H50 fic: Up Close & Personal
Title: Up Close & Personal
Characters: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams
Word Count: 3468
Rating: R for sexual conversations and kissing
Warnings: No spoilers, nothing graphic
Disclaimer: I don't own them, they don't own me (although clearly they're working on me… not so much the other way)
Beta: The always helpful siluria has used her magic marker and guided my hand where needed; the rest of it's my fault.
Author’s Notes: I'm a sucker for the start of relationships, and misunderstandings that cause a little angst on the way to something good. This is my first attempt to make up a way for these two to get together. I'm not sure I have anything new to add to the genre, but here it is, anyway!
NB: this fic can also be read here at AO3
"Wait…"
"Wait? What?" Steve frowned as Danny pushed away from him and started pacing.
"This is not a good idea."
Steve screwed his eyebrows up tighter and shook his head, gesturing helplessly. "Now you decide that?"
Danny stopped pacing and looked at him sideways. He took a breath and Steve just knew that a whole spiel of why this would be screwed up and wrong was coming.
"Forget it," Steve said before it started. He brushed off an imaginary piece of lint from his sleeve as he looked away, though the last thing he really wanted was to forget it. His trousers were feeling a lot tighter than was reasonable and Steve didn't like being frustrated. "I'm out of here."
"What?" Danny said behind him as Steve headed for the door. "So things get complicated and you run away? I didn't peg you for the 'avoid confrontation at all costs' sort of guy. At least you haven't been up ‘til now. You normally just dive in, guns blazing, and hope to hell you don't get shot in the crossfire."
Steve paused in the doorway, holding onto the frame and rolling his eyes, though he didn't turn around. "Fire-fight is one thing. This is entirely different."
"Right. So you do a lot of this, do you? Kissing people, then making a break for it the minute they wonder what you're doing?"
Steve spun around, eyebrows raised. "You came on to me, in case you're forgetting. I don't normally make a habit of kissing people who don't know exactly what they're getting into."
"I… I came on to you?" Danny's expression was incredulous.
Steve clamped his mouth shut and gazed towards the ceiling. He could feel a headache coming on. He should have known Danny wasn't anywhere near ready for something like this, no matter that he was the one who'd pressed up against Steve, his cock already hard.
Danny smiled, holding his arms out in question. There was something weirdly attractive about the way he talked with his hands as much as with his mouth and Steve couldn't help but let his eyes wander down from where they'd been focused. "You're the one who started the lip-lock. I was just making a point about procedure."
Steve let his frown deepen again. "Procedure? That was about procedure? Since when did it include getting that close with a dangerous weapon?"
Danny laughed. "Exactly my point. I've been telling you that for weeks now."
Steve let an ironic smile curve his lip upward for a second. "Different deadly weapon. You gonna tell me that wasn't your manhood?"
"Manhood? Manhood?" Danny 's forehead creased into a frown, and he snorted. "You seriously use that word?"
"Okay then. Was it or wasn't it your hard cock pressed against my thigh as you made your point about procedure?" Steve lifted his eyebrows as he made air quotes for the word 'procedure'.
"Uh…" For once Danny appeared speechless.
"Thought so. Now, if that wasn't coming on to me, I'd sure as hell like to know what it was, detective." Steve folded his arms and waited.
"That was… that was not… no!" Danny spluttered.
"I'm sure that's not where you keep your gun," Steve told him, unfolding his arms. "Anyway, my response was clearly not what you were expecting, despite your obvious enjoyment of it. Now, why don't we just file that one away under 'things not to do in Steve's office' and get out there and take care of 'procedure' before someone decides to come looking for us."
He didn't wait for Danny to stop making a fish mouth and start speaking; he'd had enough bullshit for one night. Steve turned and left the room and then the building, not looking back.
~//~
"If I didn't know better, boss, I'd say you were avoiding Danny."
Steve lifted his head from the computer file he was studying and looked at Chin. "What?"
"You sent him off to that bar to ask questions by himself."
"That's called 'procedure', Chin." The irony of what he was saying wasn’t lost on him, but it wasn’t amusing right now.
Chin pulled a tight smile. "Hey brah, I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job, but you normally do these things together, and since when did you give up an opportunity to drive his car?"
"He doesn't need me to hold his hand for every little thing. Besides, he deserves to drive his own car occasionally."
