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Disclaimer: If Danny and Steve were mine they would be on HBO having a foursome with Bill Compton and Eric Northman
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Steve was driving and on the phone when the conversation started.
Doris turned around, lips pursed, and asked Danny, "You married?" and the conversation went downhill from there.
Danny was clearly more than a little uncomfortable with Doris' remarks about his love life, which he deflected with, "I'm seeing somebody, it's...just taking it very slowly." God, he would have preferred Lori's botched attempt at psychoanalysis at that moment.
Doris made the mistake of trying to give him parenting advice and then she called him, "Danno."
That was when Steve got off the phone, received a reprimand from his mother on his language and there was silence from the back seat for a good five minutes...which was five minutes more than he could deal with. He skidded across two lanes of traffic directly onto the beach and slammed on the brakes. Steve opened his door and got out, pacing around the car and coming to a halt against the hood.
"Steven, what the fuck are you doing?!" Danny shouted as he stepped out himself, followed by Doris.
"Steve...." Doris started, surprised when Steve turned to her, noticeably angry.
"You don't get to call him by that nickname," Steve sneered, half-growling. "His name is Danny." He had been civil all along, but had reached the breaking point.
"Okay," Doris chuckled a bit, "and you stopped the car because I called him 'Danno'?"
"Among some other crap I overheard between the two of you; yes, I heard your conversation while I was on the phone." Steve had moved to grinding his teeth. "Never question Danny's parenting skills; he's a great dad to Grace."
"Quit grinding," Danny huffed, shaking his head at Steve. "You just had a root canal and I am not - NOT - pulling Grace out of school so she can hold your hand at the dentist again."
Steve gave Danny a casual shrug. "She enjoyed it, thought it was gross and cool at the same time." He walked over to Danny and palmed his cheek before he faced his mother again. "Danny is in a healthy relationship." His attention was back on Danny a second later and he stroked his thumb down to Danny's lips. "You'd rather get kicked in the face with a golf shoe than get married again?" Steve asked, voice lowered, almost a whisper.
"I wanted her to leave me alone." Danny moved his lips closer to Steve's. "You going to kiss me or what?"
Steve slid his hand to Danny's nape and pulled their lips together, moaning as his tongue set about mapping every inch of Danny's mouth. He pulled back for air, murmured, "I love you, Danny," and returned to stealing the oxygen from Danny's lungs.
"Steve, babe," it took all of Danny's willpower to end the kiss, "your mother's there."
"I know." Steve gave him a tender smile and interlaced their fingers. "I had to, Danny; she had to know and I decided to show instead of tell."
"She is right here," Doris interjected, "and all you had to tell me was that you were married."
Steve's head whipped around to her. "I don't owe you an explanation of my life." He was annoyed once again. "Danny and Grace are a part of it; you have to earn your way back in."
Danny took a few breaths before he spoke again. "I would do anything to protect my daughter, but disappearing for 20 years and allowing my grown children to believe I was dead is unconscionable. I hate you on principle alone."
"You can't hate me," Doris flat out told him, "because from what I gathered I'm not your mother-in-law...yet."
"And after meeting you, I don't think you ever will be," Danny fired back.
"What?" If Steve looked heartbroken before, he looked devastated now. "I said I was sorry for leaving that voice mail before I left and I am."
"You left him a message that you were going to Japan?" Doris snorted. "I may have been a shitty mother, but as a wife I was pretty damn good."
"Steve," Danny said quietly, "we'll discuss our plans later, in private."
"Am I the mother of the bride or groom?" Doris asked tongue-in-cheek. At the twin deadly glares she received she returned to the car. "I'll just sit in the back and...not talk."
"Good idea," Danny huffed, but then glanced up into Steve's eyes. "I love you, despite your...family."
"Oh, and Danno, I proposed, you said yes, so I guess that makes you the bride," Steve grinned.
"Good!" Doris laughed. "The bride's family pays for it all!"
"Do you think she has an off switch?" Danny asked just before he got back in.
"Do I?" Steve replied innocently.
Danny groaned to himself.
Life with the McGarrett's was going to be one hell of a roller coaster ride.
FIN