haolehothead | (no subject)

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- game: tabula rasa

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He's been working ever since he got the knee injury on stretching out muscles and ligaments around the thing to ensure it doesn't happen again. True, he lied his ass off to Helen about the how of it, but he doesn't like the idea of going back just to say 'and hey, happened again, more drugs?' Helen's been taking damn good care to make sure he's healing and Danny's not about to ignore stretches just because they get monotonous over time.

He's in a pair of orange board shorts alone and is in the shade just behind the hut. He figures once he's done, he'll take a quick dip to rinse the sweat off. Plus it'll make the damn puppy happy if they go in the water. He doesn't know exactly when it happened, but somehow, McGarrett converted the dog into a swimming idiot, too.

He's settling down precariously onto his shins, hands wedged behind his back as he inches further and further back, getting out a good stretch of his IT band in the thigh in order to try and loosen up some of the muscles and ligaments around the knee.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Danny breathes out when the stretch starts to radiate pain. "Too much."

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Danny shifts his palms flat into the sand and closes his eyes when he feels the stretch, shifting to stand and brushing his hips against Steve's when he does. He grins, glancing over his shoulder. "Come on, let's go in the water. I got a thing to ask you and I'd rather do it when you're in your natural element."

"Oh, so you're going to ply me with the beach and then drop a bomb on me? Real nice, Danno," Steve teases, shaking his head as he follows Danny the short distance to the water, Zulu racing ahead to jump in first. He pauses at the shoreline to take his sneakers and socks off, leaving his damp t-shirt on top of the pile before he starts wading in.

"I don't know when, but you conditioned that damn dog to want the water. It's in his poor puppy blood," Danny laments as he makes a face at Zulu. Danny's only in the swimsuit, so he heads straight for the water anyway. "Well, I got one question and one comment to make. Which one do you want first?"

"He loves the water," Steve responds, with a slow shrug, wading out until he's waist-deep and then submerges briefly to cool off, resurfacing and blinking water out of his eyes. "Comment, then question. I don't know, just lay it on me."

Danny pushes off in a slow breaststroke out to deeper waters where he starts to tread, just lightly. It's just enough to keep him in light shape and to make sure that if ever he does get thrown in the deep end of the ocean, he won't drown. "Okay, well, comment. I'm wearing a ring and I said I'd marry you, but I never got a real proposal. And question, you said something the other day about how we were lucky now to not have kids. You want them?"

It takes more depth to bring Steve out to treading water, so he's still standing when Danny's feet leave the bottom, but he's hovering close by, occasionally holding his arms out across the surface of the water for balance. "So, let me get this straight," he replies, holding Danny's gaze. "You want a real proposal - which, honestly, I'd be happy to arrange - and you want to know if I want kids - which I do, in the future."

"Yeah, I want a real proposal, you goof, of course I do. You really think I like telling my friends that I woke up with a ring on my finger?" Danny scoffs and treads a little further so he can duck his head under the water and come up with the strands sticking to the side of his face. "And yeah, Steve, yeah, the kids thing. It's not like it's the first, or second, or third, or fourth...fifth...tenth thing I'd think about you. Especially given your awkwardness. I mean, I think that you'd be great, but, well, babe...history proves itself."

"I'm not against a real proposal, Danno," Steve promises softly, reaching over to brush back a few pieces of hair from Danny's face with dripping fingertips. "Of course I'd be happy to propose to you officially, if that's what you want. Not that I'm going to tell you when or where, since that'd ruin the surprise of it, but it'll happen. It will." He sighs, nodding slowly at the other part of it. "Yeah, I know. I'm not - I haven't ruled it out, not at all. But eventually, someday, I do want to have a family."

"You damn well better give me a real proposal or I'm gonna have second thoughts about you. My Ma always told my sisters that you could tell how good the husband was gonna be based on how he asked," Danny says, all tough and rough as he kicks in the water to get closer to Steve.

He wraps an arm around his waist to kiss him softly. "Babe, you know I have issues with surrogates, yeah?"