"Is that right?" Chin gave him one of his inscrutable looks before heading towards the door.
"What? What does that mean?" Steve couldn't resist asking.
"Nothing." Chin spun, walking backwards a couple of steps as he smiled and shrugged his shoulders, then turned again and left the room.
"Jesus," Steve breathed, frowning, and went back to the file.
~//~
"The suspect's been spotted." Kono poked her head into Steve's office. "Mid-town Waikiki, of all places."
Steve didn't even think; he was out of his chair and moving before Kono could give him an exact location. She followed him, pausing only when Steve called out to Danny for his keys. Danny looked mildly surprised as he handed them over, and seemed unsure whether he was along for the ride, though - for a change - he didn't ask.
Steve flicked a look at Chin - who was grinning from ear to ear - and narrowed his eyes at him. Refusing to be drawn into any kind of comment about Danny, Steve simply barked out an order. "Chin, you keep running that search on vehicle sales; Kono, you go talk to that jet ski operator again. Ask him if he remembers this guy. You've got his photo, right? Danny, you're with me."
Danny leapt up, eyebrows raised, and followed Steve.
Inevitably, the ride wasn't quiet. "You sure you want me along for this? You haven't got some other job I should be doing? Because you know, for a guy who practically begs to be followed by a search and rescue team by throwing caution to wind at every turn, you've sure been a loner these last few days."
Steve frowned but didn't speak yet; he needed his concentration for driving.
"Oh, so we're still not talking; is that it? The other afternoon in your office is a complete no-go area, yeah? Because I could swear that you were the one who started that, and correct me if I'm wrong, you aren't normally the kind of guy who doesn't finish what he starts."
Steve grimaced in confusion and threw a sideways look in Danny's direction before focusing back on the road. "How do you figure I started it? I told you then that I wouldn't have even gone there if you weren't so damned close I could feel your excitement against my leg."
"That was not my… 'excitement'. I had… damn you; I had something in my pocket. I had no idea you were going to do that."
Snorting back a laugh, Steve gripped the wheel tightly and grit out, "Something in your pocket? You seriously expect me to believe that?"
"Yeah; yeah I do. Look, what we are dealing with here is a simple case of misunderstanding."
"There's no misunderstanding; I get it completely, Danny. You're not the least bit interested. Don't worry; I won't try anything again."
Surprisingly, Danny didn't leap in with an immediate comeback on that. They were right in the centre of the tourist area now and Steve scanned the sidewalk as he slowed the car down a little.
"There!"
Danny was looking pensive but he still hadn't replied to Steve's last comment, and he was all business as they screeched to a halt and went after the man they'd come to find.
Steve hoped that was the last he would hear of it and he could forget that anything had taken place between them.
~//~
He should have known he couldn't be so lucky when it came to Danny and talking.
After all the fuss died down and the suspect had been hauled off by Honolulu PD, Steve and Danny had barely climbed in the car to head back to Five-0 HQ when it started. Obliquely at first, to be sure, but yeah…
"You should go to the hospital with that, you know. Maybe I should drive." Danny had that 'Don't be such a hero' look on his face that Steve had come to know well enough over the last few months.
"It's a scratch, Danny. I'll be fine." Steve started up the car, slanting Danny one of his own looks as he slid the car out of where he'd vaguely parked it, and turning into traffic; the patented 'quit making such a fuss' look, to be precise, because who the hell was so lame as to make a big deal of every little cut or bruise that came from taking a suspect down in full flight.
"A scratch? You call that a scratch? A scratch is when some cute little kitty-cat gets annoyed because you pulled its ball of yarn away. It's tiny and you barely bleed. That, my friend, is about as similar to a scratch as full CPR with mouth to mouth is to a French kiss."
Steve lifted a brow but didn't look at Danny. The comparison was a little close to home but he wasn’t about to comment on that. "It's stopped bleeding."
"Yes, but as soon as you take the completely unhygienic rag off from around it, it's going to be gushing again, I assure you. I saw it. You probably need stitches."
"Stitches?" Steve repeated and glanced down at the arm where his scratch was, before concentrating back on the road. "Where'd you get your medical degree?"
"Oh excuse me for caring. Just because I don't want you to get some tropical disease because your wound doesn't heal properly and you keep that filthy cloth on it too long, does not make me your mommy making a fuss over her precious baby's skinned knee."
Steve just stared, wondering where all that came from.
