"Dinner, Kensalina?" Deeks asks, standing up from his desk . Brutally long would be the very best way for him to describe that particular day, but all he can think about is spending some time with his partner.

He assumes she feels the exact same way.

Kensi pretends to think about it, and he can't help but find the way her nose crinkles up to be absolutely adorable. Still- he remains staunch and keeps himself at bay while awaiting a reply.

"Well... only if you're paying, Shaggy."

It's a weak insult, but she's tired and can't think of anything better to respond with.

Deeks smiles, folding both arms. "You just can't turn down food, I know that."

"Another distinct possibility."

He waits for his partner to grab her bag and allows her to lead him out of the bullpen. "So... what sounds good?"

Kensi shrugs. "I dunno, something... quiet?"

She desperately wants to say private, secluded, alone, but instead settles for something slightly less assuming.

"Please tell me, how can food be quiet?"

Rolling her eyes she quickly begins to realize how poorly that sentence had been worded. Come on, Kensi, she tells herself. Pull it together.

"Not the food Deeks, just the venue."

He smirks at her half-ass coverup. Deeks knows what she was getting at, but lets it slide.

"How about my place?" He asks, one eyebrow raised.

She wrinkles her nose in mock disgust. "Have you cleaned up at all since my last visit?"

They've almost reached their separate cars by that point. "It's not that bad."

"I'll take that as a no."

"I like my stuff."

He sounds almost exactly like her, and Kensi tries to disguise her smile behind a jibe.

"I thought that was what hoarders said?"

He sucks both lips back into his mouth and nods. "Fine. Touche."

Kensi grins widely, but doesn't say anything more. They are beginning to sound like one another, and if that isn't a sign that they are spending too much time together than she has no clue what is.

Internally, she smiles and shrugs. Oh well.

They reach the trunk of her car and Deeks pauses, stretching his neck out as he pondered their dinner plans.

"So... my place? Or is it still too messy for you?"

She shrugs. "Nah. I like your place. It's a little rough around the edges, just like you."

Kensi swallows hard upon hearing the words exit her mouth. She's tired and shocked at her own carelessness, but she let it slip and can't take it back.

Deeks certainly doesn't seem to mind her comparison.

"Is that so?"

"Well, I, um... I just meant that you're kinda messed up, and your place is too."

He liked her first wording much better than the second.

"Should I be offended?"

"Only if you feel so inclined."

"Okay."

"Okay."

They stand there in complete silence for a moment, just holding each other's gaze and waiting for someone to break.

Deeks is the first. It's his thing, honestly. He can't change it now.

"Should I stop and pick up chinese on the way?"

"Sure. How should I get in?"

"Key under the mat."

He wants to add 'You already know that,' but stifles himself.

Would it sound too suggestive? He knows that it could.

"Meet you there?"

She nods. "Sounds like a plan."

Walking up to Deeks' house alone gives Kensi the oddest concoction of various thoughts and feelings, as she's strongly torn between loving it and hating it.

She hates being there without him, of course. But coming up to his front door and going straight inside without knocking makes Kensi feel like she lives there.

And damn, it's a good feeling.

She pulls out the key from beneath the mat, unlocks the door and strolls inside, tossing her bag lazily onto the couch as she flicks on a few lights.

Yeah, it's still messy. Really messy.

Two old beer bottles and a pizza box on the coffee table are the first signs that Deeks' home is a bachelor pad, and Kensi can't help but chuckle as she carries an armful of garbage towards the trashcan.

Deeks is probably the only person she'll ever actually clean up for, but he doesn't need to know that. He can just come home to a mildly tidy house, and be pleasantly surprised.

She continues to walk around at a leisurely pace, truly examining each picture and piece of artwork he has strewn about the house. It's an eclectic mix of random items, that's for sure.

Regardless, she still likes it. The place has soul and, just as she'd mentioned before, is slightly rough around the edges. It seems fitting of his personality, and every inch of the house can't help but take her mind back to him.

Her favorite detective.

She's shocked by the sheer number of books he has, as she honestly never thought of him as a reader. With one finger trailing along the trim of the bookcase Kensi studied each artifact, reading their covers.

The Jungle Book.

A classic, of course.

To Kill a Mockingbird.

Yet another classic.

The Complete Work of William Shakespeare.

Okay, now that one is thought provoking. She's gonna have to ask him about it later, no doubt.

Getting the-

Kensi gasps, dropping her hand and backing two steps away from his bookcase.

It just isn't possible... not for Marty Deeks. He would never be reading a book like that, surely not.

The shock and disbelief means that it takes Kensi far longer than it should for her to finish reading the title.

Getting the Girl.

Oh, but it just gets better. The subtext is her most favorite part of it all.

Getting the Girl: A Guide to the Girl Who Plays Hard to Get.

No. Freaking. Way.

There was absolutely no way in hell he'd bought a self-help book about her. About them. About their relationship.

But as she stares forward, body frozen and eyes wide, Kensi can't help but come to the seemingly obvious realization that he had done just that.

She reaches one hand out slowly, just about to wrap her fingers around the bindings when there is a knock at the door. Kensi swiftly pulls her arm back down to her side, clearing her throat before walking across the room and swinging the front door open.

"Hey," Deeks says, grinning widely as he is adorably unaware of what she'd just discovered. "This is weird."

Kensi is still reeling from her intriguing findings, but manages to show him a smile.

"Why is that?"

"I'm knocking on my own door. And you're answering."

It's so domestic. He's not saying it, but he's thinking it.

Kensi steps aside, trying to calm herself. "Well... come on in."

Deeks does as he's told, but still senses that she's a little off. Usually there would be a quip thrown in there with her invitation, but he got nothing.

