Title: I Won't Call You My Weakness, But I Will Call You Mine
Author's Note: I really appreciate all the readers coming out of the woodwork last chapter to comment. It's motivating for the author to know people are reading the story, and to hear their reactions. Please leave a comment if you read, thank you!
Hope you are having a great start to your month of June, and have a wonderful week! :)
"Hey, babe, where you been?"
Chin and Kono look up from the smart table at Danny's question directed to their boss who has finally joined them. Steve walks through the glass doors, his eyes passing over all three of them, lingering for the slightest of moments on Kono. He pauses for a fraction of a second in his steps before he makes his way across the room to join them. There's no other spot at the table except for next to Kono, but he stands a good two feet away from her so there's plenty of distance between them, a fact that Chin and Danny notice silently though they make no comment.
"The lab, and then the Mahuki family. Had to wrap things up." Steve's voice is much more authoritative than casual. "I'm gonna be in my office," he says in their general direction before he disappears down the hall. "Let me know if Max does his video feed thing."
"What's with him?" Danny wonders out loud, looking to Chin. The other man only shrugs, shaking his head in confusion.
Kono taps her fingers as she waits impatiently for the background search to finish. It seems like everything is going slower today - the computers, the hands on the clock, her body itself. She'd been tempted to stay home but she refused to give Steve that satisfaction, she refused to be that girl who had a relationship with her boss and then started skipping work, messing up on the job, and ruining her career because of a break-up. She is better than that, and she's going to be a god damn professional.
But the rest of her co-workers will have to be as well. When she looks up from the screen, Chin and Danny are staring at her, waiting patiently for an explanation. "What?" she asks with a sigh.
"Steve. What's up with him?" Chin questions with a frown, his eyes narrowing as he only just notices her slightly red and puffy eyes, the sadness in them she's trying to hide. Maybe she'd managed all morning, but now it's nearly noon, and her mask is slipping.
"I don't know," Kono lies with a shrug. "Why don't you ask him?"
"Why don't I ask you instead?" Danny replies back without a pause, pointing over his shoulder at Steve's office. "What's up?"
"I don't know," she repeats again, gathering her paperwork as she sends the report to the printer in her office. "Maybe something to do with the fact that he broke up with me last night." She takes one second to look at the matching shock on her colleagues' faces - Chin's eyes widen and Danny's mouth falls open at the news. "I'll be in my office."
"What?!" Danny calls after her. "What?"
She doesn't stop to give him an explanation because it's all pretty fucking unclear to her too.
"You didn't. Tell me you didn't."
Steve looks up with a sigh as he sees Danny and Chin enter his office without so much as a knock. From the frenzy of their body language and the way Danny approaches his desk with panic in his eyes, he has a feeling they know the news. He had to deal with them sooner or later.
"She told you?"
They stare at his question which is really an admission that he, in fact, did.
"You did. He did," Danny says in disbelief to Chin, his blue eyes wide as he shakes his head at the confirmation he's received. "He did."
"It's better this way, Danny," Steve says in resignation, looking back at his paperwork as if he's a very busy man with things to do, like he hasn't been staring at the file in front of him for the last ten minutes wondering what Kono had been talking about with the guys and if her eyes looked a little puffy like she'd cried last night after he left.
He didn't mean to make her cry.
Dammit.
"Better for who? Why? I don't get it. What happened?" Danny's questions come out in quick succession, leaving Steve no room to answer but demanding an answer nonetheless. "Why the hell would you do this?!"
"Because of the pictures," Chin says, and both men turn to him at the answer. He stands in the center the office, his face stern as he looks at Steve, his eyes flashing with anger and protectiveness, disappointment aimed right at Steve.
Steve merely nods, trying not to feel a pang of regret at the expression in the older man's eyes, the usual fondness and respect in them replaced with a mix of emotions he doesn't have the heart to wade his way through right now. He'd expected it, of course, but he hadn't quite thought through all the ramifications of the team relationships when he'd made his decision last night and walked out of her house; he hadn't thought of the morning after, or all the mornings following that one.
"You did this for her safety?" Danny says the sentence as if it's a ridiculous notion, not at all chivalrous or selfless, as if it's stupid and insane and doesn't make any sense, and why the hell didn't Steve check with him before doing something as reckless as breaking up with the one and only Kono Kalakaua? "Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me right now?"
He sounds so much like Kono did last night, the anger and the bitterness thrown his way without apology, although she hadn't gotten to the excessive cursing before he'd made a quick exit. Steve sighs as he looks up from his work to meet his partner's stare. "The only reason he aimed at her was because of me. We all know that."
Danny turns to Chin with his hands up in a helpless gesture as if hoping he can grab onto the right words which may be hovering in the air. "Chin, say something."
"What's there to say?" Chin shrugs, his voice as cold as the casual gesture. "Obviously he's made up his mind." Steve looks back at the older man reluctantly, maintaining eye contact because he has to do that much at least. If he's made his choice about this, he has to face the reactions. "I just thought you were braver than that."
Steve cringes at the insult, and Danny does too, but they say nothing as they watch Chin leave the room, the glass door slamming behind him as he heads for his respective office. But he still has Danny to deal with, so he looks up at his partner. "What, Danny? You know it's the safest thing."
"You know what would be safe? Not driving forty miles over the speed limit, not jumping out of windows, not stepping into an arms deal cause you think you can take the guy with the gun out with your ninja moves. But you seem to have no fucking problem doing those things, do you?" Danny throws those words at him before leaving the room, leaving Steve alone and without anyone to hear his answers; that's if he had the guts to face the questions.
"Drinks then?" Danny asks from his spot at the smart table a week later once they get confirmation from HPD that their guy has been fingerprinted, booked, and is officially locked into the system. Celebratory drinks are always necessary when they put a psychopath behind bars, and this guy who killed his two brothers and almost killed his sister over who gets the family estate definitely fit the profile in Danny's eyes.
Kono hesitates before answering. Going out for drinks with the team after a case won't be the same now that she and Steve are no longer together. No long glances, no lingering touches, no whispering when the others aren't looking. It won't even be like before they started dating when an easy sense of companionship flowed at the table, never a lull in conversation or a break in the rhythm. It'll just be plain awkward.
From the long pause at the table, everyone else seems to be thinking the same thing too.
She gives Danny a smile as she finishes her work on the smart screen. "Can't tonight. Sorry."
Chin, ever faithful Chin, looks from Kono's retreating figure to Steve, frowning though he says nothing. "Me either. Malia's waiting for me." He follows his cousin down the hall, giving Danny a rueful glance on his way.
Danny glares at Steve, not bothering to hide his displeasure. "This hasn't ruined the team dynamic at all, Steven," he states sarcastically. "Thanks a lot."
"I'll have a drink with you," Steve offers quickly, ignoring the way he senses Kono exiting the office behind him. He hadn't paid attention on purpose, but it's as if his body can't help but note where she is at all times, even more than usual now that she's forbidden to him. It's like the period before they became an item, but it's the opposite because then it was about him chasing after her, trying to become closer; now it's about him staying away.
"Fine, whatever. You're paying though. You're paying for the next five years."
