Work Text:
Horror iced Steve's every nerve ending. Tipping his head back against the headboard, he felt the blood drain from his face. The pleasure of thirty seconds ago was dead and cold in his veins. For fifteen years, a man's name on his lips was the worst case scenario. It was the definitive "tell," whether or not anyone asked. He could've lost everything he ever worked for. Now, even here in his own home, where the only punishment was utter humiliation, he was paralyzed. For a moment he couldn't move or speak.
Then his instincts took charge. The only way around was through. His dick was shrinking fast but still waving hello from his open fly, so he flipped the corner of the comforter over his lap. Then he closed his eyes. With luck, when he opened them Danny would be gone. They could both forget about this. "No talking." His voice was hoarse and thin. Any child could've heard the razor's edge.
All those times Danny sauntered in without knocking were so right, he'd never really tried to get him to stop. It felt too good to have him walk right in. It was a sure thing Danny wouldn't be walking right in any more. "Get out. You need to leave. Now."
"No, see, that's where you're wrong. Normal people have conversations about these things."
Danny's voice was getting closer. "Nobody talks about these things!" Only Danny. Jesus Christ. He'd already known this was not his lucky day. "Normal people don't get into these situations."
"When my partner calls my name, I'm going to be there."
The crazy thing was, he sounded serious, almost pissed off. So okay, he had a right to be, but -- "It's not like you can make me talk! Why are you still here? Are you fucking insane?" His eyes were still closed, as if that could make both Danny and the spreading weariness go away.
"On the contrary, I feel like I'm finally getting a grip."
There was a smirk hidden under those words, and Steve didn't like it. "You think this is funny?" Teeth gritted, aware that he couldn't hide behind his eyelids any more, he never could, there was nothing going to stop this train wreck because Danny was Danny and he'd never stop, he hissed out the breath was holding and glared. It was past time for his partner to start ripping him a new one. A quiet Danny could be even more dangerous. He didn't know what that meant.
One last try. "Please. Can you just let this go, leave me a little . . ." He trailed off. Danny was really smiling now, a soft and familiar expression that had warmed him a hundred times. Once again, it worked. His lungs relaxed, and the light-headedness eased. Fuck. Dignity was never an option when you were sitting there with a handful of cold come. He wiped it on the comforter, watching Danny warily.
Danny came closer. Slowly, quietly, like you'd approach a wild animal; so damn close he was almost close enough to touch. Except his eyes slid over to the forgotten phone on the pillow, and he said, "What's that?"
"Nothing." Steve grabbed for it, knocked the thing onto the floor, but it was too late. The crinkles around Danny's eyes disappeared as his unexpected warmth slipped away. His smile twisted. "You're a black and white kinda guy. I guess I knew that already." His voice was tipped with a bitterness that Steve only associated with Rachel. "And you like 'em young and pretty. Didn't know that, but I can't blame you." He looked Steve's body up and down and shrugged, a gesture of admiration and dismissal.
As horrified as Steve was to see Danny walk through that doorway, it doubled down when Danny said, "Not everybody's looking for living color," and turned to go.
There was something worse happening here than Danny catching him in the act. He wasn't sure what it was, but it had to stop now. "Danny." It was raspy and uncertain. Danny kept walking, silent strides, and he was out the door and out of Steve's sightline before the howl came up out of his throat. "Danny!"
In moments an unhappy face appeared, then the rest of him, as his partner leaned against the door frame with a sigh. His fists were stuffed in his pockets, his shoulders stiff. "Yes, I meant it. Not gonna lie, I can't not be here. What do you want?"
Steve had never imagined himself telling . . . anyone, most especially Danny. But he says it now. "I want you."
"Yeah." Danny didn't move a muscle. "You want me, the man who'd have been hazed out of HPD if not for you? The two-time loser whose wife made a hobby out of dumping him? Or you got the hots for that snotty little twink who had the world on a string?"
"It's you." What was the question? "It's all you, always been you." Then he finally gets it. "You're still a punk."
"The romance in this room could choke a guy." Danny coughs on a laugh. "I'll show you who's a punk."
Like Steve has ever backed down from a challenge. It sings in his ears. "Oh, yeah?" Everything in him understands this. "What, you gonna fuck me? You just try it."
"I won't have to work at it." Danny's moving into the room. He swaggered, every muscular inch of him, hips swinging as he stalked down his prey. It was a good look on him. "You're easy." Steve's sly grin must've been a beacon; Danny was homing in right on it.
He denies everything. "I've never been easy for anybody."
"Tough words coming from a guy jerking off to my stolen picture, bub."
His fingers itched to reach out and draw a line across Danny's broad shoulders, skim the vulnerable nape hidden by his stiff collar. He's wanted that for so long. "That doesn't mean I won't put up a fight."
Danny bursts out laughing mid-swagger. "Kinda counting on it, really. More fun that way."
He's within reach, finally, finally, and Steve could never have imagined what that would feel like. He can have Danny. It's a different world than the one he woke up in this morning. He grabbed handfuls of Danny's shirt and used a knee against Danny's hip to sling him onto the bed, right over the top of Steve's body. Danny was surprisingly heavy. His weight was good, solid, necessary.
"Fuck!"
"Hell, yeah. Now, who's the punk?" Steve rolls, easing himself on top of a squirming Danny.
"The knee! The knee!"
"Christ, sorry, I didn't -- "
"Never mind, screw the knee, just fucking do something before I --" and he stopped right there when Steve covered that mobile mouth and tasted. It's fucking epic, teeth and tongue, like nothing Steve has ever known. It should be. It should go up in lights on Times fucking Square. He's never kissed a man before.
