When you turn eighteen you receive a mark somewhere on your body. It can be anything from a word to an animal to some seemingly random object. It should help you find the person you're the most compatible with, however you want to interpret that. Most pairs are in a relationship with their soul mate, if they manage to spot them, because you meet them at least once in your life.
Danny always thought it was bullshit. Sure, his parents were soul mates and he had a mark himself, but he always thought it was just a romanticized notion to sell movies and books and what not. He was just a skeptical at heart. Especially because he just couldn't see how the golden anchor and trident crossing each other on his right collar bone could possibly lead him to a person meant for him. Maybe it was water god. Right.
So it was safe to say that Danny didn't believe in the marks, so he didn't think about it further when he met Rachel. She was beautiful, funny, witty and her accent made him smile. And even if their marks were in no way describing the other person, then they didn't care. They dated, they got married and everything was great, even more so when Grace came into their lives. Beautiful, wonderful Grace. Danny couldn't be happier.
Then the annoyance started and the tension between them. Discussions turned into arguments turned into screaming matches. They tried to get their act together, but it was fragile and broke finally when Rachel met Stan, her soul mate. Danny and Rachel got a divorce and while Danny was glad Rachel found someone, he hated that they were taking Grace away with only some measly exceptions. It was bearable, not good in any definition of the word, but Danny could live with it.
After a while Rachel told him Stan and her would marry and move to Hawaii. Danny tried to fight it, but it was either move after them and give up everything in Jersey or lose the barely there visitation rights he owned. There was no doubt and he moved to Hawaii.
Hawaii was too hot and humid, the people looked at him with disdain and called him haole behind his back or sometimes directly in his face, but it was okay. No one here had to like him, though Meka was a decent guy. He could see his daughter more than once every few months and that made all the harassing worth it.
After being with the HPD for six months he was assigned to the murder of the retired deputy John McGarrett and hadn't thought about the soul marks for years, even going as far as not even seeing his own mark in the mirror anymore.
He was going over the crime scene yet again, trying to see something he had missed, trying to piece things together, when he heard something in the garage. Of course he went to investigate and so met the son, Steve McGarrett. He hated him immediately. Stomping around his crime scene? Pointing a gun at him? And then even taking away his case? He was pretty glad he never had to see him again.
Never apparently was until the next day, where McGarrett appeared in his apartment and employing him in his team? The guy was not endearing himself to Danny at all.
The same day went by with him getting shot, having to tolerate being criticized over his choice of work attire, being bested by a small bunny, being called Danno by anyone except his daughter and risking an international incident by driving onto a Chinese freighter. All in all a terrific start in Steve's and his working relationship.
Danny liked Kono and Chin immediately, though. She was maybe a rookie, but she showed everyone that you shouldn't fuck with her or you would regret it. Chin was the techie, even though Danny heard about what he could do if he was pissed off and didn't underestimate him one bit. The rumors that he had stolen money from HPD was ridiculous, if anyone asked Danny.
The topic of soul marks only entered his mind again, when he saw the characters marking the skin starting behind Kono's ear and going down, ending just an inch above her shoulder. He couldn't read it, but it looked like Chinese or Japanese. She noticed him looking, but neither of them said anything about it. Danny just straightened his tie and unconsciously rubbed over the spot on his collar bone where his own mark was. Would he find the person or was it really just myth?
He shook his head and cursed himself for the vague hope that had appeared. He was now thirty-six, he had a daughter and an ex-wife. Even if he found someone to put up with his personality he had a lot of baggage that was probably overwhelming to most.
Pushing away all thoughts to his mark, his soul mate and anything related to it, he concentrated on doing his job, keeping Steve from killing himself and him and spending time with Grace as much as he could. Everything went well and without a hitch, until Special Warfare Operator Graham Wilson took the people on a swimming museum hostage to convince HPD that he hadn't killed his wife.