"Look," Danny said, scratching his nose and ducking his head. Was that a blush? "You should take care of it, is all I'm saying. Those tropical diseases can be nasty."
"You don't need to worry, Mom. I'll wash it and wrap it properly when I get home." Steve rolled his eyes as he pulled into Danny's park at Five-0. Steve didn't wait to hear Danny's comeback; he was inside before Danny had even closed the car door.
"Boss, that operator remembered the guy," Kono was saying as Steve walked in the door, "and Chin's found some interesting sales in this company over at Kauai… you okay?"
"Yeah, sure; why wouldn't I be?" Steve asked, striding up to where Chin was bringing something up on the big screens. "What you got, Chin?"
Kono wasn't even looking at his arm, but she was frowning. Danny finally joined them and she turned to him. "You bite him or something?"
"Oh, that's funny. That's good. You get him to see a doctor about that so-not-a-scratch on his arm, will ya? I give up."
~//~
The door flew open and Danny marched in, surveying Steve’s now-uneasy posture on the couch, though Steve didn’t move from the sprawl he’d fallen into some half hour before, after he’d got home from a long wait and some eventual attention to his wound - okay, he conceded the fact that it was a little bit more than a scratch - at the hospital. He still considered he’d been badgered into the whole medical treatment thing and it was hardly necessary, but he couldn’t stand the thought of not only Danny, but also Kono driving him crazy about it for the rest of the week.
Danny didn’t say anything at first; just stood there, hands ready to begin another one of his gesture lectures as he squinted at Steve.
“What?” Steve asked after a moment, raising an eyebrow in question. He almost felt like he should shift in embarrassment, but he had no reason to feel guilt.
Danny’s brows did that amazing lift and realignment thing that fascinated Steve, and then he huffed like he was expecting something more erudite from Steve. “You’re just going to sit there like you have nothing to say to me?”
Steve scowled in confusion for a second, then smiled and lifted the hand that held a Longboard. “You want a beer, Danny?”
“I don’t believe you, McGarrett. How can you just sit there and calmly offer me a beer?”
Danny’s exasperated face was in full evidence now, but Steve had no clue what it was for this time. He searched through his memories of the day and their previous interactions - carefully ignoring anything to do with what happened in the office the other day - but couldn’t come up with anything unfinished or unusual that needed him to say something to Danny apart from pleasantries.
“You came to see me, Danny. I assumed, perhaps wrongly of me,” he suggested coolly, sitting up and frowning mildly at Danny, “that the polite thing to do would be to offer you a refreshment, such as the one I am currently indulging in. I could also offer you a seat, I suppose.” He finished with another smile and took an easy gulp from his bottle. “You don’t want a beer, then?”
“I did not say that, Steven.”
“So you do want a beer?” Steve started to get up.
“I’ll get the beer. You should probably just stay right there.” Danny looked pointedly at the bandage wrapped around Steve’s arm and then at the bottle of pills on the table next to him.
“I didn’t take any of them,” Steve told Danny’s back. “I know about drugs and alcohol, okay?”
Danny waved a hand and disappeared for a moment. Steve waited, downing more of his own beer, until Danny reappeared with an open bottle in his hand and took a seat opposite.
“Okay.” Danny sighed, took a healthy mouthful from the bottle, and looked pensively at Steve. “I’m going to ask this only one time. Did I ever give you the impression I was an idiot?”
Steve knew he’d be in trouble if he answered that in the affirmative. “No.”
“So what is it with you and proper conversations? You just don’t like to have them generally, or your SEAL training demands that you approach them the same way you would an interrogation; that is to say by pretending there’s nothing to discuss and that you’re not giving up any information, voluntarily or otherwise?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Danny.”
Danny’s exasperated look went up a couple of notches before he looked away. He took a deep breath before turning back to gaze seriously at Steve again. “Then I am going to explain it to you, Steven. In very small words that even a sailor can understand.”
Steve narrowed his eyes painfully. As if it could get any worse. “I am injured, you know.”
“Oh, so you acknowledge that now? He who won’t take the painkillers the hospital gave you; the man who’d rather suffer in silence than have anyone suspect he’s human. Although I suppose the beer in your hand is not the first, and that it’s supposed to be - in your scrambled logic, at least - some sort of replacement for prescribed pain meds.”
Steve smiled tightly through his furrowed brows. “Do you have a point?”
