A/N: Grace's age has been changed from 8 to 14.

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Ten days earlier.

Sal's boxing gym, Diamond Head.
1612 hours.

Keanu glances up from his calculus textbook at the sound of someone's punch hitting home and smiles when he realizes that it's his older brother, Kame, who landed it. He spends most of his afternoons here, sitting in the corner with a school textbook laid out across his lap, while Kame lifts weights or spars with his friends; it's either this or wait out on the sidewalk outside their apartment building until his mom is finished at work and since the gym has air-conditioning and a water cooler, it won out. Plus, Keanu kind of likes hanging out with Kame, even though he knows that Kame doesn't feel the same way – having to drag your fourteen-year-old brother around with you doesn't exactly give you a lot of street cred.

So that's why Keanu plonks himself in one of the corners out of the way and does his best not to eavesdrop. The regulars are so used to having him around now that some of them even bring him snacks to munch on while he struggles to get his head around linear equations and functions and every once in a while, Sal will offer to show him the ropes. Keanu always declines politely and tells the older man that he really needs to study if he's going to pass Math this semester - his mom works all hours to make enough money to send him to his new fancy private school and the last thing Keanu wants to do is disappoint her by failing; his grade point average has fallen from a 3.0 to a 2.3 already this semester so he's in jeopardy of being kicked off the lacrosse team if he doesn't pass his next quiz with flying colors.

The equation he's working on is starting to fry his brain and Keanu roughly pushes his textbook aside when he realizes that he's gotten it wrong again. He's due a break soon anyways, so he tucks his workbook and pencil into his textbook and grabs the paper cup he took from the pile next to the water cooler when he came in, and wanders over to the far corner of the gym to re-fill it. While he's holding down the tap, he can't help but overhear what Kame and their cousin, Worm, are talking about.

Worm's real name is Miguel Hamakua, but the only person that calls him that is their Grandmother, who raised him and his older brother after their mom – Keanu's auntie – died in a car accident when Worm was 5 and Martin, 9. He's tall and skinny with a close-cropped haircut - hence the nickname - and according to what he's telling Kame in between punches, it seems that his brother was shanked in prison last night. Luckily, Martin survived but he's now facing 15 years in Halawa for trying to transport just under a kilo of Coke across the island for the Tongan gang he's been hanging around; needless to say, the gang's ringleaders aren't happy and Worm's worried they're going to turn up at their Grandma's house looking for a way to recoup their losses. Or worse, retribution.

When Worm names the cop responsible, Keanu looks up from where he's toeing at a scuff on the worn vinyl flooring. He actually met the guy a few weeks ago when he and his partner came into school on Career Day, and he remembers being secretly awed by the gold shields and guns at their hips. But he doesn't tell Kame and Worm that, since the two of them are both currently cursing the man's very existence. Instead, he pipes up, "I heard McGarrett once hung a suspect off a roof," and both Kame and Worm stop what they're doing and turn to look at him.

"Where'd you hear that?" Worm asks, eyeing Keanu with suspicion as he wipes his sweaty forehead on the back of his boxing glove.

Wrinkling his nose as the older boy shakes off his glove onto the floor, Keanu explains,

"There's this girl in my class... Her dad and McGarrett are partners. She's really close to him, apparently – she told Alicia, who told Tommy, who told me, that she calls him 'Uncle' and spends weekends at his house and - "

"Okay, Squirt, we get it," Kame interrupts, leaning over the ropes to swipe at Keanu's head; Keanu ducks out of habit - he's been on the receiving end of Kame's punches a few times and had the awkward job of explaining the resulting bruises to more than one concerned teacher - and then scowls up at his brother, who laughs and gestures to the corner where Keanu's books are piled up on the floor. "Go on, scram," he orders, turning his back on his little brother. "Go make like a good little nerd and finish your homework."

Keanu risks flipping Kame off before turning on his heel to stalk back to his corner, where he buries his nose in his textbook once more. He tries to concentrate on the equation he was working on before but its no use; Kame's nerd jibe is playing on repeat inside his head and the sound of gloves hitting practice pads and gloves on flesh is doing nothing to drown it out. It sucks, Keanu thinks, because Kame is closest thing he has to a father figure since his actual father left them six years ago and all he wants is to make his brother proud. Getting good grades at school isn't doing it so he's going to have to come up with another idea if he's going to make an impression on Kame anytime soon. And he might just have one already.

Early the next morning, he borrows his little sister's bike and cycles the six blocks to his Grandmother's house. Worm answers the door looking like he hasn't slept at all and its all Keanu can do to convince the older boy to not shut the door in his face. He quickly explain how Worm fits into his 'master plan' and when he's done, Worm eyes him suspiciously, and then leans forwards to glance up and down the street, like he's expecting Ashton Kutcher to pop up from behind the garbage cans and declare that he's being Punked.

"So what you're saying is that you – " The older boy pushes his fingertip into Keanu's sternum. "Want me to teach you how to fight?" Keanu nods eagerly but it's not enough because Worm shakes his head and pushes himself away from where he's using the doorframe to prop himself up.

