It's almost four-thirty in the morning, and Danny's kind of a nervous wreck.

He shouldn't be. He's done this, like, fifty times in his sixteen years – the Mahealani family semi-annual-holiday-spring-break-just-feel-like-go ing-for-the-hell-of-it trip to Hawaii.

It's the same thing every time: pack the night before, go to bed early, still have an impossible time getting out of bed at four in the morning, finger food breakfast ready on the table when he finally drags himself downstairs, and everybody's out of the house by five to catch their nine o'clock flight to Oahu.

Only, it's different this time, and Danny's kind of stressing out. As proven by the fact that it is, in fact, four in the morning, and he's even got the energy to be a nervous wreck. But he does. He's up, he's already packed, showered, dressed, and he's been kicked out of the kitchen for bugging his mom – he was trying to help – and relegated to sitting in the living room watching the news with Kekipu and checking the window every two freaking seconds for a shape on the porch, and his phone every three for messages.

He's waiting for Isaac.

Just in case he wasn't already being neurotic enough, he's checked his e-mail, too. No dice on the Isaac front there, either, but it's actually a good thing he did: he kinda forgot to tell Jackson he'd be out of touch for a week and a half, and he loves the guy, but God forbid he think Danny's ignoring him.

He also may or may not have sent Isaac a text, asking if he needed a ride, which actually isn't as sad as it sounds. It's storming outside, and Isaac doesn't have a car. He's just being considerate. Or, he's trying to be. Only, Isaac hasn't answered him yet, and he sent it almost ten minutes ago.

Color him paranoid, but he's kind of convinced himself that something's gonna come up, and he's gonna get a text or something saying Isaac can't come after all. Which would really suck, not just because a week and a half without Isaac, while totally bearable because werewolf business aside, they have a strangely healthy relationship, would really, really blow. But also because he's worked his ass off to make this happen, and it'd be pretty craptastic if all that was for nothing.

First, he had to convince his parents, although that part wasn't as hard as he was afraid it would be. They weren't really fond of Isaac at first. They didn't say as much, but he figured they'd probably heard on the grapevine about him being a suspect in his father's murder. It probably didn't help that his mom the juvenile court judge was close with the judge that did Isaac's emancipation. He gets the feeling she knows a little bit more about him than he's told her, because the first few times he brought him around back when they were just getting to be friends, he caught her looking at him with this weird mix of sympathy and concern that she usually reserves for cases.

But then he grew on them. Of course he did. He's Isaac. He's sweet, he's always the first one out to get groceries if he's over when Danny's mom goes shopping, he helps clean up after dinner, he brought Danny's homework to him that time he was sick, and he's always, like, unbelievably polite. What's not to like?

So, when he asked if he could bring Isaac to Hawaii, they asked for the usual time to think it over, and ended up getting back to him the next day with an affirmative. Although, he kind of suspects Tutu might've had something to do with it, because she's been asking when she gets to meet him, and she's kind of pushy that way.

With his parents taken care of, Danny ran it by Isaac. He told him it might be nice to just…get away from it all for a little while, especially after the last couple of weeks they've had. After that first full moon, finding out…it's kind of just been crazy, in every possible sense of the word. And he kind of really wants Isaac to meet his family, and Isaac's never been to Hawaii, so it just seemed kind of perfect.

So, he ran it by Isaac, who seemed to like the idea – and okay, maybe the alternative of a week and a half apart is just a little hard to think about, but at least now Danny knows it's mutual – but he had to clear it with Derek.

Luckily, Danny thought ahead. He hadn't heard anything about Alphas in about a week, so he got together with Stiles, and he may or may not have illegally tracked credit cards and accessed traffic and security footage and eventually confirmed that they were in Oregon. Isaac, who had apparently been sitting outside the window for God only knows how long, mentioned that Derek had said something about a new Alpha taking over a pack in Oregon.

It still took a little convincing, but between Danny, Stiles, Isaac, and, strangely, Peter, they managed to talk Derek into giving Isaac the green light.

