A/N: I started this on Valentine's Day. I remember that. I also remember abandoning it at the asterisk, if anyone cares to know. I found it yesterday and whined to my favorite monkey that I HAD NO IDEA what I was thinking, where I was going. But then I finished it. Not, I am sure, the brilliant story I had in mind initially, but well, here it is. Silly but fun maybe. Did I mention it is silly?

Love, Squares 8/11/14

He couldn't resist.

Could he? He should, really, resist. Right?

On the other hand, it was like the universe was conspiring, there were so many signs and opportunities.

Tony leaned his face and forehead into the double stream of hot water in his customized shower, the only non-standard equipment in his apartment. He was tense and he knew it wasn't fair to be upset, he flirted far more than Jethro, but shit, the man was sex on a stick when he turned it on and damn, had he turned it on. The hot federal prosecutor hadn't stood a chance and nevermind that Gibbs getting her on their side from the beginning had helped solve the case, Tony was pissed. Jealous, definitely. And Jethro was having dinner with her, as a thank you, he figured, though Gibbs didn't really do that. But Jethro, maybe Jethro did. Tony was still learning what Jethro did.

He slammed his hand hard against the tile and turned around, tipping his head back. He wasn't really thinking about doing this was he? He didn't know how Gibbs would react. But...all the pieces were there. It would be ungrateful of him to not take the universe up on its offer. Like when Kate left her phone on her desk. Without even trying to hide it or put it away. She might as well leave it on his desk. Or Probie leaving his email up on his computer...well, unencrypted anyway.

And really, it was Valentine's Day tomorrow. Gibbs had an admirer (other than him). And they hadn't had a case in weeks. Everyone was going crazy. And Tony needed a distraction or he didn't know what he would do. It would be fun. Gibbs wouldn't be mad, wouldn't even know it was him. Well that was stretching it. The man knew everything. He'd know. But he wouldn't know.

Okay, so maybe he wouldn't go overboard. Actually, it would be pretty unprofessional to have a giant bunny rabbit show up in MTAC to sing to Gibbs. Or to leave the guy a kitten. Even if it was just borrowed from Mike's daughter for the day. Maybe just something little, something mysterious. He'd send him flowers. One an hour all day long. It would drive him crazy. There was that nice woman he met on that one case...she owned a flower shop...

Tony went in early but ducked out again so that he could arrive just after the others. He handed out coffee and a hot chocolate for Kate.

"What's this for, Tony?" She lifted the lid and smiled at the smell and the whipped cream. "I should not be drinking this." But she sipped anyway.

"Valentine's Day, Kate. I know it's a made up holiday but I thought I'd do something nice. Cause I'm a nice person," he insisted.

"Well, thank you."

"Yeah, thank you," McGee accepted his mocha latte, and Gibbs accepted his extra large extra black with a twitch of his brow. His face gave nothing away. Though really, what would it say? I had a wonderful time with the hot lady last night and I am thinking I'd like to get a closer look at her boobies. Tony couldn't even think beyond that. He knew Gibbs wouldn't take up with someone else—take up with? Who the hell was he, Almanzo Wilder?—without breaking it off with him first. But he was just twisted up inside, knowing he really liked Gibbs, liked spending time with him, loved the sex. Oh he knew it wasn't permanent, but he wasn't done yet. Not yet.

Tony shrugged and settled into his chair. At 8:59 he heard the ding of the elevator and looked up as if he didn't know who and what was going to exit. His brows drew down in real confusion though. Kate looked up and asked, "What?"

Coming toward them was a...woman, he thought, from what he could see of the legs sticking out below the giant bouquet of flowers she carried.

"Oooh!" Kate's voice was bright with curiosity. "Who do you think they are for?"

"There a Tony DiNoseo here?" A girlish voice said from behind the flowers.

Kate leapt up eagerly, "Right this way…" as she put an arm around the back of the delivery girl as she placed the giant arrangement of flowers on Tony's desk. Christ it covered half the desk. "Tony, who are they from? Were you nice to one of your one-night stands? Did you have a two-night stand?"

