I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: now, who said there was no Danny whump? LOL! And so, it begins ... I am admitting issues with getting personally back to each of your generous reviews. I'll do my best to catch up! But seriously - thank you all!
H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*
Chapter Two: No Kau a Kau ~ For Eternity
Danny cupped one hand to shield his sight from the glare of the sun as it glinted off the water. His eyes narrowed even more within their painful squint when he came to the conclusion that he was indeed seeing the same lone figure on the beach. There was a moment in time when the man was hidden by a rising swell. But each time the wave crashed to the shore, he was visible again and Danny found himself cursing under his breath.
"What the hell does he want?" He griped as the first stirrings of a real temper bubbled to the surface.
"He's a nobody, Danny," Kono sighed, her smile momentarily falling away as she followed her friend's one-handed gesture. "He's just a photographer."
His chuffed blustery rebuttal of disgusted sound made her smile return and she poked Danny in the shoulder teasingly. "Forget him, brah!"
"I don't like it," Danny remarked from where he bobbed on his surfboard in the ever-roughening surf. He and Kono had been surfing together almost every weekend for two months and the same man was once again, loitering on their beach. With an obvious distrust, Danny eyed the man's tall silhouette as a familiar blue cooler, a single beach chair and small rectangular black case made their way into view.
Shielding his eyes again with his hand, his gaze wandered up to the distant parking lot and he grimaced in distaste at the white SUV which also seemed too close to Kono's small red car. Though he and Kono were admittedly very far away, Danny had mentally tagged the SUV as belonging to the intrusive stranger. His angle was entirely wrong, but for some reason it seemed as if the large SUV was intentionally towering over the smaller vehicle making it appear oddly diminutive and inferior.
"I want to question him and find out what he's doing here," Danny reiterated, fingers from both hands now interlaced as a shield over his forehead against the sun so he could better see the beach. "Something doesn't feel right. I don't like it."
"I know you don't like him," Kono amended his comment while shaking her head in frustration. Danny's inborn penchant to forever be the detective even while sitting on a surfboard in the middle of a rising ocean was nothing short of astonishing.
"But seriously? You want to question a tourist? On our day-off, Danny?" Next to him, Kono laughed outright to lighten his mood and she intentionally nearly unseated him from his board with a friendly shove. "It's a free beach, brah! Let's have some fun before the weather changes."
Pushed off-balance, Danny teetered dangerously until his hands found purchase on his surfboard. In truth, Kono wasn't too happy either, especially since a few anonymous gifts had so recently shown up on her proverbial doorstep. She now found herself frowning for a long moment as Danny vocalized the very thought since she'd been wary enough to broach the subject to not only Chin, but also to Danny and Steve.
"Yes, I'm serious!" He raised his finger in warning at her antics to remind her of those recent strange events. But below his board, Danny registered the change in water temperature as the wind altered direction. The change was disconcerting as the heat of the day baked his upper body, yet conversely cold water swirled around his legs and feet. Still, he was upset and determined to make his point definitive enough to drive it home.
"This is literally the third or fourth time I've noticed him. Plus, those so-called gifts? Both could be from this guy."
"A stuffed teddy bear? Come on; it was probably left on my car as a stupid mistake by some lolo kid! You worry too much, Spidey," she teased. "He's only a photographer. He's a grown man, not some kid, and he's standing right there in the open." Kono grinned as Danny wavered awkwardly in place when a larger set of swells flowed around them to crest high before smashing into the shoreline.
She felt the changes too and nodded at his sudden quizzical look. The weather was fickle and clouds were dark on the horizon. Despite the lack of a weather report, a storm was churning up the ocean and sending darker water towards them. She nodded at the distant separation of water and sky now clearly remarked by black clouds in order to argue her own stance on not wanting to discuss the subject of the stranger on the beach. "Take a look out there on the horizon. It's the waves you need to focus on, brah, and not some guy taking scenic pictures ."
For the second time in almost one month, Danny had been going complaining about this one particular man who seemed to show up every single time they surfed together. But where he'd eased up at her past gentle prodding, he was now refusing to smile, let alone laugh.
"Come on." Kono sobered briefly with a loud, but somewhat petulant sigh. "Danny, we're on a tropical island and some of the best photographers in the world come here to take pictures," she patiently repeated around his ever-growing worried grumbling. "It doesn't make sense for this guy to be the one sending me a stupid teddy bear."
"Okay. What about the flowers though?" Danny argued, daring her to find a valid reason to not consider the possibility.
"Oh please. So what!" Kono bit back, her eye roll indicating a growing level of impatience as their conversation nearly became a shouting match. "That happened over a month ago and absolutely nothing came of it! Anyway, do you think I haven't gotten flowers or anonymous gifts before?"
"No! Not like that!" Danny's expression was entirely unhappy, completely distrustful of the situation on her behalf.
"Well, I have and it actually happened a lot when I used to surf," Kono stated adamantly. She was angry now, falling back on her successful past to prove her point the only way she knew how. "I let Chin take care of most of the things I got; I honestly didn't know half of the people who gave me a cute toy or keepsake. When things got out of hand, Chin donated the best toys to the hospital or took them into HPD for Child Protective Services."
She knew that Danny understood her past. But what he didn't seem to get was the prolonged fifteen minutes of proverbial fame that had come along with it. She had been better than good, and so had a fair amount of groupies in her wake. She had a legion of photographers taking not only her picture, but pictures of her competition. All of that had been part of her normal and she'd learn to ignore the chaos for her greater cause: a chance to grab the golden ring.