"I'll pay you," Keanu offers desperately, using his foot to block the door as Worm goes to shut it in his face. "I have a paper route. I'll give you half of what I make for the next month if you show me a few moves. Please." He risks snagging the hem of Worm's wrinkled t-shirt as he adds, "Please… I want to be able to defend myself. And I want Kame to see me as more than just his geeky little brother." Luckily, it seems that no one - not even a petty criminal like Worm - can resist Keanu's puppy eyes because the older boy relents at the mention of his cousin slash best friend. He runs a hand over his close-shaven head and then sighs.

"Okay, I'll bite," Worm says, a plan of his own forming at the sight of his easily-swayed little cousin bouncing up and down on his doorstep. "But forget about the money, I want you to do something for me instead. For Grams, actually."

"Anything," Keanu promises and Worm's smile grows exponentially, because Keanu genuinely loves his grandmother and Worm knows that his cousin would do anything for her. He's counting on it as he opens the front door fully and gestures for Keanu to follow him inside. Heading for the kitchen, he promises the kid five hundred bucks for doing what he calls 'surveillance and target acquisition', but Keanu seems hesitant and Worm knows he's going to have to step it up if he's ever going to persuade the younger boy to help him get the information he needs to placate his brother's vengeful gang bosses.

He's got it all figured out: once Keanu gets him what he needs, he'll befriend The Crips and tell them that he has intel that could help them take out McGarrett and his team. But before he gives it to them, they need to guarantee that they'll call off the hit on his brother. He's pretty sure that the big bosses will agree – Martin may have cost them 26k when he got caught but Worm knows for a fact that Five-0 has cost them at least ten times that in the last two months alone. And, as it so happens, McGarrett's the sole witness in Martin's drug running case. No McGarrett, no case - the DA won't have any choice but the drop the charges and let Martin go free.

Everybody wins.

"Think of Grams," Worm cajoles, leaning forwards in his chair to rest his forearms on the tabletop. "If you don't want to do this for me or Martin, then do it for her. It'll kill her if Martin ends up in Halawa alongside the guy who killed your pops."

Across the table, Keanu's eyes have gone dark and Worm knows that he's hit the nail on the head; Keanu will do anything Worm asks of him without question and, smiling wickedly, he leans back in his seat. "Family first, yeah?" he says, holding out in his fisted hand.

"Family first," Keanu repeats, bumping his own fist against Worm's to seal the deal.

H50*H50*H50

Sacred Heart Academy.
0857 hours.

Keanu has math second period on Monday and he hovers at the front of the classroom momentarily before making his way towards the table in the back right hand corner of the room. There's only one person sitting at it – a girl with long brown hair that's been pulled back into a complicated looking braid – and Keanu wipes his sweaty palms on the sides of his uniform pants as he skirts around the teacher's desk to join her. The girl doesn't look up from where she's doodling in her notebook and Keanu takes a deep breath before quietly clearing his throat to get her attention.

"Is there anyone sitting here?" he asks, pointing to the chair beside the girl when she looks up. She shakes her head so Keanu lets his backpack slide down over his shoulder and sets it on the table. "I'm Keanu," he says, glancing over at the girl from where he's digging through his bag for his textbook.

"Grace." The girl offers him a hesitant smile before going back to doodling daisy chains down the margin of her workbook in pink and yellow gel pen.

"Nice to meet you," he says, setting his own workbook down on the desk. It's nowhere near as colorful as Grace's – instead of pretty flowers his margins are full of penciled-in corrections (mostly Mom's, since she still insists on checking his homework when he's done) and re-worked equations. It sucks, because he was top of his class at his old school and now he's somewhere near the bottom, struggling with the things he used to be able to do in his sleep. With a sigh, Keanu drops into his seat, his first parent-teacher conference playing over and over inside his head – the words 'remedial' and 'tutor' had been bounced around and his mom's smile had faltered because both cost money that she didn't have. He'd promised to try harder but his grades have continued to drop steadily as the problems in his textbook become more and more complicated.

He's not sure whether or not to be thankful when his daydream is interrupted a minute or so later by the arrival of his math teacher. Grace elbows him in the ribs when Mr. Croft tells everyone to turn to page 84 and read the paragraph on quadratic equations in silence and then, once they've done that, old Crofty shows them how to work through the first of the problems in their books on the board. While he's copying out the next question Keanu leans across and discreetly taps Grace on the arm. "Are you getting any of this?" he whispers, gesturing towards the white board. "I lost him at cross-multiplying x-6 by x+7."

It's a lie. Keanu actually learned about this stuff at his last school but Grace's smile makes it worth the risk of being caught; reaching across him, Grace uses her pen to point to the first x in the equation.
"You multiply everything else in the second bracket by x first and then work your way through," she explains quietly, scribbling the first line of answers down underneath where Keanu has carefully copied out the problem. "So this becomes x squared plus seven x. Then you do the same with the negative six and simplify. You should end up with x squared plus x minus 42. See?"

