Work Text:
Tony stormed down the stairs from his apartment. He couldn’t take one more minute with his father. Normally, his apartment was his safe haven, but right now his dad was staying with him.
Not only did he no longer have the alone time he needed, but his father seemed determined to talk his ears off about all the eligible females around him. He didn’t care about the females around him. He was in a committed relationship, but despite Senior knowing about the existence of his partner Senior still thought he should be with one of the females.
Tony was ready to strangle something, preferably Senior’s neck. His father refused to see that his relationship with Gibbs was permanent and more than just a work partnership. The man was driving him crazy.
He’d taken more walks, jogs, and runs in the past week than he had in the previous month before Senior arrived. His body was in fine fettle from the extra exercise, but his mind was far from it. He’d gotten tired of his normal route due to so many extra exercise days to keep himself from losing it with his father.
He loved the man, but he couldn’t stand the guy when he was around. Instead of heading for the park nearby like he normally would, Tony decided to just start walking. Maybe he could find somewhere new to run while he calmed down.
He picked a direction that he’d not explored. It was the middle of the day and the sun was beating down, so it should be relatively safe. It started out pretty rundown as his apartment was on the edge of the slums.
He was well into slum territory when he heard a whimpering mew. He glanced around for the source. He worried about any animals in this area.
He wasn’t sure what he would do if he found it, but he couldn’t just ignore a possibly injured cry regardless of whether it was human or animal. At first, he didn’t see anything, but then he heard it again. This time, he spotted the movement of the kitten’s chest as it let loose the painful noise.
Tony approached the kitten slowly, but stopped in his tracks when he heard another pitiful mew that clearly didn’t come from the kitten he’d spotted. Tony’s head slowly swiveled around looking for the new kitten. He sighted the new kitten only a few feet away from the previous one.
Tony sighed. He was going to need something to carry the kittens with if he was going to get them any help. As Tony started looking around for a box or something to carry them in, he heard the meow of yet another kitten.
Tony sighed. He wasn’t a cat person, but he had a bad feeling that he had just inherited a litter. He wasn’t sure if he should be even more pissed at Senior for this or if he should be grateful Senior pissed him off enough that he had to cool down.
Certainly this litter of kittens should be grateful to his father not that he would ever tell them that. First things first, something to carry them in and then he would have to figure out what to do with them. No way did he trust Senior to be in the same apartment with them.
Tony looked around. He saw a bunch of junk, some broken pipe. Nothing that looked safe for carrying a bunch of kittens.
He really needed something that at least didn’t have sharp edges for the kittens to injure themselves on. It would be even better if it was soft, but he would settle for wouldn’t actually injure the kittens. He felt like he was in a junkyard.
Abandoned homes, trash left behind from when the owners evacuated. There had to be something here that he could use. He just hadn’t found it, yet.
Tony started slowly sifting through the junk trying to find something that he could use. Everything had sharp edges. At first Tony had ignored the tires thinking them too heavy to carry, but now he was looking at them again.
At least the tires didn’t have sharp edges for the kittens to hurt themselves on. He’d thought it would be easy to find a box or something, but so far hadn’t spotted any and he really didn’t want to leave the kittens out for much longer. They were already injured, after all.
Grabbing one tire and hoping it would be enough, Tony scooped the first kitten up and placed it safely inside the tire. The kitten mewed at him and batted at the tire’s rim, but seemed content to stay inside the tire for now. The second kitten quickly followed the first and Tony started looking for the third kitten that he’d heard.
Tony finally found the third kitten and was ready to take the tire with kittens and head back to his apartment and more importantly his car. Only, he heard another mew not from his tire. Sighing, Tony lifted the tire more securely in his arms and looked for this new kitten.
He couldn’t help wondering how many of these kittens there actually were and how long they’d been here. They were clearly underfed and a few of them had dried blood on their fur which really worried Tony. There was no doubt in Tony’s mind that they needed help, but first Tony had to make sure he got all of them.
