Super long chapter to say thank you for all of the wonderful attention this story has been recieving. I appreciate the reviews and kind words more than you know:)

- Hazel

"Hey," Deeks says, walking into the doorway of the bathroom and leaning one shoulder up against the door.

"What's up?" Kensi responds rather mindlessly, mouth ajar as she applies mascara to her eyelashes.

"You… good?"

She pauses, looking at him through the reflection in the glass as her hand and wand remain immobile in the air.

"Good?"

"Yeah." He shrugs, shifting around uncomfortably. "Ya know… good. Are you good?"

"I'm good."

Deeks nods, his lower lip protruding as he tries to seem relaxed.

"Good. That's… that's good."

Kensi lifts her eyebrows as she returns to applying her makeup, hoping for a better explanation. Clearly there's something more he wants to say, and she's fishing for it. Luckily, Deeks takes the bait.

"You know what I mean."

"Do you even know what you mean?"

He clears his throat, waving his hands around in front of himself emphasis of some kind.

"I just… I wanted to see if you were good, because if you're good than I'm good, and that's… good." The words spill out of his mouth, rushing to escape the confines of his lips. "I was just checking to see if you were still good with all of this, and-"

"Your vocabulary isn't very wide today, is it?"

He smiles and chuckles because she's joking with him, and that's something Deeks thoroughly appreciates every time he sees it.

"I just wanted to see if you were good. That's all."

"I think we've already established what your intentions were."

"Okay. Good."

Kensi drops her mascara wand in mock exasperation.

"Really?"

"Great. Super great. Not good. Great."

She finally spins around to look at him head on, rather than using the glass as an intermediary.

"This is painful. Just spit it out already."

"Spit what out?"

Kensi cranes her neck forward. "Whatever it is that you're trying so hard to say without actually saying!"

He looks towards the ceiling, defeated.

"I was just checking to see if this is still what you wanna do."

"This, meaning…?"

"The party."

Kensi smiles softly, cocking her head to the side as she takes a couple of small steps towards him.

"I'm fine, really."

Poor word choice on her behalf. She knows it immediately.

"I'm great, is what I mean. I feel great. Reeeeally great. I got a new road bike for Christmas, and I'm thinking about doing a Malibu iron woman. I'm like a Shaolin monk with a young bull mixed with a very charismatic cheetah."

He narrows his eyes, smirking. "You don't have to do that with me."

"Do what?" She asks, trying to appear as innocent as possible.

"That thing you do, when you try to pretend that everything's just peachy when it's not." Kensi's smile falters somewhat as she continues listening. "You don't have to fake it with me. That's all I'm saying."

Kensi sighs, nodding slowly as she thinks over his statements. He's trying to help, she knows that. But forcing herself into a state of depression for the rest of eternity isn't going to help matters much either.

"I'm not faking anything, Deeks." Kensi's voice threatens to start shaking, but she won't allow it to. "Yes I miss him, yes I hate this, and yes- I'm still a bit torn up over this whole thing."

Deeks sucks his lips back into his mouth, sticking both hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"Okay… maybe more than a 'bit.' But I'm trying to fight it, Deeks. I'm trying to move on. If I don't… it'll swallow me. I can't just keep on reliving it. That's what I did for the first couple of days, and it was hell. I have to accept it and... and move forward."

He still looks conflicted. "Kens-"

"No, Deeks-" Her voice raises, but she forces it back down to a normal volume. "I have to do this my way. Or at least I have to try."

His eyes dance around her features, which are desperate and somewhat pleading. She's stubborn, and he just has to let her be that way. Thinking that he's going to be able to change her will get them nowhere.

"Okay," Deeks says quietly, his voice telling her one thing but his face telling her another. "We'll do this your way."

Kensi smiles, taking two steps forward to peck his cheek.

"Thank you."

He nods with a small sigh, tapping the doorway twice with his hand. Suddenly, it seems that the conversation is done and over, almost as if it never happened. That's the Kensi-Deeks specialty: returning to normality in matter of seconds.

"Alrighty, then. We should leave in around…" He checks his watch. "An hour?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"Is Ray coming?"

"Nope."

"Does he have a date, or something?"

"The couch and a beer, apparently."

She chuckles. "Of course. I should've assumed."

