Author's Note: It came to me a few days ago. I was just driving to work, thinking random thoughts and the scene from the Season 8 quarantine episode came to mind, specifically the part where Steve was attempting to give Danny a haircut. Season 9 sees Danny with a slightly new do, and I have to wonder how he was convinced to update his style. So, here you go – slightly cracky, I'll admit, but hopefully enjoyable all the same.
Disclaimer: Hawaii Five-O, as well as the characters found within the series, are owned by CBS Productions, K/O Paper Products, and 101st Street Productions. No profit is being made off this work.
Hawaii Five-O
Steve bit his lip as he looked out over the now clean pool table, devoid of all the colored spheres save the shiny white ball currently being held by Danny. "Rematch?"
"McGarrett, are you sure you want to get beat that badly again?" Tani looked down her nose at him, an eyebrow raised as if to say, 'are you nuts?'.
"He did not 'beat me that badly'," Steve huffed.
"Sir, you had a total of five shots; I have to go with Tani on this one." Junior held a beer in one hand and practically beamed when Tani graced him with a thankful smile.
"On this one?" Steve gaped at him and he could hear Danny chuckling as the blonde chalked up his pool cue, listening to the back and forth with glee. "Junior, Tani could say a Navy Destroyer was carrying an alien space ship on the helipad and you'd go with her on it. Danny," he turned back to his partner, "come on, one more game; let's even sweeten it, let's make a bet."
"A bet." Danny was interested, Steve could tell. His mouth turned downward as it did when he was mulling something. "Alright. What shall we bet?"
"What do you want?"
"Make McGarrett let you drive your car for a month, Danny," Tani took a swig of beer, grinning like a Cheshire cat as she did. "That's a pretty expensive loss for him."
"Mmm, yea it is, but I think if I'm going to make something expensive I want it to cost him actual money since he's so attached to it." Danny tossed Steve the chalk cube. "Lunch on you for a month. I'll be nice and say you only have to buy me lunch and not everyone else. And that includes weekends, babe. If you're asking me to kick your ass again in this fine establishment, I'm going to make it worth my while."
"Deal."
"Fine," Danny slid his pool stick over his shoulders and hung his arms over it as if the stick were a wall and he were leaning against it. "And you?"
"You get a haircut."
Danny peered at him. "A haircut."
"Yea, a haircut," Steve grinned at him. "It's time for an update, Danny; you've had the same style since you moved here."
"And what kind of haircut do you propose that I get, huh? One like yours? What'd I call that last year – the 'Ghetto Vin Diesel' do?"
"I mean, it's fine if you don't want to, if you don't think you can get lucky and beat me again, I understand…" Steve rocked back and forth on his heels, sizing Danny up. His partner didn't really have a competitive streak, not like Steve did, but he did have a since of pride that could be plucked like a bow string. He watched as Danny's eyes narrowed.
"You were going easy on me the first game."
Steve gave nothing away.
"Fine," Danny grit out. "I get a haircut if you win. I get lunch on you, including weekends, for a month if I win. We good?"
"We're good." Steve gestured to Junior. "Rack 'em up."
Hawaii Five-O
It was safe to say that all eyes were on the one solid ball and one striped ball left on the table. It was also safe to say that Steve had been hustling Danny quite a bit during the first game. The second game saw both men stalking around the table like animals, bending down, looking at their angles this way and that, laying their pool cues out over the table, measuring from ball to pocket. Right now, it was Danny's shot, and Steve hung back with Tani and Junior, nursing his beer as he observed the shorter man, how he analyzed each option just so before he chose a spot and took up his stance, gently easing the cue forward and back, forward and back until he made his decision and shot forward.
