Work Text:
The Five-0 task force were out for a celebratory dinner after breaking their latest case. Kono was quietly sipping her beer as she observed her ohana sitting around her.
Chin and Malia, married for four months, were sitting cuddle up against one another heads tilted close together. Steve and Danny were being more covert; fingers gently twined together, resting on the table. Their postures relaxed and opened as they sat talking to other people around the table.
Max had even brought his new lady friend, who Kono thought was lovely and seemed to fit Max perfectly.
Kono... Kono was sitting on her own smiling and laughing along with the rest of the group but still felt disconnected. She’d been feeling out of the loop since the I.A investigation and under OP. Of course work wise things were better than ever and the team was working perfectly but she watched as her team started pairing off and she realised she was suddenly on her own.
Kono had realised not long after starting with Five-0 that it was difficult to maintain friendships outside of work due to odd working hours, hostile cases or family commitments and so found herself with only the team and her family around.
Now Chin and Malia were married and beside themselves with happiness, Steve and Danny had finally got hit with a clue-by-four and were happy together. Hell, even Max was in a happy stable relationship but miss life of the party would find herself lonely.
She and Lori had begun to get quite close but she left not long after and Jenna. Jenna was gone for good and there wasn’t a day gone by that she didn’t feel that loss. She missed having company and human interaction but there was nothing to be done.
Kono finished her beer not long after the meal and came to the conclusion that she’d had enough happy-in-love couples and decided to mope at home so she stood, wishing everyone goodnight, and made her way home. It didn’t escape her notice that Malia was the only one who replied.
~*~
Malia lay in bed with her head resting on Chin’s shoulder as he ran his hand up and down the bare skin of her back, silent and content when she remembered earlier that evening.
“Are you angry with Kono?” She asked quietly.
“What? No, what makes you ask that?”
“She left early tonight, no one seemed to notice, and she looked... I don’t know, like she putting on a brave face for some reason. You didn’t go to her showcase she and the others put on for the hospital the other day either.”
“That’s because it hasn’t happened yet. It’s on the 16th”
“Chin, Its the 20th.”
“...Crap.”
“Did you figure out what to get Kono for a birthday present?”
“Her Birthday’s not for months yet”
“Its three weeks away Chin”
“Double crap.”
Malia lifts herself up and looked sadly at Chin “Have you seen her outside of work at all lately?”
“Not since before the wedding” he said slowly “Have you?”
“We go out for Coffee when both our jobs allow it but you know how our hours have been lately”
“Yeah... and we both know Steve and Danny are too focused on each other at the moment. I feel like such an Okole Puka.”
“I’m sure she understands but I still think we need to do something to make it up to her.”
“You’re right. I’ll call the guys in the morning and work something out.”
The pair settled back in, preparing to fall asleep when Chin said quietly “She’d been doing all the paper work lately too. How didn’t I notice all of this before?”
Malia gave him a comforting squeeze and they laid there until they both feel asleep.
~*~
The next morning Danny was woken up by his phone ringing. He could hear Steve shifting beside him and grinned; apparently their little workout session they’d had when they got home after the party had been enough to make the Super-SEAL forgo his usual early morning routine.
Danny was tempted to ignore the ringing and take advantage of this fact but knew neither of them would enjoy any activity with that in the back ground so he rolled over and snatched up his phone, readying himself for whatever the day was already trying to throw at him.
“This had better be good” he groaned into the mic.
“We are such assholes.”
“S’cuse me?”
“Assholes, thy name be the Five-0 males.”
“Chin? What the fuck are you on about?”
“Did you go to the charity meet for Kono?”
“It’s not until next week Chin”
“It was four days ago Danny.”
“Liar.”
“You know her birthday’s coming up right?”
“Her birthday is months away”
“Whose birthday is months away?” Steve mumbled, rolling over and stretching up against Danny’s side.
“Kono’s”
“Forever and a day away”
“Three weeks and counting boys.”
“You’re a liar.”
“Nope. We forgot about her. We. Are. Assholes.”
“Shit.”
“Yep.”
“Steve,” Danny said turning to face him “Chin is calling us assholes and I gotta say he’s making fair case.”
“Oh?”
“Yep.”
“Damn. If Chin said so it must be true.”
“Meet at ours in a hour or so yeah? We’ve gotta fix this.”
“You got it man, see you soon.”
Danny hung up the phone and rolled over to kiss Steve awake.
They still had a couple of hour’s right?
