Author's note: Thanks to the amazing D'Angeli and Jen. :) I'm a pretty lucky girl to have such fun friends. D'Angeli got her fair share of editing this week; I owe her big time.
Hey guess what? I still don't own of the characters. I own my ideas and my plot. :-/ But I'm ok with selling those to NCISLA for a low-low price :-D Have your people call my people.
Kensi listened to the crinkle of the brown bag as the car turned onto a street she could navigate in her sleep.
His building sat in the back corner of the complex and she pulled into his spare parking space which had, essentially, become her parking space.
She grabbed the bag and her keys and didn't stop to knock on the door, instead turning the handle and finding it unlocked and stepping right in as if she belonged there.
Kensi couldn't hold back the snicker as she noticed the train track looping around the coffee table and down the hall before doubling back on itself. The train chugged around the tracks, slower than she recalled from its brief run at OSP.
He was slumped against the sofa, his head lolling to the side and snoring ever so softly.
She slid down onto the floor next to him, shoulder-to-shoulder, the bag at her hip. Deeks shifted towards her in his sleep, his head falling to rest on her shoulder.
Kensi chuckled and reached up, pushing some blonde hair out of his face, the touch causing him to stir. He blinked slowly as he woke and she took the extra moment to trail the back of her fingers against his cheek. It was a quick self-indulgent gesture and Kensi was rather surprised at herself.
When he finally was alert enough to take stock of his surroundings, he grinned at her.
"I should just give you a key," he said, his voice husky with sleep.
"You could. But you'd need to start locking your door first."
"I'll get you one tomorrow," he said, nuzzling his face further into her shoulder and tilting his body more towards hers despite their cramped position in the small space between the sofa and the coffee table.
She tipped her head onto his, enjoying the quiet contact. There was no pretense. There was no op. There was no suspect, no chasing, no stakeout. There was no Sam or Callen or Hetty to interrupt or give cause for their banter. This was their quiet time when their walls and defensive banter slowly fell away. She cherished every second.
"Did you stay up all night playing with your new toy?" she asked as the train slowly looped around again.
Deeks lifted a hand and rubbed his eyes before stretching and yawning. His arm fell around the back of the sofa, his thumb near her shoulder.
"It appears that I did."
"You didn't get up to surf. You didn't take Monty out. You didn't even watch porn last night ?" she teased. "All night with the train? Really?"
"Ah, Princess, I don't need porn when I have you," he teased, his thumb gently tracing patterns against her shoulder. "You're my eye candy."
She rolled her eyes. " You say stuff like that and it makes me wonder why I do nice things for you ," she said, picking up the bag and dangling it in front of him. "I brought you a present."
He reached a hand towards the bag but she pulled it away with a chuckle and rose to her feet.
"Ah ah. Not yet. Go wash up or whatever it is you do in the morning. I'll make coffee and find something for breakfast- lunch- whatever the hell time it is. And I'll let Monty out," she said, noticing the fluffy face near the back door gazing at her with pained eyes. He was begging to go out but hadn't woken his master yet.
The look on his face could be classified as "adoration" but she wasn't confident enough to use that word, so instead, Kensi labeled it "thankfulness." The promise of coffee usually prompted a thankful face.
He shuffled towards his room, careful to step over the track that took up most of the hallway floor.
She set the brown bag on the sofa in his normal spot and then proceeded to the kitchen, finding coffee and filters and beginning a breakfast even she could not screw up: toaster pastry and coffee.
He stumbled out a few moments later to find her standing with her back against the kitchen counter, a steaming coffee mug in each hand, watching his train move sluggishly around the tracks.
Kensi extended her arm and he took the coffee mug, wrapping one hand around its warmth.
"I can't believe I left it on all night," he said, noting how his coffee was - as always - just how he liked it.
She shrugged and reached around to the counter with her now free hand and grabbed the package she had effectively hidden behind her.
He looked down at the package she offered - twelve volt batteries.
"I figured this might happen," Kensi shrugged. "Go eat," she said, tipping her chin at the pastry on the coffee table.
She followed him to the couch and while he took his first bite of the toaster pastry, she unpacked the paper gift bag.
His eyes bulged when he noticed what she was unloading.
Three boxes of Airfix train paraphernalia; A Trackside Signal Gantry, a Level Crossing, and a Cattle Wagon. They were all in their original packaging.
He saw her reach in one last time, pulling out scale model trees, a signalman and a handful of extra track.
When she finally looked up from unloading her haul, she was almost breathless by the emotion in his gaze.
"I went to the vintage store on Madison looking for a vase for my mom for her birthday, but the train set was just sitting there. The guy said someone is cleaning out their basement and just bringing pieces as they come across them. I had him take your name down for the train set when it comes in - I mean, this one's just on loan..."
Deeks blinked at her and dropped his gaze down to the packages. His coffee mug got set on the table and he reverently lifted the aged cardboard box holding the Cattle Car.
"I think I love you, Fern," he said looking at the units in his hand with amazement. Their packaging was as pristine as a 30 year old collectible could be; the cardboard had become tinged with yellow and had soft, frayed corners.
"Awww," she snickered, "Just what every girl wants to hear. An 'I love you' with someone else's name on it."
"So if I said it with your name...?"
She rolled her eyes, dodging the question. "I still have to go find a present for mom's birthday. Do something other than this today, will you?" she gestured vaguely at the train tracks. "Monty needs a walk and you need sunlight at some point."
"Wanna surf tomorrow?" he asked before she could slip completely out the door.
Kensi shrugged, and threw up her three fingers in 'the horns' gesture and laughed while he grimaced at her intentional bastardization of the surfer 'Shaka' gesture. "You pick me up. Bring coffee or don't come at all, " she replied, letting the door close behind her.