"Stained." NCIS. Tony Centric. Song fic. PG. Pt 1.
Title: Stained
Author: Lil Jei
Fandom: NCIS
Pairing: Tony/ Unrequited
Wd Ct: 400+
Rating: PG
Summary/A.N./Disclaimer: Past fic with an AU universe. Tony and his college friends. I kind of had an inspirational moment b/c of Ella and her prompt based fic “Broken.” So in a muse moment I wrote this drabble/song fic…it is way un-beta’d. The song, show, and characters are not mine just the angst.
"A napkin that is stained with time, has a poem on it that didn’t quite rhyme but it made me cry..."
Looking at the folded square of scrap in his hands Tony remembers the day clearly. Johnny had blindsided him one day. Sitting in the main street diner on a double date waiting for their girls he'd started waxing poetical. Tony hadn't thought much of it; his frat brother had always done that kind of thing. Anywhere and everywhere, hell even during pledging his brain wouldn't shut off. But that day would turn out to be special. To this day Tony remembered the moment. Johnny had started tapping his pen, clicking his pen, claiming to have gotten one. Tony had always been secretly fascinated by his friend and his light bulb moments. This one was telling.
In the few moments between waiting for the girls and the written conclusion Tony had had his own light bulb moment. He'd fallen for one of his best friends and here he was sitting across from him waiting on both their girlfriends. His life had been looking like it would suck for a few more years when Johnny had whapped him one. Tony had come out of his spacey minute or two to be looking at a dirty stained and cruddy napkin being shaken in his face. He had grabbed the napkin, and while trying not to rip it and in between the glares at Johnny he finally read his friends words.
He remembers being shook up and even in this very second he thinks back on it fondly but with sadness. Love for his long lost friend was mixed in such a conflicting momentary realization that it still hurt. But in those seconds after reading Johnny's note Tony's world had been upright though leaning a bit. At least til the girls had come back, the trouncing and flouncing had spoiled their moment. And it had ended with Johnny looking at him with a slight smile before grabbing Jane by the waist and sauntering out the diner.
They became the last words Johnny had ever written and exposed on to him. They were still on the dirty and aged napkin but it had dampened with blood and tears. It was barely an hour after the diner that Johnny's life had been stolen from him. Despite it being light out a drunk driver had run a red light and forever left them crippled. Jane still had a limp and the wreck had left Tony an emotional mess that had taken him forever to recover even a bit from. And sitting against the wall in the middle of the night Tony could admit to himself that the loss of Johnny and the injustice of it all was probably one of the bigger reasons he'd gone into police work.
So in some ways Johnny had broken his heart and healed it all the same. His memory of those days were all that kept him going some days.