Chapter Text
“Okay, here’s the deal,” Nick murmurs as he leans over the table to where Steve sits and watches Catherine disappear into the bathroom. “Tomorrow is Monday, right? And school starts again.”
Steve looks at his friend dumbfounded, because yes, tomorrow school does start and he was totally aware of it, even if he doesn’t want to think about it. “Um, yeah, I know.”
“Great,” Nick says and claps his hands together excitedly. “So, right. Remember that haole who’s best friends with Meka?
Steve nods his head because he has a blurry image of the guy Nick is talking about in his head. He never paid much attention to him because he is a loudmouth haole where he is usually quiet, even though he’s the most popular guy in school and that kind of freaked him out the first time he saw him, so he never really got near him again. “Yeah, I know him. David or something.”
“Danny, according to Kono,” Nick says and points at the girl next to him, who is leaning back with her eyes closed. She’s probably had too much already and is asleep now because Steve knows she’s so easily drunk and she’s the sleepy-drunk type. “Anyway, I bet you… three hundred dollars if you managed to make him want to sleep with you.”
Steve frowns and looks at him like he lost his shit, which he thinks actually just happened. “What the hell, man? Did you forget I’m with Catherine? Captain of the cheerleader team?” Also, he kind of sort of loves Catherine, not that he’s gonna admit that in front of Nick and Kono (even though the latter is fast asleep) because he’s a man.
“Yes, yes, I know,” Nick presses on and waves his hand, his huge grin not faltering. “Of course I do, silly. But I didn’t say you should sleep with him – I said you should make him want to sleep with you. You know, tease him a little. Because from what I’ve heard that guy cannot stand you at all! And come on, man. Three hundred bucks!”
Steve frowns and looks back to the toilet door, where Catherine still is inside. If she knew about all of this, she would end this relationship right now. But, man. Three hundred dollars. He was seventeen and went to high school, that was, like. A lot of money. Shaking his head, he sighed. “Man, I’m way too drunk to make decision right now but hell. Yeah, I’m in.”
“You got time ‘til prom. That’s two months from here. You think you can handle that?”
Steve smiles then because who does Nick think he is? He is the master of seduction, that’s what he is. “Of course, man.”
And that’s kind of how it all started.
H50H50H50H50H50
Catherine doesn’t come to school the next day and after Steve sends her a text how she’s feeling, it takes her two hours to reply that she is hung over and doesn’t care about school today and that they’ll meet tomorrow and Steve is sort of relieved because that means he can start on the Danny Williams front.
When he gets to his third class, which is the first class of the day he shares with the guy, he sits down in first row because that’s where he always sits. He is delighted to see that slowly every seat in the first row is filling except for the one next to him and then Danny comes into the room and sits down next to him without really looking at him.
Mrs. Erikson enters and she starts by checking if everyone’s here and then she says, “Now, please work out the function you find in your book on page hundred-seventy-three and solve it. If you have any troubles please ask me or any of your classmates – quietly, though.” She sits down right away and Steve smiles because that’s his chance.
“Hey,” he smiles smugly and leans over to where the guy is sitting and when he looks up, he is frowning deeply and looks almost repelled. “I have a few problems and I thought you might be able to help me? I forgot my stuff at home so I don’t have a book or a pen or anything really.” He looks down at the bag in front of his feet, “I only have my English book with me, which is pretty useless right now.” He says so because they’ll have English together later and he doesn’t want to explain that later when he’s got a perfect excuse right now.
He rolls his eyes but shifts over because he’s a nice person. And he opens his book and grabs a pen and hands it to him before he leans over the book read it.
“Um…” Steve says, “Danny, right?”
“Daniel,” he corrects him and there’s a sharp undertone he manages to hide most of the time. Right now is not such a time, but he doesn’t really care because he wants to solve this damn thing and he’s annoying him. “What do you want, McGarrett?”
And it makes the corners of his mouth tug that he knows his name – his last name, even – but he bites his lip to suppress a smile. “To be perfectly frank with you, I have no idea how I’m supposed to do this. Could you explain it to me?”
Daniel groans then and presses his hands to his forehead in defeat. “If you weren’t such a lazy ass you’d know,” he mutters under her breath and Steve’s eyebrows jerk up. He didn’t expect him to say such a thing but apparently Kono was right with his assumption about Daniel’s feelings towards him. “Okay, listen up, I’m only gonna do this one time.”
