[Hawaii Five-0] A Very Special Episode
Title: A Very Special Episode
Author:
kitsune_tsuki
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Steve/Danny
Word Count: ~ 2,400
Disclaimer: In no way, shape, or form do these characters belong to me.
Summary: In which Danny's life has become an after school special.
Notes: There's really no excuse for this? Just know that I had the best of intentions. Really.
Keeping in touch with his family can be a bit of an ordeal for Danny at times because he has to use what feels like all known forms of communication with them, depending on the day and said relative's familiarity and comfort with technology. He doesn't judge because in a few years he's going to be the grumpy old guy bitching about how complicated people have to make things and how back in his day they did things a certain way and no one complained and, oh, God, he's already that guy.
The thing is that he tries to keep in contact, and that means sometimes he gets family members sending him junk mail and spam and joke e-mails. Usually he rolls his eyes and deletes them, but once in a while something will get his attention or make him laugh even though it's usually a horrible joke or stupid picture of someone's cat with a stupid caption someone slapped on it.
This time, though, it's something that makes him do an honest-to-God spit-take because so much about his life from the moment Steve came into makes sense. A fucked up kind of sense, it's true, but what the hell. It's Steve.
"Danno?"
The fact that Steve is trying to get Danny to stop giving him the cold-shoulder treatment for ruining yet another tie with one of his ill-advised and spur of the moment plans is probably the universe's way of telling him he did something unforgivable in a past life.
"Danny?" Steve asks, going from bemused to genuine concern when Danny doesn't answer right away.
"It's an e-mail from my uncle," Danny answers, glancing up at Steve. "Nothing bad," he says when he sees the way Steve tenses up. "Just something a buddy from his old squad sent him."
Steve sits back and looks like he's adding another note to the file he has on Danny in his head. "Your uncle's a cop?"
"He was in the military," Danny answers, knowing better than to name which branch of the military.
"Your uncle was in the military?" Steve is definitely interested now, and also a little hurt that Danny hasn't seen fit to share something like this with him. Or that it hadn't showed up in whatever background checks Steve had to have run on him before abducting him and making him his partner.
Danny eyes Steve, wondering just how this is going to come back to bite him on the ass. "He was one of my dad's friends," he says, waving a hand because words just aren't enough in this situation. "Not a blood relative, but he was around so much he was like an uncle."
Steve nods and goes quiet and thoughtful and all of Danny's hopes that Steve's going to let the subject drop and let this will be the end of it go up in smoke. He can tell from the look on Steve's face that he's not going to let it go, and it's only a matter of time before he gets the information he wants, even if it means annoying the shit out of Danny.
====
====
Steve proves him right a few weeks later when they're chasing after some up and coming rock star in the criminal world. They've long moved into the place where actual food has turned into a luxury and bad coffee is a major food group.
"So last week," Steve says, when they get a chance to breathe in between running down leads, getting shot at, receiving test results from the lab, and back around to getting shot at again because Steve has that sort of effect on people. "That thing you were talking about."
Danny sighs and covers his face with his hands. Fucking Steve. Worse than a dog with a bone.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Danny says, lying like a champ. There's only one thing they were talking about last week that Steve would want to know about, and Danny knows better than to tell him anything, if only for his own sanity. "Now go somewhere else before I shoot you."
"Danno," Steve says, sounding horrifyingly earnest. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"
Danny lowers his hands and stares at Steve, not really sure what he's getting at. "...What?"
Steve rests his hands on Danny's desk and lowers his voice, which means Danny has to lean closer in order to hear him. "I mean it, Danno," Steve says, giving him this look Danny has no idea what to do with because it's like something out of an after school special. "You can tell me anything."
Danny stares at Steve and his stupid earnest face for a long, long moment. And then he realizes that his life has actually turned into an after school special because Steve obviously thinks Danny is keeping some kind of dark, secret shame from him and is trying to reassure Danny that, no, Steve will still respect him in the morning or something if Danny tells him. As if Danny doesn't tell him pretty much everything about his life anyway, and what. What the actual fuck is this?
