Archive of Our Own

After bringing the Governor up to speed on their latest case, Steve didn't waste any time as he barreled out of her office, already intent on his next step. This case had him on edge like all the other trafficking cases they'd investigated, and while Steve knew it was important for the Governor to know what was going on, the detour simply added to the frustration the case had stirred up in him.

Danny was waiting for him outside, head bent in conversation with someone who Steve assumed was one of the Governor's aides. He didn't bother to slow down, just motioned for Danny to follow him as he headed toward the elevators. It was only after he'd taken a few steps and realized that Danny wasn't at his side that he stopped and looked back to see that his partner had not followed.

"Come on," he said, motioning again.

Danny shot him an annoyed look, a familiar one that managed to communicate Danny's sincere belief that Steve must've been raised by wolves to act as rudely as he did, and exchanged a few more quiet words with the woman before he hustled over to Steve's side.

"All done?" Danny asked as he fell in step with Steve, who was already on the move once again.

Steve nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

"So the Governor is now sufficiently apprised?" Danny asked, a hint of something under his accent that might've been sarcasm, although Steve couldn't be sure if it were directed at the Governor, Steve or the world at large.

"Apprised?" Steve raised an eyebrow as he hit the button for the elevator.

"What? It's the correct term. Keeping someone apprised."

Steve snorted. "When I find your Word-A-Day Calendar, I'm tossing it in the trash."

There was no other word for it; Danny huffed. "Don't you -- do not start with me," he said, wagging a finger at Steve. "We don't have time for your bullshit over my vocabulary choices."

Since before he'd went for his chat with the Governor, they'd been waiting on intel, Steve looked hopeful. "You heard from Chin?"

"Better," Danny said as he stepped off the elevator, Steve on his heels. He dug a slip of paper out of his pocket and waved it in the air under Steve's nose. "I got an address."

"You did?"

"Yeah," Danny said as he stuffed the paper back in his pocket.

"How?"

"I got it from this girl -- "

"A girl?" Steve asked.

His mildly incredulous tone earned him a scowl. "What? I can't know a girl? You can't just say, 'hey, Danny, good job for figuring this one out.' No, it's got to be all this third degree about it?"

Steve fought to hide his smile, knowing that his unprofessional amusement at Danny's bitching would only earn him more, less good-spirited bitching for the car ride. Instead, he repeated, "Good job, Danny, figuring this out. Can we go now?"

Danny shot him another look but refrained from further comment as they headed toward the car.

**

By the next afternoon they had made enough progress in their investigation that Steve's pace was no longer relentless and had, instead, settled into what Danny liked to call "merely breakneck." He had been insisting as much while they drove back from a meeting with one of Steve's contacts when his cell phone rang, forcing him to stop his lecture and reach for it.

The first thing Steve noticed was that the ring tone wasn't familiar. It wasn't one of the ones that Danny used for Rachel or her lawyer or Grace, or Chin and Kono, or for anyone Steve had seen him answer a call from. It was something tinkly and obnoxious that reminded Steve of tiny, annoying violins.

So busy analyzing the ring tone, Steve almost missed the first exchange of the conversation.

"Hey!" Danny said into the cell, uncharacteristically pleasant in the face of a call not from Grace. "No, I'm glad you called. What's up?"

When Danny stopped talking to let the speaker on the other end answer, Steve couldn't stop himself from straining to hear the reply, although it was nearly impossible between the whooshing sound of his cracked window and the limited power of the speakers on Danny's phone.

Then Danny was talking again. "It did, thanks a lot." Steve continued to find his partner's courtesy mildly alarming, though he couldn't quite figure out why. "Yeah, yeah," continued Danny. "I was completely serious. I'd love it."

Another pause, during which Danny still managed to glare at Steve for the way he took a hairpin turn despite the attention he was paying his caller. "Yeah, sure, I got it. Sounds great."

Danny smiled and nodded a little, as if the gesture could somehow be communicated through the phone. "Okay, bye."

He closed the phone with a snap and pocketed it. Steve waited for him to pick up the thread of their conversation, but instead Danny seemed content to look out the window, humming a little under his breath. He didn't even complain when Steve turned up the radio when "Cool Change" came on.