Steve nods his head and looks up into his blue eyes before he realizes how close he is and even though he’s supposed to seduce him, it feels awkward and like he’s cheating on Catherine. So he quickly shakes his head and looks down at the book where Daniel’s finger points at the formula f(x) = k * x + d and then he clears his throat,
“The small f stands for ‘function.’ K is the curve and d is where the graph starts on the y-axis. This is the usual formula for functions and k and d are variables, and if you got k and d – which you can usually read out of the text – you can draw the function.”
Steve’s head is buzzing because what? He’s literally got no idea what this guy is talking about. He really should have paid more attention because exam time is creeping up and he doesn’t want to fail math and go to summer school. No. Not gonna happen.
“How?”
Daniel rolls his eyes once more and grabs his calculator. At least Steve thinks it’s one but when she clicks on, it’s suddenly some high tech thing he doesn’t possess and she enters the formula – f(x) = 0.5x + 2 – and then clicks on another button, there is suddenly a graph. It starts at two on the y-axis and then it goes up pretty not-steep. “See,” he says and traces the lines of the graph. “If I move one box to the side, it moves another half box up.” And yes, it really does and Steve feels like he’s having an epiphany.
“It’s that easy?” He asks surprised and blinks. “But wait, how do you know it’s 0.5 and 2?”
Daniel sighs in annoyance because he feels like he’s spent too much time on him today already. “Because it says so in the text. Now, let me finish, please.”
Feeling a little overwhelmed by his knowledge and what he just learnt he nods his head and leans back in his chair before he realizes he’s supposed to do that too. He leans over again and he hears the guy sigh before he even opens his mouth and that makes him frown and also crumple a little because he doesn’t like it when someone doesn’t like him when he hasn’t given them a reason to. This guy doesn’t even know him!
“I’m sorry,” he huffs out, now a little annoyed too. “I just wanted to write it down.” He sighs because he has to compose himself because that’s three hundred dollars he’s talking about and he cannot, no, he won’t lose that much money to Nick. “Okay, I’m really sorry. I get it, I’m annoying you. I just. You know, I wanted.” He bites his lip and now the guy looks up and he sighs, still annoyed, but his features are softer and Steve knows she bought his explanation. “I’m sorry too,” he murmurs softly and Steve’s surprised at that.
But he knows he’s still got a lot of stuff to do.
H50H50H50H50H50
For lunch break, Max asks him where he’s going when Steve turns right instead of left, where they usually sit.
“Oh,” Steve smiles because Max doesn’t know about the bet yet. “Ask Nick. I’ll be over there,” he mutters and walks away before his friend can even comprehend what’s going on. He sees Daniel with that best friend named Meka.
“Hey,” he says in front of them and they both look confused until Daniel speaks up,
“What do you want here?”
Steve looks over his shoulder where he sees Nick, Kono and Max watching him more or less way too obvious before he turns his attention back to the pair of them. “I’d like to sit with you, if you don’t mind.”
“What?” Meka asks sharply and Steve realizes immediately that he’s not very happy about his persona either. “Your friends abandoned you and you decide to come sit with us? That’s so low, dude. Not gonna happen.”
Daniel frowns at his friend, Steve shakes his head with a sad smile. “My friends didn’t abandon me,” Steve replies then and pushes some of his hair back. “We’re still all very good friends. I just wanted to sit with you guys today because you look nice.” His palms get a little sweaty there. He’s not really good at lying.
Meka snorts through his nose and shakes his head.
Daniel sighs then and straightens his position. “On my behalf, you can sit here, McGarrett.”
Meka rolls his eyes but knows he’s defeated. He rams his fork into a piece of chicken on her plate before shoving it into his mouth. Yeah, he’s definitely avoiding looking at any of them. “Thank you,” Steve says relieved.
“Uh, yeah. As Daniel made obvious, my surname is McGarrett and I am the captain of the football team.” Meka laughs, “Everyone already knows that.” Then there’s a really sweet but also silly smile playing around Daniel’s mouth. He doesn’t like it.
H50H50H50H50H50
It’s a week, and Steve’s been sitting next to Daniel every day in math. In lunch he sits with Catherine because he doesn’t want to upset her (he had explained it to Daniel and he had reacted totally understanding, which made him smile and apologize even more) but he waves at Daniel and Meka and slowly, the guy starts to warm up to him. In English, he finally finds an empty seat next to Daniel today (“Get off of my seat.” “Today, you’re gonna sit somewhere else, Eddie. Bye.”) and he even smiles a little when he sees him.
They’re quiet until Daniel leans over and smiles and whispers, “Thank you. I love sitting next to you.” His smile is big and warm and Steve feels sort of happy.