"Don't sweat it, and-" He waves a finger up and down her frame. "-wear your best dress."

"We're going to the beach, Deeks."

"Okay, fine- your best sundress?"

"It's January."

"It's also about seventy degrees outside."

She glances out the window, blinded by the orange and red rays of setting sunlight that stream in through the windows.

"Touché. I'll throw on a dress."

"You have to…. this is the first party we're going to as a couple."

She raises her eyebrows. "Wow. You're right. I hadn't even thought of that."

"I know. What would you do without me, Fern?"

Kensi shrugs, turning back towards the mirror to finish applying her makeup.

"I have no idea."

"You made it!" Josh exclaims, jogging towards them from across the beach. Kensi and Deeks hold hands as they stroll towards him, keeping a leisurely pace.

"We did," he says with a small smile and nod, glancing down to Kensi as she returns the gesture.

She's wearing a long, heather gray maxi dress and a black oversized sweater to match. Her hair is down, flowing over her shoulders in pools of soft waves. As usual, Kensi looks like a typical Californian beauty.

"I'm sorry about your dad," Josh says, clearly feeling uncomfortable as he brings up the elephant in the room.

But rather than making the situation any more awkward for the three of them, Kensi just smiles toothlessly and murmurs a quiet, "Thank you." It's obvious that she wants the topic to disappear just as much as he does.

Josh clears his throat, pointing behind him. "Well… we've got s'mores over by the bonfire, and the guys have some fireworks that we're gonna set off at midnight!"

"Sounds great," Deeks says, squeezing Kensi's hand. They follow their friend towards the twenty or thirty people that are chatting by the fire, most all of which are familiar faces.

As girl after girl squeals Kensi's name and pulls her in for a hug, she's almost forcibly separated from Deeks. With a fairly large amount of reluctancy he moves away, saying hello to all of his friends as she does the same with hers.

"Are you guys really living together now?" A girl known as Jen asks, nodding her chin towards Deeks across the way. Kensi has been bracing for this particular set of questions- she's known that they would be coming, so her reply isn't at all flustered.

"Yup."

"How long are you gonna stay?"

Kensi shrugs, narrowing her eyes a hilt. "I dunno. Probably until-"

She's cut off as a girl with wide, green eyes and an overly perky demeanor chimes in.

"Are you guys gonna get your own place after graduation?"

Kensi's never been great at 'gossiping with the girls,' especially when the topic of conversation is focused solely on her. She stutters and stammers, eyes bouncing around from one enthralled female to the next.

"Um… we haven't really thought that far ahead yet. I'm not sure what we're gonna do."

"Well you two should totally move in together," another girl adds, nodding profusely as she speaks. Her valley girl accent is so pronounced that Kensi has a hard time taking her seriously. For the first time in a couple of weeks, not laughing is a struggle.

"Becky's right-" Oh, so her name is Becky. How fitting. "You guys are, like, perfect for each other."

A chorus of 'ooooh's and 'yeah's are expelled all around her, each one accompanied by an overly enthusiastic grin.

"I like to think so," she says with a light laugh, spotting Deeks' head through the crowds. Kensi's been hoping all along that an acknowledgment of their theories would shut them up, but instead it seems to just bring on a whole new slew of questions.

"What's his place like?"

"Doesn't he live with a friend?"

"Are you guys gonna get mar-"

"Hey!"

The speaking comes to a dead stop as Deeks suddenly reappears by Kensi's side, tossing an arm over her shoulders. He seems almost completely clueless as to the little chat that's been taking place, and especially unaware of the fact that his name has just come up a multitude of times.

"Heeeeeeey," Kensi says, probably speaking louder than she needs to but hardly caring in the least.

All the girls surrounding them give him the same greeting- a low and rather bashful hello. Kensi narrows her eyes as they continue looking him up and down, and Becky bats her eyelashes a couple of times.

Deeks just chuckles awkwardly, his arm rolling off of Kensi's shoulder and reaching for her hand.

"Can I steal her for a minute?"

They all nod in unison, practically hypnotized. Probably his baby blues.

"What was that?" She mutters through gritted teeth, putting on a fake smile as they walk away together.

He shrugs. "Just saving you from the lions den. Even a Shaolin monk mixed with a very charismatic cheetah can't escape those girls."

She smirks. "Don't forget about the 'young bull' part."

