Author's Note: I'm not even going to try denying the fact that this story is completely random. I guess you could say I had a reason to write it in that I'm very happy that H50 actually bothers to teach, to some extent, about Hawaiian culture and language. And because I've become so interested in the language, I've also become interested in the people speaking it – namely, our favorite characters. Hopefully you all will feel the same way after reading; enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any of its characters.

"You know," Steve thought aloud, "I've always wondered at the fact that haole and ha'i'ole look so similar, yet are completely different in meaning. How about that for the difficulty of language?"

Kono looked over at him with twinkling eyes and a mischievous smile – mischievous because she was looking forward to testing out just how 'unbreakable' her Navy SEAL really was later that night. For the moment, they were seated on Steve's lanai, each nursing a beer as they dug into their shrimp fried rice; much to Steve's surprise, it turned out that Kono was a fabulous cook. Even more reason to keep her around, he thought to himself, his gaze matching hers. It wasn't as if he really needed a reason, though. In a white summer dress with red, yellow, and turquoise beading around the neckline, Kono looked absolutely magnificent. Her perfectly golden skin practically glowed under the caress of the Hawaiian sun, and he loved it in a way he simply couldn't describe.

An amused little throat-clearing brought him back to the present, and he tossed her a boyish, sheepish smile as he realized that she had clearly been waiting for him to stop ogling so she could respond to his previous musing – the one he had already forgotten about. "And which one do you think better applies to you?"

He thought about that for a while. Neurons fired, and a specific memory from just days earlier sparked in his mind.

The music was loud, the infectious beat resounding deep in their souls. The bar wasn't one that they usually frequented. This way…they wouldn't be recognized.

Her lips were soft and pliant against his, though the kiss was a kind of passionate that tugged deep in his belly and made him crave more, ever more. Much to his delight, her arms weren't stationary in the slightest. He could feel their warmth pressing against his chest, moving to rove his strong, muscled back…then dipping lower…

"Fuck, Kono."

She chuckled huskily in his ear, and was about to whisper something back in that telltale sultry way of hers – but suddenly, she wasn't pressed up against him anymore. And just as Steve turned around to look where she had gone, a fist caught him square in the jaw.

Instead of his sweet little raven-haired vixen murmuring against his skin, Steve was confronted by a towering native with eyes of fire and a dangerous scowl. "Find some leggy blonde of your own kind, haole," he hissed. "Leave this pretty one for us, okay?"

A punch in the gut and one roundhouse kick later, the poor native realized that he had clearly messed with the wrong people.

When Steve finally answered, his tone was not defensive, but rather quietly passionate. "Hawaii is my home," he said, a look of intensity reflected in his handsome blue-green eyes. "Though I was born and raised here, I may have resented it at first, when I was fifteen – and I had my reasons then. It reminded me too much of my mother. But now? I wouldn't leave for the world." He shared a smoldering glance with her that spoke millions. "I've found myself on this island. Why would I want to lose that all over again?"

Kono felt a comfortable flush color her cheeks, beyond pleased with his response. "And you picked up the language quickly?"

"Before I was sent to the mainland and enrolled in the Naval Academy, I had a job down by the beach helping a couple guys make surfboards for a summer or two." Steve delighted in the look of pleasant surprise that flitted across her features. "It only made sense to learn. Then I picked up Mandarin and Korean while in Naval Intelligence."

"I'm proud of you," Kono said, before she could think twice. She could feel his eyes on her as she flushed again, this time out of mild embarrassment, and went back to busying herself with the food on her lap. Her words weren't so much out of place as they were unexpected – and Steve couldn't help but fall for his island beauty that much more.

Absentmindedly, Kono thought about how it would have been if he had not left for Annapolis and instead, they had met at a much younger age. Would she have first run into him while seeking out someone to make her a board? She imagined she would have watched the muscles of his arms – perhaps he would have already gotten a tattoo – flex as he shaped the polyurethane and fiberglass.

"It'll take a while. You can come back later, if you want," he would have told her, but she wouldn't have listened; and secretly, he would have liked that very much.

Kono wondered if they would have been wilder then than they were now – if that was even remotely possible.

Steve chuckled then, as if he were able to read her thoughts, and before Kono knew it, his arms had circled around her waist. "Where'd you go?" he whispered in her ear.

She turned to him, setting her nearly empty plate of food on the ground before pressing her lips to his. "I'm right here."

"I'm glad. Take a walk with me?" Kono standing and reaching for his hand was all the answer he needed. He cocked his head in the general direction of the public beach. "We could get a shave ice and share. One half coconut for you, the other half cherry for me."

Kono couldn't help but laugh at that, and the carefree sound made Steve's heart skip a beat. "You sure know how to woo a girl, Commander." And God, she had never said anything truer.

Their beers in their free hands, they left their shoes behind as they set off along the seaside, their toes digging into the sand that was cool beneath their bared feet. This time, it was Kono's turn to ogle, and she did so unabashedly, taking in those low slung jeans that were worn out in the best of ways, that thin white tee, the unbuttoned shirt the color of a lemon ice hanging off his shoulders...

Quite simply, he looked gorgeous. And he was all hers.

After finally visiting Kamekona for some shave ice and settling in on a bench in a slightly more secluded portion of the beach, Kono leaned against Steve's muscled side and allowed him to feed her a spoonful of the cold, delicious treat.

She giggled, actually giggled, when he began whispering sweet nothings to her in Hawaiian: You're so beautiful. I'm so lucky. I love you so much. Kono's lips found his cheek after that last one, and she hummed out a contented sigh against his cheek. "Aloha au ia 'oe, Steve," she returned. "And I love hearing you speak the language."

Steve turned to her, their noses practically touching. "Funny, I was about to say the exact same thing." When he kissed her this time, Steve gave it his all and Kono could taste the tangy then sweet bite of cherries on his tongue. As for Kono, she tasted like she always did, the flawless and intoxicating combination of sun, coconut, and the salty sea that seemed to be imbedded deep in her very core.

Kono gave a little whimper of a moan as his lips found her neck and sucked hard. "Someone we know could see us," she panted, for the sake of trying in vain to think straight.

But then, their equally dark gazes met and his tongue dipped into her collarbone...and Kono suddenly couldn't bring herself to care if Danny or Chin or even Governor Jameson came across them. Hell, all of Hawaii could have been there and she wouldn't have noticed.

Steve's sentiments echoed hers exactly. "Now would that really be so bad?" he murmured against her skin.

Kono's resulting smile was blinding, the most dazzling Steve had ever seen. "Not at all."

It was in the middle of their hundredth kiss that Steve realized that they shared an affinity for the Hawaiian language because of the experience they had with one another's tongues – or something like that. His theory had made sense to him earlier, but that had been before Kono had pulled his head up with a hand in his hair and taken his bottom lip between her teeth and his mind had shorted.

Experience with each other's tongues indeed.

THE END.

Author's Note: Like it? Love it? Please leave a review, if you have the time; short or long, signed or anonymous, I always enjoy hearing what you guys have to say. It always make me smile!