This is a side of his friend and boss he never knew exists. Nick Taylor.

Nick knows that after something like this, he really shouldn't be going to try to find his commanding officer, but he really needs McGarrett's input on their stock of supplies. They're running low on ammunition for one thing, and since the Enterprise won't be coming back to get them for another day, they're stuck. They can easily live off the land, seeing as it is a jungle and they're highly trained operatives, but nevertheless. He is duty bound to alert his commanding officer as the executive officer.

He finds McGarrett perched on a branch high enough off the ground that he can survey the area around them relatively unobstructed, but low enough that there's enough coverage to keep him camouflaged against the searching eye. If Nick hadn't known exactly which tree Steve was in, he'd have walked right past.

The hawk eyed Commander doesn't miss a thing, Nick knows, so he's aware that Nick's down below him and is instead choosing to ignore said fact. In McGarrett-world he'd probably be breaking some sort of sacred creed if he acknowledged his XO. But then, McGarrett always was the epitome of a prepared and watchful SEAL.

But right now, Steve is frightfully angry, and struggling to hide it. They've been recalled before being able to finish their mission, and have been expressly forbidden from finishing their mission before being pulled from the warzone. And it's based on the fact that the dictator they've been sent to dispatch made some sort of offering to the government, and they'd decided he was worth more alive.

So the childkiller and destroyer of entire villages got to live. And naturally, Steve Must-Protect-The-Fucking-Entire-World McGarrett had his panties in a twist because he couldn't save everyone. The rest of the team was treading lightly. Nick takes a deep breath and opens his mouth. "Sir?"

They're back onboard the Enterprise now, so Nick no longer feels like he has to keep a careful eye on the Commander to make sure he doesn't go running off to kill the fucking bastard any way, not that he'd really be able to stop him. The rest of the team liked to joke about how they could take McGarrett down if the need came for it because the impulsive SEAL was out of control, but Nick knows deep down it would probably take all three of them. He's never seen anyone quite like McGarrett.

He is death personified sometimes, the speed at which he can whip through and deal out fatal blows to enemies astounding. He's the epitome of what a SEAL should be, just with a knack for diving in with only a half-cocked plan. As his XO, Nick likes to think he balances that out. But right now he still feels obligated to go and check up on Steve. While he knows very well Lt Rollins is aboard the Enterprise and they have some sort of friends with benefits thing, not all that uncommon considering, he's not sure that his boss would go to her.

If he knows Steve, he'd feel like he was doing her a disservice by inflicting himself upon her in the mood he was in. They're all that way. The way BUDS works, most guys pick up or teach themselves that they should internalize things, keep them to themselves for fear of showing weakness. It's a common failing among Special Operations Forces, and Nick knows he's no exception. It drives his girlfriend nuts.

There's the sound of a guitar drifting down the corridors of the aircraft carrier, but the SEAL ignores them. It's nothing new. It's honestly amazing how many people aboard one play, even with a crew of five thousand. A ton of the officers learned how at Annapolis since sometimes there was nothing do and they couldn't leave base, and others learned when they were going through bad boy phases in high school. It's rare that there isn't a guitar playing somewhere onboard if he's being honest.

Nick just isn't used to paying them any mind.

As he steps through a hatch and turns the corner to go down a flight towards the SEALs' berthing, he cocks his head to the side, as the music gets loud. It's angry – dangerous sounding. The riffs are dark and foreboding sounding, like the player is just wailing on the strings in an attempt to wring every last bit of an emotion from them and themselves. Nick smiles grimly. Nothing new there.

What is new however is the player of the guitar. Nick pauses in the hatchway of his commanding officer's stateroom, watching Steve on his perch on the rack. His legs are crossed beneath him, and all of his laser like intensity focus is on the battered acoustic guitar cradled in his hands. His fingers are flying across the neck, an intent and vaguely dangerous look on his face.

Nick is taken aback. He never knew that his friend played the guitar, or that he was so amazing at it. There is real talent hidden beneath the gun calloused fingers, and Nick can see some of the tension bleeding out of Steve's shoulders as he watches, and the music lightens slightly, no longer the pounding, jarring riffs that reverberate through his body like a dissonant chord. This is a side of his friend and boss he never knew exists.

It makes him more human in a way Nick thinks. Sometimes it's easy to forget that Steve's not actually just a Super SEAL robot who takes out the bad guys and then shuts down until he's needed again. That whipcord tight rigidity that was only moments ago present in Steve's body is gone now, replaced by a sense of serenity that Nick would never have expected from him.

"Comfortable?" Steve's voice drawls from across the room, shaking Nick from his reverie. Nick swallows. Of course Steve knew he was there the whole time. Sometimes his senses are simply frightening, and he often wonders what kind of childhood Steve had to make him turn out the way he did. It must have a taken a very special family to create him, and a very unique home. He's never asked his CO where he calls home, and the inflections Steve sometimes puts on his words is unfamiliar to him. But that's personal, and if there's one line Nick learned long ago never to cross, it was to try and mix McGarrett's personal and professional lives.

"Came looking to make sure you were alright boss." Nick says, not mentioning the guitar, despite his overwhelming curiosity. Some things are just better left unsaid.

So I'd originally intended for Diminuendo to be a stand alone piece, but the idea kind of grabbed me about how nobody would really expect McGarrett to play the guitar, and it would probably have been a long constant in his life. So this little piece popped in my head. There may or may not be more, but they'll come as they please.