Smiling, Keanu nods. "Yeah, I think I've got it now," he says. "Thanks."

He spends the rest of the lesson faking unfamiliarity and blows out a relieved breath when the bell rings signaling the end of class. Faking is a lot harder than he thought it would and he almost blew his cover when he spotted a mistake in Grace's workings – luckily a simple 'how did you get that?' was enough to keep everything on track and Grace had grinned self-consciously, non-the-wiser to Keanu's less-than-admirable intentions as she scribbled out the mistake and replaced it with the correct answer. He needs a minute to compose himself before moving onto step two of what Worm dubbed 'Nuestro pequeño secreto' so he quickly gathers up his books and pencil case, and then hurries out into the hall before Grace has even closed her textbook. Leaning against one of the lockers outside, Keanu fidgets with the strap on his bag until he spots Grace coming out of the classroom with two girlfriends in tow.

"Grace. Hey, wait up…"

She tilts her head inquisitively when she hears her name and Keanu pushes himself upright as she comes to stand in front of him. His palms are sweaty again and he has to resist the urge to wipe them on his pants as Grace waits for him to speak, a curious smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"I was wondering if we could maybe… If you have a…"

He breaks off to swallow the lump that's suddenly appeared in his throat and wonders, not for the first time, just what he's gotten himself into; he'd never have been so bold as to walk right over to one of the pretty, popular girls if it wasn't for the incentive Worm promised him for doing him this favor and he still can't quite believe that he's gotten away with it thus far. If Grace weren't standing right there, Keanu would probably pinch himself except, well… that would be kinda weird. So, instead, he clears his throat and opens his mouth to try again.

Grace beats him to it, though, hugging her books close to her chest as she eyes him curiously. "Are you asking me to be your 'study buddy'?" she asks. Her friends are watching them from across the hall, giggling between themselves and Keanu forces himself to stand up a little straighter as he aims an award-winning smile at his classmate.

"It's just that I'm really struggling," he half-fibs. "And my mom's going to be so disappointed if I don't get my grades up. She works really hard to be able to afford to send me here and it'll kill her if I end up flunking out." Grace's brown eyes have gotten bigger and there's a sad tic pulling at the corner of her mouth as Keanu continues, "You made quadratic equations sound so simple so I was kinda hoping that you wouldn't mind maybe tutoring me? Outside of school…?"

"What, at, like, each other's houses?" Grace asks, her nose wrinkling as she considers Keanu's offer. It must pass whatever test she's set because a few seconds later she shrugs and says, "I'll have to check with my mom and step-dad but it should be okay if it's for school. Does tomorrow work?"

"I can't do tomorrow," Keanu lies smoothly, crossing his fingers behind his back. "My brother's teaching me how to box and he's booked the ring so I can practice sparring with him. How about Wednesday?"

"I'm going to my uncle's house straight after school," Grace counters with an apologetic one-shouldered shrug. "It's my dad's afternoon but he has to go to court for work, so my Uncle Steve is coming to pick me up. Assuming he doesn't get called out to something, that is."

"Your dad's a cop, right?" Keanu asks, even though he already knows fine well what Grace Williams' dad does for a living and who he's partnered with courtesy of Google.

Grace's delighted smile lights up her entire face. "He's Five-0, actually," she says proudly. "He worked homicide when he first moved here but then Uncle Steve started Five-0 and Danno became his partner. Before that he was a detective in New Jersey."

"Wow…" Keanu breathes, letting his eyes go wide. "So, Commander McGarrett's your uncle?" he asks. "I've seen him on the new a coupl'a times. Is it true that he hung a guy off a roof to get a confession out of him? And that he once killed a man with just his bare hands?" He's rambling, like he always does when he's nervous, and he automatically clamps his mouth shut when he realizes that Grace is openly staring at him.
"Sorry," he mumbles, dropping his gaze to his shoes. "It's just… he sounds totally kick-ass and my little sister has, like, the biggest schoolgirl crush on him - she'd be so jealous if I got to meet him and she didn't. I'd have bragging rights for months."

"I could ask if we can study at his place, if you'd like," Grace offers with a pleased smile as she fumbles in her skirt pocket for her cellphone. "Uncle Steve's pretty cool. I bet if you asked, he'd give you a few pointers." When Keanu blinks at her blankly, she adds, "Y'know, for your sparring thing? He actually beat Chuck Liddell – he's a mixed martial arts fighter - a few years ago in a charity match."

Keanu pretends to give himself a shake. "Oh. Yeah, that'd be awesome," he says, returning Grace's grin.

"Okay, be right back, then. I'm gonna call him right now and check," Grace says, turning away with her phone already up by her ear. She wanders across the rapidly emptying hallway to lean against the bank of lockers and Keanu quickly wipes his sweaty hands on his pants leg just as Grace greets her uncle with a chipper, "Hi, Uncle Steve. No, I'm okay, I just wanted to ask you something…"