Note: Everything you recognize belongs to somebody other than me.


No matter how hard she tried not to breathe through her nose, the smell of the bathroom still managed to assault Kensi's olfactory sense, nearly making her gag more than once. It didn't help that her breathing was already severely restricted by her vest, which she was currently struggling with, trying to pull it over her head.

Huffing out as much of a breath as she could manage, Kensi looked at her reflection in the small, cracked mirror. Wonderful, she was already a sweaty, red, wheezing mess. They hadn't even been on assignment two hours and she looked like she'd just tried to run a marathon in a parka. She slammed her hands down on the sink, conceding defeat to the vest and running the tap so she could at least make an attempt at cooling herself down. It felt like the temperature in the small room had suddenly skyrocketed into the hundreds, but perhaps that was just an unfortunate side effect of not being able to breathe, she couldn't quite tell.

When the room began to spin and Kensi was seriously questioning whether she'd soon be toppling face first into the door, she figured that no matter how embarrassing, she'd have to ask Deeks to help her out of this damned vest; either that or suffocate to death in a filthy bathroom. Only after seriously contemplating her options did she reenter the main room.

"Deeks," she gasped "help."

"Jesus Kensi, what the hell?"

Deeks stood quickly, taking in her flushed and vaguely manic appearance, wondering if the bathroom really was that bad or if she'd somehow gotten heat stroke at lightning speed. The cabin was suffocatingly hot, but most of the time so was her apartment, so her appearance concerned him.

"Help," she groped at the bottom of the vest, desperately searching for the hem "you have to get this off of me."

He could tell she was being serious and was genuinely concerned for her health, so for once he decided against a joke about helping her out of her shirt, and instead grabbed the vest by the bottom and pulled it up and over her head, bringing her arms up with it, and discarding it to the side, before quickly moving into the kitchen and filling a mug with cool water.

When Deeks returned with the water, Kensi grabbed the mug, and in her desperation to cool down, simply threw it in her face instead of drinking it.

Deeks stood frozen in front of her, his mind fully occupied by the fact that Kensi was topless and dripping water now that he no longer actively feared for her safety. He gulped, willing himself to look at something else - anything else - than his gorgeous, half naked partner, who was still standing in front of him, panting and fanning herself with her hands, seemingly oblivious to either his presence or her state of undress.

"Kensi"

Her name came out as more of a croak than anything, and he immediately cleared his throat, hoping he would sound like an adult the next time he opened his mouth.

"Kensi, you're..." instead of finishing his sentence, he just gestured towards her.

She looked down at herself and - seemingly for the first time - realized just how little she was wearing, turning an even deeper shade of red and grabbing the sheet from the bed to cover herself.

"Oh God, Deeks, I'm so sorry!"

"No, no, that's fine. You're hot. You were hot. Warm. You were warm."

Deeks brought his hand up to wipe the sweat that seemed to have gathered on his forehead, cursing his inability to put together a coherent sentence that didn't make him sound like a bumbling teenager who'd never seen a naked woman in his life. But Kensi was still just standing there, red faced and looking so flustered he couldn't help but find it simultaneously adorable and the sexiest damned thing he'd ever seen. He had to snap out of it, Kensi was obviously embarrassed and uncomfortable, and him staring at her like a horny virgin was probably not helping.

"Um," he cleared his throat "did you want some water? To drink, I mean."

He cursed his incessant stammering, but at least it seemed to draw a tiny smile from Kensi.

"I'm okay, thanks. Could you maybe grab my shirt though? It's in the bathroom."

"Yeah, no. For sure, I mean."

He quickly ran to the bathroom, smacking his hand to his forehead as he went. He gathered her shirt quickly from the towel rack, taking a second to notice just how thoroughly unpleasant the room looked, and smelled, before hurrying back into the main room and handing her the shirt. His hand brushed hers as he handed her the shirt and he felt as though his heart had dropped into his stomach. He could physically feel his heart rate shoot up and blood thunder in his ears when his eyes met hers; it was like time slowed down and everything around them dropped away, while flashes of their one night together rushed back to him, and suddenly the Kensi staring back at him was not embarrassed and holding a sheet, but pinned beneath him, clutching him tightly and whimpering as he moved his hands over the bare curves of her body.

