Chapter Text
So apparently the guy in the pawn shop had a point when he had a door installed that could stop a 300-point Samoan meth addict. Seems there are a few in Hawai’i, and they can cause issues. Especially if they’ve decided that you look snack-sized, and the meth use has left them just famished.
And while Danny pulls his gun as soon as said meth addict starts towards him, he just knows it is going to end badly, because there is no way that he can stop the guy before he gets flattened, and possibly nibbled on.
But Danny isn’t a coward, so he holds his ground and keeps trying to get the guy to stop with the sheer power of his voice. It doesn’t work, naturally, but he isn't required to attempt to put a bullet in the guy’s skull before he arrives to share the exact space as Danny. Before that can happen, the guy is falling backwards and staring with wide eyes at what used to be Steve McGarrett’s clothes.
The clothes that exploded just seconds ago to allow Steve to change from a government-trained killing machine into something...else.
Danny is still trying to understand exactly what happened here, so he carefully lowers his gun and looks from the meth addict over to where Steve stood just seconds ago.
To where it is possible that Steve is still standing, or pacing, or prowling, or something. Because he’s not sure what you use to describe what Steve is doing at this moment. After all, he’s never had to face a partner who did what Steve is currently doing. Whatever you call it. All he knows at this moment is that he’s thinking that the meth addict who is at this moment attempting to backpedal into another dimension may have a point. But he can’t get his legs to move in order to aid him in following the addict. Instead, he stands there, kind of bemused, and watches while Steve stalks the addict and then stops him from going anywhere by putting a really large paw on his stomach.
Yeah. Paw. Because as though McGarrett wasn’t insane enough, and Danny’s life wasn’t strange enough, apparently Steve can turn into a Jaguar. Huh.
Well. It does explain a few things.
Like the fact that Steve is so damn graceful. And so damn aggressive, and territorially protective, and has the self-preservation instinct of a chocolate-chip cookie. And the fact that he likes a good steak that has been shown to the grill in order to frighten it into submission.
But still, you tend not to expect this sort of thing from your partner of 3 years. After all, you’d have thought that Steve would have mentioned this at some point. I mean, stake-outs really suck, and there has been plenty of time for Steve to make confessions of this sort. God knows everything else in his life has come tumbling out, for all that everybody else complains that Steve is a functional mute.
Danny watches as Steve bends over the Samoan, and growls at him, exposing those huge fangs,and, possibly drooling a bit on the guy, and the meth addict, in spite of, or perhaps because of, his state of inebriation, sits very, very still. Steve steps back from him and walks over to Danny, who reaches down and pets Steve absently. It’s not something he would do under normal circumstances, despite his deep desire to pet Steve upon more than one occasion. But this is nothing like a normal occasion, and Danny is working on instinct. And petting Steve seems to be the thing to do at this moment.
And Steve doesn’t purr exactly--Danny seems to remember reading that the big cats can’t really purr. But he does make a soft noise somewhere in the back of his throat that sounds somewhat like a purr, so Danny isn’t that concerned. Besides, if there’s anybody who can turn into a Jaguar and still keep his mind intact, it’s Steve. But at some point very, very soon, Steve is going to answer some questions regarding this ability and exactly how this occurs, and how frequently it happens.
Steve bumps against Danny’s hand and leg, rubbing his head against him, and Danny thinks about the fact that cats usually do that when they’re marking you, and oh my, my, my is McGarrett going to have some explaining to do. After he turns back into a man who can actually explain things.
Steve turns around, growls at the perp, and then heads back towards the Camero, hopefully to change back into a human being and put some clothing on. Danny sighs, and calls HPD to come and get the lump of whimpering flesh that is currently huddling in a fetal position 5 feet away from him. He gathers up Steve’s exploded clothing, and listens to the guy whimper out his story of a guy who turned into a big, big cat, and tried to eat him. Danny manfully resists telling the guy that if the big, big cat had wanted to eat him, he'd be cat food by now.
Just as Duke is putting the guy into the back of his cruiser, Steve comes bounding up, all perky, and freshly dressed. Danny gives him the stink-eye his mother taught him, and then hands him the bundle of rags that can now be used for cleaning the Camero, which Steve is going to be doing a lot in the near future.
“So, Danno, are we ready to go?”
“Don’t you even call me Danno when you’ve been so obviously hiding something rather large from me. I am so very, very angry with you at this point, Steven. And you don’t get to call me Danno again until you do some major explaining and apologizing.”
“Oh, Danny, don’t be like that. I just saved your life.”
“Uh-huh. And you are so not driving my car again until you’ve made amends either.”
