He squints at his cream-covered reflection in the mirror and yells over his shoulder as he raises his razor once more. "Hey, Kate, would you respect me any less if I grew a goatee?"
She gives him a look, as she begins to pull her jacket on over her sweater. "Who said anything about me liking you in the first place?"
He scowls. "You're evil, Kate Todd."
"I learn from the best."
"That joke's hard to take on an empty stomach this early in the morning."
She laughs lightly. "You're the one holding up breakfast with your delicate shaving routine."
"Five o'clock shadows demand attention, Katie."
She smiles. This all comes so easily. Being like this with him. Brushing her teeth with him and working with him and crosswording with him. Waking up next to him.
It all comes so naturally.
And it scares her.
She's never trusted anyone so completely with herself and it scares her to death that it's the man in the reflection on the bathroom mirror. The man who can make her skin crawl and melt her with his smile in one foul swoop.
On the worst night of her life, she knows that she could go to him and wilt into a mess of tears and tissues and tubs of ice-cream and he would take her in without question, wrap her up in his blankets and sleeping bags and listen to her for as long as she needed to cry and watch movies with her for as long as she needed George Clooney or even get her drunk for as long as she needed to be drunk. She had never made use of this odd gift until last night, but she has no doubt now that she has this - and always will.
And as comforting as that is, it also holds an element of fear, of vulnerability. In fact, it's part of the reason she's not truly acted on any of her mismatched, misshapen and surely misplaced feelings. Everything in her life seemed to have this uncanny ability to fall into a million pieces with due time and she didn't want to involve him in any of the fall-out; couldn't risk losing whatever they had for a quick fling.
So she pushed him, and he pushed back.
And he pulled her, and she pulled back.
The dance they did.
-
"That was actually not all bad, DiNozzo. You can cook when you want to," Kate grinned, following him into the kitchen with their plates.
When he had rinsed them, he walked over to the table where Kate was still seated and took her hand. "Ready for bed?"
She smiled and accepted his hand. She felt strangely unsteady for some reason. Nerves, probably. She stopped and turned to face him, still holding his hand, "Tony, thank you."
"No problem," he smiled, as if he did this every day.
Tony pulled back the blankets and sheets and helped Kate into the bed. Smiling at her, he piled the blankets back up and tucked her in. He sat on the edge of the bed and smiled down at her.
"Are you going to tell me a story, too?" Kate smiled teasingly. She didn't feel in a teasing mood, but Tony always seemed to bring it out in her.
Tony laughed gently, but didn't say anything. He leant over and kissed her lightly on the forehead. He began to straighten, but Kate reached out and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Tony…" she began.
"Kate…" he whispered back, pleading with her to not hold him there. He took a deep breath and leaned back slightly, not quite pulling away from her, but removing himself from the proximity of her mouth. "Kate…" His voice was throaty but soft. "You're in a really bad frame of mind right now. I couldn't do this to you."
"I don't want be alone right now," she said gently, tears already beginning to well in her eyes.
"You won't be. I'll be just outside on the couch all night."
"Tony…" Kate sighed, taking his hands. "I can't believe I'm saying this. You of all people know that it's not like me, but… I don't want to sleep alone tonight."
He shook his head. "With all the stuff we've been through, I just don't think it's a very good… "
"No, let me finish." Kate touched a finger to his lips. "I don't want anything to happen, Tony. If you could just lie with me, until I fall asleep." Kate's voice was almost pleading.
He sighed and then smiled softly at her. He leant down and removed his shoes and sweater before lying down beside her.
Tony stayed silent for a few moments before Kate pulled his arm over her waist.
"We're not going to violate any NCIS regulations," she said. "Or any of Gibbs' rules."
Tony wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly against him. "I think we're already are violating several."
Smiling, Tony watched her fall asleep in his arms. Feeling, for the first time in a long time, completely content, he drifted off to sleep as well, lulled by her rhythmic breathing.
-
She suddenly hears his voice echo from the bathroom. "Done."
Kate smiles as she pulls her scarf around her and throws the overnight bag Tony fetched for her the night before over her shoulder, grimacing as she slides it past the cut on her neck.
"If you grow a goatee, I'm disowning you as a partner," she called.
He grins and holds her gaze for a moment. He's watching her with an intensity that she's never seen before and something shifts inside her, like a tide capsizing.
"You know, we could always skip work and go to the zoo."
She laughs, "There's a difference?"
Another shrug and a smile. "Suspects don't look so happy when you feed them."
He laughs and walks back into the bedroom, doing up the last buttons on his shirt, his tie loose around his neck. He looks up at her with that liquefying smile. "So... you mentioned something about bacon and blueberries?"
Toothpaste by hewey