Work Text:
WAYS AND MEANS
by Mysti Frank
Tony made a swift grab for the crystal duck figurine before it fell heavily to the floor, but it eluded him and clunked onto the carpet with a dull sound. He looked up at Gibbs and gave an airy shrug. "Ah, well, no harm done."
Gibbs glared at him. Tony stared back placidly. After a moment, Gibbs growled softly and picked up the duck, setting it back on the table. He moved around the piece of furniture, but only got a couple of steps away before Tony's soft voice admonished him.
"Try again."
Gibbs turned back, anger sparking his blue eyes. "I *have* tried. Repeatedly. It's not gonna happen."
Tony rubbed his eyes tiredly; they had been working on strengthening Gibbs' Talent of levitating objects for nearly six hours. Tony had sworn that he could help his boss improve the marginal Talent, but they had had scant success, mostly due to Gibbs' insistence that nothing would help.
"Look," Tony sighed, "if you want that pay raise, you have to show a higher level of Talent. You know that. So get over here and try it again."
"No."
Not a growl, not a shout, not even a snarl - just a short, flat, unbrookable 'no' that said Gibbs was done trying and moving on to something else, something he *could* do.
But it wasn't in Tony's makeup to admit defeat. He'd tried cajoling, demanding and even pleading that his boss buckle down and concentrate on improving his Talent, but even with Gibbs' legendary single-focused mind bent to attempting to move the figurine more than three inches above the surface of the table, nothing had sufficed. It was time to call out the big guns.
Tony moved up behind Gibbs, turned him around with a gentle hand, and then suddenly pulled him into a clench, his lips unerringly zeroing in on Gibbs' own and meeting them firmly, gentling into a soft kiss. He used his own Talent to whisper into Gibbs' mind, //Float the duck...float the
duck....float the duck...//
//...Wha...?// Gibbs thought hazily, but Tony overrode him, keeping the other man's lips engaged while distracting his mind.
//...C'mon, lover...float the duck...float the duck...//
Tony gave his boss a final soft kiss and stepped back slightly, grinning down into Gibbs' unfocused blue eyes. "Knew you could do it," he murmured.
"Huh?"
Tony laughed to himself as he looked from Gibbs' dreamy expression to the crystal duck hovering right beside him - six feet off the ground. "Damn, I'm good."
"I'm better," Gibbs growled, pulling him back in for another kiss.
//Well, that fog cleared up in a hurry,// Tony snickered to himself. //And it worked like a charm. But how in the hell -- wow, how does he *do* that? -- am I going to explain why I'm snogging my boss when he goes in to show Vance how much his Talent has improved...?//
When the crystal duck hit the ceiling with a hard snap and hung there, impaled by its bill, Tony grinned, closed his eyes and decided he'd deal with that later; right now he was discovering his boss was talented in many other ways, ways that had nothing to do with Talent at all.
end