II

A vibrating sound cut through the ocean breeze and interrupted the peace and quiet of the backyard of his father's house. Steve had yet to think of it as his own. While it felt like home, Steve thought he would probably always think of it as his father's house.

The phone kept on ringing on the table next to the deck chair he carried down to the beach almost the minute he moved in. Steve simply ignored it. Just as he had all of the other times it rang. He took a sip of the now lukewarm beer in his hand and fought the urge to reach for the phone and answer. He did not need to look at the display to know who it was, he already knew that it was Kono.

It was ironic to think that two days ago Steve would have done just about anything to get a phone call from her and that he now ignored them. It was petty. Perhaps even childish. But he was, as everyone loved to point out, more stubborn than the best of them. He had not spoken to Kono since they left the interrogation room three days ago to go take down Delano. It hadn't been intentional at first. As far as he was concerned, they were fine when they left the interrogation room. The remaining tension was from eagerness to make up and define the thing between them once and for all. Then everything went down at the bank.

The moment when the gunshot rang out onto the street was still on repeat inside his head. Steve remembered the panic of not knowing who had fired the shot or at who and of not knowing where Kono was. Everything rushed over him the minute he found Kono shot inside the bank, leaning against the marble wall. All of the emotions were so vivid they had not left Steve since. The anger. The guilt. The concern. He couldn't let it go.

"Your phone isn't broken then?"

Steve spun around in his seat, startled by the sound of someone else in the backyard. He noticed Kono as she came around the side of the house and walked across the lawn in his direction. She looked beautiful in her shorts and white oversized dress shirt that he swore came from his own closet upstairs.

Steve turned his attention back towards the ocean and starred at waves as they rolled in, one by one, to shore. His eyes never wavered from the water, but he was still acutely aware of Kono as she timidly crossed the final distance between them and sat down next to him on the deckchair.

"I think we need to talk." Kono spoke softly. "Don't you?"

They couldn't go on like this, he knew that. Whether they resolved this or not, they would still have to see each other at work, and it would be so much easier if he could at least look Kono in the eye without flinching.

"So, talk." Steve muttered.

"Are we okay?"

"I don't know, why don't you tell me?"

"I don't know! I'm not the one who's mad!" Kono frowned.

"I'm not the one who lied for weeks and proceeded to put herself in a dangerous situation." Steve countered.

Kono got up from the deckchair and started to pace in front of Steve in frustration. The expression on her face clearly showed how confused she was by the situation and by Steve's mood.

"I thought we went through this already?! I didn't lie and I didn't do anything that you haven't done, or Chin and Danny. You have all done some pretty dangerous things in the name of justice." Kono starred pointedly at Steve. "You can't tell me that you would not have done the exact same thing if you were in my position?!"

Steve could feel the storm as it built up inside of him as he thought back on the past couple of weeks. After the takedown at the bank, he went back to the headquarters and looked up the file with Kono's reports from late night meetings at old warehouses and underground casinos. He could read how exposed and vulnerable she'd been with absolutely no back up. All of that Steve could deal with. It came with their job, and he knew Kono could do their job.

To some extent, he could even come to terms with how they kept him out of the loop. Steve had gone dark several times in the SEAL's and understood the need for a good backstory. He could deal with loss of control over the situation, despite his alpha nature. All of that he understood. All of that he could handle and come to terms with.

What Steve couldn't come to terms with though was the way he felt upon seeing Kono as she pressed down on her own gunshot wound. A wound she acquired because of a situation his actions forced her into. A situation she clearly stated she was in partially because of him. Kono didn't get that.

He could have lost her. The margins of error had been minimal. A few inches to the right and he would not be having this conversation.

"You took a bullet Kono!" Steve exclaimed and rose from his seat as well. He pointed fiercely at what he knew to be her bandaged arm. Because she clearly must have forgotten that fact to be able and act like it was nothing. Her getting hurt was not nothing. It was everything. "You could have died for nothing! Don't you get that?!"

Steve realised that he sounded harsh, but it couldn't be helped. He needed Kono to understand and admit that she had been wrong. That she would never do something like this ever again. Never sacrifice herself for him.

"Do you call us nothing?!" Kono countered just as passionately. "Chin's family, and so is Danny. You are important to me! I don't know what we are. Perhaps I have overread things and perhaps the time we spent together means more to me than it does to you. But I care about you, and I will not apologise for caring!"

"And neither will I!"

Both of them were out of breath and rattled from the emotional release, but Kono had never looked so stunning to Steve. Her dark hair danced around her face in the wind. Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were on fire, full of life. Mere inches separated them. Steve wanted nothing more than to close the space, so he did.

Fast as lightning he reached for her cheek with one of his hands and pulled her towards him with force. Kono stumbled into his chest and then their lips touched. His tongue entered her mouth and battled hers for dominance. Steve's free arm coiled tightly around Kono's lower back while Kono's hands found their way to his head and tangled in his hair. The kiss started out rough and fast but soon turned soft and tender without losing any of the passion.

They eventually had to come up to get some air. Steve felt mighty proud of the dazed expression on Kono's face. He liked knowing he was the one who put it there and that he had the ability to blow her mind. Make her forget about the world. His thumb stroked along the apple of her cheek as he watched her come back. His other hand travelled up and down her spine. Steve relished in the ability to be able to touch her again and in the soft feel of her skin against his. This was how it was supposed to be between them. Easy. Instinctive. Passionate. Intimate.

"So…" Kono began. "What does this mean?"

"It means, that the next time you pull of something as reckless as this, you'd better tell me. Or I will bench you myself!"

"Is that so?" Her eyes took on a mischievous look, but as was the norm with them, he could hear and see what she didn't say out loud. Steve just knew that she heard him despite the simple language and the light tone they used. She understood the seriousness in his words. It felt good to be on the same wavelength again.

The bright, flickering light from the television lit up the living room that was void of any other light. On the coffee table stood two abandoned beer bottles. A bowl of half-eaten popcorn stood next to them. The sound of the game commentary filled the silence with play by plays of the players movements out on the field. Steve lay sprawled out on the couch. Kono rested on top of him in a way so they touched from top to toe with his arms anchoring her to him.

He sighed in content and sunk further into the cushions of the couch. A life's worth of habits ruined in exchange for this moment right here was totally worth it in Steve's opinion. Completely.

After they worked out their differences this afternoon, Kono spent the rest of the day at his house. They spent some time in the water at the back of the house, mindful of the bullet that tore through Kono's arm just a few days ago. Later they fired up the grill and cooked up a meal together before they finally ended up on the couch in front of the game.

All day they had been touching in some way. They shoved each other playfully in the water. Steve would walk up close behind her in the kitchen to reach for something or simply run his hand down her arm as he walked by. In response Kono had poked him in the ribs or given him a quick kiss. It felt like it had before. Before Steve got arrested and Kono lost her badge. Nothing was damaged.

The fact that nothing had been damaged, only served to reaffirm what Steve already knew to be true. That this was a good thing they had going. It was real and worth the risk.