MCA #0, Saturday Morning

[hatesparadise]

Danny had not drunk enough last night to be hungover, but he was feeling the lack of sleep at the very least. Hence, drinking coffee as he blandly looked out at the lanai and the mass of glitter that decorated it now.

Oh, and the two inflatable reindeer.

"I'm not cleaning that up," he muttered into his coffee.

[open, yes!]

Comments

[grenadesandohana]

It's probably too early for Steve to be back on his bullshit, too, huh, but here he was, carefully lowering himself down from Rey's lanai, rapelling Australian-style so he could shoot even more glitter onto the lanai with the cannon in his hands onto the poor reindeer who never asked for any of this. "Morning, Danno!"

[hatesparadise]

Danny just turned around and walked away. Because nope.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve snickered to himself and then rappelled all the way into the lanai and unhooked. "Is the broom out here?"

[hatesparadise]

What part of 'nope' did you not understand, Steven? Because Danny was going to just pretend he didn't see that. At all.

While aggressively drinking his coffee.

[grenadesandohana]

There was no fun in yanking Danny's metaphorical pigtails if he didn't get yelling back, so Steve went into the kitchen, found the broom right where he knew it was, and started cleaning the lanai.

Quietly.

[hatesparadise]

It was probably a week that he needed to talk to his therapist more than the usual sessions, that much was obvious. Which would happen. And would be terrible to verbalize, but it would have to happen for him to, you know, function again.

Danny watched him go about, feeling stupidly guilty about not playing along with the bickering like Steve had clearly wanted him to. Which was why he sighed and got up to help him out.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve gave him a slightly shy smile. "How was your coffee?"

[hatesparadise]

Ugh, you couldn't do that, Steven. He wasn't as practiced at the whole repression thing.

"Didn't taste like eggnog at least."

[grenadesandohana]

"They've got magic space coffee upstairs," Steve said. "I can go get you some?"

And he'd even come back with it this time and not be a repressed asshat!

[hatesparadise]

Was it for the sole purpose of hitting him with glitter?

"Magic space coffee," Danny repeated.

[grenadesandohana]

Nah, Steve could read Danny well enough to recognize when Danny was Done, and he seemed pretty done right now.

He couldn't put his finger on why, though.

"It's twice as strong as regular coffee," Steve said, "and it's from space."

[hatesparadise]

Well, Danny couldn't either! Not exactly. Not past the obvious things. Thing. So, they were in the same boat there.

"Sure, why not? I'll have some magic space coffee," he sighed.

[grenadesandohana]

A mission Steve could accomplish and make Danny happy! Win/Win as far as Steve was concerned. "I'll be right back," he said, heading out to the lanai and climbing back up the rope to Rey's lanai.

As one does.

[hatesparadise]

"Yeah, that's gonna be a thing," Danny muttered, watching him go before kicking at a little pile of glitter. Because, god help him, he was actually missing Hawaii right now.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve came back through the front door like a normal human, at least, carrying two servings of coffee in red Solo cups.

[hatesparadise]

Classy, Steve. Classy.

Danny refrained from saying that it could have gone into normal coffee cups if Steve had been a normal human being and walked upstairs. Mostly because he didn't have the energy to deal with it. "Thanks," he said dryly instead, taking a cup from him.

[grenadesandohana]

"You're welcome," Steve said, sitting just a little too close to Danny with his own coffee.

[hatesparadise]

Because he wouldn't be Steve without that. Danny hid a tight expression behind a sip of coffee. Caf. Whatever the hell it was.

"You seem chipper for someone who drank that much."

[grenadesandohana]

"Advil and two big things of Gatorade before bed," Steve said. "I should've shared."

[hatesparadise]

That eased some of the tension that Danny couldn't rightly explain to him and he huffed out a laugh. "I'm not hungover, Steve. But I guess it's good you know how to handle it."

[grenadesandohana]

"It is one of the first things I learned at the Academy," Steve admitted with a slightly rueful chuckle. "Never show up to morning PT hungover."

Not that he'd gotten drunk then. He was far too much of a rule-follower at 18, but he'd absorbed the knowledge of how to avoid the headaches like a sponge.

[hatesparadise]

A rule-follower who was searching for a place to belong and people to belong to. That made sense to Danny.

"Yeah, I got most of my binge drinking days out a while back. I'm good to never do it again."

