Different Roads Challenge #8

Title:  Lion Guide
Author: Ladyholder
Challenge #:  8
Fandom/Original:  NCIS/The Sentinel
Genre (slash/het/gen/etc):  Slash
Warnings:  NC-17
Concrit (yes/no): No

“So. How are we doing this? Because I can’t see you running like tradition demands.”

Tony snorted at the thought. He could run. Hell he did run. Right towards trouble.

 

Story# 1 in Duo: You Are Who I Was Looking For

Gibbs got in his car and took a deep breath. The headlong rush of DiNozzo was better than a snifter of aged bourbon and all he wanted to do was wallow in it. He needed to take a step back for a moment and take care of his responsibilities.

The mechanical motions of dialing his cell phone were so common and normal that he barely noticed them and only really paid attention to the little machine when Burley picked up, “Stan, did you get the files from Baltimore PD?” Gibbs snapped. He wanted this over with. He had things to do.

“The files got here in one piece and I sent out Pacci’s team to go find the kid. From all indications, he’s be a bit shaken, but basically unharmed. The kidnapper knew he wasn’t going to get anything if he hurt the kid and Pacci’s team came in smart and cautious. The guy never had a chance.” Burley reported promptly.

“Good,” Gibbs grunted. “I’m going to be mostly off the grid for the next four to six days. I’ll have my phone with me, but don’t expect coherency for the first forty-eight hours.”

There was silence as Burley digested the information. “You found your Guide.”

“I did,” Gibbs let the satisfaction he was feeling ooze all over the words. “So I’ll be out of contact. Let Morrow and Ducky know.”

“On it, Gibbs. Can I know the name of your Guide?” Burley asked. Gibbs could hear the sound of a computer keyboard being tapped in the rhythm Stan used when he was typing messages.

“No. My Guide and I still need to talk about things before we start making any kind of major decisions.” Gibbs moved to quickly shut down that line of inquiry. He had no idea if DiNozzo would want to join NCIS with him or not. If not, Baltimore PD was going to be an interesting fit for him. Either way, DiNozzo’s boss was going to get an earful on how he had sent his Guide out on his own.

Lion Guide.

Anthony Dimitri DiNozzo was one of only a handful of Lion Guides in the continental United States. He knew that there were several others in serving in the US military in various spots overseas, but overall, his type of Guide was as rare and as valued as any Wolf Guide.

Tony had been taught while in school about the subtle (and not so subtle) differences between Guides. Most of the Guides in the S/G population had spirit animals that were herbivores, gentle, not too violent creatures who provided the type of environment that most Sentinels wanted and needed. Someplace safe from the world, where they could relax and not threatening. The exceptions to that rule were the Guides with predators as spirit animals. Most of them had some form of small cat or canine, rarely anything bigger than a fox or a serval, and the Spirit Guides species seemed to be based on the origin culture of the Guide in question.

But there were two types that showed up everywhere. The first was the most well known. Wolf Guides were there to build, strengthen and maintain the Prides that were the heart of Sentinel/Guide society. They were, for the most part, very empathetic people who had some of the strongest Guide gifts known. See Dr. Blair Sandburg for a classic example of a Wolf Guide, Tony thought dryly. Not to say that Wolf Guides were incapable of being aggressive or even making war on someone if needed, they were perfectly able to do it. They, as a whole, just preferred not to.

The second type of Guide and the one that was largely unknown to the mundane population, were the Lion Guides. A Lion Guide was built for conflict and war. They held all the same talents of a Wolf, but were much more aggressive and willing to make war on whomever had attracted their ire. The Sentinels they tended to Bond with were normally the ones out on the sharp end of the spear, if not running ahead of it and were just as aggressive, if not more so than their Guides. While a Lion Guide could and did project all the same calm, peace and pleasure that other Guides did, they were also able to whip a Pride into a feral wave of death that had been known to take out entire armies in defense of their Tribes.

What this meant was that most of the Lions that Tony knew of were unbonded. Lion’s and Wolves in some ways competed for the same type of Sentinel and thus the field was small. So few Sentinels were of the right caliber in the general population that he had even found this one, was incredible. Tony could only hope that the other man knew what he was getting in to. Because his own talking down of Sparky had only happened because he hadn’t wanted to get his throat cut and flooding the tweakers pea brain with his gifts would have been overkill.

