Peripetia
Peripetia (Gibbs/Tony) -- Part of the Stageplay universe.
Sequel to: Manipulation in Five Acts (Ziva/Tony) and Curtain Line (no pairing) and Aesthetic Distance (Gibbs/Tony-sorta)
Warnings: Dom!Gibbs/Sub!Tony, bondage, Ziva as a ball-busting ex-Domme just returned from Somalia.
Timeline: Follows "Inside Man"/Season Seven
Peripetia
The reversal of the protagonist's fortunes that, according to Aristotle, is part of the climax of a tragedy. Success turns to failure, usually as a result of the hero’s own flaws.
Tony pulled at the ropes holding his arms behind his back, but nothing gave. Gibbs was good with his knots. And from the silence, he was a little pissed.
“Boss?”
“Hmmm?”
Tony shifted on the basement step, pulled short by the rope that tethered him to the railing. When Gibbs decided to do bondage, he really knew he stuff. “How pissed are you?”
Gibbs stopped sanding immediately. Looking up from the boat, he stared at Tony as though seeing him for the first time.
“I mean, I know that getting arrested by the police wasn’t exactly by the book…” Tony stopped. He was still struggling to get his balance back, trying to work with Ziva without remembering how it felt to have her hands over him. Having Metro PD catch him stealing a dead man’s navigational information was not the bright spot of his career. Hell, he was surprised Vance even showed up to rescue him. Then again, he’d gotten arrested with Vance’s golden boy, McGeeky, so that might explain the director’s interest.
Gibbs tossed his sandpaper at the bench and walked over. Gibbs had a strength to him that Tony had always admired; however, in the past, he’d admired it in a ‘I really want to be like him’ way, and now-tied to Gibbs stairs-he could admit that the interest was a little more intimate. “Did you get the information to prove Burns had moved the lieutenant’s body?” Gibbs demanded.
“Well, yeah. I mean, really. In this day and age, who uses their own car to move a body? It’s getting to the point where a man can’t even commit a little tampering with a body without having their own vehicle rat them out, which is why I am into the classics.” Tony grinned as Gibbs rolled his eyes. He liked entertaining Gibbs, and down here, the man would actually admit to being amused. Watching Gibbs smile was one of the great rewards of subbing for the man, even if Tony wasn’t sleeping with him. And oddly, the idea of sleeping with Gibbs was sounding more normal every day. Gibbs cuffed Tony upside the head, but it was a gentle hit, followed up by calloused fingers gently threading through his hair.
“So, do you want to explain why you’re assuming I’m pissed?”
Tony thought about that. When Gibbs asked in that tone, when his fingers were caressing Tony, he felt this overwhelming pressure to give a good answer. Yeah, his subbie little heart was falling for Gibbs, even if he woke up in a cold sweat wondering how the hell anything bigger than a pencil would ever fit up his own ass. And he had no illusions. If he agreed to sex with Gibbs, Gibbs would be topping. And really, Gibbs wasn’t even bringing up the subject of sex, so Tony wasn’t sure why he was suddenly obsessing over it.
“DiNozzo.” Gibbs’ voice had that sharp edge that made Tony sit up straighter and strain at the ropes holding him.
“Sorry, boss. Um… what was the question?” He gave Gibbs his best boyish grin, but this time, instead of looking amused, Gibbs looked worried. Backing away, Gibbs grabbed a chair and pulled it over to the side of the stair and sat before resting his hands on Tony’s knees. One layer of cotton was all that was between his thighs and Gibbs’ work-roughened hands. Tony swallowed.
“Tony, look at me,” Gibbs ordered. Tony immediately looked up, unable to not follow Gibbs’ instructions. Maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to sub for Gibbs because it was addictive. It was like Tony needed a fix of Gibbs and he got jittery without it. And now, now that he could wallow in all of Gibbs’ dominance, he was drunk on the feeling. He couldn’t even think straight. “Why do you think I’m pissed.” Gibbs’ fingers pressed into the soft flesh of Tony’s thighs, and even though Tony had jerked off less than an hour ago, his cock was making a valiant effort to get back into the game. Tony squirmed backwards on the step until he could hook his fingers around the edge.
“You’re just quite, boss.”
“I’m always quiet, Tony. Tell me what you have bouncing around in that head of yours.”
“Twenty years’ worth of Academy Award trivia.”
Gibbs leaned back and frowned, and the earth seemed to tilt under Tony as he clung to the stair’s edge.
“You’re just intense, boss. You have that look on your face like something’s really eating you up, you know?”
