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“I'd totally hang out with you” That phrase is still echoing in G’s head hours after their initial conversation. Marty said it oh so casually as if this admission isn’t everything to G. But then–THEN he had to go on and call it a ‘guy's night’ and it took every undercover skill G had to hide the disappointment that hit him like a freight train. Marty doesn't seem to notice what a gut punch that line was– which is technically a good thing, even if it hurts G to realize that his attraction may very well be unrequited.
G finds himself annoyed that he is letting such a simple invite cause him so much anguish. It's not like he is 15 ‘battling’ his first crush. Yet all it took was a tall, shaggy blonde-haired blue-eyed man to waltz into his life and suddenly that's all that he could think about. It doesn’t matter that he has paperwork that has to be done, not when he can barely string a full sentence together without getting lost in his head again. This is why he prefers to partner Deeks up with Kensi, he has less of a distraction to deal with when he is out in the field with Sam—even if he nags like he imagines a concerned parent would.
Shaking his head he decides to head up to ops to see if Eric and Nell have anything new. Unfortunately, the Wonder twins had no updates, therefore G found himself without the distraction… well a distraction that isn't Marty, that he desperately craves.
Trying to clear his head he heads off to the gym, hoping to burn off some steam. He walks into the gym and is grateful to be alone, even if it won’t last. Talia joins him just moments after he completes his warm-up. She was the first one to catch on to G's mood– and see right through him too apparently, considering she started off the conversation with “What did Deeks do this time?” G didn’t want to answer. He wanted to play dumb. Wanted to be aloof, what do you mean by ‘what did Deeks do this time’? Surely, I am not that transparent, right?
Weighing his options he knew that trying to play it off would not work in his favor. Huffing a breath and bracing himself for this to go up in flames, he decides to give her the basics. “On the stake-out, Marty made some comment about how most people are social animals. Apparently, I'm an exception to that, despite my protests telling him that I am in fact social. Somehow that led to him saying he wanted to hang out, which felt like maybe, just maybe he caught onto all my clues– but then he just had to crush all hope by calling it a ‘guy’s night’ and I have to say that being shot repeatedly hurt less than that. But most importantly I am irritated at myself for letting such a simple statement work me up like this.” He rants, huffing out a breath like a petulant teen.
“You know—” she trails off just to get an extra rise out of G. “-if you would just tell him how you feel you would find yourself in a lot less pain right? I know you want to believe your attraction is unrequited but that is where you are wrong my friend.” Talia says with an all-knowing smirk on her face like she is privy to information that G doesn’t have.
“What could you possibly mean by that?” G dares to ask, dares to entertain the smallest bit of hope, again, that maybe he still has it all wrong, and for once he wouldn’t mind if he was wrong.
“You do realize that the flirting he does with Kensi and I is all just an over-the-top act right? Sure, he might have experienced some attraction towards both of us, but it is unmatched when it comes to you.” She pauses to look around, ensuring that what she says next isn’t going to be overheard. “You know, for being an investigator you sure miss a lot of Deeks attempts to subtly flirt with you.” She claims with a grin that screams mischief.
G takes a moment to wrap his head around the fact that she claims Marty flirts with him. For the longest time he has always assumed that he was the only one flirting and that anything that resembled flirting from Marty was wishful thinking. He had been so sure that Marty had a thing for Kensi all this time, he flirts loudly and proudly with her and Talia. Huh, if he flirts with me, it's night and day different from the way he flirts with women– I wonder what that's about.
“Let’s say you are right, even if he does flirt with me, it is like an entirely different dance and language compared to anything I have seen when he flirts with you or Kensi. How– why are you so sure?” he says cringing, hating just how insecure he sounds to his own ears, if she noticed she was kind enough to not state the obvious.
“Look, I don’t make a habit of sharing others' secrets, so I am not about to give you the full story. But you need to know that he is terrified of outright flirting with you for fear of you reacting poorly. The problem isn’t you specifically, but the past was certainly unkind.” she says leveling him a look that could rival Hetty’s all-knowing glare.
“Shit” G says, pausing his workout. All of a sudden there are several little moments that just make sense. It’s as if Talia handed me the missing piece to the cipher to all things Marty Deeks. All those little moments start to become crystal clear. There were moments when I would catch a rare, shy smile directed at me, but I always convinced myself that it couldn’t have been me that made him smile like that. Then there was the look of disappointment I would catch for a split second when I would turn down his invite for drinks.
There were all those moments where I could have sworn there was more he wanted to say after a bad op or a close call, but he never would do more than just a simple ‘Hey, you ok?’ or ‘You made the right call.’ like he was afraid to make it too personal. Then there was the day after Sam attempted to set me up with Joelle I noticed that Marty’s mood went from his typical sunshiney attitude to a more somber and subdued version of himself after Sam asked him to rank her. At the time it was easy to chalk it up to something Kensi-related, but if Talia is to be believed then I horribly misinterpreted that- and every other situation.
“And you’re absolutely sure about this, you’re not pulling a prank, are you?” he asks, it’s not that he doubts her but he needs that extra vote of confidence as he still reflects on various other interactions between him and Marty.
