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Title: Steve's Weird Version of Hitting on Danny
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Characters/Pairings: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams, Chin and Kono show up near the end.
Rating: PG-13/T
Length: 2022 words
Content notes: Some discussion of hypothermia and claustrophobia, with Danny having a panic attack near the beginning due to his claustrophobia. Mostly humor and fluff.
Author notes: Written for Challenge #183 Amnesty at fan_flashworks and using the "comfort" and "cliché" challenges (since they're huddling for warmth, which is a total fanfic cliché). Also a fill for this prompt on fic_promptly (Dreamwidth). I was also inspired by this story written in a totally different fandom.
Summary: If Steve asked, Danny would blame the blush that rose on his face from the cold (which would be a bald-faced lie, but better that than the truth). But Steve didn't question anything. He just nudged Danny's shoulder, and Danny lay down on the floor of the freezer. Steve lay next to him, pressing himself as close to Danny as he could and slipping an arm over the middle of his back.

"All right, we'll see you in a few." Steve hung up his cell phone and pocketed it before he turned to Danny. "I just called Chin, and the rest of the team should be here soon."

Danny bit his lip and apprehensively eyed the door. "So hopefully we won't freeze to death or run out of oxygen?"

Steve sighed and pulled Danny closer by the arm he had wrapped around his back. "Hopefully."

Steve and Danny had been on the trail of a drug smuggler when he managed to get the drop on them with his gang. The group of twelve men were able to overpower Steve and Danny and force them into the industrial kitchen of his restaurant, out of which he ran his operation. The group had forced them to give up their weapons, but they hadn't thought about the cell phones which thankfully still worked from inside the freezer.

Danny glanced around the room, which was starting to seem very small. He breathed rapidly, feeling like he was losing air.

"Danny?! What's wrong?"

"The walls... feels like they're closing in on us."

"Shh... hey it's gonna be okay."

Danny shook his head violently, but he was too freaked out to respond verbally.

Steve moved his hands so that they were cupping Danny's face. He forced Danny's gaze to meet his. "Look at me, buddy. Don't look at the walls, okay. Do you think you can do that?"

Steve's face was just inches away from his, and that should have bothered Danny in his current state. Instead, it was just oddly reassuring to have Steve touching him like this, his large hands cradling Danny's face. Danny managed to nod.

"Just breathe, okay. In and out, nice and gentle."

Danny followed Steve's instructions. This was fairly similar to the thing with Mindy in the elevator, except Mindy had used her medical expertise to explain why Danny's body was betraying him. Steve just expected Danny to trust him, and it worked.

"There we go," Steve said. "Better now?"

Danny nodded. "Sort of. Still really cold."

"Yeah, me too. Maybe we ought to lay down, try to share body heat."

If Steve asked, Danny would blame the blush that rose on his face from the cold (which would be a bald-faced lie, but better that than the truth). But Steve didn't question anything. He just nudged Danny's shoulder, and Danny lay down on the floor of the freezer. Steve lay next to him, pressing himself as close to Danny as he could and slipping an arm over the middle of his back.

Danny felt kind of odd because he had never laid next to Steve like this before. But it was actually really comfortable to have Steve as some kind of personal blanket. The front side of his body didn't feel that cold anymore, but his back was still cold on the areas where Steve's arm wasn't resting. Danny didn't usually think much about their height difference except when he had to readjust the driver's seat in his car after Steve used it so that he could actually reach the pedals. He tried to ignore the part of his brain that wondered about what it might be like to kiss Steve and how he would probably have to stretch up to reach him more than he ever had with anyone else he had kissed. He attempted to shut down that train of thought before it could lead here, with thoughts of how comfortably he fit under Steve's arm leading to curiosity about how it would feel to lie next to him. Which was pretty goddamn perfect, actually. Danny felt safe and protected after that panic attack he just had. His heart was racing a little too fast because he was enjoying this too much. He hoped Steve wouldn't notice.

"Are you okay? Still cold?" Steve asked. He looked concerned, so he obviously didn't notice how Danny was reacting to their proximity.

"I'm fine." Danny lifted one of his arms to drape it over Steve's waist. He rubbed Steve's back, frowning when he considered that he wouldn't be very effective as a personal blanket for Steve. Steve's lower legs were probably freezing. "How about you?"

Steve smiled lightly. "I'm perfectly comfortable."

Danny chuckled. "You're perfectly comfortable lying on the floor of an industrial freezer?"

Steve grinned affectionately. "With you. Lying on the floor of an industrial freezer with you."

He probably didn't mean for it to sound like that, Danny told himself. He shivered a little, but not from the cold.

Steve didn't know why he was shivering and frowned as he threw his leg over Danny's. "I really hope the others get here soon. I hate seeing you shiver like that."

"Me too. Otherwise, we'll die either from lack of oxygen or the cold. I would prefer the cold, myself."

Danny had just been joking, but Steve didn't seem to take it well. He had an expression on his face that was close to aneurysm face. "You're not dying in here."

"Steve, I--"

"I'm not letting you."

Danny shook his head. "You're not letting me? I'm pretty sure that's not up to you."

Steve's face was implacable, but his eyes softened when they gazed into Danny's. "I'm not letting anything bad happen to you, understand?"