It was in itself a shitty situation, but Five-oh could handle it, or so Danny thought until Steve decided to get onto the ship. Danny, used to the antics of his partner by now, still tried to argue which was abruptly stopped mid-word when Steve pulled off his shirt, because the crazy person wanted to swim onto the ship.
Not much could render Danny speechless, but at that moment his mouth was open, his hands hanging uselessly in the air and no tone crossed his lips. And it wasn't even because Steve was ridiculously toned and attractive with his tattoos and the abs and the tan, but because of the number twenty-two written next to his belly button in dark blue. Danny remembered his old baseball jersey in high school, before he tore his ACL, the twenty-two big and blue on his back under his name.
"Danny?" Now Steve was looking at him, worried and tense. "You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. Just marveling how stupid you are to actually attempt this. It's insane. Wait. You are insane. Sometimes I forget and then you pull something like this." Danny waved his hands around, trying to cover up his racing heart. It was probably just coincidence.
Steve rolled his eyes, but flashed him a grin, before he walked off and jumped into the water.
Staring after him Danny rubbed over his collarbone and sighed. He would think about it later, after they had saved the hostages and arrested Wilson.
And it came exactly like that. No one else died, Wilson was proven innocent in the murder of his wife, but was still arrested, because of the hostage situation and the team went out for a drink to celebrate. Danny tried to not show his conflicted thoughts, but wasn't sure he succeeded entirely. After a while he just couldn't sit on it anymore and breached the subject in the easiest possible way: Asking Kono what her's meant.
She got a soft smile, when he asked and touched it gently with her fingertips. "It's Japanese. It means Adam. I haven't found him yet, but I'm a strong believer you know. Especially after Chin..."
"Hey", Chin interrupted. He didn't seem particularly angry, but there were still people who didn't want to talk about their marks.
"Oh come one. You found your soul mate. That's great. Even if it didn't end well."
"Oh?", Steve asked and Danny silently raised his eyebrows in question.
Chin sighed. "Her name is Malia. She works as a pediatric oncologist."
"And she's a bitch", Kono chimed in and Chin glared at her fiercely. "What? It's true. She didn't stand by him when the stuff with the money happened."
Another sigh from Chin and Danny was sure that they had had this conversation too many times already.
"What about you, Danny?" Steve probably asked him to get away from that topic, but it only caused Danny's heart to speed up again. He wasn't sure how his mark with the anchor and the trident could be about Steve, but if Steve's was about Danny, only Danny could tell, too.
Danny shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. "Didn't find mine yet. Obviously it wasn't Rachel. Probably couldn't tell if I met them anyhow."
"Where is it?" Kono leaned forward, curious gleaming in her eyes. "Can we see it?"
Chin rolled his eyes at his cousin, but kept silent.
Hesitating Danny looked at each of their faces, Steve last, before thinking fuck it. If Steve was his soul mate, good, but if not, then nothing had changed.
He sat down his beer bottle and then reached up to loosen his tie and pop open a couple of buttons of his shirt. Kono whistled, while Steve's expression went carefully blank and Chin just smiled in his hidden way. Danny didn't dare look away from Steve as he pushed the collar of his shirt to the side, revealing the golden mark.
"Huh. The color surprisingly doesn't clash with your skin tone." And wasn't this just typical of Kono? Latching on the most random detail, but Danny was busy looking at Steve.
Steve, whose eyes widened and snapped from the mark to Danny's face and back down. Steve, who swallowed heavily, before ending up looking into Danny's eyes. Steve, whose hand came up to lay on his stomach, where Danny now knew his own mark was. The question was clear in his eyes.
"Twenty-two was the number on my baseball jersey in high school."
"The anchor and the trident are part of the Navy Seal emblem."
Grins spread over their lips and not even Kono's Holy shit made them look away from each other. They found their soul mate.
Without another word they stood up and walked out of the bar together, getting somewhere else to talk about how things would change for them. They could apologize to their team mates the next day.
And if their conversation ended up with them cuddling on Steve's couch, touching the marks on the other one's body, interrupted by the occasional kiss, it was no one's business but their own.