"You need to stop doing that," Deeks said, his voice muffled.

It was muffled because he was currently lying face down on a mat in the gym. He scrunched up his nose, it smelt funny. And not in a good way. Like it had been soaked in a hundred people's sweat, which it probably had been. But seriously, it was nasty. And didn't these things get washed? They shouldn't smell like this. And Hetty once called him unhygienic. Hmpf. Anyway, back to him invountarily being on the floor. Kensi was crouching down next to him, looking more amused than concerned. Hmpf, some partner she was.

"You shouldn't let me do it," she scolded bit was hiding a smile.

"Hmpf."

It felt good to make that sound of discontent out loud. Satisfying, even.

"Seriously, I shouldn't have been able to get so close."

Deeks just grunted. Kensi poked him in the arm. That got some movement from him.

"Oww," he yelped and clutched at his arm. He turned his head so he could direct a pout at her. "That hurt."

"Baby," she clucked at him. "You've had worse."

"Hardly, you grip is really strong," he whined, his voice muffled again as he turned his face back onto the mat. "What is it, a vice or something?"

Kensi rolled her eyes.

"I'm not being ridiculous," Deeks claimed, knowing his partner far too well.

It was easy to predict her reactions. And her thoughts. Maybe moreso her thoughts because she was a freaking ninja.

Kensi resisted the urge to say "Are too". She was not going to start a childish "Am not, are too," argument. He always won which she did not want happening.

"I'm not," Deeks insisted.

That got him a stare. Ok, that was more than a bit freaky. He couldn't even see her face right now, how could he be reading her so well?

He rolled onto his back and shot her that grin of his. The roguish one that had a hint of a smirk and made him look boyish. Her stomach fluttered briefly before she could clamp down on it. Nope, he was not charming his way out of this one.

"I just know you," Deeks told her smugly.

That got him a tongue pointed in his direction. It didn't stop the smirking. She nudged him with her foot.

"Oh, get up," she grumbled, blushing slightly.

Stupid boyfriend partner and his endless ability to look good and be charming even when thrown onto a mat.

"I'm still recovering from my sudden introduction to the floor."

She scoffed at him.

"You didn't land that hard."

"Do you know how fast I hit the ground? Simple physics means that the speed I hit the ground at would drastically increase the force at which I hit it at. Which was hard. Extremely hard. I'm not exactly a small guy."

He was now waving his arms in the air to illustrate his point. There were a lot of explosion gestures involved. He looked ridiculous but he was trying to prove a point

"I did swing you very hard, didn't I?" Kensi stated, sounding proud of herself.

"Exactly my point!" Deeks said exasperatedly.

"Well, that's good," she said simply.

Deeks shut up and blinked at that. He almost sat up to stare at her. Almost. He didn't want to put himself in a position to be thrown again. The floor was safer.

"Good?" he spluttered. "How on earth is that a good thing?

"You surprised me and I still managed to somewhat stun you. Imagine if you were someone trying to grab me. I could floor them easily," she replied simply with a shrug.

Ok, that made him sit up and rub at his eyes in the vague hope that this was somehow a dream.

"What?"

"I don't even get how me flipping you was such a surprise," she continued, ignoring his dumbfounded expression.

"You were stretching. I'm sorry to say that I don't expect to be freaking judo flipped when the person doing the flipping is stretching."

"You were taunting me!"

"I was challenging you, bantering even. You're meant to tease or banter back. Thays how it works. Not fling me ass over elbow in some sort of ninja move!"

Kensi scoffed at him and stuck her nose in the air.

"You should have been able to predict what I'd do and avoid it."

Deeks was now wearing an outraged expression.

"Who expects to be flipped onto their back?"

He fell back onto the mat at that statement, stretching his limbs out in an exaggerated sprawled position. Kensi rolled her eyes at him. She was doing a lot of that today. It couldn't be good for her.

"You should," she said bluntly. "All of us should," she amended.

Deeks just shook his head. He didn't know what to make of that.

"We should," she insisted. "We should expect that an assailant we're in a physical fight with would try to get us on the ground and or incapacitate us."

"Which brings me back to the point that we weren't in a physical fight."

Of course, this was the moment that Callen and Sam came into the gym. Both men took one look at Kensi looming over her partner, who was still lying on a gym mat, and shook their heads.

They knew exactly what had happened. It wasn't that hard to guess.

"You really need to stop that," Callen told Deeks as he approached, adding his own face to the one in the Detective's line of sight.

Deeks sat up and gave his team lead an incredulous look.

"Me?" he complained. "I'm not the one who goes around judo flipping people!"

"You let her," said Sam as he warmed up both physically and in teasing Deeks.

Kensi chuckled as Deeks just made a disgusted noise.