Finally Steve broke the silence. "So, is there something you'd like to share with the class?"

"Share with the...? Oh, the phone call." Danny shook his head, made a funny little gesture with his hand. "No, no, nothing to share."

"It sounded like something," Steve pointed out.

"It was a personal phone call, Steven," Danny said. "So no, nothing to share."

There was no logical reason for Steve to be annoyed by Danny's reply, but he was. Part of him wondered if it was because he was unused to Danny having much of a personal life that didn't revolve around Grace first or the Five-0 second. Whenever he could, he snuck glances out of the corner of his eye as he drove, trying to see if he could pick up something from Danny's expression or his body language.

Instead, he got a gruff inquiry of his own. "What's with the face?"

"What face?" he asked.

"You're giving me the Aneurysm face -- well, a version of it," Danny said. "It's more like a pouting face, which isn't attractive on a grown man, just so you know."

"I don't have a..." Steve began, before deciding it was the wrong battle to choose. "Fine. But what's the tone, Danno? You sound defensive over that phone call. Maybe guilty?"

"One, what?" Danny asked. "Two, what the hell? There is nothing in this tone but annoyance, my friend, plain old annoyance. If there's anybody defensive in this conversation it's you, which is how it should be."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really," Danny said. "We just went through a version of this yesterday and you've already got us going through it again. Way to go, pal."

Steve didn't bother with a reply, instead just cranking up the volume on the radio until Danny winced at the not-so-dulcet tones of Dr. Hook filling the car. Steve wasn't paying the music any attention, though, too busy trying to puzzle out what Danny had meant. They had said a lot in the last twenty-hours, both work-related and not, but Steve couldn't figure out which conversation Danny was trying to remind him of.

Out of nowhere, he could hear the echo of Danny's voice as they'd left the Governor's office: What? I can't know a girl?.

Wondering how that might relate to the Danny's phone call left Steve with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach that he couldn't explain and that he couldn't quite shake, no matter how hard he tried.

**

Over the next few weeks, there were no more conversations about Danny and girls, or any mysterious phone calls that left Danny humming -- at least not in Steve's vicinity -- so the whole thing began to fade into the background until it was only a blip on his already-busy radar. Looking back, Steve still wasn't sure what had been the cause of his disquiet, but he was just glad it had passed without further occurrence.

They'd wrapped up several cases in the meantime, which meant that while paperwork was waiting for them, the workload was settled enough that Steve was ready to send everyone off early that Friday. The paperwork would still be there Monday when they came back in, and he figured if he was starting to feel ragged around the edges, his team had to be feeling it, too.

As Steve came out of his office to give his team the heads-up, he could hear Kono and Danny talking. He tried to resist the temptation to eavesdrop but his curiosity got the better of him.

"You don't have Grace this weekend, do you?" Kono asked.

"No," Danny answered. "Not this weekend. Rachel and Stan have a thing, so..."

"If you want, we could give the surfing lessons another try in the morning," Kono told him. "I'm willing if you are."

"Thanks, Kono," he said. "I appreciate the offer but I've got plans tomorrow. Maybe another time?"

"Definitely another time," she agreed. "But you know I gotta ask -- plans? Really?"

Danny laughed at her sly tone. "I'm just meeting up with Delia tomorrow. We've got a few things on our list."

If Steve had been uncomfortable with the idea of Danny having plans that didn't involve either the team or Grace, he had alarm bells ringing in his head at the mention of "Delia," which clanged even louder at Kono's reply.

"Again?" she asked.

"Yes, again," he said. "Do you think my presence is so unbearable that she'd be tired of me already, Ms. Kalakaua?"

"Of course not," she told him. "I just...I think it's -- nice. The interest you're taking in her, I mean."

"She's nice," Danny replied. "It's not like it's a chore."

"I know, I know." Steve could hear the grin in Kono's words. "I'm glad to see you're branching out, brah. I guess I'm just surprised because I thought that you, you know, had some...reasons...that would maybe hold you back? If you know what I mean."

Steve wasn't sure what she meant and he didn't get a chance to find out if Danny was either because there was a deliberate tap on his shoulder. Steve started and turned to see Chin watching him with a knowing look that made Steve as uncomfortable as the conversation he'd just overheard.

