"Hey Danno," Steve says.

"Yeah Babe," Danny responds, rolling on his side to look over at Steve. They are laying on Steve's beach, a blanket beneath them in concession to Danny's complaints about sand ending up everywhere when they lay down without one. There is only a hand's width distance between them, in some ways too far and others not far enough.

It isn't full sunset yet. The sun is lazing its way down over the horizon, smiling on them and turn everything soft, edges indistinct. Everything except Steve. Danny can't keep from staring at Steve with his bare chest and hard muscles and ridiculous tattoos that should look freakish but don't. His Greek god sculpted body; his beautiful, beautiful face that can seem so closed off but in reality is so openly expressive when you know what to look for. His eyes that can go from hazel to grey to green all in one blink. The eyelashes that tangle in Danny's stubble when Steve gives him butterfly kisses. What kind of self-respecting he-man like Lt Commander McGarrett has eyelashes like that?

"Isn't it about time we got married?" Steve says, interrupting Danny's study of the perfect form that is his certifiably insane and unbearably hot partner.

"Not yet, Babe," Danny says like he has the last three times Steve has asked.

Steve frowns a little, a trick he has apparently learned from Grace. Not enough to look angry. Just enough to look hurt. "Why not?" he asks, rolling to face Danny, his right hand holding up his head. His left is touching Danny's chest reverently and fleetingly, as though maybe Danny isn't fully there and Steve's touch could startle him into flight.

"We will. Just not yet," Danny tells him. He leans closer intending to kiss Steve but Steve pulls his ridiculous beautiful face out of reach. "What? What is that?"

"Tell me," Steve says, his hand moving from Danny's chest to his hair. Danny is glad Steve is still in contact with him because he knows that means Steve is more curious than angry or, God forbid, hurt by his most recent refusal.

"Tell you what?" Danny asks in a clear stalling tactic.

Steve arches an eyebrow at Danny but won't explain further. Because he knows Danny knows exactly what Steve wants Danny to tell him.

Danny sweeps down the lines of Steve's body, the look nearly tangible. His eyes take in the long, long legs that lead to the sculpted precision of Steve's hips and stomach, all hard muscle and eloquent form. His broad chest and six-pack abs that are so incredibly cliché Danny can't believe he thinks of them that way. And all of that, all of it, pales in comparison to how fucking gorgeous Steve is. Danny can think of no man or woman alive as beautiful as Steve. And before they were an item? He tried. He compared Steve to all of the men and women who had ever caught his eye. People he knew in the flesh. People too beautiful to be real and exist only on screen. People in books, magazines, photos. None of them are as beautiful as Steve.

And who has Steve chosen? When he could have any man or woman alive? Not Catherine who is nearly as beautifully perfect as Danny's SEAL. Not Kono who could kill men with her looks if her lethal strength didn't do it. No. Super SEAL has chosen a short loud haole from New Jersey of all places. A man who talks more in the first five minutes of any given day than Steve does in an entire week. A man who has an opinion on everything and doesn't care if it is not one that others would welcome to be shared. Danny hates pineapple and ham on pizza and he is going to inform any and all who come within hearing distance of the abomination they have committed to the sacred food of pizza.

"Danno," Steve says, breaking Danny out of his whirling thoughts. "Tell me."

Danny can't say it out loud while Steve is looking at him, his big bruised heart in his eyes for only Danny to see. The love that is clearly there for Danny alone. The trust that didn't come easily but will maintain them both no matter what. So he leans into Steve, rolling him onto his back to snuggle his face in the crook of Steve's neck. He breathes in the essence of Steve, sighing when Steve wraps his long, beautiful arms around Danny's body, holding him like he will never let him go.

"Why me?" Danny finally says into Steve's skin. He feels the jolt of surprise shoot through Steve before he can suppress it.

"That's it?" Steve asks, looking up at the stars that are beginning to emerge from their dark shrouds.

"You could have anyone, Babe. Anyone. You know you could."

"I don't want anyone, Danno. I want you."

"But why? You are so…you," Danny says, waving one hand at Steve like that explains everything for which there are no words.

"You aren't really making sense," Steve says warmly, laughing when Danny punches him in the ribs. "I'm in love with you, Danno. Isn't that all that matters?"

