[Oct. 13-20] full stops and exclamation marks

[girlsolo]

Kate's back to drinking tequila again. That's never a good sign. Tonight it's a sign she's bouncing between sexy check-in notes with Declan that make this island seem all right and people like Coraline screaming and crying over how much it fucking sucks.

The smart thing to do would be find Will or Magnus, talk some of this out. Even finding someone to spar with, that would work. Thing is, Kate's not that kind of smart. When it comes to helping Coraline? Sure. Yeah. She's been listening to Will do his shrink thing for years now. But when it comes to herself?

Fuck that noise. She'd still rather fuck and forget.

Kate leans her back against a post to watch the room, drinks another shot (hot wheels only, no training), and flirts at whatever makes eye contact. Whether she's Go or just Show, she hasn't decided yet. Mostly, she's trying not to look for anyone in particular. She's trying not to wish he'd come in and just...

Take her home.

[OOC: Find her at the Hub or the Winchester (let me know) any evening between now and the 20th. Available for all of your Freelander needs. If you need a specific date, email me, otherwise I'll work them out. For the record, Kate's very bi but a lot less available than she thinks she is.]

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[newkindofcop]

He'd offered her a polite smile at seeing her from a distance, when her eyes finally meet his, but he doesn't dwell for very long, digging back into his food and leaning forward over the plate slightly. If she's in the mood to talk - and right now, it looks as though she might be on the prowl for something - he gets the feeling she'll be making the rounds eventually.

He feels a nudging up along his side and turns, moving his head without moving his body to observe. "Hey, Kate," he greets, his tone nothing more than casual.

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

"Mind company?" There's a purr in her voice, always there when she's drinking, but it's not targeted. Even if she's not great at personal space right now (or ever with her people), Kate knows what off-limits looks like.

Magnus looks like off-limits. Will, too. She wonders if Declan will ever look like off-limits. Or she will. She's pretty sure she never will, even if she gives him that promise.

When.

How fucked up is it that it's a when?

[newkindofcop]

"Not at all," Steve amiably replies, shrugging once. He does adjust his posture again, though, leaning back slightly so as not to cut her off completely, his arms dropping down loosely as his shoulders relax, and when he sits back against the back of the bar chair, there's something of a casual curiosity in his gaze as he takes her in.

"How's it going?"

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

Kate hops up on the chair next to him. Yeah, she's still sober-ish enough to hop. Sober-ish enough to still get served, too, when she nods and asks for a beer before answering Steve.

"Okay," she says, a verbal shrug to match the physical one. "Can I ask you something personal?" Sober-ish enough to know it's a good idea to ask permission, drunk-ish enough to do it.

[newkindofcop]

He doesn't quite know what she's preparing to ask, and a part of him isn't sure if he needs to be cautious or overly concerned in any way, but the look on her face doesn't seem too worrying, and curiosity wins out over the rest.

"Sure," he replies, equally nonchalant, and at least she gives warning and asks before she comes right out and says it. He'll give her credit for that.

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

Planting her elbow on the bar, Kate shifts to face him. Their legs brush, but it's not intentional. Or, well, it is intentional, but it's intentional like the big smile before a lift. Look here, not there.

"How did you know it had to be Danny and no one else?"

It's a really personal question. The kind she only ever asks her team usually. But he kind of feels like Magnus 2.0 sometimes. Most of the world, she'll never trust. Some people, like Steve and Magnus and Biggie and Declan, that's just instinctive.

[newkindofcop]

"Honestly?" He doesn't know why she's asking for certain, but that doesn't mean he's going to give her a less-than-honest answer. He doesn't talk about Danny too often, at least not until he gets a read on the situation. It's not that he's trying to avoid the subject, but he also doesn't feel a need to define his life around this relationship.

"It was after he punched me in the face for getting him shot. And I did get him shot, technically. Going in without backup, you have to anticipate certain casualties, but - he held his own with me, and that caught my attention."

He clears his throat, punctuating the remark with a sip of beer. It's more than he's ever admitted about the start of things to anyone, especially someone he doesn't know all too well.

