Title: La hanau

Author: Katelynne

Rating: G

Characters: Kono Kalakaua, Chin Ho Kelly, Danny Williams, OC – Reed Iverson

Disclaimer: No ownership at all of Hawaii Five-0, just a fan.

Description: Danny is such a good dad. He's not perfect but he tries hard and I want him to be happy. Yeah, I'm a sap. Prompt – "mint and lilac"

Category: general, some flirting

Feedback: yes, please!

Note: "La hanau" is Hawaiian for "birthday" and "pa'i palaoa" means "cake". I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Kono Kalakaua and Chin Ho Kelly walked into the office to find Danny flipping through the yellow pages a pissed off look turning his mouth into a grimace. He was muttering, Kono was sure they would be swear words if she could actually hear them. "What's up?" Chin broached carefully.

Danny glared up at them, then his face softened, "I need a cake."

Kono furrowed her brows, "Cake? That's what has you riled up?"

"No, my ex-wife has me riled up," Danny explained, "The cake was the catalyst."

"What do you need a cake for, brah?" Chin Ho asked.

Danny sighed, "Grace's birthday is coming up and Rachel was going off about how Step-Stan was planning on getting this really wonderful cake." His voice rose in imitation of his ex-wife's voice on the last few words. He continued, "So, I said 'no, I've already got a cake in the works. It's gonna be fantastic.' But, now I'm looking at the section for bakeries and I have no idea where to start."

Kono laughed, "Is that all? Well, you should start by going into some and checking them out; they'll let you taste it and everything. I suggest you start at this one though." She pointed to a small ad for a place called Pa'i Palaoa.

Danny looked up at her questioningly. Kono picked up the phone and began dialing a number, "I graduated from high school with the owner. The cake is all organic…" seeing Danny roll his eyes, she cut him off with a wave of her hand,"… and they're delicious. Just go in and check it out." She gave her attention to the phone when the other end of the line was picked up, "Can I speak to Reed?"

While Kono spoke on the phone, Danny turned to Chin, "How can anything organic taste good? It's all just wood chips and cardboard, right?"

Chin laughed, "You'd be surprised. These are pretty impressive."

Kono hung up and handed Danny a slip of paper with an address on it, "Reed is available right now, but has a meeting at 1:00, so you should get over there."

Danny got up and thanked Kono for her help, then headed to the door muttering something about "organic cake baked by a guy named Reed."

Kono started to say something to Danny, but he was gone.

The first thing Danny noticed, when he walked into the shop, was the scent of mint and lilac. "An odd combination to be in a bakery," he thought, "do they use flowers in organic cakes?" Next he saw the woman behind the counter who was just finishing up a sale. She was cute, not supermodel pretty, but definitely dateable. Wavy, auburn hair; eyes that smiled at you, even when her mouth didn't. He smiled to himself, "Damn, Williams, that was almost poetic," he thought. Maybe Rachel hadn't completely ruined him.

When she was finished she smiled at the detective and asked if she could help him. "Yeah, is your boss in?" Danny asked. The woman looked confused and said, "Um, no… I haven't seen my boss since Sunday."

Danny frowned, "I was told he'd be here." The woman laughed, "Oh that boss, yeah… I haven't seen him since Sunday either." Danny grimaced in frustration. The woman laughed lightly, "You must be Danny. I'm Reed Iverson." She held her hand out and after a stunned moment, Danny shook it.

His face turned slightly pink and he stammered, "I'm sorry… I, uh, thought you'd be a guy."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." She grinned, "So, Kono said you need a birthday cake for your daughter?" She took him over to table that had several small pieces of cake set up for sampling, "Why don't you taste some of these and see if one of them would be satisfactory?"

Danny took one bite and was thoroughly stunned. The bite of red velvet cake was pure heaven, "This is organic?" He said, wiping the red crumbs from his mouth. Reed laughed, "I get that a lot too." After several samples, Danny decided that a devil's food with raspberry filling would be just what Grace would like and Reed began working on a design plan with him. About halfway through the process his cell phone played an ominous tune, he sighed and apologized before answering.

After a few moments, Danny said, "No, I told you I was getting her a cake… I'm at the bakery right now… no, it's not a supermarket bakery…" The conversation went like that for several minutes while Reed worked on her design.

When he'd finally gotten off the phone, Danny apologized again. "No worries… I worked up a sketch for you, what do you think?" Danny looked at it, "And this falls within the budget we discussed?" Reed nodded. "All right, let's do it." He gave Reed the information about when and where to deliver it, paid in advance, and left to return to work.

Several days later, Danny waited outside Stan and Rachel's house so he'd be there when his little girl's cake was delivered. Right on time, he saw a white van with the Pa'i Palaoa logo on the side. Reed jumped out of the driver's side and went to the back of the van. Her assistant, a younger man, hopped out to help her. Danny was astonished when he saw the final product. Instead of the medium sized Cinderella's coach cake they'd agreed upon, Reed had brought a beautiful, elaborate castle cake with Cinderella's coach pulling up to the steps.

"This isn't what I paid for." Danny said nervously, "How much of a price difference is this?" His heart was pounding and he was trying to keep himself under control. This cake looked like it was going to set him back a month's salary.

Reed looked at him, "No extra charge, I worked on the cake myself so I don't have to pay my employees for the work. Any extra cost for supplies is worth it to me." She paused and took a deep breath, her voice trembling, "I don't make … supermarket cakes."

As the assistant wheeled the cake in through the side door of the kitchen, Reed said, "I hope Grace loves it." As she headed back to the van a gust of wind caught her hair. The breeze smelled of mint and lilac. Danny smiled and headed into the house where Grace was squealing with delight.