Chapter Text
- Spark
The sun had not even begun to rise yet Steve’s eyes opened slowly and took in his unfamiliar surroundings before he looked down at Kono who had ended up tucked into his side with her head rested against his shoulder and her hand laid over his chest while his arm was wrapped down around her back with his hand rested on her hip touching the bare skin between her tank top and sleep shorts. He knew he should disentangle himself from her but they had to maintain their cover to some degree, and she looked comfortable so he reasoned that he did not want to wake her. He sighed softly as he stole a glance at the clock seeing that it was just past 0430 before he tried and failed to settle back into the all too soft mattress knowing that it had been a long night for both him and her, and that they had only crashed two hours before.
This undercover operation was different from most with him and Kono posing as a couple on the brink of breaking up so they had flown to the island of Moloka’i for a weekend getaway to get the ‘spark’ back in their relationship. Every single piece of evidence had pointed to this romantic island resort that all four of the brutally murdered couples had been to the weekend before they died, and further investigating of the resort had bought to light several discrepancies and employees with criminal records ranging from drug charges to money laundering to serious assaults and just about everything except murder. The resort had closed ranks and refused to co-operate with them so the only thing to do was go undercover, pose as a couple at breaking point trying to save their relationship, then return home to O’ahu and hope that the perpetrator showed himself by coming after them which would follow the pattern thus far.
“Stop thinking so loud boss.” Kono’s sleep filled voice was barely above a whisper but it still made him tense for a few seconds as she absentmindedly curled closer to him because unless it was time to surf or eat she was intent on going back to sleep.
“Go back to sleep, I didn’t mean to wake you.” Steve whispered, his own voice thick with sleep, as his fingertips brushed over the jut of her hip without an ounce of hesitation as he wasn’t thinking about the position they were in. Although he had been enough of a gentleman to insist on sleeping on the floor but she had stubbornly told him that he was an idiot and that they could share a bed without anything happening between them before she caught him off guard and shoved him down onto the mattress that immediately tried to draw him in like quick sand.
Kono’s brow furrowed and she forced her eyes open for the first time since she had felt him wake and let her eyes adjust realising just how they had ended up but he was firm, warm and comfortable underneath her so if he wasn’t straining to move than she was not about to either. “What’s bothering you?” She asked having known there was something bothering him even before they had finally crawled into bed to sleep as they had spent a large portion of the evening cementing their cover of a couple on the brink and taking the opportunity to watch the staff around them in order to see who was reacting to them or not reacting at all.
Steve bought his free hand up to his face and swiped it over feeling the stubble that he needed to shave once it was daylight before he dropped it down to the mattress that he really hated. “I’m fine.” The response was automatic as he knew it was just his training kicking in to stay alert while on a mission or in this case undercover
Those two words, that phrase, had Kono tipping her head back and she tapped her fingertips against his ribs as her hand that wasn’t laid flat on his chest was trapped between their bodies making him look at her. “Want to try that again?” She pushed a little bit however she was weary of overstepping the boundaries although they were somewhat vague given everything.
Steve looked at Kono in the dim darkness of the bedroom and he knew her well enough to know that she would not go back to sleep until she was reassured, and they needed to be rested enough to focus. “My training is just kicking in making me hyper-vigilant.” He whispered before he sighed and shifted his hips as his lower back was sore which was not helping. “And this mattress is terrible, and that is saying something considering where I’ve bedded down before.”
Kono laughed softly at the second part of his admission although she had to agree. “Not even going to argue with you about the mattress, it really is terrible.” She was not naïve enough to think that even in the peak physical condition that Steve was that he was not like her in the sense that years of physical activity even at their young ages left them battered and with more aches than either cared to claim. “Though you make a damn good mattress.” She teased not the least bit embarrassed that she had moved to lay against him in her sleep.
Steve chuckled softly and rolled his eyes even as a smile found its way to his lips because only Kono could be so damn shameless about using him as her own personal mattress. “You really should go back to sleep, it’s going to be another long day today.” He reminded her knowing not only did they have a day of activities planned which would provide ample time for them to bicker as part of their cover but they also had to investigate without being caught which was no easy feat given the amount of attention they had been receiving from the moment they arrived although it did not seem out of the ordinary either. In fact the resort had been rated on its overall attentiveness towards its guests along with several other things like the plethora of activities on offer, and many commenters stated how successful the place had been in helping them to re-capture the spark that they had lost in their relationship.
Kono was well aware that Steve was not going to go back to sleep and it was early enough that he would usually be up swimming or running or doing some other sort of calisthenics, and she usually would be hitting the surf if the swell was good enough. They were both awake so why waste it, and it could help add to their cover if anybody was up earlier enough to see them. “Swim or run?” She asked already pushing herself to sit up cringing at how much the mattress tried to pull her in and she was sure it wobbled almost as much as one of those old water beds.
“What?” Steve asked as he took the opportunity to lift his hips up and twist around just enough to ease a bit of the ache in his lower back.
Kono swept her hand through her hair pushing it back. “We are both awake and neither of us are going to go back to sleep, and I don’t know about you but this mattress is causing me to ache more than a day spent chasing and engaging with the criminals we deal with… I mean I am seriously considering that you might have been right about spending the night asleep on the floor… So swim or run?” She gave him a look that told him he had his options and he was to choose one.
Steve weighed up his options knowing it was still dark enough that they could swim safely and their undercover persona’s seemed to only agree on their love of water so that if anyone did see them then it would be a reasonable assumption that they had reached a consensus and were finding a way to get said ‘spark’ back. “Swimming definitely swimming.” They both needed it really, could do with a little normality, as it was significantly harder to bicker with each other over every little thing like they had been to sell that unhappy couple like they were.
“Good choice.” Kono managed, somehow, to bound out of the bed making him shake his head and laugh as he watched her reach her bag, pull out another one of her bikinis, and skip into the bathroom to change closing the door behind her but not before she poked her tongue out at him causing him to laugh again.