delicatale | Try a little tenderness; PG-13; Gen

So I've been going over and over all the things that went wrong in this episode and I guess I can't change many of them, it's require Danny shaking Steve too much, and putting Joe White on a plane back to the mainland, but at least, I could do this. About 700 words of Steve and Danny and Kono, making amends because they need to.

It takes three burner phones and two different locations - one is a bust and Kono is a no-show, before Danny sees her again. She looks a little scraggly, large bags under her eyes that no makeup can hide, her hair in disarray around her face.

But what really gets Danny is the look in her eyes. Not quite vacant, not quite angry, sort of resolved, a little sad. And he can’t even say a word, he can only step forward and pull her into his arms, sigh into her hair when he feels her arms wrap around his middle, holding on tighter with each passing second. She smells of sweat and gunpowder, a little whiskey, something so foreign on her skin, compared to the usual clean smell of the ocean she carries along with her.

Steve takes a few steps towards them, looking unsure, Danny can see from the corner of his eyes, the way Steve’s hands clench and unclench. And then Kono starts chuckling. It’s a little weak, sounds feeble compared to her usually loud laugh, but she steps away from Danny and grabs Steve, pulls him in, buries her face in his chest and says, “You guys owe me so bad.”

Danny breathes out a snort, and God, yes, they do, they do so much, he knows that. He knows because he’s not fought Steve when Steve told him to back off, that there was a reason. He knows because he’s not done enough to help when he said he would, too wrapped up in his own problems and Steve in jail to give her the support she needed. And now she’s here, and she’s under so much surveillance they have to use burner phones and a completely nondescript room in a completely nondescript hotel that hosts a gym, too, so she could have some kind of cover if needed.

“Are you okay?” Danny tempts once they’re sitting on the bed, all three of them making the mattress creak under their combined weight, Kono in between them, their hands spanning much of her back.

“No, I’m not okay. I have to talk down to Chin to keep my cover, and I have to stay away from all of you, pretend I’m so angry and ready to jump the fence. Why didn’t you tell Chin, by the way?”

“Because - because if he didn’t follow you around and try to set you back on the right path, people would think something is wrong.” Steve lets it all out in a rush, and it hurts, to think people don’t look twice if the two of them are not rushing to help, but they are if Chin isn’t. And it hurts Chin, too, even though he doesn’t let anything on. Danny wishes Chin could be here right now.

“Okay. Okay, I get it. I just.”

She stops, like words are stuck in her throat and Danny pulls her to him again, a hand curved around her neck and an arm around her stomach, holding her close. He kisses her forehead.

“We miss you. We miss you, so much.”

Kono nods into Danny’s neck, her free hand reaching out to grab Steve’s, who cradles it between both of his. Danny knows at some point, she’ll be too angry to accept their comfort, and she’ll lash out. Maybe later, maybe earlier than Danny expects, but he doesn’t believe it won’t happen. But right now, she’s small and fragile in their arms and he just wants to show her they care.

“Do you think you can do this, Kono?” Steve’s voice is soft, and when Danny looks at him, he sees the tell-tale red rims around his eyes, betraying his feelings.

“I don’t have a choice. For you and me, I don’t have a choice.”

“Sorry you have to, kiddo.”

She doesn’t answer for a while, just keeps the two of them close. And then, “Hey, you know what? I think, when all of this is over, I should get to drive the Camaro for at least a month.”

Steve laughs, leaning in close and kissing her hair, running his fingers through it afterwards.

“Okay.”

There isn’t much else they can say. They owe her.