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

"Was that here or home?" Kate's not sure why it matters, but it kind of does. It's like were they meant to be already, would they have gotten together at home, did they get together at home, and that's... relevant to her interests.

She nods to the bartender who has high eyebrow. Yeah, she wants another beer. Then turns her attention back to Steve. She hasn't decided yet whether she's calling him Chief or Sensei, but it's leaning toward Chief.

Her mouth twists off to the side and she catches the inside of her lip in her teeth for a breath. "But I get that. It'd be important. Being with someone you can't steamroll. Someone who'll stand up to you." Like Will and Magnus. Or maybe like why he's still talking to her. Or why she's... yeah, not thinking about that right now.

[newkindofcop]

"Home," Steve says, without missing much of a beat. "The first case we ever tackled together, when I pretty much showed up at his dump of an apartment and told him he was going to be my partner. Come to think of it, I don't remember giving him much of a choice. But I knew he was in Hawaii to keep an eye on his daughter, and I knew that selfless motivation to keep the islands safe would be an asset to Five-O."

He finishes the last few bites of his dinner and pushes it away from himself before he gets too tempted and stuffs himself completely. His beer is only half-empty, so he can make the rest of it work for now.

"He can definitely hold his own," he adds thoughtfully. "It's something a lot of people view as hotheadedness, but he's a passionate person. It permeates through in everything he does, and it's important to have that. To not be completely closed-off from your emotions."

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

Kate bites back a smirk at that and just pats his arm instead. She's being a smartass but she doesn't need to be noisy about it. Kate's got a great pokerface, but Steve doesn't even need one he keeps his emotions pushed so far down.

Instead of busting his balls about it, she sighs a little after and asks, "Do you think it would work at home, you and him, or is it just the island?" and it's probably clear she's not just talking about them.

[newkindofcop]

"I don't know," he replies, and that's a bit jarring, that honesty that catches even him by surprise before he has a second to stop and think about it. "There are a lot of factors back home that don't even enter in here. His ex-wife, for starters, and his daughter. From what we know, he's trying to make things work out with her back home, at least right at this moment."

He clears his throat, taking another decent sip of his beer. "But that's not where we're at here, even though the feelings are working there too."

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

"That sucks," Kate says sfeelingly, and there's a lump in her throat that probably has fuck all nothing to do with Danny and not much to do with Steve. "I mean, the not knowing. Not the working out here."

She wants to ask how he deals with it. Not knowing. And worrying about Danny disappearing, and what he does when he does get worried, but that's even more personal.

Her hands wrap around her beer glass and she stares into it, unguarded and soft. "You guys are good together."

[newkindofcop]

"We get updates about home, from time to time. These reels, they show up and we find out what's happening," Steve explains, but he's not going to dwell in the most recent of arrivals, the one that all but showed Five-O disbanding. Not to mention the part where he's in jail. But he has to have faith that the team will work to get him out. They'd never leave one of their own behind, especially after his being framed for something he didn't do.

"I know what I've got here, though, and I've got pretty few complaints," he adds, glancing over at her with a soft half-smile.

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

Updates from home? She lifts an eyebrow but then realizes he's talking about like with Rizzo. It's probably a good way to think about it, instead of worrying about whether it meant people were writing about you or whatever.

Henry tried to explain fan fiction to her once. After Comic Con. She just called him a dork and said she didn't want to know about his porn collection. He'd blushed every time he saw her for a week.

Kate misses him, and she misses Biggie, and she misses Declan and he's not even half an island away probably. She rubs her hand over her temples and says softly, "I'm really glad I didn't mess that up."

[newkindofcop]

"Who, you? Please," Steve scoffs, shaking his head dismissively, though it's not towards her as much as it is what she's saying.

"It's going to take a lot more than a briefly stolen toolbox lid to ruin my opinions on this place," he promises her. "And so far, the good has definitely outweighed the bad. I'm not exactly keeping a running list, though, so you're just going to have to take my word for it."

