Prompt: Story behind Deeks' cat pillow

As Deeks taped up a box of DVD's and BluRays labelled 'movies j-z', he glanced over at his future new roommate with an annoyed look. "Put. The catalog. Down."

Kensi peered over the top of the Pottery Barn catalog her nose was buried in. "I'm just looking."

"Yeah well, you've already ordered the whole store, and if you keep looking you're just going to start changing your mind. Again." Deeks plucked the magazine out of her hands and threw it at a nearby trashcan, missing by a long shot. Appearing disinterested in the mess he had just added to his already destroyed apartment, he sat down next to Kensi on his couch. "You sure you're cool with getting rid of all your furniture? I mean, nothing's sentimental at all to you?"

"Nah. Most of it came from Goodwill anyway. It's the little things that mean a lot to me, and you know where all of that stuff is." She stretched her legs out over his lap and leaned back against the couch cushions. "What about you? Anything you're going to put your foot down about bringing with you?"

He shrugged. "A few things, nothing too big really."

"Okay..." Kensi narrowed her eyes. "Like what? Please tell me it's not the big lighted arrow. Nothing about that says Pottery Barn."

"I used to think that nothing about you said Pottery Barn either, Ms. Blye. But you've gone all domestic on me lately. I might think about keeping you around if you would just learn how to cook and clean." A small pillow thwacked him in the face. "Okay yeah, I deserved that one."

"Seriously." Kensi glared at him. "It would be good to know what you're keeping so I don't accidentally throw it away. Or in case I need to change the furniture colors. Again."

"Like I said, not much as far as furniture goes. I need my bookcase, but it's old and rustic and matches all of our new and rustic decor. All my instruments. The piwels," Deeks mumbles the last word in a low voice.

Kensi titled her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that last part."

"You know, the pullowsoes," he mumbled again.

"Dude."

"The pillow," he answered, drawing his words out. "The cat pillow, okay?"

Reaching behind her head, Kensi grabbed the tattered pillow. "Really?" She looked at it closely, studying the stains, loose threads, and frayed edges of the well worn out cushion. "This old thing?"

He snatched the pillow away from her. "Yes, this old thing. And it is old, okay? But all of my stuff didn't just come from Goodwill or Pottery Barn."

Kensi noticed that he had a familiar look on his face, but one she didn't see very often from him; it was almost childlike and sad, like a kid learning for the first time that goldfish don't live forever. She had come to associate that look with him remembering his childhood, more specifically his mother. It wasn't a topic that they discussed much, but every once in a while when they were lying in bed with each other and couldn't sleep they would broach the subject of parents. She told him about running away from her grandparents, and that she wished she hadn't been so stubborn and had just gone home to her mother so they could have gotten to know each other sooner rather than later. She always ended her stories talking about her dad and telling happy tales of her childhood adventures with him. Deeks liked hearing about a good father for once, as opposed to his own.

He rarely talked about his own father anyway, but never talked about him in their late night 'now you know why I'm so messed up' sessions. Most of the time Deeks just talked about his dogs that never stayed around very long, or his grandmother who would steal him away for weeks at a time. But when he was feeling really open, he would tell her about his mom; that he would always remember her curly hair and bright blue eyes from his youth and not her frail appearance right before she died. 'She was stronger than you would think and she always tried her best,' he would always say. Apparently she just rarely made the right decisions in life. He missed her still, and it was hard for him to talk truthfully about it. Kensi could relate to this feeling, and always felt like the two of them grew closer every time they shared another piece of their past.

Not wanting to pry, Kensi nudged Deeks with her toe. "How old is this pillow anyway?"

"Not sure, I guess close to 40?" He scratched his beard. "I think Mom said she made it in Home Ec class in high school, so that would be about right. She liked cats, I think one of them lived to be like 19 or something. That damn cat used to scratch me all the time." Furrowing his brow, he ran a finger over a hole in the side of it. "It's in pretty bad shape though, maybe it's time to get rid of it."

"Nooo..." Kensi said, taking the pillow back from him to inspect it. "I can fix this."

He snorted. "You?"

"Yes, me."

"You're going to fix, and by fix I mean sew, this?"

"I took Home Ec too, I'll have you know," Kensi responded, making a face at him.

Deeks smiled at her, and she could see the sadness falling away from his face again. "Uh huh. And what grade did you get in this Home Ec class, Kensi Homemaker?"

She stared at him quietly for a moment. "C."

"Just a C?"

"Minus. C minus."

"And you want to fix my pillow with your C minus sewing skills?" He teased.

"It was a cumulative grade," she argued. "And I may have accidentally set the kitchen on fire during the cooking portion."

Deeks' smile grew even wider. "Now that I believe."

"Shut up and get back to packing," Kensi growled playfully. She twisted a pink pillow tassle between her fingers as he begrudgingly stood up from the couch and started to put another box together. "I like it."

"Yeah?" He asked, glancing back at her.

"Yeah. It will look great with our new leopard print chaise lounge."

Standing upright quickly, Deeks scratches his messy hair. "We didn't order a leopard print chaise lounge."

"Okay, no, but there's one in the new catalog I just saw..."