"The Mask" chapter 6, with Chano tag

8:51pm - AT KONO'S HOME...

The long hot shower had felt good as Kono attempted to wash away the ugliness of the day. Her head still hurt a little, the rope burns on her wrists were bright red, and the bruises had darkened to look like small shadows across parts of her face. She now stood in her most comfortable loung atire in front of her nearly empty refrigerator. She sighed and closed the door before resorting to a microwaveable meal from the freezer, then heard a knock at the door.

"Hey, Cuz." Kono greeted in surprise.

Chin entered wordlessly as he passed her and put a sack on her kitchen counter. "Seriously, Kono?" He asked, holding up the box of frozen vegetables and preservatives, "You call this dinner? Those creeps didn't so much as give you a drink of water all day, and this is all you were going to do for dinner?"

"My grocery shopping plans for today got changed." She said with a shrug of her shoulders.

He placed the frozen meal back in the freezer and began unpacking Chinese food containers from the sack. "I figured as much, since it's Thursday." He looked up to see her curious expression, "You always grocery shop on Thursdays." He explained and noticed the look on her face change as if she herself hadn't realize she always shopped on the same day of the week. "You're very predictable, ya know."

They had sat down and were about to eat when another knock on the door was heard, which Kono got up to answer.

"We just wanted to inform you that Nick Waldman is in custody." Danny said as he and Steve entered. "Seems that one of the cigar shop owners was glad to give Waldman up. We suspect it's because he also has gambling debts and owes him money."

"Good. I'm glad that's over with. I don't want to think about this anymore." Kono said, "So, uh, what's in the bag, Danny?"

"Oh, this." Danny said, indicating the bag he was carrying. "Well, we figured that since we were stopping by anyway, ya know, with the information about Waldman, that, uh, you might be hungry."

"Come on." Kono drug out with an eye roll as Steve just nodded in agreement with Danny, but wisely kept his mouth shut. She was very well aware of what the guys were all doing,... and it was just fine with her.

A few minutes later Steve and Danny had added the Chinese food they'd brought to the table, and Kono was again sat down to eat, this time with her entire ohana.

She watched from across the table in quiet amusement at Danny's attempts to use the two thin sticks to pick up his food. She'd seen him try during their many trips to Kung's after a case was wrapped-up. It never failed that he'd send a noodle or two flying as the chopsticks he was determined to master would suddenly twisted and flipped in his fingers. She was tempted to just slide a fork across the table in front of him, but he would surely be irritated by the offer. So, she continued eating sweet & sour pork in silence, at least until a piece of mar far chicken flew her direction.

"Oops." Danny mumbled, "Um, sorry 'bout that."

Kono looked up at him with a smirk, down at the piece of chicken that now rested near her plate, then using her chopsticks to pick up the chicken... she stuffed it in her mouth.

"Hey, that was my chicken!" Danny said in mock protest as the others laughed.

"Why do they always give ya so much food when ordering Chinese?" Steve wondered aloud as he and Chin put the leftovers in Kono's refrigerator.

"Because you'll be hungry again in an hour. Everyone knows that." Chin answered. "Well, forty minutes in your case."

AN HOUR LATER...

"Oh, wait." Kono exclaimed, stopping the guys as they were all about to leave. "We forgot our fortune cookies." She added, then retrieved them from the table. "Read your's first." She told her cousin as she handed out the cookies.

"Forgiveness is a good thing." He read out loud, "That's for sure." He agreed as he looked up.

"Make the most of every day." Kono read out loud. "After what happened today,-" She left the rest unspoken, but saw the men all nod in agreement and understanding.

Steve tried to ignore the bruises on her face and read his, "Good luck follows you."

"No. Explosions follow you." Danny countered in a very matter-of-fact tone, as he cracked his cookie open, then read, "Accept grace whenever it is offered." He smiled and looked up, "And with that, I will say 'good night', because I get to pick up my little Monkey first thing tomorrow morning."

As Kono closed the door she thought about how her ohana had searched for her, had rescued her, had even come to her home to make sure she was really okay. She smiled as she locked the door, then headed to bed. She would definitely make the most of every day. Starting tomorrow.

THE END

I took Danny's fortune from: God's mercy is Him not giving you what you deserve. God's grace is Him giving you what you don't deserve.

For those that like Chano (Charlie & Kono) together, I offer this tag. But I've gotta say that I wish it could have been completed before the last episode with Kono/Adam, because this became hard to write after watching that. So I hope it turned out okay.

Charlie had arrived in time to see Chin pull up, the bag in his hand indicating dinner for he and his cousin.

He wished it was he and and Kono having dinner together tonight. He wanted to take her to that new Thai restaurant neaby. It had been a terrible day for her, but she had to eat, right? Okay, so the truth was probably closer to him being selfish and just wanting to see her. He sighed heavily and pulled the keys from the ignition, deciding to head for the door. Maybe showing up while Chin was there was a good thing. Maybe he should mention the Thai restaurant, ignoring the bag of food already there, pretending not to see it. Maybe they would invite him to join them. Having Chin's approval would mean a lot to Kono. But approval for what? He wasn't sure. Coffee after work had turned into meeting again in the morning for some surfing. Was that dating? He wasn't sure. But if it wasn't, maybe it would lead to that. Yeah, he could work with that idea. As he reached for the door handle, he saw two more vehicles pull up.

'Great. Just great.' Charlie thought to himself as he watched Williams and McGarrett exit their respective vehicles. He had just psyched himself up to knock on her door while Chin was there, but now the whole Task Force? That was just a little more than this slightly nervous lab tech could handle.

He retracted his hand from the door handle and sat back, and waited. Soon it was obvious that this was going to take a while. 'Dessert.' Charlie almost laughed at himself as the word suddenly popped into his head. But then again, dessert wasn't a bad idea. Chin had brought Chinese food. Kono said he always brings Chinese food. A mutual favorite, and he speaks enough of the language to order the good stuff. But how long can it take to eat? They'd be gone soon enough, right? So he would go off and get dessert and come back. He could work with this plan.

So many choices. Too many choices. 'Women must come up with the names of ice cream flavors. Women like choices, lots and lots of them. That's why they own so many shoes. Right?' Charlie asked himself. 'Jeez. I'm losing my mind over ice cream.' He added as he again sat in his car across from Kono's little house, rubbing his temples, a carton of vanilla ice cream in the seat next to him.

'Vanilla. Why did he pick vanilla?' Charlie scolded himself. Vanilla would say 'boring', but he didn't want her to think of him as boring. He should have selected something different. Rocky road? Uh, no, not when you're trying to build a relationship. Coffee Toffee? No, it was too late for anything with the word coffee in it. Maybe-

Charlie was pulled from his silly thoughts as he heard Williams start his car. 'How had I not even managed to see him exit the house?' He wondered, as he watched Williams drive away. Kono's door was still open, so hopefully the other two would soon follow. And they did.

"Did you forget someth-" Kono began to ask as she opened the door. "Oh, hi, Charlie. I thought Chin had returned." She explained.

"I know it's late, but I wanted to make sure you were okay." Charlie explained. "And I was hoping you'd be up for some ice cream." He added, holding up the sack as he saw a smile on her face.

Yeah, dessert, he could work with this plan.

THE END, again