Disclaimer: I don't know Hawaii Five-0

OFFICER RULE NO.1

He wondered how a bunch of bugs could lead to this.

Steve stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling, arms folded behind his head and unaware of the fact that this passing thought would repeat itself before the hour was out. He lay in the darkened room, a small bag stuffed with some of his belongings leaning idly against the foot of the bed. He was tired, overworked, spent. Obligatory shoot-outs and giving chase had taken their toll, not to mention the bickerings with Danno, Danno who had relished in taking his wise-crackings up a notch today.

"You won't be seeing me for a few days, man," he had rationalized, practically bouncing with excitement in the passenger's seat of the Camaro, "so I got to piss you off as much as I can before I fly out. You understand, right? Friends?"

The memory brought an irritated furrow to Steve's brow and he sat up on the bed. What kind of idiot goes to Jersey for a holiday? And what kind of a friend flies out of the island forgetting that he'd offered someone a place to crash while his house was getting gassed for bugs? To be fair Danny had insisted he could still stay in the apartment but Steve declined. He'd resigned to booking a hotel room for a few nights when Chin generously offered him a place to stay.

"Family beach house, I'm heading up. Kono said she might too. You're more than welcome."

Steve had no reason to say no.

He glanced at the bedside clock. He'd been lying in the muggy heat for an hour and he just couldn't get to sleep. His body was aching with fatigue but his eyes and mind were fired up and alive. He ran a hand through his unruly hair and with a dejected sigh swung his legs over the bed. He put a shirt on. Maybe a walk would do him some good.

Quietly Steve made his way through the empty hallway where Chin's snores were barely muted by the thin walls. Two doors down he noticed a shaft of light escaping from the bottom. His immediate thought was that Kono had, after all, decided to come up to the house. He stood in front of the door, saying nothing and doing nothing but listening and waiting for her to make a sound—any kind of sound—so that he could decide whether or not to knock. After a long moment nothing happened. He brought a hand up to the varnished door, but decided against it at the last minute. He wondered what Catherine was doing.

The second he stepped outside he felt the weariness drain from his body. He forgot about the weight on his shoulders, and remembered how much he loved the place. Especially at night. The city was asleep, the stars were out, waves called. Even after living with its ugly side day in day out Hawaii was still, to him, Paradise.

He cut across the dry grass listening to the gentle beach and he felt like he was in an empty, blackened room just him and the sound of the ocean. But when he reached the sparse bushes that marked the end of the backyard he realized that there was somebody else there with them.

Man, was there somebody else there with them.

Kono stood with her back to him, wearing nothing but a red bikini. Her clothes were a pile on the sand by her feet. She stared out into a beach that was so calm it was more like an infinite lake, and judging by the state of her hair and the water running down the curves of her back she'd already gone for her midnight swim.

As always Steve had control of his emotions—his placid expression remained unchanged—but his eyes were trained on Kono's lean body and even his strong demeanor couldn't mask his subtle gulps. He exhaled and turned away, heading back to the house, but with every step he asked himself why exactly was he leaving. He stopped; he didn't really know why. They'd been alone before, him and Kono. And he'd seen her in a bikini in the past. They were friends. It was no big deal. They knew where each other stood and the roles they played. So he wondered, then, why he felt so conflicted about joining her for the night.

When he returned to the beach he saw that she hadn't moved an inch. She was standing the exact same way she had been—hips leaning slightly to one side, a foot digging into the cold sand, hands by her side. Except now, her bikini had joined her clothes on the sand. With eyes adjusted to the dark he watched as she moseyed over to the beach. There was something about the way she moved. Either she'd always moved like that and he was just noticing for the first time, or she knew that somebody was watching and decided it would be fun to excite them with her walk.

Steve's lips pulled at the sides.

He always thought ahead so he already had a plan. He would come out of the bushes, hands in his pocket because it added to his innocence. She would have dropped into the water by then but she would come up and see him eventually. She'd call out his name. She'd wave a hand and he would narrow his eyes and bring a hand to his brow, the universal sign of someone looking in the distance. It worked like a charm.

"Ho Boss," she called over the waves. "Cuz told me you were staying for a few days."

"Yeah," Steve said with a shrug. "I've uh, got few bugs and stuff."

By then he was ankle deep in the water. Kono was only a few meters away, half lying half sitting on the sandbed so only her head and bare shoulders were visible above the blackened water.

"Couldn't sleep?" she asked.

"Couldn't sleep."