He rolled his eyes, this was not part of the plan. "I don't know who sent them, Kate...Hey!" Kate plucked the white card from the bouquet and stepped back quickly to give her time to read. "One." Kate flipped the card over. "That's all it says! 'One.' ...do you think that means there will be more?" She grinned at Tony, but seemed bemused. "Who do you think it is?"*

"Don't know, don't care, Kate. Obviously it is someone who doesn't know me very well. I hate orchids. Too showy."

"Oh, I love them."

"Everyone knows that." Tony held the bouquet up over his head. "What'll you give me?"

"In your dreams, DiNozzo." Kate turned away to sit at her desk.

As she scooted forward, perfectly centering herself in front of her neatly annotated blotter, Tony moseyed over and placed the giant vase in the large open space on the corner. "They look better on your desk anyway."

Kate didn't say anything, but let him see her small smile. Tony scowled. Kate smiled a little more. Tony fled back to his desk.

As he settled down in his chair, Kate asked, "What do you mean everyone knows?"

"That orchids are your favorite flower?" He pointed to himself. "Investigator, Kate. Maybe everyone doesn't know. Maybe it is just me. My keen eye, sharp mind, memory like a steel trap…"

"DiNozzo, will you shut up?"

"Yes, Boss." Tony sat up straighter.

"Go get the latest batch of cold cases, would ya? Cynthia is holding them, upstairs. Director's got a set that were sent over from Chicago. They think they may be connected, but want a fresh set of eyes."

"Gotcha, boss. Hey, boss, someone send you flowers too?" McGee and Kate both turned to look and sure enough, on the far side of the desk, in a tall square vase way too big for it, was a single red rose, a small white card clipped to a holder.

Gibbs was giving nothing away, just looked pointedly at Tony.

"On it, boss."

Thirty minutes later, they had divided up the stack of files, and were just settling down when Gibbs' phone rang. After a typically short conversation, the man rose and headed up the stairs to MTAC, without glancing at the flower once. "Shouldn't be long. I'll expect a report when I get back."

Other than the ambient noise from the work being done on the rest of the floor, the only sound in their area was the clicking of keys from McGee's station. Kate stared down at the file open in front of her, and Tony seemed equally fascinated by the one in front of him. Tony didn't know who looked up first, but now they were looking at each other. Kate's mouth quirked. Tony raised his eyebrow. Questioning? Or daring?

"Should we?" She said quietly, but clearly.

Tony let his mouth twist and his eyes twinkle. "We should."

McGee, watching this all from his desk, sneezed even as he leaped up and ran for the bathroom. "Oh, no, I don't want to be anywhere nearby when Gibbs catches you reading notes from his...his...whatever she is…" And he fled.

Tony stood and held out his arm, theatrically, "Shall we?"

Kate hooked her arm through his.

When McGee returned ten minutes later, Tony and Kate seemed to be hard at work. "What did it say?"

Tony turned an incredulous expression on him. "Why should we tell you?"

McGee looked around and whispered loudly even as he seated himself, "C'mon, Tony. Kate? What did it say?" His earnest appeal was ruined by another sneeze.

Tony looked at Kate, "Should we?"

Kate said, "Usually I would say not, but he is going to love this."

McGee sneezed again, and pleaded, "Reawey? It's bat gud?" His nose was stuffy but they knew what he meant.

Always good for a build up, Tony let the silence draw out as he leaned toward McGee. "It said...'There is only one.'"

McGee sniffled loudly and exclaimed, "It said There Can Only Be One?! Like the Highlander?!"

Tony made a face, "No, McStarTrekConvention. There is only one. We don't know what it means. But I knew you'd—"

They could hear Gibbs coming down the stairs and the ding of the elevator. All three people entered the bullpen at the same time. The boss, and two delivery persons. Gibbs paused, looking at the young people, with their deliveries.

