Work Text:
She wasn't a switch. She knew that much.
Abby was a switch. Abby could get just as excited at being spanked or tied to the bed as she could spanking someone else or tying the ropes. She could take orders and she could give them, sometimes even with two different people at once.
Kate wasn't like that. She didn't like to submit. Her dominance was a part of her, had been ever since she was seventeen years old and had sex for the first time, with a slightly older, more experienced sub who had found himself in the interesting position of being ordered to tell her what she was supposed to be doing.
She wasn't submissive, and yet somehow, when she was around Leroy Jethro Gibbs, she knew that he was in charge. He was the alpha dominant, she the beta. It wasn't just that he was her boss in the workplace - that was different; even submissives could hold powerful jobs. With Gibbs, though, his dominance continued even outside of NCIS. She could assert herself, make her opinions known, criticise him all she liked, but in the end if he made a decision, chances were she'd follow it.
She had slept with other dominants before - just sex, no real relationship, no power dynamics in the bedroom - but this was different. Gibbs wasn't a casual relationship, or a one-night-stand. Somehow she had fallen for him, head over heels, and she didn't think she ever wanted to get back up.
It was hard, making people understand. Abby was there for her, of course: the energetic lab tech had seen it coming long before she herself had, encouraging her to go for it despite Kate's confusion over the dynamic roles. And actually, all of her team had been supportive. Ziva - who routinely defied convention herself - had just shrugged as if there was nothing unusual about it. McGee had been surprised, but like the good friend he was he had accepted it quickly without judgement. Ducky, of course, was as understanding as ever, and Tony - well, he tormented her about it constantly, but that was just normal behaviour from him.
Everybody else, though... her brother had just stared at her in disbelief. Her father had laughed it off, telling her to enjoy it while it lasted: she was pretty certain he thought she was just experimenting and that she'd be hooked up with a nice submissive within a week or two. Her mother, however, had the reaction that most of her friends had - questioning her dynamic. She had got very tired of people asking if she was actually a sub, or a switch, or if she was going to get collared soon.
It just wasn't like that between them. Gibbs knew that she had no submissive tendencies, and he never questioned it. Occasionally she would let him have his way with her in the bedroom, assert his dominance, but he knew that she was simply acting the part of a submissive rather than truly submitting, and he accepted that. Other times, when she really felt the need to be in control, he would be the one to act a part, calling her ‘Mistress’ and kneeling beside her with his head down, obeying her orders and allowing her to do as she wished to him. She knew most people would never believe her if she told them, but he was actually incredibly good in the role of a obedient attendant, dedicating himself to her pleasure. The submissiveness was an act, but he really did care for her, and she found him sexier than the most subservient sub.
Most of the time, though, they were equals in the bedroom.
She would never accept a collar, and he would never dream of offering one, but she wanted to stay with him forever.
-------------
He watched them sometimes.
He’d be sitting at his desk and he’d see them talking to each other, touching. Gibbs was not the openly affectionate type, but Tony knew him well enough to see the closeness, to know the meaning of the simplest brush of the hand. Kate was far less inhibited, showing her feelings clearly to everybody in the office.
The entire building talked about them: about the impossibility of two dominant NCIS agents apparently living together. Gibbs was certainly an alpha dominant. Everybody in the office found themselves doing as he wished when he ordered them - or just looked at them – regardless of their dynamic. Even the Director had trouble telling him what to do. Kate was no exception. Surely, people said, this had to extend to his home life, and his sex life.
The prevalent theory was that Kate must have been a closet submissive, or at least a switch: consensus agreed that somebody as dominant as Gibbs could not possibly be happy with somebody who would not submit to him.
Tony knew that consensus was wrong.
Kate was dominant, and only dominant. He knew this absolutely. She was beta to Gibbs’ alpha, but so was almost every other dominant Tony had ever met. The test of her dominance was not observing her with Gibbs, but with everybody else: and even switches like Abby and Ducky often found themselves deferring to her.
They were two strong dominants, and they were a pair.
He watched them, because he was jealous.
For six years he had wanted Gibbs. Compared with his boss, no other dominant had ever really been able to satisfy him. He had played the field, slept with countless good-looking women and men, tried everything from the kinkiest sex to practically vanilla, but the thought of commitment had never even crossed his mind. Not when he saw his boss at work every morning. Strong, commanding, handsome.
He thought that Gibbs would probably have a firm hand with any submissive he collared. He imagined laying over his boss’s knee, Gibbs holding a belt with one hand, and holding Tony in place with the other – or kneeling naked at the bottom of Gibbs’s bed, a gag in his mouth, chained to the bedpost.
Then Kate had come along, and he’d been astonished to find that he was properly attracted to her. Not just sexually attracted to her body, the way that he had with so many dominants before her, but rather feelings just as strong as he had for Gibbs. Knowing that she would never accept his advances, he had never seriously tried to attract her: instead the two of them had developed a strange kind of bickering friendship, especially unusual considering the differences in their dynamic.
He felt strange, insulting her on a daily basis, knowing that he’d like to be kneeling at her feet, his head on her lap… and yet, he loved it at the same time. His fantasies featuring her were not the same as his daydreams of total submission to Gibbs – rather, he imagined being the cheeky brat sub, insulting her taste in movies one minute, and the next giving her the perfect massage.
When Abby had told him that Kate and Gibbs were together, he hadn’t known whether to laugh or cry. It had broken his heart a little that there was no longer any chance that either one of them would be interested in him. He had buried it deeply, deliberately setting out to treat them both exactly the same way as he had done before. He knew how much trouble Kate was already having, dealing with the reactions of her family and friends, and he refused to upset her further by showing any signs of jealousy.
In any case, he had decided, this relationship would do wonders for his fantasy life. No longer was he forced to daydream of Kate or Gibbs separately – now, he could imagine being with both at once. He could be kneeling by the side of the bed, watching as they had sex in front of him. Gibbs could be caning his ass, while Kate held him lovingly, watching his butt change colour. That perfect massage he would give his mistress could be under orders from his master; he would know that if he did it wrong, punishment would follow...
They were both dominants, he thought. Surely what they needed was him.
It was a good fantasy, at least.