Sobriquet

Gibbs sanded away at his boat losing himself in moving with the grain.

“Cupcake?” Tony tossed out into the ether as he walked down to the basement after cleaning up the dinner dishes, continuing the nickname conversation that Gibbs had hoped forgotten.

Gibbs just barely glanced at Tony, but it was enough for Tony to correctly interpret his look as only if you have a deathwish.

“Muffin?” Tony tried out for size swirling it around in his mouth to get the feel of it as he settled on the steps to watch Gibbs work on his boat.

“Hell no.” Gibbs would not be called muffin ever. Just No.

Tony was determined to find a sobriquet that Gibbs wouldn't mind that he could use for those occasions when Jethro simply wouldn’t cut it. “Beautiful?”

“You not me.” Gibbs was too graying and set in his ways for anyone to think him beautiful in his eyes.

“Muscle man? Tough guy?” Tony offered up a few more masculine sounding ones thinking that they might be more to Gibbs liking.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow as if to ask, really.

“Angel?” Tony cringed himself at that one. Gibbs was no one’s idea of an angel unless you were talking an avenging angel.

Gibbs narrowed his eyes starting to get annoyed now.

“Bad boy?” Tony contemplated.

“Tony, be serious.” Gibbs voice was cut and dry as he tried to bring an end to this conversation quickly before he actually lost his patience with his lover something he was loathe to do with any lover as he had a nasty temper, but especially with Tony.

“Fine. How about babe?” Tony tried again either ignoring or not noticing Gibbs warning.

Gibbs grunted still not impressed.

“Oh. I know. Amore Mio.” Tony sounded proud of himself for coming up with that one.

“Sounds nice. What's it mean?” Gibbs questioned. He knew many languages and thought he knew what it meant, but he wanted to be sure.

“My love.” Tony softly lilted.

“Acceptable, but you know you can just call me Jethro.” Gibbs nodded returning his full attention to the boat.

“I will a lot, but sometimes I just want to call you something that only I am allowed to call you. Something that is special between the two of us and not shared with anyone else.” Tony smiled softly content to watch Gibbs now that the sobriquet issue had been resolved.

“Well it’s definitely that. None of my wives ever called me Amore Mio. Of that you can be sure.” Gibbs allowed a small smile to spread across his face as he contemplated the name thinking to himself that it really would work.