Coming Back Again

Stuck with his head beneath a pile of papers, Danny Williams winced at the sound of the glass door creaking open. As his head rose, it bumped into the hot lamp, and Danny groaned loudly, terribly unsatisfied with all the creaking, the paperwork, uncomfortable silence and... Steve. His muscular figure walked in with a pack of beers and a box of pizza in both hands, and a poor smile on his face. Weeks had gone, and after some adapting, Danny realized – he wasn't going to. Not any time soon, anyway; every time he'd see Steve, hear his voice, he felt a bit sickly, and immediately avoided his presence. It was something the SEAL could handle, after everything that had happened, but not not notice. Steve decided to let him cool, process everything but eventually, he expected things to get as they used to be. Like they were before all that crap happened, he thought. Chin and Kono seemed to be doing a lot better – weeks ago they started acting like everything was super good; like nothing ever happened. Steve felt good about it, he tried acting like that himself, however, there was something that just wouldn't let him. That something was embodied in the form of Danny, and Steve couldn't cope with that no longer. Deciding to talk to him, he ordered a pizza, brought beer and appeared in Danny's office whilst he was the most vulnerable – whilst doing paperwork. He knew it was the only thing he wouldn't be rather doing than talking to Steve, so he took his chance.

"Drowning in that paperwork?" Steve asked as he found his way to a seat opposite Danny.

"If only," Danny replied without much enthusiasm, rubbing his forehead after an unpleasant hit.

"Need help?" Steve offered, placing a beer in front of Danny, and opening the pizza box. Fuck, Steve thought as he laid his eyes upon the untouched pizza.

"No, thanks, uh – could you get that pineapple out," Danny requested somewhat annoyed, after seeing the large chunks of his not-so-favorite fruit somewhere they were not supposed to be. Steve looked at him with an apologetic expression, resenting himself quite a lot, and disappeared with the pizza. Danny was somewhat both relieved and annoyed by his absence – he didn't know whether he was happy about him being gone or the pizza. Steve stormed back in without the box and sat down, taking a beer himself.

"Sorry, Danny, I forgot," he said rather quietly.

"Yeah, right, uh, it's fine. No wonder you forgot, you were gone for some time," Danny inhaled deeply, running his sweaty palms down his face, and tilted his head slightly, looking at Steve with a poker face. He intertwined his fingers, placing them on the desk, ignoring the beer, and almost amusedly looked at Steve. "What are you doing here Steve?"

"Danny-" he uttered.

"No. No. I don't have time for this. I don't have time for whatever you have to say to me, okay? I just – no, Steve. I get it. You're sorry, and I should be over it by now, and – honestly – I'm really surprised I'm not but, no, you don't just come back from the dead twice and run around the office collecting points in the who loves Steve again game! No! I'm not getting over it, right now, I have no plans of getting over it, and no, there's nothing you can say right now, or later, to make me feel better. Or make things better, okay, because they won't get better. Until they do, but that's not now, and unless you have something to say work-wise, I can't listen to you. Not now, okay? So please, just please, go with your beer and just leave me alone. Please."

Steve's jaw nearly dropped. There was nothing he could say. The speech he was preparing all day... suddenly it was so irrelevant. Nothing mattered anymore – nothing he wanted to say or do. It really was like he didn't exist anymore, at least not in the light prior to the events. Steve stood up, not rapidly as he wanted to, and somehow staggered to the door, feeling as numb as ever. Nothing came to his mind, except...

"I didn't forget that you hate pineapples, I just forgot to check which pizza I ordered, Danno," he whimpered hoarsely and staggered out of Danny's office. Danny's eyes were fixed on Steve, leaving. There was a sudden feeling of emptiness, inside Danny, that he couldn't ignore this time. His face frowned, trying to ignore it, and he was doing a good job at ignoring Steve – his face, his presence, his words; all of them – but the last word pained him.

Danno.

He missed it more than he admitted. He missed it so much that he gave up the paperwork and reached out for the beer on the desk that Steve brought him.

A/N; After such a LONG time... here's a short one. And I intend on getting back to this story each week. Apologies. And thank you for reading!