Title: I Won't Call You My Weakness, But I Will Call You Mine

Summary: A stressful case has Steve re-considering his relationship with Kono until he can admit to himself the truth about what he really wants. AU established Steve/Kono

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: Hello! :) Hope everyone's doing well. Sorry for the hiatus, but I'm not really into the show anymore. Even though I have tons of finished Steve/Kono pieces sitting on my hard drive, I wasn't in the mood to even think of uploading them. But I liked last episode and it made me miss Steve and Kono, together, individually, and my versions of them, so I thought I'd finally get around to posting something. And I missed some of my favorite commenters here as well!

This falls in the same universe as some of the other pieces I've posted. It's an AU where Malia's still alive and has twin boys with Chin, and Steve and Kono are already in a relationship. There's a case involved in this story, but let me emphasize, it is not a case story, it is a Steve/Kono story that happens to have a case to further set up their story. It's not meant to be very technical or thought out.

Comments would be most welcome. Depending on how much feedback I get, I'll decide how quickly I decide to post updates. Icon credit goes to andyswarek at tumblr. Many thanks to fiveohlove and Tiana-P for being the best cheerleaders when I was writing this. Enjoy!

"I'm not hungry, Kono, I don't have time to eat. You go get something."

"You're not hungry, or you don't have time to eat?" Kono questions in amusement as she throws his words back at him. "Cause those are two totally different things."

Steve looks up from his desk to glare at her nitpicking his words, before returning his attention to the file he has open, wheeling his chair back to grab some sheets from the printer. "Both. Either. I need to review these files for the Governor, I'm meeting him Thursday."

"That's still two whole days away!" Kono points out, getting up from one of the visitor armchairs in his office to come stand around his desk. "You've been working non-stop all night, I thought you were meeting him tomorrow morning or something." Steve shakes his head. "You have plenty of time. Let's go eat."

"I may not have time tomorrow once the DNA comes back on the case," Steve tells her. "Just order something here."

"No way, this place will smell like stale takeout tomorrow." Kono wrinkles her nose at the idea of the smell greeting them in the morning when they arrive for work. "Come on, you have plenty of time." Steve still doesn't look convinced. She sighs as she hops onto the corner of his desk. "You were one of those kids who did your homework as soon as you got home from school, weren't you?"

"Of course," Steve replies, smiling faintly as he looks up at her. "Let me guess. You waited until Sunday night?"

"Or Monday morning on the bus," Kono says with a laugh. She watches him put the printouts in the file he's working on and close it, moving it to the finished pile, but she grabs his hand before he reaches for a new folder to review. "Nope. You can do those tomorrow. Let's eat." He opens his mouth to protest, so she hurries to speak first as she tugs him up from his chair. "I promise to help you tomorrow, come on. I know you didn't even have lunch, Danny was starving when he left."

"Got busy," is all Steve says, but he gives his desk one last look to make sure everything is neatly in place, powers off his computer, and follows her to the door.

"We're always busy, Steve," Kono tells him, watching him lock his office door and grabbing his hand to lead him down the stairs. "I swear, did you even remember to eat before I came along?"

"Well, thankfully, I have you now, and you always remembers to eat," Steve teases, already feeling lighter and more cheerful as they step out into the warm Hawaiian night. The last rays of afternoon sunshine are disappearing into a golden, picture perfect sunset. It's impossible not to enjoy the view, even if a meeting with the Governor looms ahead.

"Hey, watch it," Kono says sternly as she slides into the passenger's seat of his truck, but she smiles and leans over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek as he starts the engine. "You pick."

Twenty minutes later, she eyes him thoughtfully as he's finishing his second helping of macaroni and cheese.

"Not hungry, were you?" she asks as she waves the waitress over for their bill.

Steve shrugs as he pushes his plate away. "Okay, fine," he admits with a lopsided smile. "You got me."

"Duh. You were crabby all afternoon."

"No, I wasn't," Steve denies.

"Yes, you were. You basically snapped Danny's head off about him losing the autopsy report for the Ruani case, and it was in your office the whole time."

