Author's Note: I've been in Baltimore these past couple days taking care of business on the Johns Hopkins campus, so I haven't really been able to have the time to sit down and write like I would usually at home. Notice how that didn't prevent me from uploading this little gem, though. (I can't help it; these two are just always on my mind!) So, as always, I sincerely hope you guys enjoy reading, and I am eternally grateful for your support and feedback!

Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any of its characters.

"Kono."

Without looking up from her desk, Kono simply made an unintelligible noise in response. "Hmmm?"

Unable to prevent it, Steve heaved out a sigh. He was tired of this, of watching her from his own office for hours on end as she did nothing but stare at her intertwined hands and let the pressure of the day painfully weigh down her shoulders. It was as if she was a different person entirely, and it didn't sit right with him at all. "Come on," he urged gently. "We're going out for drinks."

Finally, Kono raised her gaze to meet his, though her expression was still unreadable. "'We'?" she echoed, one eyebrow raised in clear speculation.

Steve nodded, gauging her reaction. "Just you and me."

She was silent for a while, long enough for Steve to wonder if he had over-stepped some implicitly stated boundaries. What she really wanted was to go home and take a hot enough shower to wipe away the feeling of dread and anger that had seeped deep into her veins. She wanted to scream until she lost her voice.

Instead, she cleared her throat and turned her attention back to Steve. "...okay."

"Okay," he repeated, trying for a small smile. "Go ahead and wrap things up, I'll get my truck and drive around to the front to pick you up."

And just like that, Steve turned and left, leaving Kono to herself to wonder just what she had gotten herself into.

~.~.~

They sat across from one another in silence for a while, in a tight, dimly lit booth set off in the corner. Again, Steve felt unsettled; here they were, in a crowded space with a bass beat pounding through them like a second heartbeat...yet they hadn't said a word to each other since they had arrived.

Taking a long pull of the beer he had ordered, Steve swallowed slowly before meeting Kono's gaze and finally speaking the words he had been meaning to all night. "He's okay."

That earned him a scowl. "He very nearly wasn't," Kono countered, her dark eyes sharp and glinting with something that looked a lot like malice—though he knew it was pure frustration.

"But he is now," Steve insisted on a sigh, his hundredth in less than an hour. He loved how passionate Kono got about her family; he envied the way she threw herself into her work and came out on top in nearly everything. She was a challenger, she was a fighter. But she was also stubborn as hell.

As if she could read his mind, Kono's head snapped up, her gaze burning into his so fiercely that he had to look away. "I've had to watch him on the edge of death too many times, Steve," she said lowly, and he could see her carefully constructed walls crashing down. "I don't think you get it. There was Hesse's bomb strapped around his neck, the Delano incident with Malia and me, then today in Halawa...it's too much."

Steve nodded his understanding, not about to argue with her. There was something she needed to realize, though. "It's the same with you, you know," he said softly.

Caught off guard, Kono blinked in confusion. "Wh—what do you mean?"

"I've seen the way he looks every time you're in a precarious position," Steve clarified, watching as Kono's features hardened at his words. "That first case with Sang Min, the undercover stint with Fryer, the Delano affair, the hostage situation at the Slater household," he rattled off. "I could go on and on. He tried to hide it, Kono, but he was terrified."

There was something about the way he said that that made Kono think he wasn't talking solely for Chin; that, somehow, he felt the same way. But she couldn't think about that right now, couldn't swell on that idea and let it sway her or influence her in any way. As is, Steve had already leaned in closer to her, trying to urge her with those sharp blue eyes of his to see his point of view.

She wouldn't relent, though. Admitting defeat meant giving up too much.

"You're not doing a very good job of making me feel better, McGarrett," Kono said, and the scowl was back; but all Steve could think about was how amazing she looked like this, lips parted, cheeks flushed, eyes bright. The air between them was practically crackling with the sexual tension; but if either of them noticed, neither said a word.

"I'm just saying," Steve pressed on, raising his hands slightly, "we all go through this and know firsthand just what you're talking about. Every single person on this team is more than capable of handling things on their own," he said, smiling just a little at the way she nodded, "but we can't help but worry. It's only natural. What we have to do is make sure it doesn't get to us."

Kono drew back from him then, quickly finishing the rest of her beer. She tried ignoring the feeling of his gaze on her as he watched the way her throat worked as she swallowed, but it was too much. Suddenly, she felt stifled. "The day this doesn't get to me is the day I quit," she said firmly, resolutely. "I don't want to become jaded. Not this early in life."

But Steve was already shaking his head. He reached for her hands. "That's when you take these experiences, these trials, and use them to get better at the job instead of making things harder for yourself—"

Kono groaned. She didn't need this; she needed a distraction, a release, not her boss talking her down. "Steve, I swear to God—"

"Babe, I'm not arguing with you," he cut in before she could finish. He hadn't really meant to use the endearment...but he also wasn't about to take it back. "I completely understand what you mean."