The drive to his apartment went fairly quickly and he could see the car carrying his Sentinel hanging back, from the position of Gibb’s arm, the man was talking on the phone to someone. Tony didn’t mind. He wasn’t trying to lose this tail and having the extra minute or two when he got to his place would be welcome. Because he had decided after thinking it over that the Center was not a comfortable place to Bond. If he was having problems, sure, but for the type of bond he wanted? No. Parking and locking his car took only a few moments and he took the stairs up to his front door. Before he walked into his apartment, he stepped out of his shoes. He wanted nothing of work or the alley where he had met his Sentinel to come in with him.

Shoes in hand, Tony quickly bagged them in the largest Ziploc bag he had stored in the hall closet for moments just like this. Detective or not, he still got nasty shit on him often enough to have a system in place to keep his home clean. While he wasn’t a Sentinel, he had a very good sense of smell and taste and having the scent of the baser parts of the city around was just gross. When Gibbs got in, he was going to get him to change out of his suit and put it in its own bag for the dry cleaners. Then the decision of wearing clothes or just skin would be up to his Sentinel. Tony was voting for skin.

The firm knock on his door was not a surprise. Gibbs was making no effort to hide what he was on an empathetic level and Tony had felt him coming. The feel of a large and dangerous predator heading his way had raised his hackles, made his heart beat faster, his adrenaline spike and his dick get hard.

Looking down at the hard line of his cock pressing against his pants, Tony chuckled ruefully as he went to open his door, “You have good taste at least,” he told his dick as he looked through the peephole and confirmed his visitor was indeed Gibbs.

Opening the door, Tony leaned against the jam. The levels of want that he had for this Sentinel were insane, but he was going to lay out a few things first. No matter what his body was pushing for. The other man needed to know what he was getting into.

Gibbs inclined his head and Tony could feel the questions he wasn’t asking. Well. He was going to be getting some answers. “Here’s the full disclosure before we go in and get on with the Bonding… I am 31 years old and the only child of a Dormant Sentinel and a Latent Guide. My father was dormant not because there was anything wrong with him at birth, but because he contracted Polio when he was four years old and never recovered fully. My mother was his genetic match and since he could never come on line, neither did she.

“Thanks to the roll on the genetic dice that they did, I am a Lion Guide with everything that entails. What that basically means is that if I think it is appropriate, I will declare war on the enemies of my Pride and Tribe and take you along with me. I will do my level best to decimate my enemies and leave none behind me. I also have one hell of a temper, so be warned that when someone pisses me off, they will pay for it. Be it in humiliation or blood. It’s all the same to me.

“I have several degrees, of which the only one I advertise is the Phys Ed degree out of Ohio State. I am a firm believer in continuing education and have gotten my Masters in Forensics, the BA in Phys Ed, plus BA’s in Criminal Justice, Psych and Ballistics. I am not going to stop learning, so if we do Bond, I will be getting more degrees. I also like, hell love, movies. I like to watch them, quote them and sometimes use them to solve the crimes that cross my desk. I am driven, relentless and most off all, good at my pursuit of justice for the victims I deal with on a daily basis.

“I am possessive as all hell. That means that if there is a girlfriend or boyfriend back in NCIS land, they are gone. I will not accept anything less than a full, sexual bond and I don’t share. In return for putting up with all of this, I promise to love you for as long as you live, to keep the world at bay and make our home as safe a place as I can manage.  I promise that you will always be first with me, your needs and wants will be above my own. If you are my Sentinel, then everything I am and everything I ever will be, is available for you.

“Still interested?”

Tony was content that Gibbs had heard him out. If his teachers at the Center had heard that list of demands and conditions of his, they would not have been so thrilled with him, but he didn’t care about them. This was his life and if he was going to take on a Sentinel, he wasn’t going to lie to the guy about what he was getting into. After all, he was more than a bit of an asshole, he had bad habits, he was totally capable of being petty and yet, he was also warm, comforting and able to shelter others from life’s emotional storms. Go figure.