Deciding to do a thorough search for the kittens in this mess instead of gathering them one at a time when they mewed Tony found the fourth one that had mewed as well as two more. Pretty sure that he had all of them now, Tony started walking back to his apartment. The tire filled with kittens definitely weighed him down.
He had to stop a couple of times to set the tire down and rest his arms. Of course, the kittens thought the tire being set down meant it was time to escape and would try to crawl out of the tire. Tony knew he would have to be careful not to lose any.
As he neared his apartment complex he decided to just push through. Having to keep the kittens in the tire while he rested led to not much rest and he was almost to the parking lot. It was just a few more feet.
He could see his car and the end of this heavy burden. He could make it. Only this was his third workout today and his body was already on edge.
He was almost at his car, only 10 feet away when he couldn’t carry the tire anymore and collapsed under its weight. Fortunately, he simply landed on his ass with the tire in his lap and none of the kittens were hurt. Unfortunately, the very thought of trying to get up even though the car wasn’t far away was more than he could deal with right now.
“Need some help?”
Tony’s head lifted so fast, he almost got whiplash. “Jethro? What are you doing here?”
“Thought I’d come see how you’re doing. I know your father staying with you has you on edge.”
Tony dropped his head against the tire. “Ugh. Don’t remind me.”
“What’s with the kittens?”
“Found them in a practical junkyard when I decided to take a walk through the slums to cool down after Senior. I couldn’t just leave them there.” Tony turned pitiful and pleading eyes to Gibbs.
Gibbs knew exactly what Tony wanted, but he wasn’t going to give in that easily despite the two of them being in a relationship for a number of years. “So what are you going to do with them?”
“I don’t know. With Senior in my apartment, there’s no way I could keep them there. He’d probably accidentally poison the things. Can they stay at your place?” Tony asked hopefully.
Gibbs sighed. He knew he would eventually give in, but he still wasn’t willing to just do so. “You really think they’ll be safe at my place? With all the tools in my basement?”
Tony had been prepared to argue more, but that statement brought him up short. He’d forgotten all the tools Gibbs had in his basement. Kittens could get into a lot of trouble there. “Point, however, you only have hand tools and they’re mostly hung on the walls. It’s a lot safer there than my apartment currently. If they get into too much trouble there we can move them to my apartment after Senior leaves.”
Gibbs crossed his arms and gave his lover a glare. The man had a habit of rescuing animals. Gibbs was just fortunate that the last batch of rescues they’d already found homes for. “Fine,” Gibbs grunted.
“Help me get them into your car and then I’ll follow you over. I’ll pick up supplies for them on the way. I could use a break from Senior.”
Gibbs nodded and lifted the tire off of his lover. Tony managed to get his feet under him and follow Gibbs over to his car. They slowly moved the kittens from the tire to Gibbs’ car.
It turned out to be more complicated than simply setting them inside. For one, they didn’t want to bring the tire with them. So Tony grabbed a box from the recycling bin and set it in the backseat of Gibbs’ car for the kittens.
He tried to set the first kitten in the box only for it to catch its claws in his shirt and hang on. He carefully untangled the kitten and set it in the box, but it let out a piercing yowl. Tony frowned wondering what the problem was now.
He hoped that whatever it was could wait until after they got to Gibbs’ house. Tony picked up the next kitten and moved it to the box in Gibbs’ back seat as well. The same thing happened with this kitten.
“I think they like you.” Gibbs chuckled as he watched his lover struggle to transfer the kittens to his car.
Tony glared at Gibbs for laughing and not helping. He finally got all the kittens out of the tire and into the box. All six of them were caterwauling like the world was ending, however.
“Stop laughing and help me figure out how to calm them down unless you want to listen to this all the way to your place.”
Gibbs moved closer, still chortling and quickly stripped Tony’s shirt off.
“Hey!” Tony protested. “What’s that for?”
Gibbs settled the shirt into the box with the kittens who immediately quieted down. “They’re attached to your scent now.”