Danny's striped ball bounced off the green covered bumper and raced towards the center right pocket, but his angle had been off just enough that the ball hit the corner and rolled back towards the end of the pool table where he stood, irritably chewing at his lip. The only consolation that he had was that Steve had a much harder shot from where his ball was positioned: currently, the white ball sat just a few inches from the center right pocket. Directly diagonal from it was Steve's solid ball, and directly diagonal from that was Danny's striped one, currently blocking the far-left corner pocket. The black eight ball sat in front of the center left pocket, effectively taking it out of play for either Steve or Danny.
"Alright," Steve announced, coming around the table to stand next to Danny. He too went through his motions measuring and testing while Danny stepped out of the way, watching him intently while bouncing on his heels just a bit. Steve looked over at him.
"We'll buzz the sides off and leave most of the top alone."
Danny blinked at him. "Huh?"
"Your hair," Steve shrugged, "I'll even pay for you to get it highlighted back to a healthy blonde."
"It's healthy now!"
"It's darker now," Steve smirked, pulling and pushing the pool cue until, suddenly, a loud crack sounded and Steve stepped back, watching the cue ball surge towards the opposite bumper, bounce off and roll right back towards his solid ball, striking it with enough force to send it hurtling towards the left corner closest to both him and Danny.
"Oooohhhh did you see that?!" Tani was up and off her stool as soon as the solid ball disappeared into the corner pocket. "Nice shot, McGarrett!"
"Nice win, Sir," Junior cheered his beer at Steve and the SEAL grinned, reaching for his own drink and taking a sip, watching Danny as the man continued to stare at the pool table reflecting his loss right back at him while he pursed and bit his lips. "Danno?"
"Oh, no…no, no, no, your 'Danno' privileges are revoked."
Steve pouted.
"Aw, come on, Danny, look at him; it's like you just told him he couldn't requisition anymore explosives for the rest of the quarter." Tani may have sounded imploring, but the snicker she hid behind her hand doused that theory. As if to drive her point home, Steve chewed on his bottom lip, looking sufficiently shamed as he dipped his chin and looked at Danny. Irritated as Danny might be, he really couldn't take that look, and dammit if Steve didn't know it.
"I hate you," he finally muttered. "You tricked me. You're paying for my food and my beer."
That seemed to make everything better in Steve's world, and he happily whipped out his wallet, digging out some cash, including enough to leave a generous tip, and placing it on the high top. "Done." He smiled at his partner, who just shook his head in return, mumbling something about being a victim of crafty cheating SEAL's. Steve just let Danny rant quietly to himself as he looked at Tani and Junior. "You guys want a game?"
"Nah," Tani finished the last of her beer and set the bottle down while Junior dug out his wallet and tossed a few bills down on the table next to Steve's. "We're going to head out." Junior couldn't see it, but Steve saw plain as day the smirk on her face as she hopped off the stool. "See you guys Monday, and with that new haircut, Danny!"
"Yea, yea, yea," the blonde grumbled, still annoyed, but Steve could tell the man wasn't completely pissed at him; hadn't been, really. He clapped Junior on the shoulder as the younger man passed him and murmured a quiet, 'good luck' in his year. Junior almost tripped, promptly blushed, and then endeavored to catch up to Tani as quickly as possible.
"That kid has no idea what to do with that woman." Danny almost felt sorry for him. "You think uh, if she asks him things or tells him to do stuff, he's gonna call her ma'am?" When Steve grinned and waggled his eyebrows, Danny scoffed at him. "That's not what I meant!" Steve just laughed quietly and beckoned Danny to follow him out to the parking lot, seeing that Tani and Junior were long gone. "They didn't waste any time," Steve observed.
"Young and wanting, babe; not old, washed up geezers like us." Danny opened up the passenger side door of his Camaro and settled into his seat, Steve doing the same on the drivers' side and turning the engine over, beginning the drive back to Danny's house.
"You really think we're old?" Steve asked after a few moments of silence. "I mean, I don't feel old. Tired sometimes, yea, worn out absolutely, especially with our job, but old? Nah."
