Danny's mouth was moving a hundred miles per hour and he was waving his arms in every possible direction as he fiercely complained about another thing Steve had supposedly done wrong. But Steve did not hear a single word that was coming out of his mouth. He was too focused on the figure who had suddenly appeared behind Danny and walked through the glass-doors. And even after all this time they had the ability to take his breath away.
Steve had not seen Kono for over a week, not since they had quiet and very short conversation outside in the carpark before Chin came out to drive her home. Not much was said really, but it was obvious that neither longer knew how to act around each other or where they stood anymore.
Steve was walking out of the Palace towards his car when he spotted Kono leaning against Chin's car further down. She looked as if she was to drop to the ground at any second. Her entire weight was held up by the car and she was clearly struggling to keep her eyes open. Steve was feeling exactly the same, it was pure will that made him stay awake. It was late, the sun had gone down over an hour ago, and they had had a very emotional and exhausting day. He had no idea of what he was going to say or what she even wanted to hear, but he knew that not walking over to her and pretend he had not seen her was not an option. So he changed course and walked across the carpark.
Coming to a stop he leaned up against the car next to her and waited for her to turn her attention from her feet to him. When she finally raised her face, Steve could see apprehensiveness written all over it. It looked almost as if she was expecting him to yell at her for a moment. He winched inside knowing that his actions in the interrogation room had left a clear mark with her and that it was all his fault that she was now wary of him. How was he ever going to redeem himself with her?
A stray piece of hair that had come loose from her messy ponytail flew into her face and all Steve wanted to do was sweep it away, but he suspected that his touch was probably not welcomed. So instead he bit his tongue while curling his hand into a fist within the cover of his pocket. There was a lot of things he wanted to say to her, but he settled for;
"How's the arm?" To which Kono let out a small snore, obviously thinking it was just as a ridicules question as he did.
"Really Steve? How's the arm, that's the best you've got?"
"I honestly don't know what else to say, Kono." He sighed. "Except how utterly sorry I am for all of this! If it weren't for me, nothing of this had probably happened. You wouldn't have lost your badge or gotten hurt!"
They were both looking at anything but each other and right now the brick of the Palace looked very interesting to the both of them.
"We both willingly took that money, Steve. I don't mind taking the blame for it." She said quietly. "What I cannot take is the fact that I had to go through it all alone. It took you guys a week to come by for the first time after they took my badge. I thought we were a family." Never once did Kono raise her voice but Steve could clearly hear all the emotion hidden in it, a year of close experience did come in handy.
"We are a family!" He pressed on. Steve needed her to know that to him nothing had changed.
"Are we really? You forget about me or don't deem me important enough to scarify some time for and then I find out that you have replaced me already. How is that family, Steve?"
"You have not been replaced!" He growled out. How could she even think that? "Lori has not and cannot replace you in any way! No one can."
Sure Lori was beautiful, there was no denying that, but blondes wasn't really his type. He was more into long and tough brunettes who could kick ass. She was interesting to talk to and she knew a lot about working as a cop, but he never really thought of her as anything but a co-worker. Maybe it was because she had been placed with them by the Governor and was in a way his spy. But mainly it was because she came nowhere close to Kono, for him there was no one else and he wasn't one to play with two balls at the same time.
Kono didn't say anything, she just kept staring at the building in front of them and he was racking his brain trying to come up with something that could make this alright.
"Take some time off." He started. "Or come back tomorrow. Do whatever you need to do to clear your head and make sure you know what you what. But always know that you will always have a place with us Kono, whether that is in two weeks or two months. Just know that we want you back, I want you back. No one is taking your place."
This time he looked at her intently as he spoke. That came out better than he thought it would and he could see that it had the right effect. Kono averted her eyes from the building and turned to look at him for the first time during this conversation. He was trying to read her but she was better of keeping her emotions off her face than from her voice. They stood like that for five minutes, with neither of them saying another word, until Chin came out and walked towards them.
"Are you ready to go, cus?"
"Yeah, I am ready." She moved off the car and went to open the door to the passenger side but he beat her to it. He was awarded a soft smile, a victory in itself, and just before she closed the door she mumbled out a quiet "okay".