"Okay," he says, licking his lips. "Okay. I. It's. That's great, Steve. Thanks. Really." Steve is still looking at him. "I'll keep that in mind."
When he realizes Danny isn't about to share his feelings with him, Steve nods and straightens up, like he's done all he can and the rest is all up to Danny. He pivots on his heel like he's in a parade or formation or who the hell cares, and walks out of Danny's office.
====
====
Two days later, Steve brings the subject up again.
"Really?" Danny asks. Yells, really, because they're pinned down by semi-automatic fire and Steve is never allowed to pick where they go for lunch ever again. "Do you really think now is the time for this?"
Steve's crouched behind the condiment counter on the other side of the shop from him and oh, Jesus, the bastard's actually thinking about it.
"Don't answer that!" Danny yells, afraid of what Steve's going to say. "Just. Don't."
Steve frowns, and maybe if they weren't being shot at by a fucking lunatic, Danny would feel a little bad.
"You've been acting weird!" Steve yells back at him, because the man just can't leave well enough alone. And also, is an asshole, which he proves by adding, "Weird even for you, I mean!"
"I hate you, you know," Danny yells, waiting for the shooter to run out of bullets.
The guy's a moron who doesn't seem to realize real life isn't like the movies. There's no such thing as endless bullets, and the idiot's been shooting the place up for a couple of minutes. They just have to wait him out while he bitches about the injustice of getting mayo instead of mustard on his sub and how he's not going to take it anymore.
Across the way, Steve has his Very Earnest face back on and looks like he's seconds away from telling Danny that it's okay to share his feelings, but thankfully that's when the guy with the gun and condiment-fueled rage runs out of bullets.
Danny pops up over the counter, gun aimed at the bastard's face. "I'm having a bad day," he tells the guy, who is staring at his own gun in confusion and something that looks like betrayal. "And you, buddy, are not making things better."
Behind him he can hear Steve moving to a flanking position in case the guy isn't done expressing his displeasure over a botched order.
“Drop the gun,” Danny says, knowing Steve has him covered.
The guy sighs and drops the gun, but not before glowering at the condiment counter and muttering something derogatory about mayo, and goddamn it, Danny can't believe this is his life now.
====
====
Another week goes by with Steve and his Very Earnest face and Danny realizes if he's going to get any peace of mind at all, he has to tell Steve.
"God, okay. Fine," Danny says, certain this can only end badly for all concerned.
He grabs Steve by the arm and drags him into his office and closes the blinds, even though Chin and Kono took off hours ago just to get away from Steve and his Very Earnest face. "Just. Sit down or something, first, okay?" Danny's worried about Steve's delicate sensibilities.
Steve's Very Earnest face becomes, if possible, even more Very Earnest.
"Okay, so." Danny doesn't even know how to do this because it's Steve, and Steve is kind of crazy.
Possibly actually crazy, but up until now Danny had thought of it as an endearing sort of crazy, even though it sometimes veers off into the what-the-fuck kind of crazy with the shit Steve does. "That uncle of mine?"
Steve nods, the very model of a patient, supportive after school special character. "Your dad's friend?"
Danny squints at him for a moment, wondering if he's doing the right thing after all. "Yeah," he says. "That one."
After School Special Character Steve waits. Patiently and supportively.
"He was in the Army," Danny blurts, and watches as Steve's Very Earnest face turns into an utterly blank mask as though Steve's imagining the fate worse than death Danny's uncle went through serving in the Army of all things. "It's not like. It's not a big deal, okay? He went in, did his time, and got out."
Steve doesn't even blink.
"He hated it!" Danny says, even though his uncle loved being in the Army, but at the moment Danny's worried that he actually broke Steve.
"...Army?" Steve says.
Danny stares at him because Steve sounds like Danny ran over his damn dog, and this? This is exactly why Danny didn't want to tell Steve. Steve is insane and takes the whole stupid Army-Navy rivalry way too seriously.
