Pandora's Music Box

Disclaimer: I do not own H50.
Summary: Steve and Kono discuss love.
Spoilers: A tiny reference to Ke Kinohi, Episode 1:13

Chapter 3 – Slow Dancing in a Burning Room (John Mayer)

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Hula Bar
Lewers Street, Honolulu

"Do you think we should step in?" Kono asked, gesturing to the young couple arguing in the corner of the bar the team had been frequenting lately.

Danny and Chin had yet to show and Steve and Kono found themselves almost finishing the first of their drinks and unavoidably taking in the local scene. They'd seen the same couple before, numerous times. They were always verbally fighting and yet, they continually managed to show up together – every weekend. From the booth where she and Steve sat, it was pretty hard to ignore them.

Steve glanced in the direction of Kono's gaze and smirked. "You know, maybe it's like this song." Steve looked at Kono, wondering if she got the reference to the music starting to play at that moment.

...it's not a silly little moment, it's not the storm before the calm. This is a deep and dying breath of this love that we've been working on...

Kono took a sip of her beer and met Steve's gaze, giving him a questioning look. Maybe not.

"Slow Dancing in a Burning Room?" he asked.

"You like John Mayer?" she asked back, disbelieving, as she pointed heavenwards at the speakers.

He nodded slightly. "I know, hard to believe. It's Mary's fault, I guess. So yeah, kinda," he said bobbing his head from side to side. He smiled. "That's not what I meant though, Kono."

"Then what do you mean?" she asked.

"Haven't you ever heard a song and found that it referenced something in your life? Like at that moment?"

"Is this a Danny and Bon Jovi thing? Because, I didn't and still don't get your guys' 'carguments'," she said making quote marks in the air with her fingers.

He shook his head. "No, I meant that I'm kind of finding that I'm identifying with this song, right now."

Kono furrowed her brow.

"Well, not precisely at this moment." He corrected himself, offering her a crooked, apologetic smile. "I mean that, not too long ago, this song really applied to my life. My... personal life, with... Catherine."

"Oh."

Steve was silent, taking another sip of his beer as he watched the bickering couple. He noted that their fighting never really got that serious. He turned back to look at Kono, his eyes never leaving hers as the music continued to float about them.

...can't seem to hold you like I want to, so I can feel you in my arms. Nobody's gonna come and save you, we pulled too many false alarms...

"But, this song is so sad," Kono pointed out.

"Yeah, it is. But that was me – us, Catherine and me. We didn't really fight, we were just becoming, more and more – "

"Incompatible." Kono chimed in, finishing his sentence for him.

Steve smiled at her, liking how quick her mind was. "I guess it was a matter of time."

"How do you mean?"

"The song's about realizing it's over," he said, not at all fazed that he was sharing something so personal with her. It felt, he admitted silently to himself, natural.

"Because along the way, you changed. You and maybe she, started wanting different things - and it just didn't feel the same anymore?"

"Yeah," he said, taking the last sip of his beer to really look at Kono. She smiled at him and he couldn't help but return the warmth that he got from it. "I just, didn't feel like I loved her anymore."

Kono looked at him skeptically.

"That sounds bad, huh?"

She nodded. "But that must be why you identified with the song, because it speaks of a love that wasn't destined to last anyway. Listen," she said, as John Mayer's voice continued to echoed in the bar.

...we're going down, and you can see it too. We're going down, and you know that we're doomed. My dear, we're slow dancing in a burning room...

"Exactly," he said, finally breaking contact and shrugging. "I guess, what really crystallized it for me, was that she didn't seem overly disappointed when she ended it."

Kono studied Steve closely. "Really?"

"Yeah," he answered. "I mean, it's not like she didn't care about me, about us. I knew she did, deeply, at one point. I did too. I guess, I'm lucky that she did something about it," he said as his eyes roamed around the bar.

"Huh."

"Huh, what?" Steve asked as he gazed at her again.

She shrugged. "Nothing."

"It's not, nothing, Kono. What is it?" Steve asked, not bothering to mask his concern.

Kono finished off her beer and dug her thumbnail into the edge of bottle's label. "I just, think it's kind of odd. To fall out of love, like that."

"I don't see it that way," Steve said.

...go and cry about it – why don't you? My dear, we're slow dancing in a burning room. Don't you think we ought to know by now? Don't you think we should have learned somehow?...

"Then, enlighten me, Boss."

"Okay," Steve said, smiling once again as he leaned his arms onto the table. "There's love that grows from finding that you're compatible and in a way, from settling on your compatibility. Like, you both like puppies or something."

She giggled. "Whoa, you sound like that eHarmony guy," Kono said, half mocking and half serious.

Steve snorted as he shook his head and motioned for two more beers. He waited for their waitress, Leilani, to drop them off before continuing. He handed Kono her beer and held onto the bottle a little longer than necessary, causing her to lift her eyes to meet his.

"Then, if you're lucky, there's the kind of love that develops from an initial attraction to each other," Steve explained, enjoying the light blush creeping up Kono's cheeks. "That's not to say that you aren't going to be compatible, like you won't have the same interests, you'll actually find that you will."

"So now you're talking about chemistry," she clarified, still staring back at him.

"Yeah. But it's more than that, deeper than that. I guess, Catherine and I had chemistry," he observed, noting a flicker of something passing through Kono's eyes. He allowed her to pull her bottle free. "But I can honestly say, that I don't think we worked out, because that was all there was to it."

"Really, Steve? When did you get so deep?"

"When I realized, that there was another kind of love," he answered.

Kono arched a brow.

