Title: Tattoos

Author: loozy

Summary: Tony likes Abby's tattoos.

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of the associated characters. I just love to have fun with them. DPB owns everything.

Pairing: Tony/ Abby

A/N: based on three prompts given to me by a friend. Feel free to rip this to pieces but please do it constructively. Thank you very much for reading, and please review!

Slang- fog- piercing

Abby might have tattoos, nine of them, actually, but she does not have any piercings.

Tony knows this because she told him so during the first month he was at NCIS and couldn't tear his eyes away from her body gems, as she called them. Now, eight years later, he knows this because, well, he has touched, tasted and seen every inch of her body intimately and knows every birth mark, freckle, wrinkle, everything about her.

The lack of piercing hits him when McGee and he arrest a guy suspected of murdering a Captain over drug deal; the suspect's face is more or less covered in piercings.

Before they bring him into interrogation, Tony counts about five nose rings, six on the left eyebrow, three of which are thorns, four on the right, with two of them being smiley faces, four rings in his lips, two on each, one each through the skin and flesh of his cheekbones, the left side a bright neon purple, the right a dark green. When the men opens his mouth to hurl insults at them, three barbells twinkle at Tony, and there are two on each side of the mouth in the chin, and also one through the tender skin holding the inside of the mouth to the gums. Tony shudders when he imagines the pain involved in getting all those piercings.

No, he can do without piercings, thank you very much.

Then he has to look away from the guy because it just hurts to look at him.

Who would go through all this voluntarily?

He does not really want to know.

But of course he has to interrogate the guy.

Just his luck.

He tries to push the duty over to McGee, claims he needs the experience; one look from Gibbs has him scurrying down to the lab and to Abby, in an attempt to seek refuge from the piercings, and from Gibbs.

Tattoos are so much better and he makes sure to tell Abby that. She just giggles, kisses his brow, squeezes his thigh and then turns back to her computer, busy as a bee all of a sudden, and with trepidation Tony realizes that his escape to the lab was not that genial as he had hoped it would be, as Gibbs stands just outside the sliding doors leading to the office, killing Tony with the death glares thrown his way.

Abby winks at him, Gibbs, not Tony, as the latter slinks over to do the bidding of his superior.

"Rule no 12, DiNozzo."

"You did see the piercings, right, Boss?"

This earns him an exasperated look.

"Your point?"

"Tattoos are so much nicer and also Abby-"

Ouch.

This particular slaps hurts more than usual. It also has the desired effect.

"Thank you, Boss."

And off to interrogation he is.

Maybe Thomas Corran, piercing guy, suspect in an investigation that has been frustrating to say the least, will not cooperate, then Tony can rip one of the piercings out; he makes a bet with himself in the elevator that it hurts. A lot.

Torture is not his metier, though. It is more down Ziva's alley.

Still, he entertains those thoughts when striding through the bullpen, grabbing Corran's file off his desk, before heading towards the part of the building that houses the interrogation and observation rooms. Out of the corner of his eyes he sees Ziva and McGee getting up to follow him, to watch.

They are all fairly sure that this is their guy, and after almost ten days of no leads, barely any sleep or food, they are desperate to solve this case, and then sleep.

The interrogation itself Tony remembers through a fog of pain later. A fog that does not even lift completely when he comes back to consciousness; he does not want to, to be honest, as with awareness comes the embarrassment that he let a handcuffed suspect get the better of him.

And it was not even as if the piercings had distracted him. In fact, once the interview had started, Tony had slipped into the zone and all he had heard was what Corran had to say. The face was still in his visual field, but the piercings became blurry, and he could see what Corran told him, or refused to and had to be convinced to tell, come together in front of his inner eye, match with the evidence they had collected so far.

The moment when Corran had kicked out under the table, his long legs pushing Tony off balance is hazy at best.

Maybe it is from shock.

Shock at this ridiculously stupid thing actually happening. Tony thought that this only occurred in cop shows or stupid comedies.

He certainly never would have fathomed that this would happen to him.

When he wakes up, still foggy, the first thing he sees is Abby's face, or more prominently her nose, adorned with a nose ring from which a tiny skull dangles. Tony yelps, the embarrassingly high- pitched sound enforcing the headache raging through his skull.

"Please tell me that I'm just imagining things here. You did not get a piercing while I was out, right?"

