Danny Williams slouched his way to Kukui High School four days into the semester, pissed off at his father's procrastination and unsure as to how he was supposed to fit in the last year of high school in a new state drastically different from his home.
He'd gone with his father for only one reason and while he was not happy being in Hawaii—away from everything he knew—he'd do it again in a heartbeat.
The reason?
Grace.
His adorable little half sister was more his daughter than his father's.
Finding out his father was having an affair with his young secretary, and that he got her pregnant, shocked and almost completely destroyed his family.
That the woman was only five years Danny's senior and didn't want anything to do with the little girl was even more devastating.
Then his father's company promoted him to a position in Oahu, Hawaii and as the only guardian of Grace, she was going with him.
It was a punch to the gut and Danny knew he had to go with him, if only to stay with her. If she stayed with just his dad, she'd grow up with only the passing notion of what a parent was supposed to be and become either a hellion causing trouble or a spoiled brat with no authoritative figures to stop her.
So here he was in Pineapple Hell—staring at the place he'd be spending his last year of primary educational servitude. He no longer had any plans for college, at least nothing concrete, and while he was a good shortstop there was no point when he only had a year left and Grace to take care of.
The blond sighed and made his way to the office, wanting nothing more than to go catch some air or grinding with his board or maybe go take some good photos of the island.
Even missing his home, Hawaii was a beautiful place and his bitching to Mattie didn't do it justice.
The secretary pointed him to Principal Jameson's office and he got a welcome speech, a map of the school, and his schedule. He smiled and nodded politely through the meeting and when he was free to walk the halls the same blank face he'd been wearing for everything but being with Grace took it custom spot.
He knocked lightly on what to be his homeroom and walked in. There was the standard introduction, giving him a seat, and assigning him a guide, all things he'd gone through when he was younger and they still moved a lot.
He looked over his guide, appreciating his form for what it was but knowing he had to have the personality and intelligence of a rock.
Steven McGarrett, quarterback number 50. Guy was way to fucking tall and popular perfect in his football jersey and cargo pants.
Danny decided to hate him on those principles alone.
He escaped home room as fast as possible and tried to lose the football jock, only for his blank expression to disappear and a scowl take its place when he heard it.
"Yo Jersey, wait up!"
Ice blue eyes pinned McGarrett to the spot, "Just because I'm from New Jersey, doesn't mean it can be used in lieu of my name."
The insane jock just grinned at his ire, "Lieu? Really? Who uses words like that? And would you rather I call you 'Haole'? That name is worse."
Danny's scowled deepened and wave an irritated hand at the jock, "Whatever," and peered at his schedule and map before stalking off to Honors Biology, "You realize I can, in fact, find my own way around a high school. It's not all that hard."
"I know, but it's my job to make sure you find your way around here, besides we have a similar schedule, so I might as well do it."
Danny watched out of the corner of his eye as McGarrett reached into one of his many pockets and pulled out a mango and a plastic knife as they walked. Deciding that maybe his usual snark would send the guy running he decided to see how quickly it happened and if he'd be threatened with violence like most others of his type would do when face with some who was mouthy and smaller than them.
"Great, they stuck me with a football playing giant Boy Scout for a guide. Don't tell me you have the perfect girl too, else I may have to take a detour to the men's room to lose my breakfast."
McGarrett blinked, "How'd you know I was in the boy scouts?"
Danny stopped and stared at the behemoth in front of him, "You've got to be fuckin' with me."
When Steve continued to stare at him in confusion, Danny just shook his head and began to mutter under his breath in the Irish Gaelic his mother had raised them with at home as they continued to walk.
The two spent most of the day together, though grudgingly on Danny's part, and he felt himself beginning to like this dorky quarterback.
And he was dorky.
Since they had paired him with Steve to show him around, the Biology teacher decided that they might as well be lab partners too.
McGarrett enjoyed science way too much to be a normal jock.
Not only was he excited about what they were doing he already knew what they were talking about. The fool also saved a geek, one who actually looked like a geek at least, from one of his own teammates.
Steven McGarrett. Quarterback. Boy Scout. Science Geek. Protector of other science geeks.
This guy just did not make sense; he was tall and lumbering, goofy and quirky and smart, he protected those who were picked on by others, though completely and utterly male in that he enjoyed running and tackling and launching himself off of the low walls and guard rails in the quad.