He tried to smile his way out of the situation, but he had a feeling it came out more like a wince. "I was coming to tell everyone to head out. We could all use the rest."

"Sounds good," Chin agreed. He nodded toward here Kono and Danny continued their talk. "How about we go in and tell them?"

"Why don't you give them the good news for me?" Steve asked. "I'm gonna just..."

When Chin agreed without calling Steve on his obvious retreat, Steve knew that it really had been pity he'd seen in the other cop's eyes.

That didn't stop him getting the hell out of Dodge without a backwards glance.

**

It was hard to enjoy the silence and relative peace of his home when Steve's mind wouldn't stop pestering him with a jumble of illogical thoughts. He still didn't have a clear picture of why these isolated little instances were bothering him so much, but they were and he just wanted them to stop.

One of the several compliment-like observations Danny had made about Steve since the start of their partnership had come after Steve had burst in on a group of suspected smugglers without back-up when it had looked like they might've escaped before the PD arrived.

After the dust had settled and the suspects had been carted away, Danny had looked over at Steve, arms crossed over his chest, shaking his head a little as he'd said, "You're not a coward, anyway." Steve had known that Danny had been inferring he was crazy, but that fact hadn't dimmed the pleasure he'd gotten from the praise he could detect beneath the censure. With a smile, he'd slapped Danny on the back with a "Thanks, Danno" before he'd headed off to check in with Chin. It wasn't that Steve had ever been under the impression that he was a coward, but he'd still liked hearing it from Danny, and he wanted to live up to his opinion.

Steve McGarrett wasn't a coward in the face of smugglers and terrorists and serial killers; he refused to be a coward in the face of his whole mixed-up feelings.

When working on the car wasn't enough of a distraction, Steve declared a truce with his own brain, grabbed a beer and retreated to the beach. In the last, dying rays of the sun, he let the sound of the water wash over him until he was pleasantly zoned, his mind carefully blank. Then he focused on unraveling the mystery he had before him, determined to conquer it and put it behind him.

Steve started with the conversation he'd overheard between Kono and Danny, the event freshest in his mind. Why had he been uncomfortable with it? He replayed it in his head, line by line, looking for the words that exposed his weakness. Was it (again) the fact that Danny seemed to have this social life that existed outside of their little family? That was certainly part of it. Danny was the closest friend he'd ever had in his whole life, and he was protective of that. Unlike Danny, who seemed to ooze gregariousness even in his most hostile moments, Steve had lived his whole life closed off from others. He didn't make friends easily, not the kind like he was with Danny.

There'd been something else about the conversation with Kono that had sat wrong with him, and it had been the fact that "Delia" hadn't been a surprise to her. While Steve had never heard of her, even in the vaguest sense, Kono obviously had. He had to admit that it was a blow that Danny had confided in Kono, but hadn't done the same with him.

The sun had completely disappeared by the time Steve finished nursing his one beer, but he felt like he'd mastered his thoughts, put them into logical order and made sense of it all. It was nothing more than a misunderstanding, than a faint sense of hurt over the fact Danny hadn't told him about this Delia person himself. It was only having first to guess about it, then to hear it second-hand from Kono that had given it such an air of importance. Now that he settled it with himself, Steve was sure it would be fine.

Or so he kept telling himself.

Saturday passed uneventfully, and Sunday started much the same way. After a morning swim and breakfast, Steve decided to go to the office and get a head start on the paperwork he'd abandoned on Friday. It wasn't the first time he'd done paperwork on the weekend, and he was sure it wouldn't be the last.

When he pulled into the Five-0 headquarters, Steve immediately noticed Danny's car already parked there. He grinned at the evidence that he and his partner were on the same wavelength, even if it meant they were too both paranoid to let paperwork remain unfinished.

Steve was already looking around for Danny before he'd stepped completely through the door, but what he actually saw stopped him in his tracks.

Danny was there -- but he wasn't alone. He was standing just outside of his office, dressed more casually than Steve ever saw him at work, talking to a young woman. She was very familiar and Steve immediately recognized her as the woman from the Governor's office who he'd had to pull Danny away from during the trafficking case a few weeks earlier. Like Danny, she was dressed for a lazy weekend in Hawaii, her long red hair falling around her mostly-bare shoulders.