And with that, Danny turns and walks to the car, head held high, and shoulders back and strong, even though inside he’s trembling and wants to fall down and whimper just like the perp did. But he’s not going to allow that to happen while McGarrett is watching.
They get to the car and Danny climbs into the driver’s seat and adjusts it to his more reasonable height. He thinks about taking off before Steve can get into the car, but he’s kind of afraid that Steve will burst out of another set of clothing, at which point he'd have no choice to let him into the car. And he knows full well that Steve only had the one set of back-up clothes in the trunk, and he doesn’t want to deal with a big cat shedding all over his upholstery.
Steve climbs in and looks at him with a smile. “I have to say, you’re taking this rather well, Danny.”
“That’s because I’ve come to the conclusion that you obviously dispensed a drug of some sort that gave both the large gentleman and myself a collective hallucination. And you’re going to let me believe that for at least a few moments, so that I don’t wreck my beautiful car before you can get back to the office and do the paperwork. Which you are doing every single bit of, Steven. And I mean that with all my heart. You will be doing every single piece of paperwork required, and you will come up with some kind of explanation that does not include large, carnivorous animals suddenly appearing and threatening the suspect.
“And you are going to take me to your home and feed me large amounts of expensive food, and give me large amounts of expensive beer to drink, and then maybe tomorrow, we will discuss the fact that you rubbed your head against my hand and leg and marked me!”
Steve laughs and smiles. “Yes, Danno. Got it, Danno.”
Danny stink-eyes him once again, and drives sedately his apartment, where Steve drops him off with a promise to return as soon as possible. Danny climbs into his crappy bed before falling to pieces.
Eventually, he climbs out of his bed and is driven to Steve’s, where he goes and huddles in Steve's guest bed for a while, until he notices that there is a delightful scent of grilling meat coming up the stairs, and when he goes down, he finds that there is a cooler full of expensive beer cooling nicely. He takes a deep breath, sits down, and opens himself a beer. Eventually, Steve comes over with a plate full of perfectly grilled steak, and a baked potato dripping with butter and sour cream, and a nice selection of cheese and freshly cooked bacon bits. So, Steve is going all out. Danny can handle that. After all, after this afternoon, he deserves it.
They eat in silence, mostly because the food is so spectacular, but also because Danny doesn’t even begin to know where to start with this one. Eventually, however, the food has been devoured, the grill cleaned, and the dishes are in the dishwasher and he can’t avoid it any longer.
“So, Steven.” He begins. “You apparently have some talents that you’ve been less than communicative regarding. Care to explain?”
Steve sits down in his normal position on the couch and looks at him, all solemn blue eyes and serious face. “Well, Danny, the US Navy did some...experiments on some of the SEALs, myself included. They wanted to create the optimum soldier, and I fit the profile. So they gave me a chance, and I volunteered for the trial. They were honest about it, told me that there might be some, um, side effects, but that they didn’t know exactly what the drug would do to us. But I believed that the risks were worth it, and I was honored to have been chosen.
“After the treatment, however, they discovered that there were side effects, such as a great desire to blow shit up, and drive at unsafe speeds. And perhaps to latch onto Detectives named Danno and make them come with me. That one obviously manifested later on.”
About halfway through his statement, Danny realizes that he’s being played, and growls and glares at him. “The truth, McGarrett, before I find your shotgun and shoot you with it.”
Steve rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.” Then he smiles his totally happy smile and leans over and sniffs Danny. Danny’s eyes get huge. “Did you just sniff me? Ew. McGarrett!”
Steve grins. “Can’t help it. You smell really good.”
“That’s the steak. I, myself, do not smell like prey. Get over it.”
“No, Danny, you don’t smell like prey. It doesn’t work that way. I’m still me, I just have fur and four paws.
"Look, this is just a family thing. Every once in a while, members of the Trevant family have the ability to turn into big cats. It’s skipped several generations. Nobody has been able to do it since my Great-Grandmother Louise. And she was a rather small, adorable Cougar. We have pictures.”
He stands and goes to the bookcase, taking down a photo album from somewhere near the top. Somewhere Danny would have never been able to reach anything, damn it.
He brings it over to the couch and flops down. Danny thinks to himself that it isn’t fair that he even flops gracefully.
Steve opens the album to a certain page and hands it over to Danny. The photo is old, probably from the turn of the last century. A couple of rather handsome people are holding a small Cougar. And Steve’s right. She's adorable.
“How old was she here?”
“I think that was her first shift, so she’d have been about two.”
“She’s really cute.”
“I know. You want to reach through the picture and pet her, don’t you?”
“Uh, yeah. So this happens when you’re a child?”
