FIC: Baby It's Warm Outside (Steve/Danny)
Baby It’s Warm Outside | Hawaii Five-0 | Steve/Danny
~2300 words | PG-13 for language/sensuality | Vague spoilers for 1X06 and others, but nothing major
Steve and Danny exchange Christmas gifts.
Thanks to J for the beta!
Baby It's Warm Outside
Danny has been looking for a gift for Steve for what feels like days. He’s been in every single store in the stupid mall, ones that make sense and ones that are, frankly, kind of idiotic. As if he’s going to find something for Steve at a Bed, Bath, and Beyond. He gave up on trying to think of the perfect gift a long time ago, and has since resorted to the age-old method of just wandering and hoping the perfect gift jumps out at him. So far, no luck whatsoever. He’s just about ready to give up and buy Steve a gift card or something suitably unimpressive and predictable, but Danny has always prided himself on his gift-giving. Normally he likes spending hours finding exactly the right gift, because the payoff is always worth it, but he’s becoming increasingly worried that there just isn’t a perfect gift for Steve.
“Can I give you a hand with anything, sir?”
Danny glances up at the salesperson and sighs. “I am looking for a gift for my...for a person.”
The saleswoman smiles encouragingly. “Well, you’ve come to the right place,” she says, gesturing out at the store.
“Yeah,” Danny says. “Only this guy is the most impossible person to buy for. I know everyone says that, but seriously, you have no idea. This guy thinks that high speed car chases on the sides of cliffs and hunting down criminals in the Amazon rainforest is good times, okay? I mean, what do you even get someone like that?”
“Uh...” The woman glances around the store as if hoping something will jump out at her. “You could look around in our sporting goods section. Maybe some new camping equipment?"
"But see, he's probably got every piece of camping equipment known to man, and it's probably all top of the line, military-grade, designed to keep out mosquitos and, you know, repel bullets. Probably given to him as a birthday gift from the director of NASA. Everything I would get him would pale in comparison." Danny leans forward on the counter, elbows on the glass. "I have been through every inch of this store and haven't found anything."
The saleswoman bites her lip. "Well, it sounds like he's a bit of an adrenaline junkie? Maybe you could get him a gift certificate to go skydiving.” She smiles encouragingly, but Danny just snorts.
“Adrenaline junkie. That’s one way of putting it, sure. But the gift card is not going to work. Nice suggestion, thank you, really, but he jumps out of planes for a living, so skydiving is not really something that’s going to up his adrenaline level too much. I’m sure he’s trained to tamp down on that, actually. Honestly, the guy functions like a robot half the time, and the rest of the time he’s hanging out in his house doing home repairs and patching up bullet holes, so...what do you get someone like that?”
The woman glances down at the counter. “Calvin Klein for Men?” she says, hopeful, and Danny runs a hand over his face.
“Sure, let’s try it out.”
*****
It’s the day after Christmas, the first day back at work after a short holiday, and Danny is skittish, jiggling his leg as he sits perched on Steve’s desk. They’re not expecting it to be a particularly busy day - even criminals celebrate Christmas, most of the time - so this is the day they’d arranged to exchange gifts. Danny’s left his gifts for Kono and Chin on their desks, but Steve’s he’s going to present personally. He’s more than a little curious to see what Steve got him, because he finds it hard to believe that Steve would be particularly good at gift-giving - unlike Danny himself, obviously, since Danny is much better at that whole empathy thing - but then again, Steve is the person he’s closest to on the island, the person who knows him best. It’s possible Steve might surprise him.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Danny says as Steve walks into the office, and Steve smiles at him, fingers smoothing the edges of the gift in his hand.
“Morning,” Steve says, and hands Danny the gift just as Danny reaches out to hand his over.
“You go,” Steve says, and so Danny picks at the tape on the back. Steve wraps precisely, all smooth paper and tight corners, and Danny can’t help but grin at that. Of course Steve takes his wrapping job very seriously. Danny is a fan of the throw-everything-in-a-bag-and-cover-it-with-tissue-paper approach to wrapping; it gets the job done.
He slides a box out of the wrapping paper, and opens it to find a tie. It’s good quality, dark and pale blue stripes - very professional. Not something Danny would have expected Steve to pick out.
"You got me a tie?" Danny says, and he can’t really keep the incredulity out of his voice.
Steve's face falls just a bit. "You don't like it?"
Danny looks down at the box in his hand. "It's a tie."
"But you like ties. You wear them every day."
