Well, this is my first "Hawaii Five-0" story that I'm posting! It is not the first one I've written, but it is the first one I've finished. Thought I'd write one in the spirit of this time of year, my lovely ghouls.
Title: 'Ele'ele Popoki (Black Cat)
Rating: T
Warnings: Slight swearing and a possibly frightening situation
Genre: General/Team/Suspense/Comedy
Pairings: None
Word Count: 5,024
Timeline: I guess it could be whenever, but I wrote it after season 6's Halloween episode so that's when I was thinking. :)
"Huh."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"No, you saw something. What?"
"You see that cat over there?"
"Yeah. Don't tell me you're mad at it for being in your general presence."
"What? No. Just because I dislike cats doesn't mean I have a deep seated hatred for them, even if they will turn on you the first chance they get and sink their needle sharp claws into your hand for no apparent reason and then act as if nothing happened and it's all your fault. I just thought that that particular cat over there looks kind of goofy."
"Goofy? Better watch it, bud."
"Oh, don't tell me. It's like with the sharks, they're one of the ancestors that have been turned into a cat and protects the family. An oo'maka or something."
"'Aumakua, and no. It's a black cat."
"Really, Steve? You're superstitious about black cats?"
"No, but I would've thought you are."
"No. I believe that all cats are evil, black ones are just a different variety. And I really don't like the thought of dumb schmucks that are superstitious going around and killing black cats just because they're afraid of bad luck."
"So what's so goofy about that cat?"
"It doesn't have a tail. It's just got a stump."
"Maybe its tail got lopped off by someone who doesn't like cats."
"Hey, watch it! I don't support animal cruelty in any form unless it involves a rolled up newspaper and a spider. I just think it looks kind of strange, you know? All goofy and off balance."
"Should be careful about how you talk about black cats, Danny."
"I'm just stating a fact! It has no tail. Why is it going to turn on me for saying something it already knows? It's a stumpy-butt cat. There, it can come at me for all it's worth! It can use whatever black cat juju it wants to."
"You are just asking for something bad to happen to you, you know that? All you do is talk and you don't pay attention to what you're saying. One day, you're really go to piss someone or something-"
"Shhh. There's our guy."
Steve glanced across the street, barely making out the hunched over figure ambling along the sidewalk under the sparse halos of streetlights. He matched the picture they had managed to dig up.
"Okay. Let's go."
A cool breeze whispered through the late night. Danny held his gun down, safety off but trigger finger along the barrel. He kept right in his partner's shadow as they traveled lightly down the cracked concrete after their guy. His heart thudded steadily, if a bit quickly, in his chest hopefully safely under his Kevlar vest.
The hunched over man disappeared into an alleyway, walking into the dark and towards a door that sat on the side of a brick building. Steve and Danny broke apart to flank either side of the alley. The Navy SEAL signaled quietly and they both dove into the murky light, careful of where their feet connected with the ground so a piece of trash crunching underfoot didn't alert their target to their approach.
A shape darted out in front of Danny.
"Sonavu-"
He stumbled as his foot caught the black cat in the stomach. It yowled and hissed, completely blowing their cover. The man looked up sharply, shouting an incoherent curse and pulling a handgun from his coat pocket.
"Stupid stumpy-butt cat!" Danny yelled as he and Steve ducked a few shots wildly aimed in their direction.
As he took shelter behind a dumpster he caught sight of the feline at the mouth of the alley. Its dark head craned around and it gave him what he thought was the dirtiest look he could have received from an animal.
Perhaps poking fun at a black cat wasn't a good idea.
50~50~50~50~50~50~50~50~50~50~50~50~50
Danny shook his head and held his hand up, waggling his fingers. "Keys, Steve. I need them to go home."
"You don't wanna sit and watch a movie on the screens with us?" Steve asked, lacing his fingers behind his head and leaning back in his chair.
"Isn't that a misappropriation of government resources?" he raised his brows.
