10Ziva frowned as her partner walked away, thinking. Something was definitely off with Tony. He had been acting odd for a few days now and she didn't know why. It was driving her insane especially since when pressed he managed to completely deflect her. It was extremely infuriating and she swore that he would pay for it at some point.
She popped a handful of almonds into her mouth and chewed furiously. Yet another thing that was annoying her, these anonymous gifts of which these nuts were another of. She still hadn't figured out who this mysterious gifter was. What sort of investigator was she? Apparently, not a good one. She did not like not being good at something that she needed to be able to do. Especially since they seemed to know exactly where to put the gifts without her seeing them.
"Munch."
These nuts were extremely delicious though. There was no doubt about that. See? Infuriating. Surely people sending gifts would like to be thanked? Ziva felt uncomfortable not thanking the person leaving such sweet treats for her, it just seemed wrong and incredibly impolite. Tony had said that the gifts were so small that the person didn't necessarily think they needed thanks or they would have left a name. It still felt wrong.
She also simply disliked not knowing things. What if this strange mystery person was trying to lead her into a false sense of security and then do something to her? She had voiced that thought to Tony ad well but had only got an eye roll and a muttered comment about 'paranoid ninjas' in response. She huffed. Did Tony not know about the possibilities of being poisoned or led into a trap? These were all valid reasons for trying to find this person!
"Munch."
Right after she finished these delicious nuts.
Tony couldn't believe that he'd gotten away with this for so long. He had to be up for some sort of award or something, pulling the wool over Ziva's eyes like this. No one could have done it before if her level of frustration was anything to go by. Of course, he'd roped in the whole team to help him (even Gibbs!). They kept an eye on her whereabouts and even distracted her when necessary. He had to say, Tony was incredibly impressed with Probie. The guy didn't even stutter when asking Ziva something about her computer so Tony could sidle down to her car to leave her the smoothie gift vouchers. He owed everyone big time. Though maybe he wouldn't mention the fact that Abby hacked into their internal security cameras to do her bit. That had involved an amusing series of texts for him to keep one step ahead of his partner. It was like playing real life pacman, only with just one terrifying, terrifying ninja ghost.
There were just a few more gifts he wanted to give her. Then they'd all be off for Christmas and wouldn't be able to do it anymore. He'd like to do it for the whole Advent period now that he'd got the idea into his head but unless he wanted to break into her apartment to do so he'd just have to stop at the end of this week. He was running out of ideas for little gifts anyway. This was honestly the most fun he'd had around Christmas for a while; he made his partner smile while simultaneously winding her up and he'd kept nearly each gift under five bucks. Win, win all around in his opinion. In fact, most were under the two-dollar mark, not including the voucher for the smoothie place because he knew how much she loved the Mango Berry Madness ones and just giving her one seemed a bit ridiculous to him.
Just a few more gifts and it would all be over. Tony didn't know whether he wanted to give himself up or not. On one hand, he would get the opportunity to be smug about tricking her, on the other hand there may or may not be pain involved for tricking her. Meh, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. And maybe burn it behind him to prevent retaliation. All his mind power had to be focused on being very clever about where he was going to hide the remaining gifts. He couldn't leave them in the same place twice, that was an amateur move. And pretty much guaranteed to get him caught. Case in point, those cameras of McGee's.
He passed the gift between his hands and thought. He hadn't exactly left himself many spots. Now, where could this one go? Hmm. Tony couldn't resist, he carefully put the gift down and clapped his hands in glee. Oh, this was so much fun! Someone coughed behind him. He jumped and swung around.
"You okay, DiNozzo?"
Oh, he put his hand on his chest and breathed deeply. It was just Agent Roberts from Cyber Crimes.
"DiNozzo?"
"Uh, yeah. Everything is A-Okay!" Tony replied cheerfully, shooting him his signature DiNozzo grin.
The man didn't look too convinced if the look he shot Tony was anything to go by. Well, at least he didn't hang around. This was wasting precious time. What did he need to do again?
His eyes landed on the wrapped gift on his desk. Oh yeah. Hiding spots! Right, serious face now. He had a job to do.
"It is you!"
He had to have jumped at least ten feet in the air. What did Ziva do to her shoes to make no noise? Boots should make noise, right?
"Err..."
That was all he could get out as his heart was thumping and Ziva staring incredulously at him like that. He couldn't even feel gleeful at her expression due to the blood pounding in his ears. Not that Ziva seemed to care as she continued talking.
"You are behind all of this!" she exclaimed.
Wow, that was loud.
"Um, Zi?"
"How? Why?"
Just great. She wasn't even talking in complete sentences any more.
"Zi-?"
"Do you know how paranoid I've been? I-"
"Ziva!"
She fell silent and looked at him expectantly.
"Can," he coughed. "Uh, can you let me down?"
He wiggled his feet from the position she had him pressed against the wall in. Ziva blinked at him.
"Oh. Yes." and she released her grip.
Tony feel to the ground with a thump. Ouch. His relief was brief as Ziva loomed over him, hands on her hips and so many questions in her eyes. She reached for the scruff of his neck.
"Eurk!"
"Explain. Now."
Tony gulped as their faces came within inches of touching. He never realised how many shades of brown were in Ziva's eyes...
"Tony."
AN: And I think I'll leave what Ziva does to him up to your imaginations. Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone, always appreciated. If you want any other full stories from 'The Meaning of Christmas' just drop me a PM and I'll see what I can come up with!
