Hey guys, so, I've noticed I've been terrible at replying to reviews here and I'm really sorry about that, I'm grateful for every single one of them. I'll do better from now on. And to all the Anons, I love you guys too for leaving me a review and I'm sorry that I can't reach you guys throught PMs. Thank you 3

Now about the story. I know it is very late, but I wasn't able to write lately so it was lying arounf unfinished. Since it's already so late, I'll post it unbetad, so beware. I'll ask my lovely beta reader soon if she can look it over.

-.-.-.-

Lolli Hunt

It had been a perfect start to a perfect day, Steve knew it. His morning swim had had just the right length to give his muscles the perfect burn. His breakfast had been perfect. And, okay he was half an hour late, but that was because the coffee shop had been insanely full. He had brought coffee for the team. So that had to count for something.

He skipped up the stairs to the palace and hummed all the way to the door leading to their headquarters.

Careful not to waste anything of his precious cargo, he made his way in and – stopped sudden enough to actually spill some of his coffee.

"Where.."

His eyes zeroed in on his colleague, Chin Ho Kelly, who was bend over their smart table. It wasn't unusual to find the Lieutenant at the table. No, that wasn't what had him stop short.

It was what was sticking out of his mouth.

"Where did you get that?" he finally managed.

Chin turned his head to look at him. "Look who finally graces us with his presence." He smiled good-naturally.

It had taken Steve a bit time to settle back into island life again. To push back the SEAL in him an show a little more friendliness. The time before he came back and the first few weeks had been hard for Steve. A rush of emotions he hadn't needed to do his job. So he'd started the task force on the wrong foot with his colleagues. They had been good in what they were doing, right from the start, but Steve had been hard and unapproachable.

It took time and a loud mouthed Jersey man to rant some sense into him, but Steve had finally managed to form a bond with his team, with Chin and Kono. A bond strong enough to allowed Chin to tease him in such manner. It was fine, really. Normally Steve would grin at him. But not right now. Not with this thing in his mouth!

"Where did you get that sucker?" he pointed dumbly at it.

It was a pointless question. He knew where it came from. Recognized the stick of the sucker. Average size, but white, with teeny tiny animals on it. Those were his Danno's lollipops!

"You mean this, Boss?" Kono came from her office, elegant fingers holding up her own treat, before she popped it back into her mouth.

"Danny and Meka were at HPDs to give a statement. Came in to say hi. You missed them by about five minutes." She said the words like they wouldn't dampen the good mood Steve had been in so far and gave him a half-apologetic shrug. "We put our paperwork from the Norano case on your desk, ready to be signed off," she added and vanished into the restroom.

Steve stood for a moment. The coffee in his hands now feeling heavy, since he'd just missed his favorite medic for them. And it had been such a good start.

He placed the hot beverage beside the again on the table concentrated Chin. He ignored Chin's mumbled 'thanks' and 'not on the smart table, brah' and went to his own office; doing his best to not look like a kicked puppy.

As he rounded his desk he let out a sigh and then frowned. Why did he even care? So, he'd missed Danny. And Meka. It wasn't a big deal. It wasn't like his sun rose and set with Danny. Or Meka. He would survive not seeing him one day. Them. Steve was being stupid and he knew it.

With a decisive nod he sat down on his chair, powered up his Laptop; ready to start the day with, ugh, paperwork. Blindly he reached into his inbox, pulling up the first sheet of paper. He didn't care what kind of form it was and didn't think he needed to look it over. Chin was too experienced with these kind of forms to make mistakes and Kono was still new enough to look at everything she filled out twice, and she usually went to Chin if she'd any questions.

As his pen descended on the paper however, ready to sign his name on the usual line, he stopped short. This was no form, it was a blank piece of paper with a messily scrawled message on it.

Dear SuperSEAL,

a Boss getting late to work is frowned upon, I'm just saying. Also, your Office is freakishly neat, babe, it's not normal.

Anyway. Latecomer have to work for it. Your prize is still in the office. Find the treat and it's yours.