“Yeah, I like ties, but ties are....I mean, I got ties for my dad every year for his birthday, father’s day, and Christmas, because I was a kid with no imagination. It’s like getting a girlfriend or a sister soap. Or a gift card to a soap place.”
Steve actually looks sad, much to Danny’s chagrin. “I always get Mary a gift card to the Body Shop for her birthday.”
“Oh,” Danny says, for lack of a better, slightly more tactful response. “I’m sure she appreciates that.”
“Right,” Steve says.
“Thanks for the tie,” Danny says lamely. He imagines Steve at a department store, staring down a table of ties, and feels a bit guilty. He hands the bag to Steve and says, “Why don’t you just-” just as Steve is saying, “Maybe I should just-”
Steve removes the tissue paper from the bag and sets it on his desk, and when he pulls out the comic he just sort of stares at it for a second, so Danny starts talking to fill the silence.
"I don't know much about comics, but I know you have a bunch of Batman comics - which, you know, a quiet, moody vigilante who lives alone in a house full of weapons, I can't imagine the appeal. Anyway, uh, I saw you had that particular issue framed," says Danny, scratching his temple. "Or at least you did before some assholes decided to use your house for target practice. I know it got messed up, so I thought..."
Steve is quiet for a moment, flipping open the first page of the comic book. "My dad gave it to me. It was my first birthday after my mom died, and she was usually the one who handled presents. So I guess I wasn’t really expecting much, but Dad handled it. I had a whole stack of gifts, like that was making up for it...This was by far the best one."
Danny nods and shoves his hands into his pockets. After a moment, Steve looks down at the gift bag and pulls out another wad of tissue paper.
"Oh no," he says with a laugh, unwrapping a plastic figurine. "Aquaman!"
Danny grins. "It sticks to the dashboard. I even included extra-strength adhesive so it won’t get thrown around when you’re driving us off a cliff.”
“I would never drive us off a cliff, that makes no sense,” Steve says. "Besides, I'm putting this in my truck."
“But you drive my car everywhere anyway,” Danny says. “We spend more time in my car, though why you always have be driving it is still completely beyond me.”
"But it's my gift, so it should go in my car," says Steve, but he’s looking down at the gifts with a slightly dazed look on his face. Danny shuffles a little, feeling awkward for being so ungrateful. "Hey, I'm going to take back the tie." He doesn’t look at Danny.
Danny sighs. "No, the tie is fine."
Steve reaches for the box. "No, really, it was stupid. I'll get you something better--"
"It's a nice tie. I like the tie, okay!"
"No, you don't."
“I like it a lot. It is my new favourite tie.” He pauses. “Well, second-favourite. After the one Grace gave me.”
“Danny, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to pretend. I saved the receipt, we can return it-”
"I'm gonna wear it tomorrow,” Danny says stubbornly.
Steve pauses uncertainly but lets go of the box. "I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting that we would..."
"That we would...?"
“Exchange gifts like this.” Steve sighs. “I guess I’m not very good with getting people gifts. Like with Mary.”
“I’m sure she-” Danny starts, but Steve just cuts him off with a look.
“When I was a kid, it didn’t matter what I got anyone - like you said, you’re not expected to have very much imagination. And then after my mom died...my family didn’t really pay much attention to gift-giving. And I don’t really do long relationships, so I never had to go through all the gift-giving with problems with someone I was interested in.”
Danny lets that soak in for a moment before he says, "So...am I family, or are you interested?"
He'd meant for it to sound light-hearted, but the words end up sounding funny coming out of his mouth, and for a moment Steve looks uncharacteristically stunned. He recovers quickly and crosses his arms over his chest. "Look, it really doesn't matter, so..."
Danny just looks at him, unimpressed. "Uh, I think it matters. I think it matters a lot, actually."
Steve glances up at him, and Danny can see the effort it's costing him to remain nonchalant. "Well, we're all family. Five-0. You know, you're all my family. You know how important that is to me."
"Uh huh," says Danny. "So, where's my gift card to the Body Shop?"
Steve pauses just long enough for Danny to step forward, just inside of his personal space. "Come on, I'm not going to--" He purses his lips together awkwardly.
"A tie is the worst romantic gesture ever," says Danny, unable to keep the smile off of his face. He steps a little closer. "I mean, really."
