Pairing: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams
Spoilers/Warnings: none
Author's note: Another attempt at lighter Steve/Danny fic, kind of in the vein of a 'five times' but not really. It was one of those ideas that whacked me in the back of the head and wouldn't let me do anything else until it was written. Thanks as always to Paulette for the beta (and for the random comments that always make me laugh). Any remaining mistakes are my own.

Originally published (on ao3): July 2013

Danny had luxuriated in what must have been a whole ten minutes in the shower. If he'd been at Steve's house, he would be bracing himself for a lecture on Navy three-minute showers, but he wasn't at Steve's place, he was at his own. He was king here and could do what he wanted.

On top of that, he was alone. Their day at work was over; Grace was spending the weekend with her mother and Stan so Danny had his Friday night to himself. His plans were simple: a nice, long, hot shower, take-away pizza, a Tivo'd football game and he would be able to sit around in boxers and not care about looking good for anybody. There were times when you just had to sit around and not worry about the world, and after the week Five-0 had had, this was one of those nights.

He scraped at his hair with a towel, used it to wipe enough of the mirror to see himself and then wrapped it around his waist. He ran his fingers through his hair, settling it in place and then opened the door. It wasn't locked, after all, he was alone in his own home, but the door had been firmly closed. Some habits you couldn't break.

When he opened it, he was greeted with a blast of air conditioning that made his flesh goose pimple. He rubbed a hand over one arm and then stopped short.

The TV was on.

Why was the TV on? He didn't remember turning it on.

Then he heard the brief silence then a change in the sound as the channel moved from one to another. Which meant there was someone in the house with him. And he was supposed to be alone. He'd planned to be alone for the night.

He wasn't stupid. No burglar would begin watching his TV. It was also unlikely that a killer would do so, either. They would have had a much easier chance barging into his bathroom and taking him out in the shower, considering how little attention he'd been paying to the world while he basked in his first chance to feel clean since the morning before.

No, there was only one person who would do this.

Danny padded down the short hallway and stood in the arch where the room opened up and looked his fill at Steve sitting on his sofa, legs akimbo, remote control in his hand and the soft light from the television constantly haloing him in different colors as he flipped through different channels.

"Steven," he said, calmly.

"Hey, Danno," Steve replied, eyes on the TV, barely acknowledging Danny's presence.

"What're you doing here?" Danny asked, keeping calm.

Steve finally looked up, then did a double take as he saw his partner. Danny stood, his body still giving off a sheen of wetness from the shower and he held the fluffy towel low on his hips, a hand bunched in the fabric making sure it stayed put.

"Uh… watching stuff. Waiting for you to hurry up so we could start the game."

Danny looked about himself, wondering why Steve was staring but then gave up worrying about Steve's brain and gave him a withering look instead. "Okay, see, I was planning on spending a lovely night at home, just sacked out on the couch with pizza and beer and a game."

"Yeah, me too," Steve nodded, taking his eyes away from Danny and clearing his throat. "I thought that was the plan." He began looking up the menu screen on the Tivo.

"My plans didn't involve you, Steve. And how did you even get in here?"

"I have a key, remember." Steve said. "Just like you have one for my place. In case of emergency."

"Operative word: 'emergency'. Something this is not."

"I knocked. You didn't answer."

"You waited a whole ten seconds before you barged in then?" Danny came closer, his hands on his hips as he stared down at his partner.

"Closer to twenty."

"Maybe I'd gone out."

"Your car's here. I knew you were inside. You didn't answer. I came in. I called out."

Danny lifted his hands in a 'why me' gesture and rolled his eyes. "I was in the shower."

"I can tell," Steve said, loading the game up and pausing it. He finally looked Danny in the eye again and shrugged. "Well?" He patted the seat next to him.

Danny moved to sit down, then realized what he was doing and grabbed at the hem of the towel he had on before it fell down. He shook his head in exasperation. He finally released one hand and pointed behind himself. "I'm gonna..."

"No need to get dressed on my account," Steve said to Danny's back as he had already turned and was heading to the bedroom. "I thought you wanted to stew in your own juices or something."

"Yeah, well, I've got company now, haven't I!" Danny shouted back. He angrily yanked a pair of sweats from a drawer and pulled them on, muttering to himself about SEAL ninja's and how they sneak into places like they own them. He grabbed a t-shirt and took it with him back into the living room.