"Well, when you're the second coming of the Energizer Bunny, I guess you would feel like that, but throw in two kids – one of them a six year old who has more energy than Happy the Dwarf hopped up on 50 espressos – and you get me; a perpetually tired 42 year old father who can't keep a girlfriend because of his job and his insane partner."
It wasn't that Danny was trying to blame Steve, but he saw the second his partner's face shift from happy and content to guilty and remorseful. "I didn't mean it like – I didn't mean it the way it sounded."
No answer.
"Steve?"
Still silent. Frown lines growing deeper.
"Steven."
A glance! Well, Danny would take a glance, at least Steve hadn't forgotten he was in the car, right? He cleared his throat. "So, you bet on me to cut my hair; what horrible style did you say you have in mind?"
Steve grinned almost immediately, and Danny had the sneaking suspicion that he'd just gotten played. Again.
"Why do I feel like I got hustled for a second time tonight?"
"Sorry, Danny."
"You are not," Danny grumbled, "asshole; I actually thought you were upset." Steve made a turn onto the entrance ramp of the highway and soon they were zipping down the H1. "Well, I admit at first I did feel a little bad at hearing you mention Melissa again. I know you liked her."
"Yea, I did, but… you know," Danny shrugged, "she wanted some things that I just couldn't give her."
"Like?"
"What a typical young woman wants; marriage, kids, her potential husband to come home in one piece and not have his own personalized insurance plan with the local hospitals," Danny couldn't really blame Melissa for the last one. "And no matter how hard I tried to get myself in the frame of mind to say it, I just couldn't use the 'L' word enough. I think I told her I loved her twice in the entire four years we dated, and even then, those were just casual 'love ya, babe's'."
"So, like you say it to me?" Steve raised a brow.
"No, Steven, not like how I say it to you. There's nothing casual about loving you."
That perfectly honest statement absolutely did not cause any awkwardness what so ever in the car. Steve continued to drive, tilting his head this way and that the way he did when he was trying to figure out how to say something he really wanted to say. Danny stared at the glove compartment, mulling over, not for the first time, why he could tell Steve that he loved him, but he just couldn't find the kahunas to say it to a woman who, by all accounts, would have made any other man wildly happy. In the end, he opted for safer territory.
"So! Haircut. I get to decide, right?"
"Nope," Steve popped the 'p' on the end and grinned at his partner.
"Yes, I do."
"No, you don't."
"Yes, I most certainly do get to choose how I cut my hair. It's my hair, it's on my head."
"Danny, you lost the bet!"
"Yes, but the bet was that I get my hair cut," Danny pointed out. "There was never any stipulation saying that you would choose what kind of haircut I get, because that, babe, I would've never agreed to."
"Alright, fine," Steve sighed, pulling off the highway and speeding down the exit ramp before coming to a rough stop, counting two seconds, and then peeling a turn to the right towards Danny's neighborhood. "When do you want to get it done?"
"No point in wasting time; how about tomorrow?"
"Fine, and I know just the guy." Steve made another turn and caught Danny looking at him. "What?"
"No."
"What's no?"
"Odell is not touching my hair."
Steve laughed aloud at Danny's practically murderous face. "Danny, it's gonna be fine. He's a barbister by trade!"
"A what'er?"
"A barbister – a barber and a lawyer, it's what he does. He cuts my hair."
"Yea," Danny deadpanned, "I know."
"There is absolutely nothing wrong with my hair and you know it. This is a classic buzz style, and it's very popular." Steve was as surely as he'd ever been, and Danny was about to tell him that just because the military mandated a certain hair cut didn't exactly make it popular when Steve turned onto Danny's street and answered his question from 15 minutes prior.
"So, the style I was telling you about? You'd probably even like it. We buzz the sides, okay? And we leave the top of your hair alone, give it some new highlights, some blonde highlights so it's not so dark and has a little life, a little youth…" Steve was looking at Danny like he'd just discovered gold. "Yep, that's the jam."
