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Danny settled into his couch, chips and a beer on the table just waiting to be opened to enjoy a full day of college football. No heat, no bugs, no sunburn, and no insane SEAL moves that left his heart in his throat for a couple of hours afterwards.
His phone rang, that special ringtone that told him insanity might be on the cards after all, and football probably wasn't. Danny closed his eyes and counted to three before accepting the call. "Please tell me that you accidentally butt dialed me and that we don't really have a case," he said.
"I didn't accidentally butt dial you," Steve said. "But we don't have a case, either."
"No," Danny said immediately.
There was a slight pause on the other end of the line, and Danny smiled at the look of confusion he could picture on Steve's face. "No, what?"
"No to whatever crazy, hairbrained idea you have for my day off. I have chips and beer and football."
"But Danny, think of how much fun we--"
"I pushed a car up the Pali, Steven."
"Okay, that was one time, but--"
"We found a dead guy and you almost died breaking your arm."
"Okay, two times, but really, haven't you ever heard that lightning never strikes twice?"
Danny laughed. "It's already struck twice."
"Then a third time is practically impossible."
"You just guaranteed a third time just by saying that."
Steve's sigh was loud, even over the phone. "Danny."
"Yes, Steven?"
"Come on. I promise it'll be worth your while."
Danny looked at the TV, where Ohio was warming up on the field. "Shouldn't you be watching your Midshipmates trounce the Air Force? Isn't it against the law for you to skip that?"
"Danny."
Danny closed his eyes for a second. "Yes, Steven?"
"Please?"
Fuck. "All right," Danny said, opening his eyes on a sigh. "But I am on record saying that if I have to push a car or call in an airlift, I am never going anywhere with you ever again."
"Deal," Steve said. "Now put your pants on and get over here."
Danny looked down at his boxers. "How did you know I wasn't wearing pants?"
"Did I forget to tell you about the video surveillance I had installed in your place?"
Danny looked around for the signs of hidden cameras because, well, Steve. "You'd better be bullshitting me."
"I know you," Steve said, his voice dark and low, sending an involuntary shiver through Danny. "Now put your pants on and get over here."
***
Danny parked the Camaro in front of Steve's house and started to go in, before he realized he heard Steve in the garage. He detoured to the garage instead, walking in to find Steve in almost the same spot he had been the first time Danny had met him. "What are you doing in here?" Danny asked.
"I thought maybe we could take the Marquis out."
"Oh, so you want a repeat of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 2011?"
Steve frowned. "There was no St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 2011."
"There would have been if the tow truck hadn't shown up and I'd had to push this hunk of metal any further."
Steve rolled his eyes. "Just get in the car."
Danny did. It took him three tries to get the door shut properly, after which he gave Steve a rather pointed glare that was ignored. The engine sputtered a few times before roaring to life, and Steve coaxed her out of the garage and down onto the highway.
For a while Danny was content that the car just kept moving, but as they pulled up to an airfield, his contentment fell away. "I am not going up in a helicopter with you for fun," Danny said. "I can barely do it when I have no other choice."
"Relax, Danno, I'm not flying."
That did nothing to help him relax. "What are we doing here, then?"
Steve stopped the car in the small parking lot and shut off the engine. "We're going skydiving."
While Danny was still putting those words in different order to see if they made any more sense than they had when they came out of Steve's mouth, Steve got out of the car. Danny watched him walk around the car and peer down into the passenger window a second before he opened the door.
"Come on, Danno, let's go."
"No."
Steve frowned. "Come on, it'll be fun."
"No. Absolutely not, no, not happening, , nyet, nada, niente, nueve."
Steve's eyebrows furrowed. "You realize those last ones mean 'nothing' and 'nine'?"
"Yes, because nine times nothing is the odds of you getting me to go skydiving!"
The furrowed brows and frowned morphed into a rather spectacular pout, even for Steve, one that tested Danny's resolve for about a nanosecond. "You've never been before, right?" Steve said, as if he sensed Danny was wavering.
"No. And there are good reasons for that, chief among them being I like breathing. And I like doing it without crushed bones."