“Yes,” the man who was going to be his Sentinel said. “You aren’t the only one who is demanding, possessive and relentless. I’m forty-three years old, I’ve been married three times and only left twice. My first wife was killed by a man she saw dealing drugs to service members. The shot that killed her caused a car accident and only my daughter survived. Shannon lived just long enough for me to get home and say good-bye. The other two were failed attempts at recapturing what I had and I finally figured that out when I found my third wife in bed with a colleague.” Tony winced at that. Whoever that woman had been, she had been really, really dumb.

“I came online when Shannon died, so the fact that my third wife had managed to fuck around on me was indeed a surprise. I’ve had conservators off and on for the last six years and I think I’ve broken a least three of them. I am not a nice man, and the second ‘B’ in my last name stands for ‘Bastard’ as any and all of the Federal employees in the DC Metro area can tell you. And most of the FBI. I put in a full twenty years in as a Marine and I maintain my reserve status to this day. I run the Major Crimes Response Team for NCIS out of the Naval Yard in DC and I don’t care if you quote movies all day long as long as you can help me solve the crimes that strike the people I am charged to protect.

“I am in line to be the Alpha Sentinel Prime for the Mid-Atlantic Seaboard and that territory extends into the Appalachians. The area that will be my responsibility once I bond is huge, there are hundreds of agents and agencies contained within it, and if I talk to them, they won’t talk to us ever again, at least not voluntarily. I need someone who can be diplomatic where I can’t be bothered to be, approachable where I’m really not and has the ability to explain when I don’t. I will do my best to make sure that you have just as much of a place in NCIS as I do and just as many chances for advancement as you earn.

“If you become my Guide, I promise my home will be yours and all that I own will be there for you. I will protect you to the extent that you let me and I will always be here for you to turn to. My daughter is twelve years old going on thirty and she is a latent Guide. I have been looking forward to Bonding in hopes that my Guide would be there when she came online and they could give her all the things that I can’t. My spirit animal is a Siberian Tiger and I am just as rare as you are. The urges you have to carry war to the enemies of out Tribe are well known to me and I can provide the balance you need to determine when is the best time to declare war and when is the best time to let things lie. You don’t scare me with what you are and I am glad that you are strong enough to stand up to me.

“Now that we have all of that out of the way… Can we Bond now?”

Tony laughed and stood aside, letting his Sentinel into his home. Grabbing a piece of paper and a sharpie from the table by the door, he quickly sketched out the runes that meant ‘First Bonding’ to anyone who had a clue and taped it to his door. If anyone came in after seeing that, they deserved what they got.

When he had turned around from his task, he found that Gibbs had taken off his shoes and placed them by the door before starting to prowl around the public rooms of his apartment. Each and every thing he had on display was being examined in detail and he was content to let it happen. “I need to get out of this suit, and you need to get out of yours. Do you want some sweats to lounge around in?”

Attention drawn off of his perusal of the wall of movies Tony had up, Gibbs looked over his shoulder at him. “Sure. That alley doesn’t belong in here. Got someplace for me to stash my clothes?”

Tony reached into the hall closet and pulled out one of the monster Ziplocs used to store winter blankets and other goods and handed it over before pulling a second one out for himself. Eyebrow raised slightly in challenge, he started peeling out of his suit. The jacket, shirt, and pants all went into the bag and were quickly sealed. Standing in his socks, t-shirt and boxer briefs Tony held out his hand to Gibbs for his own bag. Once he had it in hand, he stuffed both into the closet with the rest of his dry cleaning. Depending on how long it took for them to calm down once the initial Bond was set, he would either call his dry cleaner to send someone over to pick it up or they would take it over themselves.

As soon as the door closed on the small closet, he found himself pressed up against it, Gibbs flush against his back. “So. How are we doing this? Because I can’t see you running like tradition demands.”

Tony snorted at the thought. He could run. Hell he did run. Right towards trouble. No way was he going to run from the man behind him. “Tradition can go hang. If I didn’t actually want to get my deposit back, I would be getting in your face and making you work for the chance to Bond with me, damage to your pride or mine be damned. If you want me, Sentinel, we are going to walk down that hall together. As equals.”