"That's – excuse me, did you just say, 'that's the jam'?" Incredulous was the only word that could accurately describe the look on Danny's face and the tone in his voice.
"Yep! It's what you said to Sophie, remember? When she was trying on all those clothes at that shop-"
"I know it's what I said to So- you know what, get out of the car. I will see you tomorrow morning. What time does Odell open up?" Danny slid out of the car, Steve following his lead, and strolled up to his door as Steve meandered over to his truck, and caught sight of the light on in his son's room. "Charlie's still awake. You wanna come say good night?"
That was all it took for Steve to do an about face and head for the door, Danny having it unlocked and opened by the time Steve got to the threshold. He waved Steve inside towards Charlie's room while he paid the babysitter, and he could hear five seconds later the happy 'Uncle Steve!' that Charlie shouted.
"He ate about an hour ago, but he's still pretty hyper," the girl, Jenny, explained. "There wasn't a lot of sugar in his dinner, so I'm not sure where the hyperactivity is coming from."
"Steve," Danny answered, as if that explained everything. "Thanks Jenny; you good getting home?"
She nodded, tossed a wave and a 'goodnight' over her shoulder and was gone, Danny watching her walk to her car and drive away before shutting and locking the door. For just a moment, he leaned against it and listened to the sounds coming from Charlie's room. It sounded like Steve and Charlie were playing their – yes, their – favorite game: Racing Cars. After reminding himself for the umpteenth time never to let Steve teach either of his children their way around a car or a steering wheel, Danny puttered his way through the living room and down the hall, coming to a stop in the door way to his son's bedroom and leaning against the frame. There really were two kids in front of him, one big, one little, both excitedly racing Hot Wheels cars around in circles and dodging each other just at the last minute. Danny couldn't decide which one of them was more embroiled in the game; his six-year-old or his 42-year-old. "You're not teaching my kid any crazy vehicle maneuvers, are you?"
"Aw, Danny come on, have a little faith in me." Steve grinned up at him. "Besides, that's years off."
"Yea, years off… years, and years, and years, like, so many years."
"But Danno, Gracie said I can drive when I'm 16. She said that's only 11 years away!" Charlie was so certain in the information his sister had slipped to him.
"Yea, Danno, he can drive in 11 years. I'll be around in 11 years." Steve flashed his partner his most winning smile, and honestly, Danny could have choked him or kissed him at that very moment. "Yes, yes, you will be – or I hope you will be, as long as you don't put yourself in traction doing some crazy stunt for work." Danny glanced at Charlie who was watching his father and uncle, the sweetest, two teeth missing grin Danny had ever seen taking up half of his face. "What about you, huh? You ready for bed?"
"No!"
"Well, too bad. It's good to be the Dad. C'mon, clean up your toys and get in bed." He watched Charlie carefully pick up each of his cars and put them in the toy garage Steve had gotten him for his birthday that year, an add on for the massive to construction building he'd gotten him for Christmas the previous year. "There we go, don't forget that one," Danny pointed out a car and Charlie scooped it up into the garage before handing the toys to Steve and letting him place the garage next to his Little People high rise. "You gotta help me with something tomorrow, buddy," Danny walked around the other side of Charlie's bed as his son hopped in, and helped pull the covers up over him, Steve lending assistance on the other side. "Your Uncle Steve here, he played a mean trick on me."
"No, he didn't!" Charlie grinned.
So did Steve.
"Uh, yes, yes he did, but it's okay, because Uncle Steve knows that eventually, Danno gets everyone back that plays tricks on him, right?" Danny smirked Steve's way as Charlie thought about that, and then nodded solemnly, as though he'd read that lesson straight from the Bible and there was nothing to be said against it.
"So," Danny continued, "your Daddy lost a bet to your Uncle Steve here, and the bet was that if I lost, I had to cut my hair."
Charlie's brown eyes went as wide as saucers. "Really?"
