If a great wave shall fall

Steve and Kono are friends. Murder charges and an IA investigation are not about to change that...right?

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

A/N: Danny is always saying that Kono's been hanging out with Steve too long, and my mind somehow decided there had to be a multi chaptered fic about—you guessed it—Kono hanging out with Steve. This starts in season one and will also deal with some season 2 stuff, mainly Kono's (mishandled) storyline. Updates every couple of days, because I'm super busy studying.

A/N2: Thanks to Diana, who's been wonderful throughout the writing of this and Asra for all the helpful feedback. You guys are awesome and I couldn't have written this without you. Which means if it sucks, you're both to blame :P

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I.

This is what happens: Chin mentions something about Kono's apartment and it occurs to Steve he doesn't even know where she lives. He determines to rectify this immediately, looks up her address and next day finds himself driving by her neighborhood, a complete and total coincidence of course, and what do you know? That's her apartment building right there, he should really stop and say hello. That's the polite thing to do, right?

Right.

He parks his car, eyeing the yellowish façade of the building with distaste, climbs the stairs to 7B and knocks. He hears someone moving inside then the door opens, Kono smiling up at him uncertainly.

"Hey, boss! Howzit?"

"Hey, I was just in the neighborhood." He says pleasantly. "I'm meeting Danny for drinks in a bit, thought I'd see if you want to come along." The things he fails to mention are numerous and include but are not limited to the fact that he has planned this entire thing as meticulously as some of his tactical operations in Afghanistan.

"Yeah, okay." Kono shrugs, steps back inside her apartment. "I'll just be a sec." She informs him before she disappears in what must be her bedroom.

Steve takes this time to look around the place and while this is not the nightmare that is Danny's joke of an apartment (seeing as Kono has the ability to color coordinate her furniture and, you know, clean it) it's still pretty bad.

Kono comes out, dressed in jeans and an interestingly thin top, starts looking around for something.

"Not to step out of line or anything" Steve starts hesitantly, "but I'm pretty sure you can find a better place on your salary. Maybe something closer to the beach?"

Kono laughs, not offended in the least. "Yeah, I hear you. I just want to pay off my car first, and then I'm getting out of here."

"Right. Makes sense." Steve nods, because that's very responsible, even though he's already thinking about the fastest way he can get her out of this place.

"Found it!" Kono exclaims, pocketing her cell phone. She looks at him, raises an eyebrow. "Do I need to bring my wallet?"

"I'm offended you think I'd let you pay for anything." Steve deadpans, but he means it. Come on, a girl who looks at that? Probably hasn't paid for a drink in her entire life.

"Did you bring your wallet?" Kono challenges as they walk out and she turns to lock up. Steve thinks for a moment then realizes that no, he did not in fact remember to bring his wallet. Cut him some slack, okay? You don't need to carry a wallet on you at all times when you're chasing terrorists around the globe on the government's dime, all right? Jesus.

"I'll pay Danny back tomorrow." He amends, ushering her forward with a hand on her back. Kono just laughs at him, and it's sort of delightful.

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He almost pays off her car, decides at the last minute it would probably make things too weird. He gives her a small raise instead, makes sure he mentions it to the Governor somewhere between "five thousand dollars in repairs to that expensive sports car they borrowed for an undercover op" and "four hundred dollars for that door that was standing between him and a murder suspect".

The Governor just stares at him, like she usually does, not reacting in the slightest, almost like she can see through his head. Steve suspects she uses this time to meditate and pray for guidance, or patience or a pair of earplugs, possibly. But when he's over reciting the list for the week (they tried to have this meeting once a month at first, until Governor Jameson declared that to have been the most mind numbingly boring three hours of her life), she just nods seriously and signs whatever papers need signing, thanks him for his time and sends him off.

He has no fucking clue what Kono will say when she finds out, but he's prepared to argue it's a reasonable thing for him to do. She works insane hours, for one thing, and is consistently cheerful at the end of eighteen hour shifts when Steve himself has reached the point where flies buzzing by too loudly can send him into a homicidal rage. Not to mention, he has her go undercover every other week basically, in clothes that scarcely deserve the name. And, last but not least, Kono makes astonishingly good coffee. This, he has come to understand (mostly because Danny sees fit to remind him every morning after his first sip), is a marketable skill among law enforcement professionals.

So, you know. He has a strong case, if anyone thinks to ask.

Also, he would like to make it clear, for the record, that this has nothing to do with any desire to see her out of that apartment. At all.

Although he did find a couple of rentals near his place that are very reasonably priced. One of them has a garage, even. And a little yard. Not that he went by to see it or anything, just happened to be driving by earlier this morning.

So yeah.

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"So guess what happened today?" Kono says in greeting, making herself comfortable in one of the pointedly uncomfortable chairs he keeps for visitors (the message being: say your piece and get the fuck out).

"No idea." Steve replies honestly, because historically he sucks at this game.

"I went by the bank, and as it turns out, I am two hundred dollars wealthier this month." She raises an eyebrow and stares at him, and it's the same look he wears when he's staring down a suspect, waiting for a confession. Well, he'd hate to disappoint.