"You order pizza already?"

"It should be here in a few minutes," Danny answered as he tugged the shirt over his head and then flopped on the sofa. The doorbell rang. "Bang on time."

He grabbed his wallet from the coffee table and pushed to stand back up. When he returned to the sofa, he dropped the pizza and wallet back before heading to the kitchen for beer and napkins. At long last he plopped back down on the couch, resting his head on the back of the sofa and closing his eyes for a moment to enjoy being able to do so.

When he lifted his head again it was to see Steve staring at him, swallowing before speaking. "You ready?"

"Yeah."

The game was finished. Okay, that was a lie. He'd given up caring about it since the Jets were getting their asses handed to them, so he reached for the remote where it lay abandoned at Steve's side.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Steve asked, turning more to face Danny.

"I'm knitting a sweater, what does it look like I'm doing?" Steve made a grab for the remote which was thwarted as Danny leaned back and held it behind himself and over the arm of the chair. "What the hell, Steve. Your control issues are showing again!"

"It's not…" he sighed. "I thought we went over this. It's polite."

"Yeah," Danny agreed, sitting up again but cautiously still keeping the remote out of Steve's reach. "it's polite to let a guest choose, I agree with that. But you, my friend, are not a guest."

"How am I not a guest?" Steve tried again to reach the remote, leaning heavily into Danny's space to do so, practically falling into him, but Danny sat on it instead.

"Breaking and entering, Steven. I did not invite you in here."

"I have a key. It's not breaking and entering!"

Steve tried to push Danny off the remote and then gave in and did his best to start digging around Danny to get to it, while Danny fended him off in their mini-wrestling match.

"I still didn't invite you in, ergo, you are not a guest, whoa!" Danny tensed as the two of them fell from the sofa, tangled together. Someone's leg hit the coffee table, making it slide across the floor but as Steve lay on top of Danny, he had a look of success on his face as he held the remote in one hand. His other, was somewhere else. "Why is your hand on my ass?"

"What?" Steve asked, putting the remote up on the coffee table and then using his now-free hand to brace himself on the floor, hovering above Danny.

"I said, why are you still touching me?"

"That's not what you asked before."

"If you knew that, why did you ask me to repeat myself?" There was silence for a few beats before Danny couldn't stand it and had to speak. "What are you doing?" he asked as he felt Steve's hand flex underneath him.

"I'll be honest. I wasn't paying much attention to the game."

"Okay," Danny hedged, not entirely sure where the conversation was going and why Steve wasn't addressing the hand that was still on his ass. Also, why he was still allowing it to be there when he really shouldn't be.

"I've still been thinking about you coming out of the shower in that towel. Imagining it falling off."

Danny was beginning to see where the conversation was going. That Place. A place they'd visited once before while drunk. A place they'd agreed might be stupid because they worked together. A place Danny still thought about pretty regularly but pushed aside. A place that could ruin their partnership and friendship. A place both of them had been scared of committing to, or at least, that's what they'd said before.

It was a place they hadn't been to in over a year. And now here it was again, out of the blue.

Well, maybe not. Was it suddenly there again? It couldn't be, because Danny wasn't stupid. He knew they touched each other all the time in reassurance as well as pent-up desire. He knew they spent the majority of their time off together. They'd go places Steve wanted Danny to see. They'd sack out on the couch together, sometimes on opposite sides, sometimes sitting far too close. Steve was there for him when Danny needed him to be. Danny made it a point to be a friendly ear for Steve's problems and to do his best to share the burden.

Was it really a surprise that this issue would come up again when there were times you could cut the tension between them with a knife?

Danny cleared his throat. "Thinking is one thing," he began, looking up at Steve and meeting his eyes. "Over-thinking is another much more dangerous thing."

"Exactly." Steve agreed. "And we've probably over-thought this thing enough."

The hand from underneath Danny's ass finally moved. Now it skirted his hip, ran along the waistband of his sweats and then slowly pushed up the material of his t-shirt.

"You can stop me at anytime, Danny. I'll stop if you want me to."

And that was his out. An out he should probably take, but when did Danny Williams ever make his own life easy? When it came to relationships, when did he ever think with his brain rather than his heart?

He stayed quiet, letting Steve's hand journey where it wanted to go. They fumbled to push the shirt over his head. Steve repositioned himself over Danny, straddling him as he then shucked his own tee.