"Yes," Danny says.
"Okay," Steve says, sounding anything but. "Okay, Danno." The smile he gives Danny doesn't sit quite right on his face. "I'm glad you told me," he says, the words coming out like something Steve read in a greeting card once.
Danny watches as Steve stands up and walks out of his office, not really sure what just happened.
====
====
It's not like Steve regresses to grade school behavior because he's not. He's not actively avoiding Danny? But he won't sit next to him at lunch and he just sits on the side of the playground at recess, all sad-faced and slouchy.
Jesus fucking Christ.
====
====
"I swear to God, Danny," Kono hisses after snagging Danny by the collar of his shirt and pulling him into a tiny, cramped storage room at Five-0 headquarters. "If you don't fix whatever you did to Steve, I'll kill you both and make it look like an accident."
Danny knows she can do it. He also knows Chin would back her all the way.
"The man's crazy!" he says, as if that's any kind of defense. Everyone knows Steve's crazy.
Kono rolls her eyes and backs Danny into the wall, poking him in the chest with her finger for emphasis. "That's no excuse, Danny! Everyone knows he's crazy!"
"I - "
"I will kill you," Kono says, making it sound less like a threat and more like a promise. "I will kill you so, so much."
Danny tries one more time to explain it's not his fault Steve's a nutcase, but Kono just glares and. Seriously. What the fuck did he ever do to deserve this?
====
====
"I lied," Danny lies. The only way to fix Steve and not be murdered by Kono and Chin is to take one for the team. Pretty much literally.
"What?" Steve asks, looking like the miserable son of a bitch he is. He's not making eye contact and is listlessly moving things around on his desk.
Danny sighs inwardly and reminds himself that Grace shouldn't have to grow up without a father. "I lied," he repeats. "About the thing. With my uncle."
Steve sits up, his Very Earnest face struggling to make a reappearance because he's Steve, and Jesus, Danny really should have done this earlier.
"Danny?"
Oh, fuck it. "I like you," Danny says, and gives Steve a Meaningful Look. A Meaningful Look Steve clearly doesn't understand because fucking hell, it's Steve. "I like like you, you bastard," he says, not believing he's actually using those words because they're adults.
The Very Earnest face finally makes an appearance and. Fine. Jesus. "I lied about my uncle being in the Army because I like like you and didn't know how to tell you," Danny says, managing to sound like he's a fellow character in Steve's fucked up after school special. "I'm sorry I lied. Please forgive me, I've learned my lesson."
The smile Steve gives him borders on sad and pitiful, but it's a smile. Danny will take what he can get.
"Steven J. McGarrett," Danny says, knowing he's moving fast, but he'd like to move past grade school antics and junior high drama at the very least. High school melodrama is probably the best he can hope for at this stage of things. "Will you go steady with me?"
Danny doesn't have a ring or letterman jacket he can give to Steve because they're not actually in high school, but he doesn't think that matters to Steve with the way he's grinning. Like a jackass, it's true, but again. It's Steve. "Is this where I check "yes"?, Steve asks.
"Shut it," Danny warns, crossing his arms. "Or I'll tell Chin you've been staring at Kono's ass."
Steve doesn't look too impressed with him for the threat, but at least it stops him from saying anything else Danny will regret.
"...And yes," Danny says, even though it physically pains him to do so. "This is where you check "yes". Whatever makes you happy."
Steve leans back in his chair and smiles at Danny like. Like Danny makes him happy.
"Okay," Steve says, his stupid smile turning into something more like a smirk because, yes, he's still a jackass and Danny probably really will shoot him one of these days. "That's very high school of you, but okay. I'll totally meet you behind the bleachers after class."
"Sweet," Danny grits out, because God help him, this is his life now.