Danny sighed as he finished paying for this week's groceries and went to pick up Grace from daycare.
That Neanderthal was going to drive him nuts, he knew it.
Three weeks after that first day of school found Danny making dinner for him and Grace, trying not to let his thoughts stray to those of his lab partner. The more time he spent with him, the more he fell for the guy and there was no way to stop it.
Danny grinned as Grace giggled, playing and eating her macaroni and cheese and peas as he worked on his homework and ate himself.
His father was currently on the actual island named Hawaii and wouldn't be back for at least two weeks, maybe more. Not that it had any real bearing on what Danny did with Grace, they went on as they always had since she had been born; his father was just the silent sperm donor who paid for her daycare and the house.
Danny bought the groceries, cleaned, took Grace to daycare and picked her up; the one who played and laughed with Grace when she was fussy, changed her and held her and comforted her and took her to the doctor when she was sick.
She was his little girl and they had their routine.
Danny glanced up when he heard a knock at the door.
"Alright you," he tweaked her nose, "gimme that while I check the door, I don't want you choking."
He couldn't help the laugh when she pouted at him for taking away her meal, but the glee on her face when he handed her the chocolate milk made him laugh harder and his heart to swell with tenderness.
When Danny opened the door he was momentarily surprised to see McGarrett there before he remembered telling the quarterback that he got off from work at six; a photography place that allowed him to keep Grace with him since she was well behaved as he either manipulated pictures already taken or did the scheduled sessions himself.
He resigned himself to the fact that apparently McGarrett was not a procrastinator and steeled himself for the judgment and the questions.
"You really are a boy scout goody two shoes aren't you? That's the only reasonable explanation for why you're here at six thirty in the evening the very day we get assigned an assignment we have to work on together in our off hours."
Steve grinned unrepentantly, "Aloha to you too, Jersey. It's better to get it done early than to put it off."
Danny sighed, "Alright come on then, we're in the kitchen; I made homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner."
Before Steve could ask who else was there he saw the little girl in the booster seat. She had Danny's eyes, though hazel instead of surf blue, and his blond hair done in plaits on both sides of her head.
"Oo dat, Danno?"
Danny smiled softly at his Grace before he pulled the sippy cup from her hands and gave her back her dinner, "This Steve, Gracie, he goes to school with Danno like you do with Aolani."
She gave them a cheese and noodle filled toothy grin, "hewo, 'Teve."
"Steve this is Grace, she is, for all intents and purposes, my daughter even if biologically she's my half sister."
Steve blinked at the two as he watched Danny get him a glass and plate after he nodded at gestured offer of food.
"Hi Grace, it's nice to meet you. What is it you called him?"
The little girl began to play with her peas, "He's my Danno. Danno takes me to school and gives me dinner and Little Einsteins and Spongebob and takes me swimming and baths and tucks me in for bed and presents! I'm two now." She held up three fingers, "I love my Danno."
Steve smiled at her, "You're two, huh? Where's your dad?"
"I dunno, Danno takes care of me, not him. And I'm almost three and Danno says that we are going to have a party at the beach and I can have Aolani and Kara and Kai over and we get to go swimming and then we all get to make pizza here! Do you wanna help us make pizza 'Teve?"
Steve swallowed his own bite of the, admittedly good, macaroni and cheese, "If Danno says its okay for me to come, I will. I'll even help him if he wants me too."
Danny gave Steve the stink eye for using Grace's name for him before sighing, "Sure go ahead, you can come, don't forget to bring her a present. She's old enough for Barbies now, but nothing to complicated, she really likes the Monster High Dolls right now. Her favorite is Lagoona Blue, huh Monkey?"
"She's pretty and blue and she swims, Danno! I'm learning to swim too, but Draclulaura and Frankie and Cleo are pretty too."
Danny made some silly face at her as he wiped Grace's face off making her giggle and missed the oddly affectionate look Steve gave him as he watched the normally brusque and often times abrasive blond be soft and tender to his little girl.
Jersey was steadily worming his way in to his heart, despite Steve's best attempts at keeping him out of it. He wasn't used to feeling this way, he hadn't with Catherine, or Kayla, or Victor, despite being physical with each of them.
But seeing the blond being soft and tender with this little girl when he already admired him for standing up for the sophomore pot head hacker, Toast, against four of the guys from the football team, he couldn't help but feel those unnamed feelings grow.