He watched them drive away with a small grin on his face. Okay was good, it meant there was hope.
The day after their conversation he found out through Chin that Kono had gone to stay with one of their aunts for a couple of days to relax and heal up from the gunshot but she had given no indication of when she might be back. Now here she was, a week later, looking as beautiful and happy as ever and maybe a little apprehensive.
She took a few tentative steps into the room and took a look around the room like she was taking it all in again. Steve could only imagine what a strange feeling it must be to be back here again after everything she had been through over the last month. Ignoring Danny and his ramblings completely, he walked around him to meet up Kono.
"Welcome back!" He grinned. It had been such a relief seeing her walk through those doors, for a minute there he thought that would never happen again. His lack of attention and warm greeting brought Danny out of his ramblings and made him spin around.
"Kono!" He exclaimed when they caught sight of their beloved rookie. "We have missed you! Now I can stop trying to learn how to work that computer thingy." He indicated to the smart table were Chin and Lori stood smiling.
As always Danny managed to joke away and awkward situation. Kono laughed along as well and let Danny take her in his arms before he lead her over to the others. He let Danny take the lead and brief Kono about their current case, since she seemed to welcome his approach with open arms. They joked around a bit and for a second it actually felt like old times.
After the briefing Kono asked to speak to him alone and he could not help but feel a little bit excited. That had to be a good thing right? But at the same time it made him a little bit nervous, things had still been a little bit awkward when they left things last week and they had yet to talk since. He led the way to his office and waited until Kono had walked inside before he closed the door. Taking the seat behind his desk he waited for Kono to sit down in one of the opposite chairs.
"So how are you feeling?" He asked once she finally sat down.
"I'm good, I just need you to sign this-" She placed a folded piece of paper in front of him on the desk. "And then I will be ready to go to work."
He unfolded the paper and saw that it was her clear bill of health and indeed, all that was needed for to go back to work was his signature. At first he was a little apprehensive, could it really be alright for her to go back to work already, she only got shot last week. Kono could clearly see the concerns on his face and sighed.
"It just light duty for now boss, but I will not be locked into the office. The doctor said that it was just a graze and that as long as I don't overdo it I will be fine!" He questioned the doctor's competence for minute in his head before he reluctantly signed the paper, knowing that Kono would not give up until he did.
"It's really good to have you back!" He smiled and handed back her paper.
"Thank you!" She said and smiled at him for the first time since she arrived. Taking it as good sign he headed straight for a cliff.
"We're having a barbeque at my place on Saturday to welcome Lori to the team and now to welcome you back. How about you and I hit the surf before that and then you can come and help me set up?"
Kono looked at him stunned and surprised that he had asked but she quickly shook herself out of her stupor. "Yeah, I'd like that." She said with a small smile and a spark of something else he could decipher in her eyes.
Standing up they both walked out of his office with smiles on their faces and Steve couldn't help but think that maybe everything would be alright anyway, that he had not messed up completely.
The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly and they moved forward with the case pretty quickly. Their murder led them to a bunch of home invasions that had hit the town for a couple of weeks now and after they had interviewed the victims they finally started to get somewhere, they found their common link that bound it all together. As it often did they were led to someone close to the victim, even though it wasn't always who they thought it was from the start. Which is why he and Danny was walking out to the car to drive over to see their next suspect.
"This guy is highly skilled so I would advise you not to engage in a hand to hand combat with the guy." Came Kono's soft and teasing voice through the speaker.
"Don't worry, I like my gun." Replied Danny before he hung up and they were off.
Steve knew that that was mostly meant for him, he was after all not known for ever backing down from a fight. But of course he did not listen when push came to shove. The minute the perp ran off, Steve was after him and chased him across roofs and down streets until they ended up inside a storage facility and the perp managed to get a jump on him. In his defence he really didn't have much choice, he had to defend himself. The guy put up a good fight and even got in a couple of good punches, but Steve managed to get in a lucky strike and get the upper hand.
"Did you not hear what Kono said?! What did she say, Steve? Do not engage in hand to hand combat. Do you remember her saying that?"