Mostly during the divorce, really.

[grenadesandohana]

"Did you have any fun last night?" Steve asked.

[hatesparadise]

Was Steve trying to interrogate him?

"Once the cattle prod was put away, yes I did."

[grenadesandohana]

"In my defense, I didn't know I was getting a cattle prod," Steve said.

[hatesparadise]

"Yeah, there's a reason I double-check your procurement requests back home." Ever since the first grenade incident.

But hey, Danny was relaxing a little more, even if he was still a little off from normal.

Maybe he just needed a normal weekend to feel better.

[grenadesandohana]

"Am I getting it back?" Steve asked.

[hatesparadise]

"Like you're not going to dig it out the moment I leave the apartment," Danny countered.

[grenadesandohana]

"Well, you'd notice," Steve said. "I'd rather you just give it back."

[hatesparadise]

Which was weirdly non-controlling for Steve.

"Explain to me why you need a cattle prod, Steven."

[grenadesandohana]

"Maybe we'll run into some cattle, Daniel," Steve said.

[hatesparadise]

Danny just sighed and looked up at the ceiling out of abject frustration with his life at the moment. "Maybe we'll run into some cattle," he repeated. "Sure. Why not?"

[grenadesandohana]

"When the inflatable reindeer come to life, don't come crying to me about how you wish you'd given me back my cattle prod, okay," Steve said.

[hatesparadise]

"It's in my bedroom. Knock yourself out," Danny said, rubbing his eyes like it would help.

He was pretty sure Steve wouldn't sneak in there while he was sleeping, so it seemed like the safest place for it.

[grenadesandohana]

Of course he wouldn't sneak in there! That would be creepy and inappropriate and he would only do it when absolutely necessary.

Like when he had nightmares of Danny being hurt.

"I'll be right back," Steve said with a pleased little smile, already planning for a better place to stash the cattle prod.

[hatesparadise]

Something he'd only done maybe once a week, right? But no more than that, so it was fine.

Yeah, Danny was already texting his therapist for a session tomorrow before Steve was even out of the room.

[grenadesandohana]

Completely normal roommate behavior!

Steve returned with his cattle prod and a bright smile on his face.

[hatesparadise]

"The level of happiness you have over deadly weapons isn't right," Danny muttered, pocketing his phone.

[grenadesandohana]

"I find happiness in many things," Steve said, sitting back down. "Only half of them are pointy."

[hatesparadise]

"And the other half are explosive?" Danny guessed, shifting away from the cattle prod.

[grenadesandohana]

"The beach is in there somewhere too," Steve said.

[hatesparadise]

Danny hummed in vague amusement at Steve's general Steveness. It was kind of soothing in a weird way.

"The beach. Of course. However could I forget that one."

[grenadesandohana]

"And surfing," Steve added helpfully.

[hatesparadise]

Why were you like this, Steve? Why?

Danny made a face to imply he was definitely impressed by Steve's ability to bullshit his way through a conversation as he nodded in agreement.

[grenadesandohana]

"So, we're gonna have glitter in our house forever, huh," Steve said.

[hatesparadise]

"Yeah, yeah we are," Danny agreed, sighed as he looked out at the lanai. And maybe feeling a ridiculous clench in his chest at the phrase 'our house' that was entirely Rachel based. Maybe.

Ugh, this was all ridiculous and bound to explode in his face if it kept up.

"You should probably go help upstairs. I'll finish sweeping here."

Yes, distance would be good.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve's forehead creased up in silent hurt but he nodded and stood up. "If you're sure."

[hatesparadise]

Look, Danny wasn't good company right now! He was just... trying to spare Steve some of it.

"I'll get you lunch," Danny offered before he could stop himself at that little wrinkle. Look, their level of co-dependence was gonna break bad at some point. He was trying to stave that off!

[grenadesandohana]

Steve smiled. "That sounds good, Danno. Salads?"

Steven.

[hatesparadise]

"You want a salad." Was it a steak salad?

[grenadesandohana]

He wouldn't say no to a steak salad.

"It's important to eat light after that much alcohol," Steve said.

[hatesparadise]

You were just so lucky that Danny expressed his love via food, Steven. "Don't rappel down again and there will be salad then."

It would be the sort of salad that held more calories than a pizza somehow.

[grenadesandohana]

"You can use the rope and we can put the reindeer back," Steve said with a grin.