He had no doubts that this had to be the Delia Kono spoke of. Everything about their body language spoke of intimacy, from the affectionate hand Danny ran down her arm, to the way she leaned in as she spoke, ignoring the pesky concept of personal space.

As he watched, Steve was struck by a feeling, white-hot and thunderous like lightning, an epiphany that only illuminated how much he'd deluded himself the day before. There was only one word that described how he felt at that moment, a feeling that made him want to stalk across the floor and snatch Danny's hand away from Delia -- or, better yet, pull Danny away from the cozy little picture they made.

Part of Steve was struck by the irony of the fact that it had taken Danny Williams -- loud, obnoxious, male, infuriating Danny Williams -- to make the green-eyed monster come out in him when so many other people hadn't.

The rest of him was too busy seething at Delia as she gave Danny a playful smile.

Not wanting to get caught snooping twice in the same week, Steve made an effort to be as loud as possible as he barged into the office, something that was against every instinct he made. But it worked because Delia and Danny both jumped at the sound of the door banging shut behind him, putting space between them that Steve needed for his sanity.

"Hey, partner," Steve said, smoother than smooth, making sure his voice didn't reflect any of his inner turmoil. "Didn't expect to see you this morning."

Still, Danny gave him the eyebrow. "I had some time so I wanted to do some catch-up."

"Same," Steve said. He crossed his arms over his chest and shot a look toward Delia. "But I don't usually bring friends in to help." He smiled -- maybe a little too toothily -- to soften his words.

"Oh, I'm not staying," Delia said with a little laugh. She waved her right hand a little and Steve finally noticed that she had something in it, a bundle of dark blue cloth. "I was just returning Danny's jacket. He left it at my house last night."

"Yeah, Delia's on her way out," Danny agreed, taking the jacket from her. "Thanks again."

"Don't mention it."

Steve tried not to growl; instead, he cleared his throat and gave Danny a look that clearly meant he expected an introduction. From the way Danny sighed and rolled his eyes, the message was received.

"Delia, you know my partner, Steve McGarret, right?" Danny gestured between them. "McGarrett, this is my friend, Delia Russell."

Delia held out her hand, and Steve was too nice not to respond in kind. Her hand was smooth in his, white against his tan. "It's nice to meet you formally, Lieutenant McGarrett," she said. "Danny's told me all about you and, of course, everyone talks about you at the office."

"Yeah, you too," he said, feeling tongue-tied in the face of her friendliness. She had freckles across her nose and along her cheeks to go with the pale skin and the red hair. Her smile was warm, unaffected, and she just exuded refinement despite her simple sundress. She even had a hint of an accent he couldn't quite place.

He realized with a sinking feeling that, despite the difference in color, she reminded him of Rachel.

"Well, I won't keep you, Danny," she said. "I've got some errands to finish anyway. I'll call you?"

"Sure, yeah, absolutely," he told her. "Whenever you get around to it."

"Sooner than later," she told him as she headed toward the door. "You still owe me."

"I won't forget," he laughed.

With a quick wave and another "Nice to meet you!" in Steve's direction, Delia left, leaving Steve and Danny standing together in the silence.

"What?" Danny asked after a minute, squinting up at Steve.

"What do you mean, what?" he asked.

"You've giving me another look, one of those looks you get," he said.

"Am not," Steve said.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Very mature, Steven, I'm glad to see that your mental age has finally caught up with your shoe size." He shook his head. "I can't believe you came in to do paperwork. When I saw you come through the door, I was for sure you'd found some criminal who was willing to try to kill us on a Sunday."

"Nothing so dramatic," Steve said. "Just paperwork to drown in."

"I hear ya, babe," Danny said with another smile. This was a smile Steve was used to, the one he usually saw when they were together. Danny ran a hand through his hair. "Well, I'm gonna get to work."

Steve didn't think of anything appropriate to say in response until Danny had long since went into his office and got to work. With a sigh -- and the weight of his thoughts bearing down on him -- Steve did the same.