There was silence behind him for a beat and then the pressure pinning him to the door moved away. When he turned around, Gibbs was standing at the start of the hall with his hand out. “I can do that that. Equal partners, Guide.”

Placing his hand in his Sentinel’s was the most difficult thing he had ever done. Tony knew his mind, knew the empty places in it that were waiting for his other half and while he wanted them gone, they were familiar, comforting in the sameness they had carried since he had come online. But there was the greater part of himself that wanted all that the other man had to offer, and that, that is what made him reach out, reach for the one who would fill those empty spaces with himself.

Together they walked down the hallway and into his bedroom.

If there was a Guide lottery, Leroy Jethro Gibbs had just won the jackpot. Long, lean and beautiful, the physical reality of his Guide was breathtaking. He would be finding out about the mental reality of his Guide in as little time as possible.

The door to the bedroom was only wide enough for one of them to go through, and he wasn’t going to have his Guide follow him in like some pet. “This time at least, I need to say: ‘After you.’ Because this is your territory.” Gibbs said quietly. And it was. He wasn’t one of the Cro-Magnon Sentinels that wanted a Guide who kowtowed to their every whim.

Apparently that had been the right thing to say because it got him pushed against the wall and kissed until they both needed to come up for air. Then his Guide walked into his bedroom with a challenge gilding every line of him. Not being one to turn a challenge down, Gibbs followed.

Tony (he had to get used to calling him Tony, not Guide), was pulling the covers on his bed down, folding them on the foot of the bed in a manner that would allow them to be pulled up without too much bother. Gibbs just watched him move around as he stripped off his remaining clothes and dropping them onto the nearest flat surface. Neatness be damned.

“I need to see you. All of you,” Gibbs said quietly. Tony nodded and after a long look at him, started stripping off his remaining clothes.

Each inch of golden skin was revealed caused Gibbs to shiver with want and hold onto his control with both hands. Tony was beautiful, all long lines and muscles that moved smoothly over graceful limbs. When he turned around to pull the covers back, Gibbs saw that his ass was high and round and he really wanted to bite it.

“You’re beautiful,” Jethro whispered the words as they slipped out and he didn’t want to take them back. “Can you lie on the bed?” he asked. His voice barely sounded like his own, there was so much need bleeding through it.

When Tony settled on the bed, Gibbs moved to the foot and allowed the stranglehold he had on his senses to relax. Every sense unfolded in a dizzying spiral from the base of his Guides feet to the crown of his head. Every inch of his Guide was there for him to ‘see’ and ‘hear’. The rush of information was intense, coming to him in closely woven layers of impressions. The only thing keeping him present through the experience was the burn of arousal he felt in his blood.

In his mind’s eye, Gibbs could see his Guide in all his physical glory. So many parts of him to explore, taste and touch. The Sentinel took a deep breath through his nose and drew the scent of his mate in. The pheromones of an active Guide were thick on the air, tinged with lust and heavy with the scent of an imminent bonding. His mouth watered and Gibbs knew he had to taste.

It was the work of only a moment to climb onto the bed. Gibbs carefully placed his hands on Tony’s ankles and started to trace the path his senses had taken. The feel of the other man’s golden skin was like silk under lists his fingers. Like every other accredited Guide in the US, Tony was hairless and Gibbs was grateful for that. Too much hair on his partner’s skin was a sure way to a very painful and disappointing encounter and he wanted this to last.

As his hands slid along Tony’s skin, Gibbs let his shields go and opened all of himself to his Guide. And when the other man drew him in, it was everything he had ever wanted and more. The Bond wasn’t set, not yet, but it was close, still working its way into his mind and heart. The feeling was like having someone peering intently at his soul. To distract himself from the feeling, Jethro let his hands move over his Guides chest, mapping the skin carefully, cataloging the old scars scattered upon it. Just from them, he could tell that the other man was going to be a handful.

When his hands reached his Guides hair, Gibbs buried his hands in the long strands. There was just enough to be a good handhold and the style looked good on him. Using his grip on the silky stuff, the sentinel tilted his Guide’s head back and took the time to explore his mouth. The taste of Tony exploded across his tongue.