Steve swallows visibly. "But you like ties, I just thought--"
Danny leans forward and presses his lips against Steve's. Steve doesn't react right away, but then his mouth opens up under Danny's and he lets go of the breath he was holding. It's different than he imagined it would be - softer and not as weird. He pulls away just barely, lips still touching, and their eyes meet for just a moment before Danny nudges him back until Steve's ass hits the edge of the desk. Danny's hands find the front of Steve's shirt, and this time it's not as soft. Steve's tongue is pressing against his teeth, his stubble is rasping against Danny's chin, and there's a low sound at the back of his throat that goes straight to Danny's groin. His hands slip under the edge of Steve's shirt, thumb pressing into Steve's abdomen, when suddenly he feels something vibrating against Steve's hip.
"That better not be who I think it is," he says breathlessly, pulling away.
Steve releases a frustrated breath and presses the phone to his ear. "McGarrett." Then a moment later, "Hello, Governor."
Danny groans and steps back to let Steve move away from the desk. The conversation doesn't last long - something about a suspected drug lord washing up on Waikiki beach, in bite-size pieces - and then Steve hangs up. He looks back at Danny, who lifts his eyebrows expectantly.
“Ahe Kama is dead. They think his killer took off with about half a million dollars in heroin."
“Of course they did," Danny says, smoothing down his shirt and trying to fix his hair. “You know, I was counting on today being basically another day off, but maybe this is for the best. I know how crazy you get when you’ve been forced to take a break. It’s like you end up with all this pent up craziness that gets unleashed on helpless suspects and...me.”
Steve smirks at him. “I promise to unleash my crazy on you later,” he says, and Danny's stomach flutters pleasantly.
"I can't decide if that's a threat or a promise," he says, smiling despite himself..
Steve grins. "Can it be both?"
“Most things are, with you,” Danny says, and swallows when Steve steps closer again, crowding him back against the wall. His hand slides over Danny's hip as he presses his lips to Danny's jaw.
"Is that a new cologne?" he says, pulling back to look down at Danny.
Danny rolls his eyes. “What, is that some special part of SEAL training? Cologne detection? Just generally having a really messed up sense of smell?”
“My senses are sharper than yours,” Steve concedes. “Although, admittedly, it’s easier when you’re, you know, right next to me.”
Danny sighs. “It’s Calvin Klein.”
“I like it,” Steve says, and Danny firmly resists the urge to hit his head against the wall.
“Thanks.”
"Did I say something wrong?"
"Just...never mind." Danny slides a hand across Steve's lower back as he slips past him on the way out the door. "By the way, Aquaman, it's my turn to drive."
~2300 words | PG-13 for language/sensuality | Vague spoilers for 1X06 and others, but nothing major
Steve and Danny exchange Christmas gifts.
Thanks to J for the beta!
Baby It's Warm Outside
Danny has been looking for a gift for Steve for what feels like days. He’s been in every single store in the stupid mall, ones that make sense and ones that are, frankly, kind of idiotic. As if he’s going to find something for Steve at a Bed, Bath, and Beyond. He gave up on trying to think of the perfect gift a long time ago, and has since resorted to the age-old method of just wandering and hoping the perfect gift jumps out at him. So far, no luck whatsoever. He’s just about ready to give up and buy Steve a gift card or something suitably unimpressive and predictable, but Danny has always prided himself on his gift-giving. Normally he likes spending hours finding exactly the right gift, because the payoff is always worth it, but he’s becoming increasingly worried that there just isn’t a perfect gift for Steve.
“Can I give you a hand with anything, sir?”
Danny glances up at the salesperson and sighs. “I am looking for a gift for my...for a person.”
The saleswoman smiles encouragingly. “Well, you’ve come to the right place,” she says, gesturing out at the store.
“Yeah,” Danny says. “Only this guy is the most impossible person to buy for. I know everyone says that, but seriously, you have no idea. This guy thinks that high speed car chases on the sides of cliffs and hunting down criminals in the Amazon rainforest is good times, okay? I mean, what do you even get someone like that?”
“Uh...” The woman glances around the store as if hoping something will jump out at her. “You could look around in our sporting goods section. Maybe some new camping equipment?"
"But see, he's probably got every piece of camping equipment known to man, and it's probably all top of the line, military-grade, designed to keep out mosquitos and, you know, repel bullets. Probably given to him as a birthday gift from the director of NASA. Everything I would get him would pale in comparison." Danny leans forward on the counter, elbows on the glass. "I have been through every inch of this store and haven't found anything."
The saleswoman bites her lip. "Well, it sounds like he's a bit of an adrenaline junkie? Maybe you could get him a gift certificate to go skydiving.” She smiles encouragingly, but Danny just snorts.