"I might remember something like that." He grinned as he slapped the cuffs onto their guy.
They caught their guy, a man who was not the man whose shoulder he had dislocated earlier, and they could finally leave for the day. But his ignorance to Kono's words managed to catch up to him even before he made it out of the door. The guy he had hurt was supposed to fight in a big charity fight and now because of Steve the fight might not happen, so Steve acted impulsively again and offered to do the fight himself. As he spoke the words he could practically feel Danny glaring holes in his back.
Of all the dumb things he had ever come up with this might be one of the dumbest. They all tried to talk him out of it, Lori and Danny tried until the last second when he climbed into the ring, everyone except Kono. She just wore the same all-knowing smile when he offered his "services" and when she caught his eye as he walked towards the ring. He did not have long to dwell on it though because less than ten seconds into the match his opponent knocked him out with one hard blow. It was his dumbest idea for sure.
It became like a deja-vu when Kono came over to him afterwards and handed him an icepack before taking the seat next to him. The ironic thing was that Lori had just left him to do just that.
"How is the face, "Oh Great Warrior"?" She said while wearing that all-knowing smile again.
"You knew this was going to happen?!" He frowned. Of course she did.
"One of my cousins took me to one of these games once⦠Let's just say that I knew you had no chance." A melodic laugh escaped her lips and Steve could not even pretend to be cross with her, it had been so long since he witnessed Kono being so carefree.
"And you didn't try to stop me, why?"
"Would you have listened?" She said in that "come on"-voice of hers. "Danny and Lori tried but you went ahead with it anyway."
"I might have listened to you." He grumbled, but he knew that it would not have mattered what she said, he would have gone through with it anyway.
"Yeah, right!" Kono snorted and leaned back in her chair.
They sat like that in silence and watch their surroundings. Another match had just started in the ring so the place was loud with cheers and shouts. Max was one of them, apparently he had found a liking to the sport and was cheering on with passion. That guy never ceased to surprise Steve, the things he did and the things he knew were absolutely out of this world. He laughed at the guy when he stood up suddenly and so violently that he made Kamekona spill all of his popcorn. Kono must have seen it too because her laugh rang through his ear. Steve glanced over at Kono where she sat next him and watched her through the speck of light that sometimes came their way in the dark arena. It felt really nice just sitting like this with her. They teased each other but they did not feel the need to fill the silence with meaningless conversation like Catherine had so often done. She had felt it important that they talked since he was such a closed off guy, but Kono did not seem to mind. She let him be and seemed to enjoy the comfortable silence as well.
Her hand was lying limb on the space between them, it was like it was begging for him to hold it. What harm could it do? It was dark and they seemed to be alright, the worst thing that could happen would be that Kono pulled away. He let his own hand fall limb to his side until it lay next to Kono's on the space between them, then when he was sure she was not looking he moved his hand until it was lying on top of hers. He let out a breath he had not realised he was holding when she didn't pull her hand away, but instead weaved their fingers together. She did not look over at him but when he looked over at her he could see her mouth forming into a smile.
Five minutes. Five minutes was all he got before he spotted Lori approaching them fast, the icepack in her hand. He squeezed Kono's hand one last time before pulling away just in time for Lori arriving.
"Hey, I found the icepack!"
"Yeah, um thanks but Kono already brought me one." He mumbled and held up the bag with an awkward smile.
"Oh, okay." Her bright smile fell for a second before she put it back on and sat down in the empty chair on his other side.
Suddenly Steve felt very awkward. He knew that Lori was a touchy subject to Kono by the way she tensed up as Lori sat down and Steve could understand why even though he thought it was ridicules. Lori came at a time when Kono felt powerless and vulnerable, she joined the team and easily fitted in in the bunch which made Kono feel insecure. He also hoped it had something to do with him and Lori's apparent interest in him, that there was some jealousy involved. It would give him confirmation of her interest in him and boost his ego a little bit.
But sitting in between these two women only made him nervous, he did not want Kono to take this the wrong way and he did not want Lori to read too much into it. He was sitting between the woman he liked and the woman he was trying to convince the woman he liked that he had no interest in. It could not get more awkward than that.
