"Now are you planning on telling me what that whole outburst between you and Tony today was all about?" Vin looked at Ezra after his cousin had left the room.
Ezra gazed at Vin sizing him up deciding what and if he should talk to him. "I cant really talk about it. It isn't mine to tell…" trying to make it seem that it was Tony's to tell.
Vin looked at Ezra again "Ez I known you what 4 or 5 years now. I'm your closest friend on the team don't shut me out." Please don't shut me out Vin thinks to himself.
He leads Ezra over to a loveseat in the living area of the suite. Before they can sit Ezra went and got a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue and two glasses.
"It is a rather sordid tale are you sure you want to know?"
At Vin's nod Ezra sighed. He poured two generous glasses of scotch and settled on the sofa that was across of where Vin was sitting offering one of the glasses to Vin. He didn't want to be too close to his friend not the way his thought have been ruling him lately. Usually he was able to control his feelings for the sharpshooter but since Mel had nearly died he had been having more problems with his control. He wasn't sure if it was the fact that they spent so much time together in Florida while both he and Mel healed or the fact that the woman he considered a sister almost died.
Come on Ezra you can do it school your features man and just tell Vin the least amount. You know the drill just enough to make sense and he will be satisfied. Even the family doesn't know everything, don't lie to the man just tell him enough to answer his questions and nothing more. The family, in this case Tony, because he is the one who is here, know the most but not all. No one knows all. Tamilla did he could tell her anything but she is gone. Vin is someone who he could share with the way he did with Tamilla…No! I am not going there, not now!
"Tell me Mr. Tanner what would you like to know?"
"Well we can start with what was Tony talking about your arm? Why would he have any guilt over it? Why is he so angry with Maude?"
"I told you before about how Maude would leave me with people. She didn't really care who it was as long as someone would take me off her hands." Ezra knew that he had told Vin that much of his childhood. "When I was ten I spent nearly a year with Tony and his parents. In some ways it was great. Tony is only a year younger than me so it was nice to have someone to talk to and do things with. In other ways it was awful. His father drank to excess. He had a really awful temper and sometimes he would hit us. Usually it was just Tony he beat but sometimes he would hurt me too. One day Tony did something I can't even remember what it was but it angered his father and he pushed Tony while he was at the top of the staircase. I was next to Tony and I grabbed him and stopped him from falling down the stairs. The only problem is that I dislocated my shoulder in the process. His father was too drunk to realize I was injured and Tony's mom was too frightened of her husband to take me to the hospital until the next day once he had gone to work.
"Tony blames himself for the injury and the fact that I continue to have problems with that arm today. When I showed up in NY with the arm in a sling …Let's just say that Tony was more upset than he let on."
"Tony doesn't seem to have had a much better childhood than you" Vin muttered thinking of his new friend being abused as a child.
Ezra's eyes darkened, as much as he hated the abuse that he suffered while he was in the DiNozzo household he knew that Tony suffered much more at the hands of his father in the years prior to being sent to boarding school. He knew that Tony still occasionally had nightmares. "Nor you my friend." Ezra stated. He knew that parts of Vin's childhood were as bad or worse than anything he or Tony had endured.
"As you heard he no longer has contact with his father. I think that has more to do with Marie and Emily than anything else. Tony even stayed in limited contact with him after the debacle when his mother died. He would die before he let anything happen to those girls. I knew that he doesn't like or talk to his father before I said that to him today but I wanted to hurt him." Ezra sighed thinking back to the last time he knew that Tony had seen his father, after his mother's funeral. "It was childish and I regret it, especially after the way that other agent went after him." Ezra made a mental note to find out about that agent, he assumed it was agent Todd since the only female coworker Tony had spoken about whom he had not yet met was Todd.
Ezra took another large swallow of his drink Vin had barely touched his. He knew it was Dutch courage but he needed all the support he could get. He refilled his glass and continued with the story before he lost the little courage he had.
"Maude kept leaving me in places that weren't the best for a child and eventually it caught up to her and me. I was taken from her care and placed with a foster family and eventually adopted. I was lucky; it wasn't a typical foster situation." Ezra knew Vin had grown up in the foster care system in Texas before running away as a teen. He wasn't aware of Vin's reasons for running but he had been around law enforcement long enough to have an idea. "The family I was placed in asked for me. I was adopted by them. It was Mel's family that is why I am so close to them." Ezra had downed 2 generous glasses of expensive scotch during his narrative and was working on his third. He had given Vin an extremely edited version of his childhood.
Ezra looked over at Vin as his story came to a stop. He seemed upset. Ezra was starting to feel the effects of the alcohol on a nearly empty stomach now, but he knew that he had been in control of his faculties while he had been speaking. He didn't reveal any of his secrets at least none of the ones that could cause Vin to want to turn from him. He didn't tell Vin he had been raped as a child and that was why that Maude had lost custody of him. He didn't tell Vin that he had close ties to the Moroccan Royal family, worrying that his loyalty to country could be questioned and his job placed in jeopardy. He didn't tell Vin how he had been unable to protect his wife, the mother of his child, from assassination. He didn't tell Vin that the reason that he nearly abandoned them during his first assignment with Team 7 was due his guilt over her death. He didn't tell Vin how much he loved him. What he had said to Vin was fairly innocuous, why did he look so upset?
"I knew that there had to be a reason I never liked her. Why do you let her come around Ez she torments you and you let her." It became obvious whom Vin was angry with.
"It is a good reminder of the lessons that she taught me. Never show your emotions. Never get close to people. I forgot a lot of that since I have been a member of Mel's family. They love unconditionally. It doesn't hurt to have a reminder every once in a while. Plus I don't want her making trouble for Mary and Moha. The more she stays away from them the better I like it. Plus she doesn't know about the girls and I don't want her to find out about them."
As they had been talking Vin moved from the smaller loveseat to the sofa that Ezra was sitting on, without Ezra realizing it. When Vin noticed Ezra becoming upset at his anger he took one of Ezra's hands in his and started rubbing his thumb in circles on the palm.
Ezra's conversation slowly petered out to a stop. All of his concentration focused on the sensations traveling from his palm. It was like small bursts of warmth. It made him crave more. This is not good Ezra; you have to move away before he realizes that you feel more than just friendship for him, just casually move your hand yeah that's it.
Ezra tried to slowly pull his hand back from Vin's grasp only to have it held tighter. He looked into Vin's eyes in confusion, never expecting to see desire there. Vin let go of Ezra's hand and cupped his face with both of his hands thumbs brushing against Ezra's cheeks as Vin's head slowly descended towards Ezra and suddenly he felt lips softly brushing against his. He parted his lips slightly at the shock, this was something he had wanted for some time but he never expected to be able to have.
As Ezra's lips parted it was all the invitation Vin needed to deepen the kiss. Vin's tongue delved deep as he explored the taste of Ezra's mouth the expensive scotch was most prevalent but the subtle undertones were sweet and light and as far as Vin was concerned fully addicting. They broke from the kiss gasping.
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