(A/N) Hi all! If you're here, you're probably a Steve/Kono fan like I am. :) It's really hard for me to watch a show and not end up shipping someone; and that someone is Steve/Kono for Hawaii Five-O, haha. To preface, this fic will be an elaboration of the show's episodes with a focus on Steve/Kono, as well as created events that take place in between events on each episode. There will be a small follow-up plot that take place after the episodes. Usually, I'd be wary about the repetitiveness of this type of fic, but I wrote one a SoTTP like this in the past and had so much fun writing it. Most people seemed to be nice enough about it, so I hope you guys will like this Hawaii Five-O one too! :)

Anyway, onwards!

He wished she were wearing more clothing.

It was ironic, Steve McGarrett realized, as he kept his gaze trained on the tan, tall Asian girl currently surfing the Waikiki waves – that was the first time in his life he'd ever wished that a woman he was about to meet was wearing more than she actually was. Just don't look at her that way, Steve told himself. Or Chin Ho will have your head on a stick. He clenched his jaw, remaining stone-faced as he carefully watched Kono Kalakaua.

"That's your cousin?" Danny Williams blurted from the other side of Chin Ho, where he was evidently faring far less smoothly than Steve.

"Choose your next words wisely," Chin responded warningly, raising a protective finger. "Both of you."

Danny raised his eyebrows in surrender. "She's very…" he began haltingly, before deciding, "talented."

"She's off the charts. Spent three years on the pro circuit before she blew out her knee. Kid was devastated. Decided to reinvent herself."

Chin continued talking about Kono's decision to join the Academy, but Steve had long since tuned him out. The famous McGarrett "laser concentration" had kicked in; his undivided attention already spent sizing up his potential new teammate. He studied Kono in silence, not once taking his eyes off her. His piercing eyes, hidden behind opaque aviators, followed her every move – her every graceful move as she carved and cut back as the wave reached its peak. His face was impassive, but his detective brain couldn't fight the rapid-fire analysis filtering in like summarized evidence – his eyes swiftly traced the muscles in Kono's toned arms and long legs: Strong. Young. Fast. Probably aggressive.

Steve tightened his jaw imperceptibly.

Attractive.

"Oof."

Chin's reaction to Kono's sudden wipeout brought Steve out of his reverie. Taking the opportunity to collect himself, Steve cleared his throat and watched as the two surfers – Kono and the man who dropped in on her wave – went down in a splash of white foam.

Steve found his voice. "You sure she's ready for this?" He turned to Chin and back to the beach again. The undercover job was going to be tough, and almost impossible for a rookie. "She's got no street experience."

Chin opened his mouth to reply, but he didn't need to.

"Ho brah!" Kono called out to the other surfer, as she jogged out of the waves with her surfboard tucked under her arm.

The poor sap looked up briefly before Kono's fist caught him in the jaw. He fell backward with a grunt.

"Heh," Danny chuckled, shaking his head in approval.

Steve raised an eyebrow in admiration and nodded slightly. Nice.

After roughly reprimanding the guy for his huge surf faux-pas, Kono looked up to see the three men watching her. Her whole face immediately lit up at the sight of Chin Ho. "Cousin!" she cried. Her eyes scrunched up into charming half-moons, her dimples etched themselves in her cheeks, her rows of pearly white teeth exposed themselves against the tan of her skin. She laughed, picked up her board and jogged over.

Chin walked up to greet her, while Danny and Steve held back.

"Hey," Danny muttered, nudging Steve and gesturing in Kono's direction with a smirk. "Score, huh?"

Steve only stared back at his partner, expressionless. "Do me a favor," he replied bluntly. "Don't ever say that again." He walked up to join Chin.

"Kono," Chin was saying, turning to Steve. "Meet Commander Steve McGarrett."

Steve held his breath as Kono turned her dark brown eyes to meet his for the very first time. Once again, he wished she were wearing more clothing. At least more than the blue and yellow string bikini she currently had on. How could he have a professional introduction with a half-naked woman? The distracting expanse of her tanned flat stomach and the droplets of water clinging to her bare sternum were in such close proximity to him that it was only natural for Steve to want to direct his gaze downward.

In any other circumstance, he probably would've. But for Chin and for the future of his potential investigations, he restrained.

Steve tried extremely hard not to move his head a millimeter, keeping his gaze carefully trained on Kono's smiling face as he shook her hand. Okay. All right. He smiled back. This would be much easier if she were wearing a sweater.