Hot, spicy, sweet and full of a zing that had him coming back for more. Each taste of Tony’s mouth left him hungry for more. The hips pushing against his drew him out of the haze he had fallen into as he chased the taste of the other man all over his mouth. Gibbs took a deep breath and drew back, sifting from straddling the prone form below him, to kneeling beside him. “Can you turn over please?” he asked thickly.

Tony quickly flipped himself over and Jethro sucked in his breath. He was gorgeous. The strength inherent in his frame truly showed in the thick muscles if his back as they moved smoothly under skin. There were several scars scattered across the skin of Tony’s torso, thin lines of healed knife wounds and along his ribs a fat smudge of a bullet graze. “You really aren’t the type of guy to stay behind me and be safe, are you?” Jethro asked with amusement as he ran his hands down the line of his Guide’s spine.

Tony turned over onto his back as he snorted lightly in laughter. “Yeah, not a hope in hell. I’m a Lion Guide. I don’t sit back and wait for anyone unless I am too injured to be in the thick of things.”

“Figures,” Gibbs nodded. He wouldn’t want a Guide who sat back and let him take all the risks anyway. “Your skin smells wonderful. I’m going to taste every bit of you I can.”

Gibbs had his face buried in his Guides belly as he murmured the words and he could tell the other man enjoyed the thought. The air surrounding them was quickly getting saturated with the Guides Bonding pheromones and deeper notes of lust.

Each patch of skin was carefully sampled and Gibbs kept a track of which spot got the best reactions. Both nipples were very sensitive, and from the residual scaring, had been pierced about five years previously. It was an interesting look and he was going to store that thought for another day. Tony’s belly button was mostly a dead zone, but the patch of skin above where the pubic mound started was sensitive enough to get his Guide to curl up in reaction. Both upper thighs at the join where leg met hip, the soft skin on the insides of his ankles, the backsides of his knees and the whole of the inner surface of his thighs drew moans like rain.

The real treasure was when he started to nose around Tony’s groin and found the anomalous something he had noticed when he had done his initial sense impression of his Guide. His Guide, a cop, had a genital piercing. Gibbs ran his fingers around the spots where the delicate ring disappeared into Tony’s body. From the noise he was making, it apparently felt good.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What is this called?” Jethro asked as he played with the bit of silver.

“It… It’s a guiche piercing,” Tony panted. His cock was hard, leaking and pressed tight against his belly. “It’s right over my prostate and it feels amazing when you play with it.”

The Sentinel was certain that it did. Every move of the little ring was causing his Guide to tense up and the lust perfuming the air to spike.

“I can tell,” Gibbs agreed, dryly. He was keeping his voice level with an effort. Playing with the little ring wasn’t just affecting Tony. “So what happens if I suck your cock, play with the ring and get your ass ready for me to fuck?”

“I turn into a puddle of over stimulated and totally pleased Guide,” came the breathless reply as Gibbs started sucking the cock before him.

From how quickly the muscles connected to the guiche relaxed, Gibbs was certain the idea was well liked. Good. He spent a few moments enjoying the cock in his mouth before taking a final quick lick and sitting up to find the lube and a condom. Apparently, his new Guide was well stocked, because there was a small bowlful of condoms and fresh lube with the wrapper still on it waiting on the bedside table.

As he was unwrapping the lube, Jethro kept an eye on his Guide. The other man was sprawled out in wanton abandon, limbs splayed wide open and relaxed. Well, except his dick, that was still hard. That boded well for their sex life.

A quick flick of his thumb opened the lube and Jethro carefully drizzled a measured portion over his fingers and carefully capped the viscous fluid. There was no way he wanted that stuff to spill if he could help it. Fingers slick, Gibbs carefully ran them over the furled bud of Tony’s anus.

Everything he was getting through his fledgling bond with his Guide was pointing towards the man liking sex. And liking it a lot. The surges of lust as he played with Tong’s body were certainly encouraging. The moan he gave as Gibbs slid two fingers into his ass was even more so.

