"Okay, brah, here's what you can touch."
"'Scuse me? What I can touch?"
"Hey, you've said it yourself, you're not exactly technically inclined, and since this stuff is a little more complicated than a Hello Kitty laptop, and since we're using company tech for a non-company purpose—"
"Yeah, yeah, okay, whatever. Show me what to do but more importantly, show me what to stay away from. The boss would get heartburn face if I blow something up on Thanksgiving."
"Only because he's the one not doing the blowing—"
"This sounds like an interesting conversation, gentlemen."
Danny and Chin whirled away from the computer station to see Steve standing a few feet behind them, wearing that bland smile that always put Danny on high alert. Careful not to look at Chin, Danny shrugged and stuffed his hands into his pockets, saying a prayer that Steve didn't know what they'd really been discussing.
"Nah, Chin here was just reminding me not to mess with things I don't understand. Guess the last time I pressed the wrong button or something—"
"And lost a file I'd been working on for days," Chin finished, and Danny made a mental note to buy him a beer later for that little piece of backup.
Steve tilted his head to the side, surveying them both with hooded, unreadable eyes. His gaze finally settled on Danny as a small frown creased his forehead. "What are you still doing here?"
Seeing a chance for escape, Danny jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Yeah, I was just leaving. You, uh, you guys have a good holiday, all right?"
He was just getting into his car when his phone rang.
"Thanks, man," he answered, "appreciate the cover."
"Why don't you just tell him?" Chin asked. "You really think he's gonna care that you're going to be streaming the games live?"
"Nah, it's not that." Danny rubbed at his forehead with the heel of his palm. "It's the lying about Grace that he wouldn't appreciate."
"You guys," Chin muttered beneath his breath. "So you told him you were spending Thanksgiving with Grace and now you're not. What's the big deal?"
"It's not a big deal, all right? Plans got changed and I'll see her Saturday. It's just—"
"You don't want him to know you're watching football at the office. Right. Listen, I told you you're welcome to come to my place, I'm recording the games for later and Kono's coming by to watch, after the family thing."
"Thanks, but watching recorded football is about as much fun as watching a chess match, meaning I'd rather carve out my liver with a ball point pen. But I appreciate the offer, you know that."
"You realize what time you'll have to get up to see the first kickoff?"
"Yeah, pre-game starts at seven island time, which is just all kinds of wrong. I mean, who can watch twenty-two guys try and kill each other before you've even had breakfast?"
"Crazy guys from New Jersey, apparently. Now listen, you're hooked up on the monitors and I left instructions on your desk. If you think you've messed up anything, call me before you try and fix it yourself. But not before nine, you got that?"
"Loud and clear, buddy, loud and clear."
"Listen, about Steve—"
"What about him?"
"Maybe I'm out of line, but I think you're underestimating him."
"Under—how? How am I underestimating him? Can anyone underestimate Steve McGarrett? That's like underestimating a category five hurricane or, like, a ten on the Richter scale. You do not underestimate forces of nature, you just don't. People think, oh, it's just a little breeze, and the next thing, they're in Oz, and there are flying monkeys and green horses and little singing people. So, no, I'm not underestimating Steve. I'm very respectful of his skill set, believe me."
There was a pause and Danny wondered if Chin knew the real reason he hadn't told Steve that he didn't have Grace for Thanksgiving.
"Yeah, you're right," Chin said amiably. "Offer still stands about my place, though."
"I appreciate that. Maybe after I get up from the afternoon nap I'll need to take, I'll come over. You gonna have pumpkin pie?"
"Uh, something like that, sure. There may be pineapple involved."
"That's what I'm afraid of. Talk to you tomorrow."
"Sounds good."
The best he could do was a turkey sandwich purchased at a gas station deli the day before, but at six a.m., it didn't sound very appealing. Stuffing it into a paper bag, he tried not to think of his mom's turkey extravaganzas, of watching football with his brothers and cousins, everybody yelling at the same time despite no one caring who won the damn game if the Giants or the Jets weren't playing. He tried not to think of Rachel's first Thanksgiving, then Gracie's first Thanksgiving—he tried not to think about the holidays at all.
Instead, he concentrated on the games. First up was New England versus Detroit, which was going to be a bloodbath of epic proportions. He could pretty much doze through that one. The second game wasn't much better, but at least he could hate on Dallas for three hours and release some of the emotions he had building up inside. Classic avoidance behavior, that's what it was—watch a bunch of beefy, overpaid men beat up on each other for six hours instead of laying a lip lock on his oblivious partner, who was spending the holiday with his sister and some navy-type friends and didn't need to know that Danny was such a loser that he had to watch football at the office for a good time.
Oh, he had options. Steve had invited him to his place, but the idea of spending time with people who talked a different language felt too much like his every day life, and this time they'd be talking military talk, which in turn made Danny crazy. Not to mention those military types included Catherine, and although she was probably perfectly nice, she was the last person Danny wanted to hang with. Besides, at the time the invitation was issued, Danny was supposed to have Grace. But at the last minute Rachel had asked—nicely for once—if Grace could have the holiday with them, because some of their dinner guests were bringing kids Gracie's age and it was an opportunity for her to make new friends. Kind of hard to argue with a gourmet dinner and playing with your pals when all Danny had to give was dinner at a Hawaiian-style Thanksgiving buffet that the Hilton offered up for tourists.
