Chapter Text
Kono shook out her umbrella as she walked into headquarters. "Is it just me, or has the weather been really nuts lately? It's been raining a lot."
Danny swallowed tightly, hoping that nobody would notice his reaction. "Well, it's Hawaii. Doesn't it rain here all the time?" Best to play the clueless haole. That will help you avoid suspicion.
Chin frowned. "It does, but I was reading in the paper yesterday that we've had record rainfall since late September."
You mean since I started working here, Danny thought.
Steve walked into the room, and Danny's heart beat faster than it should have at the sight of him.
A thunderclap rang out, and Danny could see lightning flashing through the window. "That was ominous," Steve said. "I walk in the door, and suddenly the weather gets even worse."
No fucking kidding, Commander Obvious, Danny thought. He tried the techniques he had learned from his therapist back in New Jersey to lower his anxiety level. He counted to ten in his head and slowly inhaled and exhaled until he felt somewhat normal. Steve had already noticed how the storm changed when he walked in the room. He didn't want anyone, especially not Steve, to know that Danny was causing the storm in the first place.
Danny had been cursed with the power to affect local weather patterns with his emotions since he was a small child. According to his family, he had inherited the "gift" from his paternal grandmother, who said that it skips a generation. He wasn't sure why it had to skip to him, someone with an easily aroused temper and anxiety issues. When he was a child and had been afraid of his parents being in a car wreck because they were coming home late from a date night, Danny had caused it to rain, which elevated his panic until the thunderstorm was so bad that his parents had decided to wait it out until the rain stopped. Danny's grandma had to call him and talk him down on the phone so that his parents could actually get home.
Since then, Danny did his best to control his emotions to avoid causing bad weather, but it wasn't easy. In the autumn, when he and Rachel started having problems, Newark experienced an unusually high amount of thunderstorms. When she served him with divorce papers, it was early winter and a massive snow storm hit New Jersey that night due to Danny's depression. Nobody died, but there was a lot of property damage and people lost their homes. In his guilt, Danny had decided to see a therapist to learn how to manage his emotions better.
Danny thought he had been doing pretty well when he first came to Hawaii. He was miserable, but there was only a slight uptick in the local rain totals.
He hadn't been counting on Steve to come into his life.
Ever since he had met the man, the weather in Honolulu had been steadily growing more and more chaotic. At first, Danny attributed it to irritation with his "neanderthal animal, control freak" partner. And then Grace said something when she first met Steve that made Danny re-assess his feelings.
"He talks about you a lot, too."
Danny had never been particularly good at hiding when he had a crush on someone from his family since the weather would broadcast his feelings anyway. Grace's words had been eerily similar to what Stella had said when she first met Rachel, and Danny and Rachel had been dating for several months by that point.
Things had only gotten worse since then, with Danny actually getting used to Steve's methods and with the gratitude for the way Steve had consistently helped him through various trials (Rachel making trouble with their custody arrangement, the unfounded accusations against Meka, and a million other things) gradually morphing into... something else.
The exact nature of that "something else" had become clear to Danny a month ago when his mom, after seeing a report on the news about unusual weather activity in Hawaii, had asked Danny why he hadn't told her that he met someone. Before he could even respond, she had asked, "It's Steve, isn't it?"
For the past week, most of the inclement weather could be attributed to the awful situation with Matty running off to God knows where, but Danny's emotions about Steve were turbulent as well. He still couldn't believe that Steve had lied to the FBI for him, and the little supportive looks and lingering touches Steve had given him drove Danny insane when he recalled them. Danny had no idea what it meant, but he knew what he desperately wanted it to mean.
Danny decided not to think about everything right then. He planned to spend some time considering it that night. He focused on work, and the storm eventually abated. For now.
That evening, Danny sat down on his uncomfortable sofa, head cradled in his hands and tried to think about what he should do about Steve.
His current situation was untenable. He had used all of the techniques from the therapist in New Jersey to calm himself down, but nothing got to the root of his anxiety. He was in love with his partner, and no breathing technique was going to fix that. It was clear that the longer he held it in, the worse it would get. He didn't want an actual tsunami, unlike the fake thing a few weeks ago, to hit Hawaii because his emotions became out of control.