**

Armed with Delia's last name, it wasn't hard to use that new-fangled thing that Danny seemed so unaware of called the internet to find out a little more about Danny's new friend. Knowledge only made Steve grouchier because she sounded like a dream in print: late 20s, native Bostonian, she'd gotten a degree in Political Science before she'd moved to Hawaii. There was nothing in her background that raised even the mildest alarm.

More than he liked to admit, Steve found himself glaring at the photo of her in the government database.

When he wasn't catching bad guys, taunting Danny for entertainment, or cyber-stalking a law-abiding woman he'd only met once, Steve was trying to right his world which he'd managed to throw into chaos. He really hadn't noticed that his feelings for Danny had went beyond friendship; it had crept up on him so slowly that he couldn't help but be surprised by it.

Or maybe he was just slow on the up-take when it came to his emotions. Steve was willing to admit he wasn't the most sensitive guy when he came to that sort of stuff. But he thought he knew himself better than to get blindsided by his own emotional constipation.

Steve also knew he was in bad shape when his internal voice was starting to sound more and more like Danny each day.

During the next week, Steve had one after another of uncomfortable moments as if, by acknowledging the truth, he'd opened a flood gate that he couldn't stop. When they were arguing in the car, Steve realized that the urge that welled up in him wasn't to punch his partner into silence as he so often said. No, what he really wanted to do was kiss him quiet or better yet blow him into submission, until the only word Danny's mouth could form was Steve's name and not whatever rant he'd been gearing up for. Not even mind-bending lust could stop Steve from thinking tactically, after all.

Then there was his hyper-awareness of Danny, every casual touch between them, every smile, every laugh that managed to break through when they had a moment to themselves. There was the fear he had for his safety whenever they ended up in a shoot-out, which happened far too often. Steve could ignore it with the detachment he'd mastered over the years when there was work to be done, but once it was over, it was another jolt of adrenaline straight into his blood. It made want to follow Danny's every move with his eyes, watching him move and shout and glare to his heart's content until the knot in his gut eased away.

When he did just that at their last bust and Steve caught Chin watching him with an unsurprised but amused expression, Steve wondered if he hadn't been doing it all along.

That made him wonder if maybe Danny was more aware of how he felt than he let on, and maybe that was why he'd never discussed Delia with him. It was obvious he discussed her with Kono, probably with Chin, too, even though Steve was too stubborn to come right out and ask. It explained why Danny had been so coy about the phone calls and the plans, why he'd talked around it for so long. Steve wanted to dismiss the niggling thought even as he came up with it -- Danny trying to protect his feelings was a little much for Steve to swallow -- but it wouldn't leave him alone.

That got Steve thinking more seriously about tangential things, like how it didn't matter if he never got to know Danny in the way he wanted, he couldn't contemplate losing what they had now. One thing he hadn't lied to himself about was how important Danny had become to him as a friend and a partner.

It was with that uncomfortable admission that Steve came to a decision.

He waited until their case load was clear and a weekend rolled around that Danny wasn't spending with Grace. A lack of Grace usually made him pretty cranky, but he'd been less so for a while now. Steve assumed it was Delia's influence on him that caused the changed, which was why he stopped at Danny's office on his way out that night to ask if he wanted to have dinner.

"You've got beer and you're grilling steaks?" Danny asked. When Steve nodded, so did Danny. "Then, hell yeah, I'm in."

They ended up on the beach in those same old chairs, beers in one hand and steaks marinating in the kitchen. Steve wanted to get through what he had to say before dinner so he didn't choke on the words or the steak trying to get them out.

"So I'm thinking of throwing a little cook out," he began. He kept his eyes steadily on the horizon. "Probably in a few weeks. Figured I'd invite the team, a few friends, whoever, you know?"

"Sounds like a plan," Danny answered. His voice was lazy and relaxed.

"Chin'll probably bring Malia," Steve continued. He looked down at the label on his beer bottle. "So you can bring someone too."

He felt Danny move beside him, maybe a nod or a shrug. "I'll have to clear it with Rachel."

"Rachel...?" Steve rolled his eyes. "I wasn't talking about Grace, Danny."

Danny's brow furrowed, something stormy gathering in his eyes. "So you're saying I can't bring Grace? What kind of stupid ass..."

