Work Text:
It was dark in the living room when Danny woke up on the couch. He looked around to see that the TV was still on with the Sony DVD player logo bouncing around the screen. He turned his head and saw that Steve was next to him on the couch, knocked out. Danny sat on the couch and took a minute to get his bearings together and remembered that it was Friday night and that he and Steve were watching a movie. Danny reached for his phone on the coffee table to check the time and had to shield his eyes when the bright glare from the screen blinded him. When his eyes had adjusted to the light, he saw that it was 2:15 in the morning.
Danny stretched his arms and back which were stiff after sitting on the couch all night. Danny grab the remote to the TV and pressed the power button turning it off. The blond then got up off the couch and stood for a moment in the dark trying to figure out what to do with Steve. With it being 2 o'clock in the morning, he didn't want his partner out driving in the dark and remembered that Grace and Charlie were with their mother for the weekend. So Grace’s room was empty. Danny figured that Steve could spend the night and they could hang out in the morning.
Steve was reclined on the couch with his head thrown back and his feet on top of the coffee table, crossed at the ankles. The taller man wasn’t quite snoring but, he was breathing heavily, relaying how deeply he was sleeping. Danny didn’t want to wake up his partner since the man looked like he was getting some actual rest and only God knows how much sleep the Navy Seal had been getting the past few days. But Danny knew it would be better for them both to get sleep in real beds. So Danny grabbed Steve’s arm that was on top of the armrest and squeezed it while calling out Steve’s name.
“Steve. Steve, wake up. C’mon get up babe, wake up.”
Steve jolted awake and quickly grabbed the hand on his arm in a brutal grip to stop his assailant. Steve looked up to find his partner looking down at him with a pinched look on his face. Mentally backtracking a couple of steps, the Seal realized that it was Danny trying to wake him up. He quickly loosened the grip on his partner’s wrist but, didn’t completely release it.
“Danno?”
Danny looked in Steve’s dark eyes and figured he should ask Steve about the look of quiet panic on his face but realized he didn’t have the energy to play, ‘Guess the meaning of this look on Super Seal’s face!’, so he sighed and squeezed the man’s arm again. He smiled at his partner in the dark.
“Hey babe. C’mon let’s go to bed, you can sleep in Grace’s room. I don’t want you driving out there this late at night.”
Steve’s whole body seemed to let go of its tension when he recognized his surroundings and remembered where he was. After work Steve drove the Camaro back to Danny’s house since his truck was in his partner’s driveway. The Seal had drove to the Blond’s house that morning and they had carpooled to work. Instead of going home, Steve stayed at Danny’s and they cooked dinner and put on a movie, just hanging out since Danny didn’t have the kids and Steve had nothing better to but stare at his walls. Sometime during the movie, the toll of the work week left Danny and his partner snoring on the couch full, warm, and content. Now that Steve had his bearings together, he was able to return the smile on his partners face ten fold and squeezed Danny’s wrist in acknowledgement. The next words just fell out of Steve’s mouth.
“You’re my best friend, Danno.”
Danny really didn’t want to play ‘Guess the look on Super Seal’s face’ but this? This wasn’t even guessing. It was instinctive. He immediately knew. He knew that the face Steve was making wasn’t on purpose. He knew that Steve wasn’t even conscious of the look on his face, of the meaning and intent that Danny could read behind it. Of the love that spoke more than the literal words that came out of his partner’s mouth. He knew what it was, what Steve really meant, even if the Seal himself didn’t know what he was saying.
And Danny wasn’t mad. He knew that Steve had gone through a lot of emotionally damaging stages in his life. That Steve had difficulty recognizing his feelings. So no, Danny wasn’t mad or upset that his best friend didn’t really understand his feelings because it was only a matter of time before he did understand them. Danny could wait, because Danny knew the love was already there in Steve’s heart.
Danny grabbed both of Steve’s arms to pull him up from the couch and guide his partner to the bedrooms.
“C’mon you, bed. I’m not letting you sleep on that couch so you can bitch at me in the morning about how your back is broken. And if you wake me up before 9 o’clock, Imma smother you with a pillow.”
Steve had a stupid smile on his face as he let his partner led him to bed.
“Ok Danno.”