This is meant to take place during the first day of episode 6x13, In the Line of Duty. And I just like to read too much into things. :D

As usual, I own nothing. Really, nothing at all.

Coffee cups must be awfully interesting. Or at least, this is the first thought that enters Deeks' mind when he walks into his kitchen and sees Kensi leaning against the counter, staring intently at his coffee mug holder.

Naturally, his second thought is, damn that's a nice ass. And he's crazy happy to have that nice ass in his kitchen almost every morning.

Sliding up behind her, he pushes the hair away from her shoulders and kisses her neck softly. "Tough decision?"

She tenses slightly, but hums quietly as his hands sneak their way under the hem of her loose shirt. "What are you talking about?"

He'd much rather keep kissing her neck than talk about coffee cups. Really, he'd rather be doing all sorts of things to Kensi than talk, or go to work, or sleep, or...anything. "You were staring at those coffee cups like they might hold the secrets of the universe."

For a moment she melts into him, as his fingers softly tickle her belly and his kisses work their way up to that spot right behind her ear that sends goosebumps all over her body. He's already forgotten about the coffee cups. Hell, he's so caught up in the taste and smell of her that he can barely remember his own name.

"Deeks," she says, placing a hand over his.

Oh right, that's his name. "Hmm?"

She sighs. "I'm late."

He stops kissing her neck just long enough to glance at his watch. "Not really, we're kinda early. Probably even early enough for you to-"

"Not…" Kensi grimaces. "Not we are late, although kinda."

What. Clearing his throat, Deeks rests his chin on her shoulder. "I'm going to need you to be extremely specific right now."

She unwraps herself from his hands and turns around to face him with a rather uncomfortable look on her face. "My period. It's late."

"Oh." Shit. Taking a step back, he pushes his hair out of his eyes and points a finger at, well, nothing. His mouth opens, but real words don't come out. All he does is stare at the same nothing he is pointing at, counting his fingers. "Oh."

"Deeks, what the hell are you doing?"

"I should have bought a bag of chocolate last week," he answers numbly.

Her eyes widen. "Dear God, you're having a stroke."

He snaps himself out of his daze, turning his attention to her worried face. "I have this down to a science. For the last 3 years, every four weeks I buy a huge bag of candy so you don't shoot me. I didn't buy anything and you have been…extremely nice to me."

"The fact that you have been keeping up with this for that long frightens me."

"No no," he says, shaking his head. "No no. This conversation as a whole is far scarier than me keeping up with your lady business." He scratches his head. "You realize we've only been having sex for a month, right?"

Kensi rolls her eyes. "Really? It feels like it's been years."

"And that we've been careful, right? Right?"

"Right."

Placing his hands on his hips, he exhales and tries to approach the situation calmly. "So like, how late is late, really?"

"Just a few days," she shrugs, shoving her hands in her pockets. "Four, five-ish. It's probably nothing."

"Nothing…okay." With a small crooked smile, he tilts his head. "If it's nothing, why did you tell me?"

She returns a tight smile. "Because you still owe me chocolate?" The joke is as weak as her smile, but much appreciated nonetheless.

Before he can respond with a remark about how he'd been rubbing off on her, her phone tweets with a text message. It's probably for the better, so he doesn't have to explain that he was referring to his skill of deflection, and not some other form of rubbing. Was this really a joking matter? He has no idea.

"There's been a shooting, assassination attempt on a US Ambassador," Kensi reads aloud solemnly. "We need to go."

Of course, there is always something. "We'll talk about this later?"

She nods and grabs her bag. "We'll talk about it later."

She lets him drive for once.

Not to work, of course, but to visit Captain Beck. Because they are still here in LA, while Sam and Callen are on their way to Tunisia on a top-secret mission with no one to watch out for them but each other. And this is why she let her partner drive - because she is focused on shooting daggers from her eyes in his direction with great prejudice.

"Remember that thing I said about you being really nice to me?" Deeks glances in her direction. "Is it too late for me to take that back?"

Kensi clinches her jaw. "Is there a reason you didn't have my back this morning?"

"What?!" He makes a ridiculous face as his voice raises an entire octave.

"Don't what me. With Sam and Callen, you couldn't even throw out a 'Kensi's right' when I said we needed to go with them. It was like you didn't even want..." Her voice trails off.

He finishes her sentence for her. "You to go? No, I didn't want you to go." Like he knows she's about to yell at him, he raises a hand to stop her. "You yourself said that our jobs are dangerous enough and we don't need unnecessary risks. Sam and Callen thought us going was an unnecessary risk, and I agree."

Maybe she is overreacting a little bit, since she was already on edge even before the plans of the mission were decided. That doesn't change the way she felt at the time of the conversation - outnumbered. "I just don't think you would have backed down so easily before."