Danny leaned up, bracing his arms on the floor behind him, his muscle definition showing as he held himself up. Steve's hands ran up those arms, then over his shoulders and down over his chest.

"I'm done thinking about this, Danny. Right now, I'd rather just go with what we feel." He smiled, huffing a laugh. "And it feels pretty damn good to me."

"Are you sure?" Danny asked, needing to know.

"There's too many times that we almost lose each other, in so many different ways. We can't keep putting this off. Excuses don't cut it any more."

Danny nodded and leaned up further, their faces only inches apart now. "I'm sick of holding back, when all I want to do is reach out." And with that he surged up the last of the distance between them and locked his lips with Steve's. There was nothing tentative about this. They may have been drunk that one time they'd started down this path, but he remembered it clearly and so did Steve. They already knew enough about the other to remember the taste, the feel, the little moans Danny made when Steve tugged his lower lip. Already there was a familiarity.

Steve pushed Danny to lie down again and covered his body with his own, rocking their hips together tightly while hands played over bodies, pushing material out of the way to get closer to bare skin.

Danny pulled his lips from Steve's with a turn of his head, his eyes taking in the leg of the coffee table and his carpet. "We are not doing this on the floor, Steve."

"I don't care where we do it," Steve replied, his lips nibbling a trail from Danny's ear into his neck.

"Get up. Bedroom."

Steve moaned, pouting as he was pushed away from Danny. They were both looking a mess already, hair sticking up at odd angles, lips kiss-swollen and Steve's cargoes were pushed halfway down his ass, while Danny's sweats were on his thighs, exposing his dick to Steve's eager eyes.

Steve darted to his feet and reached a hand down to help Danny up. He then pushed him towards the bedroom while simultaneously trying to get Danny's sweats lower and his own pants off. "Quickly," he ordered, slapping Danny's ass as they went.

Danny hadn't expected it, but it turned out that it wasn't awkward in the morning. In fact, they seemed to be on the same page, which was refreshing. All in all, it was a pretty easy coming together. No, wait, that sounded wrong. It was a pretty easy start to a new chapter in their relationship.

They felt no need to open up apart from a discussion over breakfast about how this meant that they were properly seeing each other and they weren't just doing the benefits thing, or the drunken convenience thing, or the scratching an itch thing. They actually wanted to make a go of it. There was no massive declaration. It didn't feel necessary. Sure, in the future, Danny knew there would come a time when he'd find himself telling Steve just how much he loved him, and he suspected it would be when it looked like they might be about to die or after a colossal fight. In the meantime, they were more preoccupied with enjoying things as they were. They would flirt with ease and not feel like they shouldn't do it. That was enough to put them both in good moods for at least the first two weeks of their change in status.

It was another night at Danny's place, with Grace on a sleepover at a friend's house and Steve and Danny mindlessly watching television. Once again, Steve was in control of the remote and there was nothing on so they wound up watching old sitcom reruns.

Eventually, Steve turned to Danny and pointed the clicker at him and pressed buttons. They still affected the TV despite the angle and as Steve pressed the up button repeatedly, the channels changed rapidly.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Seeing if it works on you."

"Oh, I get it," Danny smiled. "I'm here for your entertainment, am I?"

"Just wondering if I can make you do things with it. You know… if you're annoying me I could put it on mute, or if your argument is getting long winded I could hit fast forward," he did both of those things, confusing the television with his antics. "And if I keep hitting the channel up button I figure I can try to make you go up too."

"Up? Oh…" Danny cottoned on to Steve's veiled dirty talk. "You think you can get me horny for you with a remote control?"

"Is it working?" he asked with a sly smile and look down at Danny's groin.

"I'm more like an old-school television set. I work better when you use your hands to turn to dials and knobs."

Steve let go of the remote, pushing it against a sofa cushion before he climbed on top of Danny. "Something more like this?" His hand reached into Danny's pants and began playing over his cock, his hold tight and delicious as Danny sunk into the sofa comfortably.

"Much better," Danny moaned delightedly. "Keep doing that and I guarantee you'll find an interesting channel to settle on."

