Myrmidon

Day 10: Snowball/Snowball fight/Snowman

Tony headed back into the store. Gibbs followed along behind him, stopping to collect the basket from the elderly lady. With Gibbs permission to get any ornaments he wanted, Tony looked around the store with renewed interest.

Before he’d only looked at the ones that caught his eyes as he moved past. Now, he looked at each one carefully before deciding whether to add it to the basket or not. Currently, he was looking at a set of snowmen.

Only, they weren’t normal snowmen. Each snowman appeared to be a little warrior. The detail was absolutely magnificent. Tony couldn’t imagine the skill needed to accomplish this level of detail.

“That one’s a favorite of my husband. He loves the Trojan War and every year he makes at least one set of ornaments or decorations based off of that time period. This year, he made that set of snowman ornaments with the features of the Myrmidon, warlike Thessalian people who participated in the Trojan war. There’s another set of ornaments featuring the people of Troy this year as well.”

“They’re amazing.” Tony complimented.

“Thanks. We work hard to provide unique ornaments for everyone to enjoy.” The elderly lady returned to the checkstand behind the counter.

Tony set the snowman back down. Even though they were amazingly detailed, he didn’t feel they were right for Gibbs’ tree. He continued to look through the ornaments available, periodically placing one or two into Gibbs basket.

Finally, Tony had looked at all the ornaments. Gibbs basket contained roughly 50 ornaments. Normally, Gibbs would have been itching to get out of the shop, but watching Tony look at the ornaments kept him entertained.

Not only would Tony periodically use some of them to play out some movie scene, but just watching Tony’s smile and wonder was enough to keep Gibbs content no matter how long Tony shopped for Christmas ornaments.

Still Gibbs was happy to take the basket to the checkstand and pay for the ornaments after Tony finally decreed that they had all the ornaments they needed. Tony tried to pay, but Gibbs would have nothing of it.

“Let me do this for you, Tony. You deserve the Christmas you never had as a child.”

Tony sighed. He’d been doing his best to ignore the fight they’d had earlier and the memories it had brought up. He’d enjoyed their relationship the first time, but looking back on it now there was a lot lacking the first time.

They’d had to keep it secret from work, which meant that no one knew Gibbs and Tony were dating. So when they broke up, no one knew Tony needed support. Tony had survived, but it had been a fight to get through every day and he’d had zero support.

They’d had their happy moments at home. Gibbs gruff exterior hadn’t always been obvious and Tony had discovered that Gibbs secretly enjoyed cuddling. It was rare, though, for cuddling to happen as Gibbs had still preferred to spend a lot of time working on his boat.

There hadn’t been any balance. Gibbs had called all the shots and Tony had let him. Tony wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.

“You’re not my sugar daddy, Gibbs. I can pay for my own ornaments.”

Gibbs sputtered, “What? I’m not trying to be your sugar daddy.”

“You called all the shots in our previous relationship. I’m not interested in falling into that trap again.”

Gibbs glared. He knew Tony was right about the issues with their previous relationship, but all he wanted was to do something nice for Tony. Tony held Gibbs gaze, completely ignoring the glare Gibbs was training on him.

“If you want to pay for the ornaments, then I’m paying for the tree we pick out on our next day off.” Tony had glanced outside and noticed it was already dark. There was no way they were finding a tree tonight.

“Agreed, but we pick out the tree after work tomorrow unless we catch a case.”

“Fine.” Tony left Gibbs to his purchases and went to see if there was anything else of interest in this shopping plaza.

Gibbs quickly paid for the purchases or as quickly as he could given the lecture the elderly lady was giving him. He finally escaped her admonishment to take care of Tony and put the ornaments into the trunk before going off in search of Tony. He found Tony standing silently in front of a restaurant, lost in thought.

“Do you want to do dinner here before we head back?”

Tony glanced up at Gibbs, pondering the question. “No. Let’s head back. We have work tomorrow and I have to figure out a new location for the team holiday party. I just found out that there was a mix up with my reservation and apparently the place I booked isn’t available.”

“That’s no problem. You can hold it at my place. We’re already planning to put a tree up and I’m sure you can find other decorations as needed to make it as festive as you want.”

“You won’t mind?” Tony checked. Gibbs inviting the team to his house was unheard of.

“I want you to start thinking of my house as yours. If you want to host a party there, you’re welcome to.”

“The team is going to love this. I can’t wait. Let’s head back, now.” Tony eagerly rushed back to the car.

Gibbs shook his head at Tony’s excitement, following a lot more slowly.