He could've taken Chin up on his offer, but Danny also knew the reason Chin didn't want to be called before nine a.m., and her name was Jillian and she was lovely. Chin's offer had been sincere, but Danny had no desire to be that guy, the one who got invited everywhere out of pity.
He rolled into a parking spot at 6:45, yawning and rubbing at eyes gritty with lack of quality sleep. His sandwich bag in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, he made his way up to HQ, planning on moving his office chair into the situation room and using a folding chair as an ottoman. It wouldn't be comfortable, but it was the best available option, and it beat watching it at the apartment, where he couldn't yell at the refs because the walls were paper-thin.
At least that's what he thought, until he pushed open the doors of HQ.
He knew almost as soon as he walked in the door that Steve was in the office. The air seemed different, charged with some special McGarrett energy that practically made sparks fly off of metal surfaces. If Steve was in the office this early on a holiday, that could only mean one thing.
The first words out of his mouth when he barreled into Steve's office were right to the point. "We got a gig?"
Steve wrote something down and then stood up, stretching his arms over his head. "Nope."
Danny bit his lip, hoping his disappointment didn't show. "'Kay, then what are you doing here?"
"Watching football with you. C'mon."
"Wait, what?" Danny followed Steve into the situation room, then stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed that Steve's couch had been dragged in and Kono was curled up in one corner, wrapped in a blanket, a sleepy smile on her face and a mug cradled in her hands. "What are you doing here?"
Steve nudged him with his elbow as he passed him. "You're repeating yourself, buddy."
"There's food in the break room," Kono said. "Help yourself."
Still confused, Danny held up his paper bag. "I brought the turkey."
"Nah, man," Steve said, "that's at my place later."
"Your place? Right, you have company coming."
Steve flopped down next to Kono. "Canceled. Told them I had a family thing instead."
Danny frowned down at him. "Family thing? You mean with Mary?"
"No, you moron, this family thing. Now move out of the way, pre-game is starting."
By half-time, Danny was still confused but having too good a time to care. Unpredictably, the Lions hadn't rolled over by the second quarter, so the game was enjoyable, but not as enjoyable as the company. Meeting up with Kono in the break room for coffee refills during a lull in the action, he pinned her with a look of mock severity.
"So, Chin gave me up, told Steve I was alone today." He divided the last of the coffee between the three mugs. "Remind me later to either thank him or punch him, I haven't decided which one yet."
Kono grinned, giving him a flash of her dimple as she added creamer to her coffee. "No, he didn't give you up. Steve told me he found Chin's instructions for setting up the streaming video on your desk and figured it out. He called me last night and asked if I wanted to join you guys. He called Chin, too—Chin told him you didn't have Grace, I think—and he said he'd love to come too, but—"
"Yeah, he's got his own reason for being especially thankful this morning."
Kono wrinkled her nose at him as they rejoined Steve. "You're such a boy sometimes."
"No, I'm a boy all the time, it's just that sometimes I act like a grownup to throw everybody off. Here," he handed Steve his refilled coffee mug, "that's the end of it. Too bad it's still too early for beer, even for me."
"Got beer at my place, so relax."
Relax, right. Danny would've been relaxed, except for his entire left side that was pressed up against Steve's as they sat next to each other on the couch. Steve didn't seem to have a problem with Kono's personal space—there was plenty of room between them—but with Danny, he was shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh and it was seriously derailing Danny's ability to do anything like relax.
Half way through the fourth quarter, with the Lions finally folding like a cheap suit, Kono stood up and folded her blanket. "Okay, that's it for me. My mom expected me at their place an hour ago."
Steve got to his feet. "You coming over tonight for dessert?"
"I'll try. I'll call first, though. Bye, guys."
"All right," Danny said with a wave toward the monitors, "stick a fork in this one, it's done. You wanna take off, go ahead. I'll clean up."
"Yeah, okay, don't take too long, I may need your help in the kitchen. Mary sent me a text, told me she put the turkey in the oven, but God only knows what that means in Mary speak."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning the turkey may be in the oven but it doesn't mean she actually turned the oven on."
Danny chuckled as he stood up. "Yeah, I like your sister, she seems to be a little less tightly wrapped than you are. But listen," he continued more seriously, "I appreciate the invite, but I don't want to mess up any traditions or anything."
Steve frowned at him. "What are you talking about?"
"You and your sister, right? You don't need a Jersey transplant horning in on your family."
"Let me tell you something, Mary and I haven't spent a Thanksgiving together since we were kids. There are no traditions and we're not starting any. In fact she's already taken off, something about a party that she expects to last 'til Sunday."
"That's sounds like a helluva party," Danny mused, "wish I'd been invited. So, wait, that means you don't have anyone at your house for Thanksgiving?"
Steve lifted his hands toward the ceiling. "Finally, Danno gets it. And no, not entirely true, because unless you've made plans since this morning, I do have company for Thanksgiving and it's you. Let's move, you've got potatoes to peel."