~*~
Monday morning found Kono walking into the office, expecting to be the first one in as had been the case for the past months. She was shocked to discover then all three other members were in their respective offices working away at their desks.
She made her way into her own office and ran through her morning routine, starting with her emails.
She found nothing of importance case wise but discovered an email from Malia sent that morning.
Kono!
It’s been too long since we’ve spent time together so I’m sending you my roster for the next month so we can try and find some time.
Love, Malia
P.s Oh! We’re having a BBQ this weekend. Make sure you come, I miss you xoxo.
Kono stared blankly at the screen for a few seconds before typing out a quick reply
Malia!
I’ll see if the slave drivers will cut me loose a few hours early tomorrow :D
Aloha, Kono.
P.s I’ll be there!
Kono smiled as she hit send and turned to her paper work that she’d left in her ‘In-Tray’ only to find it empty with only a note and a flower left behind.
“Aloha Kakahiaka”
Kono grinned and picked up the flower. It was a Calla Lily a flower representing Beauty.
Placing it back on the desk Kono made her way out of her office, and made her way over to the coffee machine, only to find it already poured into her favourite mug beside of tray of Malasada’s with another note.
“E ʻai kāua”
Kono giggled quietly, recognising Danny’s slightly messy scrawl, as she grabbed a napkin and a couple of Malasadas before heading back to her office again.
When she entered the room again she found a trophy sitting on her desk. Placing her burden on her desk she snatched up the trophy to examine it. The top of the trophy was of a woman surfing, a rip curl wave wrapped around the figure. The plaque underneath read: “World’s Greatest Water Woman!”
Kono laughed as she gently ran her fingers over the wave and figure before putting it down beside her Coffee and made her way over to Chin’s office.
When she walked in she found Chin glaring at his computer screen; his focus so intense he didn’t notice her arrival until she spoke.
“What’s up, Coz?”
Chin’s head snapped up in surprise and it took him a few seconds before he seemed to be able to form words again.
“Morning Kono”
“What are you doing?”
“Just catching up on some paperwork,” he smiled at her “What you are you after?”
“My paperwork seems to have walked away on its own...”
“Oh yeah, Danny was bored and finished all of his so he helped himself.”
“Oh, Okay then” She made her way around the desk, not failing to notice the way Chin quickly closes pages on the screen, to wraps her arms around Chin’s shoulders and squeezes him tight before walking away without another word.
“What was that for?”
Kono turned as she reached the door and gave him a mischievous grin, “Because I want to,” before making her way over to Danny’s office.
“Morning Blondie.”
“Blondie? Did you really just call me Blondie?!”
“Indeed I did. You have an unhealthy obsession with your hair. I’m a girl and I care less about my hair than you do.”
“My hair is an art form; Leave it alone. What are you up to missy?”
“I lost my paperwork so I came searching,” Kono walked around the desk and gave Danny a similar hug to Chin and pecking him on the cheek, “but figured I should thank you for the Malasadas”
Danny chuckled and squeezed her hand affectionately where it rested over his chest and said “Did I write bon appétit correctly?”
“You wrote it perfectly”
“Perfect. Also, you don’t need to worry about your paperwork, it’s actually almost done. You should go enjoy the Malasada’s before Mr. Health freak finally snaps and rids the office of the heart-attack-in-a-pastry and tosses them. Go on, shoo. Go enjoy them.” Danny grins at her and he waves her out the door to get back to work.
Kono walked back over to the coffee machine and poured Coffee and piled a few malasada’s onto a plate for Danny and silently placed them on his desk with a smile before making her way over to Steve’s office.
Leaning against the frame Kono watched Steve scribble away on a sheet of paper, a form of some kind, and waited long moments before he noticed she was there.
“Oh!” Steve snatched the paper away from the desk and hid it away in his top drawer “Kono! Hi!”
Kono giggled as she made her way over to Steve’s desk.
“Morning, Boss man. Planning a surprise for Danny?”
“Huh?”
Kono nodded towards the paper hidden in the desk.
“Oh! Ah, yeah it’s a surprise.”
“Aww. You’re adorable” Steve tried to glare at Kono as she giggled at him but he had to admit that he’d missed seeing her like this, happy and full of life, even if he hadn’t been aware of it until now.
“You’re hilarious; no, really.” He said in reply, which did nothing to stop Kono’s giggles.
“So Danny stole all my paper work and left me with nothing to do but drink Coffee and eat malasadas. You need anything done?”
