Chapter Text
Was his stomach turning inside out because he was hungry? Or nauseated?
It didn’t matter.
The smell of the animal crackers was making the saliva pool under his tongue, and he swallowed convulsively. Acid churned in his empty stomach.
He forced a smile and an interested expression when Sophie exited the dressing room, an expression which turned incredulous -- and perhaps a bit admiring -- when Danny came out with this implausible fashion scenario which seemed to satisfy Sophie. He tried to focus on the banter surrounding the conversation which had turned to Gracie and Danny’s fashion sense. But even thoughts of two of his favorite people weren’t enough to distract him from his growing discomfort.
“Hey,” Steve said, “I just feel like it’s my duty to warn you guys that my personality is about to take a serious left-hand turn if I don’t get some food into my system.”
Danny and Harry were agreeing with him and making plans for lunch, but their conversation was reduced to a roar of white noise as he felt the familiar prickle of cold sweat. The air conditioning blasted across the back of his damp neck.
Steve suppressed a shudder.
Danny, of course, didn’t miss it.
“What was that?” he asked, leaning forward on his knees.
“Don’t talk to me unless you’ve got more animal crackers,” Steve mumbled. He swallowed, swallowed again. “Fuck.”
He shoved himself off the sofa, swayed on shaky legs, and strode quickly to the front of the store. The bell jangled in discord as he pushed his way through the door. Danny caught a glimpse of lanky limbs blurring across the glass front of the shop.
Alley, his mind absently catalogued the movement.
“I gotta --” he said to Harry, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.
“Of course,” Harry said, a flash of compassion and a little something else that Danny couldn’t quite place. But there was no time, Steve was in trouble.
Danny grabbed a water bottle from the small refrigerated display at the check out counter. He held it aloft to the young woman behind the register.
“I’ll pay, just --” he started. But she had seen Steve’s face, gray, and waved him out the front door. Danny nodded his thanks and rushed out in search of his partner. He found Steve in the alley, as he’d suspected, propped against a dumpster, retching and gagging.
“Only you, Steven, would be tall enough to lean at full height against a dumpster and heave into it,” Danny said quietly. It never ended well when he inadvertently startled Steve. “The rest of us mere mortals would be doubled over behind it, but not you, my friend.”
“Have to -- “ Steve gagged again, vomited up a pathetic amount of stomach acid and bile. “Have to -- maintain my image.”
He leaned his forehead against the dumpster. Danny rested a hand between his shoulder blades, felt Steve’s muscles trembling beneath him.
“Danny,” Steve groaned.
“Aw, babe,” Danny said. He rubbed Steve’s back gently. “I’m sorry, I didn’t --”
“‘S’okay,” Steve said. He rubbed the back of his wrist against his mouth. It came away bloody.
“Shit, Steve,” Danny said. He pulled a packet of wet wipes out of his back pocket; he’d been with Charlie, after all. He teased a wipe free from the packet and held it out to Steve.
Steve accepted the wipe and mopped up his mouth and nose. He surreptitiously jerked the back of his other wrist across his eyes.
“Hate this so fucking much,” he muttered, while Danny’s hand continued its soothing, aimless stroking of his back. “Fucking radiation.”
“I know,” Danny said. “Here.” He put the water bottle into Steve’s line of vision.
Steve swished and spat several mouthfuls of water into the dumpster before taking a few cautious sips.
“Thanks, Danno,” Steve said.
Danny rummaged in his pocket once more and came out with a hard peppermint candy. He held it out to Steve on his open palm.
Steve chuckled and took the candy, unwrapping it and popping it into his mouth. Under other circumstances, Danny might have raised a lascivious eyebrow at the soft moan of contentment that followed, but not now. Not with Steve still looking decidedly off-colour.
“Who’s the boy scout, always prepared, today?” Steve said. He managed a smile, shaky but sincere.
“As it so happens, my five-year-old child and my oversized partner have a lot in common,” Danny said. “I shoulda realized, Steve, I --” The crackers sat like lead weight in his stomach now.
“I’d have puked them up, Danny,” Steve said, reading Danny’s thoughts.
“We need to get you to Tripler?” Danny asked.
“Nah, it’s passed,” Steve said. “Peppermint, hunh?”
Danny grinned. “Works for motion sickness, too.” He made a mental note to keep the candies in his pocket, always.
Steve clapped him on the shoulder, his hand almost steady, the color returning to his cheeks. Danny put an arm around Steve’s waist, anyway, as they walked back into the store.
They didn’t see Harry, but they could hear him, calling Sophie’s name.
“Why do I get the feeling we’re not getting lunch?” Danny muttered, as they rushed to the back of the store.