A/N: This is my first shot at Slash, so please be kind :P Don't like don't read.
This is set somewhere in Season 8, though there are no real spoilers, I guess.

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS.

Truth For A Truth

Another sip of the bottle of beer in front of him and he surely would feel fine, right? It wasn't like this had never happened to him before. Except maybe… no, this must surely have been the result of that nerve-wracking case they had been working on for the last two weeks and had only closed it this late afternoon, leaving Tony to finally be able to breathe freely, leaving him with a little time for himself. Or what he liked to do with a little time for himself – partying. He had arrived at the bar about two hours previously and by now he had a real buzz going but it didn't help him get over the case at all. Maybe he should have stayed at home after all, maybe he should have taken McGee up on his offer to watch a movie at his place. All of a sudden everything seemed to have much more appeal than sitting in a bar where he knew nobody, drinking himself into a stupor. But well, it was where he was usually finding his bliss, so it had seemed like a pretty good idea at the beginning.

Tony sighed and sipped on his beer again, desperately trying to make the pictures that kept on showing up in front of his inner eye go away. That damn case, why wouldn't it stop haunting him? They had found nineteen year old sailor Mark Perry dead in his apartment and at first everything had hinted at a suicide but Abby, genius as she was, had found out that it wasn't the case. So two weeks of chasing down dead end after dead end, Gibbs finally had realized what was really going on there. The dead sailor had been gay to the utter dismay of his conservative father, who had threatened to out him if he wouldn't follow his orders. Mark had obliged in the beginning but apparently had had enough after the father was about to send him on yet another date with a girl even though he knew well enough that the son had been in a committed relationship for a year now. But instead of talking to his son, Perry Sr. had decided to jump into action and as he hadn't seen another way to put an end on the shame, he had decided to kill his son. As Tony and Gibbs had finally arrested the murderer, he had shown no hint of remorse, talking about his son getting what he deserved. Tony had expected Gibbs to shout at him, to straight him out while in interrogation but he had remained stoically calm the whole time, his glance firmly on Tony, not on the suspect, causing Tony to feel slightly twitchy inside.

Tony motioned the bartender for yet another beer. He still couldn't understand his reaction to Gibbs' eyes on him. He surely didn't know, did he? Granted, Gibbs had a pretty good idea about how Tony's had been before he had joined NCIS but he had never told anyone about that side of him. Hell, he had successfully repressed those memories for most of the time in those last and admittedly happy ten years. So, he really couldn't think of a way that Gibbs had found about him and that incident when he had only been thirteen years old, causing his dad to send him away to military school.

The bartender approached him now, empty-handed.

"I think you've had enough for tonight. Should I call you a cab, mate?"

Tony looked up and wanted to contradict him but then he realized that the guy was probably right, he had drunk too much already, no reason to make his life even more miserable in the morning. He just shook his head, mumbling something about living in walking distance before he placed some money on the counter and slowly left the club, desperately trying not to sway.

His thoughts were still swirling around the expression on his dad's face as he had caught him behind those bushes, the pure look of fury and disgust in comparison to Gibbs' calm eyes upon him as he stopped in front of the familiar house. He subtly shook his head as if he was only realizing now that this wasn't his home but was his boss' house. In fact, he really hadn't thought much about it as he took the detour. But now that he was standing there, he didn't quite know why he came here. He climbed the stairs surprisingly steady but didn't dare to let himself in. It wasn't like he had never done it before, sneaking into there in the middle of the night, not expecting anything but a place to sleep – Gibbs' couch preferably. Not once had Gibbs said anything when he had found him sleeping there, he had simply woken him up, telling him it was time for work.

But this time, it was something entirely different though Tony couldn't quite put the finger on what it was exactly. Maybe it was the beers after all. Taking a deep breath, he let himself in, listening to any noises. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he hoped that Gibbs was already asleep and he wouldn't have a chance to talk to him after all. But as Tony stepped into the living room, he surprisingly saw his boss sitting on the couch watching a movie on his ancient-like TV.

"I never thought you'd ever use the DVD-Player I gave you for your last birthday," Tony tried to joke but even to him his voice sounded oddly off and the slight slurring had probably nothing to do with it.

Gibbs didn't turn to look at him, instead he just patted on the empty space beside him on the couch. Tony followed suit and dropped down on the couch, not needing more than a few seconds to realize that Gibbs of all people was watching Sleepless in Seattle. But before he could ask, Gibbs paused the movie and finally looked at him.

"It was Shannon's favorite movie," he answered Tony's unasked question. "And you look like you've been just thrown out of a bar."

Sheepishly, Tony tried to smile but realized soon enough that there was no way of lying to Gibbs anyway, so he just nodded.

"This case…," he started and trailed off after a few moments of awkward silence.

"What about it?" Gibbs asked calmly, never once averting his eyes from Tony's face.

"I… I don't know," Tony answered hesitantly, not quite sure of what to say. "Sometimes I just wonder, you know, that… uh, that could have been me, you know."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow but remained silent, obviously waiting for Tony to continue. He took a few breaths, unsure of how to make Gibbs understand what was pestering him so badly.

"Ever wondered why my dad threw me out when I was thirteen, Gibbs?"

He waited till his boss nodded sharply once before Tony averted his glance from his face and instead found interest in his shoes.

