Title: Snuggling
Fandom: NCIS/Numb3rs
Rating: T
Length: 685 words
Content notes: References to violent criminals/death
Author's notes: For my New Year's Countdown prompt, "Snuggling". Part of my "Sniper Snippets" Verse
Summary: Ian and Tony finally have a night off to just cuddle on the couch


Tony took one last sip of his hot chocolate and put the mug down, then shifted to find a better position. Of course, there wasn't much room for him to do so, as he and Ian were already snuggled together tightly on the couch. They so rarely had quiet evenings like this; at least when one or the other wasn't exhausted from a long case or nursing some kind of injury, so they tried to take advantage whenever they could.

Of course, with the holidays coming up, Tony's thoughts tended towards the maudlin at times, though he knew he had a lot to be thankful for this year. And not just because he had a burning hot lover cuddling with him right now.

"What's that big brain of yours thinking now?" Ian murmured into his hair.

Tony sighed. "Trying to savor the moment. Between plagues and terrorists and backwoods survivalist yahoos there were plenty of times the last year or two that we might have lost each other."

"Hmmm…" Ian considered that. "On the other hand, this time gave us a lot of happy endings; we're both alive and healthy enough to be snuggling here; and so are the rest of your team."

"True," Tony admitted. When he put it like that… Tony would never be grateful to Haswari or Langford, but everything had turned all right, more or less. Still, he snuggled even further into Ian's embrace. Being glad that they were all alive after another year didn't mean that he wanted a repeat next year. He'd prefer a much quieter time from now on.

Almost as though it knew what he was thinking, Tony's phone rang, and he sighed loudly. They were supposed to be off this weekend, and he'd actually threatened dispatch that if they called in Gibbs for anything short of a terrorist attack he'd personally make them regret it.

"DiNozzo," he answered.

"The cook on the USS Truman just dropped dead in the middle of serving Thanksgiving dinner to almost six thousand crew members," Gibbs said curtly.

Well, fuck. That was definitely an all hands on deck situation, and Tony couldn't really fault dispatch on this one. Tony glanced at his watch as he got up and headed to the bedroom to change. "We catching a helo to Norfolk?"

"They're shuttling out just about everyone on this coast," Gibbs confirmed. "Meet us at the landing pad." Then he hung up before Tony could reply.

Tony quickly changed out of his sweats and into jeans, then considered his cozy turtleneck. On the one hand, ships could be pretty drafty, but on the other hand he'd probably be running all over the place.

Before he could make up his mind, Ian came in. "Problem?"

"A Nimitz class sized one," Tony confirmed.

"Well I'll give you a ride," Ian said. Tony glanced over at him, realizing he was also pulling his jeans back on.

"You too?"

"Family annihilator I caught about ten years back; called himself the Grinch because he only lashed out at the holidays?"

Tony vaguely recalled hearing about the case through the LEO gossip chain long ago, so he nodded.

Ian looked annoyed. "He just escaped from the transport on his way to an appeal hearing."

"So it looks like we're both working the holiday," Tony summarized, pulling on his shoes.

"Yeah, but we knew that going in," Ian said. It was one of the dangers of dating a fellow agent.

As they headed to the door and off to their respective hunts, they shared one last kiss. Their night of snuggling might be ruined, but that was the job, and neither one of them was looking to retire any time soon.

Ian pulled open the small safe and they both grabbed their guns and creds, before he also scooped up his keys. "Well, let's just hope our luck holds," he said.

"Yeah, cause you owe me the rest of this snuggling session, Mister," Tony teased, hoping to diffuse some tension. Then, with another quick kiss, they headed out into the night to kick some butt.