H50H50H50H50H50
“Steve?” A voice shouts behind him and when he turns around a mop of brown hair is running towards him and before he even really sees her face, he notices she’s angry with him. “Steve, is it true you were sitting with the nerd and haole when I wasn’t here last week?”
Steve blinks a couple of times because he had almost forgotten about it and he wonders who ratted out on him. “Uh. Um. Who told you that?”
She puts her hands into her sides and frowns deeply before she huffs out through her nose. She really is angry with him. “Does it matter!? So it’s true, isn’t it! I know you’ve been sitting next to that guy all the time in your classes! What is going on with you, Steve?”
He doesn’t say anything because he realizes then that she’s jealous and he can’t even tell her what’s happening really because that would make her only even more furious. He knows he’s fucked and he hopes for something to come to his mind so he can get out of this, but he knows how bad of a liar he really is and he doesn’t know what to say. His mind is totally blank.
“Steve!” Another voice shouts and it’s Nick. He must sense something is happening and he doesn’t want to lose any of his popularity so he steps in – Nick’s popularity consists of his friends, and his friends are Max (captain of the mathletes), Kono (a girl in the grade below, but an awesome surfer) and Steve (the captain of the football team). “Oh, Catherine! How wonderful to see you here! I just wanted to invite you two to my party on Saturday! You’re coming right?”
Both of them nod and Steve is grateful for his intervention. “I’m really sorry, Catherine, but I need Steve to help me plan the party!”
“Hey!” She shouts furiously, “I’m not done with him yet!” But Nick just keeps going with his hand on Steve’s back to push him forward.
“You’re a life saver,” Steve mutters and runs a hand over his face.
Nick laughs and nods his head. “I know I am. Now, let’s ask my parents if I’m allowed to throw a party on Saturday.”
“So you just invented the party? To save me from Catherine?” And Nick nods his head.
H50H50H50H50H50
“You’re gonna go to Nick’s party tomorrow?” Steve asks quietly as he leans over to Daniel’s desk in English class. He and Eddie have swapped places now and Eddie doesn’t even object anymore.
“God, McGarrett,” he chuckles quietly without looking at him. He lifts his head and squints his eyes at the blackboard before writing down what the teacher wrote on it. He still calls him that even though he’s one hundred per cent sure he knows his first name. He doesn’t mind as long as he wins the bet. Almost two weeks have passed and he’s still positive he’ll win, but still. There’s still the problem with Catherine. “You should know that I’m not that kind of guy.” For a second he has to remind himself what they were talking about.
“Come on,” Steve smiles up at him and it’s the one he always uses with Daniel. The one that’s supposed to get her hopes up. By now it comes naturally and he doesn’t even realize he has his hand behind his back until Mr. Leonard tells him to remove it.
He blushes and so does Daniel. That should be a good thing but it feels sort of weird. When he’s looking around, he doesn’t see anyone who would tell Catherine, but rumours spread quicker than lice in this god damned school and he’s sure by the end of next period, someone will have told her.
“Come on,” Steve presses on nonetheless. “You have to go. Nick’s my best friend, so I’m allowed to invite whomever I want. And I want you to come. You can bring Meka.”
Daniel sighs and looks over at him over the edges of his glasses. His face is serious, considering, and then it breaks out into a smile and he nods his head, “Alright, fine. I’ll come.”
H50H50H50H50H50
Catherine texts him that afternoon, saying she heard something and she sounds pissed. Not that he can hear her voice because it’s just a text after all, but he knows Caroline and he has known her for the past four years and yes, she’s definitely pissed.
We’re gonna talk tomorrow. Come to my house before the party.
At least he has the night to relax and he decides he can do best by thinking about how he will do the thing with Daniel. Maybe he can get him drunk. Then he’ll ask him what he thinks of him and record it – because Nick declared there needs to be at least a little bit of proof – but he suddenly feels weird and nauseous at the thought.
Daniel is actually a nice guy and he maybe really wants to be friends with Steve and he can actually picture that. He doesn’t want to hurt him like because of some stupid bet.
But he also doesn’t want to lose three hundred dollars. And that’s not the even the worst thing! He’d lose it to Nick.
Sighing, he goes to sleep and doesn’t think about hurting Daniel anymore because he agreed on this and he doesn’t care about him. He doesn’t. He almost believes it when he finally falls asleep at three in the morning.