"Yep, really," Danny had the look of all seriousness on his face. "But I don't know what kinda cut to get, so I need your help with that. Steve has something in mind, but," and here, Danny leaned forward conspiratorially, "since he tricked me, I can't really trust that he's gonna choose a good style, right?" Charlie peaked at Steve innocently and then looked back at his father, leaning forward a bit more and whispering loudly, the kind of whisper a child did when they truly thought they could only be heard by the person they intended, but could actually be heard within a 500 foot radius: "I think Uncle Steve would be nice to you though, Danno. He wouldn't want you to look bad."
Steve, for his part, was practically dying on the other side of the bed, doing his level best to keep his snickers and snuffling laughter to himself.
"Well, just to make sure, you're gonna come with us tomorrow and approve the style, and you're gonna keep Uncle Steve in line. Can you do that?"
Charlie thought about it for a moment, turned his head to look at Steve, and then nodded firmly one time, once he saw Steve school his features into something that resembled an appropriate amount of gravity. "I'll behave, Charlie; I promise." Danny saw the goof even cross his heart. He rolled his eyes.
"Alright, alright, alright, time for you to get some sleep, kid." Danny leaned over, smoothed Charlie's hair, and planted a kiss on his forehead, followed quickly by Steve doing the same before both men stood up and left the room, Danny flicking the lights off as he left with one more look towards his son.
"Hey, if you want to touch up Charlie's hair tomorrow, we can do that; it's on me," Steve offered as he headed for the door, "may as well since he'll be there." Danny ducked behind him, reaching for the knob and pulling the door open for him.
"Yea? What about you, you gonna touch up that weed whack job you call a haircut?"
"This is a fine haircut, I don't know what you and Odell have against it." Steve shrugged. "Besides, I'm gonna let it grow out."
"Yea?"
"Mhm."
"Well. Good. That's good, I like it be – I mean, it looks much better when it's longer, you know? You don't look so much like a Neanderthal, is what I mean. You look more like a human."
It was a nice cover, Danny knew it, Steve caught it, and like so many other times, they didn't say anything about it.
"10:00AM?" Steve asked, and Danny whined and rolled his eyes, but acquiesced. The sooner this was over, the better. He clapped Steve's back with a hand as his partner stepped out the door, and watched Steve get into his truck and pull away.
Hawaii Five-O
"Well, this is a surprise," Odell was indeed shocked to see not just Steve, but Danny and Charlie walk into his shop on a bright and sunny morning that would have seen Steve at least, swimming and surfing at the current time. "Steve, are you finally letting me do something with that disgrace on your head?" He stuck his hand out for Steve to shake, smiling at Danny who was snickering quietly behind his son. The SEAL chuckled, shaking Odell's hand. "No, actually, we're here because Danny lost a bet."
"Oh yea?" Odell folded his arms, glancing Danny's way briefly before looking back at Steve. "What'd you win?"
"An updated haircut for Danny." Steve grinned. Odell quirked a brow. Danny groaned. "This man hustled me, okay? I was bamboozled! I was tricked during what was supposed to be an easy-going pool night with friends and beers and he pulled a SEAL mind trick on me."
"Well," Odell drawled as he gave Danny a once over, "you'll thank him afterwards, I promise. C'mon, take a seat."
"We're gonna get Charlie a haircut too, but his hair's normal; just needs a touch up trim." Steve laughed and danced out of the way of Danny's hand as the latter steered himself and his child towards the chairs in the salon. "Alright, Steve, grab some of those male hair style magazines from the table over there. Danny can look at them while I take care of Charlie here."
"Actually," Steve cut in, "I had an idea of what kind of cut Danny could get."
"Okay, well, leave the magazines with him anyway and you can tell me while I shampoo Charlie up here."
Soon enough, Charlie was washed, rinsed, and sitting in his chair, a far too big smock covering his little body as Odell trimmed and touched up here and there while Steve and Danny caught him up on some of the latest cases and hijinks Five-0 had gotten themselves into.
