(A/N) Hi all! Thanks for the hilarious, awesome, and kind feedback from my first chapter! Why are HI 50 fans so cool? ;) Special thanks go out to watched 2 much tv, chril1 (HAHA, your review was super nice but also cracked me up! "can't her ship move to the Atlantic, soon?" hahah dying), Pop'n'Pop23, zebraboymom, Green Arrow Girl, amblue36, gleeannie, anonymous, A Sliver of Silver, Sparrowhawk1952 (your wish is my command, hahah), Sweetpea2100, SpnH50Sg, francis2, and rice117! You guys are seriously amazing and awesome. Thanks for the support.
Onwards to Chapter 2! :)
Steve watched the sun start to set on Waikiki Beach, feeling like the luckiest man in the world. The sky was splashed with streaks of pink and orange, the ocean water was crashing peacefully on the shore below, and the evening weather was still warm but breezy. He was in paradise, and he had a beautiful woman wrapped around him. How did I get so lucky? It was hard to imagine that not a few hours earlier, he had been trying to rescue two hostages from a political terrorist. Just another day in the life, he mused, with a smirk.
He turned to Catherine, who had her arms draped over him and was gazing at him lovingly with big brown eyes. The remnants of their finished steaks lay next to the steadily dying fire.
"You're amazing," Steve murmured lowly, running a hand through her hair.
"Mm." Catherine closed her eyes languidly and stretched. "And you are too, Commander."
"I missed you today."
"I missed you, too. How did your mission go?"
"Pretty well, considering." Steve exhaled. "We sent Kono undercover and she got the Madame to talk; then we got Robin and the Ambassador out safely from the drop."
"Congratulations." Catherine smiled, then – as if remembering something – cleared her throat. "That reminds me. I, uh, ran into Kono today." Her voice was innocent, but had a hint of deliberation. She watched Steve for his reaction.
He only raised an eyebrow absentmindedly. "You did? That's nice."
"Yeah. She came by the house."
"Right, to drop off groceries for Mary."
"Oh. She must be pretty close with you guys."
Steve slowly sat up a little, giving Catherine a suspicious glance. "Not really. I didn't have anyone better to call, and Mary likes Kono, so…" He shrugged apathetically and let his voice trail off.
The leg that Catherine had had around Steve's leg slid slowly away. "Oh." Her tone was indistinguishable. "I was under the impression that Mary didn't like anyone." She laughed, the cheer not reaching her eyes.
"Was Mary rude to you, Cat? Is that what this is about?"
"No. She just said something that I – never mind. I'm being stupid."
Steve shifted to gaze seriously at her. He put a hand to Catherine's cheek. "What is it?" he murmured.
Sighing heavily, Catherine trained a bleary eye on his. "She just… said something about Kono spending so much of her time with you guys. I could've imagined it, but I swear she was emphasizing the words like there was something… I don't know, that she knew something about you and Kono…"
Steve groaned loudly and roughly ran a hand over his mouth. "You know what?" he said loudly, and with determined conviction. "Don't listen to her, Catherine. Just – Mary just likes to stir up trouble. I wouldn't believe anything she says."
Catherine looked slightly relieved at this, but not completely satisfied. "I don't know why I was so… I mean, I know it's our jobs and all – but a part of me can't help but realize that it does seem like you're always saying goodbye to me and going off to spend your day with a woman a lot younger and prettier than me." She shook her head and chuckled. "Yeah, I know how silly that sounds – but I really can't help it sometimes."
"It is silly," Steve said humorlessly. He attempted again to appease her. "I happen to think you're both young and beautiful."
"Do you think Kono's pretty?" Catherine remained petulant, stubborn.
Steve silently cursed at Mary under his breath for his current situation. He sighed, rearranging his eyebrows into a look of apathetic nonchalance. He almost sounded angry when he spoke again. "You're being ridiculous."
"I think she is. Do you?"
"Cather –"
"Answer the question, Steve."
Steve hung his head in surrender. He realized there was no way out of this except to just answer the question. "I – she's… cute, I guess, but that doesn't mean–"
"God." Catherine jumped to her feet, brushing the sand off her pink dress. She shook her head vigorously, brown strands of hair falling into her face.
Steve watched her from his spot on the floor. "Catherine," he called sternly, watching her toss her things angrily into her bag.
"Catherine." Louder this time. No response.
"Catherine, you're being ridiculous." He shifted into persuasive, strict Navy SEAL mode. "There is nothing going on between me and Kono. Okay? Can you just sit down so we can talk about this?"
"I need a little time," she responded, amber eyes blazing. Then, as if realizing that she didn't seem like herself, she paused in her packing, her jacket falling slack in her hands. "I'll call you," she said softly, not looking at him.
And with that, she shouldered her bag and left.
Steve didn't move – but only sat there facing the ocean, clenching his jaw muscles in thought and listening to her sand-muffled footsteps fade and finally disappear.
He didn't look back once.
Steve couldn't be sure how much time had passed. It could've been minutes or hours, even, that he spent laying on Waikiki Beach by himself. It was calming – peaceful, really – lying in the warm Hawaiian sand and listening to the waves come in. Every so often, Steve would drink a bit of champagne from the half-empty bottle he had originally planned on finishing with Catherine; he was now guzzling haphazardly and directly from it.
He was beginning to feel the warmth of the alcohol kick in when he heard his phone ring. With numbing fingers, he dug it out of his pocket. He glanced at the Caller ID and immediately felt an angry heat build in the back of his chest. He flipped it open.
"What?" he growled into the mouthpiece.
"Wow," came the shocked response. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."