The e-mail Danny's uncle sent him was this list. There's also this version of the list which has a section on helicopters. :D
Posted at http://kitsune-tsuki.dreamwidth.org/337467.html. | You can reply here or there. |
Author:
kitsune_tsuki
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Steve/Danny
Word Count: ~ 2,400
Disclaimer: In no way, shape, or form do these characters belong to me.
Summary: In which Danny's life has become an after school special.
Notes: There's really no excuse for this? Just know that I had the best of intentions. Really.
Keeping in touch with his family can be a bit of an ordeal for Danny at times because he has to use what feels like all known forms of communication with them, depending on the day and said relative's familiarity and comfort with technology. He doesn't judge because in a few years he's going to be the grumpy old guy bitching about how complicated people have to make things and how back in his day they did things a certain way and no one complained and, oh, God, he's already that guy.
The thing is that he tries to keep in contact, and that means sometimes he gets family members sending him junk mail and spam and joke e-mails. Usually he rolls his eyes and deletes them, but once in a while something will get his attention or make him laugh even though it's usually a horrible joke or stupid picture of someone's cat with a stupid caption someone slapped on it.
This time, though, it's something that makes him do an honest-to-God spit-take because so much about his life from the moment Steve came into makes sense. A fucked up kind of sense, it's true, but what the hell. It's Steve.
"Danno?"
The fact that Steve is trying to get Danny to stop giving him the cold-shoulder treatment for ruining yet another tie with one of his ill-advised and spur of the moment plans is probably the universe's way of telling him he did something unforgivable in a past life.
"Danny?" Steve asks, going from bemused to genuine concern when Danny doesn't answer right away.
"It's an e-mail from my uncle," Danny answers, glancing up at Steve. "Nothing bad," he says when he sees the way Steve tenses up. "Just something a buddy from his old squad sent him."
Steve sits back and looks like he's adding another note to the file he has on Danny in his head. "Your uncle's a cop?"
"He was in the military," Danny answers, knowing better than to name which branch of the military.
"Your uncle was in the military?" Steve is definitely interested now, and also a little hurt that Danny hasn't seen fit to share something like this with him. Or that it hadn't showed up in whatever background checks Steve had to have run on him before abducting him and making him his partner.
Danny eyes Steve, wondering just how this is going to come back to bite him on the ass. "He was one of my dad's friends," he says, waving a hand because words just aren't enough in this situation. "Not a blood relative, but he was around so much he was like an uncle."
Steve nods and goes quiet and thoughtful and all of Danny's hopes that Steve's going to let the subject drop and let this will be the end of it go up in smoke. He can tell from the look on Steve's face that he's not going to let it go, and it's only a matter of time before he gets the information he wants, even if it means annoying the shit out of Danny.
====
====
Steve proves him right a few weeks later when they're chasing after some up and coming rock star in the criminal world. They've long moved into the place where actual food has turned into a luxury and bad coffee is a major food group.
"So last week," Steve says, when they get a chance to breathe in between running down leads, getting shot at, receiving test results from the lab, and back around to getting shot at again because Steve has that sort of effect on people. "That thing you were talking about."
Danny sighs and covers his face with his hands. Fucking Steve. Worse than a dog with a bone.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Danny says, lying like a champ. There's only one thing they were talking about last week that Steve would want to know about, and Danny knows better than to tell him anything, if only for his own sanity. "Now go somewhere else before I shoot you."
"Danno," Steve says, sounding horrifyingly earnest. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"
Danny lowers his hands and stares at Steve, not really sure what he's getting at. "...What?"
Steve rests his hands on Danny's desk and lowers his voice, which means Danny has to lean closer in order to hear him. "I mean it, Danno," Steve says, giving him this look Danny has no idea what to do with because it's like something out of an after school special. "You can tell me anything."
Danny stares at Steve and his stupid earnest face for a long, long moment. And then he realizes that his life has actually turned into an after school special because Steve obviously thinks Danny is keeping some kind of dark, secret shame from him and is trying to reassure Danny that, no, Steve will still respect him in the morning or something if Danny tells him. As if Danny doesn't tell him pretty much everything about his life anyway, and what. What the actual fuck is this?