“Mostly. With me it happened when I was around 10. Scared the hell out of me. I mean, I’d heard that my Mom’s family had shifting in it, but nobody I knew had the ability, so I kind of figured it was the family’s version of an urban legend or something. But I woke up one day with my ear itching like crazy and I found that using my back right foot was the best way to scratch it.
"When I completely woke up, I noticed that I had fur and paws, and I started screaming. Only it didn’t sound like screaming. It sounded like roaring. Not so good for my parents’ hearts, let me tell you. My Dad was sure that a Jaguar had eaten me.
“But Mom calmed down after a while and called her Mother, who immediately came over, and affirmed that I was just a member of the family. Dad had a shit fit, though, because he’d never believed that crap either. And then you find out that your kid will sometimes be a very big kitty cat one morning. It took him a while to get over it.”
“I can imagine.” Danny looks at him closely. “Do you have to change at the full moon or something like that? And, do you have a mate or die sort of thing going on?”
Steve rolls his eyes. “Please. I can change anytime I want. I tend to do it when nobody’s around, obviously, because I don’t want anybody calling animal control and telling them that the zoo has an escaped leopard and they need to come and kill it.
“And no, I don’t have a mate or die sort of thing going. I’m still me, Danny. Just in a different body. I don’t like to hunt bunny rabbits. I don’t want to kill house-pets. I don’t want to eat raw meat. Well, any more than usual. I like vegetables, even though they don’t go well with my stomach, so much, so I tend to leave the whole eating thing until I’ve shifted back.
“Shifting doesn’t make me any less human. It just means that I can do stuff that other people can’t.”
“Can you do anything other than a Jaguar?”
“Nope. Sorry. What you see is what you get.”
Danny shifts a bit on the couch, and furrows his brow. “So, does anybody besides Mary know about this?”
“Well, my Mom does, obviously.”
“Oh. Yeah. I like to forget about her.”
“Well, I can’t blame you for that one. There are times I am very glad to have a parent again. And then there are times I want to kill her myself.”
“So, getting back to the subject, you’ve kept this hidden for most of your life from anybody except your family, and you choose to expose yourself now because?”
“Danno, that guy was going to sit on you and then attempt to eat you. And even a bullet to the brain wouldn’t have stopped him. I had a clear shot, but you know full well that even with a completely squished brain he’d have kept on coming until he crushed you and possibly even munched a bit before his body finally got the message that he was dead and had the good graces to lie down.
“I didn’t think I would have been a very good partner to just leave you to that particular fate. So I shifted. It was the only thing I could think of that would get his attention in time. And it worked. You’re un-squished, and he’s safely in jail, where he will have a long time to think about what meth can do to you, and the hallucinations that it can give you. And just maybe--I’m not guaranteeing anything--maybe he’ll decide to make a change in his drug habits.”
“Huh.”
Danny is still not entirely sure what to make of this, but he’s going to go along until something else comes to mind.
“Can you change for me, here and now? Because I’d really like to be sure that I wasn’t hallucinating too?”
Steve rolls his eyes again, but stands, obligingly enough. “Close your eyes if you don’t want to get an eye-full.”
Danny mostly closes his eyes, but only mostly, because, let’s face it, a naked Steve is nothing you should ever give up a chance to enjoy.
Steve dumps his clothing, and just...shifts. It’s not instantaneous, but close enough for government work. He just kind of blurs into another shape, and there, before Danny, stands a huge cat. But something that Danny hadn’t had the chance to notice before is that the enormous cat has Steve’s blue eyes, and Steve’s intelligence behind them.
“Ok, so I’m buying the fact that you’re still you. Your eyes are human, not feline. That, my friend, is rather reassuring, let me tell you.”
Danny tries to hide the fact that he has a great need to pet the kitty. He shifts in his seat, and tucks his hands under his thighs just in case they get out of hand.
“This is still freaking me out, let me tell you, but I feel better that it’s just you being freaky instead of you being a totally carnivorous predator.”
Steve chuffs. There’s no other word for it, and somewhere in the back of Danny’s mind, he remembers hearing that term at a zoo somewhere.
Steve comes over to the couch, reaches one huge paw out, and gently tugs Danny’s hand from underneath his thigh and looks at him with an expression that Danny didn’t think a cat could make. It’s a look of “really?”
His paw is soft. The pads are a bit calloused, but that’s normal. Steve’s hands are calloused. And Danny is fascinated to note that the callouses are in the same approximate spots as the ones on his hands.
Steve butts his head against Danny’s hand, then looks at him, expectantly.
“Let me guess, you'd like to be petted.”
