midorisakura

Title: Freezing Time
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Characters: Danny Williams, Steve McGarrett
Rating: PG
Word Count: 650
Summary: Danny reflects on how fast time has flown by since he first met Steve, and how, even though they've had some rough patches, he wouldn't change any of it for anything.
Content Notes: Established relationship set in my "Ho oku i" series. Inspired by Rush's song, "Closer to the Heart".

The years since he's met Steve have flown by. Some of it trickling like water through a sieve, and Danny can't help but think that time really does have wings, like that painting by Salvador Dali with melting clocks distorting time. The wax of a candle burning too hot, dripping down the sides like waxen tears.

Time stands still for no man. Danny knows this, and wishes that he had the ability to control time. Reverse it. Fast forward it. Slow it down so that he can see a moment frame-by-frame. Hit pause and take in every minute detail that’s revealed in the still frame.

Some days, Danny wants time to stop for just a moment, so that he can hold that moment in his heart forever; others, he wants it to rush on past so that he can fast forward through a particularly difficult experience until it's nothing but a blur of monochrome and faded memory -- nothing more than a blip -- that carries no pain. He wants the same for Steve, for Grace, for Charlie, for everyone he loves.

Time is both temporal and figurative. Danny knows this. Still, as he watches Steve from across the room, eyes crinkling at the corners and lips quirking upward, head tilting slightly as he leans closer to hear a funny story or maybe a joke, Danny can't help but want to freeze that moment in time. To freeze all moments like this, and keep them bottled up for eternity, for him to take down off a shelf, dust and peer into when he needs something uplifting.

He wants to freeze Steve to keep the man from aging, his bones from growing brittle, his mind from senility.

Danny wants to keep them both from aging, though he knows that growing old together is a worthwhile dream, that it's what most people want (and rightly so). It's what Danny should want -- to grow old with Steve, and compare liver spots, cry at the depravity of the latest generation, weep over Hallmark commercials, and hold hands as they fall asleep together on the couch, or in matching recliners.

Danny wants nothing more than to keep Steve close to his heart, young, vibrant as he is now -- corners of his eyes crinkled with laughter, even as he seeks out Danny's gaze, holds it across the crowded room, and smiles like Danny's the only one in the room and he's just pretending to hang on every word that's being spoken to him -- forever.

'I love you,' Danny mouths, willing Steve to draw nearer.

Instead, Steve draws a heart in the air with his index fingers and winks, blows a kiss in Danny’s direction.

Danny ‘catches’ the air kiss, pretends to place it in his pocket, and returns Steve’s wink, adding a subtle arch of an eyebrow that he hopes communicates his desires. Steve arches an eyebrow in return and offers Danny a smirk.

Shaking his head as Steve turns his attention to one of the governor’s guests, an elegant looking elderly woman, who has not so subtly bid for Steve’s attention by tugging on Steve’s ear, Danny laughs, takes a sip of his beer, and, tilting the bottle in Steve's direction, reflects on the years that he's known Steve.

All things good, bad, and in between come to him in a rush of memory. Some of the moments are tainted with a touch of pain, black ink spilled across an otherwise unblemished photograph, and other moments are painted in a haze of pure gold that makes his heart sing.