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Steve wasn’t a stranger to these kinds of aches and pains, and he wasn’t one to whine about them. He thought, though much of it was his training and the tough-guy attitude that was almost a necessity for a SEAL, some of it was also that he’d never had anyone to dote on him while recovering from any injury before. Either he’d been alone, or with Cath. When he was with Cath, she empathized but that was the extent of it; she knew how to compartmentalize as well, though her duties were not in the field. She was indoctrinated in the same system as him, and was nothing at all like Danny.
And the thing was, his current state wasn’t all that bad. He and Kono had been the closest to the epicenter of the explosion; she’d flown the farthest and fared the worst with a concussion and a broken radius. All he had was a minor headache and some scrapes and bruises, no worse than if he’d been in a minor car wreck.
“Okay, what do you think about grilled ahi with a spinach, feta and mandarin orange salad with fresh mint dressing for a side? Does that meet your dietary preferences?” Danny called from the kitchen.
“I told you that you don’t have to cook for me, Danny,” he said loudly, winced at the way it made pain spike in his head. “I know you’re not into that.”
“Do not impugn my kitchen skills. Yes, I may have started a fire once or twice, but I assure you I can handle a salad and some grill work. So, is that a yes or a no?”
Steve sighed. There was only one answer.
“Yes. Fine, okay. Sounds good.”
At first, Steve had protested the coddling. It wasn’t necessary, bordered on ridiculous, and it made him somewhat uncomfortable. He was used to the Danny who’d rail on him for being so stupid and charging ahead when the scene hadn’t been cleared, which is what he’d have gotten if they hadn’t … progressed their partnership into a slightly different definition of the term.
“Fucking rabbit food,” he heard Danny mutter. “The things I do for…”
And as Danny’s voice faded into the fridge or out onto the lanai, Steve broke into a smile. That right there, he thought, the fussing mixed with the curmudgeonly attitude he now knew was ninety-five percent bluster was one of the reasons why he had never been able to resist Danny. There was something so endearing about it, though it would be a cold day on O’ahu before he’d ever tell Danny that. Even if they had stayed in the clichéd friend zone forever, Danny with that contrary nature of his had broken down barriers Steve had carefully constructed for every single kind of relationship he’d ever had.
Everything about Danny was inevitable, as it turned out.
If he looked up the word in any dictionary, he’d expect a picture of Danny with a stubbornly set jaw and sharp, unyielding eyes to be glaring back at him. Steve would say that was how he’d ended up giving in to Danny’s need to hover over him during this post-injury phase, but the truth was that this was the first time either of them had been hurt since they’d gotten together and some skittishness wasn’t an unreasonable reaction. And the truth also was that something warm and fond struck him low in his gut at the idea someone liked him enough to want to care for him, even when it wasn’t strictly needed.
“Hey,” Danny said from the kitchen door, “you wanna come out and keep me company while I fix dinner?”
That was Dannyspeak for: come out where I can keep an eye on you and make sure you’re okay. Steve would regret it if he said no, not that he wanted to. The sofa was nice and soft, but if he knew Danny, there was already a makeshift cushioned lounge chair all ready for him near the grill. All this fretting, it was starting to be really cute. He wondered though, what the limits were, and it was in his nature to test limits. He had an idea.
“Sure,” Steve said, moving slowly to sit and only getting halfway. He made sure his struggle looked authentic. He moaned, for good measure. “Ohh.”
“Here, let me help.” Danny shot toward him, arms outstretched and expression worried. He took hold of Steve’s elbow.
“Oh, ow.” Steve made sure to put a little wobble in his tone. “Careful.”
Danny let go as if Steve’s elbow were on fire, instead gently wrapped an arm around his shoulder. Steve hissed in discomfort. Danny reached for a hand, Steve whimpered and clenched his eyes shut. He’d never scoff at actors again; this was hard work.
“Jesus, are you a man or a mouse?”
Well, that was quick. Steve groaned a bit louder, just for show, cracked one eye open and watched Danny watching him with a look of utter disbelief on his face. Now his arms were crossed and he didn’t look like he was going to be lending any more unnecessary aid. Steve just lay there, limp and pathetic, while he tried to keep the grin off of his face. Sure, his head ached and the various bumps, scrapes and cuts were a nuisance, but maybe now Danny would see he was being a bit over the top.
