twentysomething

Title: Eat Up, Honey

Fandom: Hawaii Five-0

Pairing: Steve/Alwaysagirl!Danni (Wild Honey 'Verse)

Summary: "After about a month of acknowledging that Steve McGarrett was her boyfriend (Christ,) which sort of included the week and a half she barely spoke to him because he loaned her out to pretend to be a prostitute, she realized that she was going to have to tell Gracie."

Length: 1800 wordsish.

Warnings: Picnics, trusting Steve McGarrett with your child

Notes: Most recent in the Wild Honey 'verse- and I actually already have the super terrible next installment of this 'verse, I'm just hanging on to it as not to spam you. Basically, Danni freaks out the whole time for fairly justifiable reasons. With love, as always, for leupagus who brought me pain au chocolat this morning.



It hadn't been weird, which was probably the weirdest thing about Steve and Grace.

Danni hadn't really dated after she and Robert had gotten divorced. She'd been busy, fighting with her lawyer about fighting for custody and being angry all the time, and she really just hadn't found time for it, although she had thought about fucking some of the younger, hotter-than-Robert EMTs who watched her ass at crime scenes. But then she'd moved to Hawaii, and met Steve and well. In a lot of really sad ways, that had been that. She hadn't had time to date anyone before she'd more or less tricked him into bed with her and he'd tricked her into a monogamous relationship.

After about a month of acknowledging that Steve McGarrett was her boyfriend (Christ,) which sort of included the week and a half she barely spoke to him because he loaned her out to pretend to be a prostitute, she realized that she was going to have to tell Gracie.

Grace had gone ballistic over Cynthia, although, if Danni is being honest with herself, her own behavior hadn't exactly helped the situation. She still isn't sure why she's so nervous about this- Grace has already met Steve, on a number of occasions, not just the disastrous football game, and Steve went into this knowing that Grace is the most important thing in her life. But every time they're in the same room, Danni holds her breath.

If she's further being honest with herself, it's probably a big deal because Steve is a big deal now, too, and that's something she still can't really manage to work her way around yet, either.

None of which prepares Danni for the weirdness of Steve and Grace being her plus ones for the HPD Labor Day picnic. (Technically, as Steve likes to point out, he works there too, so Grace and Danni are his plus ones, but Danni's eyes must be crazier than she thinks, because he hadn't said anything else about it.)

And again, all the weirdness revolves around the way it's not weird. At all.

Grace is cheerfully about seven and a half feet tall from her perch on Steve's shoulders. Steve's hands are casually locked around Grace's ankles, tethering her in place, even as she eels around, reporting down on critical locations- the shave ice guy, the cotton candy guy, the hot dog guy. Danni feels extra itchy without her suit on, the uncomfortable lack of her usual armor when she deals with most of the HPD at large. Five-O isn't... popular, even if it is respected. Danni misses the weight of her gun, which is ridiculous, but she needs something, because she's just in a t-shirt and shorts, ten shades paler than almost everyone else. Chin's eyesore of an aloha shirt, emerging out of several less-hideous contenders, is actually comforting, and that's how Danni knows she needs a beer.

"Hey, Wahine," Chin greets her affectionately, pulling her into a quick one-armed hug. Danni can imagine that he's glad to see them- outside of Kono and a couple of others, there are still a stupidly huge number of people who probably aren't happy to see him here. "Grace, I can't even see you up there- you're a monster, McGarrett." Grace giggles and leans over Steve's head to high-five Chin.

"Hi, Uncle Chin," Grace parrots obediently, but she's smiling fit to crack her face and Danni has that, at least. "Danno, can Steve and I go get hot dogs?" Danni raises her eyebrows.

"Oh, I see how that is," she says mildly and Steve and Grace roll their eyes at the same time, which is terrifying.

"Like we wouldn't get you one," Steve says, and Grace nods earnestly.

"Mooom," Grace adds, and Danni can't help but smile and wave them off.

"That's so cute, I might throw up," Kono coos, appearing at Danni's elbow.

"Jesus, we need to put a bell on you," Danni groans, but mostly to avoid agreeing. Kono laughs, probably because they could bell her and she'd still be able to sneak up on Danni.

"C'mon, neither of you have a beer," Kono points out, dragging them off, and Danni feels better, sitting on one of the makeshift picnic benches with Kono and Chin, an ice cold Coors in her hand.

"Uncool," Steve says, blocking out all the sun ever, as the Steve/Grace tower comes into view. "Here we go, slaving away to bring you hot dogs, and you're relaxing here." Danni sighs and rolls her eyes, gesturing to the extra beer and the bottle of water.

"Hi, yes, I didn't forget either of you," Danni says, but the bite is somehow lacking because Steve is leaning over so Grace can step off onto the picnic table, hands full of hot dogs. It's too cute.

"Well, then," Steve says, courteously letting Grace sit next to Danni before sitting on Grace's other side. Danni refuses to let Kono's shit eating grin make any impact whatsoever.