Steve chuckled as he moved his body over Danny's, burying his head in Danny's neck and nibbling and sucking his way down. His spare hand opened the buttons of Danny's shirt and his mouth and teeth trailed behind, biting against Danny's chest as he arched up to meet him. The way Steve did this to him always turned him to mush; he was putty in Steve's hands. Suddenly, Steve's teeth bit into his hips harder than ever before and he gasped at the feel of it. His cock stirred further and Steve's face turned up to meet Danny's, his eyes glowing with delight.

"Thought you might like that," he spoke low and rough.

"Pretty sure I like a lot of things you do," Danny breathed.

Steve loomed back up and over Danny. "I've been thinking for a while that you like my control issues sometimes. Hmm? You like it a bit rough?"

It wasn't really a question. Danny knew that feeling Steve over him, pinning him down, his big hands wrapped anywhere around his body was enough to make his dick twitch and he'd given up worrying about the kinky side of it. He hadn't thought that Steve would be this indulgent of it, but since it was being offered…

He lifted up and nuzzled Steve's cheek, his lips touching softly to the rim of Steve's ear. "I think about your hands holding me down, your chest heavy over my back, your cock pounding my ass. I think about you biting me, scratching me, your fingers leaving marks from your tight hold on me. You think I like it a bit rough? Babe, with you, I like it rough, I like it hard, I like it every single way you want to give it to me…"

Steve growled in response, turning his head and claiming Danny's lips in a bruising kiss, his hand cushioning at the back of Danny's neck, holding him in place.

"God, that's hot," Steve said, panting, sweat beginning to bead on his forehead as he plastered it to Danny's.

"I'll let you in on a secret," Danny whispered against Steve's lips. "It turns me on to watch you in SEAL mode. It plays havoc with my head."

"So that's why you get annoyed at me?" Steve asked. "You're flustered." He grinned, happy with himself.

"That might be a part of it."

Steve changed their positions, pulling Danny's pants off then letting Danny get his legs underneath him, turning him so his back was to Steve's chest before he pushed him down into the sofa again. He moved Danny around like a rag doll, his hands circling Danny's wrists as he placed them above his head, tucked between the sofa cushion and the arm rest and making sure they were tightly held in there with Danny's shirt now bunched around his arms.

He leaned back enough to push his knees between Danny's legs and fumble to bring Danny's ass off the couch before plucking lube from one of the many pockets of his cargoes as he pushed them down to his thighs. Taking a moment to throw his t-shirt off, he kept hold on the packet of lube as he leaned over and dragged his lips and teeth down Danny's back, his tongue darting out to lick down his spine. He placed a kiss on Danny's lower back, then moved to bite each of the rounded globes before a lubed up finger began probing between them.

Danny moaned and pushed back against him, trying to put weight on his trapped hands but struggling to do so. "That's it, baby," Steve rubbed his other hand in small circles over Danny's hip, then reached around to stroke his stiff cock as a second finger pushed into him.

He worked Danny loose quickly. They were both highly strung now and Danny urged Steve on. "That's enough, Steve."

"It's only two."

"So I'll feel it in the morning, just get your cock in me," he growled and pushed back against Steve again, bossy in his desires.

Steve lined up and carefully pushed inside. As Danny cried out at the intrusion he stopped and waited, but Danny's impatience made him push quicker and harder than he'd intended. The feel of Steve moving inside him with less prep than normal made him feel like he was bigger, filling him more and he loved the rawness of it. He knew he'd not have done this before, only now that they knew each others' bodies better could he do this and feel safe as he was pulled apart with that feel of pleasure mingled with sharpness.

"Oh my god, Steve."

Steve's hot body surrounded him as he leaned over, blocking light and air from between them. "You like that, baby?" he asked between strokes into Danny, his hand still tight on Danny's cock, moving them together in rhythm. "It feel good?"

Danny's head turned into Steve's at a difficult angle. "Feels so big, god it's tight."

"So tight, Danny," Steve mumbled against the back of Danny's neck.

Steve lifted up, letting go of Danny and using the hand to brace himself against Danny's back as he abandoned himself to the moment and began pounding into Danny, changing angles as he shifted his knees, pushing Danny's legs wider, one falling off the couch and practically flailing in the air.

Danny screwed his eyes shut and dug his face into the cushioned seat below him. Unable to get purchase on anything, he was feeling utterly used as Steve took full control. As both their voices rose and dirty platitudes and mumbles and names and phrases spilled from their mouths he felt Steve thrust in hard one last time as he shuddered above him.