Gibbs leaned in and ran a warm hand over Tony’s bare shoulder as though soothing him. Before Tony had agreed to this little arrangement, he had no idea that Gibbs was so tactile. He constantly petted Tony or ran fingers over the ropes or tugged on a bit of hair. Gibbs’ hands had their own language, and Tony realized that’s what had set off his alarm bells.
“Your hands,” Tony said, “they were totally focused on the boat, always moving over the wood like you needed to keep yourself from doing something else with them. I’m just assuming the something else in question is headslapping me into the middle of next week for getting myself and McGee arrested in the middle of the Burns case.”
“You did good, Tony.” Gibbs sighed. “Next time, assume there are dogs, but that’s not what I’m upset about. You and Tim worked well together, and you figured out the case.”
“Me, Tim, and Ziva,” Tony corrected him. After all, Ziva had helped solve the case even if she’d been stuck at a desk at the time. Gibbs’ fingers tightened around Tony’s knees. “Oh. Ziva.” Tony grimaced. He should have known that Gibbs wouldn’t just forget everything that had happened. As much as Tony never expected to find himself the center of Gibbs’ protective streak, he had to admit it felt a little good.
“She’s been… careful,” Tony summed it up. Ziva had been careful to avoid bringing up their past, to keep her hands clear of him to and not press any of the buttons that, as his Domme, she’d become so intimately familiar with.
“Careful?” Gibbs raised an eyebrow.
“Come on, boss. If she was giving me any grief about Caluna, I would have come to you.”
Gibbs sighed. “I know you would have, Tony. This isn’t about the case or how she worked with you this time.”
Shifting on his step, Tony could feel the discomfort under his skin like an itch, and as long as Gibbs had him tied up, there wasn’t much Tony could do about it. “Then what?” he asked, and he couldn’t keep the suspicion out of his voice. Gibbs stood up and turned to the workbench. Tony could only watch his back as Gibbs went through one of the drawers and pulled out a paper. He unfolded it as he crossed the basement back to Tony’s side. Wordlessly, Gibbs smoothed the page and set it on the step level with Tony’s nose. He had to squirm around sideways and strain at the rope around his ankle to read it, but that was fine. Gibbs enjoyed watching him stain in his bonds, and Tony loved watching Gibbs enjoy himself.
After a few lines, Tony sucked in a breath. “Ziva wants a permanent job? What about Mossad?”
“She resigned.”
“And she wants to stay? Forever?”
Tony turned around so he could study Gibbs’ face. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Right now, Ziva was still struggling to find her own balance. Michael had betrayed her, her father had used her and sent her off to die, Mossad had written her off. Every person she trusted had betrayed her, and there was a small, unkind part of Tony that wanted to scream from the rooftops that every person Ziva had turned her back on had come to her rescue. Ziva had threatened him and abandoned Gibbs, and yet who had shown up to rescue her? They had. Tony had surrendered to terrorists just to force their hand and bring Ziva out of her cell.
But sooner or later, she’d rediscover her own power. She’d turn back into the Domme that had taken him in hand and spent so many nights hold him down, hurting him, touching him.
“Are you going to sign?” Tony asked.
Gibbs sighed. “I don’t know. How do you feel about it?”
“Me?” Tony laughed. “I’m the sub here, Gibbs. You’re the Dom.”
Gibbs pulled back as though burned, and Tony felt that loss of contact as though it was a pain. He’d said something wrong, he could see it in Gibbs’ face, but tied and tethered, he couldn’t exactly run away to avoid his stupidity. So Tony just clenched his teeth.
Gibbs’ hand was gentle against his face. “Tony, being a sub doesn’t mean you don’t have a voice. I might enjoy making the final decision, but if I make a decision before listening to everyone, that makes me an idiot. I’m not an idiot.”
“Never said you were, boss. Never even thought it. I’m pretty sure my brain would spontaneously combust if I even tried thinking something that wrong.”
Shaking his head, Gibbs kept stroking Tony’s cheek. “How do you feel about her request to have a permanent job at NCIS?”
“Scared?” Tony guessed. He hadn’t really probed his own feelings, in part because that whole part of his life was such a tangled knot of regret that he was afraid to.
“That’s honest. What else?”
Tony leaned into Gibbs’ hand, enjoying the fact that he could ask for that sort of support from the man now. He needed it. “I don’t know. I don’t want you to refuse her because of me.”
When Gibbs stood up, Tony expected him to walk away. Instead Gibbs moved to his side and sat next to Tony on the step before running his hand up and down Tony’s thigh. Oh yeah, Tony’s cock was definitely getting interested. “If I refuse to sign this it’s because I think she’d not right for our team.”
