Author's Note: I was inspired by 14 Valentines to write a fic a day until Valentine's Day. Inspiration struck a little late last night, so you're going to get two fics, today.
The vase filled with bright pink roses showed up on his desk the morning after he won his custody hearing. Danny blinked at the flowers in confusion, certain he was seeing things. But, no, the flowers were still there, bright pink and spilling over the edges of the glass vase.
"Hey," he said, as he poked his head into Steve's office, "do you know who sent me a bunch of roses?"
No answer, and there was his second surprise of the day. Steven punctuality-is-my-middle-name McGarrett wasn't in his office. In fact, now that he took a moment to look around, he realized that headquarters was completely empty. Which meant that he wasn't like to get any answers from the rest of his team.
Inspecting the flowers didn't turn up any clues. There was no tell-tale card from a florist shop, meaning that either the card had been deliberately omitted, or the flowers had been hand-delivered. When he lifted the vase to the light, the glass sparkled without any incriminating fingerprints. He ran a quick kit, just to be sure, but it was clean.
No leads, no evidence, just flowers.
Danny finally sighed, pushing the vase to the corner of his desk and turning on his computer. He still had a mountain of paperwork from their last case, and the mystery of the roses was going to have to wait.
He'd been working for about half an hour when a knock on the doorframe disrupted his concentration. Glancing up, he saw Chin standing in his doorway, Kono not-so-politely pushing him to one side.
"Cute flowers," was her remark, and Danny sighed at the curious look in her eyes. His hopes for an answer to the mystery were dashed when she continued, "Who are they from?"
"No idea," Danny admitted. "The roses were here when I showed up. I was hoping one of you guys could tell me."
"Sorry, brah," Chin replied, with a shrug. "Maybe you've got a sweetheart." He was grinning when he said it, the corners of his eyes crinkled with suppressed laughter.
"What about you?" Danny asked Kono. "Any thoughts?"
"Those are Lokelani roses," she commented, taking a closer look. "My parents got me a bouquet when I graduated from the Academy. They're not grown in a lot of places," she went on. "Someone must have gone to a lot of trouble for you." Chuckling, she added in a sing-song voice, "Chin's right. Someone's got a crush on you."
"You've both been so helpful," Danny grumbled, and the cousins left him alone, their laughter drifting out of the room.
But, they had been. Because now he knew that someone hadn't just bought him flowers; they'd hunted down a specific, rare type of flower. And he had no idea who, or why.
"You know," a familiar voice drawled, "if you keep glaring at the vase like that, it's going to explode."
"Do you know anything about this?" Danny demanded, looking up at Steve as the other man came into his office and perched on the corner of his desk.
"Do I look like I know about flowers?" Steve returned. "Where'd they come from?"
"I don't know," Danny told him. "And it's been driving me nuts all morning."
"You know what the cure to that is, don't you?" Steve asked. "Paperwork."
"I'm almost finished-" Danny started, but then he caught the hopeful glint in his partner's eyes. "Oh, no. I am not doing your paperwork for you. Forget it."
"Spoilsport," Steve moped. "So, have you seen Grace since the hearing?"
"She's coming home with me, tonight," Danny told him, unable to hide the delighted grin stretching across his face. "And she was so happy that she cried when I told her the judge's decision. Apparently, she and Rachel haven't been talking for the last week, ever since Rachel and Stan told her about Vegas."
"Have you talked to Rachel?" was Steve's next question, but Danny shook his head.
"Only through our lawyers," he remarked. "I think it's going to be a while before we – yes?" He trailed off when Kono poked her head through the doorway.
"I was thinking about your flowers," she started, "and I did some research-"
"Doesn't anyone besides me do their paperwork?" Danny complained, not really expecting an answer.
"And I found a bunch of websites dedicated to the secret language of flowers," Kono went on, ignoring him.
"Flowers have languages, now?" Steve asked.
"Yeah," Kono enthused. "Apparently, certain flowers mean certain things, like white roses mean innocence, or red roses mean passion-" She shot him a knowing smirk.
"What about pink?" Danny asked, interrupting her.
"Pink roses," Kono told him, "mean grace."