Steve's hard body collapsed against him, his weight pinning Danny to the sofa and he could manage little else other than to moan in need as he was pressed against the course material, still on edge. His insides had taken a glorious pounding and he could still feel it but it wasn't enough to finish the job. He rocked, trying to get friction, then Steve's body joined his. He pulled out of Danny but he lowered his hips back down on top of him and used the strength of his body to keep up the rocking motion.

"Can you do it like this, Danny?" he murmured in his ear. "Can you rub yourself off this way? Do it for me, baby." He thrust hard, pushing Danny further into the cushions, the friction of the material against his cock making him spill his cum against it, rubbing it in and he knew it was going to be a tough stain to get out later but he didn't care because he felt so good and boneless.

"God, you're hot like this," Steve breathed as Danny turned his head, resting his cheek on the sofa as he dragged his hands out from their holding place.

"Like what?" Danny asked.

"Doing what you're told."

"Double bluff," Danny waved one of his now free hands as he spoke half into the sofa. "I'm not going to blindly do what you tell me at work simply because it turns you on."

"Damn," Steve kissed between Danny's shoulder blades. "Was worth a shot. It's still incredibly hot though. We need to explore that more."

As Steve lazily dropped kisses against Danny's back, he felt Steve's hand fumbling around his hip and then the drag of cold plastic against his skin as he found what he was looking for and held it up.

Danny scrabbled around until he could turn underneath Steve and face the man now sitting astride his hips, clicker in hand and a sly smile playing on his lips.

"I have an idea," Steve said, tapping the end of the remote against his lips.

"Pray tell, what might that be."

Steve leaned over Danny again. "I'm not done with this kink of yours yet." He trailed the remote over Danny's chest. "I'm going to take you into the bedroom, and we're going to explore it more. I'm thinking of using your old ties to hold you to the headboard, then I'm going to do everything I can to make sure your whole body tingles and twinges tomorrow… not just your ass, and your dick, but I want to mark that spot between your shoulder and neck… I want to grip your hips so tight my fingers will leave bruises… I want to scratch through your chest hair and leave a red trail through it…"

"And what's that for?" Danny asked, pointing at the remote.

"Once I have you right where I want you, I figure I'll hit the pause button, and be able to bask in just how hot you look being so good for me," Steve's voice was low and sultry and it made Danny's mouth water.

Steve stood between the kitchen and the living area of Danny's house, the TV remote control held firm in one hand, letting the end of it bounce off the knuckles of his other while he whistled random notes with no purpose.

"Okay, seriously," Danny began, holding their two beers in one hand and shoving Steve in the back with his other. "Would you go sit down, please?"

"I'm still keyed up," Steve said, sitting with a thump and his knees bouncing along with the action of the remote in his hands.

"I can tell that. I'm a Detective, you know. I see things and I deduce and you, my friend, have way too much energy for eleven o'clock at night."

Danny abandoned the beers on the table, condensation running down the side of one and onto the table. In a swift move, he straddled Steve's thighs, bringing his bouncing legs to a halt. He grabbed at Steve's hands, forcing the remote from them and letting it drop to the floor behind him.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked with a sly smile.

"I'm putting all that energy to better use," Danny responded, before leaning in, taking Steve's lips with his own. "I'm pretty sure I know a good way to wear you out."

"Yeah?" Steve asked, his eyes raking over Danny's face, his lips, into his neck. "I've got a lot of energy, I hope you're prepared for the marathon amount of effort you might need to tire me out."

"A marathon, really?" Danny ground his ass down against Steve's hardening cock. "And here I thought a good sprint might be enough to get you calm."

Steve's hand stroked over the back of Danny's neck, fingers massaging against the muscle of his upper back. "There's no way a quickie is going to be enough. I need a good work out, some real effort.. a long, steady pace and a sprint finish."

Danny pulled back enough to take his shirt off and then gesture down at his body. "You think you can hold out on a long, steady pace while I'm talking complete filth in your ear and begging you to go faster?" He was more tired out that Steve, but he definitely had enough in him to enjoy some sweaty alone time in their bed. He knew if they did this they'd both sleep well; despite Steve's frustrations at having to wait until tomorrow before they'd get the information they needed from the lab in order to execute their planned morning raid.

Steve looked him up and down. "How about a half marathon?"

