And here we have a cool down after the crazy arc we just wrapped up.

Shout out to Phoebe Miller for beta reading!


Fact #155: Home isn't always where you grew up.

Season: 5th Season

Steve sat back in the worn booth and pulled his beer closer. People talked over each other, laughed in random intervals, played pool, shouted at the TVs behind the counters showing the game. Or games. There were several different sports channels on throughout the bar.

His leg bounced up and down under the table. He didn't know why he was antsy. Meeting people from his partner's past shouldn't make him nervous. As long as none of them turned out to be secret killers for hire, he'd be doing better than Steve had with his friends.

Kono dropped into the seat across from him and shot a glare at the guys at the bar counter.

"You want me to talk to them?" he asked, shooting the scowling guys an intense stare as he took a sip of his beer.

Kono poured herself a glass from the pitcher on the table. "Brah, if they come over here, it's not you they're going to have to be scared of."

"Should I warn Danny the bar might be trashed by the time he gets here?" he asked.

"I've got more finesse than you, Boss," Kono said. "It wouldn't be a big scene."

"Okay." He held his hands up in surrender.

He perked up when a familiar face appeared and then disappeared behind a row of booths. The limping gait had become ingrained in Steve's mind now and he could pick Mags out of a crowd by how she walked.

Kono waved her arm above her head.

Mags nodded and took a shortcut between a waiter and another table. She sat down heavily next to Kono.

"I beat Danny here, huh?" she said. She reached for the pitcher and helped herself. "That doesn't happen often."

Steve grinned. "You should've seen him when I first partnered up with him. It was a bit difficult for him to grasp the concept of island time."

"Okay, listen here, McGarrett, there's a difference between 'I'm a few minutes late' and 'I'm an hour late'. I experienced that when I was there in Hawaii. I don't want to take two hours to go somewhere when I could get there in forty minutes," Mags said.

"Forty minutes? What kind of hotrod are you driving?" Kono asked.

"You've driven with Danny," Mags said simply, as if that answered all their questions, when all it did was raised several more.

Steve leaned forward on his elbows. "We're talking about the same Danny, right? The guy who looks twice in all directions at a four way stop and rarely goes above the speed limit?"

"The same guy who can never drive his own car because Steve has pretty much taken possession of the keys and the driver seat?" Kono added.

Mags smothered a smile and slouched in the booth. She flicked her fingers at them. "You know what, that's probably not my story to tell."

Steve glanced over his shoulder. No Danny yet. He looked back at her pleadingly. "From one of Danny's partners to another."

She zipped a hand over her mouth. "My lips are sealed."

"Oh, come on," Kono said.

"Come on what?"

Steve almost jumped. Almost. He hadn't even noticed Danny materializing next to the booth.

"You. What took you so long?" Steve said.

"Scooch over." Danny slid into the booth next to him. "Keep scooching."

Steve slid around until he was in the middle of the booth. Tactically, it was a bad place to be for several reasons, but seeing as there were no tables with actual chairs available, he'd have to live with it unless he wanted to fight with one of Danny's friends over their positions on the ends of the horseshoe shaped booth.

Danny hadn't been alone. Callahan sat next to Danny and another woman sat next to Mags on the opposite side of the table.

"Steve, you already know Jim Callahan," Danny said.

"Unfortunately, I've became acquainted with you very quickly, Commander," Callahan said to Steve, but it was said with a dry smile.

"That's Kono Kalakaua," Danny said. Callahan reached over the beer pitcher to shake her hand. Danny pointed across the table at the woman. "And that's Jenny Smirnov. We were in the Academy together and graduated at the same time."

"And yet somehow I'm a sergeant and he's still a detective," Jenny said.

"Promotions kinda went out the window when I got conscripted into Five-0 by this guy." Danny jerked a thumb at Steve.

"Well, at least you don't have to worry about anyone stepping on you to climb the ladder, huh, Danny?" Callahan said. He took off his ballcap and ran his fingers through his thinning gray hair. "I think I'd rather be an underling again, to be honest."

"What? You don't like being in charge of everything, Chief?" Jenny asked.

Callahan waved a hand at Steve over Danny's head. "Hey, it's not easy being in charge, is it, McGarrett?"

"No, Sir, it's not," Steve agreed.

Danny threw his hands up. "Hey, hey, wait a minute. You see this guy here? This guy here is a control freak. He couldn't not be in charge. I don't even get to drive my own car."

Mags snorted.

Danny narrowed his eyes at her.

"Getting chauffeured around ain't bad," Jenny said.

"Not when he's driving on sidewalks and going up one-way streets the wrong way and almost taking out civilians like it's a video game." Danny put his hands in front of him on an imaginary steering wheel. "Ten points, ten points, ten points, oh look, a fruit stand, twenty points!"

The others laughed. Steve wrinkled his nose.

