Note: Once again, nothing you recognize belongs to me. Review if you'd like to.
Kensi stood behind the curtain of the dressing room, trying to make peace with her reflection. Thankfully, Fernando Ochoa wore his hair fairly long, so her hair had only been cut to shoulder length; she knew it could have been much worse, but it still looked too masculine for her tastes. More teenaged skateboarder than anything, but she supposed that was the point, it wouldn't do to have her looking as she normally did. At least it wouldn't be too difficult to fix once the op was finished.
The rest of her get-up was a lot less forgiving, however. Her pants were so baggy she had well founded fears that they would at some point fall right off, although that was easily fixed with a belt. Her top half was where she really got worried. While the plain white t-shirt she wore was at least three sizes too big for her, the compression vest she wore underneath to flatten her chest felt at least three sizes too small. She had no idea how she was expected to do anything remotely physical while still being able to breathe. And her chest was as flat as an eight year old boy's, although she supposed that was kind of the point.
She grimaced as she pulled her hair out of her face and adjusted a blue baseball cap over it. Taking in her full appearance in the floor length mirror, she had never felt quite this uncomfortable; from the battered work boots on her feet, up to the baggy, ripped jeans, then her perfectly flat chest - an unwelcome flashback to junior high - covered by the giant shirt that had been 'accentuated' at the shoulders, according to Eric, right up to her face, bare of any makeup and smudged with the tiniest bit of dirt, and there was the distinct possibility that faux facial hair was waiting for her on the other side of the curtain.
It wasn't even necessarily the outfit that bothered her; she'd gone undercover in stranger outfits, and it was all part of the job, it was the fact that she would be spending an indefinite amount of time with Deeks, in the middle of nowhere, and she would look like this. If he hadn't wanted her before, this new, masculinized version of her was hardly going to change his mind.
She sighed and readjusted her shirt once more, to no avail, before stepping out from behind the curtain, scowling.
Deeks had been dressed and ready to leave for about fifteen minutes, and there was still no sign of Kensi. He was well aware that she wasn't thrilled with this assignment, especially her alias, so instead of pestering her as he usually would he just let her take her time, he wasn't exactly in a huge rush to leave anyways.
Since they'd gotten back from Afghanistan things had been different between them, tense and awkward where before they'd been flirty and completely at ease around each other. He knew he was largely to blame, especially after giving her back her dad's knife, and then Agent Del Campo showing up. What even was that? It had seemed like Kensi was jealous, but when he'd tried to reassure her she'd just punched him. Typical. He tells her she's beautiful, probably the first sincere thing he'd said to her in weeks, and she slugs him like he'd been leering at her bending over.
Finally, he sees the curtain rustle and his partner stalks out from behind it, scowling and almost unrecognizable.
"Not a word" she grinds out.
He motions zipping his lip, picking up his bag and following her out to the truck they'd be driving into the desert.
They'd been driving two hours - in almost complete silence - when Deeks pulls over.
"What are you doing?"
"Gotta pee, and I didn't think you'd appreciate it if I used that empty bottle of Diet Coke."
Kensi grimaces at the image and turns her head away from the window, giving him his privacy.
When he settles back into his seat he hits the button to turn the radio off but makes no move to get back on the road. Kensi takes as deep a breath as she can manage and turns to look at him.
"What's up Deeks?"
"I could ask you the same thing, you've barely said a word the whole trip."
"Just trying to concentrate on breathing, this damn vest is too tight."
"Fair enough. You have to pee while we're stopped?"
"Deeks, you know I'm not actually a boy, right?"
"Oh I know Fern, believe you me" he said with a wink.
He braced himself for a punch, but was surprised when it didn't come.
"Kens?"
"Just drive Deeks."
