Keep the Faith

Steve was awake even earlier than usual Monday morning. This had been one of the longest weekends of his life. He hadn't seen Danny or Grace all weekend. Grace had been too shaken up to want to leave their house, almost bordering on clingy, and Danny, understandably, was loathe to let her out of his sight.

They'd spoken on the phone a lot over the last two days, however. There'd been several texts from them both when Steve had finally been woken by his back, screaming at him for torturing it with a night – or morning, as the case may be – on the couch. He saw the last one first.

-Hey, you're not answering my Monkey, you Neanderthal. You better not have gotten yourself killed after I left.

Steve had grinned and called him before he'd even done more than just sit up on the couch.

He'd kept busy the rest of the weekend, in between chats with the Williams. He'd made some calls to HPD to make sure everything was taken care of, called the Governor to update her. He worked on the Marquis, not because anything was wrong with it, but because he needed to keep busy. He needed keep from going crazy thinking about what had happened, what could have happened, what might happen when he finally saw Danny again. All those phone calls had sounded a lot more fond then they had before.

So now it was Monday morning and he was pulling himself out of the ocean about the same time he was usually going in. He toweled off as he walked back to the house, thinking about maybe going for a run with all this extra time he had, to try and burn off all this extra energy he also had.

That was, until he saw Danny standing on the lanai, hands in his pockets. Steve stopped drying his hair, held the towel at his side, watched as Danny's gaze flicked over all his bare skin. Danny's lips twitched into a smile and Steve smiled back, walking over to him, standing much too close for most bros, especially when one of them was practically naked, but just about normal for Steve and Danny.

"Hey."

"Hey babe."

"How's Grace?"

Danny shrugged. "Good. I took her to school early today so she could see Will before class." Steve laughed at his friend when Danny visibly shuddered at the thought. "And I wanted to see you."

Steve licked his lips. "We would have seen each other in an hour anyway."

Another shrug. "You complaining? I can leave." He pointed behind him with his thumb.

"No!" Steve knew he was only kidding, but some part of Steve was afraid of what he knew was about to happen. After six years of wanting something, of trying to talk himself out of his feelings, of thinking that Danny couldn't possibly feel the same about him, even if he thought, sometimes, maybe he did. After all these years of all these warring emotions, he was afraid. Afraid that he'd read things wrong, or even if he hadn't, that he didn't get to have them. Why would he? What had he ever done to deserve this?

"Hey, hey," Danny was saying, reaching out to brush his fingers across Steve's jaw. "What's going on?"

Steve closed his eyes, leaned into the touch. He wasn't reading this wrong. He couldn't be.

"Danny, don't go."

"Not gonna, babe."

They moved closer and closer, pulled into each other's orbits. The sun crested the horizon, shining its golden rays across Danny's face. Curiosity finally got the better of him. What would the sun taste like from Danny's lips? What little noises would he make as they kissed? Would he be loud and brash?

Steve closed the final space between them, Danny meeting him half way as his hand moved from Steve's jaw to the back of his neck, pulling him down. Their first kiss started soft and chaste, everything they usually weren't.

Steve lifted a hand to Danny's jaw, the stubble rough under his fingertips and he recorded these new tastes and sensations in his memory in case he never felt this again. In case this was a dream. Danny sighed into the kiss, opening, allowed Steve to explore and Steve didn't hesitate to take the gift, exploring every inch Danny offered up. He walked them back until Danny hit the railing with a grunt. Steve broke their kiss, licked his bottom lip as if to savour even more of Danny's taste, as he closed his eyes and rested his forehead against Danny's.

"Danno." His friend scratched lightly at the nape of his neck. He breathed deeply and whether that was to breathe him in or catch his breath, Steve didn't know. "Danny... I don't know what I would have done if anything..."

"Hey. I'm okay. Grace is okay. Because of you."

Steve chuckled and it sounded suspiciously wet and he didn't want to think about how much he was embarrassing himself in front of Danny. Despite that, he pulled back so he could watch his friend's face, seeing him now in a new light. This light where maybe they could be something more.

"Thanks to Lou, actually. He wanted to make sure you weren't gonna flip out about Will and Grace."

Danny scoffed. "I would never do that!" Steve raised an eyebrow and Danny smirked. "Okay, so maybe he was saved by the sound of gunshots."

"What about you and me?" Steve said after a moment, feeling unsure again, like maybe everything was still just a by-product of the dance. Maybe Danny hadn't really meant it. It's not like Steve was worthy of someone like—

"What about us? You have me pressed up against your house McGarrett. You kissed me like a starving man and you wanna know 'what about us'? What about you guys saving the day without being a crazy person? What about the fact that your first thought when it was over was about my daughter? You know how much more I fell in love with you in that moment?"

Steve's heart skipped a beat at that and all the negative thoughts playing see-saw with the positive ones disappeared and he was just left floating in the air. 'More' implied Danny was already in love with him.

Danny and Grace were alive and fine and Danny Williams was in love with him.

Steve pulled Danny to him, wrapping his arms around him, holding tight, practically feeling Danny's heart beating against his chest. He buried his face in the other man's neck to breath in his scent – Irish Spring, the spice of his aftershave, the salt of the air, and the scent that was just Danny. He felt Danny's breath flutter against his skin.

"You're lucky this crazy Hawaiian sun has already dried you off, you animal." Steve pulled back with a laugh, a twinkle in his eye, and a smile so big it almost hurt his face.

Grace and Danny were alive and well, Danny Williams was in love with him and absolutely nothing had to change. Except for the better.

"Danny..." he said again, couldn't say it enough, as if he had to remind himself that this was real, that Danny was really here. He kissed him again and this time it was an explosion, an attack on Danny's mouth, his jaw, his neck, his mouth again as they both endeavoured to discover everything they could about the taste and feel of the other.