Danny felt breathless, but in a good way, not the "trapped in a small room with claustrophobia" way. The look of devoted determination on Steve's face was making Danny think about kissing him, but he knew that would be a spectacularly awful idea. He hoped appeasing Steve would change the look on his face. Danny didn't know how long he could hold out if Steve kept looking at him like that.

"I believe you. And, what I said before, that was just one of my ill-timed jokes." Danny laughed weakly at himself.

Steve's body seemed to release the tension it had been holding, but his facial expression remained the same. "Good. You need to understand how much I love you, that I'll always keep you safe, no matter what."

Danny closed his eyes and leaned his head against Steve's shoulder. "Fuck, babe, you can't say stuff like that. Not now."

Steve made a disgruntled noise. "Why not?"

Danny moved his head back up to glance at Steve and sighed when he saw that Steve seemed confused. "Okay, look, I know that you don't understand the rules of normal human interaction, but telling someone you love them when you're lying next to them like this, even with the whole potential hypothermia situation... It's just, someone might get the wrong idea if you do that."

"What if it isn't the wrong idea?" Danny froze and his eyes widened, certain that he must have misheard Steve. But then Steve's gaze lowered to Danny's lips, and he started to lean in.

Just before they kissed, Danny spoke. "Was this whole 'huddling for warmth' thing your weird version of hitting on me?"

Steve grinned triumphantly. "It worked, didn't it?"

It did, but anything Steve did would have worked on Danny. Steve leaned in the rest of the way, and Danny closed his eyes at the first touch of their lips and kissed him back.

It didn't take long for things to heat up, for their tongues to tangle in their mouths as the kiss grew more passionate. Steve rolled them over and Danny groaned when he felt Steve pressing him down into the floor.

Steve pulled away to breathe for a second, and he stared down at Danny in dazed wonder. "You look so hot underneath me like this."

Danny was just trying to avoid passing out right now with Steve looming on top of him, caging him in with his entire body, overwhelming his vision and his thoughts, and saying things like that to him.

"I want you so bad right now."

Danny reached his arms up to pull Steve back down. "You can have me."

Steve's eyes darkened at that particular declaration, and then they were kissing again. Danny was clutching at Steve's back to hold him as close as possible and had shifted one of his legs to wrap around Steve's waist.

"Five-0, drop your weapons!"

Steve sighed and pulled back reluctantly at the sound of Lou's voice. He looked frustrated, and Danny could relate. He was glad that they would be rescued, but he was kind of sad that he and Steve had been interrupted.

"We should probably sit up right now," Danny said.

"Probably," Steve agreed. He moved off of Danny and sat near the wall. Danny shuffled over to sit next to him and released a noise of protest when Steve pulled him into his lap.

"What the--?! Steve! I said we should sit up so that we won't look like we were just making out by the time our co-workers show up! This kind of defeats the purpose!"

Steve didn't say anything, and Danny started to wiggle in his lap, trying to get away.

"If you keep wiggling like that, it's definitely going to defeat the purpose," Steve whispered lowly in his ear.

Danny stilled and reddened at the implications of Steve's words.

After a couple of moments, they heard a code being punched in, and the door was opened. Chin was standing on the other side, and his eyebrows rose at Steve and Danny's positions.

"Hey, cuz, what's the hold up?" Kono walked up to Chin and leaned her head over his shoulder to peek at what was in front of him. "Oh, I see." She smirked, rather evilly in Danny's opinion. "Danny was right. Holding him in your lap like that does make it obvious."

"You knew about that?" Steve actually sounded embarrassed for once. Danny took the opportunity to move out of Steve's lap while he was distracted by Kono and hoped to recover whatever shreds of his dignity he had left.

Kono nodded. "Danny is really loud." She blinked and blushed at what her words sounded like. "Uh... I didn't mean it like that. Not that I would know."

Chin grimaced. "Please, just stop talking."

Danny stood up and started walking out of the freezer. "So, did you catch everyone in the gang?" He could hear Steve following him.

Chin seemed relieved at the abrupt change in topic. "Yeah. Lou and a few people from HPD are arresting them right now."

"So, I guess we can go back to the office," Steve said.

"Right, then you and Danny can make out some more." Kono giggled, and Danny shook his head. He had the feeling everyone would be teasing them about this for a while.

The group walked outside, and Chin and Kono separated so that they could go to Kono's car. Steve and Danny went over to Danny's Camaro, which had been parked outside the restaurant and apparently left there after they had been ambushed.

Danny touched Steve's hand before he could use it to start the car. "What is it?" Steve asked.

"I, uh, back there... before the kissing, you said "I love you," and I wanted you to know that I felt the same way."

Steve smiled almost shyly, which was endearing. "I figured, with your whole spiel about the 'wrong idea,' but it's nice to know." Steve started the car and began to drive them out of the parking lot.

The tips of Danny's ears turned red and he ducked down his head. "Yeah, with you saying stuff like that, it kept making me want to kiss you, but I figured you wouldn't want that. That's what I meant about getting the wrong idea."

Steve's dropped his right hand from the steering wheel to reach down and cover Danny's hand. "I'm glad we cleared up that misunderstanding."

Danny interlaced their fingers, feeling lighter than air just from the fact that he was holding Steve's hand like this. His hand fit perfectly in Steve's, and it made him feel kind of mushy about them. Steve must have been feeling the same way if the beaming smile he directed towards him was any indication.

"Me too, babe," Danny replied. "Me too."