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

"No, I meant..." She shrugs a little. Around Danny, she'd never be this open, but Steve's that guy. Kind of like Magnus. Kind of like Declan. He makes her want to be better than she is. "You and Danny. With him being pissed like that. I'm glad it was okay."

As for the island being more good than bad, maybe for him. But she's never going to believe that. Not even if she pulls the trigger on this thing with her and Declan.

[newkindofcop]

"We're fine too," Steve assures her, even though the discussion they'd had after she'd left had been one for the record books. He's still sleeping in the guest room, but he doesn't have the feeling his punishment will last much longer. Danny tends to stew for a while, but the making up is worth the occasional disagreement they have - okay, maybe it's more than occasional.

"He might come off as a little hotheaded, but he's - well, he is that hotheaded," Steve admits, with a sideways smirk. "But he's got a good heart, too. He just tends to yell before he speaks."

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

Kate nods and when the bartender comes back by, she orders herself another drink. Things are just starting to get fuzzy at the edges. She's got a lot more drinking to do before they get numb enough for her to sleep.

Without Declan. If she went to his place, she'd sleep. That should tell her something. It does. But she tells herself the lie it doesn't mean anything except that he's team and makes herself believe it.

"It's cool. I'm not going to break from getting screamed at. You should hear Magnus when she gets going. Talk about feeling a half inch tall..."

[newkindofcop]

"I had a feeling you were made of stronger stuff, anyway," Steve assures her, leaning back to finish off the rest of his beer in one long, steady sip. His posture is even more relaxed when he sets the empty glass down, shoulders slumping a little.

It speaks to how comfortable he's feeling that he's able to relax around her, to an extent, but he can't say for sure whether or not she feels similarly.

"I've never been on the receiving end of her wrath, but I'll take your word for it."

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

Military guys are always comfortable for Kate. She gets them. Especially the SEALs and Special Forces types. Awkward questions only happen within the boundaries they agree on. Sex is uncomplicated; yes or no not maybe. They know who they are and she knows who she is. It's easy.

Which is probably why she's leaning into the bar on one elbow with her feet hooked on the rung of his stool. "She's tough. Fair, but, man, you do not want to get in that woman's way." And if Kate Freelander's saying that, that's telling you something.

[newkindofcop]

"I could see that," Steve replies, nodding after a beat. The drink she's brought looks pretty good right about now and he lifts his index finger to indicate the desire for another beer, taking a sip of it as it comes.

"Maybe that's why she and Danny are friends. He tends to have a certain type when it comes to women. British, brunette, no-nonsense," he muses out loud.

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

Kate's lips quirk and her eyes lighten, laughter in them. "Aha. So at least one of you is into women. I knew it." She jabs Steve in the upper chest with a pointed pokey finger.

Something in how Steve looks at her says he's probably not completely gay either. "What about you, did you have a type before him?"

[newkindofcop]

"I was with a woman before Danny," Steve admits. Things with Catherine weren't completely serious, but she was good company and a good friend, and right up until he'd been on the island, they'd been sleeping together.

"Catherine. Tall, dark hair. She had a really great smile, too, that was one of the things I remember being attracted to first," he adds casually.

[girlsolo.livejournal.com]

"Some girls have all the luck," Kate teases and nudges his calf with her foot. He's a hottie. She'd totally hit that. If not for Danny and...yeah. If not for.

Her gaze sweeps the bar again, but he's still not here. Not that she's looking for him or anything. Not that she wishes he were. "Were you always into guys or it one of those 'only for you' things?"

Yeah, she's being nosy. But she's been drinking. He's training her and she's...trying to distract herself.

[newkindofcop]

Steve can't help but notice the way she's looking around the place, almost as if she's keeping an eye out for someone in particular, before her gaze settles back on him.

"Hmm, with Danny? No, it was one of those things where I just knew it was with him. Don't really know how to explain it, but that's Danno for you. He finds a way to sneak up on you that way, and then you're his biggest fan before you ever knew what happened."