Work Text:
Tony listened to the team talk about all their pets as a child. Every single one of them had a normal pet like a cat, dog, or even a bird. The sea monkeys he’d had that his mother had drank seemed pitiful in comparison.
He’d always wanted a cat. He’d even found one, one time when he’d been hiding from Senior. Tony still had no idea what had pissed Senior off that day.
He never really did. His childhood memories were full of Senior throwing glasses against the wall in rage with Tony having no idea what triggered it. If Senior wasn’t breaking glass in his childhood memories, he was issuing diktats or otherwise punishing Tony.
That day Tony had hidden in the woods while he waited for Senior to cool down enough to go back inside. He’d been considering checking to see if it was safe to return when a blur of black rushed past him.
Of course, he’d had to chase after it to find out what it was. He’d finally caught up to it and discovered it was a cat. Tony had captured it and taken it back to the house.
He’d wanted to keep it, but Senior had other plans. That day, he’d issued a diktat that no cats would be in the DiNozzo household. Senior had forced Tony to toss the cat outside.
He’d tried again a few years later with the same result before he’d realized that Senior would never let him have a pet, especially not a cat.