"Seriously, Danny, it's amazing. You're flying through the air and then the chute opens and you're just floating to the ground like a feather."
Danny laughed. "Right, a feather that weighs a couple hundred pounds and has the force of a tank yanking it to the earth at hundreds of miles an hour."
"That is not how gravity works."
Danny folded his arms over his chest. "I am not going skydiving."
Steve crouched down beside the car, putting himself on eye level with Danny. "Look, we live on an island," Steve said. "Which means we spend a lot more time in the air than most cops. And while the chances of something going wrong are small, you need to at least know how to jump."
Danny laughed. "The chances of something going wrong increase tenfold when you're involved, my friend."
"Then you agree that it's imperative that you get some skydiving experience."
"No, because if something goes wrong when we're in the air, it's invariably going to be your fault, and I'm just going to grab onto you as we're leaping out of the aircraft."
"Fine. But even then, you'd be a lot safer if you had some tandem experience."
Danny hated it when Steve used logic. "It wouldn't make a difference."
He could hear the uncertainty in his own voice, and saw Steve pick up on it instantly. "I'm not asking you to jump alone," Steve said, the words pitched low, making Danny's stomach do weird things. "It's just a tandem jump. I'll be right behind you the whole time. Literally. Strapped to your back."
Oh, and there was a huge, glaring, bold reason why they shouldn't do this. That was the last thing he needed given the way his dreams had been going lately. Still. He did have a point about needing to know how this worked.
Danny sighed. "Okay, if I do this, you're signing a waiver that you never drive my car again if I break so much as a nail."
Steve grin was blinding.
***
"I hate you," Danny said, as he looked at the ground, which was a long, long, long way below them.
"You really don't," Steve said.
"I really, really do. A lot."
Steve's laughter so close to Danny's ear didn't help Danny's stomach flips, or reactions going on lower down, especially when Steve was literally strapped to Danny's back. "You ready?" Steve said.
"No. No, I am not ready, I will never be--"
"Danno."
Danny took a deep breath. "Fine. Go."
He wasn't sure he'd have been able to jump out of the plane, but Steve made sure he didn't need to, taking that step for both of them. Danny's stomach jumped up into his throat as the ground started rushing closer, whatever he'd screamed lost in the woosh of air around them.
Seconds, or possibly an eternity, later, he felt a jerk, the harness practically embedding itself into his chest momentarily as their rapid fall halted into a slower, gentler descent--relatively speaking. They drifted along for a few seconds before Steve's voice sounded in Danny's ear. "So what do you think now?"
Danny looked around him, at the entire island all in his view. He could see everything, though everything looked like it was sized for ants. Small ants. Possibly gnats. Still. "It's...not bad."
That laugh in his ear again, doing funnier things to his stomach than the first drop had. "Not bad? Danno, by your standards that's practically high praise when it comes to Hawaii."
Danny laughed. "There are some good things about Hawaii," he admitted. It was a strange conversation to be having thousands of feet above the ground, voices raised to be heard over the wind, but somehow that seemed fitting for the two of them.
"Let me guess," Steve said, "you secretly love flowers."
"They might be growing on me," Danny said with a laugh. "A little
"Then look up."
Danny looked up to see that the bright red parachute had designs in it. A little squinting helped him identify the designs--flowers. Hibiscus, if he wasn't mistaken. "Seriously, Steven? An aloha parachute?"
"What else would you take your first jump in?"
Danny shook his head. "There is something seriously wrong with you."
"So you keep saying," Steve said, and Danny noticed that tone again, the same one that had gotten him up here in the first place. "And yet I notice you stick around."
"Which doesn't say much for my state of mind," Danny said, looking around for a change of subject--not that there was much at hand. "So where's your house?" he asked.
Steve's arm appeared in Danny's line of sight, pointing off to their right. "That way," he said. "See Diamond Head?" At Danny's nod, Steve said, "Follow the coastline, and it's a little more than halfway to Hanauma Bay."
Danny was surprised to realize he knew where Hanauma Bay was, could see it in the distance, looking like a giant shark took a bite out of the edge of the island. "So I suppose the 'I can see my house from here,' joke is kind of lame?"