The tattooed young man with the skateboard under his arm unzipped a backpack and pulled out a box of kleenex. "Tony DiNoreo?"

"DiNozzo. Yeah, that's me." Tony stayed sitting as he accepted the box of tissues. "Puffs Plus, tissue with lotion."

The kid zipped up and turned away, shooting a grin Tony's way. "Enjoy!"

"Hey, hold it, kid!"

The kid stopped, looked back.

"Who hired you?"

"I run errands for the grocery store a couple blocks uptown. King's? I have no idea who ordered them. Sorry, man." And he took off.

McGee sneezed into the sudden silence.

Tony looked at the still sealed box of tissues in his hand, turning them over once, and without looking, held it out to McGee.

McGee walked over and took them. "Thanks, Tony."

As McGee opened them and blew his nose, the girl waiting patiently nearby said "I'm looking for an Agent Jethro Gibbs."

"That's me."

The girl held out the single flower and its life-sustaining capsule of water for Gibbs to take. At his look she said, "I don't know who sent it. I also just run the errands. Maybe my boss knows. Caroline's Blossoms. Ya know? Over by the Botanical Gardens? No? Well, see you...I hope you like your flower." Unphased by Gibbs' silence, she turned to go.

"What is it?"

At his voice, the girl turned again. "It's a Jonquil. Oh. I almost forgot." She fished a small white card out of her pocket and handed it over. "Here. Maybe you'll get some answers in there." And then she too turned and left.

Gibbs rubbed the back of his head but noticing all three sets of eyes on him, and aware of the unusual hush in the entire office around him, he dropped his hand and barked, "McGee, report!"

But when he went back to his desk, as he listened to McGee outlining the work before them, he carefully removed and trimmed the jonquil with his desk scissors and plopped it in the vase with the rose. Tony would of bet he would toss the card down unread to torture them all before it mysteriously disappeared later, but instead he opened it and read it in front of them. McGee was talking but kept peeking at the card. Gibbs looked up and McGee fell silent. They all waited, expectant.

"Have the forensics gone to Abby?"

Tony wasn't the only one with an exceptional sense of timing.

An hour later, Kate and Tony had, against all odds, gotten so invested in looking over the financials in one of the cold cases that they were bent over Kate's desk, both pointing and looking intently at her screen when the next pair of delivery people came. Same girl, new boy. The girl went over to Gibbs' desk and placed a small glass of dandelions on Gibbs' desk, with a card. The boy looked at Kate and Tony and said, "Tony Nidoseo?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "DiNozzo, kid. Whatdya got for me?"

The boy-because he really was young, looked like a teenager, more like 16 than 19—handed over a weird shaped 4-sided box, wrapped in newspaper. Before opening it, Tony asked, "Do you know who sent it?"

To his surprise the boy grinning and said, "Yep. But I can't say. Sworn to secrecy."

To Kate's surprise, Tony let him go and got busy unwrapping the package. He opened the cardboard box that was inside the wrapping and lifted what was inside, out.

"A...what is that? A mini-guitar?"

Tony laughed. "It's a ukulele!" He strummed a little.

"Do you...know how to play a ukulele?"

"No, but Maura Jensen's daughter has always wanted a ukulele and is going into the hospital to get her tonsils and adenoids out on Monday. I'm going to go give it to her. Be back in a minute, Kate!" He voice faded away as he made his way through the maze of corridors to reach the inner reaches to where Maura worked.

When he got back, Kate looked up at him and said, "I know what the cards say. How did Maura like the ukulele?"

"Her daughter's going to love it. What did you find out?"

McGee wandered over to listen. Kate paused and squinted thoughtfully at him.

"I'll read the next one, okay? Just let me in. This is too weird. I have to know."

"Well the Jonquil note said 'third' and the dandelions said 'second'."

They all looked at each other. Finally, Tony said, "Back to work; we'd better have something for Gibbs when he gets back. Next delivery: noon. Maybe we'll find out more."

