Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize…
A/N: Well, this story slowly killed me in the last few months but now it's finally finished. I'm really sorry for kinda butchering Steve's character for the sake of my awful sense of humor.
Tell me what you think!
coup de grace – the blow that kills (usually mercifully)
…
Steve had always been good at ignoring inevitable disasters but now as he stands on the beach watching Chin's cousin – his very female cousin with golden skin and mile long legs – right-crossing some guy for dropping on her wave he's perfectly aware of all the trouble that she's going to cause but Kono's already extending her hand and she has dimples for fuck's sake. How could he say no?
Later when he's too busy to drive a truck through a concrete wall to rescue her from Sang Min and she just grins at him flippantly, accusing him of arriving early he pretty much wants to bang his head against the wheel.
See? She's nothing but trouble. With a capital fucking t.
.
.
He doesn't know how they ended up spending so much time together. Maybe because Danny is very loud, always bitching about something or another and it's more than enough to listen to him when they are working without shooting him in the leg and Steve is not so sure that he can maintain his cool when they are off the clock. So he agrees without a second thought to go surfing with Kono the first time she asks. It quickly becomes a habit.
He invites her to go running with him as a counteroffer but she brushes him off, saying that if she wanted to get sweaty and breathless she would do something more fun and pleasurable.
Steve nearly walks into the wall on his way out of her office because his mind is suddenly filled with the images of fun activities involving her and his bed.
Wanting her is as shocking as friendly fire and he has to swallow hard as the electric panic of arousal hits the base of his spine and he flees from the HQ with his jaw clenched so tightly it starts to hurt by the time he reaches his truck.
Fuck.
.
.
The whole team gets into a bar fight because some HPD rookie keeps picking on Kono because of her place in Five-O, making loud comments about her sleeping with him or/and Danny. She doesn't seem bothered by it and Steve has an uncomfortable suspicion that this isn't the first time she hears something like that.
The anger, red hot and borderline feral keeps expanding in his chest, gradually transforming into dangerous fury and the guy chose the worst people to fuck with because when he crosses the line by a fucking mile with making a crude, disgusting joke about Chin and Kono, Steve is pushing his chair back forcefully, ready to beat some common sense into the young cop.
The funny thing is that Danny is the one who throws the first punch. Steve really wants to make a funny comment on it but he is too busy pinning the aforementioned asshole to the ground with a boot on his neck.
Kono's smile, when she's pressing an ice pack against the left side of his face later, is worth every uncomfortable talk he's going to have with the Police Chief and the Governor the next day.
He tries to convince himself that it doesn't mean anything. He wouldn't necessarily call his behavior possessive. He is just habitually passionate. When she's involved.
Yeah, sure.
.
.
It's raining and the air is humid and it's so typical that it's their day off. He calls her to cancel their previous scuba diving plans and she sounds like a little punchy and grumpy so he uncharacteristically asks one question after another until she admits that her knee hurts like a motherfucker.
He doesn't even think twice when he shows up at her door with a duffle bag full of her favorite junk food, two six packs of beer, the Infernal Affairs trilogy and a heat-pack.
They spend the day on her tiny but surprisingly comfortable couch, with their bodies pressed close and her leg in his lap as he carefully holds the pad on its place.
It's disturbingly domestic but he doesn't remember being this relaxed and to his surprise she doesn't protest when he tentatively start to rub his thumbs over her calf to ease the strain on her muscles. Kono just makes content, blissful little noises from the back of her throat and Steve has to sit through the rest of the movie with that stubborn, muted hum of arousal under his skin that doesn't go away no matter what.
Maybe he's in bigger trouble than he first thought.
.
.
Sometimes Steve thinks that she's doing stuff to torture him.
Kono has to know that from his seat behind his desk he has a clear view of hers and she is too good at being a cop not to notice his staring.
So when she occasionally drops some papers and slowly bends down to pick them up or when she is almost out of her office but stops short like she remembers that she left something on her desk so she reaches over to snatch the whatever, stretching her long lean body in the process and her top rides up, revealing smooth golden skin that leaves him with that familiar visceral need, coiling tight in his stomach, he is convinced that she's aware of the affect she has on him.
