Life For Rent

Chapter 17 : Quotidian

Author's Notes :
- quotidian : ordinary, occurring every day
- Spoilers for S1E11
- Sorry this one's so short. I'll try to make the next one longer.
- As always, thanks to my reviewers!

Callen swallowed some mashed potatoes and reached for his soda. "This is much better than sushi."

Jared looked up from where he was cutting up his pot roast. "When did you have sushi?"

"Dinner a couple nights ago. Undercover thing."

"Oh? Where'd you go?"

"Matsuhisa."

Jared choked on some meat. "What? In Beverly Hills?"

Callen shrugged and nodded, "Yeah."

"You went for sushi at Matsuhisa and you think this is better?" Jared asked incredulously, gesturing the to simple dinner laid out before them.

"Definitely," Callen answered. He swirled some meat in the sauce Jared had topped it with, before taking a bite.

Jared shook his head and sighed. "That stuff is top quality, G."

"So's yours."

"Yes, but mine isn't over $100 a plate."

Callen shrugged, "Expensive does not equal awesome."

Jared took a sip of his wine. "I think next time you go you need to try and sneak me back a piece; I've never been."

Callen laughed, "I'll try but no promises."

"Awesome," Jared grinned.

"So," Kensi said, leaving down over Callen's shoulder from behind. He turned to look at her. "How's that sexy boyfriend of yours?"

Callen raised an eyebrow. "Jared?"

"Unless you have another one," Kensi answered. She walked around to the front of Callen's desk and picked up his pencil cup.

"He's fine."

"Just fine?"

"He's… great?"

"Just great?"

Callen grabbed his pencil cup from her. "Kensi."

"I can't just be interested in your life?"

Callen stared at her. "No." He paused. "You think Jared is sexy?"

"What, you don't?" She asked.

"I think he's sexy," Sam cut in, in a deadpan. He came up behind Kensi and leaned around her to drop a folder on Callen's desk. "Five dead Marines just washed up by the Santa Monica pier, one of them had top level clearance."

Callen stood up and grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair. "Are you driving?"

"Of course, G."

"Kensi, go follow up with Eric. Let him know that Sam and I are going to look at the bodies. Get Dom to start doing background checks. I want to know where these five Marines were last seen."

"Got it," she responded.

Jared took a deep calming breath before opening the door.

"Hey," he greeted G.

G smiled at him, "Hey." G toed off his shoes and hung his jacket up on a nearby hook. He followed Jared back towards the kitchen.

Jared went back to his Cajun chicken pasta. He was heating up his skillet while he rolled the slices of chicken in the seasonings. He had linguine boiling in a pot on another burner.

"How was surfing?" G asked, pulling some iced tea out of the fridge.

Jared took another deep breath. "Absolutely horrible."

"Horrible?" G reached next to Jared for a glass. "What happened?"

"There were a bunch of kooks out on the water. They didn't follow any of the etiquette. One of them kept dropping in on me, two of them kept hogging the waves. They pissed pretty much everyone out there off."

Jared finished with the chicken and set it aside. He moved on to chopping up some green onion and then some sun-dried tomatoes.

"I'm sorry," G said, wrapping an arm around Jared's waist from behind. "I know you were looking forward to some good surf."

Jared sighed and leaned back against G, taking the comfort the other man was offering. "Yeah… sorry, it's just… put me in a bit of a bad mood."

G kissed Jared's back through his shirt. "After dinner we can work on putting you in a good mood."

A small smile worked its way across Jared's face. "Thanks, G."

Another kiss grazed his clothed shoulder before G pulled back. "Not a problem." He finished pouring his iced tea into his glass before putting the pitcher back into the fridge. "Can I help with anything?"

"Can you see if the butter in the pan has melted yet?"

"Looks melted to me."

Jared grabbed the bowl of seasoned chicken and turned around. He carefully dropped each piece into the skillet. The chicken sizzled and Jared left G to watch it as he finished cutting up the tomatoes. When he finished that, Jared washed his hands then dried them off on a nearby towel.

Jared stepped around G and grabbed the handle of the pan. He lifted it up and shook it a little before dropping it to let the chicken flip up in the pan. He smoothly caught them again.

"I'm impressed," G said with a grin.

"I'll teach you," Jared promised. He shifted the chicken around a bit more before resettling the pan onto the burner. Jared turned off the other burner and took the linguine off the stove. He walked it over to the sink and drained the water out.

"Kensi thinks you're sexy," G said, watching him.

"Oh really?" Jared asked. "And this just came up in conversation?"

"She asked about my quote-unquote 'sexy boyfriend'."

"Ah."

"Sam thinks you're sexy too."

Jared raised an eyebrow. "Hmm… he's not bad himself."

G choked on the sip of iced tea he just drank. "What?"

"He's got those huge muscles… and those dimples…" Jared sighed happily. "He's very nice to look at."

"Are you kidding me?"

"You've never thought about it?"

"No! Definitely not."

"At all?"

"At all," G told him.

"Well, a man can look."

"Oh, he can?" G asked.

"Uh," Jared schooled an innocent look on his face. "Not this man, of course."

"Uh-huh."

"Since I already have my own sexy boyfriend."

"Mmm-hmm."

"And don't have any reasons to be looking at anyone but said sexy boyfriend," Jared said as he walked closer to G. He wrapped his arms around G's waste and pulling the other man to him. "I don't really have any need to either."

He kissed G gently, aware that there was a hot stove nearby and chicken cooking. G taste like iced tea and lemon.

"Good," G said as he pulled back. "But I'll let Sam know that you think he's sexy."

Jared laughed, "You do that."