He's been fucked. He even fucked a guy once, in the dead of night in a blind alley where there was nothing but the sound of mortar rounds exploding in what used to be pitted pavement and tenements. They couldn't escape, and they might not survive. All they could do was take the last bit of hope and use it to harden their dicks. "Love you," he'd said to that guy, not even anybody he ever knew. It kept them going until they were airlifted out.
Now he was here. He couldn't give Danny any less. Yeah, no. He could give him something more. Something with less gut-clenching terror and more of the good stuff. "I, we." It's not coming easy, though. "I want to. Uh."
Danny broke in. "Less talk, more action." With a grin, he took his chance to roll them both over. His body on Steve's had a man's weight. It made sweat break out along his hairline.
They're both still dressed. The buttons on Danny's shirt are unbelievably tiny, like they shrunk in the wash, and his hands are way too big to work them. It'd be worse if Danny wasn't fumbling too, twisting, trying to get his own fly open.
Steve gave up, pulled away and dragged his own shirt off, then did the same for Danny, hauling the half-unbuttoned shirt over his head. A button popped off, pinging the side table and rolling across the floor. "Oops."
Danny muttered, "Never see that thing again."
Steve's eyes widened. They're almost the only body part not busy; the rest are holding on to Danny any way they can. Even his head is bowed toward Danny. "You're bitching now?"
"Oh, hell, no." Danny leaned in, sucking at a hard nipple. The rub of teeth made Steve crazy. Crazier.
He didn't know what to do. The two minute rule didn't apply here. "Tell me, tell me what you want, I don't, it's not."
"I just want you, babe."
And then Danny was kissing his way down Steve's chest. The day-old beard scraped the tender skin of his belly and his muscles cringed away.
"Shave," he gasps. "Next time." Hope for a next time made him tense up all over. Then what Danny was doing made him whimper.
Warm breath touched the tip of his cock. Danny sounded utterly sincere when he said, "For you, anything."
Those three words dragged a moan out of Steve's throat. His barriers were shot, completely worthless, and even though he tried to stop them, the words fell out of his mouth. "You want me?" Really want, he meant, not just today, not just this week. Embarrassment washed up under his skin.
"A little slow, there." Danny shifted away, giving himself room. "Beautiful but dumb. It's a failing. I fall for you people." Danny sucked along the length of his cock like it was a jawbreaker, then came up for air. "I can work with that. I already bought the t-shirt."
What he was saying barely registered. Steve was still trying to align this Danny with reality as he knew it. He had been ever since the man walked back into his bedroom. He couldn't make the leap from who his partner was yesterday to who he looked like today. Couldn't believe what he was seeing, feeling, living. "Man, seriously," he muttered, not expecting an answer, "who the hell are you?"
Danny didn't look up. He was busy working the head of Steve's cock, moving slow and messy. The words were muffled against the hollow of Steve's hipbone when he pulled off. "I'm the one who loves you."
Steve said goodbye to all the oxygen. He couldn't think any more. He couldn't answer. When Danny's mouth touched him again, he faded entirely into the slip and slide, the pull and the vibration. He was almost there, so close, God, that he cried out when Danny groaned and stopped sucking. Crawling up Steve's body, Danny palmed Steve's dick, riding it with his hand while Steve pulled him in as tight as he could.
They kissed like teenagers, mouths crushing on teeth and too hungry to ease up. Steve could feel his lips bruise, and he was glad. There'd be no denying this. Anybody who looked at him would know. They wouldn't know it was Danny, but they'd know. Moans vibrated between them. He licked his own taste out of Danny's mouth as he shoved against that hard, hot hand and came, hips reaching up, up, up.
He fell back panting, limp and dazed. With what few brain cells he had, he knew he needed to give Danny something, something more.
"Steven, you're so beautiful. I want to see you like this every day."
"You, you're . . . I want . . ." Words failed him.
"I'm a sucker for an articulate man."
There was nothing else to say besides, "Can I? Please . . ." but when he reached down, Danny took his hand. A firm thumb stroked his palm.
"Too sensitive right now."
"What?"
Danny's voice was pitched low enough to send shivers down Steve's spine. "What's done is done."
"You got -- you --" Wow.
"We have ways of making you talk, but we can't make you make sense. Yes, okay? Yes, I freaking came with your dick in my mouth, and I'm not proud of it." He looked damned satisfied anyway.
"Good, great, I promise I'll. Next time I'll, it'll be better, okay?"
"I'll hold you to that." The smile that lit him up was breathtaking, but then Danny ducked his face away. "Look, can I stay the night? I'm not asking to move in on the first date, okay? But I have an apartment that's full of boxes, and anyway," the words rumbled out across Steve's collarbone, "I should probably tell you that I couldn't settle for any of those apartments because this, right here, is where I really wanted to be."
"Here is good." A slow, wondering smile stretched across Steve's face. Danny was here, and he wasn't getting away. He didn't want to get away. "I have a bed with sheets already on it. And you're already in it." There was more. Something's got hold of his mouth, and it's not letting go. "And, hey, we already have a wet spot. That makes my bed way better than yours. We'll get your stuff tomorrow. You're never spending a night in any other bed again."
"Yeah. Good. Now do you get the picture?"
Steve pulled Danny closer just to feel the heft of his body. Danny was stretched against him, his softening cock pressed against Steve's hip. His thick arm curled over Steve's chest. It was warm and welcome, tying him firmly to where he most wanted to be. Steve shifted a leg between Danny's, savoring the feel of him. He wasn't alone any more. Words had drifted away in the comfort of them curled together, but Danny wanted some, and Steve tried to find them. Though it was worth a thousand, he had only three left. "I got it."