Steve is still just staring at him, and it makes Danny feel uncomfortably naked, which is idiotic, considering the amount of times and ways in which he has been actually naked, here, with Steve. In the dark, in full daylight, in all the shades of light and shadow in between, from rumpled to disheveled to outright bare, every possible stage of undress.
But this is different. It's like, and unlike, the stare Steve pins on him when he thinks Danny's trying to hide something, some innocuous detail of his lunch or some huge shift in his world. It's been a while -- maybe because he doesn't ask about the court case and Danny doesn't volunteer information, after that conversation Steve caught the end of, only to make the idiotic comment that maybe Danny wouldn't hate leaving.
Jackass.
So it's been a little while, but this isn't quite that look, either: it's something bared, something that hooks behind Danny's heart and pulls, too cautious for Steve, who dives headlong off buildings and cliffs and runs into firefights without a second thought, unfazed by the prospect of being set adrift in a leaking dinghy too far from land to see it. Too careful, three words like he's stepping on cracking ice, and fully expects to fall straight through the floor at whatever Danny says to them, which, well. What is there to say? As his eyebrows lift, and he looks right back at Steve, exasperated despite the hand still on his jaw, cheek, feeling like he should be knocking on Steve's forehead like he would on a door.
"How is this news to you? Hello, Steven, where have you been for the last month that this comes as a surprise?"
Sure. True. Normally he does not admit it in exactly this particular way, but it's not like he's been kidding all the times before, or even that Steve fried his brain to a pulp that would just gasp words into the air and the dark without caring what they were or meaning them. That's not -- it's never been something he's done. Lying about something like that, using it, the thought alone makes his stomach turn. Twist in on itself.
So how exactly has Steve been taking it, all the times it's been said before? The fact that he's now watching Danny like he thinks he's going to pull his face off and reveal it's been a mask the whole time is hardly the reaction he would hope for. He means it, but it's nothing new, nothing different, he's felt this way all month, longer, since whenever it was he actually put all the pieces together and came up with the only picture that made sense.
"What about these signals has actually been mixed? I'm honestly curious, because there seems to have been some kind of drop in communication."
no subject
But this is different. It's like, and unlike, the stare Steve pins on him when he thinks Danny's trying to hide something, some innocuous detail of his lunch or some huge shift in his world. It's been a while -- maybe because he doesn't ask about the court case and Danny doesn't volunteer information, after that conversation Steve caught the end of, only to make the idiotic comment that maybe Danny wouldn't hate leaving.
Jackass.
So it's been a little while, but this isn't quite that look, either: it's something bared, something that hooks behind Danny's heart and pulls, too cautious for Steve, who dives headlong off buildings and cliffs and runs into firefights without a second thought, unfazed by the prospect of being set adrift in a leaking dinghy too far from land to see it. Too careful, three words like he's stepping on cracking ice, and fully expects to fall straight through the floor at whatever Danny says to them, which, well. What is there to say? As his eyebrows lift, and he looks right back at Steve, exasperated despite the hand still on his jaw, cheek, feeling like he should be knocking on Steve's forehead like he would on a door.
"How is this news to you? Hello, Steven, where have you been for the last month that this comes as a surprise?"
Sure. True. Normally he does not admit it in exactly this particular way, but it's not like he's been kidding all the times before, or even that Steve fried his brain to a pulp that would just gasp words into the air and the dark without caring what they were or meaning them. That's not -- it's never been something he's done. Lying about something like that, using it, the thought alone makes his stomach turn. Twist in on itself.
So how exactly has Steve been taking it, all the times it's been said before? The fact that he's now watching Danny like he thinks he's going to pull his face off and reveal it's been a mask the whole time is hardly the reaction he would hope for. He means it, but it's nothing new, nothing different, he's felt this way all month, longer, since whenever it was he actually put all the pieces together and came up with the only picture that made sense.
"What about these signals has actually been mixed? I'm honestly curious, because there seems to have been some kind of drop in communication."