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Danny's heart pounds against his chest and the tightness makes it hard to breathe. He's been running for over a mile now but he isn't about to stop. Not when Steve is falling, falling over and over in his mind. Steve's falling and he's hitting the cliff face. The pained sound Steve makes when his body slams into rock echoes in Danny's ears. He sees his own arm reaching out helplessly as Steve slides to the edge, almost going over to be lost completely.
Danny's palms sting with the burn of the rope that slithered through his fingers. He clenches his fists, digging his nails into the raw flesh, the pain spurring him ever faster forward. The summit looms ahead of him, and there is still a steep climb. His boots push off the ground harder, he leaps over rocks and through brush, the vision of Steve's body plummeting through air propels him onwards. Steve is falling. If he runs fast enough, he can still save him.
------
THAT MORNING
There’s a heavy feeling in the pit of Danny's stomach that he can't entirely explain. He would normally say it's the lack of caffeine, though lately he suspects that it's more to do with recent developments between him and his partner.
The wind from the ocean blows against his face and he squints against the sunrise to watch Steve come in from his morning swim. Steve is treading knee-high water when he sees Danny waving from the lanai. He breaks into a grin and jogs the rest of the way.
"You're up early.” Steve greets him, dripping wet and openly happy. Then he stops and pulls a face. "And you're wearing a tie."
“Very perceptive of you. I am wearing a tie. And I'm wearing a shirt and pants and shoes. Which is more than I can say for you." Danny swings an arm grandly in Steve's direction. "I mean, look at you.“
Wet blue swim trunks hug Steve's body, the weight of water dragging the material low on his hipbones. Another couple inches lower and—Danny stops himself from saying more by shoving both hands in his pockets.
"You're wearing a tie," Steve repeated, running a hand through his hair and shaking the water out. "I told you, casual today."
"I don't do casual. Didn't we agree on that? I distinctly remember telling you that. That was the deal."
"Umm." Steve looks blindsided.
Danny winces, suddenly embarrassed at coming across high maintenance. When did he become so unsure, so nervous? "Sorry. I know. You meant dress. Thought I'd take the opportunity anyway to remind you of the other thing."
"I haven't forgotten." Steve smiles without a hint of judgment. "I'm all in, Danny."
Danny rubs the back of his head, grateful for the understanding. "Yeah okay."
It's been only a few days, this new thing between them. It knocks him off the ground and makes him say stupid things like this. They kissed, they made out, and yeah, they had mind-blowing sex, and it should be great but it's like someone pulled the rug out from underneath his feet. This new thing with Steve, it rearranges the gravity of his world. One moment he's floating on high, the next he's plunging into waves of uncertainty and worry. Mostly he's pulled by the solid force of nature that is Steve like a meteor falling into the sun.
Even now, standing on the beach behind Steve's house, he feels himself entering Steve's orbit despite himself. He takes a step forward as Steve comes towards him. He wonders if perhaps he is Steve's gravity too, drawing Steve just as he is drawn by him. The thought comforts him.
"You're still overdressed." Steve reaches for Danny's tie. He starts to undo it but switches tactics at the last second and tugs on it instead. Danny's breath catches as he stumbles on the sand. Steve meets him halfway, snaking an arm around Danny's back, and leans in for a kiss.
Steve's lips hover inches from his. In everything else, Steve rushes headlong, sure of himself, but now Danny sees hesitation, an asking of permission. It's a repeat of their first time that Danny almost forgets to move. It's this heartbeat's pause that did it for him, that night Steve showed up at his doorstep, eyes forlorn and yearning, allowing Danny to pull him in. And now here it is again. He closes the gap and presses his mouth to Steve's.
The kiss is soft and sweet, with gentle nips along Danny's lower lip. Then the tip of Steve's tongue touches his and suddenly the world around them drops away with a roar. A moan escapes his throat, and the sound of his own raw need jolts him, makes him struggle for control.
Steve releases his tie, starts to fold him into an embrace. Their chests barely come into contact when Danny jumps back, swatting Steve at arm's length. "Nuh!"
"What?" Steve blinks at him. "What's wrong?"
"You are not getting my shirt wet, okay?" Danny pats his tie down and smoothes his hand down his front, hoping Steve can’t see how it’s shaking.
“So?” Steve pouts, still holding on to Danny's side. "You're going to take it off anyway."
Danny halts his motions and arches an eyebrow. "A little presumptuous, aren't we?"
Steve smirks, "We're going to be outdoors. You're going to sweat right though so you might want to go with just a shirt for today."
"You could use one yourself. Will you put some clothes on already?" Danny pries his eyes from Steve's form and stares out into the ocean.