"Me either. Must be the heat." She poked a foot out of the water. "So what's up? Are you just walking around in the middle of the night?"

"I don't know, are you just going for a swim in the middle of the night, which, by the way, you know you shouldn't do as a general rule right?"

Kono laughed. "A stickler for the rules?" she teased, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Detective Steve McGarrett? No, surely not."

"You," he warned, pointing a finger, "aren't allowed to hang around Danny anymore."

They smiled at each other.

"So you coming in or what?" she asked, a tilt to her head.

"What?"

"Are you getting in the water or not?"

"I…don't think that would be a good idea."

Kono shook her head. "You know I'm naked don't you?"

"You're naked?" For a good liar his delivery of that was pretty deplorable. But Kono only smiled.

"Oh come on," she urged casually, looking up at the stars as she spoke. "We're not five, I'm sure you've gone skinny dipping with a woman before. Besides, you're like family."

"That kind of makes it sound gross."

"That does doesn't it? How about this: you're just my boss."

"That," Steve laughed, "makes it sound wrong."

"But at least not gross," she said, this time the one to point a finger. He smirked and pretended like he was considering her proposition, but he'd already made up his mind.

Back on the shore he could feel her eyes on him as he first removed his shirt, followed by his sweatpants. He was tempted to look over his shoulder and catch her in the act but surprisingly he felt some kind of weird pull at his stomach—a kind of nervousness and fear at the possibility that she wasn't all that interested in him and was probably looking for grit under her nails or something. He frowned.

"I promise not to look," Kono called from a distance, as though reading his mind. But he didn't even hear her playful quip. He was too lost in asking himself: why the hell would that bother me?

He walked to the beach in the buff and as he got closer he could see that she had covered her eyes with her hand. She had moved back further towards the ocean to a depth where they could both easily sit or lie without exhibiting their bodies to each other. When he took his place beside her she uncovered her eyes and slapped him in the shoulder.

"See brah," she grinned, "that wasn't so hard was it?"

He glanced at her, smiling that borderline smirk of a smile, and all around them the water bobbed up and down gently.

"D'you come out here often?" he asked.

"Boss, are you hitting on me?"

"Kono…"

"Yeah," she answered, giving in to his need for a serious conversation. "I try to anyway, just to get away from everything."

"Is everything OK?"

"It's fine. Great. Couldn't be better. It just…takes it toll you know."

"Yeah," Steve nodded, turning away and looking at the shore. "I know."

For a while they said nothing and a comfortable silence hung in the still air. He noticed that she smelt like coconut.

"You don't regret it do you?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe that's the wrong question," he said, correcting himself. "What I mean is, if you could choose between surfing and being an Officer, what would you chose?"

"That's a hell of a question."

"I know." He looked at her and saw that she was looking directly at him, her eyes relaying a message he couldn't quite grasp.

"Well," she began, "I guess if you asked me that question a couple of months ago I would have said surfing, without a doubt. But now… I have you guys. You're my work family. Arguably better than my real family."

Steve nodded, understanding. It was the exact answer he'd been looking for but there was something about it that felt short, like he wanted more.

"Without Five-0 I never would have met you."

When she said this he lifted his head swiftly, and felt the moment slip away when she added, "And Danno. I never would've known you guys. So I guess, if I was able to choose between surfing and this, I'd choose this. Without a doubt. Especially this." He smiled as she jokingly poked him in the shoulder. "Now your turn, Boss."

"What?"

"Don't what me. And don't do that face on me."

"What face?"

"That face," she said, gesturing to his face. She sat up on the sand and got so high above the water she almost unwittingly flashed him. "That serious face you do. That non-face face."

He shrugged. "I don't know what that face is."

"Brah, you're gonna speak, even if I have to kick your ass to make you do it."

"Go on," he laughed. "Right now."

She tsk'd. "I wouldn't kick your ass right now, not in this situation. Act accordingly to the situation: Officer Rule Number 1."

"There's no such thing as Officer Rule Number 1 and if there was that wouldn't be it."

"Well that's what it should be."

"OK," he challenged, cocking a brow. "Explain to me exactly what it is."

"No way brah, you're not squirming out of this one. I answered your serious question, now you answer mine."

He sighed. "What do you want to know?"

"I don't know," Kono shrugged. She maneuvered herself in the water so that she was sitting across him, facing him. Her foot brushed against his in the process, and he had to exercise complete control in order not to show how this affected him. "Anything exciting happening?"

