A/N: I'm on a roll guys. Connects to last night's story.
"Oh my god, where did you get that?!" Kensi gasped as she walked into OPS. Nell spun around, putting her arms out like she could somehow block Kensi's view of the big screen.
"Uh, let's call it research," she said with a twist of her hand, glancing back at the picture currently on screen.
"Where did you get this picture?" Nell shrugged as Kensi repeated the question.
"For a supposedly ex-Russian criminal, Anatoli Kirkin has surprisingly poor security on his private servers."
"I suppose I shouldn't ask how you knew about the photo shoot in the first place," Kensi said. She glanced at the picture again and shook her head. "Deeks cannot know you have this. He would be mortified."
"I don't see why," Nell commented. "I mean, he looks fantastic."
"That's beside the point. Deeks was adamant that no one else see any of the photos." Despite herself, Kensi found herself staring at the full-body shot of Deeks.
It was one with the disco-esque outfit. He had one hip popped, right arm extended above his head as he stared directly into the camera, slightly tipped up. Somehow in the light of day, and without the influence of endless champagne, his pants seemed even tighter than she remembered.
It should have looked ridiculous, but instead she could only focus on the striking contrast of his tanned skin against light blue cloth. And the way the pants perfectly molded to every muscle in his butt and thighs.
"Damn it, you're right. He does look good," Kensi admitted reluctantly.
"And it's not even the best one," Nell told her with a little smirk as she reached over, tapped a button on her tablet and then took a step back.
Kensi gaped at the sight of Deeks leaning against a wall in nothing but the white pants and a vaguely angry expression. She made a completely involuntary strangled sound in the back of her throat.
"Uh-huh."
"Nell, where did you find this?" She tried to sound stern, but Kensi ended up sounding more breathless than anything. There was no way Deeks had posed for this of his own free will. Even though the background was obviously "The House of Kirkin".
"It was in with all the other ones," Nell defended herself. "Of course, it was in its own file labeled, 'Fantasy'"
"And that didn't make you stop?" Kensi asked incredulously, trying not to think too much about Kirkin using Deeks in whatever bizarre fantasies he might have.
"Hey, once I saw the picture with Deeks holding, or more accurately, wearing, that squid jacket thing, I figured it couldn't get much weirder." Nell shrugged, a smile creeping at the corners of her lips again. "And it got so much better."
"Ok, this is getting a little-"
"Hey Kens‒" They both spun around at the sound of Deeks' voice, cheerfully oblivious for five seconds it took him to notice the very large, half-naked image of himself on-screen. "Why, why are you looking at these?" he asked, sounding vaguely horrified.
"Nell found it," Kensi explained, having no problem ratting her out at the moment.
"Ok, I'm not going even ask why, can you please just take it down? This isn't helping obliterate my memories of that night."
Turning back to him, Kensi crossed her arms as a thought occurred to her. "When did you take this? I'm pretty sure I would remember you agreeing to strip down. I wasn't that drunk."
"Yeah, it was, uh, Kirkin cornered me when you went to the bathroom," Deeks said, scrunching up his face at the thought. "He insisted it was the best way to show off the pants' full…potential."
"Why didn't you just tell him no?" Nell asked, leaning around Kensi to peer at Deeks with a raised eyebrow. "Not that I'm complaining."
"Because as endearing as Kirkin can be, he's also super creepy. I figured it would be easier to just take one picture and be done with it. I mean, it's not that much worse than with the shirt, right?"
They all turned to look at the picture again, Kensi and Nell tilting their heads to get a better look. Once again, Kensi's eyes were drawn to his torso, and then lower, where the waist of his pants fell just below his hips. They were almost indecently low.
"Mm, nothing bad about this picture at all," Nell drawled in a low tone.
Deeks shared a look with Kensi, seeming more bemused now than anything.
"I'm going to leave you guys to" ‒he waved his hand in a circular gesture between them‒ "whatever this is."
As he walked out of the room, Kensi noticed Nell's gaze focused on him. Kensi cleared her throat pointedly and Nell jerked, a fine flush working its way across her cheeks.
"Right, I'll just, uh, delete these."
"That's probably a good idea," Kensi agreed, then added as she headed for the door, "But make me a copy first."