"Getting distracted?"
"Getting hungry. Come on. I want to stop for coffee and malasadas before we go on this surprise adventure of yours."
Steve nods slowly, dropping his hands from Danny's waist. He searches Danny's face and if he sees something there, he doesn't mention it. "Okay. I'm going to take a shower and we'll go. Five minutes." He heads towards the house picking up a towel from the deck chair as he walks past it.
Danny kicks himself mentally, rubs a hand over his face. Just roll with it, Williams, he chides himself. Danny shuts his lids, takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly as he opens his eyes. Right ahead of him, water droplets run down the back of Steve's legs, and from there, it's a short leap of the imagination to Steve in the shower, lathering down. His throat goes dry and he suddenly finds himself following the trail of puddles in Steve's wake.
"Steve?"
Steve pauses just inside the door and there's a flash of a hopeful expression. Danny undoes the knot of his tie, yanks it off. His fingers make quick work of his shirt buttons as he looks up at his partner. Meteor, sun, he notes wryly.
"Make that fifteen."
------
The dull ache in his knee warns him that things are going to get pretty ugly if he doesn’t stop running. He curses viciously to himself. Won’t do either of them any good if he collapses before he can call for help. Danny rests against a tree after moving for so long, feeling his lungs tighten in protest. He digs his fingers along his thigh down to his knee, massaging the muscle into compliance. He’s not nearly close enough to the summit but he checks his phone anyway.
"Come on, come on,” Danny pleads, staring at the signal on the damn phone. It beeps the same message, uncaring and persistent. No service. He stares at the sky in lament.
He takes a couple painful chest-filling breaths and takes off again, much slower than he wants to be, hating his body’s betrayal every difficult step of the way. Unwillingly, memories of the last few hours—the last few days—flash through his mind like crime scene photographs, as if there was a clue he’s missing that would make this all make sense, give him the strength he needs to finish the job.
------
A COUPLE HOURS AGO
"How much farther is this thing, anyway?"
Steve laughs, still crossing large swaths of land with his ridiculously long strides. "Really Danny, you're like a kid."
"I'm like a kid?" Danny huffs good-naturedly behind him. "I'm not the one skipping through the wilderness like Little Red Riding Hood. I repeat, this is not a hike. This is a hazing."
"Come on, you’re going to love the view.”
“If I live long enough to see it.”
Steve throws him a glance over his shoulder and chuckles. “We have to work on your stamina."
"I have plenty of stamina when it counts, babe. Or have you forgotten Thursday night?"
Steve stops short and Danny slams right into him.
"The hell, Steve!"
Steve swivels and grabs hold of his shoulders. "Thursday night was—“ he frowns, blinking madly. “Yeah, you win. That was— that was pretty amazing stamina.” And aha! Steve's actually blushing.
Danny returns a wolfish grin. "Well, babe, I don't stop till I get what I want."
Suddenly, Steve glances around like he's seriously considering a new game plan. "So you're saying with proper motivation, you might get us there faster."
"Sure. Okay. I'm saying," Danny laughs. "Now what?"
Steve quickly backs Danny into a tree and presses himself knee to torso against him.
“Unf!” Danny smirks. There’s a hardness pushing against his hip and he squirms against it. “View’s that good, huh? Didn’t know nature was such a turn on for you, babe. I gotta keep that in mind.”
Steve buries his face at the base of Danny’s neck. A low hum escapes his throat.
"I want to kiss you, Danny Williams." Again with the permission. It's endearing, it makes his heart hurt.
"Be my guest, Steve McGarrett."
And so he does. It takes Danny by surprise again how it makes the ground fall away, makes him see stars in blackness when Steve's tongue pleads entry through his lips. He cards his fingers through Steve’s hair, tips him to the side to get a deeper angle, causing them both to moan.
They go at it for several minutes, pausing only to catch their breaths before resuming the explorations of each other's mouths while their hands explore their bodies. At the back of his mind, Danny wonders how this looks, the island's most infamous law enforcement, the head of the Governor's Task Force and his partner, running off to the middle of the rainforest to make out like lovesick teenagers, humping each other against a fucking tree. He’d be laughing if he weren’t holding on to Steve’s arms for dear life.
"This is fun," Steve murmurs against his mouth.
"You know what would be more fun? A little more of this," Danny thrusts up against Steve impatiently, pleased to hear Steve's soft groan, "would be more fun. Doing this naked would be the funnest."
"Danny," Steve pants, his lips bruised red and delicious. "I'm glad you came."