"On one condition."

"What's that?"

"We stop with the running metaphors and you and I get down to the serious business of your dick in my ass."

Steve didn't need to be told anything else. He surged up from the sofa, taking Danny with him, giving the smaller man little choice other than to wrap his legs around Steve's waist and go with him as he carried him into the bedroom.

It had been a tough case, affecting Steve deeply, especially after seeing the young woman reunited with a father she thought dead.

They were both exhausted and Danny's house was much closer than Steve's.

They walked in together, Steve immediately making his way to the sofa where he sat with a thud while Danny watched from where he hovered nearby, dropping his keys on the table. Steve seemed to take a moment before leaning forward and grabbing the remote control from its resting spot but he didn't turn the TV on, instead, he held it firmly between both his hands and stayed leaning forward, his elbows braced on his knees and he leaned his forehead against the edge of the remote, probably leaving a dent in his skin.

With a sigh, Danny pushed off from the table he was leaning against and moved to Steve. He wrapped a hand around Steve's forearm and spoke quietly. "Come on."

Steve looked up with a 'hmm' on his lips and Danny continued to pull. "Come on," he repeated as Steve made his way back onto his feet. Danny unwrapped Steve's hands from the remote and let it drop to the sofa as he wrapped his arms around Steve and pulled his head down into a tender kiss.

Steve's arms tightened as they snaked their way around Danny but there was a gentleness with the hold as he clutched into him. Though their kisses were fueled by need and want, they were full of a strong love, and of care.

Danny's hand cupped Steve's cheek and they pulled apart enough to rest their heads together and Danny closed his eyes, his breathing matching Steve's. "We got through it."

"It was close," Steve's voice caught in his throat.

"But we got through it. Everyone's okay."

"I lost sight of you. You didn't answer when I called your name."

"I was in the water at the time. My comm broke."

"I was scared, Danny. I've felt that before and he died, Danny, He died. I don't want to be scared like that again." Steve turned his face and buried it in Danny's neck.

"I can't promise you, babe, you know that." Danny's hand caught itself in Steve's hair as he petted his head. Steve nodded against him, perfectly aware that with their jobs, anything could happen that would mean they'd lose each other. It went without saying that they'd do everything in their power to make sure that didn't happen, but there was always that possibility. "Worrying about each other, it's what we signed up for. But I trust you and your abilities. And you trust me and mine. That's what gets us up in the morning."

Steve pulled back with a sigh; his hands cupped Danny's face briefly, then fell down over his sides and held on to his hips. He pressed his forehead to Danny's again and took a deep, steadying breath. He didn't say anything, he didn't need to. They just needed a moment to relax into each others' presence.

Danny nipped at Steve's lips, and he responded with a few of his own. His tongue darted out to lick along Danny's lower lip and then Danny's mouth opened to him in invitation. Their tongues met and caressed against the other, lips closing over each other, then as they grew more frantic, more breathless, teeth clashed together and their lips stung from the bruising contact.

Hands explored, pushing fabric aside to feel the skin below as they sated Steve's worry with desire. Before long, Danny found himself pushed back against a wall with Steve's hands groping his ass and his head tucked into his neck, licking, sucking and biting against his skin. Those groping hands moved to blindly seek out Danny's own traveling hands, pulling them away from his body and Steve's long fingers wrapped around his wrists, moving them up out of the way to hit hard against the wall.

As Steve's thumbs traced against his pulse points, his mouth continued an assault on his neck.

Steve had, if only for a few long seconds, believed Danny to be dead, or dying, and that worry had moved into this. Now Steve was doing everything he could to reassure himself that Danny was alive and real, with touch, and taste. With the feel of his pulse racing.

"Steve, babe, if you take me to the bed, I promise you, you can do everything you need to make sure I'm still here, okay?"

Steve grunted into Danny's neck. He hadn't ignored him, but he was going to take his own time here as he trailed his lips along Danny's cheek, his nose and then finally captured his lips again with his own.

Breaking apart, he glanced up to where he was holding tight to Danny's wrists, bracing them both against the wall. "I need to feel you," he confessed. "And I need to hear you. I need to make your heart beat faster, your blood race through your veins, your breath quicken. I need to do all that to you… and I need to feel your strength against mine."

"Okay, babe. Okay."

