep."

"Well yeah, DiNozzo, I got that," Gibbs said. "Why?"

Tony sighed deeply and put his hands in his pockets, staring at the floor. After a few seconds, he walked over to the foot of the bed and sat down. "You should really lock your door. Someone could break in."

"Like you did?"

"Yep."

"I don't need a lock. I have a gun."

Tony looked at him over his shoulder, a little grin on his face. "You could'a shot me."

"I didn't."

"Nah," Tony agreed. "I guess you didn't."

He was quiet after that, and Gibbs watched him for a long stretch of silence before he sighed and rolled his eyes, feeling soft for the small shot of worry that edged into him. "Hey, DiNozzo."

Tony looked at him again. "Uh huh?"

Gibbs gestured to the empty space next to him with a nod of his head, and Tony kicked off his shoes before scooting back on the bed and sitting there, legs stretched out in front of him, ankles crossed. He wrung his hands in his lap and chewed on his bottom lip. Gibbs hadn't seen him so agitated in a long time.

"Somethin' botherin' you?"

Tony glanced at him, cleared his throat, and then sighed. He leaned his head back on the pillow propped against the headboard and looked up at Gibbs sideways. "We had sex."

Gibbs stared at him.

"The day before yesterday," Tony continued. "Right here." He pointed at the bed.

"Yeah," Gibbs said, an eyebrow lifting. "I remember."

"Yeah," Tony agreed. He looked at his hands. "So, the thing is, I know you want me. I mean, god, look at me, right? You want me." He didn't sound so sure.

Gibbs rolled his eyes, but his mouth tugged into a reluctant grin. "I want you," he assured.

"And I want you," Tony returned, grinning a little.

He didn't say anything else, and Gibbs sighed as the seconds ticked by. "Hey, it's three in the morning. Were you goin' somewhere with this?"

"Terms."

"Terms?"

"Yes. Terms of our...y'know...thing. Relationship. Is it a relationship? Or is it just sex. I'd be good with either, really."

Gibbs called him on that bold-faced lie. "You would?"

Tony frowned and looked shifty. "Well, no. But."

Gibbs smiled wryly. "DiNozzo, get undressed and come to bed."

"I can stay here?" Tony looked hopeful.

"Yeah, you can stay here. If you promise to shut up and go to sleep."

Tony grinned widely, his big dazzling smile that threatened the integrity of the sun, and Gibbs couldn't help but bask in it, just a little, as Tony stood up and stripped out of his designer suit and down to his boxers. Then he held the covers back and let Tony crawl in next to him. Tony settled on one side, facing away from Gibbs, and the older man slid down to lie down behind him, close enough for his t-shirt to graze Tony's bare back. When Tony reached up to scratch nervously at his own chest, Gibbs caught the hand with one of his own.

"You belong to me now," Gibbs said, interlacing their fingers and settling their joined hands to rest low on the younger man's stomach, just above the waistband.

Tony seemed to relax a little. "We still have the terms of the contract to negotiate."

Gibbs huffed a breath. "What terms?"

"Names."

"Names?"

"Names. What do I call you, boss? Boss? Jethro? Gibbs?"

"Any of those is fine."

"L.J.? Baby McHoneyBuns? Sweetie?"

"No petnames."

"Leroy? Hot stuff? Inigo Montoya? 'You killed my father, prepare to die!'"

"Anthony."

"That's my name, Gay Lover," Tony grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. He opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could Gibbs's hand gripped his chin and his head was turned and his mouth was covered one that was both demanding and full of tongue, tongue which forced its way possessively into his mouth and stole his breath and his heart and all the clichés running circles through his mind.

The kiss left him momentarily stunned and silent, and when it broke all he could do was stare up at Gibbs like a lovestruck idiot.

"Go. To sleep." Gibbs ordered.

Tony closed his eyes, still smiling. "G'night, boss."

"Night, DiNozzo."

Against all odds, Tony was asleep first, and Gibbs followed not too far behind, for the first time in fifteen years falling asleep with a smile on his face.