"So am I. Though technically, you already did twice since this morning, while I'm still at one." Danny lifts a finger between them. Steve stares at it with darkening eyes.
"Well, that's unacceptable," Steve grunts, his hands stroking Danny's sides. "I should do something about that."
"Yeah, babe, you should." Danny punctuates this with another well-timed thrust.
“Maybe I will."
"Any day now."
"What's the rush?"
"Steven," Danny growls, grinding his hips forward. His erection is straining against the front of his jeans. Any longer and things are going to get really painful.
“Yeah, Danny,” Steve purrs.
"Will you get on with it already?"
"What you think I'm doing here?”
"A fucking cocktease?"
Steve chuckles, low and dirty, next to his ear. "It's called motivation."
And before Danny knows it, Steve's gone. Danny blinks at the empty space between his outstretched arms.
A deep laugh rumbles from off to the side. Already twenty feet away, Steve is jogging backwards in knee-high grass, a Cheshire grin on his pretty face.
"Son of a bitch!"
Danny races after him.
------
"Steve fell. He's hurt."
Each word is a punch in the gut as they fall out of his mouth. They’re sending a medivac to rescue him and as far as Danny’s concerned, it can’t get here soon enough. The call hasn’t yet ended when Danny sprints down the path that leads him back to the scene of the accident.
He crashes through the jungle on stumbling legs, praying Steve hasn’t gotten restless and tried anything to get himself killed because Danny wasn’t fast enough. He bats aside branches that hit his face while the sequence of the fall is playing over again in his mind, except this time it’s reversed, Danny is the one hurtling off the cliff and Steve's hovering over the top of the ledge watching him.
------
YESTERDAY
It’s been a long day and they finally got their guys. There's only paperwork left to do and even that can wait. Kono begged off early to go surfing, skipping out the door with duffle bags slung over each shoulder. Chin left soon after for wherever it is he goes when he’s not making mysterious phone calls in his office.
As for Danny, he’s lazily going over the evidence at the tech table, flipping through the screens with haphazard flicks of the wrist. Steve on the other hand, is decidedly crowding him from behind, his chest pressed snugly against Danny's back, one arm circled across Danny's torso, the other braced against the edge of the desk. Let the guy touch your junk a few times and he thinks he's got free reign to grope you any time, any place now. Danny sees how this is.
"What do you wanna do, Danno?" Steve's head is hovering over Danny's left shoulder, his nose nuzzling Danny's neck.
"What do I wanna do? I want to go home and sleep for like forever." Danny says tiredly, pretending not to notice the SEAL-blanket wrapped around him. "But something, something heavy and annoying and holy fuck, you stink McGarrett, tells me that's not in my future."
"I can shower. You can too. Make sure I clean every last inch.” The bastard’s breathing hot and heavy on his ear and it’s shorting his brain. Danny shakes his head, but doesn’t stop himself from grinning.
"Whoa," says a surprised voice that's neither Danny's nor Steve's.
They jolt up at the same time, their heads colliding. Kono is standing at the doorway in a bikini top and shorts, frozen holding the glass door open.
Danny jerks his shoulders back and Steve quickly retracts his arms like Danny's on fire. He feels like he is, the way the blood rushes to his face.
"Kono," Steve says in a neutral voice, arms folded, legs planted apart, standing at the other end of the table already, as if he’s always been over there. Danny admits he’s a little impressed by the feat. Not that the coverup works.
"Boss, Danny," Kono says, biting her lip and obviously stifling a laugh as she makes her way towards them. Danny watches her in stunned silence.
"I came back to grab this." She swipes a cellphone resting on the corner of the table and brandishes it in the air with barely contained glee. “Glad I remembered it when I did. I would've hate to have missed," she pauses a beat, "any phone calls."
"Okay ha ha, no, that's not funny."
"How are the waves?" Steve asks by way of a distraction. His voice is deceptively casual.
"Killer, brah. You wanna come?"
Danny exchanges glances with Steve.
“Thanks. We’ve got plans already," Steve says, a smile teasing the corner of his mouth.
Kono's eyebrows perk up, her mouth struggling not to burst out into a full grin. "Oh, like a date?"
"What? No, not like a date," Danny interrupts, inserting himself between them, waving his hands, no no no. "Look. Steve and I don't have plans and we're not dating."
"Right. Sorry." She nods, though the smirk on her face tells him she doesn't believe a word. "Well, see you tomorrow, Danny, boss. Have fun.”
"Oh god, now she thinks we're together, " Danny groans, throwing his hands in the air when she's out of sight.
“Danny, they already know. I think they figured it out yesterday. Is that a problem?"
"It is, if it isn't true," Danny says.