So, with Derek's begrudging blessing, his parents' go ahead, and all the craptons of paperwork taken care of, everything should be good to go. And Isaac already sent him a text a half hour ago checking to make sure he was still supposed to get to Danny's at four-thirty, so unless things have changed in the past less-than-thirty minutes, he knows he's probably just being nervous about nothing.

But like he said: things have been crazy these last couple weeks.

Which, Danny maintains, has absolutely nothing to do with how high he jumps when Kekipu lets out this wild-sounding howl and takes off from the couch a freaking squirrel just curtsied across the living room. Like he said, he's kind of wound up. And he can't be held responsible for his actions any earlier than seven in the morning, thanks.

For about point-five seconds, Danny's not really sure what's going on, but then Kekipu body slams the front door at about the same time the doorbell rings, and Danny's sleep-deprived brain finally catches up to the rest of the world.

"Danny, can you get the door?" his mom calls from the kitchen, where he's pretty sure everyone else is, too. Now that he thinks about it, he's pretty sure everyone else has already started eating. His mom might've even told him breakfast was ready, it just didn't really register. He's just been chilling in the living room.

He doesn't have to be told twice about the door, though. He thinks he might actually break Kekipu's speed record getting to the door, but it's totally worth it when he opens the door and sees Isaac standing out on his porch, backpack slung over one shoulder and duffel bag slung over the other.

"Morning," he says, maybe just a little bit breathlessly. But he doesn't think it matters, because he's pretty sure Isaac's a little too preoccupied getting gut-checked by seventy-five pounds of deliriously-happy Doberman.

Isaac doesn't even grunt – which, Danny knows from personal experience, a person tends to do when Kekipu high-tens their kidneys – just uses his legs to herd his dog back inside so that Danny can close the door. "Morning."

"You can put your stuff over there," Danny tells him, pointing over to the mound of luggage they've got going in the corner. "We can't load anything up until we get Kip's crate in the back, so we just kind of…gather it."

"You're bringing him to Hawaii?"

Danny nods, even though Isaac's walking over to the luggage mound and has his back to him. "Yeah. We don't always; sometimes, we just board him. But on the longer trips, we like to take him with us. Gives him a chance to see his family, too."

"His family?"

"Well, his mom, anyway." He doesn't know where his littermates went. Some friends of his grandmother's, he thinks. "She's my grandmother's dog. Tutu's had her almost as long as Kalea's been alive." He gets a little pang in his chest as he says it, though, because eleven years is a really long time for a dog, and he knows there's a pretty good chance she's not going to make it to twelve.

He doesn't say anything about it, but then, he doesn't have to. Isaac can tell, and Danny knows he can tell, because his eyebrows kind of furrow and his lips pull into a little bit of a frown. But he doesn't say anything about it, either.

"She must take good care of her," he says instead, and Danny's surprised to hear himself snort.

"She spoils her rotten."

Isaac looks at him skeptically. "You let your puppy take up half your bed."

And Danny can't help himself; he reaches up and ruffles Isaac's rain-dampened hair fondly. "Lucky for you," he says with a cheeky smile.

"I was talking about him," Isaac mutters almost sulkily, jabbing his thumb at Kekipu, except he's smiling, too, so it kind of ruins the effect. Kekipu doesn't help, either, wagging his stumpy little tail so hard at the acknowledgement that his whole butt moves. Isaac must notice, because he drops his hand to scratch Kekipu's head.

Danny rolls his eyes. "You'd think we neglect him when you're not here," he says. Because seriously, Danny's convinced his dog is more desperate for attention than half the high school cheer team. He can't really decide who's worse: his dog for being an incorrigible ham, or Isaac for encouraging it. And he says Danny spoils him?

When Isaac raises his eyebrow again, though, and his eyes do that thing where Danny knows he's laughing at him on the inside, Danny decides it's definitely Isaac's fault, and rewards his silent snark with another ruffle of his hair. This one knocks loose a small shower of water droplets, and this time, it's Danny's turn to raise his eyebrow.