Danny wiped a hand over his face, and then took another gulp from the bottle. “The point, Steve, is this: you kissed me. I questioned whether it was a good idea, considering how closely we work together and how I have enough complications in my life. You ran away without showing the slightest willingness to discuss it. When I next tried to broach it - and admittedly it wasn’t the perfect time to discuss such a delicate subject - you cut me off again. I’m not letting you avoid it any more. We need to talk about it.”
Steve was gobsmacked, and he opened his mouth and closed it a few times, like the flounder he evidently was.
“What? What’s that?” Danny asked, gesturing. “Does that mean you have no idea what to say or that you don’t understand what we should be talking about?”
Taking a moment to marshal his thoughts, Steve shook his head. “Where in that initial conversation did you ‘question’ anything? Because from what I remember, you said ‘This is not a good idea’. As far as I understand English, Danny, that’s a pretty clear indication of a rejection.”
“What; you’ve never thought out loud?”
“You call that thinking out loud? 'This is not a good idea’. That’s what you said, Danny. I remember it clearly.”
“Yes, and if you’d just think about it for one second, you’d realise that ‘this is not a good idea’ and ‘we cannot do this’ are two entirely different things.”
Steve blinked and took another mouthful of his beer, thinking. He had to admit, his next thought had been of how Danny was going to tell him exactly why they shouldn’t do anything further, and that had probably coloured his thinking. “You tried to tell me there was something in your pocket…” he tried.
“That, my friend, is because there was something in my pocket. As a matter of fact, it was a flashlight I bought for Grace because she wanted one, and I found one I thought she’d think was cute - it was purple, which just happens to be her favourite colour - but that’s irrelevant. The truth of the matter is I did not ‘come on to you’, no matter what you think, but…” He held up a hand, his voice louder on the final word as Steve made to interrupt.
Steve closed his mouth and put down his bottle, crossing his arms across his chest and indicating with his eyebrows that Danny should go on.
“But - and this is probably a big ‘but’ that I could have mentioned earlier, had the conversation been allowed to get that far - but… I am not completely against the idea.”
By now Steve wasn’t sure if the idea Danny wasn’t ‘completely against’ was the kiss itself or something altogether different.
“So what you’re telling me is…” he started tentatively, concentrating on Danny’s eyes to work out the finer details.
“For God’s sake, Steve, do you need a written invitation?”
“In your case, Danny, a written invitation is probably a good idea. Because I haven’t got a clue…” He stopped, glancing away from Danny’s ‘exasperation face’, which was back in full force, though he hadn’t managed to say anything further. It didn’t mean it wasn’t coming though.
Danny thought he was making himself understood, but he never seemed to realise that a greater number of words thrown at a person didn’t necessarily make for better clarity of expression. Actions always spoke louder than words to Steve’s mind.
Thinking things through, something told him Danny was up for the kiss and then some, even if his words hadn’t really made it obvious. As long as he didn’t allow Danny to say anything else for a while, Steve was pretty sure that they could work things out.
Steve let his face quirk into a smile as he rose to his feet. Danny frowned, but also stood up when Steve gestured for him to do so. “Don’t say anything, Danno.”
Danny opened his mouth, but Steve gave him a warning look. It was obviously enough, because he shut it again and just looked at Steve.
Glancing at Danny’s pockets, Steve moved forward, then focused on Danny’s face once more. Danny looked slightly alarmed. Steve let his smile resurface, and nodded. “It’s okay. Assuming you have nothing in your pockets this time…”
Steve put a hand on Danny’s upper arm and leaned in, brushing his lips against Danny’s, before pulling back slightly, a question in his eyes. Danny blinked at the contact, but allowed it. As he pulled back, his dropped his eyes to look at Steve’s lips. Thankfully, he still didn’t speak, which had to be a first.
Taking that as encouragement, Steve let his other hand find Danny’s waist as he moved back in, meeting his lips again and licking at them to seek entrance.
Suddenly, Danny’s hands were pulling him closer too, and the kiss deepened and turned into something similar to the one in the office that had started all the fuss. Steve closed his eyes, savouring it, and now - remembering what had happened before - he knew Danny had to want it as much as he did. How he could ever have imagined otherwise?
“Are you still questioning this?” Steve asked when they drew apart for breath.
Danny shook his head and pulled him closer.
Steve laughed, and kissed him again.
