Title: Wing and a Prayer
Author: Roguie/ Danae Bowen/ SunSpecOps
Fandom: NCIS: LA
Characters: Kensi/ Deeks
Rating: K+
Spoilers: Not really. Just the box.
Summary: She gave him the thing he wanted most in the world, and she probably didn't even know it.
Disclaimer: NCISLA doesn't belong to me. I just like to borrow the characters and mutate their inner voices. What can I say? It's fun. Please don't sue; my house is small, my car is useless and my dogs are pains in the arse, but they're all I have.
A/N: Pity the box. No seriously, pity it. I'm thinking not one of us into the Densi ship can resist the metaphor hiding within a couple pieces of cardboard and tape. I mean… it's right there! So, regardless of the fact there's a billion and one fics about the box out there, I figured the world could do with a billion and two.
A/N2: For those of you who don't know me, I use very little dialogue and write in descriptive elongated prose. It's my thing; read any of my work and you'll find 8/10 of my fics read like this. I don't often play in the Densi sandbox – I'm more of a science fiction kind of girl, but once in a while a little vanilla is nice too – saves me learning the technobabble. :D
~~~~E~~~~
He lives for these little moments. These heart breaking, breath-catching, blood humming moments where her dark eyes dance and sparkle, her soft red lips curve with a mischievous smile, and tell-tale colour stains her cheeks, belying the blasé tone of her voice.
She's teasing him, he knows, in that Kensi Blye kind of way. As subtle as a stampede of frightened cattle, but at the same time maintaining that hair's breadth distance that kept their "thing" from becoming something. Something more, anyway, than what they already had.
For the life of him, Marty Deeks couldn't guess what was in the box that now sat upon his desk, the elephant in the room begging for attention and being categorically denied. He wracks his brain for any indication of what he may have suggested to his surprisingly attentive partner on being what he wanted most in the world. He comes up blank. Short of a series of increasingly provocative photos of the chestnut beauty herself, he had nothing.
Sure, he grins at her easily, watching the flush on her cheeks deepen, her smile widen, her gaze soften as he tells her this is the perfect moment. He doesn't feel the need to tell her that anything she put her heart into chasing for him would be what he wanted most in the world. It kind of went unsaid, like their thing, like a lot of things.
He can't find the words to let her know that all he wanted was to know she cared enough to think of him when she didn't have to. It didn't matter that in the ridiculously large box there could have been nothing more than a few pairs of warm socks, maybe a t-shirt or a pair of sweats, hell, even a ream of bubble wrap to set him up for an attention span of a three year old joke, courtesy of Callen. None of it mattered.
Kensi got him a birthday present, long after the moment had passed. She'd taken the tiny bit of personal time they'd been allotted and spared it to think of him, his feelings, his wants and needs. No matter what was in the box, Kensi was absolutely right. The thing he wanted most in the world now sat on his desk, proudly displayed for the entirety of both teams to see.
Kensi cared.
She cared that he'd cared.
She cared enough to explain, in public, exactly how much thought went into repairing the damage she'd unknowingly caused two months prior.
Hell, where Deeks was concerned, it was practically a declaration of love. Emotion in a box. A box she'd asked him to open. Perhaps it was a metaphor she hadn't intended on being realized, but he saw what he wanted to, and right now, that's what he wanted more than anything.
Deeks cared.
He cared that she cared.
If in that very moment the Earth was torn out from under his feet, all oxygen pulled from his lungs, all activity doused in his brain, Marty Deeks would embrace death with a chuckle and a pat on the back. No moment to come could ever top the feeling of knowledge within that box.
Deeks loves moments like these, where her breath hitches nervously, in anticipation, her body flooding with adrenaline as she fights the urge to run. He loves the terrified jackhammer beat of her heart, the gasp of air past her trembling lips, lips that parted somewhere between a smile and a biting remark designed to break the sudden tension that hung between them, unspoken but so very viable that it threatened to smother the spark of life given to the thing that remained unacknowledged.
He doesn't miss the deep hue of her cheeks, the way her hair flows between her nervous fingers, and the way her gaze darts between his eyes and lips, searching out a companion for the never to be voiced thoughts that now run rampant through her mind.
She has Deeks' attention, one hundred percent without waiver, even as he begins to filter through the information he now possesses. His lungs threaten to drown him in the sheer weight of the heated air between them. Electricity threatens to burn them each to a crisp, their bodies alighting in white flame as shocks pass between them unhindered.
Fifty years flash in front of his eyes. First dates, first kisses, first breathy moans that bring goose bumps to his flesh. A wedding, a child, laughter, tears. First wrinkles, first grey hairs, first time she finds the keys in the microwave and ravioli in the car. He sees grandchildren and rocking chairs, Christmases and birthdays. It's as real as the box in front of him for a single second, and in a blink, it's gone.
Too much.
Too fast.
And he hasn't even opened the box.
"It's not socks, is it?"
Moments like these, where she's laid bare in front of him and he's left breathless in the wake of her beautiful laugh, these are the moments that define his life.
It passes as quickly as it came, diffused by quick words that set them both at ease, knowing they've stepped over another line, pushed the bar back another foot, set new boundaries to be tested another day.
The box continues to sit untouched, its actual contents now inconsequential. Kensi had given him the thing he wanted most in the world, without a doubt.
Hope.
Everything else is pale in comparison.
~~~FIN~~~