"Okay," he says, licking his lips. "Okay. I. It's. That's great, Steve. Thanks. Really." Steve is still looking at him. "I'll keep that in mind."
When he realizes Danny isn't about to share his feelings with him, Steve nods and straightens up, like he's done all he can and the rest is all up to Danny. He pivots on his heel like he's in a parade or formation or who the hell cares, and walks out of Danny's office.
====
====
Two days later, Steve brings the subject up again.
"Really?" Danny asks. Yells, really, because they're pinned down by semi-automatic fire and Steve is never allowed to pick where they go for lunch ever again. "Do you really think now is the time for this?"
Steve's crouched behind the condiment counter on the other side of the shop from him and oh, Jesus, the bastard's actually thinking about it.
"Don't answer that!" Danny yells, afraid of what Steve's going to say. "Just. Don't."
Steve frowns, and maybe if they weren't being shot at by a fucking lunatic, Danny would feel a little bad.
"You've been acting weird!" Steve yells back at him, because the man just can't leave well enough alone. And also, is an asshole, which he proves by adding, "Weird even for you, I mean!"
"I hate you, you know," Danny yells, waiting for the shooter to run out of bullets.
The guy's a moron who doesn't seem to realize real life isn't like the movies. There's no such thing as endless bullets, and the idiot's been shooting the place up for a couple of minutes. They just have to wait him out while he bitches about the injustice of getting mayo instead of mustard on his sub and how he's not going to take it anymore.
Across the way, Steve has his Very Earnest face back on and looks like he's seconds away from telling Danny that it's okay to share his feelings, but thankfully that's when the guy with the gun and condiment-fueled rage runs out of bullets.
Danny pops up over the counter, gun aimed at the bastard's face. "I'm having a bad day," he tells the guy, who is staring at his own gun in confusion and something that looks like betrayal. "And you, buddy, are not making things better."
Behind him he can hear Steve moving to a flanking position in case the guy isn't done expressing his displeasure over a botched order.
“Drop the gun,” Danny says, knowing Steve has him covered.
The guy sighs and drops the gun, but not before glowering at the condiment counter and muttering something derogatory about mayo, and goddamn it, Danny can't believe this is his life now.
====
====
Another week goes by with Steve and his Very Earnest face and Danny realizes if he's going to get any peace of mind at all, he has to tell Steve.
"God, okay. Fine," Danny says, certain this can only end badly for all concerned.
He grabs Steve by the arm and drags him into his office and closes the blinds, even though Chin and Kono took off hours ago just to get away from Steve and his Very Earnest face. "Just. Sit down or something, first, okay?" Danny's worried about Steve's delicate sensibilities.
Steve's Very Earnest face becomes, if possible, even more Very Earnest.
"Okay, so." Danny doesn't even know how to do this because it's Steve, and Steve is kind of crazy.
Possibly actually crazy, but up until now Danny had thought of it as an endearing sort of crazy, even though it sometimes veers off into the what-the-fuck kind of crazy with the shit Steve does. "That uncle of mine?"
Steve nods, the very model of a patient, supportive after school special character. "Your dad's friend?"
Danny squints at him for a moment, wondering if he's doing the right thing after all. "Yeah," he says. "That one."
After School Special Character Steve waits. Patiently and supportively.
"He was in the Army," Danny blurts, and watches as Steve's Very Earnest face turns into an utterly blank mask as though Steve's imagining the fate worse than death Danny's uncle went through serving in the Army of all things. "It's not like. It's not a big deal, okay? He went in, did his time, and got out."
Steve doesn't even blink.
"He hated it!" Danny says, even though his uncle loved being in the Army, but at the moment Danny's worried that he actually broke Steve.
"...Army?" Steve says.
Danny stares at him because Steve sounds like Danny ran over his damn dog, and this? This is exactly why Danny didn't want to tell Steve. Steve is insane and takes the whole stupid Army-Navy rivalry way too seriously.
