Chapter Text
“He's worried about me,” Steve says to Lou, watching Danny wave his beer bottle as he chats with Quinn and Junior’s parents. “He wants to keep an eye on me, I get it.”
“Nice when you got a lot of friends that actually give a damn about you, ain't it?” Lou responds, a hand on Steve’s shoulder.
“Yes, it is.”
They banter for another minute and then Adam interrupts, suggesting they throw a football around. Steve obliges, and finds himself having a better time than he expected.
At some point during their impromptu game, Steve notices Danny break off from the group and head into the house. He doesn’t think much of it until later, when he realizes Danny has been missing for more than an hour.
He thinks back to his conversation with Lou earlier that afternoon. Lou hadn’t seemed surprised that Steve knew it wasn’t mold driving Danny to crash at his place. But he couldn’t help but think that their conversation had cut off sooner than it should have.
He finds Lou by the buffet, grazing on the cheese tray.
“Have you seen Danny?” Steve asks, pretending to examine a platter of shrimp.
“Think he went inside,” Lou replies, grabbing a beer and heading off towards the beach.
Steve steps in front of him, holding his ground as Lou tries to nonchalantly slide away. “Hang on. I need to talk to you.”
Lou shrugs. “Go ahead.”
“Earlier, when we were talking about Danny staying here…” Steve trails off, and lets the silence sit for a minute, hoping Lou will just fill in the blanks. It’s a pretty good low-key interrogation technique. Lou, however, is not new to this game.
“Yeah?”
Steve shifts and looks around, making sure no one is close enough to hear their conversation. “Is there something you’re not telling me? About Danny?”
An uncomfortable look passes over Lou’s face, and that’s the answer right there.
“Lou, come on. If something’s wrong, I need to know.”
Lou rubs a broad hand over his face. “Listen, Steve, I don’t really know. It’s not for me to say.”
“What isn’t for you to say? Did something happen, while I was gone?”
Lou is clearly struggling with whether to come clean or not, but Steve doesn’t really care, because this is Danny they’re talking about.
“Lou, please.”
“He’s been… down.” Lou doesn’t elaborate, just gazes at Steve with intent.
“Down? Down? What does that mean?”
“Just keep an eye on your boy, okay? You should have plenty of opportunity, now.”
“Now – you mean, since I’m back? Or with him in the house? Lou-”
They are, unsurprisingly, interrupted; Renee wants to know if it’s time for dessert, and if she can bring her special ice cream cake out of the freezer. If it hadn’t been her, it would have been someone else. Besides, it’s clear that Lou isn’t the person he wants to talk to.
But when Steve goes looking for Danny, Tani tells him he left. Steve sends him a text. Eventually Danny writes back, saying that he is taking Grace and Charlie out for shave ice, and will be back later.
Steve doesn’t argue, even though he is pretty sure Rachel has put a moratorium on surprise shave ice excursions. Especially on Thanksgiving, when her parents are visiting, and they have already argued ad nauseam about how the kids would be with her on Thanksgiving Day, and with Danny the day afterwards.
That night he winds up sitting on the beach with Adam and Lou, Danny finally joining them after almost all the other guests have left. The torches set up along the water give off a flickering orange glow, reflecting off Danny’s dark hair.
Steve stands up and grabs more beer, and when he comes back, he plops himself down next to Danny, shoulders close. “Everything okay?” he asks, low and quiet, when Adam’s attention is elsewhere.
Danny wrinkles his brow. “Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”
About a million different reasons, Steve thinks, and those are only the ones I know about. “You can tell me if it’s not, you know that, right?”
A brief look of surprise flits across Danny’s face, so fast Steve isn’t sure it was even there. “’Course.”
Later they say goodnight to Junior, after he awkwardly explains that he’s going home with Tani, and Danny heads off to claim Junior’s bed. Steve putters around the house for a while, straightening the kitchen and putting the extra chairs back in the garage. He even outlasts Eddie, who is sacked out on his usual position on the couch.
Finally Steve gets ready for bed, putting on an old pair of sweats and a t-shirt from a fundraising walk Grace made him do years ago. He gets into bed, but he can tell he’s not falling asleep anytime soon.
He notices that he’s left his bedroom door slightly ajar. His subconscious apparently doesn’t think his hearing is what it used to be.
Steve doesn’t get up immediately, when he hears Danny go downstairs. He doesn’t want to startle him, or make him think that he’s been keeping tabs on him (although he has, of course he has, why hasn’t he done it before? Why didn’t he notice? Why did Lou have to clue him in?).
Danny isn’t on the couch. He’s sitting at the table on the lanai, head down on his crossed arms. It’s a strange place to sit. It’s dark, the upstairs porch hanging overhead. You can’t see the stars, or really feel the presence of the ocean. It’s not warm and cozy like his living room.
Steve ducks back into the house and grabs a throw blanket, then joins Danny on the bench. Danny glares at him a little when Steve puts the blanket over his shoulders and tucks it around them both, but he doesn’t say anything, just puts his head back down on his arms. His face is tilted towards Steve this time, though, and Steve feels his heart sink.
Danny has a terrible poker face, but right now, he’s not even playing. Something is definitely wrong, and Danny is hardly fighting it.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Steve says into the quiet. It’s not a lie, although tonight’s sleeplessness wasn’t just because of Doris.
“Me neither,” Danny responds.
“I, uh, haven’t slept well in a while.” This is also true.
“Me neither.”
Steve tries to put his own feelings into words, to describe that empty feeling that seems to accompany his every move these days. “Things have been rough. I don’t really feel like myself lately. Kind of feels like there’s not much point anymore.” This is hard to say. But, again, true. And it’s also an invitation. Come on, Danny, Steve thinks. I'm paying attention now. Let me in.
Steve can feel Danny hesitate. Then he raises his head off his hands, and gazes right at Steve. “Same.”
Steve slides his arm around Danny’s shoulders, under the blanket, and pulls him close against his body. “It’s good you came, Danno. I’m glad you’re here.”
Danny digs his face into Steve’s neck, and mumbles something that turns into a choked off sob.
“It’s gonna be okay, it is,” Steve says, rubbing Danny’s back as he shakes. He doesn’t know if this part is true, but he knows he’ll do anything to help get Danny through this. Steve’s been too distracted by his own grief to see what was right in front of him, but now he knows, and he can try to find a way to fix it.
Having Danny under his roof feels like the right start, a brave step that Danny took all by himself. "We're gonna be okay," Steve says again, holding Danny tighter. "We'll look out for each other. We'll figure it out. I promise."