Steve shrugged as Kono trotted into his office, one side completely soaking wet, and shook her head like a dog, sending a spray of water onto them. Danny shielded his face, shouting a few 'stops' at her. She smiled and edged around the boss' desk, leaning down to whisper to him and drop something in his lap.
Danny crossed his arms and watched the lanky officer saunter out of the room into the main bullpen. "What was that about, huh?"
"What?" Steve held up his hands defensively at catching his partner's suggestive look. He held up a DVD case. "She went down to a Redbox to get a movie for us to watch."
"And?" he inquired, knowing there was definitely more.
"She wiped out in a puddle that was deeper than she thought," Steve rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at Kono through the glass windows. "She said she's gonna pay me back for that."
He chuckled, imagining how that one was going to go. "Well, I guess big bad Super SEAL better watch his back in case Surfer Girl gets him. Now, keys please?"
Steve tossed them across his desk. Danny fielded the throw and turned on his heel, waving a goodbye and a good night. With the bad guy in booking he could finally call it a night. He didn't even have any bullet holes in him, so he was going to call it a win. Even if he had gotten harassed by his teammates after his partner had related his disrespect of the tailless cat to them.
He held his hand over his head as he dashed through the parking lot in the rain, shoes sending up wet little waves. Gratefully he slid into the Camaro's driver seat and ran his fingers through his nearly soaked hair. It was no small miracle that the heavens hadn't opened up during the stakeout, a fact he was eternally happy for.
The engine roared to life and the headlights illuminated the trees in front of him sharply. Illuminated a face staring back.
Danny jumped, only settling when he realized it was Chin pausing to tip two fingers to him as he made a mad sprint for the Palace from his car. He raised a couple fingers at him in return before pulling out of his spot and heading for the street.
The ride home was rather uneventful, thank goodness. Being as late and as stormy as it was there were few cars on the streets. He pulled into his driveway and cut the engine, gathering his gun and badge from the passenger seat where he'd tossed them as the interior light blinked on.
Visible now in the light was something furry and brown in the passenger seat.
"What the hell?" Danny snapped his hand back as his fingers brushed the soft object. "A mouse? Is that seriously a dead mouse?"
Digging out a crime scene glove from the glovebox, yes he did actually keep gloves in there, he folded it over and picked the animal up by the tip of its tail. Making a face he spun it around to see its face. Two little 'x's replaced its eyes.
"Oh, haha, Steven, very funny."
Feeling better knowing that it was a fake he grabbed his stuff and locked up the Camaro, jogging up to his front door. He couldn't believe that his partner would act like such an immature middle schooler. Could he not swallow the fact that not all people believed in superstition? Not that he didn't believe in any superstition, no. He believed in psychics, at least when they got the job done. He believed in a God somewhere. He also believed that people could manufacture their own bad luck.
With a heavy sigh he pushed the door open and jerked the keys from the handle. He flicked on a light and pushed the door closed with his foot, deadbolt locking it behind him. As he toed off his shoes he immediately felt like something was amiss. A quick scan of his living room provided evidence for that feeling.
"You've got to be kidding me," Danny muttered, head cocked to the side as he took in his coffee table.
Various items that he had left on it that morning were stacked on top of each other in a precarious tower. His coffee mug served as a base, a plate with toast crumbs still on it balanced on that, another glass he had left out upside down on that, and the two TV remotes forming a very risky tent on top of that with a single dollar bill sitting on top like a flag.
"What the…?" he edged around the coffee table, eyeing every angle of the tower. His sharp eyes couldn't spot any finger prints on the smooth surfaces besides what looked like were his if their positions were anything to go by. "Well, that's not weird at all. I'll have to ask Grace if she did that, though she has never really been into the stacking random objects thing. Maybe I'm losing my mind, which is a high possibility with Steve as a partner."
As he spoke he walked into his bedroom, hand resting protectively against the gun he had reattached to his belt as soon as he had spotted that leaning tower of terror. He did one, two laps around his house to see if anything else was weird or out of place. Everything seemed to be fine.