“But she is,” Tony pointed out. “She’ the best shot on the team outside of you, she’s better in hand to hand than either of us, and she is starting to develop as an investigator.”
“And she can take all those skills to another team.”
“No, she can’t,” Tony said, and he felt a flare of something hot in his chest. Fear. He was afraid of her going to another team, although he sure as hell didn’t know what he was afraid of. Her breaking two perfectly innocent and unprepared NCIS agents on some random team, maybe.
“Do you want her back?” Gibbs asked softly, his hand going lax on Tony’s leg.
“What? No. No no no. In case you’ve forgotten Gibbs, she broke me, and I’m not talking about the arm.” Tony narrowed his eyes. “Do you really think I’d choose her when…” He stopped. They’d never really talked about what he and Gibbs did.
“When you found someone else to tie you up?” Gibbs mused, his fingers going back to their casual exploration. “Or when you found something more?”
Gibbs’ tone sounded so bland, so calm. But Tony had known Gibbs for a decade. He knew when the man was testing the water. “I hope we have something more than just the ropes,” Tony said carefully. He wasn’t ready to commit too much, not when his cock still went into full panic mode at the idea of Gibbs’ cock getting too close. He really didn’t think Gibbs would appreciate any heterosexual panic, especially from a man who clearly wasn’t as heterosexual as he’d always thought.
“And does that affect your ability to work with Ziva?”
Tony sighed. “I won’t sub for her again, Gibbs. If you get tired of me tomorrow and throw my ass out onto the lawn, I still can’t go back to her.” Tony stopped when Gibbs’ fingers caught his chin and forced him to turn and look Gibbs in the face.
“I’m not turning you out, DiNozzo. Ever. Got it.”
Tony couldn’t control the stupid smile spreading over his face. “You sure, boss? I can do some stupid stuff.”
That earned an eyeroll. “If I’ve put up with your bad sense of humor this long, I’m not going to wake up and decide to kick you to the curb.”
“Aw, boss. That’s almost romantic,” Tony cooed, and he wasn’t even a little surprised when Gibbs popped him upside the head. Strangely, those hits were romantic, too, although Tony would never say it out loud. They sat in silence, Gibbs’ fingers tracing small patterns against Tony’s pants. Left on his own, Tony would have run to turn on the television or made enough noise to silence the thoughts in his head, but like this, he couldn’t escape the memories of his failed relationship with Ziva. If she was back permanently, she would have to test the boundaries of their new relationship. With a little encouragement, she would even try to Domme him again, Tony could sense that in the uncertainly that characterized her every move, now. She was out of her comfort zone and cut off from power bases she’d always counted on, and that made her dangerous in an entirely new way. But they were teammates. She might have forgotten that, but Tony hadn’t.
“If we do this, I’m going to….” Tony stopped. Gibbs might have told him to ask for help when he needed it, but that didn’t make it any easy for Tony to say the words. He would need someone to keep him from flying apart at the seams. He would needs someone to protect him when Ziva rubbed his nerves raw with her very presence. He would need help.
Gibbs pulled on Tony, and with his hands tied behind his back, Tony couldn’t prevent himself from tipping into Gibbs’ space. Helpless to do anything else, he rested his head against Gibbs’ shoulder and let his Dom’s hands wander over his exposed chest and back. “I have you, Tony,” Gibbs whispered. “If you’re willing to let her into the family, that’s fine, but she’s not my responsibility anymore, Tony. You are.”
Tony’s breath came in uneven little gasps and he kept getting little tremors through his body, but Gibbs held him so tightly that Tony couldn’t even move an inch. “Sign it,” Tony whispered. Closing his eyes, he waited for the fear, the regret, the jealousy. He waited for that inevitable feeling that he was, once more, stupidly moving aside so someone else could take his place. He’d done that so many times, that Tony had grown used to being the one on the side. He waited, but his body slowly calmed, his breathing evened out as Gibbs continued to hold him.
“If that’s what you want, I will. Just know, Tony, you’re my second. She lost any claim she had on my loyalty when she forgot that.” Gibbs sounded almost fierce about that, and Tony took a deep breath and for the first time in his life, he honestly believed that there was one person in the world that wouldn’t set him aside for someone else. Hopefully the universe and Gibbs wouldn’t let him down, because Tony had the feeling he wouldn’t recover if Gibbs broke him. And that scared him. That terrified him. But the terror was a distant thought as Gibbs’ hands danced across his body.