-D

He really, really didn't want to grin like a loon, but he couldn't help being happy that Danny had thought of him. When he saw Chin glance in his direction, he quickly hid his smile behind his hand, trying to look serious.

He turned his chair away from the see-through door and studied the text again. It was childish. He had tons of paperwork to do. It was silly.

Slowly he turned back and put down the paper. He stood up and went to the windows. Chin was still tapping away on the table and Kono nowhere in sight, probably back in her own office. Before he could talk himself out of it, he let down the blinds on all his windows and the door and closed them. His traitorous team probably knew about Danny's message and most likely also knew that he would raise to the challenge, but that didn't mean that Steve would let them watch this.

"Alright," he clapped his hands and turned around. He positioned himself right in front of the door. Trying to see his office like Danny might have seen it; cataloging possible hiding places.

Concentrating solely on the task, Steve set to work. He started with the easiest places. He run his hands over the seats of his couch and armchairs, then searched the top of his desk. He left out his drawers, since they were locked. Danny was a man who took work serious, Steve didn't think for a second that he would snoop around. Danny would know that there were work related things he was not allowed to know about.

Even though he'd already sat on it, he took a look at his own chair as well. Nothing.

Next was the shelf at his back. He searched every inch methodically, sticking his finger into every nook and cranny. Still nothing.

A smile bloomed on his face. This would be a challenge.

The next hour he spent wedging himself into places, rearranging things and crawling over the floor.

The challenge soon turned out to be frustrating. He cursed as he rolled his own chair over his finger and was ready to roughly shove it against the wall, when a firm knock interrupted him.

Again he cursed. His office was a mess. Quickly he got to his feet and opened the door just enough to stick his head out.

"Yes?"

Kono raised a eyebrow at his behavior, but blessedly didn't comment. "You, uh, have a meeting with the Governor in 20 minutes. I just wanted to remind you."

Oh. "Oh, yeah. Thanks. I'll be on my way shortly."

Kono gave him another well-deserved odd look, but finally left with a short nod. And then she smiled! Steve could see her smile as she turned to leave.

He was probably losing a lot of bad-ass points with his team today, but he wasn't giving up.

With one last quick glance into his ransacked office, he patted his pocket to make sure he still had his keys and then went out, shutting the door firmly behind him.

He'd be back.

-.-.-

The meeting with the Governor was the usual stuff. He needed to stop blowing everything up, tax payers complained, blah, blah. His mind was at headquarters anyway, racking his brain where the stupid prize could be. He'd searched everywhere. What had he missed?

He left the meeting without knowing if there had been any point to it at all.

-.-.-

Back at Iolani Palace, he went straight back into his office. If they'd been called in, Chin or Kono would have called him.

When he saw the mess he'd left behind again, a new wave of frustration hit him. He really had looked everywhere. It can't be in his office! Yet, he knew Danny wouldn't lie to him. He said in the office, so it had to be in the office.

"Okay, think Steve, think. Where haven't you looked?" he couldn't think of anything. "This mission isn't over." He took a deep breath and finally went to search everything again.

What felt like ages later, flopped down on his chair with a very un-SEAL like whine and just managed to roll back to his desk before he slumped over. His head fell on his folded arm while the other slightly thumbed on the surface of his desk to silently vent his frustration. It wouldn't do to attract the others attention and let them see his misery.

He turned his head to glance at his clock. Already past twelve. Between his late coming, the governor, and this damn scavengers hunt, he'd wasted half a work day. And the worst thing? He'd come up with nothing. Danny would laugh his ass off the next time they'd see each other.

Steve's eyes traveled to the door. He'd have to face the outside world soon. He gave his desk one last good thump and went to get up to neaten his office again. Just as he started to push to his feet however, he froze. Down there, at the bottom of the door... the blinds were caught on something. No. No, no, no. He almost tripped in his haste to get over.

He pushed the blinds carelessly up and, sure enough, there was a sucker stuck to the door, held in place by a Fred Flintstone Band-Aid. Steve groaned loudly and pulled the candy from the glass. He gripped Danny's lollipop in his hand and let the blinds fall down again. Those damn blinds! If they hadn't been down, Steve would have found the candy hours ago.