"Right."

Deeks leads her over towards their group of mutual friends- the ones that they actually enjoy being around, rather than the gaggle of girls that she was just speaking to.

"They seem to think I'm pretty handsome, don't they?" Deeks says once they finally come to a stop.

She rolls her eyes. "Don't let it go to your head."

Kensi doesn't tack anything more onto her statement, frankly because she can't find an excuse for their actions. Deeks notices it- the same way he notices everything she does.

"No alternate reasoning behind their actions I should know about?"

She shrugs, eyes avoiding his gaze as she sticks both hands behind her back.

"You're an… attractive guy. I can understand why they'd stare."

He rotates that brilliantly defined lower jaw around, the minuscule movement making Kensi's heart flutter.

"Huh."

"What?"

"You hardly ever compliment me. It's a nice change."

"I tell you that I love you. Doesn't that imply a whole slew of compliments?"

"Not really."

"Okay. Maybe I just don't want you getting all… egotistical. That can be a pretty unattractive thing."

"Only on certain people. I think I'd wear it well."

"I'd rather not wait and see."

"You're still allowed to tell me that I'm good looking. I promise. I'll take each compliment lightly."

"I'm sure you will."

As a couple of friends approach, they force themselves to be social with people besides each other. It's not that they don't enjoy the company, but mainly just the lack of words shared between the two of them that's irking. Most of the questions are directed at one another individually, or are about the other. It's becoming clear that their relationship is the talk of the school.

Deeks wonders when that happened- if it's been that way since they became friends, or if it's a new thing that's just become relevant over winter break. That's when everything changed.

"Dude!" Josh approaches him quickly, interrupting and catching them both off guard. He punches Deeks lightly in the shoulder before pointing towards a small hoard of people up ahead. "Ten minutes until fireworks! Find a spot to sit!"

"Thanks!"

Everyone scatters immediately. Kensi spots a bag of beach towels that someone has kindly provided for the group, and jogs over to snatch one before they're all gone.

She lays it out and sinks down to the ground, patting the spot beside her. Deeks does as he's instructed, and before he can even suggest it Kensi is relocating herself so she's sitting in front of him, the back of her head leaning against his chest.

They watch in perfectly comfortable silence as people scamper about, trying to find the perfect place to view the show. But after five minutes or so, he can't help but interrupt the quietness with a soft whisper.

"Knowing Josh, these are probably some incredibly illegal, massively dangerous fireworks from an indian reservation. Just a heads up."

She doesn't flinch, but instead just chuckles. "Why does that not surprise me?"

Deeks watches as a couple of his friends carry explosives of some sort towards the shore, just before the tide meets with the sand.

"Should you go help them?"

He shrugs. "Nah. I'm comfortable."

"And maybe a little lazy."

"Or I just don't want to get my face blown off."

She grimaces, leaning back into him further as if that could prevent him from leaving.

"Yeah. You're right. Don't go anywhere."

"I wasn't planning on it."

Some yelling and a couple of excited shouts ring out across the beach. Beautiful sparks can be spotted building up in front of them as they prepare for midnight, the countdown beginning.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven…"

Her head drops back against his chest and Deeks wraps both hands around her midsection, staring forward.

"Six, five, four…"

Kensi tilts her head up, moving so their faces are barely even a wink apart. She smiles.

"Three, two, one!"

As the countdown stops and he can hear the popping and cackling of fireworks, Deeks presses his lips to hers.

They separate after a couple of seconds, not wanting to miss the show that Josh has put so much effort into. Kensi grins as they pull apart. The lightness in her face reflects the lightness in her eyes, and for a long moment Deeks just revels in it. Any chance to see her genuinely smile, he takes.

They stare ahead and, just as expected, the fireworks are massive and illuminate the pier.

"Definitely illegal," Kensi says quietly as she settles back into his chest.

"Oh yeah," he replies with a smirk. "Totally illegal."

Once again silence envelops them and all that can be heard is the sound of fireworks, burning through the night sky with a fiery intensity.

"It's gonna be a great year," Deeks adds, his lips brushing against Kensi's hair as he whispers into her ear.

She swallows, her body stiffening before melting into him once again. Despite the obstacles they've encountered, Kensi would like to believe that there might just be some truth to his promises after all.

"I think you could be right, Deeks."