~//~//~
HSN Coupon
Characters: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams
Word Count: 3468
Rating: R for sexual conversations and kissing
Warnings: No spoilers, nothing graphic
Disclaimer: I don't own them, they don't own me (although clearly they're working on me… not so much the other way)
Beta: The always helpful siluria has used her magic marker and guided my hand where needed; the rest of it's my fault.
Author’s Notes: I'm a sucker for the start of relationships, and misunderstandings that cause a little angst on the way to something good. This is my first attempt to make up a way for these two to get together. I'm not sure I have anything new to add to the genre, but here it is, anyway!
NB: this fic can also be read here at AO3
"Wait…"
"Wait? What?" Steve frowned as Danny pushed away from him and started pacing.
"This is not a good idea."
Steve screwed his eyebrows up tighter and shook his head, gesturing helplessly. "Now you decide that?"
Danny stopped pacing and looked at him sideways. He took a breath and Steve just knew that a whole spiel of why this would be screwed up and wrong was coming.
"Forget it," Steve said before it started. He brushed off an imaginary piece of lint from his sleeve as he looked away, though the last thing he really wanted was to forget it. His trousers were feeling a lot tighter than was reasonable and Steve didn't like being frustrated. "I'm out of here."
"What?" Danny said behind him as Steve headed for the door. "So things get complicated and you run away? I didn't peg you for the 'avoid confrontation at all costs' sort of guy. At least you haven't been up ‘til now. You normally just dive in, guns blazing, and hope to hell you don't get shot in the crossfire."
Steve paused in the doorway, holding onto the frame and rolling his eyes, though he didn't turn around. "Fire-fight is one thing. This is entirely different."
"Right. So you do a lot of this, do you? Kissing people, then making a break for it the minute they wonder what you're doing?"
Steve spun around, eyebrows raised. "You came on to me, in case you're forgetting. I don't normally make a habit of kissing people who don't know exactly what they're getting into."
"I… I came on to you?" Danny's expression was incredulous.
Steve clamped his mouth shut and gazed towards the ceiling. He could feel a headache coming on. He should have known Danny wasn't anywhere near ready for something like this, no matter that he was the one who'd pressed up against Steve, his cock already hard.
Danny smiled, holding his arms out in question. There was something weirdly attractive about the way he talked with his hands as much as with his mouth and Steve couldn't help but let his eyes wander down from where they'd been focused. "You're the one who started the lip-lock. I was just making a point about procedure."
Steve let his frown deepen again. "Procedure? That was about procedure? Since when did it include getting that close with a dangerous weapon?"
Danny laughed. "Exactly my point. I've been telling you that for weeks now."
Steve let an ironic smile curve his lip upward for a second. "Different deadly weapon. You gonna tell me that wasn't your manhood?"
"Manhood? Manhood?" Danny 's forehead creased into a frown, and he snorted. "You seriously use that word?"
"Okay then. Was it or wasn't it your hard cock pressed against my thigh as you made your point about procedure?" Steve lifted his eyebrows as he made air quotes for the word 'procedure'.
"Uh…" For once Danny appeared speechless.
"Thought so. Now, if that wasn't coming on to me, I'd sure as hell like to know what it was, detective." Steve folded his arms and waited.
"That was… that was not… no!" Danny spluttered.
"I'm sure that's not where you keep your gun," Steve told him, unfolding his arms. "Anyway, my response was clearly not what you were expecting, despite your obvious enjoyment of it. Now, why don't we just file that one away under 'things not to do in Steve's office' and get out there and take care of 'procedure' before someone decides to come looking for us."
He didn't wait for Danny to stop making a fish mouth and start speaking; he'd had enough bullshit for one night. Steve turned and left the room and then the building, not looking back.
~//~
"If I didn't know better, boss, I'd say you were avoiding Danny."
Steve lifted his head from the computer file he was studying and looked at Chin. "What?"
"You sent him off to that bar to ask questions by himself."
"That's called 'procedure', Chin." The irony of what he was saying wasn’t lost on him, but it wasn’t amusing right now.
Chin pulled a tight smile. "Hey brah, I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job, but you normally do these things together, and since when did you give up an opportunity to drive his car?"
"He doesn't need me to hold his hand for every little thing. Besides, he deserves to drive his own car occasionally."
"Is that right?" Chin gave him one of his inscrutable looks before heading towards the door.
