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Haven 3: The Showing
by PEJA
"Mmmm, yes," Ducky pursed his lips, his sharp blue gaze capturing Gibbs' uncertain one. Taking Gibbs' hand, he laced their fingers and lifted them to his lips, brushing an old world kiss over pale knuckles. "Would we like to see Napoleon's...acquisition, pet?"
Blue eyes twinkling at the show of affection, Gibbs' crooked smile curved and Ducky nodded, speaking for them both. "I think I would like that very much. Lead on, my dear friend."
Rubbing his hands together, Napoleon grinned boyishly. "Ah, that is good. Very good." With a wide wave and a slight bow to the elderly man he had forever loved as Illya, he said, "This way."
He directed them to the back of the club, down a red lit stairwell and through a lavishly decorated hallway. At the end of the hall he paused and stared long and hard at Gibbs before he finally spoke. "Has your boy ever attended a private showing?"
Ducky glanced at Gibbs, who shook his head. "No, I dare say he has not."
Napoleon, scowled darkly, drawing a deep breath. "Very well. I have a few ground rules in this case. The young man inside this room works at NCIS. He is here under my protection."
"Of course, Napoleon." Illya assured the other man.
"Your man, here," Napoleon eyed Gibbs, a dangerous glint in his chocolate gaze. "His voice is known to the boy. I do not want him embarrassed at work knowing either of you have seen him here. Neither of you will speak inside this room. Not so much as a whispered grunt, is that acceptable?"
Gibbs nodded. "I know how to keep my mouth shut."
Napoleon's hard glance swept over the younger man, then a mocking smile twisted his lips. "I think in this case, your ability to remain silent may be ...tested."
Ducky just chuckled softly, shaking his head. "Shall we proceed, Beloved."
Gibbs shot a look at Ducky, unable to keep the worried frown from his face as he realized that it had been the club owner and not him that Ducky had called beloved. And in such a tender way that it struck terror in his needy heart.
Napoleon grinned boyishly, something even more endearing on him in his maturity than it had been in the younger wolfish years, and wrapped an arm around Ducky's waist. Ducky's arm found its way round Napoleon as well and they shared an intimate smile, making Gibbs feel more of a third wheel than before.
Was he losing his lover. No not lover, he admonished himself, Ducky had never been an honest to god lover, their relationship had been based on need. Gibb's need to have a safe place to let someone else make the decisions. Someone to go to when the pressure of the job, his life, got to be more than he could absorb. He had given up the idea of love to be with Ducky. And apparently Ducky had given up someone who loved and cherished him to make a safe hole for Gibbs to run to when he could no longer face the reality of the harsh life he lead.
He held back as the two older men crossed into the next room, staring unseeing at the floor.
But the call of his training was louder than the voice of jealousy whispering in his ear. With a dejected sigh, he crossed the floor and stepped into the dimly lit room and froze, his vision narrowing until all he could see was the two older men.
A shudder swept through him as the club owner brushed a tender hand over the lapels of Ducky's suit coat, smoothing the material. He bit into his lower lip when Ducky smiled up into the dark eyes and raked back the silver tipped strands of hair at Napoleon's temple. His knees threatened to buckle under him as the dark eyed man captured Ducky's fingers and pressed a lingering kiss into the palm then curling Ducky's fingers over that possessed bit of skin as if to hold it in his hand. When Ducky returned the intimate action in Napoleon's palm, Gibbs couldn't restrain the desolate whimper that rose from his very toes.
He didn't have to be NCIS to know that Ducky loved the club owner. Loved him in a way that Gibbs could never hope to have for himself from the man who had been his master for as many years as they had known each other. The kind of love he wanted to have more than life itself. If only....
"Ah, Illya," Napoleon's smooth whiskey voice poured over him, breaking him from the spell of lost possibilities, making him shift from foot to foot. "Your boy seems to be dragging his feet. Perhaps he would rather not see what's behind the curtains, hey?"
Arching a knowing brow at Gibbs, Ducky remained silent. he held a hand out toward Gibbs and the younger man quickly stepped forward, grasping that hand like it were a lifeline.
Ducky smiled softly. A master acknowledging his duty to his sub. His sometimes sub.
Napoleon's grin was a dagger in Gibbs heart, seeming to 'say you have him now, but his heart and soul belong to me.'
"Now remember," Napoleon warned, his eyes locked on Gibbs once more. "Not a sound, boy." He touched a button on the wall and the curtain on the far side of the room whispered open. Another button and a warm light flooded the staged area revealing a man kneeling in naked glory, his hand obviously bound behind him.
Tony lifted his bowed head, revealing the blindfold that kept him in the dark. His head tilted slightly and Gibbs sensed that he was using that extraordinary hearing to try to identify who had entered.
Gibbs didn't realize he'd moved forward until Ducky's hold on him tightened. He cast an anxious glance toward Ducky than back toward Tony.
"As I mentioned," Napoleon said in a voice that Gibbs knew carried to the man on the stage. "Mr DiNozzo comes to us for support. He loves the man he works for."
Gibbs' jaw dropped, shocked. The man he works for? He was the man Tony worked for. Tony..." His eyes darted back toward the stage. ...Tony loved him. Did he dare believe...? He turned back to Napoleon.
"A sad thing, isn't it, boy?" Napoleon said in answer to the tormented questions leaping from Gibbs open gaze. "Two men, both in love, but neither one willing to take the chance to speak. One seeks comfort in the arms of a dear friend who can offer nothing but comfort. The other chasing anyone attractive who crosses his sight." He smiled softly. "So, Illya. Do you want the boy?"
Ducky arched a brow at Gibbs, the question load but unspoken.
Gibbs nodded....Once. Firmly.
Ducky realized Gibbs arm freeing him. He stood still, questioning, until Ducky gave him a tiny push toward the stage.
That was all Gibbs needed. He bounded across the room and up onto the stage.
Tony flinched at the sound of his approach, uncertain in his darkness.
Realizing he was startling his precious boy, Gibbs slowed his approach. When he reached the other man, he waited a moment for Tony to relax a bit before he cupped the younger man's cheek, letting his thumb trace Tony's full lower lip.
Tony's lips parted, his tongue slipping out, drawing the thumb inside. Suckling the offering hesitantly.
Gibbs smiled and traced the blindfold covering Tony's eyes. Then giving a tiny tug, he brought Tony into the light.
Tony's eyes snapped open.
Gibbs knew the exact moment when Tony's sluggish brain realized whose thumb he nursed at. His eyes widened to impossible lengths, His tongue stopped working the thumb in his mouth.
Gibbs grinned widely and stood, drawing Tony to his feet with him. He glanced at Ducky, asking permission with his eyes.
"This puts me in mind of a story," Ducky said in his whimsical story telling voice. "I knew a man...in New York, If memory serves me right....This man allowed duty to separate him from the one man he wanted more than breath itself...." He leaned into Napoleon's embrace. "It took half his life to fix that mistake."
Gibbs grinned and turned back to Dinozzo "Will you accept me, Tony?" he asked. "Will you give me your heart and soul, your body and mind. I want it all, Tony. Say no if you can only give me a part of you, but if you can give me it all, I promise to cherish you with all the love I have to give."
Tony didn't speak. Instead he covered Gibbs lips with a deep passion filled kiss.
"He looks like he agrees." Napoleon whispered in Illya's ear. "So now you've given them what they want, do I get what I want?"
Illya turned in his arms and drew his head down to share a kiss full of times past, and times to come
END