They all headed back to their desks, deep in their own thoughts.

At noon, Boulder Blues, a tin of black loose tea from Colorado arrived for Tony. Or rather, Ducky, since that is who he gave it to. And at one o'clock, glow in the dark neon orange shoe laces that Palmer wanted for his evening runs. Two o'clock brought a boxed set of Little House on the Prairie books for none other than Abby. Tony explained that she had always wanted the complete set but had only ever been allowed to take them out of the library. At 3 o'clock another book came, this time an out of print copy of Fire and Hemlock, for Cynthia. Tony had heard all about her favorite book one day while waiting for Gibbs outside of the director's office.

These items came addressed to, respectively, "Tony Frizonio", "Tony DiFonzi", "Tony D'Alfonzo", and "Tony DiCaprio."

Gibbs, for his part, received from the same cheerful, apparently ignorant, delivery girl:

A pine branch. "First"

A red poppy. "Only"

A yellow rose. "Second"

A stem of Gardenia. "Second"

He added each one to the vase, or in the case of the poppy, McGee did. Since Gibbs wasn't there.

Abby had been consulted and while no one had any idea why someone was sending Tony presents for other people, it was the work of a moment for them to figure out the flowers for Gibbs were a message.

"It's the secret language of flowers!" Abby hopped around in delight.

"What?" Kate asked. "I love flowers. I don't know about a secret language."

Ducky of course, knew all about it and while he did know that one of dandelion's meanings was "happiness", they had to look up the others.

In order, Gibbs' flowers said: love and respect; happiness; desire; hope; pleasure; friendship, and...of course—again Abby couldn't help but jump around the lab—secret love.

Gibbs, for his part, was in and out of the office as usual. Maybe a little more than usual, with no live case, he had been pulled into MTAC to help with an overseas inquiry. But he was around enough that he received several of the flowers personally and for the others, when he returned to the office, he always bent over to sniff the new arrival.

At 3:55, Gibbs still wasn't back from MTAC but it seemed as if almost everyone in the building was waiting in the bullpen for the next delivery.

"Cmon, people. Nothing to see here." Tony raised his voice to be heard over the milling throng. He was not so secretly loving all the action, however, and grinned at Kate over Palmer's head.

At the ding of the elevator, everyone grew quiet and turned to greet the delivery people. The flower girl stepped out and stopped short at the huge crowd waiting for her. "Uh…" she waved her hand "Hello."

"Hello." Lots of people said.

"Um, is Agent Gibbs here this time?"

Kate stepped forward, taking pity on the girl. She looked rueful. "Sorry."

"Oh. Well, this is the last one I think." She held out a familiar yellow bloom.

Kate turned to look at Tony and McGee. "Another jonquil?" She accepted the small white card and moved to put both where they belonged on Gibbs' desk.

"Must be one of the other meanings…" McGee tapped on his computer. Meanwhile, a small hooray rippled through the crowd as the elevator arrived again, accepting the flower girl back into its cubic depths even as it disgorged the original skateboarding dude from this morning.

"Hiya everyone!" He grinned but didn't wave, since his arms were full of a largish box. He placed it on Tony's desk. "Tony DiClamio?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Last one?"

The boy's smile was undiminished. "Last one!"

"Well, maybe this one is for me, huh?"

The boy looked confused for the first time. "Weren't they all for you?"

Tony just handed him a five dollar bill and said, "Thanks."

Tony shook the box, but there was no noise. He cocked an ear to the crowd, raised his voice. "Any guesses?"

"Is it bigger than a breadbox?" A deep voice from the back asked.

Tony, recognizing the voice, called back, "You think you're funny, Collins? It actually could be a breadbox. It is about the right size." He ripped off the paper, Kate crowding in on one side, McGee and Abby on the other. Ducky and Palmer peering over their shoulders.

"Well, what is it?" Collins again.

Tony held it up. "It's a breadbox."

Laughter.

A few minutes later, the crowd dispersed, and the six team members stood looking at the breadbox.