Steve nods, and pushes against Danny’s hand again. So Danny obliges both of them and starts petting Steve. His fur is amazingly soft, velvet and sleek against Danny’s hand. The warmth of the skin beneath is wonderful, and Danny gets the image, suddenly, of laying in bed with Steve next to him, providing a delicious warmth. You wouldn’t need covers with Steve about.
Danny pets him slowly, enjoying every single moment. After a couple of minutes, Steve moves until Danny’s hand is on his back. Danny pets him with long, slow strokes. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he realizes that he’s now petting Steve’s back, something he would never do otherwise, but he can’t make himself care. Steve is so soft and warm and he feels like silk and velvet combined. It’s addicting.
His hand strays to the base of Steve’s tail, and, like any other cat, Steve lifts his bottom into the caress. Danny immediately pulls his hand away. “Uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.” His ears pink and he gets this look of horror on his face.
Steve sighs, which sounds really odd coming from a big cat, and walks away a bit. Then he turns and shifts again. It’s like watching him turn into liquid and flow into his human form.
He reaches for his boxers and pulls them on. Danny stares in fascination, completely unable to drag his eyes away.
Steve smirks and comes to sit by him on the couch again, completely ignoring the fact that he’s kind of missing most of his clothing.
“Danny, you have complete access to my body at any time. Besides, it’s not a sexual thing, per se. It just feels good. You didn’t have to stop. And you certainly don’t have to get that expression on your face. I can smell your pheromones, you know. They smell good.”
Danny stands, horrified. “I have go to. Now. Somewhere. Else. Now.”
Steve laughs. “Danno, you don’t have anywhere to go except perhaps out on the lanai for some more beer. I really don’t mind that you find me arousing, Danny. I like it. I find you arousing too. And I always figured that one of these days we’d stop flirting and get to actually doing something about our mutual desires.”
Danny gets a look of utter consternation on his face, and tells himself that he’s leaving immediately. But instead, he heads to the lanai, like Steve suggested, and grabs a beer from the cooler. He then presses said beer to his forehead, hoping to cool his brain down.
Steve saunters out on the lanai and sits down on the opposite deck chair, snagging himself a beer along the way.
“You don’t have to be upset about this, Danny. I’m not going to act upon it unless you want to. I just know that you get aroused by me. And I get aroused by you too. But there’s more to it than that, Danny, or I wouldn’t have said anything.”
“What more?”
“I love you.”
And there it is, simple as that. Easy as that. And Danny really doesn’t know what to make of it, because he hasn’t allowed himself to think about this before, and then suddenly it’s there, in front of his face. Everything he ever wanted is right there, if he can just reach out and take it. And this is even more surprising than the fact that Steve is, upon occasion, a rather large predator. That he likes to pet. A lot.
Danny is silent for a moment, then he takes a big breath, and lets it out slowly. “I, uh, thinkimayloveyoutoo.”
Steve laughs and reaches over to caress his face. “I know you do. I can smell it on you.”
“Oh that is just so not fair,” Danny whines. “I can’t smell anything on you! And if you knew it, why didn’t you say anything?”
“Well, it isn’t exactly my place to tell you how you feel. That would be wrong. You have to come to these understandings by yourself.”
Danny gives him the stink-eye again. Then sits back and takes a long pull off of his beer. “I’ve never been with a guy before. I don’t know how to do it.”
“Me neither.”
“i>Really,” Danny looks at him, incredulous, “I mean, you were in the Navy!”
“You do know that the Village People were not actually members of the military, don’t you?”
“I hate you. I hate you so much.”
“No you don’t. Danny, I took my career seriously, and that meant that I didn’t stray too far from the rules. Besides, I didn’t really have a great deal of time to get into things like that. I barely had time to see Catherine upon occasion, let alone get into a dangerous relationship that I didn’t have any real desire for.
“Danny, you’re the only guy I’ve ever really wanted. Doesn’t mean I haven’t appreciated a few, or wondered about it, but I have never been in love with a guy before, and you will be the first guy I ever kiss; the first guy I ever touch in a sexual manner. The first guy I ever make love to. And it will be making love, Danny. Because you could never be a one-night stand. You are the rest of my life, if you’ll have me.”
And suddenly, Danny’s day takes yet another turn that spins him around and throws him for a loop. But so far, all of these loops have been ok, on the whole, so he just goes with it.
“Yeah. Me too. With the kissing, and the touching and the love making, and the forever. Me too.”
Steve’s smile is amazing. Blinding, actually, and Danny feels the warmth of it as much as he had felt Steve’s warmth through his silken fur. Only this one warms his heart. His soul. And something that had hurt for years, ever since Rachel tore his heart out and forced it to follow his daughter to this pineapple-infested hellhole, just heals. Just like that.
And he hasn’t even kissed him yet,