A/N: Takes place when Deeks was in college and Kensi was finishing up high school
***
Kensi glanced down at her map, squinting at the crisscrossing lines, interspersed with tiny boxes that represented buildings. Normally, she had no problem reading a map and orienting herself, but the university provided one she held now boggled her mind for some reason.
She’d successfully made it from the visitor’s center to the heart of campus and then gotten completely twisted around. Groups of students and teachers walked past her as she stood in the center of the campus next to a large, marble fountain within a small park. Glancing around, Kensi tried to locate the writing center listed on the map.
Her academic advisor had suggested Kensi sign up for one of the high school planned tours, but she chose a self-guided tour instead. She preferred to handle these things on her own; she’d been living on her own for over a year now, and didn’t need well-meaning adults interfering. Plus, she appreciated the ability to attend the events that interested her instead of being herded along with a hundred other students and their accompanying families.
A group of four guys who looked a few years older than her took a short cut through the park, shouldering past her. They chatted loudly, the only blond-haired one in the group grabbing one of his friends around the middle, and nearly knocking him over. She couldn’t tell what the other guy said, but everyone else laughed in response.
Figuring she’d been standing in one place for too long, Kensi checked her map again, and started back in the direction she’d come. Less than a minute later, she felt someone quickly approaching behind her, and spun instinctively with her hand raised in a protective fist.
“Woah,” said the guy, leaning back. Kensi dropped her fist slightly when she recognized him as one of the boys she’d noticed earlier. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” he apologized.
“Then why were you following me?” she asked suspiciously.
He offered her a disarming, and lopsided grin, jerking his finger behind him. He had startling blue eyes, she noted. “I saw you walking around with your map earlier and I can spot a lost high schooler when I see one.”
“And what, you’d like to give me a personal tour?” Kensi huffed out an annoyed breath even as her gaze drifted back to his eyes, and then up to his hair which stopped just an inch or so above his shoulders, curling in at the ends.
“Well, I am a tour guide,” he said, reaching into his backpack to remove a silver name tag. He didn’t hold it up long enough for Kensi to catch his name, but she saw “Student Guide” at the top. “Unfortunately today’s my day off.”
“That’s too bad,” Kensi found herself saying, and he chuckled dipping his head so his bangs flopped into his eyes. Her cheeks flushed almost immediately, and she mentally kicked herself for flirting with a random stranger. “I mean, cause then you could show me around.” Even better, Kensi.
He had the good grace not to comment on it, though he did grin again. “I remember when I was a freshman. I spent the first week stumbling around with my map, running late to classes. So where are you headed?”
Holding out her map, Kensi pointed to the building in question.
“Ah, the writing lab.” He nodded, pointing to the right above her head. “You’re going to follow that line of buildings straight down to the end until you get to this tiny one tucked between the Chem center and Speech Pathology building.”
“Thank you,” Kensi said sincerely. “I’d probably have wandered around for hours on my own.”
“That’s what your friendly neighborhood tour guide is here for,” he said grandly. “Hey, I’ve got a class in five minutes, but good luck with your tour.”
He offered a wave as he hurried off in the directions his friends had headed. It was only after he was nearly out of sight that Kensi realized she’d never learned his name.
Maybe she’d see him around next year, she mused. If she did choose this university it would have nothing to do with a pretty blue-eyed blonde with a gorgeous smile.
***
A/N: Just in case anyone’s concerned, Deeks isn’t really flirting with Kensi. He’s merely being friendly and helpful.
Since Deeks’ university was never specified (that I can recall or find) I left the one in this story unnamed and modeled it after my undergrad university, Purdue.