"I might have given you a raise." He admits levelly. Kono stares at him for second, hands crossed over her chest, and Steve takes this moment to appreciate how nice she looks in her blue top and okay he needs a break, and a beer and probably some therapy.

"A raise?" She repeats dubiously. Steve just widens his eyes innocently, nods.

"A well-deserved raise." He clarifies. Kono is silent for a while, seems to be contemplating this, eventually giving a small shrug.

"Thanks, boss." She says genuinely. He thought she'd be mad, yell a bit, tell him to mind his own fucking business and if she wants a raise you better believe she'll ask for it, but okay. He can work with this.

"No problem." He says simply, all easy going and courteous, see how cool and professional I am.

"I can probably get out of my apartment now." She adds with a small smile.

Yeah, that may have already occurred to him.

"Right, about that." Steve tries hesitantly. "I have a couple of places you could look into." Kono just looks at him uncertainly but she still hasn't started yelling and he's choosing to take this as a good sign.

"Here, I'll write down the address for you." He decides, scribbling on the back of an incident report he was working on because, you know, whatever, he can just start over. He hands over the list and she just looks at it for a bit, kind of bewildered.

"That's…very thoughtful of you." She says, smiling nervously, as if she isn't quite sure what to think about all this and he's being weird again.

"Don't mention it." He waves a hand dismissively, reaching for a new form and trying to look busy.

Kono gets up, clutching the list on one hand, looking at him still. "I'm just gonna…" She trails off, pointing at the door behind her. Steve just murmurs his agreement, almost misspells his name on the new report in his earnest attempt to appear distracted.

"Hey boss." Kono calls from the door, making him look up. "Thanks for this, really. I owe you one."

Steve shakes his head, smiles lightly. "Sure, okay." He agrees easily, even though he has no intention to collect, like, ever.

"I'm serious, one favor, anything you want. Go crazy, brah." Kono says, wiggling her eyebrows playfully.

"Get out of here or you'll be doing my paperwork for a month." He threatens, and Kono is gone before the end of the sentence.

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They're helping Kono move, even though Danny is mostly just complaining about his knee and making him and Chin do all the heavy lifting. Kono doesn't have that much stuff really, so it just takes a few hours.

She ended up renting a small house with a yard and a garage and a cheerfully painted light blue door ("That's turquoise", Danny remarks helpfully, earning him an incredulous look from Steve. "What? Grace's room is turquoise.") which, as it turns out, is exactly twelve minutes away from his house.

Not that he timed it or anything. God, no. That would be creepy.

They finish carrying in the boxes then collapse on any available surface. Chin brings out a six pack and they order some pizza, no pineapple on top, if only to avoid another forty five minute rant on the evils of tropical fruit toppings on junk food.

"This is really an upgrade, cuz." Chin remarks approvingly, looking around at the freshly painted walls. "Now you just have to get rid of this couch." He nods at the worn blue couch that looks to Steve like it may have seen better days probably coinciding with the Reagan administration.

"Yeah, this place is nice." Danny agrees, waving his pizza slice around. "Maybe you can give me your realtor's name, see if they can find me anything remotely affordable on this tourist trap of an island."

"You're asking some stranger to help you find a place?" Steve interrupts before Kono can answer, taking offense. "I've been telling you, I would be ecstatic to help you get out of that hellhole and now you—"

"Oh, and what would you know about apartment hunting, Mr. I've lived in military housing for the entirety of my adult life?" Danny questions snarkily.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Steve demands hotly, because he really resents Danny's tone, Danny's expression, Danny's ignorant blanket statements and Danny's frequent dismissal of his hard earned real life knowledge.

"You know, it was Steve who pointed out this place to me." Kono offers in her best let's-all-be-friends-now voice and Danny shuts up for once, looking a bit taken aback. He looks at Kono, then Steve, narrows his eyes in full on detective mode.

"He did?" He asks, disbelief evident in his tone.

"Yeah, brah." Kono smiles amiably, as if this will be enough to stop the fight. Well. Kono smiling is actually a fairly cheerful sight, but he doesn't know if it has quite the same effect on Danny.

"And just how did you happen to stumble upon this real estate gem, oh Super SEAL?" His partner asks suspiciously, eyebrow raised.

"I was driving past one morning, what do you want from me?" Steve says, his tone a tad too defensive to sound completely sincere.

"You were…driving past one morning?" Danny repeats doubtfully, making it sound shady and implausible.

"Sure." He shrugs, reaching for another beer because, yeah. Danny's like a dog with a bone sometimes.

"Your house is nearby, right?" Chin asks from where he's stretched out on an armchair. He probably thinks he's helping.

"Oh, is that right?" Danny smirks. "Well isn't that a fortuitous occurrence? Maybe now you two can carpool, save the planet."

Chin and Kono appear to have given up on stopping this fight by now.

"Fortuitous occurrence, really?" Steve scoffs, rolling his eyes.

"Some people read you know."

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response."

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