"Yeah," Steve snapped. "Because of what you said to Catherine this morning, Mary. Now she has the idea that something's going on between me and Kono."
"Wait, what? Catherine broke up with you?"
"No. Well, I don't know yet. I mean –" he let out a groan and put a hand to his head.
There was a brief silence. Then Mary said quietly, "God. I'm really sorry, Steve."
Steve exhaled. He couldn't remember the last time Mary had done something to purposely hurt him – even when they were children. He sighed begrudgingly, "I know. I know you didn't mean it."
"Well, do you want some company? We're not doing anything, just lounging around. Where are you?"
Something registered with Steve. "Who's we?" he asked, curiously.
"Me and Kono. She dropped by after work to check on me, and we've just been chilling ever since."
Steve balked, jaw muscles hardening. Kono was not exactly the person he wanted to see right now – though no fault of hers, really. It would just look bad if the girl that he and his girlfriend were fighting over showed up to comfort him. God. How bad would that look?
But as the seconds passed and the more Steve thought about it, the more he realized that having company did seem like a tantalizing idea – preferable to being alone when the sun finally went down, anyway. Plus, Mary would be there. Nothing weird about three friends hanging out, island style.
After a long while, he sighed heavily. "I'm at Waikiki Beach. But you guys are going to have to come to me. I don't have much confidence in my motor skills right now."
"Hey, Boss."
Steve looked up from his blanket. Kono was standing over him, wearing jean shorts and a dimpled smile. The strings from her red bikini were visible underneath her white ribbed tank top.
"Hey, Kono," he replied. He sat up and moved over to give her some room. She dropped lightly onto the blanket and folded her long tan legs. "Thanks for the company. Where's Mary?"
"I don't know," Kono shrugged. "She told me to meet her here. She's probably running late. Did she send you that text too?"
There was a pregnant pause as Steve sat there, feeling his blood slowly begin to boil.
His scrunched up "aneurysm" face must have tipped off to Kono that there was something amiss, because she asked, "What's up?"
Steve half-scoffed and half-laughed in disbelief. "Oh God, I should've seen this coming."
"Seen what?"
"Mary's not coming."
"How do you know?"
"She set us up." Steve shook his head and reached back for the champagne. "Congratulations to both of us; we just got tricked by my little sister."
Kono was silent.
Steve turned to her. "What is it?"
The flush on Kono's face indicated to Steve that this wasn't news to her.
"Kono? Did you know about this?"
"About what, exactly?"
"Mary's strange preoccupation with the idea of us together." Steve cleared his throat slightly here, edges of his ear showing hints of red.
Kono shook her head, but chuckled. "No," she replied honestly, "but you know what? She did say something this morning." Her face changed as she realized. "Oh God, I should've seen this coming, too."
"Let me guess – did she say that she got an idea in your head? That you could never look at me the same again?"
Kono's head jerked up at this. "Yeah, exactly," she said, surprised. "How'd you know?"
Steve shook his head. "She said the same thing to me."
They both chuckled and rolled their eyes good-naturedly.
Silence ensued. Kono wrapped her knees to her chest and stared out to sea. At her side, Steve did the same, taking a long swig from the bottle. He stared down at it for a second before holding it out in Kono's direction.
Kono shot him an amused look and took it from him. She drank directly from it, then poured the rest of it on the sand.
"Hey," Steve protested, sitting up.
"I think you've had enough." She smirked.
"I disagree." He attempted to reach over her lap for the bottle, but was stopped by Kono's swift hand holding him back by the head.
Steve paused, then sat back, giving Kono an indignant stare. He raised his eyebrows warningly. "Don't ever do that again."
"Do what?"
A small smirk broke out on his rugged face, and, in one quick motion, he reached up to attack Kono's head. "Don't touch my hair," he chuckled, roughly tousling her hair in retaliation.
Kono giggled, shoving him in attempts to escape from his grasp. But Steve the ninja SEAL was too fast – his free arm reached across her lap and pinned her to the blanket.
Their laughter immediately faded into silence. They were breathing hard, Kono laying on the sand, staring up directly into Steve's blue eyes.
Their faces were inches apart when Steve murmured softly but bluntly, "Catherine thinks that I'm cheating on her."
"I'm sorry."
"With you."
"Oh."
Neither of them moved a millimeter.
Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime but was, in reality, more along the lines of a few seconds – Steve very slowly retracted his arm and released Kono. They both cleared their throats and returned to sitting position.
The sun was almost entirely set by now, and a slight cool breeze was kicking in. Kono took a deep breath and smiled.
"It's gorgeous, isn't it?" she finally broke the silence.
"Yeah." Steve smiled. "Forgot how much I missed this place."
Kono turned to him. The breeze billowed through her hair and settled the ocean-air-dried strands against her tan shoulder. She grinned. "Let's swim."
Steve stared. "What?"
"Let's hit the water, brah," she clarified, looking excited. "I used to love coming out here at night when all the tourists go inside and just float around on my board. Whenever I was having problems, it'd clear my head."
Steve squinted out at the water.
"Seriously," Kono grinned, already climbing to her feet. "It'll take your mind off of things. Let's go." She didn't wait for his answer. In one fluid motion, she pulled her tank top over her head, peeled off her jean shorts, and hopped, step by step, across the sand towards the shore.
Steve followed her with his eyes. Kono was running towards the shore now; every step she took sent white particles of sand flying behind her.
Oh, what the hell. Steve got to his feet, pulled off his own shirt, and ran after her.
(A/N) How was it? I hope you liked it. Feel free to let me know what you thought with a review! I sure do love hearing what you guys have to share. Next chapter will probably bring this little ficlet to its happy end. Thanks so much for reading, and I'll update soon! :)