A/N: So this is my first fanfic! Exciting yet scary! I've only seen about a dozen episodes of NCIS:LA and am absolutely obsessed with it (or at least am getting there ;) ) Since this is my first fanfic, I apologize for any OOC or non-canon stuff. I love critiques so go ahead and review! (You were going to anyways, right? ;) )
Thanks to my friend, Samantha! You are awesome and I appreciate all the help! She helped me edit this whole thing and fixed all my grammar mistakes–any she didn't catch are my fault.

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS: Los Angeles or any of its characters. Sam's kids are a mixture of info from the show and my own ideas.

Enjoy!

Kensi sighed as she watched Sam's son sleeping. She'd made it to bedtime; that counted as a victory, right?

Okay, so she'd fed the boy ice cream for dinner… but only because he wouldn't stop screaming as she'd given him his veggies. At least it wasn't her fault that Sam's daughter had fallen off the trampoline and scraped her arms, hands and knees. Sure, she was supposed to be keeping an eye on her but…

Kensi sighed again. At least Deeks was going down with her.

"Kensi?" A small voice asked from the door.

Kensi spun around to see Sam's daughter clutching a teddy bear to her chest. "You're supposed to be asleep." Why aren't you asleep?!

"I want a story."

"A story?" There was no reason for her to refuse. She could handle reading a story to her, no biggie. "Fine, but in bed."

The girl nodded and dutifully returned to her room as Kensi followed. As she hopped into bed Kensi scanned the bookshelves. "Which one do you want?"

"You tell me one. One about a princess. I already know all the stories in my books."

Kensi bit her lip. Storytelling wasn't an area she was well-versed in… and she could hardly recount a case for the girl. She didn't really have much choice though. She moved over to the bed sitting down on the mattress. "Alright… Once upon a time there was a princess named-"

"Kensi," the girl interrupted. "Her name was Kensi. It's a pretty name."

Kensi smiled. "Thank you." She paused as she tried to think where to go next. Why were all the childhood stories she knew slipping out of her head?

"A dragon came," prompted the girl.

"A dragon came," echoed Kensi, silently thankful. "A large red one with scarlet flames. One day, the dragon came so close to the palace that the king ran into the princess's room and told her they needed to escape."

At least the girl was listening with rapt attention. That hopefully meant she didn't hate it.

"The whole palace packed up to flee to nearby caves but the princess didn't want to run. Instead, she decided that she would try talking to the dragon. So she rode off on her noble horse."

"Unicorn," the girl corrected with a frown. "Princesses ride unicorns, not horses."

"Who's telling this story? You or me?" Unicorn or horse—did it matter?

Sam's daughter sighed. "You," she admitted and gathered the teddy bear to her chest again.

Kensi gave a nod and continued, with the princess on the unicorn. "So the princess and her unicorn confronted the dragon. 'Why are you scaring all the people away?' she asked. The dragon replied, 'Because I'm lonely.' The princess thought about this, then said, 'I'll be your new friend, so don't be lonely.'"

Kensi thought she saw a shadow flicker at the edge of her vision but when she turned to look no one was there. Just imagining things, she thought, and continued.

"Since the princess could hardly leave her friend behind, when she returned to the castle, it was with the dragon flying high over head." Seeing Sam's daughter's eyes droop, Kensi took the excuse to finish quickly. She was way out of her element.

"The king had refused to leave without his daughter and was overjoyed to see her alive. Quickly, she explained to him that they had nothing to fear from her new friend. The king soon accepted the dragon and they all lived happily ever after. The end."

Kensi rose to leave, glad the ordeal was over.

"Wait! What about a prince?" The girl asked sleepily. "His name is Prince Deeks," she added with a yawn.

"Uh… Prince Deeks was so impressed with Princess Kensi's bravery that he-"

"Proposed, they got married and lived happily ever after," Sam's daughter finished with a smile and cuddled deeper under the blankets.

"Right," agreed Kensi with a wince. Not quite what she was going to say. As she slowly walked to the door she heard a quiet, tired voice rise in chant.

"Kensi and Deeks, sitting in a tree, K-I…" her voice trailed off. Kensi breathed a sigh of relief (she did not want to think about her and Deeks up a tree k-i-whatever) and stepped out into the hallway.

"…S-S-I-N-G," a voice said right next to her ear. Kensi jumped, stifling a shriek.

"Deeks!"

"First comes love," he continued with a lazy smile, looking perfectly comfortable leaning against the wall, standing on the top step of the stairs. "Then comes-"

"Do not say marriage," Kensi warned.

Deeks mouthed several words to himself, then pouted. "No other word fits, Princess Kensi." His mouth quirked up at the end and Kensi wondered how much effort he was putting into not laughing.

"You were listening." It wasn't so much of a question as a statement of despair.

"The whole thing," he drawled.

Kensi groaned. The only thing worse than having to create a cheesy, all-been-done-before, princess story was Deeks hearing her tell the cheesy, all-been-done-before, princess story.

Deeks seemed immune to her unease. With a short bow, he motioned down the stairs. "Our popcorn awaits us."

Kensi shot him a look as they went down the stairs. "You made popcorn?"

"Yup."

Kensi rolled her eyes. He refused to help her cook for the kids ("Haven't you played house before, Kens? The girl does the cooking.") but magically knew how to work the microwave when it came to his own food.

His words caught up with her. "Wait, popcorn? Where'd you get that?" He hadn't brought anything with him.

Deeks shrugged, moving into the kitchen. "I found it in the cupboards."

"Deeks! You can't go digging around other people's kitchens!"

"Sam said help yourself."

"No, he didn't. You weren't even here when he left." She put her hands on her hips, ready to stare him down.

He looked back at her, eyebrow raised in defiance. "He should've said it."

She shook her head at him. "And she calls you a prince." Kensi motioned with her head to the staircase behind them.

"I find myself very princely," Deeks said with wounded pride.

Kensi studied him, cocking her head to the side and crossed her arms, completing the picture of contemplation. "I guess you do have the arrogant-ego part down."

His eyes narrowed. "You're hardly a princess either," he shot back.

"Excuse me?"

He motioned to her. "What princess wears jeans and shoots a gun on a regular basis?"

Before she could protest bringing her job into this, he continued, "And you need to work on your political schmoozing."

"My political schmoozing?"

"Calling people arrogant isn't good politics."

She wasn't sure if she should admit that he was right or keep up the façade of annoyance.

"Look," he said, eyes softening. "You want some or not?" He held out the bowl.

She looked at it for a long time before taking a handful. It smelled too good to pass up.

The pair made their way over to the sofa and collapsed; debating how mad Sam would be if they used his TV. Deeks won the mental debate and flipped the set on. He surfed the channels, stopping on a "How I Met Your Mother" rerun. As the show faded to commercial he said, "You know, we make pretty good babysitters."

Kensi rolled her eyes and smiled. "Yeah, I guess we do."