Drabble of the Week: What Truly Matters

They ended up in the backyard, resting on the picnic table on the patio, the string lights he’d put up shortly after moving in reflecting around them, light bouncing off the tree that had made him fall in love with the house, insisting it would be perfect for a treehouse for the Kensi and Marty Jrs they’d create.

“Do you even know how to build a treehouse?” she’d snorted.

“No, lucky you do.” 

Now, as she sat in the shadow of that tree, picking at the leftovers chilling before her, it was that memory she chose to cling too.

“You good?” Deeks murmured, stretching a hand across the table to run a fingertip over the back of her palm, a little gesture that brought her back to the present.

“Yeah.”

“Today was-“

“No.” Snapping her head forward, eyes gently pleading with him despite her sharp tone. “I’ve had enough, Deeks. Last week… today. I can’t talk about it anymore, it’s just- just work, so anything else goes.”

Nodding softly, he lifted himself from the opposite bench, rounding the edge of the table to sit beside her, arms brushing. “Anything?”

“Yeah,” hesitating before letting a smirk curl up the edges of her lips, she propped an elbow on the wooden table, dropping her face into a hand and looking up at him. “Tell me about your mom’s boyfriend.”

“God, no.”

“She seems happy with him.”

“Yeah,” he snorted. “That kind of training will do that.”

“Mhmm,” tilting her head again, resting it on his shoulder and grasping his hand over the table, focusing on anything but today, she allowed him a brief respite from this topic. “And I’m not getting married on the beach in winter.”

“Spring then?”

“May.”