“Adrenaline junkie. That’s one way of putting it, sure. But the gift card is not going to work. Nice suggestion, thank you, really, but he jumps out of planes for a living, so skydiving is not really something that’s going to up his adrenaline level too much. I’m sure he’s trained to tamp down on that, actually. Honestly, the guy functions like a robot half the time, and the rest of the time he’s hanging out in his house doing home repairs and patching up bullet holes, so...what do you get someone like that?”
The woman glances down at the counter. “Calvin Klein for Men?” she says, hopeful, and Danny runs a hand over his face.
“Sure, let’s try it out.”
*****
It’s the day after Christmas, the first day back at work after a short holiday, and Danny is skittish, jiggling his leg as he sits perched on Steve’s desk. They’re not expecting it to be a particularly busy day - even criminals celebrate Christmas, most of the time - so this is the day they’d arranged to exchange gifts. Danny’s left his gifts for Kono and Chin on their desks, but Steve’s he’s going to present personally. He’s more than a little curious to see what Steve got him, because he finds it hard to believe that Steve would be particularly good at gift-giving - unlike Danny himself, obviously, since Danny is much better at that whole empathy thing - but then again, Steve is the person he’s closest to on the island, the person who knows him best. It’s possible Steve might surprise him.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Danny says as Steve walks into the office, and Steve smiles at him, fingers smoothing the edges of the gift in his hand.
“Morning,” Steve says, and hands Danny the gift just as Danny reaches out to hand his over.
“You go,” Steve says, and so Danny picks at the tape on the back. Steve wraps precisely, all smooth paper and tight corners, and Danny can’t help but grin at that. Of course Steve takes his wrapping job very seriously. Danny is a fan of the throw-everything-in-a-bag-and-cover-it-with-tissue-paper approach to wrapping; it gets the job done.
He slides a box out of the wrapping paper, and opens it to find a tie. It’s good quality, dark and pale blue stripes - very professional. Not something Danny would have expected Steve to pick out.
"You got me a tie?" Danny says, and he can’t really keep the incredulity out of his voice.
Steve's face falls just a bit. "You don't like it?"
Danny looks down at the box in his hand. "It's a tie."
"But you like ties. You wear them every day."
“Yeah, I like ties, but ties are....I mean, I got ties for my dad every year for his birthday, father’s day, and Christmas, because I was a kid with no imagination. It’s like getting a girlfriend or a sister soap. Or a gift card to a soap place.”
Steve actually looks sad, much to Danny’s chagrin. “I always get Mary a gift card to the Body Shop for her birthday.”
“Oh,” Danny says, for lack of a better, slightly more tactful response. “I’m sure she appreciates that.”
“Right,” Steve says.
“Thanks for the tie,” Danny says lamely. He imagines Steve at a department store, staring down a table of ties, and feels a bit guilty. He hands the bag to Steve and says, “Why don’t you just-” just as Steve is saying, “Maybe I should just-”
Steve removes the tissue paper from the bag and sets it on his desk, and when he pulls out the comic he just sort of stares at it for a second, so Danny starts talking to fill the silence.
"I don't know much about comics, but I know you have a bunch of Batman comics - which, you know, a quiet, moody vigilante who lives alone in a house full of weapons, I can't imagine the appeal. Anyway, uh, I saw you had that particular issue framed," says Danny, scratching his temple. "Or at least you did before some assholes decided to use your house for target practice. I know it got messed up, so I thought..."
Steve is quiet for a moment, flipping open the first page of the comic book. "My dad gave it to me. It was my first birthday after my mom died, and she was usually the one who handled presents. So I guess I wasn’t really expecting much, but Dad handled it. I had a whole stack of gifts, like that was making up for it...This was by far the best one."
Danny nods and shoves his hands into his pockets. After a moment, Steve looks down at the gift bag and pulls out another wad of tissue paper.
"Oh no," he says with a laugh, unwrapping a plastic figurine. "Aquaman!"
Danny grins. "It sticks to the dashboard. I even included extra-strength adhesive so it won’t get thrown around when you’re driving us off a cliff.”
“I would never drive us off a cliff, that makes no sense,” Steve says. "Besides, I'm putting this in my truck."
“But you drive my car everywhere anyway,” Danny says. “We spend more time in my car, though why you always have be driving it is still completely beyond me.”
"But it's my gift, so it should go in my car," says Steve, but he’s looking down at the gifts with a slightly dazed look on his face. Danny shuffles a little, feeling awkward for being so ungrateful. "Hey, I'm going to take back the tie." He doesn’t look at Danny.
