Enjoy Kensi and Deeks on their not date.

"This is incredible," Kensi groaned, having just bitten into a warm, succulent carnitas taco. It was so good she closed her eyes to better enjoy the experience. When she opened them, Deeks was grinning at her. "What?" She swiped self-consciously at her chin.

"Nothing, I'm just glad you're enjoying the food. Alex will be happy," he said.

"Who's Alex?" Kensi considered stuffing the rest of the taco into her mouth in one bite, but decided that would probably be pushing the limits of propriety. Even if they weren't on a date, she still didn't want to disgust him.

So far dinner was nothing like Kensi had been expecting. Deeks had answered the door in a black t-shirt, jeans and with bare feet, completely confident and at ease while her stomach felt like she'd eaten worms for lunch. At the very least, was relieved she'd opted not to wear the sundress she'd been considering.

After showing her around the rest of the house, which was equally as impressive as the few rooms she'd already seen, he led her into the room he called a den/entertainment room. They were now sitting on the floor in front of a low table eating some of the best Mexican food Kensi had ever tried.

Deeks had found the first Iron Man movie on some movie channel and it was playing in the background, but neither of them were paying any attention to the plot.

"Alex owns Alejandro's, the restaurant I ordered this food from. He's a friend from high school and hooked me up for the night." He looked pretty pleased with himself.

"Why have I never heard of it?" Kensi demanded.

"Well, it's a little bit off the beaten path," Deeks explained. "I'll have to take you there sometime." He said it casually, but Kensi froze for a moment. That sounded distinctly more date like than their current situation. Deeks didn't notice her response, busy sorting through a bowl of chips.

She stared at him for a minute, taking advantage of his obliviousness. Once again he'd surprised her. She'd expected something much more elaborate, designed to impress and display his wealth than tacos and a movie.

It was very much at odds with his choice of profession, not to mention the massive house, and it made her curious.

"So what made you decide to be a lawyer," she asked, popping the final bite of taco in her mouth. Deeks snickered, taking a swig of his beer and smirking at her.

"Really, that's the question you decided to start your interrogation with?" he teased. Kensi stole a chip from his plate, biting into it with an obnoxiously loud crunch.

"Oh, if you want an interrogation I'm happy to oblige. Why do you go by two names?" She raised her finger, cutting him off as he opened his mouth. "And before you start, remember that you already gave me the separate lives bit. Somehow I don't think your life is that crazy that you need to use a pseudonym." Deeks acknowledged that with a nod of his head and drained his beer before responding.

Although his expression didn't change, Kensi sensed he was bracing himself for whatever he was about to tell her.

"Martin Brandel is my legal name. I didn't get along very well with my dad and pretty early on I decided I wanted to change my last name to Deeks, which is my mom's maiden name," he explained, getting up to grab a fresh Modelo. He gestured to Kensi and she shook her head.

"I knew my dad wouldn't let me, so I waited until my parents got divorced. I figured my mom wouldn't mind, but she said I needed to wait until I was 18."

"Your first act of rebellion as an adult," Kensi guessed and he smiled wryly.

"Almost. When I started looking into the process, I realized why my mom had told me to wait. The filing fee was a couple hundred dollars alone and we didn't have the extra cash," Deeks told her with a shrug.

It hadn't occurred to her than Deeks had ever been anything other than well off and she was curious to know more.

"Why didn't you change it in college?" He snorted, giving her an incredulous look.

"Are you kidding? I was a scholarship kid. Some months I could barely afford room and board. I didn't have the money to pay all the fees either."

"I didn't realize," Kensi said, feeling a little ashamed and embarrassed. He waved it off, apparently unbothered by her invasive questions.

"Don't worry about it. A lot of people assume I came from money." He glanced meaningfully at Kensi. "It's how they respond after they get to know me that I care about. Anyway, it was during college that I decided to go by exclusively Deeks with my friends and use Brandel for anything that required my legal name. Turned out it came in pretty handy once we started the law firm. Like I said, it keeps my personal and business lives separate."

Kensi was quiet, taking it all in. In the back of her mind, she remembered asking Eric to research Deeks' history. Then it had been for the case, but it could still come in handy. She made a mental note to skim through his history so she wouldn't run into any more surprises like this.

They ate quietly for a few minutes, watching Robert Downey Jr. fly across the screen in his metal suit.

"So what led little Kensi Blye to become a big, bad Special Agent?" Deeks asked after she'd eaten her third taco, his tone slightly mocking.

"My dad was a marine," she told him as she wiped her fingers on a napkin. "He died when I was a teenager. But even before that I knew I wanted to serve the country in some capacity. NCIS was the perfect fit." She kept the details sparse, not wanting to delve into the years of anger that had accompanied her father's death.

Deeks gave her a sympathetic smile and squeezed her shoulder. It was a quick touch, but she felt the warmth of his skin through her shirt.

"I'm sorry." She smiled back, shrugging it off, even though talking about him still stung.

"It was a long time ago." She felt Deeks' eyes on her, heavy and inquisitive.

She cleared her throat, her emotions feeling a little too close to the edge. She didn't talk about her dad often and had shocked herself by telling Deeks about him at all.

Needing to lighten the mood, she snatched up the TV controls which were sitting by Deeks' leg. He looked a little surprised by her response, but didn't say anything as she switched off Iron Man and started flipping through the channels.

"Have you ever watched America's Next Top Model?" she asked and he shook his head, leaning back as she found a rerun of her favorite show.

"No, I don't watch a lot of TV," he told her. Kensi grinned evilly and suddenly he looked a little wary. "Ok, now you're freaking me out a little bit."

"You are in for a treat," she promised, grabbing the bowl of chips and settling in against the back of the couch. After a minute Deeks made a horrified sound.

"Kensi, why does that girl have a cockroach crawling on her?"

A/N: I hope this wasn't too awful.

It seems I might have underestimated how much a mansion-y type house would actually cost in California. Where going to pretend that Deeks' house didn't cost several million more than I stated.

Also, the filing fee to change your name in California is currently over $400 and that's not taking into account all the other fees. I figured that when Deeks was 18, it might have been quite a bit less, but still pricy for a poor college student.