H50 ficlet
Title: Just a moment
Pairing: Steve/Danno
Rating: PG
Summary: Steve and Danny are tired. Cuddling ensues.
Author’s note: I don’t even know why I’ve written this. Out of nowhere I suddenly had an image of Steve and Danno sleeping on a couch together in my head. My mind is a sappy place indeed. Short, silly and fluffy!
Disclaimer: Here’s a shocker - not mine & no profit!
It’s way past midnight when Danny storms into his office and basically throws himself on Steve’s couch. He kicks off his shoes, looses his tie and makes himself comfortable.
“Can I help you, Danno,” Steve asks bemusedly when no explanation is forthcoming.
“Thank you for asking, Steven. Why yes you can,” Danny says cracking one eye open. It’s frankly remarkable how he still manages to gesticulate like crazy even while lying down. “You can shut up so I can go to sleep.”
“Why exactly are you sleeping on my couch, Danny?”
“Why am I sleeping on your couch?” Danny repeats slowly like it’s some sort of trick question and drawing out each syllable will somehow shed a new light on it. The layer of sarcasm is as thick as tar.
“Well, let’s see, I haven’t slept in the last fifty-odd hours, because the criminal masterminds that inhabit this palm tree-decorated hellhole lack the common courtesy to stick to office hours. Plus I had to do a shitload of paperwork because someone - and yes I am looking at you, Steven - can’t seem to manage a simple arrest without breaking every single one of the Geneva Conventions and I have to somehow make it look like you are not a completely deranged individual on paper. Which believe you me is not as easy as I make it sound. And now I am so utterly wrecked that I can’t guarantee I wouldn’t wrap my beautiful car around the nearest fire hydrant were I to drive. And I can’t call a cab because the cab drivers on what I have been led to believe passes for a honest to God dream holiday destination keep mistaking me for some brain-dead tourist who doesn’t notice that their fares are essentially extortion and I’m not going to have another one of those discussions with one of these money-grabbing assholes when I can barely keep my eyes open. Which leaves me stranded in the office. So if it’s alright with you I’m going to take a nap on your couch now and after, when I feel half-way human again, I will drive myself home and continue this siesta on an actual bed.”
Not for the first time Steve wonders whether Danny’s mouth and hands function entirely on autopilot. Here he is rolled up on Steve’s couch looking like he is about two seconds away from crashing hard and still able to orchestrate a patented Danno-rant complete with Hawaii-bashing and faulting Steve’s methods at the drop of a hat. Sometimes Steve wishes his stupid heart wasn’t so undeniably smitten with this impossible man.
“You have a couch in your office,” he says for lack of anything better to say.
“Have you seen that couch? It was not designed for sleeping purposes. To be fair, neither was this one, but I’ll manage. Now shush,” Danny retorts pressing a finger to his lips. “Just shush.”
Danny looks completely worn out. Steve decides to be the better man for once and let it go. He turns his attention back to the paperwork on his desk and lets Danny rest. Only his concentration is even worse than before. He hasn’t slept in forever, either, and it would be so easy to blame his inability to concentrate on that. Yet there is only so much self-deception you can carry off convincingly when your gaze travels over the form of your sleeping partner about once every thirty seconds.
Danny is curled-up on his side. His head resting on his hands, mouth slightly open and his chest rises and falls to the steady rhythm of his deep breathing. There are dark circles under his eyes, but his face is slack and calm. Danny’s features are completely relaxed into a soft quietness. He looks almost serene. It’s not a sight Steve is used to. The office is silent, all the lights are dimmed and Steve feels unfamiliarly sedate and drowsy.
He has work to finish. While it is true that he off-loads most of his paperwork on Danny, he is still the leader of the taskforce and his signature is required on every single document drawn up by Five-0. He enjoys the debates about who has to do the paperwork way more than he probably should and he strongly suspects that Danny secretly delights in bitching about it. That doesn’t mean he isn’t conscientious about his work, though. His gaze is drawn to Danny’s sleeping form again. Seal training may have taught him to get by on little to no sleep but it did not teach him how to withstand the almost hypnotic draw that is one compact-sized, over-expressive detective from Jersey peacefully sleeping on his couch. Steve does the unthinkable. He gives in.