"I've heard that you haven't always been the model driver, bud," Steve said.

Danny glared at Mags and then at Jenny as she started to open her mouth. "Not one word from either of you!"

Jenny considered it for a moment and then braced her elbows on the table and leaned forward. "Okay, so this guy–"

Danny tossed his hands in the air.

"Hey, folks, what can I get ya?"

"Saved by the bell, brah," Kono said.

Jenny grinned. "Don't get too comfortable, Mister, I've got lots of stories to tell."

"Oh, maybe this was a bad idea." Danny sighed and buried his face in his hands.

Steve smiled, and yet at the same time felt a stirring of another emotion other than amusement. He pushed it aside for the time being and turned to the waitress.

"No! I'm ordering for us, because you two will get something stupid that we can get back home," Danny interjected.

"Now who's being the control freak?" Steve asked.

"Shut up. You'll like it."

While Danny ordered for them, Steve looked over at Jenny and Mags chatting. Jenny was about Danny's age with blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. She had a hefty, solid build and a round face with sparkling blue eyes. Mags, while being around the same age, looked older and more tired. Those same scars he had seen the day before peeked just above the hood of her jacket and he didn't miss the shaking of her hand as she gestured.

Then another thought occurred to him. Both of those women as well as Callahan had known Danny far longer than he had. He and Danny had been friends for roughly four years. Mags had been his partner for six years and some change. Jenny had been in the Academy and graduated with him. Callahan had known him as long as Mags had, maybe even longer.

Suddenly, he felt like a pinprick in Danny's life. Just some guy that had come along, hijacked his case, and shanghaied him into being his partner. He had never had friends like these, ones that stuck around for years and years. He'd never had a friend like Danny, someone so close that it was hard to remember a time they hadn't been friends and it was even harder to picture a time when they wouldn't be.

"Earth to Steven, hello."

He blinked.

"What?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "Jenny was trying to ask you something, but you were on another planet."

Steve sheepishly turned his attention toward Jenny.

"Don't worry about it. Us Jersey natives do a lot of talking and people tend to zone out," Jenny laughed it off. "I was just asking if you had ever been to Dubai. My brother is in the Navy and won't shut up about how gorgeous it is. Looks like a lot of skyscrapers and sand to me."

Steve nodded. "I've been there. It's definitely not like anything here."

"If you ask me, the only thing worse than living on a rock floating in the ocean would be living in a desert," Danny said.

Steve stared, a little hurt by that remark. He shook it off. He was a grown man and it wasn't anything he hadn't heard from Danny before.

"Come on, brah, you like living in Hawaii," Kono said. She pointed. "I've seen that smile when you're out on those waves on a board."

Jenny slammed her glass down and Callahan laughed.

"This Danny?" Callahan asked. "He goes surfing?"

"You made me jump in the river to fish out a suspect during training when you were perfectly capable of doing it yourself, you putz!" Jenny said.

"And he made me go out on the water with dive crews," Mags added.

"You survived, didn't you?" Steve questioned. It came out a bit sharper than he intended and the others stared at him.

"It took me moving to Hawaii to get back in the water, and it was only because Grace egged me on," Danny said, subtly touching Steve's arm and without words telling him to calm down. "She wanted to swim, so I went swimming. Then she wanted to surf, so I had Kono set me up."

"And now he's pretty good if he doesn't drop in on someone else's wave," Kono said.

Danny waved her off. He poured the last of the pitcher into his glass.

"Come on, girls, let's go get a refill," Jenny said and grabbed the empty pitcher.

Mags groaned as she slid out of the booth followed by Kono. Steve sullenly watched them walk up to the bar. They ribbed Danny like that back at home, even more mercilessly sometimes. Yet, it felt wrong to hear his old friends do that.

"I'm gonna go take a leak," Callahan said.

Then it was just the two of them at the table.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" Steve asked gruffly.

"You know what. And you're wearing a face that looks like you're sucking on a lemon while someone kicks your puppy."

Steve furrowed his brows and turned to look at him. The endless descriptions of his various faces never ceased to amuse, annoy, and amaze him.

Danny sat forward with his elbows on the table. "I remember someone else giving me crap for not swimming, and for missing Jersey, and for craving my favorite foods that I can't find anywhere on the island."

Steve averted his gaze and focused in on the paper coaster his beer was sitting on.

"Seriously, what's the matter with you? You're always begging to know about my past and now that I'm finally introducing you to it, you're just sitting here in the corner grumbling like a discontented rottweiler."

He wished he could figure out his emotions as well as Danny could. Danny always had his heart on his sleeve, nearly always told him exactly what he was thinking, and wouldn't hesitate to let him know when he was angry, upset, or suspicious.