“So you weren’t just interested in seeing my body?”
Gibbs gave Tony a once over and smirked. “Nope. I see plenty of that in our bed.”
“Hey!” Tony spluttered, protesting the almost insult.
Gibbs hit Tony on the ass. “Now get on and get another shirt and meet me at my place.”
Tony glared at Gibbs as Gibbs moved to the driver’s seat ready to head back to his place with the kittens. With a sigh, Tony headed up the stairs and quickly grabbed another shirt and tossed it on. Not even bothering to respond to Senior’s questions, Tony headed right back out the apartment door and rushed down the stairs to his car.
Peeling out of the apartment complex parking lot, Tony hurried to put distance between himself and his father. Plus, he knew Gibbs would be home with the kittens a lot faster than him even without his extra stop to get pet supplies. Determined to not make Gibbs wait too long with a bunch of hungry and possibly injured kittens, Tony breezed through the pet store grabbing everything he could think of that a kitten might need.
It wasn’t until he arrived at Gibbs’ that Tony even thought about the kittens injuries and what they would need to do to take care of them. “Gibbs!” Tony yelled with some urgency as he opened the front door, unsure where his lover would be.
“What, Tony?” Gibbs responded calmly despite the ringing in his ears, standing right in front of Tony now that Tony had entered the house.
“The kittens are injured. How are we going to take care of them? Is there even a vet open?” Even more questions tumbled out of Tony’s mouth in a spitfire fashion.
“Calm down, I already called Ducky. He should be here soon.”
“Ducky? What about Palmer? He was a vet assistant, wasn’t he?”
“I assure you Ducky has as much if not more experience than Palmer.”
“Right, ok, good.”
“Tony, calm down.” Gibbs stepped closer, rubbing a soothing hand up and down Tony’s back.
Tony took a deep shuddering breath. “It’s just did you see them? How could anyone do this? I mean I dislike cats and I wouldn’t treat them this way.”
Gibbs grunted and slowly led Tony back outside to retrieve the things he’d picked up for the kittens. Currently, the kittens were corralled in Gibbs’ spare room to keep them from getting into too much trouble. With the things Tony brought, they would be able to setup the kittens anywhere hopefully.
Gibbs quickly set up the play pen type thing for kittens and added appropriate food and water to it before retrieving the kittens from the spare room. This way they wouldn’t be able to escape and get all over the place, but could still be around the humans. He had to bring Tony’s shirt with the kittens or they meowed their little heads off.
“I think they’re yours now, Tony. They seem quite attached.”
Tony sighed. “What am I going to do with so many kittens?”
“We’ll figure it out. For now, let’s get Ducky to look at them and then you can spend the night and rest up for work tomorrow without the shadow of your father hanging over everything, ok?”
“Ok. Gibbs.” Tony agreed before realizing the flaw in that plan, “Wait what are we going to do with the kittens while we’re at work?”
“We’ll set them up in Abby’s office. You know she’ll be happy to watch them.”
“True, true.” Tony agreed. His head resting against Gibbs’ shoulder as he drifted off to sleep, exhausted from the day’s events.
Gibbs was glad that he left the door unlocked when Ducky arrived as he didn’t want to move and wake Tony to let Ducky in. Ducky walked inside and stopped as he saw the kittens.
“Oh my. I take it that these cuties are why you called me, Jethro?”
“Yep. Tony found them. We haven’t had a chance to do more than clean them up a little. Hoping you can check them out.”
“Well I’m not a vet, but I’ll do my best for these little guys.”
Ducky picked up one of the kittens, so that he could examine it and it immediately started meowing at being removed from Tony’s shirt. Tony startled awake, “Who’s hurting the kittens?”
Jethro ran a comforting hand down Tony’s arm, “Relax, Ducky’s just looking them over.”
“Indeed, though, I didn’t realize they would protest it quite so much. I haven’t even done anything, yet.”