So what if his voice is pleading like a child's, he really really really hopes that this is just a figment of his imagination, or maybe he has not actually woken up yet and is still unconscious, experiencing a nightmare. Or maybe Abby is playing a joke on him.

All three are a possibility.

He is not at his most coherent right now.

"How could she get a piercing when she has been at your side ever since you came in?"

Gibbs' gruff voice cuts through the fog and it clears a bit. Typical. Even the fog is afraid of Gibbs.

"Oh."

He looks over at Abby's smiling face. And his brain is happy to notice that his eyes deceived him earlier, as there is no piercing in Abby's nose, or anywhere else on her face.

"You wouldn't lie to me, Boss?"

"About something like this? After what happened? 'Ya think, DiNozzo?"

To answer now would be like suicide as this phrase is a basic of Gibbs- speak and Tony is nothing if not well versed in the language.

"I think I'm traumatized now."

"By piercings?"

"Yep."

Abby laughs and even Gibbs lifts the corners of his mouth that tiny bit that signals amusement.

Just as quick as the light mood arose, it disappears.

"I'm sorry, Boss. I should've paid more attention, shouldn't have allowed him to surprise me like that."

Tony looks at Gibbs, holding the gaze when it turns from inquisitive to penetrating, his facial expression not showing anything.

"You're right. It shouldn't have happened."

And then he's silent.

"That's it?"

"What more do you want me to say, DiNozzo? I know you made a mistake, a stupid one, you know it, and we also both know that it won't ever happen again."

Tony nods. It was a stupid, ridiculously stupid thing that happened and he is properly chastised and embarrassed to the moon and back already; he will be mocked and made fun of by Ziva soon enough; Gibbs' dressing down, as deserved as it would be, would only rub salt into an already open wound.

"Tony?"

"Yes, Boss?"

"Don't apologize, it's-"

"- a sign of weakness. But what else could I have said, Boss? It was a situation that warranted an apology."

"Tony-"

Exasperation now mixes with Gibbs's sharp voice.

"I'm serious. This... It should not have happened. It was poor work. Not even McGee could've missed that."

"Tony!"

He shuts up.

"Yes, it was a mistake that never should have happened. We both know it. No need to dwell on it."

"But-"

"No buts. Get some rest, Tony. Doctor wants to stay you overnight-"

"Boss!"

"Gibbs! You know how Tony-"

"- but I already assured him that you wouldn't be alone and could be released."

"Oooh. Are we going to stay with you, Gibbs?"

"You are more than capable of taking care of Tony on your own, Abbs."

"Yes, I am. But you always turn into Papa Bear when he's been hurt."

"We?"

"Yes. Do you think I'd leave Tony alone? If you did, then I will be sorely disappointed in you, Gibbs. I thought you knew me."

Tony looks up at the white ceiling, wisely tuning out Gibbs and Abby. The fog has cleared completely, the headache is still there, but he does not have the heart to interrupt the two people who mean the world to him. He knows that Abby won't budge, she will stay the night, and Gibbs won't mind, no matter how much he pretends to resist.

It is when he disguises the affection he holds for the member of his team with gruffness and acts as if he does not give a damn, that he speaks what Tony calls Gibbs- slang.

The slang is rarely heard out in the open, like in the office; mostly it is used in Abby's lab. The tone is also mostly reserved for Abby.

And Tony, though he does not acknowledge this right now, as he is too self- deprecating after what happened earlier in the day.

"Gibbs!"

Abby's piercing, bad choice of words there, excuse the pun, breaks his perusal of the ceiling, five cracks, two spots, something that looks like blood spatter, and some weird dried mess that could be food, and increases his headache by a few notches.

"Abby!"
His tone of voice, whisper- like, quiets her.

"Sorry, Tony."

His lovely Goth sits down beside him, brushes her hand through his hair, presses a kiss on the wound on the side of his head.

"So, Gibbs' or your place?"

"I really don't care. Just get me out of here."

In the end it does not really matter at whose place they end up, as long as he has Abby with him, and Gibbs is not too pissed off at him. It will take Tony a bit longer to get over it, but Gibbs' salvation is always needed as a first step into the right direction.

He needs Abby to cheer him up, to provide him with a shoulder to cry and lean on, someone he can rely on, let himself go with, talk with, be open with.

He needs Abby, period.

Has always needed her, in one way or another, will always need her.

So, they could end up in the gutter for the night, like his father predicted; as long as Abby and Gibbs are with him, Tony will be alright.