“Okay, then, where exactly can I touch you that it won’t hurt?” Danny asked, tone contemplative, like he was ready to play whatever game this was.
Or create a new one, because all of a sudden Steve didn’t know what the game was anymore. He did know he could end whatever it was by getting up and following Danny out to the lanai with no problem. He opened his eyes, caught the glint of humor and something else in Danny’s staring back at him. Then again. He randomly picked a spot on his body.
“Top of my right foot,” Steve said. “That doesn’t hurt.”
He was a bit dumbfounded when Danny didn’t react by tugging him off the sofa by said foot, but instead lowered himself carefully to his knees at the far end of the sofa, leaned and pressed a soft kiss to the foot Steve had pointed to. Huh. Okay, this was … it was interesting. Weird, but also maybe good. Workable.
“Anywhere else?”
Steve gestured to his left knee, which got the same kiss treatment, plus a quick flick of tongue and a gentle caress of thumb against his calf. The warmth of Danny’s hand on his leg and breath against his knee was strangely intimate and he was glad he was wearing boardies instead of jeans. The feeling jolting through him was a definite signal that this wasn’t a joke anymore. He wondered hazily exactly what limits he was pushing as he pointed to his navel and sucked in a breath, nervousness flooding through him in ways it hadn’t in a long, long time.
Danny smiled at him, wrinkles at the corners of his eyes – one of Steve’s favorite things in the world these days – deepening with his sign of approval. He stared at Steve’s face for a few seconds, then trailed his eyes across his reclined body, stopped on his belly and pondered it for a moment. He scooted closer, slid Steve’s T-shirt up to bare his midriff, and kept a hand resting against Steve’s sternum as he placed his lips on Steve’s stomach. This kiss was longer, more tender still than either of the previous two.
If Steve had been standing, his legs would have lost some muscle tension and the moan was very much real and had nothing to do with pain. He felt Danny smile into his abdomen, and his nose nudged against skin a few times before he looked up and wordlessly sought another kissable place. Weakly, Steve gestured to that spot just below his ear, next to his jaw, the one he’d never told Danny about but that Danny had found their first time out of the gate. He let out a shallow breath as Danny shuffled up, but kept his hand on Steve’s chest, fingers spread over his heart like he owned it. He might just. Steve was sure Danny could tell how his heart rate increased as he sucked gently at Steve’s neck and he didn’t really care. Now, any pain he had been feeling, the real and the exaggerated, didn’t register at all anymore.
“Oh,” Steve said, shifting his head to allow easier access. He slid one leg up to get certain parts of him more comfortable, just as Danny stopped with the neck spot. “Nooo.”
“Where else, Steven?”
Steve glanced at Danny’s mouth, slightly reddened lips making him yearn. He lifted a hand to them, traced his finger along them before he dropped it and pointed tentatively to his own lips. He arched his back as Danny’s deft fingers skimmed across his left nipple, really didn’t give a fuck about the self-satisfied look on Danny’s face as he tilted his head for a good angle and kissed his way into Steve’s mouth, sure and steady in his technique like they’d been doing it for years rather than months, and yet not at all by rote.
It was an odd mix, just like Danny was himself. Steve lost himself in it for a moment, the way he could hear the tiny sounds Danny made at the back of his throat now and again, the dull squeak of the leather sofa as he shifted and his whole body reacted to only Danny’s mouth and one hand on him, the taste of chocolate and peppermint on Danny’s tongue that revealed a sneak into the freezer, the smell of Danny’s hair and just Danny. He wound his right hand around Danny’s back and pulled him closer. The left one slid down his own torso, headed naturally for his cock, but it tangled with Danny’s somehow. He bucked at the way Danny stopped that hand in its tracks and also broke the kiss.
“Let me take care of you,” Danny said, his voice ragged and almost breathless.
That was what Danny had been offering all along, Steve realized, even when he’d thought it was about dinner and housework and making sure he was resting enough. He was dazed and confused and glad, for all of it and what it actually meant. How could he be anything but? Danny was inevitable. He nodded, shifting his hand down to cup Danny’s ass and give it a good squeeze.
Danny chuckled and rolled his eyes. He also took the hint, got to his feet and straddled Steve, careful not to put too much weight on him, then proceeded to tend to him in ways Steve would never dream of calling ridiculous.