The smells permeating the room were absolutely mouth-watering, the scents of spices perfectly balancing the meaty smell of the chicken. Kensi's stomach grumbled noisily as she shot Deeks' oven a none too subtle longing look. Her partner chuckled at her and shook his head fondly.

"It's nearly ready. Chill."

"You said that ages ago."

She didn't mean for that to come out as a whine but it did. Everything smelt so delicious and it had to be some sort of torture to smell all this and not be eating it. Kensi certainly thought so.

"Five minutes ago," Deeks corrected and opened the oven briefly to check on the meal, releasing even more delicious smells. Kensi all but groaned at it. "And it'll be another five."

Kensi would deny that she made a pathetic pleading noise as she said "That's so loooong!" But that would be a lie.

"What are you, five years old?"

"No, that's you."

"I'm not the one constantly asking if dinner's ready yet even though I have a timer set that hasn't gone off yet."

That comment got him a glaring pout, which was adorable but proved the point he was trying to make. Realising this herself, Kensi made an effort to pointedly straighten her face into something more solemn. He chuckled again and busied himself getting the plates ready. His partner really could be a goofball sometimes. He doubted Sam and Callen would believe it if he told them. Not that he would, he rather liked being alive and in one piece.

"It will be worth the wait," he assured her.

Well, he hoped so because dealing with a tired and hungry Kensi was definitely not top of his list on things to do.

"Smells like it," she replied, shooting him a smile and taking a deep sniff. "What exactly is on the chicken anyway?"

"My secret recipe," Deeks told, tapping the side of his nose and looking across the counter.

It was nearly time to put on the noodles he'd got but where the hell where they?

Kensi folded her arms in disbelief at that statement.

"Secret recipe, really?"

"Yes," he said proudly, nose up in the air. "All great chefs have them."

"You're not a chef," she said, scoffing at him.

He wasn't looking at her, a bit busy moving things around on his cluttered counter, but he knew his partner had an eyebrow raised and eyes narrowed. Seriously, where were the noodles?

"Am so!" Deeks insisted, not even bothering to look up as he rummaged around.

"I don't think chefs use 'Miss Madden's Lazy Barbecue Blend'."

That pronouncement made him look up and stare at her. He guiltily met her eyes with a sheepish look. There was an air of triumphant smugness about her as she waved the little spice jar between her fingers.

"Where did you find that? We're you snooping? I can't believe it, honestly Kensi a man's kitchen-"

"Deeks-"

"I mean, this is my safe spot Kens, you have violated it-" he rambled on, really getting into it and enjoying himself maybe a little too much.

"Deeks-"

"You come into a man's kitchen and just-"

"DEEKS!"

He stopped taking a stared at her. Wow, that was loud.

"It was on the counter, Deeks."

"On the counter?" He frowned at her.

Kensi rolled her eyes and replied, "Yes, on the counter."

He blinked.

"Oh."

"Oh?" Kensi repeated, hands on hips.

Deeks quickly snatched the jar from her and held it close to him.

"It's not the only thing I use," he claimed, stroking the top of the jar. "Though it is fabulous. I have a secret ingredient."

"A secret ingredient."

"Yep," Deeks nodded. "A secret ingredient."

"Which is?"

He tutted disapprovingly at her, "It wouldn't be a secret ingredient if I told you, would it?"

Another eye roll from Kensi, honestly one of these days they were going to get stuck like that. Deeks was about to make a smart-alec retort when he caught something out of the corner of his eyes. Was that-?

"Aha!" he said triumphantly, starting Kensi and holding the packet aloft.

"What the-?" Kensi yelped, staring at him.

"You were right there all along," Deeks scolded the packet of noodles.

Thank God he found them; he was starting to think that he had imagined buying them

Thankfully noodles only took seconds to cook so he was soon dishing up the finished meal. Deeks felt quite proud of it, he was worried that something was going to go wrong but it didn't!

"Bon Appetit," he declared, setting a plate in front of his ravenous partner and slipping into his own chair.

Kensi poked the food on her plate suspiciously and looked up at him questioningly.

"Don't be stubborn. Try it!" Deeks urged.

"What did you do to make it purple?" she asked, stirring the contents on her plate slightly before checking it again.

Why, Deeks didn't know. It wasn't like it was going to spontaneously change colour or do something weird

"Chef's secret," he told her before waving a forkful at her. "It's good."

The suspicious look didn't abate at all.

"And it's not purple," he continued.

"Is so!"

"It's purple tinged."

"Same thing."

"It's really not," he said in exasperation, placing his fork down to shake his head at her.

She just huffed at him. Deeks rolled his eyes at his partner's toddler-like behaviour.

"Didn't realise that you were so fussy," he told her.

"I am not," she replied in outrage. "It's normal to be suspicious of something unidentifiable."

"Unidentifiable, really?"

"Yes."

Then he noticed her sly grin. She was deliberately acting like this! Why had it taken him so long to figure that out? His eyes narrowed at her.

"Just eat your dinner," he huffed, pointing his fork at her.

"Yes sir," she replied with a teasing salute then picked up her fork.

He watched carefully as she quite happily started eating, a small moan coming from her as all the flavours assaulted her.

"See? Not fussy," she announced after a big swallow.

Deeks did the mature thing and stuck is tongue out at her.