Two months after he met Grace, Steve couldn't help the smile that was on his face after spending the majority of Saturday with them both; he'd gotten horribly close to the little girl that melted both his blond friend and anyone else she got close too.
Even his Dad had to admit the pair were alarmingly endearing, though that also prompted one of the most embarrassing moments in his life.
Steve had thought he'd kept his budding attraction and his feelings for Danno tightly under wraps until the two had left his home one night after spending it with him and his family for dinner.
It was then that his father had cornered him as he did the dishes and told him that if he was thinking about being with Danny it would be fine, as long as he was sure and to be careful if they tried to experiment.
Blushing bright red and stuttering that things weren't that between the two of them, he couldn't help but wonder how his father had found out.
He hadn't even known about the brief, if slightly violent, affair he'd had with Hesse the teams second QB.
Still, as he made his way home after helping Danny clean up from the party, he found himself having more fun taunting and tormenting his haole and spending time with him and Grace than he did going to parties or making out with cheerleaders.
He hoped Danno was okay with him being around so much, he really thought he was starting to feel what must be love for him and his daughter.
Steve laughed at himself, he couldn't help it as he put away his portion of the pizza they'd made, Grace really wasn't Danny's sister, she was in every way, shape, and form his daughter.
He was ok with that; if anything it made him love Danny more.
Danny wasn't quite sure when his home became the meeting place for the official and unofficial McGarrett Clan.
Kono and Mary Anne seemed to follow either him or Steve after school and then after he picked up Grace they'd all be at his house for dinner and homework.
He still often found it startling to find Chin Ho in full officer regalia at his front door to pick up his little cousin after dinner and he was done with his shift.
Hell, even Toast made an appearance now and then for dinner too.
The oddest thing that had become the norm was the presence of Steve.
He was always there after school helping with dinner and often ended up sleeping in the spare room; he had even begun picking up Grace when he got free earlier than Danny.
They seemed to gravitate to each other, even in school where they existed in completely different social circles; they somehow ended up eating lunch together or pairing off with each other in the classes they did share.
And it didn't really help the way he was feeling about the guy either, especially after he caught sight of the tattoos Mr. McGarrett had let Steve get for his birthday. Steve had begun to star prominently in his dreams either as a participant in his personal sexual fantasies and dreams.
Many times he'd caught himself watching those bare marked shoulders, his teeth itching to nibble their outline and his tongue salivating over what the dips between his muscles would taste like.
It was thoughts like those that lead him to this old cement bowl he'd found two weeks into his stay here.
He really had to thank Mrs. Kalakaua for watching Grace when he needed time to physically vent his frustrations.
He couldn't help the adrenaline rush he felt as he saw the pavement coming up to meet him as he fell from the sky, couldn't help the hitch in his breath when he saw Steve leaning against the worn fence from the corner of his eye.
The sound of cement beneath his wheels and wind whistling past his ears did nothing to stave off the heat that welled up his spine as he realized that Steve wasn't just waiting for him, he was watching him.
When he had lost enough momentum and had worked out most of his tension, if not his current euphoria and state of almost arousal, Danny rode his board up the wall and hopped off.
He was grinning wide and breathless when he faced Steve.
"You know, theoretically skateboarding is not all that different from surfing. You'd be great in the water."
"You're still not getting me out there, you Neanderthal."
"Anyways you're pretty good on that thing," Danny had to fight off a shiver at the heat in Steve's eyes, "How come you didn't tell anyone about that?"
Danny sighed as they began walking towards Steve's beat up truck, "It's one of the things that I use to help clear my head, not something I usually share with others."
Steve frowned, "What's on your mind?"
Danny grinned as he placed the board behind his head as if he were in the stocks "Don't you know?"
"Know? Know what? I thought I was the one asking the questions?"
Danny stopped and stared at Steve before he rolled his eyes and threw all caution to the wind, "A haole I may be, 'brah,' but you are the emotionally densest person I know Steve."
And then he pulled the taller man down to his lips with a handful of his football jersey.
Danny grinned as he picked Grace up, Steve right behind him, and Mrs. Kalakaua plied them with food before they went home together.
When he had moved here all he had was his 'daughter' and now he had a man he was starting to believe he had fallen in love with, had inadvertently begun to build a life with despite being still in high school, and friends he considered Family.
Over all Senior Year in Pineapple Hell wasn't turning out to be too bad.