He got lost in the sensations, his fingers moving from the warm silky walls of Tony’s ass to the more textured, but still inviting skin right outside it. The feel against his fingertips was wonderful and Jethro kept dipping his fingertips in and out of the furled bud of Tony’s anus to feel everything. The only reason he stopped was due to his Guide grabbing his hair and pulling.

By then Gibbs had three fingers moving in and out of Tony and the younger man was fucking himself back on them. The feeling across their Bond was of want, desperation and lust. Gibbs was totally with the whole idea of a sexual Bond, no doubts about that. He knew that he had to be totally oozing lust and it wasn’t just the fledgling connection to his Guide that was spurring the want on.

Gibbs was careful when he withdrew his fingers from Tony, careful to brush his fingers across the subtle swell of his prostate to feel his muscles tense. To be safe he grabbed the bottle of lube and drizzled some more over the pliant hole. Jethro liked things slick and until he learned otherwise of Tony, he was going with that.

Clamping his messy hand on his dick, Jethro opened the condom up and rolled it down his length, before he carefully smeared more lube on him to get slick. Even though he wanted to, Gibbs made certain that he didn’t turn his sense of touch down. He wanted to feel everything.

Everything was more than he had bargained for…The crinkled skin on the outside, the firm grip of Tony’s guardian muscles, the smooth walls of his passage as they slid around him… It was too much and yet, not enough. Jethro leaned forward and placed his hands on either side of his Guide, his hips snug against the other man’s ass. As soon as he had bottomed out, Tony had wrapped his legs around his waist and pulled him that extra bit more that caused both of them to moan.

“You had better start moving, Sentinel,” Tony panted up at him. Jethro grinned down at him and gently pulled out before returning to his previous position. He was rubbing right against that one spot on the inside, and pressing against the pretty silver ring DiNozzo wore on the outside and all of it was making his Guide fell apart. All he could think was that he wanted to see this sight again and again and again. And if he was very lucky, he would get to see it from DiNozzo’s perspective one day too.

Gibbs felt shields that had protected both of them their whole lives long started to … Not fall, because that would mean they went away. It was more they merged and slid around each other, shoring up where one was weak, allowing and facilitating the Bond that would keep them safe, sane and healthy for the rest of their lives. Nothing he had been told in training had prepared him for this. But then, nothing could.

Gibbs could feel the moment when the fledgling bond between himself and his Guide set. It was a snap deep within his soul as the missing piece of himself slotted into place. The feel of that snap was enough to tip him over into the greatest orgasm of his life.

From the grip his Guide’s body had on his dick, he wasn’t the only one to go screaming over the edge. The grip was rippling up and down the length of his dick and was pulsing in time with the waves of emotion reaching him through the Bond and Gibbs wallowed in the feeling.

He wasn’t alone any more. There was someone who was there just for him. Jethro was self aware enough to know that he needed that, needed to know there was someone for him or he would get even more bitter and bastard-like than he currently was.

“Stop thinking so loud. I’m not going anywhere and I’ll yours forever,” DiNozzo muttered quietly. Jethro felt a bit smug at how wrecked he sounded. “And the smug is very unbecoming for a man your age.”

Laughing, Jethro carefully pulled out of his Guide, making certain to grab the condom. The sheets under his knees were soft and sweet smelling and he wanted to sleep on them without anything too slimy. The spot where his messy hand had hit was fairly clean and not wet, so he was going to leave it. Clean up was a quick thing thanks to the condom and Jethro made sure to warm a wash cloth up before he went back out to take care of Tony.

His Guide was still sprawled out on the bed, legs spread and body still twitching as his muscles reacted to the pleasure they had experienced. The Sentinel let his senses examine the man before him, making sure that he was as well as he looked. Nothing came back to the contrary and from the satisfied hum he made when he was wiped down, Jethro was sure he was fine. “Sensualist,” he said fondly.

“Oh, yeah. I so am,” Tony agreed without a blink as he stretched out on the bed. “Just so you know? There’s no reason for me to stay up here. Baltimore is one city that I have no problems breaking up with.”

Gibbs leaned forward and caught his Guide’s lips in a kiss. He was getting everything that he wanted and it was all wrapped up in the man before him. He had totally won the Guide Lottery indeed. NCIS had better watch out.