"Deeks?"

And just as suddenly as she had appeared, that Kensi was gone, replaced once again by the flushed and embarrassed woman in front of him. But her eyes were the same. Even now he could see the desire shining behind her mismatched orbs and hear the hoarse quality to her voice as she snapped him out of his reverie, their hands still touching, both clasped around her t-shirt.

"Sorry" he practically whispered, dropping the fabric.

Deeks quickly retreated to the bathroom, giving her room to change in privacy and an opportunity to try to calm himself down a bit. No matter how much freezing water he splashed on his face, he still felt like he was burning up from the inside out, and no matter how many calming breaths he took, his pulse was still racing, his heart beating out of his chest and his whole body aching to burst back into the room and just take his partner up against the nearest wall. And then there was the matter of his pants. He was so hard that it hurt; the kind of vaguely nauseous feeling that came from such an extreme state of arousal, when he knew that no cold shower could help him and he had zero interest in taking care of it himself. He took his jeans off, deciding to simply be satisfied with the reduced pain from no longer being pinned up against his waistband. He had no idea what he would do about the sleeping arrangements, not entirely trusting himself so close to Kensi, but he'd sleep on the floor if necessary.

He adjusted himself and his shirt so that it wasn't entirely noticeable just how worked up he was, but he could feel his balls tighten and his dick throb at even the tiniest amount of contact. He took a deep breath and splashed more water on his face, it served him right for the way he'd acted today, maybe blue balls would deter him from doing it again. He just laughed ruefully to himself; that was unlikely, but apparently he was a glutton for punishment.

When he walked into the main room again, the sight that awaited him was nearly enough to snap the wafer thin restraint he had left. Kensi lay in the lone bed, up against the wall, with the sheet pooled around her ankles and wearing only her oversized white t-shirt from that day. Her hair was mussed and her face still the tiniest bit flushed, and the way she was stretched out had pulled the shirt up so that only an inch or two of fabric stood between Deeks and her completely bare form. She was absentmindedly playing with the hem of the shirt, as she so often did when she was nervous, but it only had the effect of pulling it up higher so that Deeks could see the bottom of what appeared to be grey cotton panties. Of course at that point it was entirely possible that his over stimulated mind was just hallucinating. Even so, he had to clench his hands tight into fists so that he didn't grab either her or himself.

"Um," he croaked "I'll take the floor."

She looked up at him with a bewildered expression on her face.

"Deeks, don't be ridiculous, there's nothing for you to lay down on and we'll both fit easily in the bed."

"Oh, yeah. Sure, why not?" he stammered, climbing in beside her while trying to leave as much space as possible between them.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good. Great. Here, I'll get the light."

He hopped up once again and rushed to the light switch in four quick strides, leaving Kensi bewildered at his behaviour once again.

"Um, okay. Thanks."

The light went out with a faint buzzing noise and Kensi felt the bed shift again under Deeks' weight a few seconds later. He still kept very much to the edge of the bed, leaving a good foot and a half between them and keeping his back to her. She could hear his erratic breathing though, which just left her with more questions about his behaviour tonight than before. Was he mad at her? Was something bothering him? She thought it might have something to do with him having to help her out of her shirt, and then the intense, charged moment they had shared, but he had been a bit of a question mark lately, so she just wasn't sure. The whole encounter had left her a bit more hot and bothered than she would like to admit, but she doubted that's what was bothering him. She was embarrassed at just how much the brief exchange had gotten her worked up, to be honest. If their relationship was still in it's pre-Afghanistan state she would most likely be on top of him right now, but it wasn't, so instead she was lying a foot and a half away from him and trying not to squirm too much while still trying to get the tiniest bit of friction where she needed it.

She just sighed, frustrated, and wondering how exactly they'd gotten to this point.