"What? No!" Steve knew it wasn't helping his case, but Danny deserved the jab to his side that conclusion earned him. "Of course Grace can come, Danny. Jesus, that's just not who I meant. I wanted you to know that it's okay, if you want to bring someone else..." He paused. "Someone like Delia."

Danny still looked confused, which frustrated Steve even more. He wasn't sure how else he could spell it out to make it plainer but sometimes Danny raised obliviousness to an art form. Finally, the clouds started to clear and he could see comprehension sweep across Danny's face.

But then he spoke. "Are you...do you...you think Delia is my girlfriend?"

"Isn't she?"

Danny just stared for a moment before he laughed, but it didn't sound right to Steve's ears. "No, she's a friend. You know, those things you have that aren't people you work with that you share common interests with, so you socialize with each other on a regular basis? I know you're an alien or whatever, but I'm sure you've heard of them."

Steve hadn't been prepared for his assumptions to be wrong, so he wasn't sure how to steer the conversation to his liking. He thought back to Delia's history. "What common interests do you share?"

"Probably more than you can guess," Danny answered with a derisive snort. "Look, she came up to me one day, you know, looking for some advice. I couldn't really help her like she wanted, but we bonded over the whole haole thing and it just sort of went from there." Another laugh. "My girlfriend. Damn, when you're wrong, you're wrong."

Steve still hadn't caught up, so he asked the first thing that came into his head. "What kind of advice was she looking for?"

A shadow flashed across Danny's expression like Steve had hit a sore spot. He took a long pull on his beer before he answered. "Not really important now."

That, more than anything, told Steve that it was important. "Come on, Danno, spill. What did she think you could help her with?" One thing Steve had learned was that there was no way faster to get Danny to comply than to turn it into a challenge. "Don't be embarrassed, I won't think less of you because there's actually something you'll admit you don't know."

Steve's cajoling earned a long, measured look from Danny, his face scrunched in concentration that made it too difficult for Steve to read anything else. "Fine, I'll tell you. But don't say I didn't warn you."

Danny swallowed more beer before he continued, pinning Steve with a look that dared him to interrupt. "Even after the whole 'Don't Ask Don't Tell is dead' thing in December, she was still having some issues with her girlfriend being in the Navy and having to keep it secret and everything, and she got the idea from somewhere that I might know something about that." At Steve's blank look, he added, "You know, having a partner that was military and all."

Steve's response was succinct and heartfelt. "Huh?"

Danny let out a little laugh at that, but it still sounded wrong, like something was missing from it. "Delia thought we were partners in a way that has nothing to do with police work."

"What?"

"That's what I told her myself, except it was followed by a "the" and a "fuck,"" Danny said. "Still, well said."

"Did she say why she thought we were...?"

"Yeah. She said..." Danny paused, as if thinking back on the conversation. "When she saw us together, we always looked close, you know, real friendly with each other."

"Well if she'd ever overheard us, she'd know better than that," Steve muttered. Danny grinned at him for it, the same smile that always made Steve feel absurdly fond of his partner for no real reason. But then the smile faded from Danny's face, replaced by the same shadowed look from earlier.

"And apparently, one of us was always making googly eyes at the other." Danny held up his hands in mock surrender. "Her words, babe, not mine."

"Huh."

"So she said, she just figured..." Another one of those patented Danny hand-waves. "Well, you know."

Steve could feel the heat rising in his face in a way he hadn't since he was an awkward teenager. He'd suspected that Chin had caught him looking at Danny in a way that wasn't platonic, but the fact that a random aide for the Governor had done so often enough that she'd thought they were romantically involved was mortifying for many reasons.

"Told ya you didn't want to know," Danny said after a moment when it was clear that Steve wasn't going to say anything. "But it's fine, yeah? I'm sure nobody's eyes were googling on purpose, and just because Delia said she thought..."

Steve had always been blessed with impeccable intuition; it was what made him a good SEAL and, now, a good cop. So he hoped like hell he wasn't wrong to listen to the part of him that had added up small clues from Danny over the past few minutes and was telling him to take a chance on his conclusions.

Taking a deep breath, he said, "What if someone was?"

"Was what?"

"Googly-eyed. On purpose." He risked a glance at Danny, the line of his profile sharp against the sky.