Steve laughed. "I think it's a requirement for a first time."
Danny noticed that things were getting bigger and the ground closer, and he went over the landing instructions again in his head. Steve started pointing out other landmarks, and before Danny knew it, he was putting the landing instructions into practice as Steve guided them easily to the ground.
He sat on the ground for a moment as Steve unstrapped himself and got up before offering Danny a hand and pulling him to his feet. Danny immediately wobbled, and Steve grabbed his shoulders to steady him. "All right?"
After a moment, Danny nodded. "Yeah, sorry."
"Takes a little practice before you can get your land legs right away again," Steve said. "It'll be easier next time."
"There is never going to be a next time, Steven."
Steve's laugh was unsettling.
***
"Come on, admit it," Steve said, as they walked into his house, "it was fun. You have to admit that much."
Danny had resisted admitting that all through lunch at Kamekona's shrimp truck and shave ice at the stand he hadn't even realized Kamekona still owned. But once they were inside Steve's house and Steve was looking at him like a puppy who would go running off to hide if Danny kicked him, Danny sighed. "It was amazing," he said.
"See? I told you!"
"I'm still never going again."
"We'll see about that," Steve said, rummaging through a drawer and pulling out a thin box with a ribbon around it. "Meanwhile, it's traditional to give someone a gift on such an occasion."
"There are gifts for first time skydiving?"
Steve shrugged and held it out. "Why not?"
Danny looked at him oddly, feeling like he was missing something, but Steve just gave him a blank look. "You're very strange," Danny said, taking the box.
"Just open the box."
Danny opened it, laughing as he saw a tie. Not just any tie, but a silk one, with flowers. "To commemorate my first jump," he said, his laughter finally trailing away. "Nice."
"It seemed appropriate."
"Yeah, see how you like it when I show up wearing it."
Steve laughed. "At least it's a Hawaiian tie," he said. "You want a beer?"
"Yeah."
He watched Steve head for the kitchen before turning his attention back to the tie. It was a nice one, the silk was soft to the touch. Too bad about the loud flowers on it--though he was absolutely wearing it at least once, just to make a point. Steve shouldn't give him things if he didn't want them worn.
Danny crossed the room to drop the box onto the coffee table, knocking a notepad off as he did. He picked it up, frowning at the words written on it.
4th anniversary gifts
Traditional - Flowers
Modern - Linen/silk/nylon
He blinked at it a few times before Steve's voice echoed in his head in a not-too-distant memory. Three years, eleven months, two days. Which had been about four weeks ago.
Fourth anniversary.
"Sorry, couldn't find the bottle opener," Steve said as he came back from the kitchen. He got halfway across the room before he realized Danny was holding the notepad and froze, his eyes wide.
Danny laughed, crossing the room until he was standing right in front of Steve. "Only you could turn an anniversary into a strategic op."
Steve blinked a couple of times. "Is that a good thing?"
"Yes," Danny said, laughing some more. "Yes, you goof, that's a good thing." He took both beers out of Steve's hands and put them on the nearest flat surface before stepping closer still.
"Um, Danny," Steve said, having to look down his nose because of Danny's proximity, "what are you doing?"
"Celebrating."
He leaned up, lips capturing Steve's, the only place they were touching, leaving Steve room to back off easily if he wanted.
Steve froze for a brief second before he moved, arms wrapping around Danny's, his mouth opening, welcoming Danny in. Several kisses later, Danny pulled back just enough to see Steve's face. "Seriously, though, you couldn't have just said something?"
"Where's the fun in that?" Steve's grin was the reckless one Danny associated with jumping off things. And out of things, he realized, after the jump that morning.
"Leave it to you to take a list like flowers and silk and decide that clearly meant a parachute and skydiving."
He felt Steve's shrug all around him, stirring up things he'd been trying to fight off all day. Or a lot longer, if he was honest. "It worked, didn't it?"
"Maybe," Danny said, though he was sure his grin gave him away, and his tone wasn't exactly helping his case.
"So does that mean I can tell everyone you fell for me on our fourth anniversary?" Steve said, tightening his arms around Danny a little.
"Babe, I fell for you a long time before that."
---
END