Chapter 21

Deeks walks inside the bullpen and frowns.

For some reason, there's no one around. Well, there are plenty of people around but none of them is a member of his team. It's weird because they just finished wrapping up a case and they should all be there filling out paperwork. He just went to take a quick shower, nothing else.

He starts walking around to see if he can spot them anywhere.

The first one he finds is Sam. He's upstairs, beating the crap out of the punching bag as usually.

Callen is in the shooting-range and Hetty is in her office.

The only member that remains missing is Kensi but he knows exactly where to find her. He walks inside the gym and smiles. She's working out, just like he knew she would. He stands there, looking at her with his goofy smile on his face.

Her voice makes him freeze for a second but he recovers quickly.

"Are you going to stand there all afternoon or are you thinking about joining me?"

Deeks walks in and dares to stand a bit closer to the place where she's beating the crap out of the punching bag. "I can think about an activity that could get us both sweaty and breathless but it doesn't involve a gym."

Kensi punches the bag a bit harder and glares at him. "This morning you were surprised when Sam told you I beat him with the knives. I was thinking you'd want to see how good I am with the knives with your own eyes. So how is it going to be? Are you going to change and accept the challenge or are you going to stand there and make dirty jokes?"

Deeks thinks about telling her he's too tired for that right now. It wouldn't be a lie because it was a long day and the only thing he wants right now is to go home and sit in front of the TV with an ice-cold beer in his hands, without having to do anything else but relax. But the idea of fighting with Kensi actually sounds appealing. Or maybe that's just because he doesn't mind staying in her company for a while longer instead of going home alone.

So he nods and walks to the changing room. He puts on a t-shirt and some shorts and walks back to the gym. Kensi is sitting on the floor, waiting for him. She gets up as soon as she sees him and they walk to the circle that is drawn on the floor. Kensi hands him one of the knives and gets ready to fight him.

"Just so you know, I'll go easy on you."

Kensi laughs. "I don't need you to go easy on me just because I'm a girl, Deeks."

Deeks frowns. "I'm not going to go easy on you because you're a girl. I'm going to go easy on you because you're my partner and because I care about you. And I have issues with hurting people I care about. It's a problem when it comes to dealing with you because sometimes I really feel like hitting you but I'm not willing to change that."

She looks at him, a bit surprised. "When do you feel like hitting me?"

He shakes his head. "I feel like hitting you whenever you're stupid or reckless. When you throw yourself in front of moving cars or jump in front of guys with guns I really feel like bending you over my knee and teach you not to worry me so much."

Kensi laughs this time. "Are we going to do this or not?"

Deeks nods and they start fighting, unaware of Callen and Sam standing on the doorway to see this one. It's not every day that one gets to see Kensi and Deeks fighting and both partners are rooting for Kensi to win this fight.

Deeks manages to shock her a few times but in the end she's the one with the upper hand. He says that she has the advantage of having a lot of practice with these things and this is the first time he's using them. She just laughs it off and shocks him again. In no time, she has him on the floor and is directly on top of him with the knife close to his neck and with a smirk on her face.

"Admit that I'm better than you and I'll let you go without shocking your precious little neck. How is it going to be?"

Deeks opens his legs and wraps them around her legs to stop her from getting up or moving at all. Callen and Sam share a knowing look and exit the room in silence with the feeling that they should give those two some privacy. "I think that soon enough you're going to be the one begging for mercy."

Before she can even think about answering him, Deeks flips them over and laughs. "Never underestimate the enemy, Kensi."

She drops the knife and looks into his bright blue eyes that always manage to make her knees go weak. Luckily, she's lying down and he can't see the effect his eyes have on her. "I didn't underestimate you. I went easy on you."

Deeks laughs and looks into those brown eyes he keeps losing himself into. They stay in silence, just looking into each other's eyes, for a few seconds. He starts leaning in and she closes her eyes. Deeks stops, just a few inches away from her mouth and she opens her eyes. His voice is no louder than a whisper when he speaks and she feels his hot breath tickling her lips. "I would have been there every step of the way, just so you know."

Then he starts leaning in once again but Kensi pushes him off of her and gets up from the floor because she knows exactly what he meant by that. And it's something she doesn't want to talk about. So she walks away from the gym, without looking back, and leaves a confused and frustrated Deeks sitting on the floor.

X

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Just so you all know I'm breaking a promise I did to myself right now.

I promised myself I would only update this story once a week but I just finished writing the M chapter today and I want to get to that soon.

Therefore, and seeing as we're still 6 chapters away from that one, I decided to speed things up a bit and give you an update.

Now, I want to offer you guys a deal.

As you all know by now reviews make me work harder and I could use the inspiration right now so here's the deal.

Less than 10 reviews on this chapter will grant you an update in a week.

Between 10 and 13 reviews, the update will be here in 4 days.

More than 14 reviews and you'll get to read the next chapter in two days.

It's a pleasure doing business with you, dear readers.

Sarah