There was a very un-Danny-like silence. "I guess it would depend on how the other felt about being googled at."

Despite the gravity of the moment, that brought a hint of a smile to Steve's face. "We really need to stop using that word."

There was an answering echo in Danny's smile. "Sure. What would you prefer? Cow eyes? Moon eyes? Take your pick. I draw the line at sexy eyes, though."

"Maybe we just say what we mean?" Steve asked.

"Great idea," Danny said. "You first."

"I...ah, that is..." Steve made sure his gaze caught Danny's, so there would be no doubt of his sincerity, no matter how much he might come to regret it. "She wasn't completely wrong."

"You think?"

"Two out of three is not a bad average, all things considered."

"Two out of..." Danny trailed off, then shot Steve a look. It was a strange mix of delight and consternation, of confusion and understanding, all evident in the widened eyes and gaping mouth. "Oh my god."

Steve felt something tighten and ache in his chest. "Listen..."

"That's what's been going on," Danny continued, ignoring him. He twisted in his seat until he was looking straight at Steve, only a few inches left between as he leaned forward. "You've been jealous of Delia."

"Danno," Steve tried again, only to be rebuffed by the furious movements of Danny's arms.

"Don't Danno me," he said, working up to full speed. "You have this gorgeous woman who shows up every once in a while just to screw you stupid ---"

"Hey!"

"-- and you get your shorts all in a bunch because I have lunch with a lesbian twice a week!"

"You do?" Steve asked, suddenly alarmed that he'd missed that fact. When had Danny been sneaking away during lunch to meet Delia?

Before Steve could really figure out the new wrinkle Danny had thrown at him, he was distracted for a completely different reason: Danny's hands on his face, thumbs calloused but gentle against the scrape of his stubble.

He pulled an unresisting Steve in a little closer until their foreheads were touching. "You really are an idiot," Danny said, his words at odds both with his hushed tone and the gentleness of his hands. "I mean, a Class A ignoramus, dumber than dumb." Danny released a soft huff of a laugh, which finally sounded like it should've to Steve's ears, full and joyful. "But damn, babe, you definitely ain't a coward."

Steve couldn't stop himself from laughing a little too. "So are you going to keep insulting me or can I kiss you now?"

"I don't know, I mean, I can keep it up all day because you are seriously ---"

Steve decided to give in to the temptation and stop Danny's litany with his mouth. It was a great tactic, it turned out, one Danny didn't seem to mind in the slightest. His hands slid from Steve's face, down until they were moving under the frayed edge of Steve's T-shirt, and Steve had a handful of tie from where it hung loosely around Danny's neck. Not that Steve was complaining, not with the way Danny's mouth was moving against his, hot and wet and dirty enough to ignite all of Steve's indecent fantasies.

When they finally broke for air, Danny was still on the verge of laughter, mouth curving crookedly up into a smile. It just made Steve want to kiss him again, but Danny started talking. "You have no idea how much shit I'm going to get about this."

"From who?"

"Delia, for one, and Kono." Danny's fingers drummed an idle tattoo against Steve's skin as he spoke. "She was indignant on your behalf when she also thought Delia was my girlfriend."

Steve remembered all the knowing glances he'd gotten from Chin and stifled a groan. "So who didn't know about this before us?"

"Maybe Gracie? Although she's a smart cookie, so maybe not," Danny asked with another laugh, before he leaned in to nip at Steve's lower lip. "Does it matter?"

Steve thought about the inevitable consequences of what they were doing -- the hint of smugness he'd see in Chin's smile and the goofy grins they would earn from Kono; the weekends that would be spent with Grace and the unenviable next encounter with Rachel as something other than Danny's work partner; he even thought about the phone call he'd have to put in to Mary when he worked up the nerve.

He thought about how he'd felt just hours before, believing any chance he had to explore his feelings for Danny had slipped away only to find it waiting for him in stilted half-confession, and how different it was from that moment, with Danny's reddened mouth smiling at him, his eyes bright and warm, promising him everything he'd always been afraid to ask for before this obnoxious, loud-mouth mainlander landed in the middle of his life.

Steve grinned before tightening his hold on Danny's tie, pulling him in until there was no room left between them, the way he expected it to be for a long time.

"Not one damned bit."

The End.