“Don’t,” Danny warned, pointing at Kai as he jogged up to him from the beach, sensing Kai’s intentions.

Kai grinned mischievously then aggressively shook his hair, his curls dripping water all over Danny. 

“It was either that or a bear hug Danno, which would you have preferred?”

“Neither, thank you very much,” Danny said, grabbing Kai’s discarded shirt and drying himself off with it before handing it to Kai.

Kai chuckled, taking his shirt and padding off his own chest with it.

“Cool tattoos,” Danny said, eyes on them once again.

“Thanks!” Kai grinned, looking down at them. He had two prominent ones, one taking over his right chest and shoulder and another one his left chest and shoulder.

“What do— what do they mean?”

“I'm hapa,” Kai explained, “mixed, my mom’s mostly Irish, my dad's got some Greek in him from his mom. I mostly grew up with my tūtūs, my dad’s parents.”

He looked down at his right chest and shoulder tattoo, a tribal tattoo. 

“My grandad was the one who made me feel most connected to Hawai'i and my Polynesian roots, he-we'd” he said, placing a palm over his tattoo, his brows knitting as he tried to find the words. “I… I left home when I was 15, moved to the mainland, away from Hawai'i, away from my tūtūs, my ohana…”

Danny watched as Kai began to reverently trace the lines and curves of the tattoo as if following a story, tracing through his past.

“Um,” Kai said, taking in a deep breath, “I didn’t come back home until my tūtūs funerals, six years ago. Grandma died and grandpa passed away a few days later.”

Oh, Danny thought.

The sadness on Kai’s face was enough to make him regret asking about the tattoos.

“That’s when I got this tattoo, to honor them, honor my history, my heritage, my story. That’s… that’s the same year…” he stopped tracing his tribal tattoo and lifted his left arm up a bit to show his other tattoos.

There, on his left shoulder, he had an eagle perched on an anchor, in its talons the eagle held onto a trident and a pistol. Next to it, on his chest, right below his collar bone, was the tattoo of a frog’s skeleton. In its grasp dangled down a pair of dog tags that landed on the left side of Kai’s chest, near his heart. Next to the tags was a little compass, its needle pointing towards Kai’s tribal tattoo, towards his connection to home.

Danny couldn’t make out any names on the tags, just numbers and dates.

Kai took a deep breath.

“That’s the same year I got these, to honor those I served with, those that,” he placed his hand on the dog tags, “those that didn’t make it.”

Danny nodded. 

He wasn’t exactly sure what to say, but Kai didn’t seem to be paying attention to him anymore, his eyes still focused down, he seemed lost in his memories.

“I’m sorry for your losses,” Danny eventually managed to say.

Kai looked up at him, a sad smile appearing on his face. He looked around as if just now remembering where they were.

They were the only ones left on the beach, all the other counselors had scattered off for their independent time.

Kai took another deep breath as he toweled off his hair with his shirt. As he put his shirt on, with his eyes covered by the fabric, Danny took a quick moment to look at the tattoos again.

 “You wanna go up to the cliff again?" Kai said. "Where I took you last week after our run?"

Danny bobbed his head side to side, mulling it over. 

There was a grin back on Kai’s face again, which by itself was almost enough to convince him. He was so used to seeing Kai smile that seeing him without one had made him feel weirdly anxious.

Besides, the hike hadn’t been too bad last time. He felt like it was the least he could do considering Kai had let him opt out of paddleboarding. And he’d be lying if he said he didn’t want to enjoy the view and feeling from up there again.

And, a tiny small part of him registered, if it meant keeping that grin on Kai’s face then that would be okay with him too.

They talked as they hiked, catching each other up on what they hadn’t had a chance to share the week before.

“Good, better,” Danny said, in response to Kai’s how are you, really? question.

He remembered how down he’d felt that day he’d yelled at and vented to Kai at Kaleo’s diner. Though it had been two months ago it felt like it had happened both yesterday and years ago.

“I found an apartment! It’s not a great one, but there’s a bed for me and a bed for Elena so… it’ll do for now.”

He continued catching Kai up, telling him that things at work were improving, he’d found some good local stores and restaurants, and even mentioned his outings with Joey.

“Who’s Joey?” Kai asked, tone casual, though his eyes lingered over Danny as he asked.

“A friend from work,” Danny said, he remembered Elena first telling him about Sophia, with such a proud grin on her face, he was feeling the same way.

“You made a friend!” Kai grinned, offering Danny a high-five.

“I made a friend!” Danny said, high-fiving Kai.

He felt like a goofy little kid but he didn’t care, he was happy.

“He’s planning on showing me around Hawai'i, says we shouldn't just leave it up to locals to teach us, that we've got to put in our own effort. He’s a mainlander like me.”

“I can show you around… I mean,” Kai said, glancing at Danny before shrugging, “if he’s a mainlander then he might not know his way around that well.”

“Well,” Danny shrugged, swatting away a mosquito buzzing by his ear, “he’s lived here for years, seems pretty knowledgeable.”

“Oh,” Kai said.

Danny glanced at him but Kai was staring ahead, eyes zeroed in, focused on the trail.

Danny felt a prickle of awkwardness biting at him.

He swatted his shoulder, realizing it had just been another mosquito.

“But yeah,” Danny said, quickening his step so he could stand next to Kai, “you can show me around too, I'd like that,” Danny said, smiling up at Kai.

Kai grinned. “Really?”

“Yeah!” Danny shrugged, “Two tour guides are better than one right?” He said, patting Kai’s arm and continuing to hike up.

Kai stopped walking. 

“Right,” he said quietly as he watched Danny walk on ahead before following him.

They reached the rocky part and Kai offered Danny his hand, Danny took it and they kept walking.

“Wow,” Danny said when they reached the top. He figured he would probably say that every time he came up here.

Kai walked over to the tree stump bench and sat down. Danny sat next to him.

They were silent for a few moments as they took in the view, felt the breeze on their skin, listened to the songs of nature.

“How’s Elena?” Kai asked eventually.

Danny grinned, happy to share how well Elena seemed to be adjusting. He told Kai all about her friends from school and camp, about Sophie, and Elena’s art club, and his weekends and movie nights with her.

“You’re gonna love it,” Kai said as they carefully walked back down the hill, it was a bit darker now and they were careful with their footing, reaching for each other’s hands more often than not.

“Kalani, you said that about paddle boarding and you were so very very wrong.”

“Okay, but who doesn’t love campfires?”

“Do I have to throw half my food into the fire?”

Kai stopped walking, he stared at Danny, visible concern on his face. “What?”

“Oh, it’s,” Danny waved it off, “it’s from the books I read with Elena, they have to— nevermind.”

“O-kay, well no, you don’t have to do that. And aside from s'mores, we’ve got hot dogs and Gao and I and some other staff take turns BBQing.”

“Oh, that does sound good.” Danny said, never one to turn down a good meal.

“Told you so Danno,” Kai said as he held out his hand for Danny.

“Don’t call me Danno,” Danny said flatly as he wrapped his hand around Kai’s.

“But we both like it so much,” Kai said, giving Danny’s hand a soft teasing squeeze.

Danny simply rolled his eyes and the two kept walking down hand in hand.