A/N: A drabble request from Mel (SmellyThePirate), who asked for an AU where Tony and Abby are siblings, Tony is getting ready for his first date with Ziva, and Abby is being overprotective. Hope it turned out alright!
"Abbs, calm down," Tony said, staring in the mirror and alternating holding two different shirts in front of him. "It's just a date."
"With the daughter of the Director of Mossad!" Abby exclaimed, pacing behind Tony as he got dressed for his dinner. "God, how can you even trust her? She's gotta be, like, some Israeli ninja assassin! I bet that she's gonna try to kiss you and then stab you in the stomach!"
"Why would she stab me?" Tony inquired absently, silently choosing between the two formal shirts and tugging off the OSU t-shirt that his future coach had shipped him last week.
"I don't know. A lot of people hate you," she replied with a shrug, arms folded stubbornly across her chest.
"Hey!" Tony exclaimed indignantly, pulling on the white button-up. "People do not hate me, kid. Especially the women people. The women people love me!"
"I'll believe that when you actually keep a girlfriend for longer than a month," Abby scoffed.
"Maybe it'll be Ziva," he murmured quietly, turning back to the mirror and finishing buttoning the shirt.
"That girl is bad for you, and you know it!"
"Oh, stop it, Abby."
"Seriously! Langer was hitting on her in class today and she threatened him with a paperclip and told him that she could kill him eighteen different ways with it! How do I know that she won't murder you with a fork on your date?"
"Because that would be too obvious," he replied, rifling through his closet. "She'd be much more discreet – probably use a dime or something," he tossed back at her over his shoulder.
"See, even you know that she's going to kill you!"
"Relax, sis. She's one of my best friends. She's not going to kill me. If she does, I'll let you say 'I told you so'."
"Gee, thanks," she retorted sardonically. "I still don't think that she's right for you, killer or not."
"And why do you say that?"
"What do the two of you even have in common? Absolutely nothing! And she's two years younger than you! She's younger than mefor God's sake! She's a sophomore!"
"So? It's just two years. There was a five-year age gap between my biological parents." He pulled a pair of slacks out of his closet, tossing them onto his bed.
"Well… well, I don't see what you see in her."
"Open your eyes, Abby. She's gorgeous. Not to mention intelligent and funny."
Abby huffed, forgetting about her pacing and putting her hands on her hips.
"I guess I don't understand why you're looking for another girl. I mean, so soon after you broke things off with EJ?"
"It was mutual," he muttered, unbuckling the belt on his jeans. "And weren't you the one telling me to get back out there?" He paused for a moment, looking up at her. "Uh, I gotta put on some pants so you might want to turn around…"
Abby spun on her heel, facing the opposite wall while Tony changed.
"I meant that you should be a little more open, not go out on a billion dates."
"I'm not going on a billion dates. It's one date."
"I don't like her," she admitted.
"Why not?" he asked, telling her that it was okay to turn around again.
"You're my big brother… and you've been hurt before…" She tried to disguise the fact that she took a deep breath to steady herself by letting out a loud sigh. "I don't want to see you heartbroken again."
Tony opened his arms wide, and Abby stepped into them.
"Abbs, she's not gonna hurt me. I promise," he replied, although they both knew it was a promise that he could not make any guarantees on. "If anything, I'll end up hurting her. You know I can't commit to anyone…"
"That's Wendy's fault," Abby muttered spitefully into his shoulder.
"No, it isn't. It's myfault. Because I'm too afraid that I'll hurt someone like I hurt Jeanne. And unless I prove myself wrong with another girl, I don't think I'm going to be able to let myself fall in love."
Abby took a step back.
"Fine. I'll give her onechance. But if she hurts you—"
"No, you can't fight her. She would destroy you."
"Just be careful."
"I always am, Abbs." He kissed her forehead and hugged her again.
Gibbs stood in the doorway of Tony's room to see him embracing Abby. He smiled. He was glad how well his two adopted kids got along. He'd taken both of them in when they were infants, after both a plane crash and a car accident had killed both of their respective parents and were left with nowhere else to go.
"Tony," he began, breaking into the moment, "Ziva's here."
"Thanks, Dad," Tony replied, letting Abby go and racing downstairs, Gibbs and Abby in tow. Ziva was standing in the kitchen, wearing a knee-length strapless black dress with a purple cardigan on top of it all. She held a small purple clutch purse in her hands, and her hair was down – and curly.