Finally, Kono slumped forward a little, the set of her shoulders slackening. "He's...he...we grew up together," she stammered, gripping the neck of her empty bottle tightly enough for her knuckles to turn a ghostly white. "Steve, I almost never went anywhere without him. And to see him go through so much since Malia's death...it's not fair." She shuddered, then ran a hand through her hair. "God, I need another drink."

He eyed her carefully. "You sure? You might want to slow down."

Something in Kono's gaze shifted as she looked him over. A part of her wanted to continue with another biting, snappy retort, but instead, she settled with a rueful smile. "I can handle more than one beer, Steve," she said with a laugh that Steve would have interpreted to be disbelieving or deprecating if it hadn't sounded so intriguingly husky. "I'm a big girl."

Rising to his feet to flag down the bartender and get two more drinks, Steve turned back to her and shot her a slow, wry smile of his own. "I know." Believe me, I know.

~.~.~

"I want to dance," Kono said, too many shots later. "And I want you to come with me."

Steve frowned. "Kono, you need to go home and rest."

"You're an ass, you know that?" she said suddenly, rising to her feet; and Steve couldn't help himself from drinking her in for the first time that night. That shiny silver top she apparently kept in her desk drawer for occasions just like this, those jean shorts that accentuated her fabulous legs, and the way her eyes glittered with an intensity he ached to experience firsthand; she was so devastatingly beautiful, even when frustrated. "You have been such a buzzkill all night," Kono continued on what sounded like a whine. "Come on. Loosen up, Steve." Absentmindedly, she traced a slender finger around the rim of his tumbler of whiskey, toying with the idea of getting him another drink, anything to get that tension out of his body. "Please? For me?" she asked; and God, was she pouting?

Unable to do anything but concede to her will, Steve finally stood. "If you insist," he grumbled halfheartedly.

Kono's resulting smile was absolutely luminescent. It almost gave him whiplash, the way she went from furious to flirtatious in the blink of an eye. "Thank you," she said sweetly, taking his hand and leading him away from their booth.

If he really gave it some thought, Steve should have known Kono was trouble with a capital T. She was sin incarnate; she was the ultimate temptation. But here, now, as their bodies moved in tandem, so close to one another, he was powerless to do anything to stop it; and he didn't want to. Steve McGarrett, Navy SEAL, was putty in her pretty hands.

Kono hummed contently as they moved to the beat of the music, his hipbone brushing against her side as her fingers accidentally touched the curve of his arm. Their gazes met then, and Kono's heart pounded hard at the sudden appearance of something like dark restraint in his eyes—those eyes that were now the color of the ocean at night. It made her smile like she had never done before.

As if on cue, Steve leaned in so that his lips were barely an inch away from her ear. "What's making you smile like that?" he asked, his thrumming voice lulling her even further into a state of lust and need.

Kono let out a husky chuckle. "Oh, nothing," she deflected, biting her bottom lip as his stare increased in intensity.

"You're not a very good liar," he murmured; and this time, his lips did touch the shell of her ear and a violent shiver raced down her spine in result. "But you're a very good dancer."

Her eyes fell closed and, throwing all cares away, she closed the space between them and looped her arms around his strong corded neck. She laughed gleefully at the groan that ensued as she traced mindless little patterns with her thumbs at the very top of his spine. "I try," she said brightly. Just for you.

She felt so good—too good—as she moved against him, and warning bells were resounding all throughout his conscience but Steve didn't give a damn because this was Kono and she was in his arms, just like he had always wanted. "You look lovely tonight, by the way."

Her previously feral grin gave way for one so utterly pleased and content, and her simple enough answer came out on a purr that Steve never wanted to stop hearing. "Such a gentleman."

~.~.~

He really hadn't meant to kiss her. But now that he had, they couldn't stop.

A strangled groan caught in the back of his throat as he felt her tongue tracing the outline of his lips. One minute, they were dancing, their bodies moving in sync as they exchanged covert touches here and there; the next, they were locked at the lips, and Steve felt the overwhelming urge to never let her go. But he could taste the liquor in every crevice of her sweet mouth, and he knew it was wrong, so wrong, because while the late Governor had given him and his team full immunity and means, Steve wasn't entirely sure this was what she had meant.

Pulling away with a heavy sigh, Steve rested his forehead against hers and gazed into her glassy and dark whorling eyes. "Kono—"

She moved her lips to the corner of his mouth. "If you even try to stop this," she whispered, "I will break your jaw."

Steve smirked then, a devilishly handsome look etched into his features. "You sure know the way to a man's heart," he teased breathlessly, his arms circling her waist and pulling her flush against his hard body. A spark of eagerness twinkled in his gaze. "Let's get out of here," he urged.