"You good?" He asks, dropping the bag of chinese food down to the coffee table.

"Yeah! I'm awesome!"

She's overcompensating, and Deeks knows it.

He just can't seem to figure out why.

"You sure?"

"Uh-huh!"

It's only partially a lie by that point. She's trying to get over it- trying being the operate word.

Kensi pushes a small tuft of hair behind her ear, walking towards the kitchen.

"Something to drink?" She asks, her voice slightly muffled by the distance between them.

"Please."

Kensi clanks around for a minute before reemerging, a beer in each hand. She smiles upon approaching him, their fingers brushing during the handoff. She tries to remind herself that regular breathing patterns are recommended, but not required for living.

If that hadn't been the case, than Kensi would've been dead a long time ago.

She takes a slip of beer as Deeks flops down onto the very center of the couch, tucking a pillow behind his head. They'll have to sit rather close to one another as a result of his placement, and she wonders if he's doing it all on purpose.

The only answer her subconscious gives her is a weary 'maybe.'

Regardless, she still sits down close beside him- practically hip to hip, actually.

"I'm starving, Deeks. Gimme," she says, wiggling all five fingers back and forth in a grabby motion.

Deeks grins, passing her a carton of mu-shoo pork. "This stuff is the best."

"That's why I told you to get it."

He wrinkles his eyebrows as if she was a complete and total idiot. "It was my idea, not yours."

She simply shrugs. "I would've suggested it if you hadn't brought it up."

"Right. Sure."

Kensi doesn't know what else she is supposed to say, so rather than throwing something out there that would sound strained and weird, she just opted for smiling.

That had been happening more and more regularly- Kensi would run out of things to say, and the air would just seem to grow thick with the large amount of unspoken words that surrounded the two of them.

She takes four bites of pork, trying to rid her mind of the thoughts that are eager to take over.

The kiss, the kiss, the kiss, the kiss-

"You gonna leave any for me, Kens?"

"Huh?"

"The mu-shoo pork. You're practically demolishing it."

"How can you even eat this stuff?"

He doesn't catch on. "Whatcha mean? It's delicious."

"It's also solid."

His eyes widen, expression a strong mixture of uncertainty and pride. "Wow, more torture jokes?"

"Still too soon? Or am I really too late?"

He chuckles lightly. Kensi wonders if she crossed a line, but Deeks' grin desperately tries to tell her otherwise.

"Probably too late."

She wrinkles up her nose. "You're no fun."

Deeks shakes his head, eyes dancing across the ceiling. "Torture isn't very fun, either."

Her mouth falls open just a hilt, and Kensi quickly comes to the unfortunate conclusion that she had crossed a line. His tone gave it all away.

"I-I'm sorry. I mean... I never should have-"

"It's fine."

"It's really not, though. I'm such a moron sometimes, I should've known better than to-"

"We can't keep doing this, Kens," Deeks interrupts, his gaze unexpectedly fierce. They've been walking on eggshells for months, and by this point it seems that one misstep sends Kensi into full panic mode.

She swallows, asking a stupid question. "Keep doing what?"

He cocks his head to one side and gives her a look, practically pleading with nothing but his facial expression.

"Come on, Kens. You know what I'm talking about."

The kiss.

The way his eyes are beating into hers is almost disconcerting, but mainly just affirming. She anxiously fumbles for words, her emotionless shell crumbling.

"You kissed me."

He nods, his head pressed back against the couch beside hers. "I kissed you."

Finally. Some sort of an acknowledgement on both ends.

Deeks waits for Kensi to respond, but she just holds his gaze. He spots a hint of tearfulness but pushes on as if he doesn't.

"Is that all you're gonna say?"

She opens her mouth twice before any words will actually come out. "I mean... it was nice."

"It was nice?"

"Yeah," she whispers, her voice breathy. "And you... you communicated, which was good."

Deeks almost chuckles at her dissection. "Uh-huh."

The barely existent distance between their faces is enough to make Kensi feel lightheaded.

"I'm sorry that I left."

"You had to stay with Michelle, I know that."

He's trying to sound understanding, but she can see that he's still hurt by her actions, or lack-there-off.

"I could've said something more, though."

He nods. "Yes, you could've."

"I wish that I had, looking back... because you clearly proved yourself wrong."

He knitted both eyebrows. "How's that?"

She shrugs, remaining stoic on the outside while on the inside all she wants to do is scream.

"It seems that I am your type after all."

A smile tugs at the corners of his mouth. "Huh."

Kensi immediately worries that she overstepped some sort of an invisible line- as if there were any 'lines' between them that hadn't already been crossed. She begins to fidget with the label on her beer, ripping it into shreds.

"Or, ya know... maybe you don't have a type."

Deeks shakes his head, not phased. "I have a type."

"Really?"

The word sounds so oddly desperate as it exits her mouth, but Kensi can't bring herself to care.

"Yeah," he whispers, gaze wandering. "Brunette, brown eyes-"

"Not hazel?" She almost looks disappointed. Almost.

He smiles at her eagerness to correct him.

"Both," Deeks states simply, swallowing as he drags his eyes up meet hers. "I prefer both."

Her heart is racing and she's finding it rather difficult to breathe, let alone formulate a sentence.

"That's pretty rare, you know. Having mismatched eyes."

He nods. "I know."

Kensi is staring down at the ground, eyebrows furrowed as if she's trying to decipher a puzzle.

"I mean… honestly, how many people can you really know with two different colored eyes-"

"One."

She whips her head around, and their noses are no more than an inch apart. Kensi gasps- she can't stifle it, not after fully noting the look he's giving her.

"One?" She asks, knowing his answer but still desiring the confirmation.

Deeks nods again, slowing down the movement as his lips meet hers.

"Just one."