Apparently, Danny was having similar sentiments. Steve held back a laugh as he watched Danny grin and shake Kono's hand, then shake it some more – as he lingered there far longer than was customary for a handshake.

Kono chuckled awkwardly, the dimple in her right cheek deepening.

"That's enough, brah," Chin Ho said sharply.

"Sure." Danny released his grasp, slightly embarrassed.

"So your cousin tells us you're graduating from the police academy next week?" Steve asked her.

She nodded.

"How would you like to earn a little extra credit before you do?"

Steve watched as a fire instantly fueled behind Kono's eyes. Her evident passion for field work opportunity reminded him of himself, and he smiled.

"I'm listening," Kono replied, eager one-sided grin lighting up her pretty face.

Back at the five-o headquarters, Danny, Steve, and Chin Ho were busy explaining the Sang Min situation to Kono.

"Remember, Sang Min's in the business of trafficking people onto the island, so we're going to have to come up with some kind of story that will make him agree to help." Steve drew up Sang's photo and threw it up onto the flatscreens.

"Where did you say he was from?" Kono asked. The three men turned to her.

"China," Steve replied, slightly taken aback.

Kono bit the inside of her cheek, the gears in her head working overtime. She looked up. "Alright, let's say I have an aunt and uncle in China. It'll hit home."

"Why not a mom and dad?" Danny asked, perched on the edge of the table.

Kono shook her head. "Too close. It'll be more believable if I came with my parents and am now looking towards getting the rest of my extended family."

"Makes sense," Chin nodded.

"Monetary means?" Steve prompted.

"With the kind of money he's asking for, there's no job on the island that would pay a young girl that much." Kono thought for a while, then said, "Maybe two jobs. Waitress and housekeeper. Somewhere higher up like the Royal Hawaiian."

There was a brief silence.

"Good work," Steve finally responded brusquely, impressed.

Kono smiled. "Thanks, Commander." She furrowed her eyebrows and laughed uncertainly. "Or Steve? Or Boss? Sorry, I guess I never really asked what to call you? –"

Steve chuckled. "Huh." His mouth pursed into a small smirk. He deadpanned, "Yeah, I like Boss. Call me that."

"You tell that to all the girls?" Kono smirked back, not missing a beat.

For a second, Steve was taken aback, but he quickly recomposed himself. He laughed under his breath, lines appearing along his rugged jaw line.

Danny cleared his throat quite pointedly. "Sorry to interrupt here, Ross and Rachel," he cut in sarcastically. "You think we can get back to the case before I start sprouting gray hair?"

Embarrassed at the reprimand, Kono's cheeks flushed and she shifted uncomfortably, turning back towards the flatscreens again.

Steve, instead, turned to Danny and patted his irritated partner's head before yanking out a hair.

"Hey!"

"In any case, I'd say that ship has already sailed," Steve smirked, holding up the gray strand to the light.

"Hey."

Kono looked up from where she was sitting in the HQ room. She smiled at the tall figure standing in the doorframe, hand outstretched in a knocking gesture. "Hey, Boss. Howzit?"

Steve drew his mouth into a thin line before exhaling deeply and running a hand through his short hair. He was really bad at this kind of stuff.

"Just spit it out, brah," Kono grinned.

Steve scratched his chin and trained his piercing gaze on her. He sighed again. "Look. You sure you're ready for this?" he repeated intently, staring hard. "Don't hesitate to let us know if you're having second thoughts. This is not a rookie job."

The muscles in Kono's face hardened. "I'm not scared," she said sharply.

"I know you're not. Just –"

"I can do it."

"Okay." Steve relented and backed off, stubborn enough himself to recognize the similar symptoms in others. "Okay. That's good. But just keep in mind – if you do end up on our team for good, you might have a lot of UC work ahead of you."

"Because I'm the girl?" Kono's shoulders relaxed, and she smiled to let Steve know she wasn't mad.

"Heh." Steve chuckled. "Yeah, pretty girls seem to do the trick more often than not."

Kono smiled shyly and looked towards the ground. Her undercover outfit, a light blue sundress, and soft shoulder-length hair gave her a sense of sunny innocence that highly belied her true grit.

Steve downshifted to serious mode again. "Kono, I just want you to know that we're going to do everything we can to protect you, okay? We won't let anything happen to you."