Kono grinned widely. Finally. "I like the sound of that," she crooned against his skin, before pulling him into another searing kiss.

It was like Steve's conscience was at war. One side gleefully rejoiced at the idea of taking the svelte Hawaiian beauty home, immediately making intricate plans involving her and his large bed. The greater part of him, though, couldn't help but feel guilty at the victoriously pleased expression that had flickered across Kono's face in result. He knew what she was expecting; she needed a release, she needed him, but he also know he couldn't give her that.

Not tonight, anyway.

~.~.~

Finally reaching Kono's place after much giggling, kissing at stop lights, and smoldering hot glances, Steve couldn't help but smirk a little as he watched Kono putter around her small kitchen. "You want some coffee?" she asked, already smiling mischievously as she poured him a cup without listening to his response. "It'll be good for you, it'll sober you up."

Coming up behind her to press his lips to the side of her neck, Steve breathed out a laugh against her skin. "How much coffee are you going to be drinking then?"

Kono turned in his arms at that, swatting him playfully before forcing the hot coffee mug in his hands. "Funny," she grumbled. "You're so funny, Steve McGarrett."

With the ease of a longtime lover, Steve moved from Kono's kitchen to the main room, where he lowered himself into the couch that looked the softest. A threadbare blanket was draped over the back, and he found himself absentmindedly running his fingers through its fringe just as he had been doing to Kono's dark silky hair just minutes later. He let out a hum of pure satisfaction as he brought the coffee mug to his lips and let the warm liquid caress his throat. "Mmm, this is really good," he said lowly, looking at her through heavy-lidded eyes as she approached him slowly. "You always make the best coffee. But then Danny tries and it very nearly sends Chin and me to the hospital."

Her ensuing laugh was the most seductive sound he had ever heard. "I know what you mean. But..." Carefully, she took his coffee and placed it on the nearby table. "I think we should stop talking about Danny and Chin now," she murmured, her gaze all the while on him.

And then, she straddled him.

Steve's eyes fell shut of their own volition as Kono's hair fell around them like a curtain blocking out the outside world. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had this visceral a reaction to any woman, but God, the way his throat constricted and his chest tightened as her lips and teeth found the shell of his ear and the sensitive spot right below it—

Kono let out a deep moan as he found her pulse point with his mouth and sucked hard enough to bruise, and for her, that was the last straw; reaching out blindly for him, she fisted a hand in his shirt and made to tug it upwards to lift it over his head.

Panting heavily, Steve groaned loudly in frustration. He wanted her to keep going, he wanted it so badly but—but—

He buried his face in the curve of he collarbone and left a kiss there. "Kono, baby, you have no idea how hard it is for me to stop you right now," he practically growled. "But we shouldn't do this tonight."

Pulling back slightly, Kono blinked in dulled shock. "I don't see why not," she said, beautiful lust-darkened dark eyes widening. "I want you, Steve."

"And I want you, too," Steve swore in earnest. "I have for a very long time." He smiled a little at the pretty blush that colored her already ruddy cheeks at his words. "But Kono, I would feel like I'm taking advantage of you—even if you so eloquently and readily tell me the opposite right now," he inserted before she could open her mouth in protest. He shot her a grin, and if her insides hadn't already turned to jelly, they sure did in that moment. "I want this to be something you remember tomorrow morning," Steve finished with unwavering certainty, "not something eclipsed by one hell of a headache."

Then, quietly, he couldn't help but add, "I don't want this to be a mistake."

Ghosting her lips against his in a barely-there embrace, Kono slowly shook her head. "It could never be," she countered.

"Please, Kono," Steve said one last time, deepening their kiss without another thought. "Tomorrow will be a brand new day," he said pointedly.

She laughed as one of Steve's hands found the back of her neck, holding her even closer to him. "You're sending me mixed signals here, sailor," she crooned.

Steve grinned sheepishly. "Can't really help it when the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen in my life is right here in my lap." Even then, however, he was forced to pin Kono's hands together as she tried taking off his shirt—then hers—again. "Okay, no. Kono, come on, baby," Steve said resolutely as he rose to his feet with Kono still wrapped snugly around him. "We need to get you to bed."

Kono simply smiled. "That's what I've been trying to do all this time."

Adjusting her slender body so that she was more comfortably situated in his arms, Steve planted their most passionate kiss yet to her lips as he walked her to her bedroom.

He nearly tripped over his own feet as Kono keened, his name falling from her lips as if it had been torn from the very depths of her soul. "Steven..."

He almost gave in right then and there; she looked just like a goddess, his goddess, as she stretched out on her bed and fixated him an inviting curl of her lips. Needing the distraction, Steve quickly escaped to her kitchen to fill up a tall glass of water and find her two Aleve so her hangover wouldn't be that terrible in the morning.