So yes, because of her rampant successes, she had received a number of wildly outrageous gifts during her younger competitive years. While she had appreciated each one of those old presents, she now discounted her recent receipt of tropical flowers as a complete mistake and certainly not something gifted to her by a total stranger on a pretty beach. In fact, she was now very sorry for having ever discussed the subject with her teammates; especially Danny who persistently seemed agitated at every odd juncture.
"But this guy? No. He's just a scenic photographer," Kono chided. She groaned under her breath as she watched his jaw sternly set against her words. He had a bone and was tenaciously determined to chew its ends off until they were worn nubs. "Leave him be, Danny. It's the weekend and we're off duty … let's just enjoy the day, brah. Please."
Her pleas and reasons were incredibly sound. Having grown up on Oahu, she had been exposed to the endless numbers of visiting tourists, enthralled photographers and artists of many kinds as a daily occurrence. As such, she also discounted the lone photographer as her eyes settled on the rising tide which would give her improving student a very real issue for his last set of the day.
"Besides, with the storm coming in, the lighting's probably perfect for any photographer to want to be out here," Kono added, gesturing now to another avid photographer setting up a tripod closer to the parking lot in order to capture a darkening horizon spatially front-lit by bright sunshine. However, others were leaving the beach in droves and only very few, like themselves, were currently still on the water biding their time with a justified caution.
"I'm telling you that he's different, Kono. Something's not quite right." Danny wasn't listening though; not entirely. An utter look of displeasure remained plastered across his face. It darkened his features and was testament to a growing, over-protective temper. "There are other beaches. Why does it have to be this one or even the last one we were at together?"
"You know what? I'm hungry." Voice sounding almost bored, Kono floated closer to pull Danny into a one-armed sloppy hug that sent him scrabbling for purchase as he wavered off-balance. She laughed as he finally regained not only his grin, but also his seat on his new surfboard.
"Come on, brah, you seriously worry too much. Like I said before, it's a free beach and he's no one we need to worry about," Kono smiled happily as she glanced over her shoulder to eye what could be their final set of the day. "What we need to do, is get off the water before you get in over your head. I think I saw a flash of lightening."
"Right. And you're hungry," Danny chuffed in somewhat better humor as he gazed intently at the lone male figure who he swore was now brazenly taking photos of them. Or if he listened to Kono and gave the man the benefit of the doubt, he was taking pictures of the impressively dark sky which was coming closer minute by minute. Or - and Danny's eyes squinted, honing in on the dark silhouette which had ambled much closer to the water's edge - taking pictures just of Kono as she paddled ahead to setup for the next rollers. Mistrust rose quickly causing his brief bout of humor to flee as he pensively eyed the man's posture and line of sight.
"Shit," he whispered. His eyes flew from Kono to the photographer and Danny paused even longer until a skywards flash of eery light rattled his senses and he jolted in a surprised reaction.
"Danny, get a move on!" Kono was far away now and literally screaming at him to move. The lightening was obvious then and he was startled from his personal reflections. The surf had increased exponentially under his board from the looming storm threat. He could definitely feel it and if he delayed any longer, he would absolutely be in over his head in more ways than one. Setting his jaw angrily, Danny sighted the tall silhouette out of habit anyway, cursing under his breath when the camera deliberately swung towards Kono.
"Damn it," he breathed out before trying to focus on his task at hand to avoid personal disaster. He would have a real challenge getting in to the beach without an added distraction based on the cold water co-mingling now more actively with what had once been nothing but warm. The seas were churning and bringing in colder, deeper tides and he could feel the dangerous strength growing in tandem with the wind.
Nonetheless, his mind refused to let the troublesome photographer go completely. Privately he made a vow that he would get a move on and hit the sands, but once he did, regardless of what Kono was saying about the blissful nature of photographers, he intended to pay the man a personal visit. Experience had taught him that anything was possible in the world and he wasn't willing to discount Kono's anonymous gifts with the stranger's consistent oddly timed appearances.
"Spidey senses," Danny muttered under his breath as a large rising swell messed up his timing and he was nearly upended before beginning his paddle. Wind ruffled his hair warningly as he did his best to momentarily forget the man on the beach. He was forced to regroup again as he reprimanded himself about where he was and what he needed to do. Yet, he felt an undeniable surge of concern when he saw Kono commit to a wave and his eyes automatically flew to the shore. With no doubt as the camera obstructed the man's face and Danny lost him for a moment in the curl of a wave, he was indeed focused solely on Kono.
"Spidey senses my ass," he repeated to himself. His growl of frustration was for his ears only as he bore witness to something he literally couldn't do a thing about. He bent down, paddling hard but not really concentrating on the ocean. Though he should have known better, his subsequent haste to hit the beach was ill-timed along with the strength of the wave he'd wrongly chosen. Kono had already pulled her board from the waters, rocking it on end in the sands to virtually scream worried orders his way. But it was too late as he misjudged everything he'd ever been taught thus far to tackle a crest that was much too high.
His arms wind-milled wildly as the wave raised him, only to pitch him violently forward into a tumultuous white wall of raging water. Before he could think, Danny was submerged and lost in a thundering explosion of sound and raw power.
~ to be continued ~