"Yes," Danny says.
"Okay," Steve says, sounding anything but. "Okay, Danno." The smile he gives Danny doesn't sit quite right on his face. "I'm glad you told me," he says, the words coming out like something Steve read in a greeting card once.
Danny watches as Steve stands up and walks out of his office, not really sure what just happened.
====
====
It's not like Steve regresses to grade school behavior because he's not. He's not actively avoiding Danny? But he won't sit next to him at lunch and he just sits on the side of the playground at recess, all sad-faced and slouchy.
Jesus fucking Christ.
====
====
"I swear to God, Danny," Kono hisses after snagging Danny by the collar of his shirt and pulling him into a tiny, cramped storage room at Five-0 headquarters. "If you don't fix whatever you did to Steve, I'll kill you both and make it look like an accident."
Danny knows she can do it. He also knows Chin would back her all the way.
"The man's crazy!" he says, as if that's any kind of defense. Everyone knows Steve's crazy.
Kono rolls her eyes and backs Danny into the wall, poking him in the chest with her finger for emphasis. "That's no excuse, Danny! Everyone knows he's crazy!"
"I - "
"I will kill you," Kono says, making it sound less like a threat and more like a promise. "I will kill you so, so much."
Danny tries one more time to explain it's not his fault Steve's a nutcase, but Kono just glares and. Seriously. What the fuck did he ever do to deserve this?
====
====
"I lied," Danny lies. The only way to fix Steve and not be murdered by Kono and Chin is to take one for the team. Pretty much literally.
"What?" Steve asks, looking like the miserable son of a bitch he is. He's not making eye contact and is listlessly moving things around on his desk.
Danny sighs inwardly and reminds himself that Grace shouldn't have to grow up without a father. "I lied," he repeats. "About the thing. With my uncle."
Steve sits up, his Very Earnest face struggling to make a reappearance because he's Steve, and Jesus, Danny really should have done this earlier.
"Danny?"
Oh, fuck it. "I like you," Danny says, and gives Steve a Meaningful Look. A Meaningful Look Steve clearly doesn't understand because fucking hell, it's Steve. "I like like you, you bastard," he says, not believing he's actually using those words because they're adults.
The Very Earnest face finally makes an appearance and. Fine. Jesus. "I lied about my uncle being in the Army because I like like you and didn't know how to tell you," Danny says, managing to sound like he's a fellow character in Steve's fucked up after school special. "I'm sorry I lied. Please forgive me, I've learned my lesson."
The smile Steve gives him borders on sad and pitiful, but it's a smile. Danny will take what he can get.
"Steven J. McGarrett," Danny says, knowing he's moving fast, but he'd like to move past grade school antics and junior high drama at the very least. High school melodrama is probably the best he can hope for at this stage of things. "Will you go steady with me?"
Danny doesn't have a ring or letterman jacket he can give to Steve because they're not actually in high school, but he doesn't think that matters to Steve with the way he's grinning. Like a jackass, it's true, but again. It's Steve. "Is this where I check "yes"?, Steve asks.
"Shut it," Danny warns, crossing his arms. "Or I'll tell Chin you've been staring at Kono's ass."
Steve doesn't look too impressed with him for the threat, but at least it stops him from saying anything else Danny will regret.
"...And yes," Danny says, even though it physically pains him to do so. "This is where you check "yes". Whatever makes you happy."
Steve leans back in his chair and smiles at Danny like. Like Danny makes him happy.
"Okay," Steve says, his stupid smile turning into something more like a smirk because, yes, he's still a jackass and Danny probably really will shoot him one of these days. "That's very high school of you, but okay. I'll totally meet you behind the bleachers after class."
"Sweet," Danny grits out, because God help him, this is his life now.
The e-mail Danny's uncle sent him was this list. There's also this version of the list which has a section on helicopters. :D
Posted at http://kitsune-tsuki.dreamwidth.org/337467.html. | You can reply here or there. |