When he came back, his hands full, Kono stared at him as if he had done something incredibly, stupidly wrong, but Steve just shook his head and sat beside her on her bed to run a hand through her thick locks once more. "You've had an understandably rough day," he said gently; as if Kono had needed to reminder of what had to have been the hundredth time she had nearly lost her cousin. "When the shock and adrenaline wear out tomorrow, I'll be right here, how about that?"

Sighing as she reluctantly relented, Kono reached for his hand and twined their fingers together. "Sometimes I hate the fact that you're such a good guy," she said softly, with a hint of a pout coloring her tone.

Steve couldn't help but smile at that. "Sometimes I feel the same way," he tossed back.

Kono laughed then, lolling her head to the side to peer at him with a look of utmost gratitude. "Thanks, Steve," she said sincerely, swallowing down the medicine with the water he had given her.

"Any time, Kono."

She was out in a matter of seconds.

~.~.~

When Kono woke the next morning, she experienced a brief moment of confusion as she took in the sights and sounds around her: there was Steve's wrinkled shirt tangled into her bed sheets, yet another tall glass of water on her side table, the sound of water running in her bathroom, and—

As her confusion gave way for a pounding headache like none other she had ever been forced to endure, Kono buried her face into her pillow and let out a long groan.

"Oh, fuck."

From somewhere beside her, she heard a very familiar chuckle; and soon, Steve was crossing over to her and giving her shoulder a consoling squeeze. "Poor Kono."

Instead of answering normally, Kono did nothing but stare at him for a long moment, her eyes narrowing as she tried to make sense of her current situation. "Did you stay over last night?"

Steve blinked, smiling shyly as he leaned over her to rub her temples soothingly. "I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to. I was cleaning up your kitchen, putting the coffee away, and I kind of just ended up wandering back into your main room and falling asleep—"

Kono interrupted him with a slow, simmering kiss. "What are you making for breakfast?" she murmured against his lips, smiling the smile of the utterly content as he pulled back to look at her, only to draw her back into another kiss—and another, and another.

"Pancakes," Steve finally answered, his voice husky and deliciously thick.

Kono let out a delighted hum in response. "The national 'morning after' food," she said approvingly with a nod of her head.

Steve practically choked on his tongue. "Kono, I—we didn't...do anything," he sputtered.

"I know, I remember," Kono said with a laugh at how flustered he had suddenly become. Pressing her lips to the bottom of his jaw, she added in a whisper, "I also remember being very, very disappointed."

A touch of a smile curved Steve's lips at that. "Listen...about yesterday," he began.

"You're a good guy, Steve," Kono cut in, looking up at him with a fondness so sweet it made his heart skip a beat. "I really appreciate it. If I'm being honest with you, I can tell you I definitely wouldn't have regretted it if we had done anything last night; but your consideration makes it that much sweeter."

A cheeky grin was Steve's answer. "That's not what I was going to say."

"...Oh." Kono flushed a dark red.

Kissing her blushing cheeks, Steve reached forward to frame her beautiful face with his hands. "I didn't mean to come across as if I were arguing with you. When we were taking about Chin last night at the bar," he clarified, his voice heartbreakingly gentle. "I'm sorry, Kono."

"I have to stop you there. You were trying to help, and that's what means a lot to me," Kono corrected. "I'm stubborn and that's not a fact I see changing any time soon. But I can admit that it's..." she looked into his eyes, "it's really nice to have someone who will deal with that and keep persisting just to ensure that I don't slip into that dark place. So don't apologize to me, Steve. And thank you."

When they came together for a kiss this time, it was the sweetest they had ever experienced. They moved together, not in a contest for dominance but in a dance, a quest for mutual enjoyment and saccharine pleasure. Kono couldn't help but whimper just the tiniest bit as she felt Steve sucking on her already swollen bottom lip; and while their kiss was unbelievably and unquestionably sweet, it still sparked something deep within them, something they had been aching to sate since the night before.

As if on cue, Steve cleared his throat and pulled back to gaze at her, but couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath at how absolutely stunning she looked; glittering eyes, sun-kissed skin, missed hair, and wet, red lips. "So," he said nonchalantly, leaning Kono back into her mattress with the gentle but insistent press of his hard body. "The pancakes won't be ready for a while."

"Oh, thank goodness," she said on an exhale, twining her fingers in Steve's hair and pulling him down to her before finally, finally tangling her body with his and letting the rhythm of their quickly beating hearts carry them swiftly away.

THE END.

Author's Note: Like it? Love it? I sure would love to hear what you think, so please drop me a line. I always take your valuable feedback into consideration; after all, I do believe it makes me a better writer! A thousand thanks in advance.