"I have bugs in my house," Steve offered. "That's pretty exciting."

"Boss, what that is is pretty disgusting."

"I guess it is."

Kono sat there, seemingly thinking of some aspect of Steve's life that she could ask about. "Your girlfriend," she settled in the end. "How is she? You seen her lately?"

Steve smiled, thinly. "I knew you would ask about Catherine. The answer's No. I haven't seen her. Not recently anyway."

Kono picked up on the weariness of his tone. "10-4," was all she said.

"I use to…" he began but trailed off, struggling to find the right words. "I use to ask myself, right, what she was doing. At any given time of day I'd find myself wondering what she was doing and wishing that I was there with her. And I'd ask myself that two, three times a day. It used to just come out of nowhere. Then I began asking myself only when I saw things that reminded me of her. Then it was once a day, once a week, once every fortnight."

"And now?" Kono asked, looking at him sadly.

"Now…I have to make myself do it. I force myself to think about her. Like I did tonight."

There was a long moment where neither of them did or said anything, until Kono supposed, "Maybe that's a sign though—like it's time you two got your act together and met up again. If it's been a while maybe that's just you telling yourself that you miss her and you need to see her. Soon. Tomorrow, even."

"Yeah," Steve said, "maybe. Or maybe it is what it is." He looked up at Kono. "And I just need to hear someone say it."

"Sorry, Boss." She put a hand on his shoulder. "You're not going to hear it from me. But you heard it. Right now. Just then."

Steve nodded. "Guess I did."

Kono, realizing her hand was still on his cool skin, removed it and sat back looking almost embarrassed. She raised her head up to the sky and looked at the all the millions of little dots that always made her feel so insignificant. Steve watched her the whole time.

"So, Officer Rule Number 1," he said, the expression on his face dead serious. "Let's have it, Kono."

She smiled widely.

"Well the general gist of it you have to let the situation dictate the way you act. That way, you'll get exactly what you want out of someone."

"Right…"

"If say, were in the office: in order to get you to do whatever I want all I'd have to do is kick your ass. But in a different situation, like the one we're in right now, there'd be a more effective way of doing that instead of kicking ass." She stopped, narrowed her eyes. "Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Negative."

"Why don't I just show you," Kono said more than asked.

"Why don't you."

"I'm going to be wearing your smirk soon, brah."

"All I hear is talk, Kono."

Kono smiled, shaking her head. "Copy this, Boss: you'll be putty in my hands soon."

Steve said nothing, simply looked at her with a hardened expression and folded his arms over his chest.

She moved back slowly in the water, only a few steps, the whole time her large brown eyes locked to his. She stopped and raised her elbows out of the water as she played with her dark hair, twisting it and letting it fall to one side of her slender neck. And even though he was too proud to admit it, just like that, Steve saw her point.

He'd always known that Kono was beautiful but in that very moment he saw just how breathtaking she was, like after years of blindness he was looking at the face of a woman for the very first time.

For the next few seconds all he could do was look on and try not to show his defeat as she moved closer and closer to him, one arm treading the water, the other brushing her collarbone. Her full lips were twisted into a half smile and her eyes seemed to never blink. He could only imagine the way her body was moving beneath the cold water. Soon she was only inches away from him and she stopped. She reached out with one hand, touched a side of his jaw with a finger and ran it slowly down his neck and along his broad shoulders. The serious expression remained on his face; he couldn't let her see that he was done for. But Kono was no fool.

"You are so ready to give me anything I want."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Kono," he said, inadvertently admitting defeat with his lack of conviction.

"OK, so if I was to—"

She looked surprised when he grabbed her wrist but her expression soon changed to confusion when he reached out with his other hand and pushed her hair behind her ear. They stayed like that for a moment and it was obvious under the Hawaiian moon that nothing else mattered but this. Kono was the first to break the silence.

"Remember how I said you're like family?"

"Yeah," he answered, barely audible above the sound of the water.

"What I meant by that is Chin is like my older brother. Danny's the crazy goof. And you're my brother's good friend." She paused. "Who I may have a crush on."

At this, Steve smiled.

"As your older brother's good friend I should warn you that he's going to kill us," he said as he pulled her close, the space between them practically non-existent.

"You," Kono pointed out. "He's going to kill you."

Steve very quickly decided he had no problem with that. He leaned in to kiss her, and he wondered how it was a bunch of bugs could lead to this moment, right before all his thoughts melted away and all that was left was Kono's name.

END

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think :)