mangacat201 | Open Fire, 1/1, Steve/Danny (Reply)

Title: Open Fire

Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Author: Mangacat201

Pairing: Steve/Danny
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1000
Warnings/Spoilers: Episode tag for 3x06 'I Ka Wa Mamua'

Summary: When Danny walks away after almost being blown to bits, the aftermath hits Steve harder than he anticipates.

Notes: One of my last-minute-creations to fill my bingo lines at the end of all hope, as has become the MO for the past couple of years. For my hc_bingo square: explosion, I’m being a bit creative with the prompt though.

Steve turns and watches Danny walk away, get into his car and peel out of the lot to get to that Father-Daughter-Dance he was not going to miss for the world. It’s not quite a regular debriefing, but ohana is more important than procedure right this minute. No matter how much Danny rants at Steve about being emotionally stunted and incompatible with normal human behaviour, Steve gets that without question. What he isn’t prepared for is that Danny’s absence makes room for thought about what just happened – almost happened – and how the world suddenly slows down around him. Steve freezes on the spot, unable to breathe while people whirl around him to clear the scene that’s far from safe. His only point of focus is the distant roar of the Camaro moving away.

All his training and coping mechanisms aside, Steve feels like a stiff breeze could knock him over right now with the magnitude of having almost lost Danny suddenly crashing down. It’s a helpless agony that shouldn’t give him so much pause now that it’s over already and they’re in the clear, but it drives home that… a world without Danny is not… acceptable. And he didn’t only stay because he wanted to make sure his friend and partner came out of this in one piece, he stayed because if Danny didn’t make it out, Steve wouldn’t have a reason to want to go on either. The realization opens up his lungs for a burning breath and he drops down on his haunches with his hands clasped over his head because everything is blurry and clear and he needs a moment to just be so he can settle this with himself.

At one point his break down is noticed and suddenly there’s a flurry of activity around him and everything snaps back into place like a rubber band, his body and mind so aligned with his training that he can function through the clean-up and the debrief with a semblance of composure after he’s shaken off the EMT’s and his concerned team mates. Steve gets it together just as far as he needs to do all the things that need to happen for him to get away, get home and process what this revelation means to him.

Next thing he knows, he sits on the couch in his living room, staring sightlessly on the door, waiting for something, anything to happen, to take him out of his own thoughts. There’s no rulebook for realizing how utterly and hopelessly in love you are because your partner nearly gets blown up by terrorists. Steve can imagine it, has seen it before, someone turning from being a person to fine red mist in the fraction of a second and the possibility that this could have happened to Danny… it’s… Steve tightens the vice-like grip of his fingers around his knees, because it’s over, they did it and he can’t do anything but wait right now, wait for …

The snag of a key in the lock, a key Danny’s had for ages now because Steve got tired of him constantly creeping around the house to politely knock at the open back door because he wouldn’t ring the bell but also refused to just come in as he pleased. Steve is up in a flash, but pauses halfway to the door; unsure of how his feelings might change the way he reacts to Danny right now, if he gets too close. There is no room for thought when Danny steps through the door and slowly closes it, deliberate motions, like he has to think about every action to make it stick. Steve stands there, feeling clueless about what he’s supposed to do, so he just looks at Danny as he turns in the hallway, suit a little rumpled from dancing, top buttons undone, looking gorgeous despite the ordeal that’s behind him. For a moment, Steve thinks Danny just shook this day off like nothing big happened, but a jingle of the keys makes him pay attention to Danny’s hands that have started shaking visibly. Steve realizes that Danny’s just hanging on by a thread of adrenaline and determination that’s about to snap now that he’s somewhere home and safe.

There’s a heartbeat between this realization and Danny’s sagging knees and then they’re locked in an embrace, hands buried in each other’s backs and hair, holding each other up. Danny’s shoulders tremble with barely suppressed sobs and Steve whispers ‘It’s okay, it’s okay’ over and over, lips brushing the sweat-slick skin of Danny’s forehead. It’s the absolute last moment where he should try and sort out his new old feelings towards Danny and yet there’s not going to be a more perfect time. ‘It’s okay’ bleeds away to ‘I love you, I love you, I love you’. It takes time for the words to register with Danny, precious time that Steve cherishes despite everything because for a moment, he can say it without anything changing between them. But it’s only seconds before Danny lifts his head, eyes glistening, lips slightly parted, looking at Steve like he’s out of his mind. Then he surges up and kisses Steve with the fervour and determination of a man who just escaped certain death by a hair’s breadth. Everything changes and still stays the same as the world falls back into place around them. Danny draws back slowly and looks at Steve with clear eyes, the tremor gone from his body and says: ”We’re going to have to talk about that.”

“Yeah, we are, but not tonight.”

Steve drags Danny upstairs where they fall into his bed, exhausted, fully clothed and asleep in seconds.

The rest of the world will have to wait until morning.