"Wow," Tony breathed from the doorway of the kitchen. She turned to face him, a smile gracing her face.
"Hello," she murmured, biting her lip. "You clean up nice."
Abby saw Tony grin widely and sighed. Might as well be happy for him. Maybe she was being overprotective – because Ziva was sogoing to shank him in the face or pull some other weird Israeli ninja crap on him – but that smilejust melted her heart and she couldn't even act like she was mad at him. He was her brother and she should be excited for him. He really seemed to like her.
There was a long, somewhat awkward silence where Tony and Ziva just stared at one another. Abby glanced up at Gibbs – who was still taller than her despite her platform shoes – and rolled her eyes.
"Why don't you two lovebirds get off to your dinner already? Well, Ziva, it wasso niceto see you. Please don't murder my brother. Nightie-night now."
"Abby!" Gibbs exclaimed.
"Ignore her, Zi," Tony replied. "Wanna get going?"
"Sure," she replied. "Nice seeing you, Abby. You too, Mr. Gibbs."
"Just Gibbs is fine, Ziva," he replied. "Have a good time, you two."
They thanked him and walked toward the door. Abby saw Tony catch Ziva's hand in his own as they left.
"Be safe, kids!" he called after them.
"By 'be safe'," Abby began, seeing the front door close and Tony's car doors open, "did you mean 'drive safe and don't do drugs', 'don't let Ziva kill you', or 'if you're gonna spontaneously screw each other in your car—'?"
"Abby!" he shouted, amusement showing through his shock.
"What? They were giving each other the 'I want to eat you' look."
"Okay, that was something that I never needed to hear."
"It needed to be said."
Abby was doing AP Statistics homework with Tim when Tony's car pulled up the driveway.
"Look, Timmy, they're back!"
"Who?"
"Tony and Ziva – they just went to dinner together. Hush up, I want to hear what they say."
She cracked open the window just slightly, so as to listen in on their conversation.
"I do not understand their use," Ziva was saying.
"It's simple, Ziva. Contractions are a combination of two words using an apostrophe. You put the apostrophe where the letters are missing."
"Your language confuses me. This is why I speak nine others."
"Whew, nine? I barely know English. Your native language is Hebrew, right?"
"Yes, but I also speak Arabic, Spanish, Pashtu, Italian, and the language of love, among others."
"I thought that Italian and the language of love were the same thing?"
Ziva giggled uncharacteristically.
"I do not know. You are Italian – say something romantic."
"Io sonoinnamorarsi con voi. Da quando ti conosco la mia vita è un paradiso."
She smiled widely, gazing into his mesmerizing green eyes.
"Mi hai rubato il cuore," she replied.
"I don't know what that means," he replied.
"It means you have stolen my heart," she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Good to know," Tony replied, placing his hands on her waist and pulling her closer to him. "Goodnight, Ziva," he murmured, pressing her back against the porch wall. Abby was forced to crane her neck to see them properly.
"Goodnight," she whispered against his lips just before he pressed them to hers. His right hand moved upward, finding its destination on her cheek, thumb caressing her jaw gently before his hand found its way into her curly hair. They stayed in that position until the mutual need for air broke them apart. Ziva slipped out from between Tony and the wall and stepped off the front porch, waving as she made it to her car.
Abby and Tim greeted Tony as he entered the house.
"Hey, guys," he replied, a huge smile donning his face. "Look, Abbs, I'm not dead."
Abby sighed melodramatically.
"Fine, you have my blessing. Do what you will. But if she hurts you, I swear—"
"Yeah, you'll write her threatening emails about boiling her from the inside out, I know. Thanks, Abby. Night, guys."
"Goodnight!" the two called after him.
Abby smiled as she watched Tony bound up the stairs, a spring in his step. As he disappeared from sight, she looked at Tim.
"Tony seems happy," he said, grinning at her.
"Yeah, he does," she replied. As long as Ziva wasn't going to murder her brother, she could be happy for him. Who knows, maybe she might come to like her?
A/N: Any thoughts?
By the way, here's a translation…
Io sono innamorarsi con voi.Da quando ti conosco la mia vita è un paradiso = I am falling in love with you. Since I met you my life is a paradise.
I figured that Tony wouldn't know Italian fluently, but might have learned a few phrases just for Ziva:).