When he wakes up the next day and is ready for the party after having eaten, it’s already five in the afternoon and he’s got two hours left ‘til Nick’s party starts so he sends Catherine a text in which he tells her that he’s going to come and talk to her about everything now. He’s not sure what he’s gonna say, because he still quite likes Catherine, even if she’s behaving weirdly lately.
When he gets to his house, his mom opens the door for him.
H50H50H50H50H50
“Steve!” Daniel’s voice fills his ears and he turns around with his eyes blinking heavily. The edges of his vision are dancing and he grins brightly when he realizes who it is. He looks nice.
His hair is slicked back, and wearing black skinny jeans and a button-down shirt.
He’s smiling but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes and Steve frowns before he realizes he shouldn’t notice such things about him. He shouldn’t get attached to him because he will have to hurt him, he will have to drop him after he develops feelings for him and he knows now how that feels.
“Hey, Daniel,” he murmurs and feels a lot more sober than he did two minutes ago. His vision isn’t even blurry anymore. “Are you alright?” He looks up to where Meka is looking at him with sympathy filling her eyes and she rubs a hand over Daniel’s back before tears fill the shorter guy’s eyes.
“Yes,” he squeaks but Steve knows it’s a lie. He wants to comfort him because he can’t handle crying people and his insides twist at the thought of Daniel crying. Fuck.
He looks at Meka with a question on his face and the guy nods encouragingly. “Hey, Daniel. C’mere,” he says and opens his arms, stepping closer. He wraps them around his body and he feels a shiver run down his spine, hoping he won’t notice.
It feels pretty stupid to hug someone in the middle of a party and he knows both of them feel like shit and he wonders what put him in the mood. He doesn’t want to talk about it here, with everyone listening but he wants to know. He needs to know because he needs him to smile, like, right now. “Come with me,” he says but before he can pull back, Daniel’s arms wrap around his waist, clinging onto his flannel shirt – yes, he also wears those to parties, thank you very much – and letting out a quiet sob into his chest. His heart squeezes together painfully and then his lungs feel too big in his rib cage and he knows, fuck, he knows he’s going to cry too.
“Come with me,” he replies because he is not going to cry in front of everyone from school. Not gonna happen. He manages to pull back then and grabs his wrist, tagging his along and walking up the stairs to Nick’s bed room. He hopes none of his friends see him with Daniel even though that would kind of make him win the bet without having to actually hurt him.
They sit down on his friend’s bed and he still holds him, soothing him. “Daniel, can you tell me what’s wrong?” He asks, his thumb rubbing circles into his shoulder and he knows that it shouldn’t comfort him as much as it does because this is Steve McGarrett and Steve McGarrett is known for being inconsiderate and a twat, but in the course of two weeks he had met a totally different Steve McGarrett than everyone said he was. Even Meka sort of liked him now.
“My Dad,” Daniel sobbed and Steve frowned. “What about him?”
“He…” He sobbed again and then hiccupped. “He died trying to rescue someone.”
“Steve?” He asks and looks up and Steve’s heart flutters in his chest. He’s positive this is the first time he’s ever called him by his first name and until now he hadn’t realized how much he had wanted for this to happen. “Are you alright?”
Steve nods his head before sighing and stroking his fingers through the soft, blonde hair. “I’m just thinking about what would happen if I lost my Dad.” And he knows he shouldn’t say such things but he really can’t help it.
“I’m very sorry for your loss,” Steve murmurs and keeps stroking his hair. “Seriously, you don’t deserve that, Daniel.”
He smiles up through his tears. “Danny,” he corrects Steve.
H50H50H50H50H50
They sit in there for another half hour when the door opens and two people stumble inside, their limbs tangled together and both Steve and Daniel’s – Danny’s – eyes widen as they hurry to get off of the mattress when they recognize them.
“Nick!?” Steve says, Danny at the same moment shouts, “Kono!?”
The two look up and their eyes widen before Kono pushes the guy away, pushes her hair back and straightens her posture. Her lips are pressed tightly together into a thin line before she blushes and walks out of the room.
“Steve!” Nick shouts. “What was that!?”
“I was sitting on bed with Danny and we were talking and then you came in and rui-” He shuts himself up quickly with blood flushing his cheeks. “-and confused us!” His face is bright red and Daniel – Danny – can’t quite help but giggle softly.
“I’m gonna check on Kono. Thanks, Steve,” his smile is shy and questioning when he leaves and Steve wants to kiss him. It’s stupid of him but right now he doesn’t really care anymore. He watches Danny leave and then turns his attention back to Nick, who’s looking at him dazzled.