They'd only just come in the door and Steve had picked up the clicker and was simply holding it in his hand, laying claim to it. He hadn't even pointed it at the TV yet. He just picked it up on reflex on his way to the kitchen to grab beers for them both.

Danny was well aware of Steve's mood with the gesture and he allowed them to sit for a little while, until the beers were mostly gone and they were staring at the TV with little regard for what was on it.

He leaned forward enough to set the beer back down on the coffee table then he rubbed his hands on his thighs as he turned to Steve. "Bedroom?" he asked, nonchalantly.

Steve looked back at him, an answering frown on his face, then his eyes opened wider in understanding. He took a second to peer at the TV then back to Danny.

"Bedroom."

Danny came out of the kitchen after cleaning away their dishes to see Steve channel surfing so quickly that there was no way he was giving anything a chance.

He marched up to him and grabbed the control from his hands only to receive an indignant 'hey!' for his trouble.

Danny clicked for 99 and the TV Guide channel. "There!" he said with a flourish. "Now instead of annoying me with all that hopping, you can read what's on each channel and that will help you decide!"

"There's nothing on," Steve gestured at the television.

"Then why were you surfing around like that?"

"Because you were in the kitchen doing stuff and I had nothing else to do."

"Well, I'm out of the kitchen now aren't I? The burned pan is soaking, the dishwasher is on, I am done for the night. You can stop searching blindly for something to watch and settle. You could always put on a DVD."

"I'm not in the mood for a movie," Steve scrunched his nose up at the suggestion.

"Then what do you want?"

Steve turned to Danny, looking him up and down appreciatively. In a moment, Steve was up and in Danny's space, his momentum pushing Danny back as his lips descended on Danny's in a bruising kiss. That answered that question.

"Danny?" Steve called out from the living room to where Danny was coming out of the bathroom. "I think you need new batteries for… hey!"

Ah, he'd discovered it then.

Steve met Danny halfway back through and leaned against the column by the kitchen. "There's no batteries in your remote." He held up the pieces of the clicker in each hand and waved them at Danny.

"Yeah, I took them out this morning."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because I knew that you'd be coming here tonight. And I knew that if you picked up the damned thing it wouldn't be because you want to watch TV."

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked, confusion etched on his face.

"I'm talking about this," Danny moved right up into Steve's space and groped his dick through his cargoes. He bunched a hand into Steve's t-shirt and yanked him down for a kiss, stopping his 'oh' from turning into actual words.

Once he had made Steve thoroughly breathless, he pushed back and gave him a knowing smirk. He reached out and stole the remote pieces from Steve's hands. "You know, I worked it out. It's practically Pavlovian."

"Is this to do with sex?" Steve asked, dumbfounded.

"Kind of," Danny answered. "Anytime you are over and you grab this damn thing and play with it, it always leads somewhere else. Specifically, the bedroom."

"We're always in your bedroom when I stay over. It's where we sleep."

"Yes, but as hot as you are, as hot as we are together, we don't always have sex."

"Wait a minute, are you saying that when I take control of the clicker, you take it to mean I want sex?"

"Yup," Danny nodded with a smile as he put the hatch back on the remote. "And I'm right, too. Trust me on this."

Steve plucked it back from Danny's hands. "Wow," he said as he examined it. "I have a tell?"

"You have a tell. And when I think about it, you've been doing it longer than we've been having sex. Before it just annoyed me and now… now it's great. It's like having a guide book for your moods."

"What else do I do?"

"And give away my advantage? I don't think so," Danny shook his head.

"I have ways of making you talk," Steve's eyes narrowed as he shifted from being on the back foot to being on the prowl instead.

"Oh really? You think you know me?"

"I know that you like to touch the handle of your gun when you're thinking things through. I know that you like to lean on things because you're conscious of your height and leaning gives the illusion that you might be taller than you are… And I know that you gave up arguing with me over me driving, or choosing lunch places, or going surfing because you like my controlling side despite complaining about it."

"Now hold on a minute. I admitted the last one to you, so it doesn't count."

"And the others?" Steve stalked closer, forcing Danny backwards.

"I have no idea what you're on about."

"Uh-huh." Steve studied the remote control in his hand, gave it a smirk that he then shot at Danny, then chucked it behind himself, letting it fly through the air and land somewhere with a thump. "Get your ass in the bedroom, Danno."