Disclaimer: I own nothing except for some Ikea bedroom furniture.

Staring contests and other games

Kono's job is perfect. There's only one problem; her boss keeps staring at her.

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Her (few) academy friends can't believe her luck. Getting a job straight away, in the Governor's new task force, it's the kind of opportunity most rookies would kill for.

Kono is aware of her good fortune. She likes her job, and—it just so happens—she's fucking great at it. There are cool gadgets and insane cases and she proves early on that she can be trusted to think on her feet or, you know, kick someone's face in.

She thinks she's really pulling her weight in the team. It's a good feeling. It seems as if the universe has finally realigned itself, the purpose of her shattered hopes for a surfing career has been revealed. She was a really good surfer, but she's an even better cop. She revels in the novelty of it for the first few months.

Until things start to feel off, somehow.

Nothing major has changed. They still close their cases and catch the bad guys and she's still surprisingly good at her job. Only sometimes, she will catch Steve staring at her for no apparent reason. She usually just smiles (casual, unaffected, it's totally normal for my boss to stare at me so much) and looks away. Steve's a perfectly nice guy, fair and easy to work with. He is a great boss, really, except for the staring, which Kono mostly tries to ignore. It isn't really that intrusive, or obvious. Maybe he doesn't even realize he's doing it. Right.

Chin and Danny haven't noticed anything, which means she is quite possibly overreacting-maybe hallucinating the whole thing. And anyway, she reasons. What's the big deal? People stare at her all the time, for lots of different reasons. She's a cop, Chin's cousin, "that girl who can't surf professionally anymore", or just a cute girl in a bathing suit. If Steve wants to stare absentmindedly in her general direction for reasons yet to be determined, what is it to her? She's just doing her job.

So Kono keeps doing her job and Steve keeps staring and she keeps ignoring it.

Avoidance you say? Pffft.

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They closed a case this morning and Kono's propping herself up on her desk, trying not to fall asleep over the paperwork. Almost everyone else has already left for the night, and the office is quiet and dull without the sunlight reflecting off the glass walls. She's tired and annoyed and Steve has been staring at her for thirty minutes straight.

Whatever, man. This is bullshit. She gets up, gathering the files to shove in her bag, deciding to finish up at home. She probably has to go over there and say goodnight first, but she'll be out of here in five minutes tops, so…whatever. She exhales, running a hand through her hair in frustration, trying to compose herself, then walks over and knocks on his door.

He's hunched over some form, writing something down, and you can almost believe he hadn't just been watching her for far too long by any polite society's standards.

"Hey Boss, I'm heading home. I'll have the paperwork ready in the morning, ok?"

He looks up reluctantly, as if he's really involved in whatever he's supposed to be doing and she wants to grit her teeth at all the pretending. Whatever, brah. Like they didn't both know he was distracted.

"Sure." He says looking at the clock on his desk. "You need a ride or something? It's late."

Kono smiles thinly. "No, brah, it's fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, no worries. I've got my car."

"Okay then, goodnight."

"Night, Boss."

Whatever, man, what-the fuck-ever.

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The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, she'd caught some good waves this morning and life is all around pretty damn great. The salt has dried on her skin on the short drive back to her apartment so she hits the shower and actually stays there for a while. It's Saturday and they don't have a case, so they get the whole weekend off. As previously stated: life is great.

Kono plans to spend a lot of time on the beach, catch up with some friends, maybe read a book. Nothing remotely stressful. She meets with some of her friends from the Academy for lunch. They talk about the tedious tasks assigned to rookies, and Noah seems psyched over getting to arrest a kid who tried to rob a sporting goods store. She gives them a watered down version of her job at 5-0, editing out stuff that would imply she is trusted with anything but the most trivial of duties.

Someone asks about Steve, who has apparently developed a reputation for shooting first and asking questions later.

"It's probably just the SEAL training." Muses Kali, having apparently given it some thought. "Not really much use for subtlety."

"I don't know guys." Kono shrugs, trying to pull the label off her beer bottle. "He seems pretty reasonable most of the time." Which he did. Right?

"So he didn't throw a suspect off a building?" Noah asks, only half joking.

"Not that I'm aware of." Kono laughs.

They go back to talking about their superiors at HPD, most of whom Kono only knows in passing, and break it off a bit later.

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Danny texts her in the afternoon to let her know they're all meeting up for drinks. It's that or a CSI marathon, so she tells him she'll be there. She pins her hair up and puts on a pair of nice earrings, deciding on a black sparkly top and shorts. She debates wearing dress slacks but it's just too damn hot, so the shorts will have to do.

The place is pretty packed when she gets there but not enough to make her want to leave. She orders a drink at the bar then tries to look around to spot the guys. They're in a small booth in the back of the room so she makes her way over there, taking detours to avoid running into people.

"Howzit, guys."

"Cuz." Chin gives her a nod.

"Officer Kalakaua, how nice of you to finally join us!" Danny cries a little too loudly, probably half-drunk already. Lightweight.

Steve nods at her and smiles. Kono smiles back because, see, this is normal. When the whole team's together there is never any awkwardness. She can almost convince herself she's imagining the whole thing.

She turns to Steve, smirking.

"So, Boss. Apparently, there's a rumor that you're going around throwing suspects off buildings. Care to comment?"

Danny nearly chokes on his drink.

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