"Alrighty, little man, that's it!" Odell looked at Charlie via the mirror in front of them both. "Do you want me to blow it dry, or do you want to let it dry on its own?"
"On its own; I wanna see you cut Danno's hair!" Charlie's toothy grin only made Steve smile wider as Danny released a long, suffering groan. "You've turned my own son against me, you menace," he grumbled at Steve as he sat down in the chair next to Charlie, who climbed up to kneel on the seat, watching with rapt attention as Odell stood in front of Danny, assessing his canvas.
So to speak.
"So, I gotta say, I really liked Steve's idea for you, but instead of shaving the sides of your head completely, we can lightly buzz them, and line up the hair we keep on the top with the corners of your eyes. You'll keep a lot more that way, and it'll look more proportional, and we're gonna add in some highlights so you don't look so-"
"Watch it," Danny growled.
"-pale." Odell grinned. "That good with you?"
Danny's head rolled back on the headrest as he closed his eyes, contemplating one last grovel for Steve's mercy. "Fine," he muttered, "let's get this over with. At least I get the shampoo part out of this deal. That's the best part of any haircut."
"That it is my friend," Odell led him back towards the washing sinks while Steve stayed with Charlie. It wasn't more than ten minutes before Danny was back, hair dripping wet, still slicked back as he sat heavily in the seat and graced Charlie with a smile as his son sat on Steve's lap in the other barber chair, excited to watch his father get his own hair cut. "Ready Danno?"
"Ready, kiddo. You remember what you said? You'll keep an eye on Uncle Steve, make sure he doesn't get out of hand on the directions, right?"
"Right." Charlie nodded firmly. "But he's Uncle Steve; he's not gonna do anything bad!"
"Yea, Danno, I'm not gonna do anything bad." Steve's face was the picture of an angel and all Danny could do was close his eyes as Odell picked up his comb and began measuring out the strip of hair that would remain untouched. Once he separated the middle from the sides he was going to crop, he got to work, trimming back the long hair before taking the electric razor to the left side of his head, carefully and gently wiping away the strands to reveal a smooth fuzz left behind and repeating the same on the opposite side, and then finally, the back. "Alright, Williams; half way there."
"Livin on a prayer," Danny responded automatically. He couldn't help it; it was the Jersey in him.
Another 15 minutes saw Odell satisfied with the cut and shape of the hair on the top of Danny's head, and the barbister announced that it was time to mix up the coloring for the highlights. As he walked away, Danny looked at Charlie and Steve, raising his eyebrows in question. "So?" Charlie sat up a little taller on Steve's lap, inspecting Danny's hair carefully before rendering his verdict.
"I like it Danno."
"Yea?"
"Uh-huh," the boy nodded eagerly, "and when it's bright and blonde it's gonna look really pretty!"
"Pretty, huh? I dunno if I want pretty, Charlie, that's more for girls, y'know?"
"It's gonna look great, Danny," Steve reassured him as Odell came back in, coloring bowl and brush in hand. "You worried about my coloring skills Detective Williams?" Odell set the bowl down on the work tray in front of him and opened a drawer, pulling out a stack of foil. "What's that?" Charlie asked.
"This? This is foil right here, Mr. Williams. Y'see, when I color your daddy's hair, I'm gonna fold each piece of it into these foils here, and then he's gonna sit under a hair dryer for a little bit so the color can really sink into the hair. In fact," Odell pushed his tray out of the way and handed Charlie the foils, "you can help me out by handing me the foils, okay?"
This seemed to please Charlie a great deal, and for the next 20 minutes, he sat happily on Steve's lap, handing Odell a coloring foil whenever he was asked. Finally, the time came when Danny could get up and slip under the heating box, and once again, Steve couldn't hold in a chuckle. "You want a magazine, Maude?"
"You shut up," Danny grumbled.