“Yeah, they do that. They seem quite attached to Tony’s scent. Only reason they’re happy in the playpen is due to his shirt being there.”
“Oh. Quite intriguing. They must have decided that you are their mother, Tony.”
Tony grumbled, “Yeah. yeah.”
“They must be quite young to be so taken with you so fast.”
Tony shrugged.
“Well as I’m sure you’ve noticed they were not well cared for and have a few injuries.”
“Yeah.” Tony frowned. He still didn’t understand how someone could hurt the kittens like that.
“For the most part, they should be fine once they’re cleaned and patched up, but I’m going to put them on some antibiotics to prevent infection.”
”Thanks Ducky.”
Once Ducky finished making sure the kittens were appropriately patched up, they gave them a good washing to prevent infection and their first dose of antibiotics.
“Now, you’ll need to give them a dose twice a day for the next 7 days.” Ducky informed them as he gathered his supplies to leave.
“Will do.” Gibbs grunted.
Tony yawned.
“You want to call it an early night?” Gibbs asked.
“I think I better. I haven’t been sleeping much with Senior staying with me.”
“Ok. I’ll join you after I make sure the kittens are ok for the night.”
“Thanks Jethro.” Tony yawned again and headed upstairs.
The next morning they both awoke to pounding on the front door. Gibbs had actually locked it when he went to bed for the night. Tony frowned. “Who could that be?”
Gibbs just grunted, already pulling on pants to go see who it was. Gibbs glared at the man on the other side of the door.
“Is my son here? He never came home last night.”
“And whose fault is that?” Gibbs growled.
Tony quickly threw on pants and a shirt as he heard Senior’s voice and hurried downstairs before a homicide could occur.
“I don’t like what you’re implying.”
“Truth hurts.”
“What are you doing here, dad?” Tony butted in before the posturing could get too bad.
“I was worried about you, Junior.”
“You could have called.”
“You never came back. We didn’t finish our discussion about the eligible women in your life.”
”And we’re not going to. I’m not marrying any woman. If I marry someone it will be my partner, Gibbs.” Tony gestured to the man standing next to him.
“I don’t understand, son. Don’t you want to settle down and get married? Isn’t it time to stop chasing these fanciful dreams of yours?”
“These so called fanciful dreams are my life, dad. Just because it’s not the life you want for me, doesn’t mean I’m going to change it. Jethro and I are happy together. You can either accept that or not, but it won’t change my life.”
Next thing they all knew there was a bunch of caterwauling as the kittens woke up and protested the disagreement.
“What’s that?”
“That would be the litter of kittens that I rescued yesterday.”
“Why would you do that?” Senior frowned.
“Gee, dad. I don’t know. Maybe because they needed to be rescued?”
“You’re not bringing those things back to the apartment, are you?”
“Eventually. Now, if that’s all you came here for, you can leave.”
“Now, wait a minute, Junior.”
“What, dad?”
“What about that little blond from the diner?”
Tony pointed out the door. “Leave.”
Gibbs crossed his arms and glared at Senior.
Senior glanced between the implacable stare of Gibbs and his son’s hard expression and turned to leave, “Ok. I get it. I can tell when I’m not wanted,” he called over his shoulder.
Tony just shook his head and headed back upstairs to calm the kittens down. Gibbs closed the door and followed after him. By the time Gibbs made it upstairs, Tony was covered in kittens.
He’d apparently let them out of their enclosure and they’d climbed all over him. Gibbs couldn’t help thinking how adorable it was. Even Tony had a smile on his face.
Senior would be leaving. Gibbs would send a cleanup crew over to Tony’s apartment after Senior left to make sure that Senior hadn’t trashed the place. He knew from experience that Tony needed the place to be relatively clean after a hard day at work.
Still despite the emotional turmoil brought on by Senior, they’d gotten a set of fluffballs to go with them. Tony may claim to not like cats, but these kittens had obviously wormed their way into his heart. Gibbs only remaining question was how many of them were they actually keeping?