"Wait, wait, hold on a minute." Danny rubbed at his chin, thinking fast. What he was about to do would go one of three ways. One way, he'd get a sock on the jaw, which he'd take without retaliating, because he'd be looking for a new job and he'd need a reference. Second way, it'd be awkward and weird and Steve would be embarrassed and they'd both agree it never happened and nothing would be the same ever again.
Then there was a third way.
"It occurs to me," he said slowly, "that I haven't properly thanked you for all the trouble you've gone to make this Thanksgiving a helluva lot better than I thought it was gonna be."
"Yeah, I'd noticed that, too." Steve seemed to pick up immediately on the change of mood between them. "So what are you gonna do about it?"
"Well, if I was back home with my buddies, we'd do a little chest bump, you know, just a manly expression of our inner feelings. However," he lifted his hands and leveled them, one above his head, one at chest level, "that would be somewhat awkward, because you are freakishly tall."
Steve hid a smile behind his hand. "I don't know, doesn't seem that awkward to me. But you're not back home, are you?"
"No, Magellan, I'm not. So, to continue, I could show my gratitude with a hand shake or a fist bump or any other non-specific hand gesture. All useful, but not really appropriate, I think. Now, if you were a girl—"
"Not a girl."
"Yes, thank you, on that point, I was not confused. But, if I were to thank a girl for doing something nice for me, I may, given the proper encouragement, give her a kiss."
"Ah," Steve's eyes lit up, "that's nice, that's really nice. Does it always have to be a girl?"
Whoa. Okay, Danny wasn't expecting Steve to be that quick. "Um, well, see, I'm not in the habit of kissing guys. At least," he added with a slight shrug, "not the ones that don't want to be kissed."
"Fair enough. So what's stopping you now?"
Oh, shit. When he'd started down this road, he really hadn't expected Steve to join him so enthusiastically.
"What's stopping me? I'll tell you what's stopping me, it's, uh, it's that height thing again. Unless I get a step stool out of the janitor's closet, this could get ugly."
"Fine." Steve took a step backward and rested his butt on the edge of the computer table, crossing his arms over his chest and tilting his head with a "now what?" expression on his face. He was still taller than Danny, but now the difference was negligible and that meant Danny had to put up or shut up. Taking a deep breath, he walked toward Steve until his knee just brushed the edge of Steve's thigh, but kept his hands in his pockets.
"That is better," he agreed, "thank you, makes my job easier. So, um, Stephen, I'd like to thank you for all you've done for me today. Warms my heart, it really does."
Before Steve could reply, Danny leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "There," he said proudly, "consider yourself thanked."
Steve scowled at him. "Seriously? That's the best you've got, Daniel? That was like kissing your mother!"
"Hey, that was respectful! You don't do more than that on a first date—well, at least I don't. You, on the other hand—"
"What do you mean, first date? Our first date was months ago and I gotta tell you, man, I've been more than patient."
"You? Patient?"
"Yeah, Danny, me, I can be patient. I have been patient. And right now, if all I get is a peck on the cheek, I'll take it, because at least that's some kind of progress. Maybe by Christmas you'll let me hold your hand—"
Fists still in his pockets, Danny leaned forward and pressed his mouth to Steve's. It was a chaste kiss, a brush of his lips against Steve's that lasted no more than a second or two, then Danny eased back to see Steve's reaction.
To his surprise, Steve's eyes had closed. They reopened slowly, and what Danny saw there made his blood rush through his veins on a tide of joyful astonishment. Suddenly it wasn't a game any longer, not with Steve's unguarded heart shining out of his eyes, and Danny knew he had to take them all the way home now or everything would shatter. He swallowed and finally took his hands out of his pockets, curving them over the strong slope of Steve's shoulders.
"Not what you had in mind, was it?" Steve slowly shook his head, his gaze never leaving Danny's face. "Okay. C'mere."
He guided Steve forward and tilted his head to the side just as their lips came together, only this time his mouth was open as it moved against Steve's, coaxing and gentle, assuring Steve with his touch that he wasn't fooling around any longer. Just as Danny felt Steve unfold his arms and slide them around his waist, the mouth beneath his opened and the kiss deepened immediately, all thoughts of gentleness flying out the window as Danny lost himself in the pleasure of kissing Steve. The heat of it swept away his ability to remain upright and he leaned into the strong body that held him, supported by arms that tightened around him as their tongues tangled and danced in their first real kiss.
They finally parted and Danny dropped his head to Steve's shoulder, a little shaken by the intensity of both the kiss and his feelings about what was happening. This wasn't a complete shock, not with the way the two of them acted around each other, but it was going to take some getting used to, this whole reciprocated feelings part of the deal.
"Was that more like what you had in mind?" he mumbled against Steve's black t-shirt.
"Yeah." Steve's voice was equally shaky. "Your, uh, gratitude is something else."
"Yeah? And that was just for coffee, some fruit, and a football game." Danny smiled and framed Steve's face between his palms. "Bet you can't wait to see how I thank you for cooking a whole damn turkey."
Feedback: email or livejournal.