"Right. Hot shower and then bed, because I'm paranoid and going to have a heart attack," Danny said and set about his new task.
The hot water did indeed calm his nerves and muscles, and having his gun sitting just within reach outside of the shower curtain certainly helped as did the fact that he could lock his bathroom door. It was then he was sure he was going crazy.
He wrapped a towel around his waist as he stepped out. Slicking back his hair he looked up at the mirror and felt his heart drop. In the steam that had collected on it a question was posed. A question that made his mind reel.
'Why did you disrespect me, Daniel?' was written in the humidity.
"Jury's back. I've lost my mind," Danny concluded, grabbing his gun and unlocking the bathroom door.
He made his way towards the kitchen where he had left his badge, wallet, and cellphone. He needed to take pictures of this, either for Steve to find after something murdered him in his sleep with no explanation or to prove someone was being a cruel jokester. Deep down he had the nagging feeling that his partner had something to do with this. It was always his fault. But he couldn't tell him that if he couldn't find his cellphone. Where was it? He was sure he had left it right next to his badge.
But he froze solid. Again.
Trained eyes noticed something was missing besides his phone. Several somethings. He looked fully towards the corner of the kitchen counter, inhaling sharply at what was missing from its place. This spelled nothing but bad news. Complete and utter bad news.
All the knives were gone from the knife block.
Every single hair stood up on the back of his neck despite still being damp. Whispers foggily murmured through the silence of his house. His fingers tightened around the handle of his gun, knuckles nearly turning white. Swallowing against a dry mouth he pressed his back against one wall and sank into stealth mode. The knives had been there when he'd done his rounds before his shower, which meant someone was in his house.
Danny held his gun steady as he swept from the kitchen to the living room and waited for a frenzy of lightning to die down. The lights flickered slightly as thunder rolled through the neighborhood, classic scary movie style. He worried his bottom lip and suppressed a shiver. He suddenly felt very vulnerable in just his towel, as if he hadn't felt that way before.
Wishing now that he had Steve there to have his back he did a careful look around his living room again. His shoulders slumped in disbelief.
The tower on his coffee table was gone. Dismantled. His mug was sitting on the end table along with the plate, the remotes on the couch where he'd left them the night previously and the other glass right side up on the table, dollar bill nowhere to be seen.
"Yep, I've lost my mind," Danny muttered to himself again, hoping that it wasn't the other option.
Fearing what he would see in his bedroom he steeled himself and walked through the door. His blood ran cold and his heart missed a few beats, thumping awkwardly against the inside of his ribcage. He should just get out of his house now. Run.
Scared but not absolutely terrified as of yet, he risked locking himself in his bathroom again and putting a pair of boxers and a t-shirt on. He scrubbed his hands across his face vigorously and then stared at his reflection in the mirror. The haunted look was an easy one to identify on a victim, and he currently wore it like war paint.
"Black cats don't have bad juju, they're just animals. No bad juju, no bad juju," he told himself. His eyes narrowed at something he could see in the reflection of his shower. "Please don't let that be what I think it is."
He turned on his heel and looked down into the tub. Yes, that was what he thought it was. It was one of the knives from his kitchen, tainting the water around it with crimson. And the damned dead mouse was sitting next to it, stupid little 'x's for eyes and all.
"I'm done!" Danny snatched his gun off the sink counter and swung open the bathroom door.
His back pressed against the wall as he slunk along it, trying to keep his eyes off the mutilated stuffed dog on his bed. He had never seen it before and wondered if it was one of Grace's toys, but wherever it had come from it was missing a tail now. Stuffing littered his bed like a disturbing crime scene from a Toy Story movie.
He just wondered where the rest of his knives had gone now.
Pausing briefly at the slacks he'd worn that day he dug his car keys out of the pocket and gripped them tightly. With a deep breath he turned back into his living room, not really amused by what he saw this time. Not that it had been funny the first two times with the tower and then no tower.