"Did you ride your bike all the way here?" He doesn't think he did. The way it's pouring outside, he thinks Isaac would probably be a lot wetter. His hair's pretty soggy, though, and the part of his white long-sleeve t-shirt around the collar that isn't covered up by his leather jacket is wet enough that Danny can almost see skintone, so Danny can't help wondering if maybe he did.

Luckily, Isaac shakes his head. "Derek gave me a ride," he says.

Danny's pretty sure it's just him for a second, but the closer he looks, the more he's pretty sure he's not imagining the sort of far-off, shell-shocked look Isaac gets on his face when he says it. It's not quite horrified, just…thrown.

"Did…something happen?" Danny asks. Honestly, he's not sure he wants to know, but he's kind of embraced the whole 'the more you know' philosophy since that night at the vet's, and he's sticking with it.

For a long, disconcerting moment, Isaac doesn't say anything. But then he looks up from his staring match at the floor, his eyebrows furrowed again, this time more in confusion, and he's got this perplexed-slash-disturbed look on his face that would probably be funny if Danny wasn't kind of worried, too.

But then,

"I think…I think Derek gave me The Talk," Isaac says, and Danny can actually hear the capital letters. He thinks every teenager can.

And okay, yeah, with the new mental image of Derek, the birds, and the bees…it's definitely funny. Awkward as hell, but funny.

When he's at least pretty sure he can speak without laughing, Danny asks, "He does know that ship's already sailed, right?" Several times. In several places. Sometimes two, three, even four times in a row.

Because yeah, Danny's figured out that the combination of super werewolf stamina and super teenage hormones can be a lot of fun.

And just in case this conversation wasn't already awesome enough, Isaac suddenly flushes this amazing shade of red all the way from his cheeks to the very tips of his ears, at which point Danny says screw it, and just lets the laughter come.

In his defense, he's only human.

"Not that Talk," Isaac says, and he looks like he's trying to be horrified by the idea, but Danny thinks he's getting to him, because he ends up laughing, too. Or, at least, chuckling, and he shakes his head, too, in that 'I'm pretty sure my boyfriend's crazy' kind of way.

"Let me guess: be on your best behavior? No drinking, travel in pairs."

"No wolfing out in public, don't kill anybody," Isaac adds, nodding.

Danny nods, too, casually. "So, the usual then."

"Pretty much."

"Right." He pauses, then, "But just so we're clear, he didn't say anything about, you know…."

Isaac must know, because his lips curl into a smirk and his eyes flash, and he slides his hands around Danny's waist and pulls him close. "You know," he says thoughtfully, his voice low and breath warm against Danny's lips. Their noses are almost brushing, and no matter how many times they do this, Danny still feels his heart race and his head spin. "I don't think it came up."

And then he leans in and seals their lips together, and all that freaking out before couldn't be farther from Danny's mind, because this is happening. Isaac's here, he came, he's coming with Danny to spend a week and a half in freaking Hawaii. He's meeting his family.

"Hey, Isaac."

Speaking of family.

Danny pulls back, taking a second to remind himself that he does, in fact, love his sister, despite her craptastic timing and complete and utter disregard for his interpersonal needs, and that he would actually regret it if he killed her.

Besides, he'll admit – to himself – that she's pretty cool about it. He thinks she, like Kekipu, might've adopted Isaac as an honorary family member; she treats him like a second brother sometimes, which is actually totally cool with Danny.

So yeah, he'll let her live a little while longer, anyway. In the meantime, "What's up?"

"Mom said breakfast is ready." Then she looks at Isaac. "And she said if you haven't eaten, to come get some. There's plenty." And then she turns and runs back into the kitchen, Danny assumes to get her breakfast.

Once she's gone, he turns back to Isaac. "Hungry?"

"Always," Isaac answers. Danny knows he's joking, but it's pretty much the truth.

He smiles and laughs. "Oh, Tutu's gonna love you," he says.

And as they head into the kitchen, Isaac mutters something under his breath. Danny's not really sure, but he thinks it sounds a lot like,

"I hope so."