"What do you think it means?" Tony asked.

"You don't know?" McGee asked. "I mean, you knew where all the others belonged. Maybe this one is for you?"

"Why? I don't need a breadbox."

An electronic beep from McGee's computer brought them back to the cases at hand. Tony, Kate, and McGee all glanced upwards to make sure Gibbs wasn't even now descending. He wasn't.

"Well," Tony sighed and ran a hand through his hair, a rare move that revealed the depth of his distraction, "I guess we should get back to work."

And that was that. They did get back to work. And the shiny silver box, definitely not new, and in fact, reminiscent of a much earlier time, small dots of rush and all, sat on Tony's desk. Not quite an antique but definitely from another generation. Every once in a while, Tony would stop what he was doing, turn the black wooden knob and open the door to peer in.

A little after 4:30, Gibbs still hadn't reappeared. Kate had a late doctor's appointment so she left with her flowers, calling out a Happy Valentine's Day to Tony. McGee was around somewhere, probably the lab with Abby. And so it was that Tony was alone when the elevator chimed one last time.

Well, hell. Just what I needed. He rose and came around his desk to meet the beautiful woman walking toward him. When he first met the woman earlier this week, he was struck by her confidence. Sexy. Now, she seemed gentler, and a little tentative.

"Oh. Hi...Tony?"

Tony held out his hand. "Nice to see you again, Counselor."

Her smile sharpened and he could see the intelligence in her blue, almost violet eyes. Damn, she was pretty. "Angela."

This time he smiled a little. It wasn't her fault that she was beautiful and Gibbs was going to marry her and drive around in convertibles with her. "What can we do for you? Gibbs isn't here I'm afraid."

"Oh, he said if he wasn't here, you could help me."

"Oh, he did, did he? Well, in that case, what can I do for you?" The flirting was second nature.

"I don't know really. He said to come by. He said he had something for me."

It dawned on Tony all at once, and he stepped to the side. He watched her eyes travel behind him to the box on his desk and she smiled again. But this time...what a smile.

"Oh. It's perfect." She breathed out, almost whispered. "My...my grandfather," she looked up at Tony and explained, "my grandfather just moved into assisted living. He and my grandmother had a breadbox when I was little, like this, when they lived in their house. It is long gone though, now. But he remembers and keeps talking about it. I…" she picked up the breadbox under one arm, "Tell Jethro thank you for me." She leaned forward and up on her toes to kiss Tony on the cheek. "Thank you."

Tony watched her go.

He waited around but finally went home at around six. Gibbs didn't call and Tony didn't call him. Tony took a shower, ate, drank a few beers, tried to watch a movie. He stayed up way too late for a school night, but tomorrow was Friday. Only one more day to the weekend. He just kept thinking that maybe…

Finally, at midnight, he went to bed…and woke up when a warm, naked Gibbs climbed into bed with him.

"Mmmm?" He said sleepily, as Jethro pushed him over onto his back, crawling forward to press hot, open mouthed kisses onto his lips, tongue sweeping deep and playing with Tony's.

"Mmmmm." Tony said again, this time pressing back up against his lover, hand slipping to the older man's smooth waist and sliding up to press against his ribs and around, drawing him down to rest his full weight on Tony.

"'M not crushing you?"

Tony murmured a denial, "No. Feels good." He took a handful of long deep breaths, facilitated by Jethro's body, a glorious weight, but then flipped them so he was on top of Jethro, the thumb of his left hand rubbing roughly against the other man's nipple even as he kissed the fuck out of him. He still couldn't get over what it was like to kiss Gibbs. It was so unlikely that something so hot, intimate, even loving, came so easily and so often from the other man.

"You get my present?" Gibbs pulled back just enough to ask the question against Tony's lips.

"No." Tony was still too sleepy to effectively censor himself, or his body. He rocked onto his side and wrapped his arms around Jethro's neck, wound them up and around and pulled and wrapped the older man in the tightest embrace possible. He wound his legs through Jethro's, and he pressed himself against and almost onto his man, this man, as he tried to merge their bodies.