“Already?” He asks.
Steve frowns. “Already what?”
Nick shakes his head before clapping his friend on the shoulder. “Look at you! Two weeks in and you’ve already got him wrapped around your little finger! To be honest with you, I knew I’d lose those three hundred to you but never had I thought it’d happen so soon! A couple more days and I’m sure he wants to jump you.”
He blinks but he doesn’t tell Nick, because he doesn’t even want to admit it to himself yet. Yes, he’s a coward.
H50H50H50H50H50
Steve sits with Danny and Meka the next day at lunch. Catherine is looking at him deadly, but he doesn’t care right now (even though the pinch in his chest is telling him otherwise) and he averts his gaze quickly to look at Danny. “How are you today?” He asks and feels his hands start to sweat. He knows this is how it started with Catherine, but he doesn’t think about it.
Danny smiles up at him and nods, shifting a little to make space for Steve. “Better, what about you?” He looks around to see Catherine glaring at the two of them and he feels like shrinking in his seat. Steve had told him about their breakup – how Catherine had heard rumours and believed them instead of him and how jealous she had gotten and then how she had ended it – and they had been crying together for a while.
It felt nice. He felt good around him and he didn’t mind showing him her crazy side. The side only Meka had seen so far, and his family.
Steve nods his head and stabs a piece of meat on his fork before bringing it to his lips. He smiles at Danny and he can’t help but smile as he says the following words, “I’m much better now.”
He doesn’t notice it when Meka moves away quietly to leave them alone, and neither does Danny. Probably he doesn’t even care anyway. It feels nice to be alone with Danny.
“I wanted to ask you for your help. Because, you know, soon it’s exam time. And I suppose you’re really busy. But I need help in math – and if you can’t do it, I’m gonna ask someone else,” Steve blurts out. He can’t help but feel weirdly insecure about how he isn’t as smart as him. Usually he doesn’t mind such stuff.
Danny smiles then and nudges his side, shoving the last noodle of pasta between his lips. He swallows without chewing it and nods, “Of course I can help you, you goof. That’s what friends are for, right?”
He doesn’t mention that his stomach hurts or that he suddenly doesn’t like his food anymore.
H50H50H50H50H50
They meet on Friday after school – and yes, Steve really enjoys Danny’s company and he likes sitting with him and Meka after lunch – at Danny’s house because he promises his parents won’t be home and that his father won’t shoot him.
“Now,” Steve says when he enters the house. It’s big and warm and he feels comfortable almost right away, even though he’s still tense and nervous because he’s alone with this guy in his house. “What did Kono say about her make out session with Nick? You think she would have gone further?” He didn’t dare to ask the question sooner but it’s been eating him alive all week already.
Danny giggles then, “She said she was embarrassed as hell afterwards and that she doesn’t want anything from him. I can understand her, though, but I think she’ll change her mind.”
Steve frowns in confusion and tilts his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
Danny clears his throat and walks closer to Steve until their toes are touching and he can hear someone’s heart beat – thought it could be his own, because he is nervous as hell with Danny being this close to him. “I thought you were a jerk,” he says and looks down, laughing softly. His fingers are tangled in his hair, curling the soft blonde locks around his fingers. “Like, a proper jerk. All cool and stuff but when it came down to it, he was just hiding behind a façade of mean jokes and douche-y comments. But I realized that I misunderstood you, Steve McGarrett. You’re actually a really charming guy and I’m so glad we’re friends.” Again, this unpleasant feeling in his gut. “You’re just… so honest with me. Thank you for that.”
He takes a sharp intake of breath when Danny puts his hands on his chest and leans in closer because, fuck, he doesn’t want this to happen. Not like this. Not. Like. This. He wants to kiss him, god, he really does and he doesn’t care about what Nick and Max and especially Kono would say because yes, he likes Danny and he loved Catherine – but he cannot kiss Danny like this.
When their faces are almost touching, Steve turns his face to the side and closes his eyes, cursing himself internally when her lips come in contact with her jaw and he feels her hands on his chest tremble before he steps back. “I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “It’s just…”
“Catherine,” Danny jumps in and he hears the lump in his throat. He feels like shit for putting him through this but he doesn’t know what to say because telling him the truth would surely hurt him even more and he didn’t want to hurt him. At all. Ever.
What had he gotten himself into?
“I think…” He mutters but trails off before he shakes his head to clear his thoughts. “I think, uh. I should go. See you on Monday, yeah?”
He nods but doesn’t turn around when he leaves through the front door.
He really hates himself.