Tony's Apartment

[Tony]

There was a staring contest taking place in Tony’s apartment and neither combatant was willing to back down from the challenge. Well, Tony wasn’t willing. He had no idea what Eddie was thinking as he stared right back. A lot of people couldn’t see the appeal of keeping an iguana. You watched it for days, wondering if it had died and how you would be able to tell the difference before it gave you a lazy blink every now and then. If you were really lucky then the iguana might do something special and ultimately gross like licking its eyeball. Tony loved Eddie, no matter what people might think.

Without looking away from his pet, Tony reached out and fumbled for the cordless phone, punching in the numbers without even having to look at them. The advantage of dialling the same number every day meant that he could continue his staring contest while calling Mike, to see if his partner was ready to go or not. Once he’d won his contest of course.

Tony swore Eddie was smirking at him as he lifted the phone to his ear, listening to it ring.

[Tony]

“His name is Eddie. Do I give your kittens names that don’t belong to them?” Tony replied, not in the least bit surprised that Mike knew what he was doing. The two knew each other very well. Perhaps too well sometimes. He held his breath as Eddie shifted, the anticipation rising. He was going to blink, he was… not going to blink. Typical… The game was still on.

“I would say come over yes, except you’re wearing that green monstrosity. If I see that in the middle of a staring contest, I’ll go blind and Eddie will win by default.” Tony’s voice took on a teasing tone that was rarely heard by anyone besides his best friend, the CSI preferring to remain quiet and in the background when in larger groups.

[Tony]

“That’s not very original, now is it? Fluff one and fluff two. Give me a little credit Mike, I would come up with something a little better than that.” Tony was smiling as he spoke, eyes still fixed on Eddie although he could feel his resolve weakening. It seemed he was destined to lose yet again. And yet again he could blame Mike for it, for distracting him from his all important contest.

It wasn’t that hard to guess Mike was wearing his paisley shirt. He had an unhealthy love for it and when Mike sounded as pleased as he did on the phone and there was no sound of running water or something else in the background to indicate he had someone with him, it was a safe beat to guess that he was wearing his favourite shirt. One of these days Tony was going to have to hide it, just to see what the other man would do.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re almost done…”

[Tony]

“You’ve already distracted me by talking to me. You and Eddie are conspiring against me, to make sure I lose the contest. I see everything so clearly now. I don’t know why I didn’t realise this before,” Tony replied as he finally blinked and looked away, unable to stand the blank gaze of Eddie any longer. He straightened up from his crouched position, glancing back at his pet. Who he was convinced was laughing at him. Okay, the iguana was still in exactly the same place as a moment ago and had exactly the same expression but inside! Oh, inside, Eddie was laughing his little green head off.

“Okay, we’re done. And I’m ready to go, as soon as I’ve grabbed my jacket. I’ll meet you in the garage?” Tony asked, even though it was there usual routine to do so. He liked making sure every day – plus his constant question irritated Mike, even if only slightly and Tony didn’t get enough chances to be on the winning side in friendly mocking between them.

[Tony]

“Sorry Mike, you’re just not my kind of guy,” Tony replied, the smirk on his face only too clearly visible in his voice. It amused Tony to know he had managed to drag Mike down to a two word response. He was looking forward to finding out what he would say next, when he tired of ‘Bite me’. Like Eddie, Tony had learnt patience and although he was no lizard, he was confident that he could last longer than his partner.

“See you in a few.” He pulled the phone away from his ear and terminated the call, dropping it onto his sofa. Tony loved his cordless phone and the fact he could leave it just about anywhere, even if sometimes he did forget where and was forced to call himself to locate it. Pushing the bridge of his glasses back up his nose, Tony set out for another day at work.

Continued in: Parking Garage with Mike