McGarrett men didn't show emotion like that. They kept it bottled up under a cool exterior. The problem with that, though, was that with all his emotions having been bottled up for most of his life, they were all mixed together and he couldn't sort them out very well.

"Do you ever think about moving back here?" he blurted.

Danny looked down at the table, too. Slowly, he rubbed his hands together as his brow knitted into a frown.

"If Rachel had tried to move to Vegas with Grace a couple years ago, I would have left the island. As much as I hate sand and Vegas in general, I would have followed her."

Steve remembered him fighting the court to not let Rachel leave with Grace. He had stood up and testified on his behalf before being rudely interrupted by a case.

"If you had the chance to come back here?" he asked.

"I would have given anything to have moved back here with Grace."

"Even now?"

Danny sighed. "You want to know the truth?"

Steve's heart clenched. Outwardly, only his jaw tensed and he nodded tightly.

"The whole time I've been here, it's been great, you know, ignoring the thugs and attempts on my family and criminal overlords using us as chess pieces. My family lives here, my old friends are here, my favorite restaurants."

"An unhealthy portion of your life revolves around food."

"I'm sorry not all of us can subsist on MREs. Will you let me finish?"

"Please."

"Thank you. As I was saying, it's been nice being back. It feels familiar, you know? Like putting on a comfortable pair of slippers or an old sweatshirt."

At one time, Steve had no frame of reference for what he was talking about. Having been in the Navy from a young age, he had jumped around a lot and the only feeling he knew wasn't familiarity, but safety. Relative safety. Making it back to base after a mission. Meeting a transport out of a hot zone.

Then he had gone into the reserves and moved into his father's old house on the island. Made friends. Chin was a comforting presence in his life. Kono was the bright eyed rookie-no-more that fed off his enthusiasm like he fed off hers. Catherine was a piece of his time in the Navy that had followed him home, almost like a security blanket.

And then there was Danny. Danny had become his old sweatshirt.

"But while we've been here, all I can think is, 'I can't wait to get back home.'"

It took Steve a moment to process that. When he did, a grin lit up his face.

"Did you just call Hawaii home?"

Danny put a finger to his lips. "Shh! I don't want these guys to think I've gone soft. They all teased me I was going to Hawaii to retire."

"Some retirement," Steve said.

"Yeah, tell me about it. I've been shot, stabbed, poisoned, and mauled more times in the short four and a half years I've been on the island than I was during the decade I was a cop here," Danny said. He twisted in the booth to poke Steve in the chest. "So quit being a possessive hump and just enjoy the evening, huh? I'm not going to decide to move back here just like that, okay?"

Steve couldn't wipe the grin off his face. "Okay."

There was a shout at the bar counter.

One of the guys from earlier had apparently pushed it too far. Kono now had his arm twisted, forcing him to one knee. Jenny was taking her earrings off and Mags stood between them and the guys, trying to talk them down. Callahan appeared around the corner, took one look at the situation, and walked back over to the booth.

Steve raised a brow and gestured.

Callahan shrugged. "I'm off duty."

Danny motioned towards the girls who were now scaring the guys off with their abrupt and aggressive rebuttal. "When you're off duty, that means–"

"Not my circus, not my monkeys," Callahan finished.

"I'll have to remember that one," Steve said.

"Whatever. You think every circus is yours and all the monkeys are at your disposal," Danny said.

Callahan caught Steve's eye. "Now, the story you should hear about your partner does involve an actual circus."

Color flooded Danny's cheeks.

Steve turned to better talk to Callahan. Danny had said it himself. He might as well enjoy the evening and use his old friends to his advantage.

"Now this I'm looking forward to, Danno," he said.

Danny muttered and buried his face in his folded forearms on the table.

The waitress returned and saved him once again by placing the large pizzas and baskets of wings on the table. Just as she was leaving, the girls reappeared. Mags and Jenny set the new pitchers of beer on the table while Kono slid in next to Steve.

"Wow, that smells awesome," she said.

Steve tilted his head toward the bar. "How'd that go?"

"No one left with broken bones," Kono said.

"And we don't have assault charges," Mags added under her breath.

Jenny flipped a hand out at Danny. "What's going on here?"

"The Chief was about to tell me a story involving Danny and a circus," Steve said.

Jenny pounded the table with her palms. "I love this story!"

"Okay, start from the beginning," Kono said and leaned in eagerly.

Callahan patted Danny's back with a devilish grin. "Just imagine, if you will, a young patrol officer still fresh faced and ready to take on the world…"


Next time on "Dragons", if anything were to survive an apocalypse, it would be dragons and cockroaches. An AU within an AU again. It's been a while. ;)

Just so you guys know, I have a rather large file of notes containing ideas for this fic, and I'm always adding more. Please feel free to suggest things, ask questions, or tell me things you'd like to see or would have liked to have seen more of.

Thank you for reading! Y'all stay safe out there!