It's such an effort not to roll his eyes this time. An extraordinary one. The truth is so diametrically opposite he could crack glass and his own teeth on it. People like Danny. He's fuss and fire and bitching, sure, but he's, also, the brightest winning smile and he's your best friend, with a grin, a laugh, and a compliment when he's happy. All of it light and entirely sincere.
He's showstopping then. Runs over people, never noticing. Like that kid earlier, left having no clue, watching him leave.
People have been looking since Steve can remember. Not as much in that first months of the first year, sure, when Danny's go to was an acerbic scowl and he was quicker with an insult about Hawaii than he was with anything else, but he's mellowed since. There are things he likes, places he prefers, favorite spots and habits. He surfs and even lets Steve drag him to other places he wouldn't choose to go, and people noticed. Especially when he was happy.
They notice a lot. With the tight-buttoned shirts, and when Danny has no shirt at all.
They stared until Steve wants to help them remove their eyes from sockets with only his thumbs. "Yeah." Steve says, pushing a breath out his nose and then the word out of his mouth. "They do."
Have. Since the beginning. Since surfers Danny thought were insulting him, and who were actually getting fresh right in front of Steve, who hadn't care at all except to laugh at Danny's obliviousness, in the middle of a case. Maybe he doesn't answer the other one on purpose. Not so much because he doesn't want to answer, even though he doesn't, as though he'd hoped Danny would miss that one word, so much as because Danny is what he just said he wasn't, a great detective. An even better friend.
Maybe the only person who gets Steve consistently. Definitely the only one who can stop him.
Danny, who definitely didn't mishear him. Not this close, with nothing to distract him, and that name repeated.
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It's such an effort not to roll his eyes this time. An extraordinary one. The truth is so diametrically opposite he could crack glass and his own teeth on it. People like Danny. He's fuss and fire and bitching, sure, but he's, also, the brightest winning smile and he's your best friend, with a grin, a laugh, and a compliment when he's happy. All of it light and entirely sincere.
He's showstopping then. Runs over people, never noticing. Like that kid earlier, left having no clue, watching him leave.
People have been looking since Steve can remember. Not as much in that first months of the first year, sure, when Danny's go to was an acerbic scowl and he was quicker with an insult about Hawaii than he was with anything else, but he's mellowed since. There are things he likes, places he prefers, favorite spots and habits. He surfs and even lets Steve drag him to other places he wouldn't choose to go, and people noticed. Especially when he was happy.
They notice a lot. With the tight-buttoned shirts, and when Danny has no shirt at all.
They stared until Steve wants to help them remove their eyes from sockets with only his thumbs.
"Yeah." Steve says, pushing a breath out his nose and then the word out of his mouth. "They do."
Have. Since the beginning. Since surfers Danny thought were insulting him, and who were actually getting fresh right in front of Steve, who hadn't care at all except to laugh at Danny's obliviousness, in the middle of a case. Maybe he doesn't answer the other one on purpose. Not so much because he doesn't want to answer, even though he doesn't, as though he'd hoped Danny would miss that one word, so much as because Danny is what he just said he wasn't, a great detective. An even better friend.
Maybe the only person who gets Steve consistently. Definitely the only one who can stop him.
Danny, who definitely didn't mishear him. Not this close, with nothing to distract him, and that name repeated.