"Fair trade," Grace agrees, sliding Danni a hot dog, passing Steve another.

Danni is biting into a perfect hot dog- mustard, relish, hot mustard- when she realizes that every person she loves in the state of Hawaii is within arm's reach of her.

"Crap," Danni mutters, and a dime sized splotch of mustard falls on to her shorts, which conveniently hides the fact that she's a little verklempt.

Later, Grace falls asleep on Danni's lap, and her head slumps against Steve's arm. Steve doesn't move that arm an inch and Danni is so in love with the both of them she can hardly breathe.

Which is why she immediately decides to go to the bathroom.

Because she can trust Steve with Grace, and Steve doesn't even know it, but they just got like, seven times more serious, because Grace loves Steve, too and that's- huge.

Danni's marginally more composed on her way back from the bathroom/freakout in a port-a-potty which is, of course, when she gets stopped by one of the guys who was a couple desks over when she was partners with Meka. They're making nice chit-chat, which Danni reminds herself is important, even if she has a pretty difficult relationship with HPD at the best of times, when he casually drops in, "So, it's true, yeah, you're sleeping with McGarrett?" Danni can't imagine what her expression must look like, but it earns a pretty quick revision.

"I mean, McGarrett is sleeping with you?" Ishida tries again, which, seriously, how is that any better? "I mean, no judgment, right."

Danni just walks away, because she learned a long time ago that punching people can't always be the right answer.

Steve has baby-aneurysm face on when he catches sight of her, so she must still look pissed, but she shakes her head, because she doesn't even want to touch that.

"You ready to go?" she asks instead, because it is getting dark, although from their puzzled expressions, Kono and Chin were anticipating staying a while longer. But Steve just nods, picking up Grace like she doesn't weigh anything.

"You got the keys?" Steve asks, quiet, and Danni knows what this tableau has to look like, because she's gone through it a hundred times with Robert, been carried out of places half-asleep by her father as her mother checked her pockets for the car keys. They say goodnight to Chin and Kono, Grace sleepily mumbling her goodbyes from over Steve's shoulder.

They're quiet on the drive to Robert's- this wasn't Danni's weekend, but Grace had wheedled the excursion out of him- dropping Grace off with no fuss. Grace is exhausted from all the excitement of the day, being the center of her, Steve, Chin and Kono's attention all day, but still manages to press sloppy kisses on Danni's cheek, tugging at Steve's sleeve until he presents his cheek to be kissed too. Steve's expression is a mish-mash of things, some of which Danni can't even begin to decipher, but it makes her chest tight, the way he drops an easy kiss to the top of Grace's head, even as he passes her off cordially to Robert. (Robert and Steve- by all appearances- get along fine. This, more than anything else, terrifies Danni.)

Steve carefully doesn't say anything, just takes the keys and drives them to his place, and it isn't until Danni sits carefully on the edge of the couch that he finally touches her.

"You okay?" he asks, wrapping her in his arms, pulling them into the body of the couch. Danni sighs, because she doesn't really know what to say.

"Yeah," Danni finally says, because okay, she's in love with Steve McGarrett, and that's a hell of a lot stupider, and more important than some guy she doesn't even know thinking they're just fucking.

"Okay," Steve eventually says. They sit there for a long time, and Danni feels herself relax by increments, soaking up the warmth from Steve's body, moving fractionally every time he breathes.

"C'mon, let's go to bed," Steve whispers, like he doesn't want to break the quiet, and Danni lets herself be led upstairs, lets Steve strip her out of her clothes, lets him kiss her slow and careful.

"We don't have to-" he starts, and Danni kisses him instead.

"I want to," she finds herself saying, already reaching for his shirt, and if Danni were a different person, she'd say they make love, but something about the phrase makes her want to throw up in her mouth, a little. But in the lazy haze of post-sex stupor, she realizes she hasn't said it out loud.

"If you're going to freak out about this, just, keep it tucked until the morning, I'm too tired to deal with it now, but I sort of thought you should know I'm in love with you," Danni says before she can think better of it, eyes fixed on the ceiling. Steve rolls onto his side, bracing himself over her body with an arm across her, his face shadowed and his eyes dark with something, and Danni's not actually sure what's going to happen until he kisses her, not hard, but intense and Danni is so fucking relieved.

"Yeah, Danni, I- yeah," Steve manages between kisses. "Yes. I love you."

Danni had sort of always thought if this moment was going to happen, one of them would be shot or something, some kind of desperate, near-death confession, but maybe this is better, this is honest.

"Good," she says, reaching up to draw Steve close, their foreheads resting against each others'.

It's so quiet, Danni can hear the ocean outside, the smooth shushing noise lulling her to sleep, Steve curling against her side, tangling their legs together.

"This doesn't mean you can forget about constitutionally mandated rights," Danni reminds him and Steve mumbles something about search and seizure into her collarbone.

Danni falls asleep, but she's smiling.