"Well, I'd hate to earn the justifiable wrath of the Williams clan," Steve replies, his own arm sliding around Danny to tug him close, balancing his weight a little easier with the buoyancy the water provides.

"I know," he softly adds. "We'll just have to, you know, look into all available options when we decide to go ahead with it."

"You just wait til you meet my sisters. Imagine three of me, but older, shorter, with bigger hair, and a whole brood of kids," Danny teases, pushing into Steve's body carefully. "And it's not that I don't want a kid, you know I want one. A dozen," he softly says. "It's bringing another body into our lives who might one day decide she wants to keep the kid because genetically, she's a part."

"It might be the most dangerous rendezvous I've ever attempted," Steve replies, maintaining a straight face for as long as he's able. "I know. And it's just something we're going to have to really look into, and discuss. And our options here might be even more limited than they are at home." He's got the look that says he's going to start researching, though.

"We don't have any options and...you know what?" Danny mutters irritably. "Forget it, let's just forget it. That's a long, long way off and I just figured out you don't want to run screaming from kids."

"Hey, hey," Steve murmurs, leaning in, lifting a hand to Danny's shoulder to squeeze tight as he just holds onto him, lazily drifting in the water. "Let's just take it one step at a time, alright? I've still got that proposal to take care of, after all."

"Yeah, you do," Danny agrees, calming down by taking a slow and deep breath. He slicks both hands through his hair when Steve's got a grip on him. "You want some hints?"

"Could be helpful," Steve replies casually, sliding his arm a little further around Danny's waist and hoisting him up against him, mouthing a series of kisses along his jawline. "Give me a couple."

Danny laughs as he shifts and hooks one of his ankles around Steve's calf, giving him an infuriatingly smug smirk. He leans in and kisses Steve's lower lip gently. "Nope," is all he says, waggling his brows at Steve. "Figure it out."

"You never make anything easy for me," Steve mutters, though there's affection in his tone as he gives Danny a quick, tight squeeze of an embrace, breaking away for a moment to submerge himself one more time beneath the water. When he comes back up for air, he swipes a hand over his face, chuckling. "I'll figure it out."

"The only hint I'll give you is that I appreciate nostalgia," Danny says, shifting backwards when Steve plummets under the waterline. He starts to swim lazily back to shore, picking his swimsuit off his thighs when he gets to the shallows.

He bends down to pick up Zulu, who is absolutely soaking wet and intent on licking Danny's face. "Hey buddy, how're you doing, huh?"

Steve comes back in from the water after a beat, walking in slowly. He's not wearing his swimsuit, but the shorts will probably dry soon enough, and he stands underneath the sun, letting the warmth dry him off slowly.

"I think he's going to pass out as soon as we get home," he admits, watching the puppy curl up in Danny's arms. "Swimming tires him out."

Danny makes a fond little noise when Zulu curls up a little tighter, his paws scrambling to find a space for himself. "Yeah, he's a sweetheart," Danny says in a hush, rocking him like he might a baby as he brings him to the porch and settles him on an array of blankets he's arranged, settling down at his side to dry off. "Come here."

"Completely got you wrapped around his paw, too," Steve points out, collecting his clothes and shoes and heading up to the porch, taking a seat in one of the chairs and putting his feet up on the front railing, glancing out towards the water.

Danny shifts so he can stand up and wander around to Steve's back, digging his fingers into Steve's shoulders to start massaging, leaning forward on the chair idly as he follows his gaze out to the sea. "Do you want my ring back?"

"If you want to go the traditional route," Steve murmurs, leaning back against the chair and further into Danny's kneading fingers, his eyes drifting closed as he rests his head. "I might just have to sneak it off your finger while you're sleeping, again."

Danny shifts his fingers to one side -- the injured side -- in order to focus a little more pressure there as he keeps an eye on Zulu out of the corner of his vision, a fond smile on his lips. "I might be upset if I'm without my ring too long, babe," he warns.