"My dad caught me kissing my best friend – Andy. We were just, uh, you know, experimenting. We just wondered how it felt like. Kissing, you know. Just in general, it had nothing to do with us being boys and stuff. We just wanted to know. But my father just totally freaked out, telling me that he was ashamed of me and whether I didn't care what others might think of me, of him, of the DiNozzos if they ever found out that I was kissing boys."

Tony stopped talking, still intently staring at his feet, waiting for Gibbs to do something, to say something. Maybe he should have just gone straight home, sleep it off and hopefully repress the case after all. Maybe it had been a stupid idea to come here. But just as he was about to get up he felt Gibbs hand softly patting his shoulder, causing Tony to finally look at him again. He was still sporting that calm expression from before, no hint of surprise on his face.

"I had no idea why he was so furious back then. But I knew that I had done something so terribly wrong that I didn't even think of kissing anyone until I was seventeen. It wasn't until years later, that I realized that Dad wasn't angry with me because I had kissed someone but because I kissed a boy."

Gibbs nodded now, his hand still resting on Tony's shoulders and he felt himself getting calmer by the second. They remained silent for a few minutes, Gibbs obviously not wanting to push Tony any further and he wasn't entirely sure what he had hoped to receive from Gibbs when he had started to tell his story anyway. But that hand on his back was apparently everything he had ever needed…

Wait, what?

Tony shook his head hard. What was he thinking? The beers must have really gotten to his mind by now. He unintentionally tensed up and he felt Gibbs' hand disappear from his body.

"You okay?" Gibbs finally asked.

"No, I mean, yes," Tony stuttered and was about to get up as he felt the older man's hand on his wrist.

He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look at him, realizing that all the calmness had vanished from his face, replaced by… yeah, by what exactly? Actually, he had never seen Gibbs like that, his face slightly red, his eyes wide open.

"And do you share your father's opinion now, Tony?" Gibbs asked only above a whisper.

"No!" Tony all but cried out, sinking down on the couch again. "Of course not. I haven't been on the same page with my father about anything since then. You know that."

"But does he know?"

"Know what?" Tony replied confused, desperately hoping that he was imagining things, that Gibbs' hand wasn't still clutching his wrist, that those piercing blue eyes weren't sizing him up at the moment, that that soft smile playing on Gibbs's lips wasn't of the knowing kind of sort.

"Come on, Tony," Gibbs softly answered, still whispering, causing Tony to lean just a little closer. "You know what I'm talking about."

"You know?"

Tony felt his heart rate accelerate, his hand start to sweat. He had thought he had kept this a secret. The secret of him being… bi-curious, right? Sure, he had had his fair share with the women and the men. But he never told anyone about it. Especially not Gibbs…

"Yes," Gibbs simply answered now, his grip tightening around Tony's wrist even more now.

"How… how long?" Was all that Tony was able to choke out as he was suddenly able to feel the older man's breath on his cheek, able to smell the almost overwhelming mix of sawdust, coffee and bourbon close to him.

"That you are not only interested in women? I'd say within two weeks working with you."

Tony let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. All this time he had thought that he had put on a nice show, fooling everyone, even Gibbs. But apparently he had known all along. And if he had known it for all this time, did he know that…know that… No, he couldn't, otherwise he wouldn't still be sitting as close to him as he was now, still clutching him, his nose mere inches away from Tony's cheek.

"Or are you talking about something different, Tony?" Gibbs asked now, and once again his breath softly tickled Tony's cheek, causing him blush furiously and he hoped that the darkness of the room would do him the favor of not betraying him.

"Wh-what?"

"Or are you talking about the fact that you've been in love with me for quite some time now?"

Tony stared at him with wide eyes, expecting Gibbs to finally back away from him but he had remained close, so close in fact that their lips were all but touching.

"Four years, two months and seven days to be exact," Tony whispered, cursing himself for drinking too many beers, making him confess now.

He felt Gibbs nod more than he actually saw it. His heart was working overtime by now and his breath was shallow, which made it only harder for Tony to string together one coherent sentence. But what was he supposed to say anyway?

Just as he was still wondering about it, he felt Gibbs lean into him the tiniest of fractions and his lips brushed against Tony's, taking the younger man's breath away. It was when he realized that he was maybe not that crazy after all, that all those head slaps had actually been a sign of affection, that that look that afternoon didn't have anything to do with the case but was displaying concern for him. As soon as that realization crashed upon him, Tony kissed him back, tongues soon enough battling for dominance. His thoughts, his worries flying out the window to a place, where he would hopefully never find them again.

As they finally broke apart, lips swollen, green eyes locking into blue ones once again, Tony finally found his words again.

"How long? How long Gibbs?"

"Four years, two months and two days. As soon as I left for Mexico, Tony, I realized that it wasn't work that pulled me back to DC. It was you, though I wouldn't ever admit it."

"Why now?" Tony asked, holding his breath.

"Because we already wasted over four years. Or are you having second thoughts?" Gibbs said; a slight note of insecurity in his voice that Tony had never heard before.

"You know what I like the most?" Tony answered, a broad smile appearing on his face all of a sudden and as Gibbs shook his head, looking confused, he continued. "I just really like to piss off my father."

Gibbs smirked before he shook his head.

"I hope that's not the only thing that makes you do this."

"Never, Jethro," Tony said before he leaned forwards again, stealing another kiss.

A/N: Let me know what you think!