"Right. Because I'm the girl?"

"No." Steve stuffed his hands into the pockets of his cargo pants. "Because you're our teammate."

The atmosphere inside the truck was tense. It was completely silent, and the team was working in double time. With intense concentration and swift skill, Chin Ho had finished finalizing camera angles and Danny had finalized the bugs and mikes. Steve had all the monitors plugged in right when he noticed that Kono was in position on Camera 1.

She's in. Steve stiffened, remembering the promise he'd made his newest teammate. "We're going to do everything we can to protect you. We won't let anything happen to you." And we're going to damn well keep it.

"Okay, kid," Chin muttered into the headset. "Just get him to tell you how he's smuggling people onto the island."

Steve watched with bated breath, eyes concentrated on the black and white live feed images of Kono and Sang Min.

"I'm afraid the kind of money we're talking about," Sang Min was saying, "might be out of your reach." A disgusting leer appeared on his rodent-like face. "Unless, of course, we find some other form of payment." Sang Min ran his fingers through Kono's hair, smirking as he looked her up and down. This incited a low sneer from Steve, surprising both Chin Ho and Danny.

"You okay?" Chin gave him a curious look.

"Makes me sick," Steve responded simply, under his breath.

But he didn't have time to elaborate. The three men bristled. Their simultaneous cop instincts alerted them that something suddenly wasn't right.

"Sand," Sang Min was saying, voice hard, as he examined the substance he had just discovered in Kono's hair. He let the small grains fall through his fingers. "Tell me. What kind of person working two jobs has time to go to the beach?"

Onscreen, Kono's mouth twitched a little and she closed it, swallowing ever so slightly. She was nervous.

Shit. Every muscle in Steve's body tensed. Normally, the determined, succeed-or-die-trying cop inside him would press on with the job without a second thought, but today was different. Maybe it was because the UC at risk was new. A complete rookie. A girl. Kono. Steve found himself uncharacteristically contemplating cutting the cord on the operation.

No. He gripped the headset in his left hand, his rational side finally kicking in. No, we can't pull out yet; give the girl a shot.

Thanks to his SEAL training and background, this turmoil ran through Steve's head behind a calm impasse of a face. Danny, on the other hand, was a man who wore his emotions moreso on his sleeve.

"Pull the plug, let's get her out of there," Danny muttered, immediately yanking his headset off and rolling over to Steve and Chin.

"Relax." Chin turned to them. "The kid can handle herself."

"Hey, he smells trap, he'll kill her!"

"Trust me."

Chin's resolute glare indicated that was the end of discussion.

Steve suddenly felt a sharp intake of breath as he watched Kono begin to unzip the side of her sundress. What is she doing? Sang Min's repulsive leer in the background made Steve's blood boil.

"Checking her for a wire," Steve muttered unnecessarily. He watched as Kono slowly, slowly pulled off her dress. The soft hem skimmed over her thighs, the tan curves of her thin waist, and finally over her head. She let the light fabric fall to the ground. Then she stood there, her tall lithe body unclothed on screen, her mouth knit shut in determined silence.

Steve ran a hand roughly over his mouth, not sure if he should act the gentleman and avert his gaze, or the consummate cop and treat the situation objectively. He paced once and returned to the screens. "This guy's a scumbag," he muttered, so low that Chin and Danny couldn't tell if he was actually talking or just growling.

"We'll get her out of there soon," Chin replied, just as quietly.

The time came sooner than expected. Kono gave them the balled-fist signal, and the three men yanked out their headsets.

"She needs help."

"I got it," Steve said, jumping towards the driver's seat so quickly that Chin and Danny barely got a glimpse of him. At lightning speed, he threw the gear into drive and gunned the accelerator. The truck raced towards the side of the warehouse.

The wall exploded in a splintering of wood and cement. The truck doors flew open and the three cops split up.

"Kono!"

The girl was on the floor, crouching over the bodyguard she had just roundhouse kicked into oblivion.

Steve exhaled, letting out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding.

Kono looked up at him, her brown hair stuck to her sweaty forehead. The strap of her dress fell loose as she pinned down the guard, exposing her bare shoulder. "You're early," she grinned, still out of breath.

Shouldering his gun, Steve gave her a small, genuine smile. "You're okay."

(A/N) How was it? I hope you liked it. Feel free to let me know what you thought in a review! Thank you for reading, and I'll update soon! :)