Danny sighs. "No, the tie is fine."
Steve reaches for the box. "No, really, it was stupid. I'll get you something better--"
"It's a nice tie. I like the tie, okay!"
"No, you don't."
“I like it a lot. It is my new favourite tie.” He pauses. “Well, second-favourite. After the one Grace gave me.”
“Danny, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to pretend. I saved the receipt, we can return it-”
"I'm gonna wear it tomorrow,” Danny says stubbornly.
Steve pauses uncertainly but lets go of the box. "I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting that we would..."
"That we would...?"
“Exchange gifts like this.” Steve sighs. “I guess I’m not very good with getting people gifts. Like with Mary.”
“I’m sure she-” Danny starts, but Steve just cuts him off with a look.
“When I was a kid, it didn’t matter what I got anyone - like you said, you’re not expected to have very much imagination. And then after my mom died...my family didn’t really pay much attention to gift-giving. And I don’t really do long relationships, so I never had to go through all the gift-giving with problems with someone I was interested in.”
Danny lets that soak in for a moment before he says, "So...am I family, or are you interested?"
He'd meant for it to sound light-hearted, but the words end up sounding funny coming out of his mouth, and for a moment Steve looks uncharacteristically stunned. He recovers quickly and crosses his arms over his chest. "Look, it really doesn't matter, so..."
Danny just looks at him, unimpressed. "Uh, I think it matters. I think it matters a lot, actually."
Steve glances up at him, and Danny can see the effort it's costing him to remain nonchalant. "Well, we're all family. Five-0. You know, you're all my family. You know how important that is to me."
"Uh huh," says Danny. "So, where's my gift card to the Body Shop?"
Steve pauses just long enough for Danny to step forward, just inside of his personal space. "Come on, I'm not going to--" He purses his lips together awkwardly.
"A tie is the worst romantic gesture ever," says Danny, unable to keep the smile off of his face. He steps a little closer. "I mean, really."
Steve swallows visibly. "But you like ties, I just thought--"
Danny leans forward and presses his lips against Steve's. Steve doesn't react right away, but then his mouth opens up under Danny's and he lets go of the breath he was holding. It's different than he imagined it would be - softer and not as weird. He pulls away just barely, lips still touching, and their eyes meet for just a moment before Danny nudges him back until Steve's ass hits the edge of the desk. Danny's hands find the front of Steve's shirt, and this time it's not as soft. Steve's tongue is pressing against his teeth, his stubble is rasping against Danny's chin, and there's a low sound at the back of his throat that goes straight to Danny's groin. His hands slip under the edge of Steve's shirt, thumb pressing into Steve's abdomen, when suddenly he feels something vibrating against Steve's hip.
"That better not be who I think it is," he says breathlessly, pulling away.
Steve releases a frustrated breath and presses the phone to his ear. "McGarrett." Then a moment later, "Hello, Governor."
Danny groans and steps back to let Steve move away from the desk. The conversation doesn't last long - something about a suspected drug lord washing up on Waikiki beach, in bite-size pieces - and then Steve hangs up. He looks back at Danny, who lifts his eyebrows expectantly.
“Ahe Kama is dead. They think his killer took off with about half a million dollars in heroin."
“Of course they did," Danny says, smoothing down his shirt and trying to fix his hair. “You know, I was counting on today being basically another day off, but maybe this is for the best. I know how crazy you get when you’ve been forced to take a break. It’s like you end up with all this pent up craziness that gets unleashed on helpless suspects and...me.”
Steve smirks at him. “I promise to unleash my crazy on you later,” he says, and Danny's stomach flutters pleasantly.
"I can't decide if that's a threat or a promise," he says, smiling despite himself..
Steve grins. "Can it be both?"
“Most things are, with you,” Danny says, and swallows when Steve steps closer again, crowding him back against the wall. His hand slides over Danny's hip as he presses his lips to Danny's jaw.
"Is that a new cologne?" he says, pulling back to look down at Danny.
Danny rolls his eyes. “What, is that some special part of SEAL training? Cologne detection? Just generally having a really messed up sense of smell?”
“My senses are sharper than yours,” Steve concedes. “Although, admittedly, it’s easier when you’re, you know, right next to me.”
Danny sighs. “It’s Calvin Klein.”
“I like it,” Steve says, and Danny firmly resists the urge to hit his head against the wall.
“Thanks.”
"Did I say something wrong?"
"Just...never mind." Danny slides a hand across Steve's lower back as he slips past him on the way out the door. "By the way, Aquaman, it's my turn to drive."