"But not in the autopsy bin," Steve points out in annoyance. "I told him to keep all autopsy files separate and put them in the top bin so I can sign off-"

Kono interrupts him with a laugh. "Don't worry, I always put them in the top bin for you," she says proudly as she leans closer to him.

"You do, thank you," he says with a fond smile as he leans closer to brush his lips across hers quickly, smiling when she instinctively leans in for more. But they're in public, so he keeps it chaste and she reluctantly moves back, but remains close to his side. "You always put the files in the right bin."

"That's only because I'm sleeping with you," Kono explains as she gulps down the last of her soda. "Or else I'd annoy you like Danny does."

"Hey, Chin puts them in the right bin too. What's your reasoning on that?"

"That he's Chin, and he's perfect," Kono says about her cousin matter-of-factly, and Steve has to nod in agreement at that.

They look up as their waitress approaches them with a copy of their bill. "Will you be paying in cash or credit? Separate or together?"

"Together," Kono says. She sees Steve reach for his wallet but she's quicker and holds up her credit card, having already pulled it from her pocketbook as she eyed the waitress across the room. "Here."

"No, wait," Steve says, holding his card up and shaking it slightly to signal that the waitress pay attention to him. "This one."

"Ignore him." Kono smiles brightly at the woman in reassurance. "This one."

"No," Steve repeats, fixing the waitress with a steely stare as if she is daring to disobey a direct command from a high ranking official in the United States Armed Forces, which she is. She's just not a subordinate member of the military or a law enforcement official for him to boss around.

"Okay, you decide and I'll be back in a minute," the waitress says with a small laugh as she moves down the aisle to the next table.

"You scare everybody away," Kono accuses her boyfriend with a playful glare. "I got it, Steve."

"Kono..."

"You paid for dinner a few nights ago, plus shave ice. It's fine."

"No, I didn't," Steve lies smoothly, but she only shakes her head at him.

"Yes, you did, I was there. And we had this exact same conversation but the waiter was a wimp and caved. I like this lady," Kono comments with approval as she waves the waitress back over. "Let it go. You pay the next time."

"Fine," he relents as he watches the waitress grab Kono's credit card when she walks past their table again. "Thanks."

She smiles to herself at his thank you, because that's how he is - chivalrous and polite, manners ingrained in him either by a mother he lost too soon, or the Navy that became his next family, polishing his rough edges to create the man he is now. Maybe it's a little of both influences, and his instinctive generous nature; she can never tell when it comes to figuring out the parts of him that catch her by surprise.

Kono slides next to him, smiling with pleasure as he wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her close. "Do you feel okay, Steve? Do you feel horribly emasculated? Should I call an ambulance?"

"Shut up," Steve retorts, but he releases a small chuckle as he shakes his head in amusement.

"Is your manhood intact? You know, if you want," she says with a wicked smile as she leans closer, resting a hand on his chest as he ducks his head to hear her next words, "I can check on it for you when you drop me off." Her hand drops a few inches on his chest, and from the teasing look in her eye, he has no doubt exactly what she's referring to by it.

"Yeah?" he murmurs, his eyes darkening at her innuendo, the corner of his mouth twitching as he holds back a smirk. "That's really helpful of you." His hand rubs small circles softly at the small of her back, his touch warm through the fabric of her thin cotton t-shirt.

"I'm a helpful person," Kono remarks with a smile. "I work in public service." Steve grins, but before he can open his mouth to say something back, she adds, "Oh, but wait. You have those files for the Governor to look over."

Steve grabs her hand before she can move away from him in the booth, holding it tightly and shaking his head at the tactic she's using. But it's a tactic that works, and he certainly doesn't mind losing tonight. "There's only a few left, I can finish up tomorrow."

"Putting off homework from the Governor for me?"

"You're worth it," he replies with a smile, kissing her quickly, just as the waitress interrupts their flirting to give back Kono's credit card with the receipt.

"Have a great night," she says warmly.