He didn't really check to see if that's where the rest of his knives had gone. He just slipped out the front door and ran to the Camaro. Rain pelted him as he ran. Huffing he slammed the driver's door and checked to make sure no one was in the back seat. Feeling a bit sick with dread and worry he sat there for a moment, mulling over what he had just seen.
There had been the dead mouse first in his car. So someone had to have access to leave it there. It could have easily been Steve seeing as the man almost always had the keys on him.
Then there was the tower. That one he knew Steve couldn't have done because he'd been with him since this morning. Kono had been in the bullpen at the smart table with Chin tracking their guy. Maybe one of them slipped back to his house? But why? Was it a bad post-Halloween joke? And they would've had to have gotten the key from either Steve, him, or Grace.
Next there had been the writing on the mirror. Okay, maybe one of them could have possibly been ninja enough to sneak in and do that, but he would've heard them fiddling to get the bathroom door open.
His phone and the knives were missing. Everything had just been weird up to that point, but that's when it got scary. He didn't have a landline in that house and without his phone he couldn't call for backup. Add that to a whole cutlery set going missing while he was in the shower and you had a recipe for fear.
The dismantled tower. That had happened while he had been in the kitchen worrying over missing knives.
The stuffed dog on his bed. Was it sending a 'you're next' kind of message? No, because only its tail was cut off. It couldn't actually be the tailless cat he had called stumpy-butt earlier, could it? He wasn't really a superstitious man, but his mistrust in cats may have spiked a few levels.
And then there was the knife and dead mouse toy in the tub with the bright blood.
Danny sat back in the Camaro's seat and put a knuckle to his lips, thinking. He had seen a lot of crime scenes in his years as a detective and he knew what blood in all its forms looked like. That blood had been way too red. Which meant it was fake. Which meant….
"I'm gonna kill you," he hissed, looking away down the street.
Was that the nose of a red Mustang parked almost out of sight? It was hard to tell in the dark and pouring rain, but there was no harm in checking it out. He jammed the key into the ignition and twisted it.
The engine coughed and then remained silent.
"Oh no, no, no," Danny tried again, and was rewarded with the same result.
Finding out whether or not that was Chin's car would have to wait. He ran from the Camaro back to the front door and busted in, gun at the ready. If it was a bad guy, he was going to level them. If it was Steve, he was still going to level him. All he had to do was find him. And if that was Chin's Mustang down the street, that meant that Kono and him were in on it, too.
God, he really hated his team sometimes.
Think like a SEAL. Where would the big guy hide? No, wait. Which one of the little terrors would he set up?
The dog.
Danny entered his bedroom, feeling like he was playing a dangerous game of hide-and-seek. There honestly wasn't much to hide behind or in. Think. The dog hadn't been there when he'd gotten out of the shower, but it was there when he walked back. Which meant that Steve hadn't left yet unless he had darted when Danny had tried to make his getaway. But if it was his friends, they probably knew his car wasn't going to start and that he'd wind up coming back into the house.
A light thump from the bathroom drew his attention.
He hoped his team was smart enough not to startle him when he was walking around with a loaded gun. Forgetting about searching his bedroom he edged into the bathroom and concentrated on hearing that noise again. What were good hiding places in here?
Well, if one of his teammates could squish into one of the cabinets below the sink he would tell them to join the circus. He frowned and swept his eyes across the wall. Ah, there was one place. No way Steve or Chin could fit in it, but a lanky officer might be able to manage.
Gun steady just in case it wasn't his team picking on him, he reached for the linen closet handle and yanked it open. A body fell onto him in a tangle of limbs.
"Kono! I knew it!" Danny lowered his firearm and helped her to her feet before firmly smacking her across the arm. "You guys are jerks!"