"The kind of love that comes from a developed friendship," he reasoned. He shook his head. "After Catherine broke up with me, I found that I had a lot of time to think about those things and - "

"Why it ended," she supplied, once again finishing his sentence for him. She smiled, noticing the definite sparkle in Steve's blue eyes.

He nodded, chuckling. "You know, you're eventually going to have to stop doing that. Because Danny's once again, going to think we're dating," he said, referencing the time he deciphered a code to reveal Hiro Noshimuri's name through frequency analysis.

Kono smirked.

Steve raised a finger and added, "I also had time to figure out why, I felt so relieved when she did."

"Then you must have felt some guilt too, right?"

He nodded slightly. "A little. Mostly because I never did anything about it. But, I also knew, that I wasn't the only one feeling the relief and guilt. She did too."

"So bottom line, it was amicable, but destined to happen."

"Yeah, you could definitely say that," he said.

"Just like John Mayer sang," Kono concluded.

Steve nodded again and tilted his bottle, clinking it against hers. He turned his attention once more to the couple and saw that they had temporarily put aside their differences to enjoy a drink together.

"You uh, never let me finish," he said, giving her a sidelong glance as he leaned back into the cushioned booth.

"Finish, what?"

"My description of that last kind of love," he said.

"Go ahead," she said, toasting him mid-air with her beer bottle.

"We weren't friends," he stated.

"Who? We weren't?" Kono asked confused. "Oh, you mean you and Catherine weren't friends."

"Yeah."

"And why is that, you think?" Kono asked, genuinely curious. She'd never met Catherine really, Danny had and spoke of her beauty often, and her connections, but that was all she knew of her.

"She was a bit opportunistic, when it came to herself and the things that she wanted."

"But, that doesn't mean she wasn't sincere, Steve," she reasoned. "With you."

"I know and I kinda just ignored that particular part of her personality," Steve explained.

Kono nodded back.

"Anyway, that last kind of love is really a combination of the first two, plus friendship."

She laughed then, her eyes full of mirth and her dimples deepened. "You're full of it, Boss," she said, catching her breath.

"Hey. I'm serious. Compatibility, chemistry and friendship – it all leads to that deeper kind of love," he said. "It's definitely not the type of love John Mayer is singing about." He watched Kono shake her head. "What?"

"I'm finding it hard to digest this," she admitted.

"This, what? Me? Talking about, love?"

"Well, yeah," she answered, almost shyly. "You're a bad-ass, Navy SEAL. You're also the team leader of Five-0."

"And what? I happen to be pretty good at compartmentalizing and masking my feelings but that doesn't mean I don't deserve to be loved," Steve said, looking like a sad puppy.

Kono tilted her head and pouted at his expression. "This whole conversation just got weird – really?" she questioned and was relieved when Steve started chuckling. "You're a SEAL, of course you would be good at hiding how you felt, but, that's not what I meant," she said, smiling, understanding that he was teasing her. "I'm just finding it a little surreal that we're talking about, love, of all things."

"Right, I get it. This is pretty personal," he said clearing his throat lightly.

"Yeah, exactly."

Staring at Kono, he said, "and we barely know each other."

"Well, not barely," she corrected. "I found out a lot about you tonight, Steve," she said, staring back at him.

"Yeah? Like?" he asked, quirking a brow.

"That despite your rough exterior, you're not just looking for physical connections – you're kinda sensitive and – you like John Mayer," she answered, laughing a little at the end.

Steve laughed too. "And you," he said tilting his bottle towards her, "are caring, smart, beautiful and a friend." He purposefully emphasized that last part, hoping he got the desired effect out of her.

Kono blushed. Though she had no idea why.

Bingo. Steve smiled at how much cuter she got when she was embarrassed. But then she looked away towards the door and as he followed her gaze, he knew that he didn't mask his disappointment well. So much for being a bad-ass Navy SEAL.

Upon seeing Chin and Danny enter, Kono raised her bottle to them to indicate where they were seated. She wasn't quite sure however, if she was so thankful for their timing. One glance at Steve had her thinking she wasn't alone in that sentiment and her stomach did a back-flip.

Kono cleared her throat then, pulling herself together and finding that she was a little saddened that their one on one time was ending. "Thanks for the love lesson, Steve," she said with a sly, little, wink.

"No worries Kono," he replied. "Anytime," he added, smiling rakishly at her in return. Kono snorted loudly and shook her head and Steve found himself laughing again.

End.

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A/N: So, I'm not sure how I feel about this one. On the one hand, a really sad (but great) song by John Mayer and on the other hand, a moment between Steve and Kono that hints to something more. Anyway, regardless, if it entertained the lot of you that follow this series, I'll be happy.

Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
- John Mayer

It's not a silly little moment,
It's not the storm before the calm.
This is the deep and dying breath of
This love that we've been working on.

Can't seem to hold you like I want to
So I can feel you in my arms.
Nobody's gonna come and save you,
We pulled too many false alarms.

We're going down,
And you can see it too.
We're going down,
And you know that we're doomed.
My dear,
We're slow dancing in a burning room.

I was the one you always dreamed of,
You were the one I tried to draw.
How dare you say it's nothing to me?
Baby, you're the only light I ever saw.

I'll make the most of all the sadness,
You'll be a bitch because you can.
You try to hit me just to hurt me
So you leave me feeling dirty
Because you can't understand.

We're going down,
And you can see it too.
We're going down,
And you know that we're doomed.
My dear,
We're slow dancing in a burning room.

Go cry about it - why don't you?

My dear, we're slow dancing in a burning room,

Don't you think we ought to know by now?
Don't you think we should have learned somehow?
Don't you think we ought to know by now?
Don't you think we should have learned somehow?
Don't you think we ought to know by now?
Don't you think we should have learned somehow?