"Thanks, you too," Kono says back before following Steve out of the booth to the parking lot, smiling at him in the evening darkness. "My car's at headquarters so you wanna drive back?"

"I'll pick you up in the morning," Steve tells her, and she nods in agreement at the arrangement.

"Not super early!" she warns. "I want to surf tomorrow and I don't wanna be in at six o'clock in the morning unless we have a new case."

"No promises," he says seriously, but smiles at her in the car and drops the act. An early morning of work is nothing to joke about with her. If it's for surfing, she's there. But for a crime scene? Not the best way to start the day. "Fine, fine, I'll call you when I'm going in."

"Good." Kono twists in her seat to smile at him in the evening dusk. "See, eating dinner, it's an amazing concept."

"I eat dinner," Steve counters back.

"Yeah, only when you remember. What's the point of being able to cook when you barely remember mealtimes?"

"Cooking for one person is a waste," Steve admits with a shrug.

"Well, you can cook for me," Kono says brightly. "Tomorrow, dinner at your place."

"Okay." He smiles at her and nods, marking it on his mental calendar, already running through a list of ingredients in the fridge that he can use and what she'll like. Thankfully, she's very easy when it comes to dinner choices. "I can do that."

She kisses his cheek at the promise of their plans, and he turns his head so their lips meet quickly, just for a second before his eyes dart back to the road. But it's enough of a fleeting contact to have their senses humming and their blood roaring with desire. Her lips remain on the corner of his mouth, her hand cradling the line of his jaw as her warm breath fans his skin and she drops another kiss on his cheek.

"Drive faster," Kono orders, and Steve pushes his foot on the gas pedal at her command.

"Hey, Steve still with the Governor?" Danny joins Kono at the smart table, watching her run information on the latest victim they'd found this morning in a dumpster behind the shopping mall, tossed out like yesterday's trash. The symbolism made them cringe, but they could do nothing but their jobs as they canvassed the scene and took statements from the maintenance crew. Kono was running financials while Chin was in his office talking to the law firm they'd learned their victim, Conner Mahuki, worked for.

"Yeah, he's not back yet," Kono tells him. "Almost done running this stuff, but it's all clean. He seemed like a stand-up guy. Left behind a wife and a kid."

"I don't think he wanted to leave them, Kono," Danny says with a sad smile, and she winces apologetically at the saying and how unfit it sounds in the context of the Mahuki family's loss. "Well, send what you have to HPD cause Duke called to say they're taking the case." Danny shakes the cell phone in his hand slightly to let her know he'd just finished talking with the Sergeant.

"Why?" Kono frowns, her hands hovering over the keyboard at the news. HPD officers had been at the scene but none of them mentioned anything about taking over the case.

"Hey, guys. Who wants to come with me to the law firm?" Chin asks, stepping out of his office.

"Perfect timing," Danny says, inviting Chin to join them with a wave of his hand. "Apparently, HPD got some information on the last pro bono case Mahuki was working on. He was defending a guy busted for small time drug dealing, and almost had him ready to roll on the head honcho, some guy named Akoni Chan. Just before the meet with HPD, we find Mahuki dead and they found the guy he was representing beaten and bloody at the beach. Said the gang turned on him when they knew he'd talk, so HPD is going to take over to continue building their case," Danny concludes with a shrug.

"Oh, okay, makes sense," Chin acknowledges. "I'll call back the law firm and tell them to expect a detective from HPD to get in touch with them."

Kono goes back to the smart screen to save what she'd been working on. "I'll email this stuff to them."

"And I will call Steve," Danny says with a smile. "I'm already liking today. Well, minus the dead guy, of course."

"I guess this means we have to look over the Sanbower case again," Chin announces responsibly, holding back a grin at Kono and Danny's dramatic sighs of exasperation. "There's gotta be something we can find on the security footage."

"Yes, I'm sure there is, Chin, but we can't find it, even after viewing the same footage forty-seven times," Danny mutters. But he pulls up a chair and motions for Kono to start the video on the plasma screen as they begin to review it for the forty-eighth time.