Title: One more cup of coffee 'fore I go
Author: Ligeia / gothikmaus
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Characters/Pairing: Steve/Danny, Mary
Rating: PG
Warnings/Spoilers: coda to 2x19
Category: ficlet, humour, romance
Summary: Mary comes back for that cup of coffee.
Author's note 1: Beta read by the wonderful iam_space. Thanks for all the suggestions! <3
Author's note 2: Title from Bob Dylan's "One more cup of coffee"
Hawaii Five-0 and all related characters are property of CBS. I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.
"So, you and Danny," Mary said sipping her coffee. She looked at Steve, who was sitting in the beach chair next to her, and rolled her eyes. "Jeez, Steve, would you just relax? You’re the only person I know who can go from chilling to fight-or-flight in less than one second."
"What are you talking about? I'm perfectly relaxed," he replied staring straight ahead.
"Yeah, right. Just let me know if you’re planning on crushing that mug with your bare hands, so I can look for cover. I wouldn’t want a stray shard to hit me in the face."
Steve looked down at the mug in his hand and loosened his hold on it.
"Look, I know you're not the most open guy when it comes to talking about your feelings, and it's okay if you don't want to talk about it..."
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Oh, please, do you think I'm blind? Anyone who spent five minutes with you two and paid a little attention would understand there's something going on."
Mary smiled at how uncomfortable her brother looked. She was tempted to kneel down next to him and give him a big hug, but she suspected that would only make things worse.
"Since when are you so observant?"
"I've always been observant. Do you think I never noticed the way you looked at that buddy of yours back in school? What was his name? Jim? Joe?"
"Josh?" Steve's alarmed look was so comical Mary had to bite down on the inside of her cheek not to laugh in his face. "He was just a friend."
"I'm sure he was. You never had the guts to tell him how you really felt, did you?"
Steve looked away. "He didn't... He had a girlfriend."
"So did you. The two of you must've dated the whole cheerleading squad, I lost count of how many girls came up to me trying to find out if you were interested in them. That doesn't change the fact that you considered him more than just a friend."
Steve shrugged and took a sip of coffee. "So what? That was years ago, it has nothing to do with Danny."
"Good. I hope that means you two are sleeping together."
Steve choked. "Mary!"
"What? Don't tell me you're not, because I swear I will drag him here, lock the both of you in your bedroom and won't open the door until you've fucked each other's brains out."
Mary was delighted to see Steve actually blush. "Why are we even talking about this? You're my little sister, you're not supposed to know about my sex life."
"So you are sleeping with him."
"We... It's still quite new," he conceded.
Mary smiled and rubbed a hand on his arm. "Stop fretting over it, you have nothing to worry about."
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "How can you be so sure?"
"Are you kidding me? Don't you have eyes? The guy adores you."
"No, that's just what Danny's always like, he's... unnaturally friendly."
"No, he's not, he’s a perfectly normal human being who knows how to express his feelings. You, on the other hand, are emotionally constipated."
He made a face. "You picked that up from him."
Mary shrugged. "Maybe. But, seriously, Steve, what is it you're so afraid of?"
Steve put his mug down on the sand and stared off at the horizon. The sun was just about to set. "I can't give him what he needs."
"Oh my God, tell me you didn't just say that. Please."
"He wants a family, Mary. A real one. You should've seen him when he found out Rachel's baby wasn't his. He was fucking devastated."
"Which is why he ditched her to save your sorry ass when you landed yourself in jail."
Steve frowned at her. "What?"
"Wasn't he supposed to fly back to Jersey the night you were arrested?"
Mary could see the memory still hurt, the mere thought of Danny leaving was enough to make the breath catch in Steve's throat.
"How d'you know about that?"
"Um, Kono may have said something about it. It wasn't intentional," she added in a rush when she saw Steve's frown deepen. "She was just commenting on how well Danny's adjusting to the island, considering that just a few months ago he was ready to leave, and I asked her what she meant."
The explanation did nothing to erase the grim expression from his face.
"But that's not the point, Steve. The point is he didn't leave. He let his daughter and the woman who was supposedly carrying his child go back to the mainland and he stayed here. For you."
Steve didn’t reply, just went back to staring at the waves crashing on the shore.
"I know it's not easy," Mary went on. "But you know what I think? I think he's just as scared as you. Scared because he thought he knew what he wanted, but then you came along and turned his life upside down. Yeah, he tried to run away, saw an opportunity to go back to living his little family dream and took it. But when he had to choose between that and you, he chose you. What do you make of that?"
Steve gave her a small, lopsided smile. "You're wasted as a stewardess, you should be a psychologist."
"Flight attendant, please. And what can I say, I don't want to watch my big brother pine after someone like some tragic heroine out of a Shakespearean play. I saw enough of that when we were in school, I thought you were past that phase."
Steve's expression turned sheepish. "Was I really so obvious?"
Mary raised an eyebrow at him. "At least now you're getting some action, that's an improvement. And by the way, you didn't miss much with Josh, he was an awful kisser."
Steve gaped at her. "You did not."
"Hey, he was really cute, I can't deny you have good taste. Anyway, call it payoff for having to put up with all those stupid cheerleaders pretending to be my friends just because I was Steve McGarrett's sister. You should've seen Lizzie Kalua's face when I told her I'd made out with him."
"As long as you don’t pull the same trick with Danny. "
"Don’t worry, he’s not my type. And you’re a highly trained ninja now, I don’t want to risk my life. "
He shook his head and picked up his mug.
"I would never hurt my little sister," he said as he stood up and held out his free hand. She took it and let herself be pulled to her feet. "Even if sometimes she's so annoying I want to strangle her."
She smacked his shoulder and snuggled closer to him as he wrapped an arm around her. He smiled down at her and guided them both back to the house.
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March 2012