One time he catches Danny from the corner of his eye, his partner standing in the middle of the briefing room motionlessly, staring at Kono's denim clad ass dreamily.
Steve's anything but proud of the need that surges through him to beat Danny into a bloody pulp.
.
.
On one sunny afternoon everything goes great until her cover is blown and he doesn't even thinking when he rushes in to save her. They end up in an awkward position when he pulls her into a supply closet which barely has room for one so she is kind of sitting on the metal shelf behind her with one leg high on his hip and his glove clad hand with his gun in it is resting on her bare – smooth – inner thigh and he can feel her pulse hammering against his uncovered trigger finger.
"You okay?" He whispers, moving his finger unconsciously, hearing her sharp intake of breath as her pupils dilate slightly.
He presses the cool metal of his gun carefully against her bare skin and he can see the way she bites her lips like she wants to keep a moan inside, eyelids fluttering shut for a second.
Interesting.
He kind of wants to slide his hand higher to see her reaction, the roaring of his blood in his ears almost deafening.
He mainly blames it on her dress. But he knows that the problem isn't the dress. It's her. He isn't sure when his flight or fight response changed into fuck or fight but when she's involved all he can think about is getting her under him one way or another so it's not really surprising when he starts to lean in to finally kiss her.
Danny chooses that moment to rip the door open, forcing Steve to tear himself away from her. He doesn't know how long he can manage without doing something really stupid which is gonna end with Chin chopping his dick off.
.
.
Steve accidentally walks in on Danny and Kono having some kind of argument.
"Oh come on, I know you two hit it off. I saw you." Danny presses on with a wild hand gesture.
"Wha - when? Where?" Kono's eyes go impossibly wide. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Last week?" Danny huffs. "In that supply closet with a candlestick and Commander Mustard? Ring any bells?"
Kono makes a face like this was the most hilarious thing Danny ever said and Steve swallows around the bitter taste in his mouth.
Maybe she didn't notice that growing sexual tension between them after all.
.
.
He tries to avoid her after that, which gets easier with the whole IA mess and Lori being around and he pretends that the nights, when he just can't fall asleep so he stakes out her house instead, waiting for her to come home, making sure that she is safe, never happened.
But after seeing her in that dress at the Governor's ball his resolve crumbles to dust noisily in his head and even Catherine's promise about getting naked soon can't hold his attention long enough, he keeps glancing at Kono above her shoulder and he feels like ten kinds of awful for doing it.
Getting hit by a car couldn't make him forget about the fact that she didn't wear a bra under that sparkly dress so he does something uncharacteristically coward like going away for his reserve training with a few cracked ribs and a mild concussion. At least he has an excuse not being in the mood to get freaky on a plane with Cath. Eventually he ends the benefits part of their friendship and comes home earlier.
.
.
When Kono accidentally mentions that she had a date with a sailor from the Navy base, Steve not so accidentally arranges a training session with the guy's unit and beat the shit out of him.
Don't judge, he just did a favor for Chin.
Kono doesn't talk to him for a week and Danny keeps humming Jessie's Girl for two.
It's not humiliating at all.
.
.
One of their cases involves Kono picking up a baby and the sight they make breaks him into a million throbbing, yearning pieces because she's so natural while doing it, cradling the tiny body close to her, pressing a light kiss on the chubby little cheek and the baby giggles and she looks at her, with wide, shining eyes, smiling and Steve gets a frightening urge to press her against the nearest flat surface and fuck her until she's pregnant with his child.
He wants to grind against her, cover her in his smell, press his mouth and teeth against the soft, delicate curve of her neck and mark her for everyone to see and oh my fucking god, he'd gone certifiably insane sometime in the last few months. Oh yeah, he is so far beyond the line that it's just a blurry figment of his imagination.
He needs professional help. Danny will happily pay for it.
