Immunity
Steve's sick, or so everyone tells him. Danny is overbearing. Kono reads a book.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).
A/N: This is something I wrote for aqiran, who asked very nicely. I hope it works, even though I suspect it's neither long nor fluffy enough.
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"Bless you." The suspect says politely, as if he isn't currently handcuffed to a chair being questioned by people with guns. Danny turns to look at Steve, very determinedly trying not to laugh.
"Was that—I'm sorry, did you just sneeze?"
"What? No." Steve denies with a glare.
"You did." The suspect contradicts unhelpfully. "Kind of weird too. Like a cat sneezing."
"Hear that, Steve?" Danny says with a wide smile, looking entirely too amused with the situation. "I got a witness and everything."
"I'm fine. Can we get back to the case here?"
"You know, you did let me drive this morning. You might be coming down with something." Danny says, trying for concern and failing.
"I'm not coming down with anything." Steve insists seriously. Why is the lighting so blue in this room? It's giving him a headache.
"I don't know, brah. You look kind of peaky." Their suspect observes thoughtfully. This guy is a prince among men, truly. Except for the drug trafficking thing.
"You look like a guy about to spend twenty to life in a prison cell, so why don't we talk about that?" Steve snaps, and Danny turns back to the suspect, finally recalling why they're all here today.
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The next day on their way to the morgue he sneezes again and Danny wastes no time in overreacting. "And there it is again." He exclaims. "I am telling you, it's flu season, you need to be careful."
"Will you please just drop this? I feel fine." Steve lies shamelessly, rolling his eyes. Danny turns to look at him, frowns.
"No seriously, you look flushed. Are you running a fever?"
"Listen to me, okay? Read my lips: I. Am. Fine."
"What, you don't get sick? You never get sick, is that what you're saying? You're too evolved to catch a cold?"
"Yes, Danny, that's it. I am too evolved for colds." Steve says, exasperated. "I don't get sick, okay? I just don't."
"You don't get sick?" Danny huffs in disbelief.
"Last time I got sick, I was ten years old."
"Look, Steven. You are obviously delusional from the fever, so I am going to insist you take the day off, stay in bed, drink lots of water, and generally try to survive this cold, okay?"
"What, you got a medical degree now?" Steve scoffs in annoyance.
"I've got a common sense degree, which is why I recognize the pointlessness of this argument." Danny says, reaching for his cell phone.
"Wait, who are you calling?" Steve asks incredulously, because they're sort of in the middle of a discussion here. God. Rude much?
"I'm calling your girlfriend to come pick you up and drive you home while I go talk to Max, alright?"
"Don't do it." Steve warns seriously but Danny, predictably, pretends not to hear him.
"Hey, Kono? I need a favor."
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"This is completely unnecessary." Steve assures her for the hundredth time on the ride to his place.
"Steve. You know how I enjoy agreeing with you. But your shirt is buttoned up to the collar while I'm sitting here, sweating through my tank top. Not to mention you had me turn off the AC because you're cold. I'm pretty sure you have a fever."
Steve starts to argue only to be interrupted by a coughing fit. Kono just sighs, gives him a look that says he's proving her point.
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"Okay. You have a fever." Kono announces, looking at the thermometer.
"I'm fine." Steve insists unconvincingly from where he's propped up on his pillows, half obscured by the covers.
"There is now empirical evidence to suggest otherwise." Kono points out reasonably, moving to hand him a glass of water and some aspirin. "Drink that and try to rest, okay?"
Steve obeys reluctantly, mostly because his head is throbbing and aspirin can't hurt at this point, then leaves the glass on the side table and turns to Kono, frowning in a way he hopes conveys his displeasure with her, and Danny, and their devious little plan to keep him from his job.
"I'll go see about making you some soup." She says, graciously ignoring his glaring and moving to the door.
"Can I have my phone then?" He asks, planning to check up on the case, make sure Danny hasn't talked anyone to death without him there to prevent it.
"Nope." She says simply. "Danny will call if there's anything new, just rest for now." She adds, disappearing down the hallway without even giving him time to answer. "Call if you need anything, I'll be in the kitchen." He hears her call over her shoulder.
Steve sinks back on his pillows, exhaling in frustration. Great. That's just…great.
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He must have fallen asleep at some point because he wakes up to see Kono in an armchair near his bed, reading a book. She looks like she's been there for a while.
"Hey." He says groggily, head still feeling a bit woozy.
"Hey. Feeling any better?" She asks, looking up to smile at him kindly. She's so pretty and nice. Why is she dating him again?
"Sure." He mumbles, not sure he remembers the question. "What are you reading?"
"The only fiction book in the house, apparently. It was this or The art of war." She says with a raised eyebrow, holding it up for him to see the title. Yikes. Nicholas Sparks.
"That's my sister's." He says, in defense of his taste in literature.
"I figured." Kono says flatly. "I was bored. You don't have a TV in here."
"There's one in the living room." He points out helpfully. "I can't sleep with the TV on anyway."
She rolls her eyes at him, as if he's being deliberately obtuse. "I didn't want to leave you alone."
"Oh." He says, touched, because that hadn't occurred to him, actually.
"Yeah." She says in a small voice, looking a little embarrassed.
"Any news on the case?" He asks awkwardly, in a blatant attempt to change the subject. Kono shakes her head like she's onto him, but fills him in anyway.
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"This is great." He says honestly. She's brought him a plate of chicken soup on a tray, because apparently walking down the stairs to the kitchen would be too taxing for him, seeing as he's an invalid and all.
She shrugs, playing it down. "It's my aunt's recipe."