His shoulders slump in a quiet admission of guilt, and he remains that way until parking the Cadillac outside of the state building that houses Captain Beck's office. After killing the ignition, he removes his seatbelt and places his hand over Kensi's on her leg. "You're right."

That was easier than she was expecting. "You caved again, Deeks." She flips her hand up to lace her fingers through his. "Not going all soft on me, are you?"

"Admittedly, I do have a weakness," he says, raising his eyes to meet hers.

"Maybe...it's not a weakness, but a strength." Now Kensi is the one who sounds like she's going soft. In a way, she kind of is.

"I kinda like that." Deeks unlinks their fingers and squeezes her thigh. "And I promise, I will always have your back."

"Thanks."

"And your front."

"Nice," she laughs as they open their doors and their feet hit the pavement. That comment brings back their brief, panicky conversation in her mind. She regrets even mentioning her "lady business" to him, because it's not anything to worry about. Probably. "Hey, whoa. This whole thing doesn't have anything to do with what we talked about this morning, right?"

Shutting his door, he takes long strides towards the stone stairs of the government building. "Hardly at all," he answers, failing to turn around to face her.

They're both pretending to be asleep.

So much for communication, right? Though they've made vast improvements in that area, the longer they go without talking about something, the harder it becomes.

Sam and Callen should be back at work tomorrow, the FBI will be in house, and they'll all be working their asses off to figure out why there was an attack on the US Consulate in Tunisia. They need to talk now, with no distractions. That's easier said than done, though.

Kensi approaches him first, finding his hand under the sheets and tapping her fingers in rhythm with the last song she heard on the radio that night. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

"T Swift?"

She chuckles quietly. "How do you do that?"

"I got skills," he answers sleepily. "You're still up, huh?"

"Yeah…you too, I see."

"Well, I have been known to talk in my sleep."

"Why am I not surprised?"

Banter is always a good icebreaker for them, it seems. It prompts Deeks to roll over on his side and prop his head on his hand so he can look at her. "Hey Kens, I have a stupid question."

And there it is. "Um," she pauses. "If the question is in fact stupid, do I get to mock you for it?"

"Mocker..." he mumbles with a smile. "So, I am curious. Now I admit that my experience with these things is mostly limited to stupid mistakes from high school and college, but you do know that you can buy pregnancy tests like, at the grocery store, right?"

Kensi snorts. "Wow, I underestimated you. That really is a stupid question."

"Well, I mean…" Deeks shrugs. "Isn't that what you're supposed to do? You're late, you take the test, and then you know."

Sighing, Kensi rolls over and mimics his position. "You wouldn't understand if I explained it to you."

"Try me," he says, without a trace of humor in his voice.

"Okay…" She fingers the sheets in between them. "I don't think I'm ready to know the answer." His confusion is evident by the furrow on his brow, so she continues. "I don't want a kid, Deeks. Not right now, anyway. And at the same time, I can't help but think that I'm not getting any younger. But then I think, look at my job, I can't have a baby! A baby that I don't even want right now, because for the first time in forever I'm actually happy with the direction my life is going in and I don't want it to change."

Deeks nods and reached a hand out to play with her hair. "It's okay. So you don't wanna know right now. I'm cool with it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

She smiles and scoots closer to him in the bed, snuggling her head on his shoulder. "I've never even had my own dog, ya know."

"That's pretty sad."

"I had a chia pet when I was a kid," she says, running a finger over his bare chest. "It died."

Deeks laughs and rolls backward, bring Kensi with him. "The first of many horticultural catastrophes for you."

"Shut up," she growls playfully. Her nose rubs against the scruff of his chin and it makes her really want to feel that scruff on her lips, too. She kisses his cheek, then the corner of his mouth, before planting her lips firmly on his.

He smiles against her mouth. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Probably not."

"Okay, but can we do it anyway?"

"Uh huh."

"Excellent," he says, trailing kisses down her neck. "Before I get too distracted here, I'd like to ask a favor of you."

"No promises," she laughs, gliding her fingers through his hair.

"Could you maybe, um, keep me updated on your whole-" he glances down her body. "Lady situation."

Kensi rolls her eyes. "You are so weird."

"What? We could have a code word or something."

She shakes her head and tugs on his hair. "What kind of code word?"

Kissing her collarbone, he smiles. "Ch-ch-ch-chia."

"That is ridiculous, how the hell am I supposed to use that in a sentence?"

"That sounds like your problem, not mine."

She tenses, and he realizes that's a poor choice of words considering their current situation. "Hey," he murmurs, rubbing his hand up her back. "You know everything's going to be fine, right? And that I've got your back, whatever happens."

Kensi closes her eyes and leans her forehead against his. "No matter what?"

"Always."