A/N: Half the Deeks family some point in the future.
"Daddy?"
"Yeah, kiddo," Deeks responded distractedly as he tightened a bolt on Caleb's new bike.
"Why's your hair like that?" Caleb answered. He leaned against Deeks' back, grabbing a bunch of hair in each hand in case he needed a demonstration. Deeks felt tiny nails scrape across his skull. "Why's it so long? It looks like scarecrow hair."
Deeks snorted and resumed assembling the bike while Caleb continued to mess with his hair. He now had it split roughly in half and from the feel of it was attempting some kind of braid.
"You know what, I'll take it. I've certainly heard worse."
"Or maybe John Denver. Only his is not so messy," Caleb decided after a couple minutes.
"You really know how to give a compliment," Deeks jokes, tossing the wrench he was using onto the stained cloth on the floor. Being careful to disengage his small fingers first, he grabbed Caleb and settled him in his lap. "So what's with all the questions about my hair?"
"Elliana says you look like a girl. And none of the other dads have hair like yours. Theirs is short," Caleb explained with a small frown. Unconsciously, he grabbed a piece of his own hair, which was quite a bit longer than what was currently in style and neatly combed. Deeks gave his knee a squeeze and smiled down at his honey blonde hair.
"When I was about your age I had long hair. But everybody said it looked messy and Grandma Deeks finally cut it," he started and Caleb craned his head to look up at him with wide blue eyes.
"I never saw a picture of you when you were little."
"Huh, we'll have to ask Grandma D if she has some." Caleb smiled a little bit at that, but wasn't about to be deterred from his line of questioning.
"When did it get long again?"
"My junior year of high school. It was down to my shoulders at one point," Deeks told him and Caleb giggled mischievously.
"I bet grandma was really mad," he said.
"Mm, she definitely wasn't happy. She got over it though. I had a lot of other people judge me for it though."
"Did it make you sad?"
"Not really, it was more annoying than anything. And sometimes my bosses got a little mad at me," Deeks said, thinking of Roger Bates. Every so often he'd get a random call from the man, asking if he'd finally cut his damn hair.
"Mom likes it though," Caleb said, not asking, but assuming. He sounded a little defensive on his behalf and Deeks held him a bit closer. Caleb was fiercely protective of his family, sometimes a little too much.
"She pretends she doesn't, but she does," Deeks told him confidently. He could just imagine Kensi rolling her eyes at him. Caleb nodded, apparently satisfied, and said,
"Good. I don't like that people are mean to you so much." Deeks smiled a little at that and kissed the top of his head.
"Thanks, kiddo. But it really doesn't bother me that much and even if it did, I'm pretty stubborn. I can handle it."
"I know, it really aggrabates mom when you're stubborn," Caleb said knowingly. Shaking his head, Deeks poked the ticklish spot just below Caleb's rib cage.
"Aggrabates, huh?" he said while Caleb giggled and tried to squirm away. Deeks tickled him for a few minutes, basking in the glorious sound of his son's laughter.
"Now I've got a question for you," Deeks said, once Caleb's breathing had evened out a little. "Does it bother you that people say things about my hair?"
"No," Caleb answered immediately, not sounding very convincing. He peeked up at Deeks from one eye. "Sometimes."
"Do they ever say mean things about your hair?" Caleb nodded ever so slightly.
"Sometimes."
"Would you like to get a haircut?" he asked and Caleb's head popped up in surprise.
"But then I wouldn't look like you anymore," he blurted out. Deeks acknowledged that with a nod of his head.
"Maybe not as much, but that isn't a terrible thing. And if it makes you happy, then that's what matters."
Caleb was silent for a while, his face screwed up in concentration. Finally, he faced Deeks with a determined expression.
"I want my hair to be long like yours," he said firmly. Deeks pulled him in for a quick hug, touched by the gesture.
"Then we won't touch it." He let Caleb rest against his chest for a minute longer and then said, "Hey, we gotta get this bike finished. I promised your mama that we'd have this put together by the time she and Lily get back." He paused to look at his watch. "Which is approximately 20 minutes from now. Hand me the wrench and the screwdriver."
Caleb eagerly went to retrieve the tools, chattering away while Deeks started assembling the bike again.
"Maybe if my hair gets longer mom can give us matching braids like she does with Lily," he suggested suddenly with great enthusiasm.
With a long-suffering sigh, Deeks resigned himself to a future filled with borrowed sparkly barrettes and French braids.
A/N: One of of my sisters used to say aggrabate instead of aggravate. It seemed appropriate here.
