"Jesus, Danny. Better make sure Bossman doesn't see that thing. It's huge." Danny looked up from the smart table at the sound of Kono's voice – much too chipper for a Monday morning. He took one hand from where it stabbed at the pretend keys on the table to start waving around near his head, pinching pieces of the rant out of the air.

"How? How are you so, like... awake at this time in the morning?"

Chin followed her through the door, eyebrow raised Danny. "That was weak, brah."

Huffing out a sigh, Danny's wanna-be-ranting hand came down to pick up the extra-extra-venti-vidi-whatever take out cup balanced precariously on the edge of the table.

"Yeah, well, I haven't had enough coffee yet this morning." He tipped his head back, holding the cup to his lips longer than should be necessary, almost pouting when all he received for his effort was one, barely caffeinated, drop. "So Steve can take all his health-freak complaints and shove them up his Neanderthal Navy—"

"Uh, okay," Kono said, not even trying to hide her smile. Chin joined her alone one of the long sides of the table. "Fun night?"

"Fun night? 'Fun night', she asks. No, I wish, I wish, I had a fun night but I, in fact, did not. Thank you for asking." He tossed the cup in the general direction of a trash can. It missed. "And this is why I didn't make the basketball team in High School."

"You wanna talk about it, Brah?" Chin asked.

"Where is Steve, anyway?"

At the mention of his partner's name, the rest of the fight drained out of Danny and he slumped into a nearby chair, rubbed his hands over his face a couple times.

"Steve. Steve, Steve, Steve. Well, Steve's not gonna be in today, at least not till later." He curled his fingers into quote marks. "Meetings and errands."

"Well, Danny, that's not that unus—"

"No Chin, you see, despite McGarrett's usual propensity for secrecy and emotional avoidance, something is going on with him. Worse than usual, I mean."

Kono chewed her lip. "Any idea what?"

"Nope. I do not have any idea. And should this surprise us? No, of course it should not. He did say he'd tell me later – again with the quotes. And I'm not entirely sure if that should worry me even more, or make me happy that he's, you know, expressing himself. Ergo my intense need for caffeine this morning. Like, all the caffeine. Why does this pineapple-infested hellhole not have more caffeine?"

With no case on the go, the three finally retreated to their separate offices to catch up on paperwork, though Danny first made a detour to the coffee maker. Considering Steve was in the office over the weekend to supposedly catch up on this shit, the pile didn't seem to have been touched at all. Not that Danny was really doing much better. What with the supposed lack of caffeine, and the trying to figure out what the actual fuck was going on with his partner. Terminal illness? Death? Secret op? Doris?

Five very large, very strong, cups of coffee from Five-0's gourmet coffee maker later, Danny heard the main door to the bullpen open, McGarrett's heavy boots across the floor. He looked up to find Kono and Chin also watching Steve walk across the office, straight to Danny's.

The Detective stood, never taking his eyes off him, leaning against his desk as his partner slipped into his office, closed the door behind him. Full SEAL Mask in effect.

"Babe?"

"Danny, look, I—" Steve's phone rang. The SEAL watched Danny for three full rings before finally cursing and looking away from Danny only long enough to check the caller ID. "Fuck." He brought the phone to his ear. "McGarrett. Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir. Not a problem at all, Sir." He was waving the cousins over as he ended the call. "We got a case."

Danny was 109.3% positive he saw a flicker of relief pass over that otherwise unmarred mask.