"How come I didn't know you could cook?" He asks, plainly curious. They've been dating for a couple of months now, you'd think this would have come up before now.
"Well, I know how to cook. I just don't particularly enjoy doing it." She admits reluctantly from her place on the armchair. "So don't think you can rope me into doing it again anytime soon." She warns.
"So this is just because I'm sick?" He asks in bemusement.
"Pretty much, yeah." Kono laughs. "Don't get used to it or anything."
"I don't know. You're really spoiling me here. I might just have to get sick more often."
Kono just rolls her eyes, smiling.
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Danny calls to mock him about his sickly constitution and tell him they've made an arrest on the case, then offers to stop by if he needs any company.
"No, I'm good. Kono's here." Steve says, glancing at Kono who's gone back to the Nicholas Sparks book and seems weirdly absorbed.
"Kono's still there? You sure that's a good idea? I find dealing with you in anything but very small doses can have a plethora of unpleasant side effects." A plethora, he says. I kid you not. Steve suspects Danny has one of those word a day calendars, which would sort of explain the run on sentences and his throwing words together and hoping against hope they end up forming sentences and making some sort of sense.
"I don't know why I put up with your lame attempts at humor, Danno. I really don't."
"No, seriously, she's been there all day. I can take the next shift."
"You know it's just a cold, right?" Steve feels the need to remind him. "I don't actually require around the clock supervision."
"Just ask her if she wants me to take over, will you? Jeesh."
Steve huffs impatiently, lowers the phone to look at Kono.
"Danny says he can stay with me if you want to go home or something." He says, trying not to seem reluctant.
"No, I'm good. Thanks." She says absently, going back to her book.
"We're good here." He tells Danny with certainty.
"Fine, okay. Whatever." His partner sighs. "I'm telling you, Steve. If you haven't managed to scare her off by morning? You need to marry that girl."
"I'll take that under advisement." Steve replies without missing a beat.
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He takes a quick shower and when he gets back to his room Kono has changed into one of his T-shirts and relocated to the bed. She's still reading that book, legs stretched out before her, looking like she belongs there, and the simple domesticity of it makes his throat tight for a second.
He takes some aspirin and gets under the covers as she pesters him with questions until she's satisfied he's not feverish or cold or suffering from any other alarming symptoms.
"Does the light bother you?" She asks worriedly. "I just want to read a couple more chapters."
"It's fine." He assures her, smiling gently. "Thanks for…you know, everything today."
She looks at him like he's being weird. "Of course." She says, like it was no big deal. Like she didn't just spend all day on his armchair, didn't cook for him or keep him company while he sulked and complained about having to stay in bed.
"You know, last time I got sick I was ten." He offers hesitantly. "And my mum made me stay at home and fussed over me all day. I think she even made me soup." He laughs, catches a glimpse of Kono's face, her eyes watching him kindly. He doesn't talk about his childhood much. "And then today…" He trails off, clears his throat. "It's like, I never got sick all these years because I just couldn't. I didn't have the time for it. I couldn't stop working, and there was no one there to tell me to take it easy or…care, you know?"
Kono looks at him steadily, her hand coming to rest on top of his, fingers wrapping around his palm and squeezing tightly. "Well, you have people who care now." She says seriously and this is the point where he would kiss her if he wasn't afraid he's contagious or something. He settles for tangling his fingers through hers and squeezing back. "You have lots of people who care now." She continues. "Some of them, in fact, care very much and very loudly." She says pointedly, sounding annoyed, and he assumes that means Danny called again.
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He wakes up in the middle of the night, looks over at Kono who appears to be sniffling.
"You okay?" He asks, still sleeping mostly.
"Yeah. Sorry." She says, wiping her cheeks. "It's just. This book is terrible." She explains, gripping the cover tightly, knuckles white. "Cause she's sick, you know? And he can't do anything about it, and it's all pointless anyway."
Steve just frowns at her, turns to look at his alarm clock. It's three in the morning.
"Okay then." He says firmly, reaching over to take the book out of her hands. It takes a couple of tries, and when she lets go he sets it down on his nightstand, turns off the bedside lamp. "Time to go to sleep, sweetheart."
He tugs her down until she's cuddled up to his side, wrapping an arm around his chest in a rare display of affection. Most of the time she insists that she can't fall asleep with someone plastered all over her, because of the heat and all.
Tonight she's out in five minutes.
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Kono is adamant he should stay at home for another day at least, even though he's feeling perfectly fine. He acquiesces, on the condition he can stay on the couch, because any more time in his bedroom is guaranteed to drive him insane. They spend the morning watching TV and making fun of infomercials, and when Danny stops by Kono is in the kitchen making them some lunch.
"Kono's still here?" Danny asks, looking almost impressed at her perseverance. "Wow. Okay. I don't know how you managed this", he leans close to avoid being overheard, "but she is obviously in love with you, so you need to buy a ring and you need to propose, I'm not even kidding."
"Yes, thank you Danny. I get it." Steve says exasperated. "I am a horror to be around and I should marry any woman who can put up with me."
"What, you think you can do better than Kono?" Danny asks in disbelief, forgetting to lower his voice. Steve looks at him blankly.
"Of course not." He says slowly, as if talking to a very small child, because if anything, this should be obvious: Steve McGarrett cannot do better than Kono Kalakaua, mostly due to the fact that there is no one better.
"Well okay then, I'm glad you agree." Danny says, relaxing back into the cushions. "I'll help you pick out the ring, don't worry."
Steve, who only survives this partnership by choosing his battles, decides to let it go, just this once.
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The end.