Kono was laughing so hard that she didn't even stop him as he stalked away into his kitchen, having a feeling in his gut where the other conspirator was. He had played hide-and-seek with his daughter many times in this house and he knew where all the best places to hide were. He could hear Kono's laughter dying down to giggles as he pulled open the pantry door.
"Easy, brah, don't shoot."
"Oh, you should've thought of that before you agreed to do this to me," Danny none the too kindly helped Chin out of the pantry and nearly frog marched him into the living room.
"Agreed?"
"Yes, agreed. I know who the ringleader is," Danny waved one hand wildly through the air and returned to his bedroom.
He dropped onto his hands and knees, lowering his chest onto the floor and peering under his bed. He was seriously half-tempted to fire off a round into the big shadow's leg just for kicks.
"Steven J. McGarrett, get your ass out from under my bed," he growled, using his angry father voice that he seemed to have to be using on Grace more and more as of late.
There was a shuffling and Steve popped up on the other side of the bed, hands in the air. He tried to keep his face straight, he really did, but it broke into a devilish grin instead.
"Living room. Both of you. Now," Danny pointed, waiting for the rest of Five-0 to filter out of his bedroom. With an irritated grumble he switched the safety back on and set the gun on the coffee table where the rest of his knives were precisely arranged as he came to stand in front of his team. "What. The. Hell."
"Relax, Danno, it was just a joke," Steve said with a small smirk.
"Don't make that face at me and don't you dare 'Danno' me, McGarrett. What kind of joke was that, huh?" Danny crossed his arms, staring each of them down and daring for an explanation worthy enough.
"Steve told us about the tailless cat after you guys got back," Chin started in his ever calm tone. "We all agreed that one day you're going to make a remark about someone's belief or superstition and it's going to come back and bite you in the ass."
"Like, really badly," Kono said.
"So Steve thought that he'd have you guys teach me a lesson, is that it? Teach me some respect? You guys don't get it, do you? I learned my lesson years ago. I respect your culture's and all the other cultures' beliefs around here. I just don't believe in them and I'm not particularly superstitious," Danny flicked his wrist around as he explained before pointing at Steve. "I told you that earlier. Just because I called a black cat 'stumpy-butt' doesn't mean I hate it or have an unnatural fear of it."
"Danny, I-"
"Shut up. You know what was really stupid, hmm? If one of you had popped out from around the corner earlier I may have shot you. One of you could be dead right now," Danny inhaled deeply, trying to calm his nerves. "And I would've felt awful. It would've killed me knowing that I hurt one of you over a stupid joke. Except for you, Steve."
"Hey!" Steve made a face at him.
The rest of the team looked at each other, feeling like a bunch of school kids that just got scolded by a teacher. They had known that he carried a gun, but apparently had trusted in his ability to discern between friend or foe in a split second. Chin was the first to look at him again and stand up.
"We're sorry, brah," he clapped him on the shoulder. "We should've known better."
"Yeah, we honestly didn't mean for it to go that far," Kono stood up and kind of extended her arms. "We're sorry."
Steve pushed himself to his feet and looked down at the short blonde detective. "I get it, Danny. No more jokes and no more hassling you about superstitions. If a black cat gets you, it's your own fault."
Danny rolled his eyes, feeling that was as close as Steve was going to get to an apology. He hugged Kono and Chin before releasing them and turning to his partner. If he was expecting the same treatment he was sorely mistaken.
He balled his hand up into a fist and popped him in the shoulder.
"Ow! Danny!" Steve rubbed his shoulder tenderly and glared down at him. "I'm sorry, okay!"
"You big stupid Super SEAL," Danny opened his arms and wrapped them around Steve, patting him on the back a little harder than usual. He felt his partner relax at being forgiven and possibly at not getting shot. They parted and he glanced at the cousins perched on his couch, sighing at their waiting expressions. "You guys got that movie with you?"
"I'll go get it from the car," Kono sprung up and away.
"I'll make the popcorn," Chin smiled serenely, standing up and going to rummage around the kitchen where he suspiciously knew where everything was.