"What? What does that mean?" Steve couldn't resist asking.
"Nothing." Chin spun, walking backwards a couple of steps as he smiled and shrugged his shoulders, then turned again and left the room.
"Jesus," Steve breathed, frowning, and went back to the file.
~//~
"The suspect's been spotted." Kono poked her head into Steve's office. "Mid-town Waikiki, of all places."
Steve didn't even think; he was out of his chair and moving before Kono could give him an exact location. She followed him, pausing only when Steve called out to Danny for his keys. Danny looked mildly surprised as he handed them over, and seemed unsure whether he was along for the ride, though - for a change - he didn't ask.
Steve flicked a look at Chin - who was grinning from ear to ear - and narrowed his eyes at him. Refusing to be drawn into any kind of comment about Danny, Steve simply barked out an order. "Chin, you keep running that search on vehicle sales; Kono, you go talk to that jet ski operator again. Ask him if he remembers this guy. You've got his photo, right? Danny, you're with me."
Danny leapt up, eyebrows raised, and followed Steve.
Inevitably, the ride wasn't quiet. "You sure you want me along for this? You haven't got some other job I should be doing? Because you know, for a guy who practically begs to be followed by a search and rescue team by throwing caution to wind at every turn, you've sure been a loner these last few days."
Steve frowned but didn't speak yet; he needed his concentration for driving.
"Oh, so we're still not talking; is that it? The other afternoon in your office is a complete no-go area, yeah? Because I could swear that you were the one who started that, and correct me if I'm wrong, you aren't normally the kind of guy who doesn't finish what he starts."
Steve grimaced in confusion and threw a sideways look in Danny's direction before focusing back on the road. "How do you figure I started it? I told you then that I wouldn't have even gone there if you weren't so damned close I could feel your excitement against my leg."
"That was not my… 'excitement'. I had… damn you; I had something in my pocket. I had no idea you were going to do that."
Snorting back a laugh, Steve gripped the wheel tightly and grit out, "Something in your pocket? You seriously expect me to believe that?"
"Yeah; yeah I do. Look, what we are dealing with here is a simple case of misunderstanding."
"There's no misunderstanding; I get it completely, Danny. You're not the least bit interested. Don't worry; I won't try anything again."
Surprisingly, Danny didn't leap in with an immediate comeback on that. They were right in the centre of the tourist area now and Steve scanned the sidewalk as he slowed the car down a little.
"There!"
Danny was looking pensive but he still hadn't replied to Steve's last comment, and he was all business as they screeched to a halt and went after the man they'd come to find.
Steve hoped that was the last he would hear of it and he could forget that anything had taken place between them.
~//~
He should have known he couldn't be so lucky when it came to Danny and talking.
After all the fuss died down and the suspect had been hauled off by Honolulu PD, Steve and Danny had barely climbed in the car to head back to Five-0 HQ when it started. Obliquely at first, to be sure, but yeah…
"You should go to the hospital with that, you know. Maybe I should drive." Danny had that 'Don't be such a hero' look on his face that Steve had come to know well enough over the last few months.
"It's a scratch, Danny. I'll be fine." Steve started up the car, slanting Danny one of his own looks as he slid the car out of where he'd vaguely parked it, and turning into traffic; the patented 'quit making such a fuss' look, to be precise, because who the hell was so lame as to make a big deal of every little cut or bruise that came from taking a suspect down in full flight.
"A scratch? You call that a scratch? A scratch is when some cute little kitty-cat gets annoyed because you pulled its ball of yarn away. It's tiny and you barely bleed. That, my friend, is about as similar to a scratch as full CPR with mouth to mouth is to a French kiss."
Steve lifted a brow but didn't look at Danny. The comparison was a little close to home but he wasn’t about to comment on that. "It's stopped bleeding."
"Yes, but as soon as you take the completely unhygienic rag off from around it, it's going to be gushing again, I assure you. I saw it. You probably need stitches."
"Stitches?" Steve repeated and glanced down at the arm where his scratch was, before concentrating back on the road. "Where'd you get your medical degree?"
"Oh excuse me for caring. Just because I don't want you to get some tropical disease because your wound doesn't heal properly and you keep that filthy cloth on it too long, does not make me your mommy making a fuss over her precious baby's skinned knee."
Steve just stared, wondering where all that came from.