Ten minutes later, Odell was moosing and spraying Danny's hair, blowing it dry and shaping it, and when Odell was finally finished, he unclasped the smock Danny was wearing and beamed proudly. "Whaddya think?" It was obvious what Odell thought; his face said he may as well have been looking at an opus.
"I like it Danno! It makes your eyes really blue!" Charlie was an absolute 'yes' so it couldn't be all bad in Danny's estimation. And it really wasn't, as he examined every facet of the cut and coloring from root to end. "S'not bad," he grunted, running a finger through the lines on either side of the top cut of his hair where the razor made a clear mark. He swiveled his gaze towards Steve. "What do you think, babe?"
"It uh… yea, it looks," Steve cleared his throat, "sorry, yea, it looks good, Danno."
Danny squinted. "You messin' with me?"
"No."
"Steve, are you seriously messin' with me right now about my hair?"
"Danny, I'm not messing with you, I promise, okay? I promise, your hair, the cut – it looks…" Steve sighed. "It looks really good," he finished quietly.
Odell cleared his throat after a moment. "Okay, well, uh Detective Williams, the bill's $190.00; how do you want to pay?"
"Steve," Danny answered. He was tempted to say, 'with my Steve' as if he were saying, 'with my Visa', but he figured that might be a bit obvious, and after Steve's boyish stuttering over his new do just a few seconds ago, Danny decided to spare Steve that; besides, he actually kind of liked the new style. And the coloring.
Begrudgingly, of course.
Steve settled the bill, thanked Odell, and with Danny and Charlie right behind him, headed out of the shop. Charlie tugged on his father's hand. "Daddy, I'm hungry."
"You're hungry? You ate like a lion this morning at breakfast, you even stole some of my bacon, you're hungry?" Danny picked Charlie up as they followed Steve towards his truck. "You wanna go see Kamekona? Get some shrimp?"
"Yes!"
"Sure you do," Danny snickered, stopping next to Steve as the other man opened the rear door to the backseat of his Silverado for Charlie to sit. "What about you, huh? Want lunch?"
"I could eat, sure."
Hawaii Five-O
Lunch was an hour and a half of eating, Charlie showing off Danny's new hair cut to Kamekona, Flippa, and Nahele, and Danny and Steve talking about plans for the restaurant. "I'm actually surprised I'm saying this, but it's coming together really nice, Kamekona," Danny was loath to compliment the big guy on his business prowess, but he had to give credit where credit was due. Since Kamekona had taken over the construction and interior design of Steve's (which, Danny still insisted, was not the name of the restaurant, no matter how badly Steve wanted it) things had been moving right along, so quickly in fact that in the next few weeks, Danny and Steve were going to have to seriously sit down and start pricing out their menu and researching their suppliers.
"It's getting real," Steve murmured on the drive back to Danny's. "Pretty soon we're gonna have to order the tables, the chairs, the table cloths, napkins, silverware…"
Danny looked over at Charlie in the backseat before answering. "You nervous?"
"A little, yea," Steve answered, and Danny was pleasantly surprised at that. He would have been able to tell if Steve was nervous regardless of how he answered, but the fact that his partner gave his affirmation so quickly, that Danny didn't have to drag it out of him? It spoke volumes. Nervous and, if Danny had to place his bet? Scared.
"It's gonna be fine, Steve. We're on the right track now, Kamekona's helping us out, which, if I may say, because I haven't yet, was a good call on your part. We're gonna be fine, the restaurant's gonna be fine – people are gonna love it – what?"
Steve was looking at Danny as if Danny had suddenly asked Steve to put grenades in his glove box. "You okay?"
"Am I okay? Yes, I'm okay, what kind of a question is that? I can't be a bit optimistic, I can't be in a good mood about this, huh? Be excited about this?" Danny propped his elbow up on the sill of his passenger side window. "You're always telling me I gotta calm down, that everything's gonna be okay, that I should be a little more optimistic about things, so, this is me taking your advice."