"Listen man, I am sorry that the joke went a little too far," Steve said as they both settled into the couch.
"Just don't do it again and we'll call it good, okay babe?" Danny smirked and patted his knee. He pushed himself into the corner opposite of Steve and furrowed his brow. "Actually, I take that back. Tell me how you guys pulled all that off and then I'll let you off the hook."
"Chin came to your house right before we got back and did the tower thing," Steve gestured to where the Tower of Terror had once stood. "He also wrote on the mirror with his finger because I figured you'd take a shower when you got home and give us enough time to do everything else. I gave Kono the keys to the Camaro and had her put the mouse in it and then go get the movie."
"That explains why you wouldn't give me back my keys. She had them and you had to wait," Danny chuckled. "That's good, that's good. Did she actually wipe out in a puddle?"
"Yeah," Steve grimaced. "And she's still gonna try and get me back for that, too."
Danny nodded. "Okay, but were you guys really just that quiet and that fast moving around my house while I was walking around ready to shoot someone?"
"The three of us emptied the knife block while you were in the shower and took your phone," Steve said while reaching into his pocket and handing said phone back to his partner. "Kono took down the tower and put the mouse and knife in the tub while you were in the kitchen and I did the toy dog thing in the bedroom."
"And then Chin put all the knives on the table while I was in the bathroom again. Got it," Danny shook his head at the evil mastermind that had organized all of that. It was impressive in a scary way. His brows furrowed again and he kicked Steve's leg. "What'd you do to my car?"
"I just popped the cables off the battery while you were in the shower," Steve shrugged.
"You, Steven, are one dastardly and very mean friend," Danny pointed at him. "You won't have to just watch your back because of Kono."
Kono returned soaking wet again, though this time Danny allowed her to have a towel from the linen closet she had been hiding in. Chin flicked out the big lights, leaving just the dim nightlights on as he walked into the living room bearing a big bowl of popcorn and a case of beer that he had dug out of the refrigerator. Danny reached between the cushions to retrieve the remote that had disappeared while everyone got comfortable.
Chin sat on one of the chairs against the wall, Kono sat on the floor with her back against the couch, and Steve and Danny claimed separate ends of the couch. The movie had barely gotten into the trailers before the lights flickered and went out. A loud crash of thunder nearly drown out a startled yell.
"Danny?" Steve asked as the lights flicked back on. His eyes widened. "Danny!"
Danny was up on the arm of the couch, staring at the knife sticking out of the cushion. If he had been sitting any lower that would've been a painful shot right to the crotch.
"Okay, guys, that's definitely not funny in any way, shape, or form!" Danny snapped and glared at the trio.
"Brah, it wasn't us," Chin held up his hands, surprise plain on his face. "None of us have even moved."
And Danny had to admit, as bad as their joke had been they hadn't actually put him in any danger. This knife gag wasn't something they would do to him. He closed his mouth and swallowed thickly, staring past Chin out the window to something sitting on his porch railing.
Steve shifted to see what he was looking at as did the cousins. An angular shape was perched neatly on the rail, pale yellow eyes directed inwards at them. Its tailless figure was unnervingly familiar.
"What the hell?" Kono muttered as another round of lightning started.
In the darkness after the flash the cat was gone. Steve's dark blue eyes met Danny's pale blue ones and they turned to meet the deep chocolate eyes of the cousins. Pulling the blade from the cushion Danny hesitantly sat down again as the movie picked up where it had been stopped. Gradually throughout the night all the teammates had migrated onto the couch with Steve's arms around Danny's and Chin's shoulders and Kono laying on their laps wrapped up in a blanket.
Without needing to say a word to each other it was agreed that one should never poke fun at a tailless black cat.
End
Yay or nay? Spooky or corny? Most likely a mixture of both, right? Anyway, thank you for reading and it would be wonderful if you left a review saying what you liked or what you think I could work on.
Good night!