Timeloop

[haolehothead]

Danny wakes up to the severe pain in his back that only comes accompanied by his pull-out bed. The alarm is blaring, the police radio is sounding that someone needs to check on John McGarrett, and when Danny rolls over to turn off the alarm, his body comes into contact with about two hundred pounds (give or take) of warm flesh. Danny doesn't have to think much to know what this day is. True, the events after he goes to the crime scene are just a little bit more vivid, but he'd been on the island the day that John McGarrett was killed and that was the day he'd picked up the case.

He wakes up fully, giving a wary look beneath him and bracing his weight against Steve's torso with both palms, staring at Steve in the pull-out bed of his crappy apartment. This is going to be so bad for Steve and Danny isn't even sure how to begin going about it. How do you? Steve had been thousands of miles away the first time this happened, there's no way that he's going to deal with this normally. It's Steve, after all.

And the radio keeps asking for someone to check on McGarrett, who went AWOL after lunch.

Danny knows this isn't possible, this has to be a bad dream. He pinches at the flesh of his skin, but it aches thoroughly and now he's faced with the knowledge that he has to figure out how to tell Steve about this. "Steve," he hisses, pushing at him. "Steve, wake up."

First he gets him awake and calm, then they figure out what to do about all this.

Comments

[newkindofcop]

"Don't talk like that," Steve insists, resting his cheek against Danny's shoulder, arm lazily resting over his chest as he slides off to the side. "You don't have to think about that now. I'm putting a moratorium on death talk."

[haolehothead]

"I'm just saying, it's in the Williams family history," he mumbles, soft and loving as he brushes his fingers through Steve's hair, paying special attention to the strands of white at his fingertips. "Just like McGarrett history is being too noble for their own good."

[newkindofcop]

That coaxes a chuckle out of Steve, low and deep in his chest, his eyes half-lidded as he tilts his head into the touch of Danny's hand. "You know a lot about McGarretts, do you?"

[haolehothead]

Danny's smile is just a shade of rueful. "Knew your Dad for six months before I ever met you," he admits, laughing to himself because not once did he ever, ever think that he'd fall so crazy in love with the man's son. "And you know, I met your sis, too."

[newkindofcop]

"One time. You met Mary once," Steve points out, fingers spanning wide over Danny's hip, palm cupping the slender bone. "Sometimes I don't think there's any possible way that she and I could be more different - and then there are other times that I remember why she was my best friend when we were kids."

[haolehothead]

"I dunno," Danny hums idly as he shifts to his back and props his head up with his hands. "She was pretty cute when I met her. And wild. Sexy, too. I mean, I'd definitely have hit on her if I hadn't met you first."

[newkindofcop]

"Danny," Steve murmurs, craning his neck to look up at him, his face the picture of disgust. "That's beyond disturbing, on so many levels."

[haolehothead]

"Oh, come on, like you wouldn't check out my sisters if you'd met them without knowing me? They're all short, cute, with huge racks and big blonde hair," he protests, smacking Steve's cheek lightly (lighter than he would if he were feeling better).

[newkindofcop]

"Well," Steve murmurs, rolling off to his back and sitting up slowly, stretching out a kink in his shoulder, "there is a reason they called me Smooth Dog way back when."

[haolehothead]

Danny laughs softly, but that's superseded by a soft sound of displeasure when Steve starts to sit up away from him. "Don't," he says, suddenly back to the man who can't do this if Steve goes. "Don't go, not yet."

[newkindofcop]

"I'm not," Steve assures him, sliding back to sit up with the pillows propped behind him, leaning back alongside Danny's relaxed form. "Just stretching out. Not going anywhere, D." He rests a hand on Danny's thigh above the bedsheets, squeezing once.

[haolehothead]

Danny musters up a smile, even though he feels pathetic. He takes a deep breath and rubs a hand over his face before curling back into Steve's body. "Just, don't go anywhere for today, okay? That's all I want. I want you here, today."

[newkindofcop]

"You've got me, right here," Steve murmurs, sliding an arm around Danny's shoulders and pulling him in against his chest, kissing the crown of his head. "As long as you want."

[haolehothead]

"How about we start with forever and work backwards, huh?" Danny suggests, feeling lighthearted, but not sounding it as he gets the words out, burying his face in Steve's neck. "Maybe, just maybe, one day you can really get me all yours," he says tiredly, eyes shut. "Daniel Williams-McGarrett."

[newkindofcop]

"Who says I don't have you all mine right here and now?" Steve replies, hugging Danny close against his chest and breathing out a sigh into his hair. "Don't even need to have my last name - although I won't complain if you want it."

[haolehothead]

"You," Danny gets out, a little breathless considering how close he's being squeezed to Steve, "you are the one who said marriage to you meant taking names. I am trying to promote compromise, here, or do you not want that, huh?"

[newkindofcop]

"Do I not want that?" Steve echoes, flashing a smirk in Danny's direction, lazy and crooked as he sprawls himself across the bed, idly running his hand over Danny's chest and stomach. "What do you think I want, babe, huh?"

[haolehothead]

"I think you want to be a lazy bum who surfs all day," Danny mutters, giving Steve a dubious look. "And I think that I'm way too willing to avoid the topic of our impending marriage. We've been together a long time and we keep avoiding this topic."

[newkindofcop]

"How have we been avoiding?" Steve asks, raising an eyebrow as he pillows his chin on his own forearm. "We've talked about a lot of topics related to marriage: the bachelor party, the ceremony, what kind of reception we want to have afterwards. That doesn't constitute avoidance as far as I'm concerned."

[haolehothead]

"Okay, who's gonna do the ceremony?" Danny asks, because he has been married before, he knows this. "What's the menu of the reception? Guest list? Who's wearing what? Who's taken whose name first? What's going to happen after? Honeymoon? What kind of future are we looking at together? Are you gonna shock me with a surrogate demand?"

Maybe he's being pedantic, but he's not in the best mood.

[newkindofcop]

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Steve exclaims, holding out a hand to press fingertips against Danny, almost as if he's afraid he's going to fly off the bed into a tailspin right here and now. He's still not convinced Danny won't spontaneously combust one day, but hopefully today is not that day. "Okay, some of those questions we can discuss now, and some of those are definitely a ways away - at least where our future together is concerned, because I'm not sure either one of us has answers to that yet."

[haolehothead]

"Yeah, well, that's one of those talks I didn't have with Rachel and look where we are," Danny mutters grumpily. "Hell, Steve, I don't even know what kind of dress you want to wear. All I know is I want a tie. Where do you want to have this thing? And when?"

[newkindofcop]

"Are you ready?" Steve asks, looking a little surprised by Danny's question, even though he's been wearing the ring since the second, real proposal and Steve's ink is fully healed by this point. "Don't you want to tell people we're engaged, first off?"

[haolehothead]

"Steve, I've been wearing a wedding ring suddenly on my finger for months, now," he points out. "Sure, everyone knows about my ex, but the truth is, it's not like people are gonna go white in shock if we tell them about us. Besides," he adds with a snort, "it's not like we have to get married tomorrow if we set the date. Why not...why not Christmas or something?"

[newkindofcop]

"Why not Christmas?" Steve asks, though his tone is genuine as he glances up to Danny's face, resting a hand on top of the hand in question that bears the ring, thumb smoothing over the thin band. "I could go for a Christmas wedding."