"Look," Danny said, scratching his nose and ducking his head. Was that a blush? "You should take care of it, is all I'm saying. Those tropical diseases can be nasty."
"You don't need to worry, Mom. I'll wash it and wrap it properly when I get home." Steve rolled his eyes as he pulled into Danny's park at Five-0. Steve didn't wait to hear Danny's comeback; he was inside before Danny had even closed the car door.
"Boss, that operator remembered the guy," Kono was saying as Steve walked in the door, "and Chin's found some interesting sales in this company over at Kauai… you okay?"
"Yeah, sure; why wouldn't I be?" Steve asked, striding up to where Chin was bringing something up on the big screens. "What you got, Chin?"
Kono wasn't even looking at his arm, but she was frowning. Danny finally joined them and she turned to him. "You bite him or something?"
"Oh, that's funny. That's good. You get him to see a doctor about that so-not-a-scratch on his arm, will ya? I give up."
~//~
The door flew open and Danny marched in, surveying Steve’s now-uneasy posture on the couch, though Steve didn’t move from the sprawl he’d fallen into some half hour before, after he’d got home from a long wait and some eventual attention to his wound - okay, he conceded the fact that it was a little bit more than a scratch - at the hospital. He still considered he’d been badgered into the whole medical treatment thing and it was hardly necessary, but he couldn’t stand the thought of not only Danny, but also Kono driving him crazy about it for the rest of the week.
Danny didn’t say anything at first; just stood there, hands ready to begin another one of his gesture lectures as he squinted at Steve.
“What?” Steve asked after a moment, raising an eyebrow in question. He almost felt like he should shift in embarrassment, but he had no reason to feel guilt.
Danny’s brows did that amazing lift and realignment thing that fascinated Steve, and then he huffed like he was expecting something more erudite from Steve. “You’re just going to sit there like you have nothing to say to me?”
Steve scowled in confusion for a second, then smiled and lifted the hand that held a Longboard. “You want a beer, Danny?”
“I don’t believe you, McGarrett. How can you just sit there and calmly offer me a beer?”
Danny’s exasperated face was in full evidence now, but Steve had no clue what it was for this time. He searched through his memories of the day and their previous interactions - carefully ignoring anything to do with what happened in the office the other day - but couldn’t come up with anything unfinished or unusual that needed him to say something to Danny apart from pleasantries.
“You came to see me, Danny. I assumed, perhaps wrongly of me,” he suggested coolly, sitting up and frowning mildly at Danny, “that the polite thing to do would be to offer you a refreshment, such as the one I am currently indulging in. I could also offer you a seat, I suppose.” He finished with another smile and took an easy gulp from his bottle. “You don’t want a beer, then?”
“I did not say that, Steven.”
“So you do want a beer?” Steve started to get up.
“I’ll get the beer. You should probably just stay right there.” Danny looked pointedly at the bandage wrapped around Steve’s arm and then at the bottle of pills on the table next to him.
“I didn’t take any of them,” Steve told Danny’s back. “I know about drugs and alcohol, okay?”
Danny waved a hand and disappeared for a moment. Steve waited, downing more of his own beer, until Danny reappeared with an open bottle in his hand and took a seat opposite.
“Okay.” Danny sighed, took a healthy mouthful from the bottle, and looked pensively at Steve. “I’m going to ask this only one time. Did I ever give you the impression I was an idiot?”
Steve knew he’d be in trouble if he answered that in the affirmative. “No.”
“So what is it with you and proper conversations? You just don’t like to have them generally, or your SEAL training demands that you approach them the same way you would an interrogation; that is to say by pretending there’s nothing to discuss and that you’re not giving up any information, voluntarily or otherwise?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Danny.”
Danny’s exasperated look went up a couple of notches before he looked away. He took a deep breath before turning back to gaze seriously at Steve again. “Then I am going to explain it to you, Steven. In very small words that even a sailor can understand.”
Steve narrowed his eyes painfully. As if it could get any worse. “I am injured, you know.”
“Oh, so you acknowledge that now? He who won’t take the painkillers the hospital gave you; the man who’d rather suffer in silence than have anyone suspect he’s human. Although I suppose the beer in your hand is not the first, and that it’s supposed to be - in your scrambled logic, at least - some sort of replacement for prescribed pain meds.”
Steve smiled tightly through his furrowed brows. “Do you have a point?”