He let the annoyance run through him for a second, before he rolled his eyes at his himself and grinned. It didn't matter. What mattered was that Danny had been here and had thought of Steve.

He was about to tear the wrapper off, to reward himself for a day of hunting, when he found a little note stuck to it.

Happy Easter

Oh. Was it Easter already? He picked up is calendar from where it had fallen to the floor earlier. Yep.

Shrugging he left his office, closing the door behind him so no one would see his mess. He felt the urge to clean up, but there were more pressing matters at hand, like hiding a bag of Malasadas at Danny's place.

Chin and Kono were talking by the coffee machine, that made it easier.

"Go home, guys. We don't have a case and it would be blasphemous to do paperwork today." Steve didn't really care for holidays since there was no one to spend them with, but if he had known, he would have given Chin and Kono off. Hell, the governor should have said something earlier. "You should have said something."

"It's fine, boss, family meeting is late today, and we haven't been working anyway," Kono shrugged with a grin. "Don't go home though, we're meeting Danny and Meka at Kamekona's in half an hour. We didn't think you'd mind."

"Oh?" Why didn't they say so in the first time.

"Yeah," Chin joined in, sipping his coffee. "I wanted to tell you this morning, but you went away pouting."

"I wasn't pouting," Steve protested vehemently, narrowing his eyes. He wasn't.

"You so were," Kono laughed, not bothered by his I'm-a-SEAL-and-I-know-how-to-kill look. "It's cute, boss, really. But you should really get a move on. Ask him out already."

"I wasn't-, I-, I'm not-" Steve spluttered, then clamped his mouth shut to recollect his thought. Shit, was he that obvious? He stared at both of his team mate, seeing there gentle, non-judging smiles and sighed. Steve looked at his feet for a few seconds then mentally steeled himself and looked up with a new determination to be honest and to confine in his team-mates. "You think he likes me that way?"

Chin smiled indulgently at him. "Brah, you guys are already bickering like an old married couple. He's hand-sy with you outside of the job and-"

"He thinks you have a great ass." Kono interrupted her cousin with a smirk.

"He does?" Steve perked up. That was good. That was a start. Then he frowned, "He tell you that?"

"Yeah, we've met a few times, to exchange gossip, have a few drinks, talk about guys and girls and complain about our bosses," Kono grinned. "Danny is a complainer and a grumpy guy sometimes, but he's pretty awesome and great company."

"Don't I know it," Steve sighed. He was hearing about Kono and Danny's friendship for the first time and did his best to stifle his jealousy. He didn't have a reason to be, after all. He was meeting Danny for beer and games as well after all, and he knew Danny didn't have a lot of people, it was a good thing that they had the same circle of friends.

"Enough of this now," Chin finally said. "All we are saying, Steve, is that you should consider it. Don't jump his bones now, but maybe woo him a bit? Spend more time together, get to know each other more. I think you would be good for each other. Now let's head out or we are going to be late."

Chin and Kono got up to leave immediately, leaving Steve a few seconds to consider everything. He knew he liked Danny, and that he wanted more than he had right now with him. But Chin was right, there was no need to hurry just yet. He wasn't that desperate and could work on their bond for now.

With a decisive nod he finally unwrapped the lollipop in his hand, popped it into his mouth and went after his colleagues.

-.-.-

Later he regretted his decision a bit. A lot of thinks stopped him over the next months from making his move. Cases, Rachel, Wo Fat, his own insecurities, Danny's hesitation to commit again, even Catherine a bit.

It wasn't until New Year, that he'd finally had enough.

-.-.-.-

Also, some of you have asked for more...medic related stories, which is understandable with Danny as a medic, I guess :D But I need more time with that, I'm afraid. Sorry. It's harder than I thought, or maybe I'm just making it too complicated. Anyway. Working on it.
Hope you still enjoyed this little story :) Thanks for reading!