On the other hand, if he actually said something to Steve and was rejected, his heartbreak could precipitate a natural disaster. He heard strong winds howl through the trees and his heart sinking in his chest just at the thought of how he might end up losing his friend.
Danny glanced out the window and saw a powerful storm darkening the sky and making it rain and thunder again. Fuck it, he had to give this a shot. He picked up his keys, jogging out to his car once he locked the front door behind him and driving to Steve's place. As the windshield wipers removed rain from his car, Danny wondered if he was truly doing the right thing.
By the time he got to Steve's place, the storm had progressed into a torrential downpour. He knocked on Steve's front door, shivering as the rain soaked him in the space of the minute it took Steve to answer.
Steve opened the door and raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Danny? What's going on? You shouldn't be out in this weather."
Danny wrapped his arms around himself. "I really need to talk to you. Can I come inside? Please?"
"Of course, man, come inside." Steve ushered Danny inside, hand between his shoulder blades, and shut the door behind them. He left Danny standing there and strode purposefully away. "Whatever you want to talk about must be pretty important."
Danny tried his breathing technique again. "It is."
Steve came back with a beach towel. He wrapped it around Danny and lifted the edge of it to scrub through Danny's sopping wet hair. "Whatever it is still isn't worth you getting into a car wreck or something."
Danny blushed at all of the attention Steve was giving him. "Trust me, it is."
Steve hummed at that in a disagreeing tone but refrained from commenting. "Come on, let's go sit down on the couch." He ushered Danny over to his couch and sat down next to him. "Normally, I would offer you a beer, but you look like you're freezing. Do you want me to make you some tea or coffee or something?"
"I'm fine." Best not to prolong this, Danny thought.
Steve sighed and gazed intently into Danny's eyes. His hand drifted to Danny's knee and rubbed it in circular motions. "Tell me what's going on."
Danny shuddered from the way Steve was touching him, and lightning flashed in the sky behind Steve. He swallowed nervously. "Why did you lie to the FBI for me about Matt?"
Steve glanced away from him. "He's your brother, and you're my partner. It just... it just felt like the right thing to do."
Danny could tell that Steve wasn't telling him the whole truth. He decided to change tactics. "You've always been there for me, Steve."
Steve smiled faintly. "I care about you a lot, Danno."
A crack of thunder sounded before Danny asked his next question. "Is, uh, is that why your hand is on my knee right now?"
Steve stared at his hand like he hadn't known it was there and started to pull it away, but Danny stopped him by covering it with his own hand. Steve looked up into Danny's eyes. His gaze was clouded with a mixture of emotions, but the dominant one was fear. The same kind of fear Danny felt. Danny was terrified, but based on how Steve often tried to shut down his emotions, he knew he would have to be the one to make a first move.
Danny let out a shaky breath, and the thunder boomed outside. "Please don't hate me if I'm wrong."
Steve squinted in confusion as Danny slowly leaned in, giving him a chance to back away. Steve didn't take that chance, and Danny's heart thudded in his chest when his lips met Steve's. After a few panic-inducing seconds, Steve overcame his shock and started to kiss him back, holding Danny close to him by the beach towel.
When Danny pulled away from the kiss, Steve was smiling, and he looked happier than Danny had ever seen him. Danny grinned back at Steve, and Steve chuckled at something behind him. "What is it?" Danny asked.
He pointed to the window. "I think we made the rain stop."
Danny turned his head towards the window. The torrential downpour had suddenly ceased, and the sky looked much calmer now. The clouds were receding, and Danny could see stars merrily twinkling in the sky. Kissing Steve had made Danny feel much better, so Steve was probably right, even though he had been joking.
Steve tugged at his hand. "Want to bet we could make an aurora borealis?"
Danny burst into laughter and turned back to face his ridiculous partner. "I'm pretty sure that's near the North Pole, babe." Danny's powers could change the atmosphere, but not that much.
Steve shrugged and wiggled his eyebrows in a goofy manner that should not have been able to seduce Danny the way that it did. "Worth a shot."
He pulled Danny forward so that he was straddling Steve's lap and kissed him again. The night sky might have been calm, but Danny felt fireworks exploding in his mind when Steve's tongue brushed against his. Danny doubted that he would accidentally create any weird sky phenomena, but maybe the sun would be a lot brighter tomorrow if Steve kept kissing him like that. It was definitely worth finding out.