Steve gets up, walks around his desk and shakes his partner lightly by the shoulders.
“Scoot,” he demands, and Danny stares up at him bleary-eyed and dumbfounded.
“Are you kidding me,” he asks voice rough and sleep-drunken.
Steve has to forcibly remind himself that ravishing his partner in the middle of the office probably doesn’t constitute a good idea.
“It may have escaped your notice but you, my friend, are freakishly tall. You are a goddamn giant. There’s simply no way you’ll fit comfortably on this couch. Let alone the two of us together,” Danny argues but moves to create some space for Steve nonetheless.
Steve moves in, folding himself onto the couch and pulling Danny towards him until his partner lies half on top of him. Danny is warm and huggable and still muttering pseudo-aggravated nonsense into Steve’s shirt.
“This is far from comfortable,” he announces while simultaneously sneaking an arm around Steve’s waist and cuddling closer.
Steve rests his chin on Danny’s head and intertwines their legs to stop himself from falling back off the couch. The way Danny smells up close is intoxicating. He lets the scent waft over him, enwraps himself in Danny’s heat and dozes off slowly. His skin vibrates from where Danny’s still ranting against him. The words don’t quite register. Steve should probably be bothered by the fact that even the sound of Danny’s voice feels comfortably like home, but he can’t quite work up the energy to care.
“Just for a moment,” Danny concedes and his speech is slurred. He falls silent afterwards. The words echo in Steve’s head before he finally falls asleep.
He wakes to the sound of Kono cackling like a witch and something that he hopes so very much is not the noise her phone makes when taking a picture. He and Danny are still wrapped around each other like two particularly amorous octopuses. His neck is stiff and his whole body aches. He still feels like he could stay like this forever. Despite the fact that every fiber of his being protests loudly Steve gets up a little unsteadily. Danny groans as he sits up and joins Steve in staring darkly at Kono.
“Excuse me a second,” she says with a maniac grin and rushes out of Steve’s office.
Danny curses under his breath. His hair is a beautiful mess and Steve can’t decide whether to ruffle it up some more or try to comb it down. Danny is glaring daggers at him.
“She is calling Chin this very moment. You know that, right?”
As if on cue Kono squeals Chin’s name from the next room. She sounds a bit like she’s hyperventilating. Steve can only make out parts of what she is gushing into the phone.
“You wouldn’t believe what just happened… No, I’m telling you… I’m sending you the picture as we speak…”
Danny’s head snaps up at that.
“You let her take a picture?” he demands accusingly.
“I was asleep what would you have me do,” Steve asks holding his hands up defensively.
“Well, I don’t know. Taser her, maybe. Or use some secretive martial arts move that made her incapable of using her hands for a while. You are the wondrous Seal… Wait, how the heck did she sneak up on you anyways?”
There is an answer to that, but Steve is not comfortable uttering it. Isn’t even comfortable thinking it, but his traitorous mind supplies the words regardless - I was lost in you. Steve shrugs wordlessly and sends Danny what he hopes is a disarming smile.
“We’ll never hear the end of this,” Danny sighs heavily and rubs a hand over his face.
Steve wonders if he should mind more than he actually does while trying to work the kink out of his neck.
“I really need a bigger couch,” he announces grimacing at the way moving his shoulders makes his back hurt.
Danny smiles up at him with a wicked glint in his eyes. He grabs Steve by the front of his shirt and draws him down until his ear is level with Danny’s mouth.
“Or we could relocate this to an actual bed next time around,” he whispers in a husky tone of voice that travels straight to Steve’s groin. His breath tickles the side of Steve’s neck. And for all that Danny’s always complaining that Steve will be the death of him one day, Steve truly believes it’s the other way round.