Author's note: I do not own NCIS: LA or its characters
Fatima started pulling clothes off the racks, tossing the hangers into a box and separating the clothes by type and size. Rountree, on the other hand, was tossing everything into a box and the hangers into the same box as Fatima.
"Will you please at least try to organize everything?" Fatima whined.
"How about I get everything off the hangers, and you organize it?" he asked, willing to do pretty much anything to avoid having to sort things.
"Fine," Fatima replied. She refused to admit it, but she was so excited, almost giddy, about the fact that they would very soon have their own work space. They realized that their new system worked great, and they had everything in boxes by the end of the day.
The next day, they showed up early. Fatima had picked up some small plants, hoping to decorate a little. Rountree had brought extra cleaning supplies, hoping they could get rid of the dust. They started by rolling out the racks and leaving them in a small spare room, then folding the curtains and leaving them in boxes.
"Is everything marked?" Fatima asked. She stood up and kicked her leg a little, hoping to get rid of the tingles.
"Yeah. You okay?" Rountree replied, moving towards her.
"Yeah. My leg fell asleep," she whispered. Then Kensi and Deeks walked in.
"Aww, why'd you move the curtains? We need those!" Deeks protested when he saw one if the red curtains hanging out of a box.
"Okay, one, ew. Two, Kilbride is letting us transform this into a little workspace," Fatima replied, scrunching her nose. Rountree found it adorable.
"I didn't say why!" Deeks protested.
"We all knew it, though," Fatima reminded him.
"Okay, babe, shut up. Guys, do you want any help?" Kensi asked.
"Honestly, no, thanks. This is going to be our thing, you know? Just us," Rountree said quietly. Kensi smiled.
"Well, we wish you guys luck. If you need anything, let us know, okay?" Kensi said, pulling Deeks away.
"Guess we have to stick to the burn room," Deeks quipped. Instantly, Kensi swatted the back of his head. " Ow!" he whined. Fatima laughed.
"Um, if you can take these poles down to storage, I can start vacuuming," Fatima said, trying to erase the oast three minutes from her head.
"Actually, start dusting the walls first. That way we only have to vacuum ten times instead of twenty," Rountree said. Fatima laughed and looked up at him. She nodded and reached for the duster.
Rountree was on his way back when he heard Fatima scream. He took off running, drawing his gun, ready to defend his partner. Fatima was running towards him, rapidly dusting herself off.
"What happened?!" he exclaimed.
"Spider," Fatima whispered. Devin laughed and pulled her into a gentle hug.
"Be still," he whispered.
"What?" Fatima asked.
"Be still. It's on your hijab," he whispered. Fatima instantly began freaking out and swatting at her head. She yanked it off, knowing she had another underneath. Rountree didn't process that, even though he could see the hijab underneath, and awkwardly covered his eyes. Fatima was swinging the hijab around, swatting it against a table. Rountree took over and grabbed it from her. He put a calming hand on her shoulder and kissed her forehead. Then he passed the hijab back to her. "I think you killed it," he teased gently.
"Don't tease me. I'm not in the mood," she whined.
"Hey. It's fine. It's just a spider," he whispered.
"Just? It's just a spider?" She practically screamed at him.
"Fatima, it's smaller than the average marble. It's also not poisonous, see? This one would give you a little itch, but it's fine," he said gently. "I understand it scares you, but it's honestly okay. Come here, I got you," he whispered. He pulled her into his arms and tried not to laugh again. He knew he had to contain his laughter until he was alone. He also knew it was wrong to laugh at Fatima for being scared, but he couldn't help it. Her reaction was priceless. "Do you want to go back to dusting?" he asked gently. Fatima nodded a little, so he passed her one of the dusters. He grabbed one for himself, and they began dusting on opposite sides of the area. Then Fatima saw another small spider. She smiled and swatted it with a folder.
"I killed a spider by myself!" she exclaimed. Rountree chuckled.
"Good job, sweetie," he replied. Fatima beamed and bounced a little. They spent the rest of the day playing music and dancing around as they cleaned, and the space was completely clean and empty.
"I'm actually excited to get desks," she said softly.
"Me too. How do you want to position them?" Rountree asked.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Our desks. Where do you want them?" he asked. Fatima shrugged.
"Wherever. I don't really care, honestly," she said. Rountree smiled and nodded.
"Maybe we should see if Kilbride would care, since he was nice enough to actually let us do this," he pointed out.
"Fair enough. I don't really care where my desk is, as long as it's close to you," she said sheepishly. Rountree beamed and smiled.
They moved their respective desks into the small area. They were arranged to face each other, supposedly to make it easier to talk about their current case. They both knew they would probably abuse the privilege and goof off a lot. They both started adding small knickknacks to their desks. Once they were done, they sat down and shared a knowing smile.