Disclaimer: I don't own them or the mentioned storylines.

Authors Note:

I really didn't plan to write fan fiction myself. But I love a really confident Tony and would like to know, what would change between Tony and the team if he would show his superiority towards Kate, McGee and later on Ziva from early on. Would he let Jeffrey White get to him the way he did, if he would be confident in his thinking? Would Kate be the snob, she was in the show? Would he let Ziva do to him, what she did? Would he let Sheppard do the things she did? You get the picture.

I read many fics were Tony is confident, but always later on. I loved the fics, don't get me wrong. But what I really liked to read, I didn't find. So here I am.

I would also like to find a good beta. English isn't my first language, so I'm doomed to make mistakes. So if you feel up to it, please pm me. I would like for you to also love Tony to be confident and you shouldn't be offended be same sex relationships.

I did need a beginning, so I thought about the earliest incident, where Tony could have shown how confident and well educated he really is. So I started in season one. If you found a fic with similar approach, please let me know. I don't want to plagiarize.

So now let the fic begin.

Chapter 1

Anthony „Tony" DiNozzo was sick of it. It happened almost three weeks ago. But his partner Caitlin "Kate" Todd just wouldn't shut up. Every time he tried to joke with her and the on-and-of agent Tim McGee she thought it a good idea to bring it up.

He told her to stop it. For once he didn't try to suck it up. He went to Kate and seriously told her how much it hurt. He tried to make her see, what she didn't want to see.

He lost a good friend because nobody had time this day. How many times Chris wanted to talk to him or Gibbs he didn't count. Then they had forgotten about Chris and the next day the worst happened. The MCRT got called to a homicide, the cruelest sight he could imagine. And just because he didn't listen, Chris was the victim of a very sick person.

Later the next day they found out about the woman. Sure, Tony had fun on the stakeout, all the little jokes with Tim and the snooping around. But of course he couldn't just do how he was told by Gibbs. He had to try and make contact with the woman. Maybe, just maybe if he had followed Gibbs' order everything would have been alright. But he didn't listen and all went to hell. He was humiliated by himself and Gibbs had to shoot the murderer.

Maybe he would have survived the day emotionally, maybe he would have gotten over it, but with Kate around it wasn't a possibility. She didn't listen, just like all the other times he tried to be the serious person he was. Sure, he didn't show it much because he tried to have fun and make others laugh, but he could be the mature Anthony DiNozzo, with the high IQ and the degrees. Maybe the mention of his Phys Ed degree had been a mistake. Ever since then Kate could be downright mean.

The day he tried to talk with Kate, he wanted her to see his other achievements and his mature side. So he invited her to his apartment. The hurt he felt by her snide remarks about his "dorm room with mirrors on the ceiling" he could swallow, but when she refused to listen to him in the conference room also he couldn't help it. He just told her how much she hurt him every time she brought it up. He told her, he didn't have a problem to kiss a man, but to kiss the murderer of his friend. How he tried to forget it, how the nights he dreamt about it, he would get sick and barely make it to the bathroom.

He really hoped to make Kate understand just how drained he felt ever since then.

For the next few days she didn't mention it, but today she had to bring it up. Just because he told her and Tim about a date he had the night before. And the worst part? Everybody thought it was funny.

So now, here he is. In Gibbs' basement, without the slightest idea how to handle the situation. Maybe he should have listened to Gibbs and cancel the frat boy act.