"What do you mean, no? I saw you get them." Jethro could just...barely...pull back enough to object against Tony's lips. The rest of him was pulled tight against the other man, Tony's arm locked behind his neck, the other wrapped under Jethro's arm and pulling him close, chest to chest.

Jethro struggled a little, to get enough distance to ask his questions, but was distracted by Tony's lips, the way his eyes were closed even as his mouth was full and red and swollen already with his kisses. He lost long moments to the mesmerizing tug and dip into the younger man's mouth.

Finally, Jethro's mouth achieved its aim and Tony's body was boneless and loose. Even as Jethro relaxed into him, Tony pushed a little, shifted so he could snake a hand down to stroke lightly in the seam of Jethro's leg, the skin thin and sensitive, making the other man jump and moan. Tony continued with what he was saying.

"I think I got everyone else's presents though. How did you know what they wanted?"

Jethro reached down and gripped Tony's hand, stopping its long torturous strokes and moving it decidedly onto his dick. Tony squeezed, biting Jethro's lower lip even as he bucked and ground himself against the man's hairy leg.

"I didn't. Ohhhhh fuuuuuck."

Now Tony was fully on top of Gibbs, rolling his hips so that their cocks slid against each other. Suddenly, he stopped, pressing down so that they both felt the heat and pressure continuing to build between them.

"What do you mean?" Tony waited for Gibbs to open his eyes, met the hazy blue ones, bright even in the little light coming from the cracked bathroom door.

"Hell, I didn't know what they wanted. You did."

"What?"

"I don't know how to break this to you, DiNozzo. But you talk a lot." Gibbs was a little breathless and pressed upwards, desperate for more friction, "jesus damn, yeah, like that...and you find out things. You are interested in people and I am interested in you so then I knew about people. You knew that McGee was getting a cold, that Kate liked orchids...all that. I just listened. I thought you might have fun giving out the presents."

Tony leaned down and pressed a kiss to Gibbs' lips, kissed his way down the other man's rough jaw to lick and suck below and behind his ear, something that he knew drove Jethro crazy. He growled softly into Jethro's ear, "You are interested in me?"

"No, I always spend a lot of time with and have sex with people I'm not interested in. That's what what I was hired for. My ability to make people like me." Jethro squeezed his nipples, hard, and Tony moaned, loving the roughness. "You were jealous."

"Not even a little." Tony lied and rolled his thumb over the head of Jethro's cock. Suddenly Jethro's hand cupped Tony's jaw, holding the younger man in place for his kiss even as Jethro rolled them again. His left hand fumbled blindly for the bedside drawer, but Tony wasn't really paying attention to anything other than Jethro's mouth.

"Gibbs."

"Not yet, Tony. C'mon. Admit it. You were jealous. Of a lawyer. Of Angela." Jethro almost mocked him.

"Jethro!"

"Hold on, babe." Tony thought he might come from just that word alone. His head was spinning. Jethro had been shockingly unabashed about the sex from the beginning, but he had never said so much, never really said anything about actually liking Tony. And the endearment. And now oh jesus Jethro's slick fingers were playing and dipping down into the crack of his ass and sliding in and out and around and deeper deeper now, slowly but surely pressing and slipping and striking, and his cock...if Jethro even touched it he would lose it…

Jethro rose up and Tony could see him slipping a condom on, slicking up, felt the slow sweet burn of Jethro's cock sliding deep.

"Did you mean it?"

Half out of his mind with sex and Jethro's cock in his ass, Tony told the truth. "Yes."

Jethro plunged deep, bottomed out, and paused.

"Jethro. Cmoncmoncmon." Tony bucked, trying to get the other man to move.

"Tell me, Tony. What were you trying to say?"

"Move, Jethro, please? Please?" Tony met Jethro's eyes, begged. His lover gave in and began to thrust.