Danny wiped a hand over his face, and then took another gulp from the bottle. “The point, Steve, is this: you kissed me. I questioned whether it was a good idea, considering how closely we work together and how I have enough complications in my life. You ran away without showing the slightest willingness to discuss it. When I next tried to broach it - and admittedly it wasn’t the perfect time to discuss such a delicate subject - you cut me off again. I’m not letting you avoid it any more. We need to talk about it.”
Steve was gobsmacked, and he opened his mouth and closed it a few times, like the flounder he evidently was.
“What? What’s that?” Danny asked, gesturing. “Does that mean you have no idea what to say or that you don’t understand what we should be talking about?”
Taking a moment to marshal his thoughts, Steve shook his head. “Where in that initial conversation did you ‘question’ anything? Because from what I remember, you said ‘This is not a good idea’. As far as I understand English, Danny, that’s a pretty clear indication of a rejection.”
“What; you’ve never thought out loud?”
“You call that thinking out loud? 'This is not a good idea’. That’s what you said, Danny. I remember it clearly.”
“Yes, and if you’d just think about it for one second, you’d realise that ‘this is not a good idea’ and ‘we cannot do this’ are two entirely different things.”
Steve blinked and took another mouthful of his beer, thinking. He had to admit, his next thought had been of how Danny was going to tell him exactly why they shouldn’t do anything further, and that had probably coloured his thinking. “You tried to tell me there was something in your pocket…” he tried.
“That, my friend, is because there was something in my pocket. As a matter of fact, it was a flashlight I bought for Grace because she wanted one, and I found one I thought she’d think was cute - it was purple, which just happens to be her favourite colour - but that’s irrelevant. The truth of the matter is I did not ‘come on to you’, no matter what you think, but…” He held up a hand, his voice louder on the final word as Steve made to interrupt.
Steve closed his mouth and put down his bottle, crossing his arms across his chest and indicating with his eyebrows that Danny should go on.
“But - and this is probably a big ‘but’ that I could have mentioned earlier, had the conversation been allowed to get that far - but… I am not completely against the idea.”
By now Steve wasn’t sure if the idea Danny wasn’t ‘completely against’ was the kiss itself or something altogether different.
“So what you’re telling me is…” he started tentatively, concentrating on Danny’s eyes to work out the finer details.
“For God’s sake, Steve, do you need a written invitation?”
“In your case, Danny, a written invitation is probably a good idea. Because I haven’t got a clue…” He stopped, glancing away from Danny’s ‘exasperation face’, which was back in full force, though he hadn’t managed to say anything further. It didn’t mean it wasn’t coming though.
Danny thought he was making himself understood, but he never seemed to realise that a greater number of words thrown at a person didn’t necessarily make for better clarity of expression. Actions always spoke louder than words to Steve’s mind.
Thinking things through, something told him Danny was up for the kiss and then some, even if his words hadn’t really made it obvious. As long as he didn’t allow Danny to say anything else for a while, Steve was pretty sure that they could work things out.
Steve let his face quirk into a smile as he rose to his feet. Danny frowned, but also stood up when Steve gestured for him to do so. “Don’t say anything, Danno.”
Danny opened his mouth, but Steve gave him a warning look. It was obviously enough, because he shut it again and just looked at Steve.
Glancing at Danny’s pockets, Steve moved forward, then focused on Danny’s face once more. Danny looked slightly alarmed. Steve let his smile resurface, and nodded. “It’s okay. Assuming you have nothing in your pockets this time…”
Steve put a hand on Danny’s upper arm and leaned in, brushing his lips against Danny’s, before pulling back slightly, a question in his eyes. Danny blinked at the contact, but allowed it. As he pulled back, his dropped his eyes to look at Steve’s lips. Thankfully, he still didn’t speak, which had to be a first.
Taking that as encouragement, Steve let his other hand find Danny’s waist as he moved back in, meeting his lips again and licking at them to seek entrance.
Suddenly, Danny’s hands were pulling him closer too, and the kiss deepened and turned into something similar to the one in the office that had started all the fuss. Steve closed his eyes, savouring it, and now - remembering what had happened before - he knew Danny had to want it as much as he did. How he could ever have imagined otherwise?
“Are you still questioning this?” Steve asked when they drew apart for breath.
Danny shook his head and pulled him closer.
Steve laughed, and kissed him again.
~//~//~
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