"I love you too, you ninja freak. But that still doesn't explain why you want to marry me. Why didn't you marry Catherine and have perfect, beautiful Navy babies together?"

"I don't love Catherine like that," Steve says. And it sounds so simple. Like it really is that easy if Danny will just let it.

"Are you being intentionally dense?" Danny asks, frowning when he feels Steve laugh. "I am so not having sex with you for the next week."

"Yeah you are. You are addicted to me," Steve reminds him.

"Yeah," Danny sighs. He lifts himself off Steve to look down at him. "I'm not cursed with a lack of self esteem. But I have eyes. You are a super model. And I'm… well, I'm hardly in the same league. Not the same league at all."

"So?" Steve says, eyes wide and innocent. Danny knows he's not being teased now. Steve loves him. He loves Steve. That is the question and the answer.

"It's like we are trying to make Beauty and the Beast a reality," Danny tries.

"Are you the Beast or am I?" Steve asks, laughing when Danny frowns at him.

"You know what I mean," Danny complains. "Don't think I'm blind to the looks every breathing woman and man shoots your way. They all want you. They can't believe I have you. Because I am so clearly less than you are."

"First, I'm not a vase," Steve reminds him, the laugh just barely below the surface.

"Nobody eye-fucks a vase, Steven."

"Rachel does," Steve corrects.

"Well. Okay. That's true," Danny is forced to agree.

"Second, you are the target of as much eye-humping as me. You refuse to see it. Or you're so busy giving them the haole evil eye of death you don't notice the looks directed at you."

"You are delusion. You know this, right?" Danny demands.

"I'm not," Steve says. "Ask Kono. She won't lie to you."

"She will tell me that you are hot like the sun. And I'm a tealight on the ocean."

"A tealight?" Steve laughs.

"I don't understand why you keep laughing. I'm trying to have a serious possibly life-altering conversation and you are being a third grader," Danny huffs.

"Well," Steve shrugs. "I never went to third grade so maybe I'm making up for it."

"Oh God," Danny moans, dropping onto his back, his hands over his face.

"What?" Steve asks, kissing the parts of Danny's face he can reach.

"You. You skipped third grade. You graduated top of your class at Annapolis. Fucking Annapolis. You were Naval Intelligence."

"Which you always remind me is an oxymoron," Steve tells him.

"Not the point, Babe. Not the point at all. Certified genius. That's what you are."

"And you aren't?" Steve asks, knowing the answer.

"I didn't attend only the even number elementary grades," Danny tells him.

"I only skipped third, Danno. It's not that big a deal. Mom taught me to read before I was four. She was a teacher, you know."

"Yeah," Danny agrees, looking up at Steve. "What if… you decide I'm not…"

"What if I decide what?" Steve coaxes, surprisingly gentle.

"That I'm not good enough after all," Danny whispers, ashamed of saying it out loud. But there it is. His deepest secret. His darkest fear. That Steve will emerge from one of his epic swims and realize he's settled for Danny when he could have someone more worthy.

Steve shakes his head, his eyes shining with a luminous brilliance. "Who else would take me, Danno? Who else would listen when I won't talk? Would have stood by when I was arrested for murder? Waits for me to surface from the cesspool I allow my emotions to become? You know me. You know me and it doesn't terrify you. You know I've done things I'm not proud of but I did them because I was honor bound. You know there are things in my past that should be buried, dug up, burned, and buried even deeper. But you don't run. You don't push. You don't perseverate over those things I don't or can't or won't say out loud. Because you already know them. Never once have you judged me. You've challenged my methods. You've expressed your dismay. You've questioned my sanity or my tactics or my decision-making ability. But you never, ever judge me. That is why you have to marry me. Because I will never find anyone who gets me, loves me the way you do."

Danny takes a deep breath when Steve stops as though he's the one who has said all those words. The volume of them is astounding. The beauty unbounded. "Yeah. Okay."

"Okay?" Steve asks, staring at Danny like he is the one who has gone completely off the reservation despite the fact that Danny is the one who accuses Steve of it every single day.

"I'll marry you," Danny says, smiling at his goof-ball. The smile he gets in return lays to rest any remaining doubts. Answers any remaining questions. Danny loves Steve. Steve loves Danny. Yeah, it is that simple.