"Tell me, babe. Tell me."

"Okay," Tony gasped out, "respect, happiness, desire, hope, pleasure, friendship, secret love. That's how I feel."

"That's only seven, Tony." Jethro was pushing hard on Tony's legs, knees, bent back and out almost against the other man's chest, to get just the right angle and he knew from Tony's keening moan that he had found it. "What was the last flower for, Tony?"

"I like you, okay?"

"You like me?"

"I like you and," Tony's eyes opened to meet Jethro's, and his head dropped back like he just didn't have the strength to resist, "and I want you to like me back and the lady said that one jonquil is for affection and the second one can mean that you want your affection returned oh, jesus don't stop, oh please don't stop."

Far from stopping, Jethro rocked even harder, rolling his hips in circles to stretch Tony's hole, making the younger man moan even louder. But he stopped asking questions, didn't want any more answers until they were done.

"Oh jesus, damn, Jethro, kiss me, oh please please please kiss me jesus your mouth…"

And even in the relatively short time they had been together, Jethro knew what that meant. When Jethro sealed his lips over Tony's, the younger man's body rippled as thick streams of come shot out against Jethro's belly and unbelievably, Jethro's attention continued to be caught by the streams of warmth against his stomach more than the way his own body responded to Tony's, seizing in shared and sympathetic pleasure.

He lay, comfortable with his full weight on Tony, the other man's hand moving gently over his ass, the small of his back. Finally, that same hand patted his back gently. Jethro breathed out, pressed up and, holding onto the edges of the condom, he pulled out of Tony's body. He leaned over and reached down to snag the hand towel that he had dropped on the floor by the bed. He wiped up the come pooled on Tony's belly and the slick mess against his own stomach, almost regretfully. He tossed the towel over the side of the bed and curled into Tony, rested his head against the other man's chest, let Tony's hand pick up where it left off, stroking and tickling the sensitive skin of his back.

This was the strangest, most miraculous part to Gibbs. More intimate than letting Tony fuck him, which was rare but not infrequent. More intimate than the times that, as they watched a baseball game, unshaven and unwashed in old jeans and t-shirts, they held hands, played with each other's fingers, stroked or pressed at the palm of each other's hands. More intimate than that.

The way that Jethro could lay on the other man, nuzzle into his shoulder and neck, let Tony hold him close, stroke his fingers lightly against his vertebrae. That was the miracle.

"I can't believe you let me do this," Tony murmured, not...quite...daring to kiss Jethro's head outright, but sneaking a soft brush of lips onto the crown of his head.

"I can't believe you want to." Gibbs was more than half asleep, his body heavy and starting to sweat against Tony's. They generated a lot of heat when they were pressed up against each other. It wouldn't be long before they would have to break apart.

"Night, Tony."

"Night, Jethro."

"Tony?"

"Yeah?"

"Next year we will have a case. I am not celebrating Valentine's day every year. It's stupid."

"Okay."

"You can send me one flower if you want."

"Okay."

"The yellow ones are okay."

"Okay."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Ow!" Tony wiggled away from where Jethro's fingers pinched him. "Fine. You can get me tickets to the Nationals….Ow!...Dammit, Jethro…" Tony pulled away and twisted and turned until Jethro was curled around him, holding him tight, and carefully.

"Want to get something to eat tomorrow night after work?"

Tony felt warmth crawl up his chest to his throat, almost painful. He pressed back into Jethro's lax body. "Yeah." He pressed a quick kiss onto the other man's arm where it wrapped around his chest. "That would be good."

A/N (2): This is a one shot and doesn't extend into the next day, but just so you know, these two are able to keep their private lives private for a while longer since Gibbs' flowers are passed off as a "thank you" from the woman who owns the flower shop and while no one really knows who sent DiNozzo all those weird gifts, they were obviously not romantic and probably a prank. :)

A/N (3): Terrible day. Goodness knows there could be mistakes here. Let me know and I'll fix them. Thanks.