"Isn't it?"
"Don't do that. You know, just don't."
Steve frowns, rounding the table to stand by him. "Danny, what's going on?"
Danny rubs at his forehead, avoiding Steve’s gaze. He takes a deep breath. “Look, you and me, the making out, the fucking, it's all good, I might even say it’s fantastic. Hell, even I gotta admit the sex is phenomenal.”
Steve grins, reaching for him, but Danny shrugs him off, feeling his hands flutter helplessly.
“But if that’s all this is, fun and fucking, if that’s all we’re going to be, I don't know if I can keep doing it, okay? I’m not built for casual. One of these days, I’m going to lose my head over—well, over you—and then what?”
“I’m not going anywhere, Danny.”
“Steve, I’m serious. What are we, huh? Are we a thing now? I mean, shit, Chin and Kono think we’re dating, we haven't even been on a real date.”
Steve nods. "Okay."
"Okay?" Danny repeats. "What does that mean, okay?"
Steve puts a finger up for him to wait and pulls his phone from his pocket.
"What are you— who are you calling? Steve, what the fuck. We’re talking here.”
Steve gives him a tentative smile as he addresses the phone. "Chin? Yeah, Danny and I won't be in tomorrow. We're taking the day off. Yeah. Together. Thanks, brah. We'll see you."
"What the hell was that?”
"Now we're dating."
Danny's mouth pops open and shut. Steve moves up to him, slides his arms around and pulls him close, silencing his retorts.
"Can you at least tell me where we're going?" Danny grumbles, his hands flailing at Steve’s back. "I would like to know if my life will be at risk tomorrow. That is, any more than it is every day I'm with you. Should I spend the night, I don’t know, updating my will? Checking the policy on my life insurance?”
"Trust me, Danno. I’ve got better things for you to do tonight."
------
The run back from the summit is faster, though no less treacherous. Danny gauges it's been an hour since he left Steve with a broken arm and bloody gashes and a dead body for companionship to boot.
He scrambles to the ledge and sees that Steve's not just alive, the maniac's splinted his own arm. Thunder rumbles above, not helping alleviate his current state. He jokes with Steve as he climbs, trying to hide the panic in his voice.
Steve is pulling himself up with one hand, dangling from the rope that’s scraping Danny’s palms. He hisses through the sting, but tightens his hold, pulling with every ounce of strength he has left. He’s not letting go.
------
Steve's almost to the top. Danny grabs him by the elbow and drags him the rest of the way up.
"I got you, Steve, you lug." Danny says when they clear the precipice. "You're going to be okay. Thank god. You stupid stupid crazy man."
"Were you worried, Danny?" Steve pants, edging closer to Danny. He means it to be a joke, though it comes out sounding more like an apology.
"What? What kind of question is that? Don't make me unsave you." Danny threatens, except he clings on Steve's arm like it’s the only thing keeping him on steady ground. He went through hell and back, had Steve the slightest idea what Danny’s been through, to get him help, to get back here, to make sure he’ll be alright.
“Danny.” Steve says, squeezing Danny's fingers where they're wrapped around his bicep like a vise. He waits till Danny meets his eyes. “You saved me long ago. It's my turn.”
There’s a brief second when Danny stares at his Steve’s smile without understanding. Then something cracks in his chest, it’s alive and free and bubbling up his throat.
The army medic has Steve strapped to a harness in no time.
“Thanks brother,” he says as they’re reeling him up, taking him to safety.
It’s too loud and there's too little time and there are no words for what Danny feels in this moment when he gets it. And so Danny says everything with his hands, not caring who sees. He draws his heart, wide and open, for him.
"Danny!" Steve is yelling from above the canopy.
Danny can barely hear him over the roar of the helicopter blades. He squints in the whirling air and yells back, "What!"
Steve’s grinning down at him. His good hand sticks out against the darkening sky, the middle and ring fingers folded down. Danny knows just enough sign language to know what it means. Steve’s safe, Steve’s alive. Steve loves him back.
It's as clear a lifeline as Danny needs. He grabs hold of it and finds himself grinning like a madman.
Only then, when Steve disappears into the helicopter and flies away, does he look around. Danny spins slowly, finally taking in the surroundings—the ridiculous petroglyphs, the rocky ridge, the towering trees, and everywhere around him, the verdant majestic mountains of Ko’olau that he scaled in record time to rescue the man he loved. Except, turns out, Steve wasn’t the only one who fell. He drops his hands to his knees and starts laughing. Here he is, on top of the world, the ground is solid beneath his feet and Steve wasn’t kidding, the view is fucking beautiful up here.