“Not that I can recall. The Governor has us on stand by for a possible assist with HPD so if you have nothing to do go set up some movies in the conference room and we can all hang out until the call comes in.”
“Really? Awesome, I’m going to do just that.” Kono all but skipped back to her office to retrieve her now lukewarm Coffee and Malasadas. She made a fresh cup and headed towards the conference room but stopped at Steve’s door again.
She put her things down on his table before wrapping him up in a hug as well before quietly walking back out of the room hearing a quiet “Thank you?” as she walked away.
~*~
HPD never called that afternoon so the team spent the entire day watching whatever Kono could find and Steve gave her the following afternoon off so she could spend time with Malia.
Coffee and shopping did Kono well, that topped with the guys’ strange turn around had made her week more bearable. They caught a case that started with a triple homicide and lasted until late Friday night when they finally caught the bastards - trying to use a stolen speed boat to escape the island -but not before more bodies were discovered.
By Saturday night Kono was really looking forward to dinner that night. She spent most of the day surfing and relaxing in a way she hadn’t done in months, before going home to get ready.
Kono could hear music playing when she arrived that night as she made her way through the house. She stepped out the back door and froze in shock as all the guests called out “SURPRISE!!”
Malia pulled away from Chin and wrapped her arms around Kono, squeezing her tight.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s an early Surprise Party for your La hanau!”
“My birthday isn’t for a few weeks yet...”
Chin stepped forward to extract Malia from clinging to Kono, only to embrace her himself.
“We know. We wanted to make it up to you. We haven’t been very supportive lately.” Chin kissed her hairline and stepped back to let Danny have his turn.
“Besides this way if we get caught up with a case we’ve already celebrated and if we’re not then we’ll party again” Danny explained as he accepted Kono’s hug.
Steve moved forward and instead of a simple hug he picked Kono up and spun her around before setting her back on her feet.
“Just so you know,” he said as he stepped back “You’re going to like my present the best.”
“You’re like a giant child when it comes to birthdays, are you boss?”
Steve looked shiftily around as he replied “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Kono looked around and noticed Kamekona and Max were also in attendance, with their respective partners. Max walked forward but unlike the others he offered his hand, a rare occurrence for the coroner, making Kono smile adoringly has he spoke.
“Happy early Birthday, Officer Kalakaua.”
“Max, I told you its Kono, call me Kono.”
“Of course; Happy Early Birthday, Miss Kono.”
“Thank you Max”
Kono turned to Kamekona, expecting his greeting next. Instead of birthday greetings he asked
“Excuse me ku`uipo, have you got any electronics on your person?”
Kono raised her brow, patted herself down, before pulling out her phone and holding it up.
“Only my phone, why?”
Kamekona gently pried the phone from her grip and handed it over to Danny, “That’s enough chatter.”
With the speed of a man less than half his size, Kamekona stepped forward and threw Kono over his shoulder and headed towards the shore line at the end of the yard, where he promptly dropped her in the water.
“Much better, now it’s time for party.”
The rest of the night was full of music and laughter and during dinner, presents were exchanged, causing a grin to never leave Kono’s face.
Chin paid for a new board, Malia designed a necklace, Kamekona gave her free meals for a month and Max promised to have something for her by the actual day believing that gifts should not be given before then.
“Come on now Danny,” Kono Laughed as she made grabby hands towards him “hand over my goodies.”
“You and Steve are exactly alike.” Danny chuckled as he pulled an envelope out of nowhere “Here. With Love from my mother”
“What?” confusion evident on everyone’s face as Kono opened the letter inside and squealed in delight.
“Oh My God!! These are the Brownies! The Brownies!! The ones I know you put crack in to make them so addictive! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!”
She sat there reading the recipe, mentally running through her pantry at home, until Steve cleared his throat.
“Oh yeah! Alright Boss Man; let’s see my present.”
Steve gave her his goofy grin before handing over another sheet of paper.
Kono read through it before her eyes widened, sparkling in delight as she squealed again.
“You got me the rifle I wanted!!”
“It won’t arrive for a couple of weeks yet but it should be here in time for your actual day.”
“Mahalo nui loa!”
“I was right wasn’t I? You like mine the best.”
Kono just grinned mysteriously, leaning back in her chair as she took in the scene around her; her ohana surrounding her; smiling and enjoying the night. Kono hadn’t felt this loved in... she didn’t know how long.
Closing her eyes she took a deep breath happy and content to just sit and enjoy the moment.