It's disturbing and when he actually takes a step forward he honestly gets scared of himself. Something is tugging at his insides and he can't locate it because it's not low enough to be arousal and definitely not his heart wrenching in his chest. It's a disturbing mix of the two, he finally decides and Danny has to nudge him into motion because he feels rooted to the ground, watching Kono and the baby, thinking about unprofessional but equally amazing possibilities.
.
.
Tony Archer is hitting on Kono and suddenly Steve has enough. Yeah, he is very aware of the fact that he's jealous of a seventy-something guy but he thinks that he lost his mind like a year ago so it doesn't really matter.
When the HQ finally clears out he drags her to the armory, locking the door behind them. When Kono doesn't protest just flashes a cocky grin and mutters finally he makes his move.
He gets her pressed up against the side of the shelves, kissing her like she's the only source of air and when she moves her leg to hitch it up on his hips he comes to his senses for a moment because maybe this is the worst idea ever, but she changes the angle, like she's desperate for friction and he needs to stop this and…whoa, fuck, okay, now she's pressed up against him just right and when she rolls her hips and arches back a little all thoughts about this being a bad idea just falls out of his head.
He pushes her against the nearest flat surface and tears at her clothes roughly. Something feral spreads through his body as he peels off the layers to get to her skin, his skin, because this woman is fucking his and no one can touch her. He kills anyone who tries.
"Mine." He chokes out hoarsely. "Fucking mine. No one else can get you like this."
"Yeah, yours." She breathes out brokenly.
"What can I have?" He cradles her face in his palms, forcing her to look him in the eye.
"Anything," She murmurs her eyes dark and more intent than he'd ever seen. "What do you want?"
"Everything." He confesses.
They have scary intense sex after that. The kind of sex that you pray will never end but don't think you can take another minute of.
She goes home with him later that night and Steve's already planning on doing this every day from now on. He meets no objection from Kono.
.
.
A month later the whole team go out for shave ice and Kono tries out something new and she holds the big cup of what looks like crushed ice and berries, and swirled over the top is a dark, rich-looking sauce, with a gleeful smile.
At the first bite, Kono's eyes flutter shut, and she stands there in the bustling avenue, her mouth curved in a small, blissful smile that looks just like the one she wears on the nights Steve has been particularly inventive.
It's a visceral, knee-jerk response by now: Steve's veins fill with lava, and he can feel sweat sliding down the back of his neck, the hollows of his knees, along his fingers where they rest on the smooth plastic of his gun. All around him the world seems too bright, surreal, reds and yellows and verdant greens on awnings, skirts, towels; the colors striped and patterned and bleeding together, curling into the suggestion of body-shapes beneath the midday sun and Steve wonders if he's having a flashback or some kind of PTSD, except he's never experienced anything like this before.
"God, you have to taste this." Kono opens her eyes and holds out a spoonful to Steve. There is no innuendo in her anywhere; it's a simple offer, simply made, because she wants to share this and Steve is always the one she turns to first.
Her skin is hot where he holds her hand steady; the plastic gives a little against his mouth, and the cold of the shaved ice is shocking on his lips, but not as shocking as the jolt of berry and chocolate, barely sweetened, but ripe and lush like the smell of the rainless desert air as it fills his mouth and the back of this throat. Steve swallows, and he's very aware that right now, in this moment, Kono's mouth tastes just like this.
"Isn't that the best thing ever?" Kono says, as he lets her hand fall.
"No." He answers and his hand comes around her waist, roughly pulling her closer.
Then Kono's mouth is against his, startled and hesitant, but opening at the first swipe of Steve's tongue. And yes, this...this is the best thing ever: Her mouth unexpectedly cool, her hands eager and warm against his neck and in his hair, the iced dessert already forgotten, melting somewhere beneath their boots on the sandy street.
Then Chin coughs and it breaks the spell. When Steve looks over to where he and Danny are standing, both of them with half-melted ices in their hands, they're grinning, not even pretending they didn't see the whole thing. None of them seem surprised at all.
Steve turns back to Kono, knees watery with relief and happines.
This time they kiss slowly with deliberate casualness just because he can and she wants him to.