Steve seemed to accept that, at least for the time being. "Okay, yes, you're right. We should be optimistic and it's okay to be nervous, and it'll be fine." He looked over at Danny, smiling tightly before turning his eyes back to the road.
"Hey."
"What?"
"Remember what you said when I asked you to be my partner?" Danny sat up a bit, turning towards him. "You said, 'I don't know anything about restaurants, but I believe in you, I believe in us, and that's all that matters.' You said that, right?"
Steve nodded.
"Okay then, so, I believe in you, I believe in us. And we're gonna be fine." And that was that, in Danny's opinion. He couldn't afford to believe anything else. Literally, he couldn't afford it; all of his capital and savings had been invested in this restaurant, and while he knew Steve had squirrelled some money away strictly for retirement living purposes when the time came, he also knew that Steve had put a good deal of his savings into this venture as well. If the restaurant didn't work, they were going to be out tens of thousands of dollars.
It wasn't long after that Steve pulled up in front of Danny's house. Danny quietly got out on the passenger side and just as quietly opened up the door to the backseat where Charlie had fallen asleep. "Is he still out?" Steve asked quietly, looking over Danny as he picked the boy up, careful not to wake him.
"Like a light," Danny nodded at the door and stepped away, and Steve closed it slowly, pushing against it firmly to ensure the latch caught. "Grab the front door, will you?" And Steve did that too, all too willingly, watched as Danny carried Charlie down the hall and waited while he put the boy to bed for an early afternoon nap.
"I didn't think the haircut and lunch would take that much out of him," Steve said when Danny came back in, pausing to look at his hair in the hall mirror, inspecting it a little more closely now that he was home. "Yea, he was up around the time you're up on a Saturday, which is a crime, honestly; stop rubbing off on my kid, McGarrett." But there was no heat in Danny's voice as he spoke, and Steve could even see a good-natured smile reflected back at him through the mirror. "Lunch with us and the other guys probably took it out of him."
When Steve didn't say anything, Danny looked over his shoulder at him to find that the man had what Danny would almost classify as a trepidatious look on his face. "Steve?"
"It's not because, you know… because he was sick when he was younger right?"
Well. That certainly wasn't what Danny was expecting to hear. "Come again?"
"You know, when Charlie was younger, the HLH? He's tired in the middle of the day and he's just a kid-what?" Steve watched as Danny ambled up to him, hands in his pockets, a reassuring look on his face.
"He's fine, Steve, I promise. Remember, he had his yearly physical a month ago, and they're gonna check for that every year until he's at least 12, and maybe even beyond that just to be sure." Danny held Steve's gaze until the latter nodded, taking a breath. "He's fine, you goof," Danny took a breath of his own, "but I love that you care that much to ask."
"Of course I care that much, Danny," Steve swallowed, "I love that kid. Gracie too."
"I know." Danny looked up at him nodding, the air thick between them suddenly.
"I really do like your haircut, Danno." Steve's voice was almost a whisper now. Danny grinned.
"I know that too. You did a good job thinking of it, babe."
And there it was, that stupid, doe-eyed, 'I-did-right-by-Danno' face that Steve got just for Danny. That was Danny's Look, and no one else's, and God damn, they needed to talk about this. Soon. Like now, soon.
So, it made perfect sense that Steve's phone would choose that very second to go off.
"It's Joe," the phone's owner mumbled.
"Go, take it," Danny said, and Steve was already moving for the door. "Me and the kids still coming by your place for dinner?"
"Yep, I've got the steaks already to go," Steve tossed Danny a bright smile as he opened the front door, and with one parting look at Danny, stepped out of the house and headed for his truck, phone to ear. Danny leaned against the frame, watching Steve pull away and let out a quiet sigh. Yea, they, he and Steve, they needed to talk, maybe go away for a weekend and hash their feelings out, decide on what they were doing, or what they wanted to do.
But not yet. They had time, right? Danny pushed off the frame and closed the door, heading over to the couch and turning on a game to pass the time.
Right.