“Why would I lie to you about this? Why would I call you out for your pining bullshit and give you even a little bit of hope if there was no chance? I don’t like to meddle, but I am tired of watching both parties pine and you, G Callen, are in a position to do something about it, so help Kensi and me if you don’t. But judging by that look on your face the gears are turning so I will let you plan in peace, just please put that boy out of his misery by asking him out.” And with a put-upon sigh, she is out of the gym just as fast as she entered it, leaving one very contemplative G behind, and he leaves not too long after.
It doesn’t take him long to find Deeks in the armory after a quick shower and wardrobe change. He can’t help but take a second to admire Deeks before he is caught by the man himself, Talia of course clocked him immediately. He catches Deeks asking “I’m sorry who is gonna sit here and listen to me vent?” as he meanders over to the group of them. He doesn’t know what could have happened that requires a venting moment, he would happily listen, but he doesn’t want to do that as Deeks’s boss so he holds off on volunteering, especially with Kensi still in the room, though he has no doubt that Talia will fill her in during their outing tonight that leads them to hastily exit from the armory leaving him behind with the man he cannot stop fantasizing about.
Knowing he doesn’t want to ask Marty out in the office he aims to end the conversation and escape the armory casually. “Good night, Deeks,” he says trying to ignore the part of him that wishes this simple ‘good night’ was more intimate. Baby steps!! He internally chastises himself as he turns to head out the door. He wasn’t fast enough though, he barely took a step before he heard Deeks call out “Wait, I got a solution how about tonight?”, it was innocuous enough—but he still heard that faint echo of ‘guys' night’ and the only way it could be a guy’s night is if Sam and Eric joined, hell maybe even Granger, maybe all of them could keep his irritatingly sappy thoughts at bay. But just the two of them on a not-date? That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
He hopes he sounds unbothered when he makes himself ask “What about tonight?”, as if he forgot about their earlier conversation.
“You and I go grab beers tonight,” Deeks responds attempting to appear nonchalant, but G can see the nerves he is trying to hide and feels bad about his next move, even though he knows he plans to fix it in the next half hour.
“You and I? I told you I need to think about that.” G says, hoping Deeks will forgive him for turning him down now.
“Think about what? Tonight’s happening right now we are on this ride together. I know a place, the perfect place!” Deeks says with so much enthusiasm that G cannot help but appreciate it.
“Really?” G asks as he slowly starts to walk towards the door, trying to ignore the ache in his chest as he does, and that ache only amplifies when he looks over his shoulder and notices Deeks bracing himself before he even asks the next question.
“Yeah, umm do you like craft beers?” he asks with his eyes glued to his phone, presumably looking up whatever place it is that he was hoping to go to that he doesn’t notice that G had slipped out of the room right after he answered that he did, in fact like craft beer. It’s not until he looks up after listing a chunk of the menu, without any input from G that he realizes that he has left the room.
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“Callen?” Marty questions loudly, internally cursing himself for not keeping an eye on the sneaky agent. “Are we just gonna meet there?” he pauses for a moment, hoping to hear something, anything back from the man he has grown to respect and adore. “I will just text you the address.” He doesn’t bother to project his voice this time, no matter how much he was hoping to hang out with Callen, he knows when to accept the answer he was given. Even if it stings a little.
He leaves the armory and goes to collect all of his stuff from his desk that needs to go home with him. Even if his home feels cold and lonely more often than not. Huffing out an irritated breath he makes his way out of the office and into to parking lot. He is paying just enough attention to his surroundings to notice the man of the hour leaning against his car. “Callen?” he asks with a cocked eyebrow, hoping it portrays a question—he just doesn’t know which one at this point.
“Yes, Marty?” G asks with a smirk that does things to Deeks he really doesn’t want to analyze at this moment, can’t afford to analyze at this moment when he feels so off kilter. He doesn’t know what to say but he knows he has to say something, anything really to not make his floundering any clearer than it already is he settles with stating the obvious “I thought you left already.”
“I thought about it,” G says with a noncommittal shrug, waiting to see if Deeks will pick up on his true meaning.
“You thought about leaving?” Deeks asks in disbelief before asking yet another question as he too stops and leans against his car, mirroring G “Are you always this indecisive during your time off?” he meant for it to be a joke, unfortunately he is too nervous and it came out harsh than intended, much to his chagrin.
“Well, I was thinking about your dinner proposal, guys' night is what you called it—I think I have a better idea though. But I need you to hear me out first. Can you do that?” he asks hesitantly, when he receives a nod and a big-bright-beautiful smile grace Deeks face he takes that as his cue to carry on.
“I can’t do guys night-” he says with a pause that lasts almost too long judging by the sadness starting to appear on Deeks’s face as he studies the pavement between them. He places a finger under Marty’s chin, lifting his chin up gently making him reestablish eye contact before beginning again. “I can’t do guys night because I would much rather it be a date night. You, me, take out at one of our places, a nice restaurant, the beach. It doesn’t matter so long as it’s you, me, and a date.”
“A date?” he says his tone cautiously optimistic with a small beautiful smile. One that G hadn’t seen before but he hopes to see it over and over again if he can help it.
“Will you, Marty, go on a date with me?” G asks while gently caressing his face with the same finger that was under his chin just moments ago, his smile matching Marty’s—especially when he enthusiastically agrees to go on a date.
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The End