MCA #0, Saturday morning

[grenadesandohana]

Danny had gone back to Honolulu for the weekend with Steve's enthusiastic support. Wednesday had been tough and Danny needed some Grace-and-Charlie time without disrupting their schedules for a trip to Maryland for a weekend. Steve had a relaxing weekend of working out, Spring cleaning, and watching shows that Danny hated all planned out.

And that was why he was more than a little confused at the pounding on the door early in the morning. He came out of the bedroom in nothing but a pair of sleep shorts and opened the door carefully, hiding the knife in his hand behind his back. (Assassins generally don't knock but there was no such thing as being too careful.)

He looked out, then way down into a pair of bright blue eyes underneath a mop of blond hair. "Why's the door locked?" the little boy there demanded. "I'm hungry."

"Um," Steve said, blinking, "sorry?"

"Pancakes!" the tiny intruder declared, heading to the kitchen like he owned the place.

"Um," Steve repeated, following in his wake.

Comments

[hawaii_5ohana]

"Pancakes!" Matt repeated. "I'm huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuungry."

That felt like enough emphasis.

"Where's Danno?" he added, looking around.

[grenadesandohana]

"He's back in O'ahu with Grace and Charlie," Steve said, finally finding his voice. "Who are you?"

[hawaii_5ohana]

Matt burst out laughing. "You're silly, Daddy," he said finally. "I'm me!"

[grenadesandohana]

"Right, of course you are," Steve said. "Who else would you be?"

And that was Steve taking a picture and texting it to Danny. This was fine. Just fine.

[hawaii_5ohana]

"Sometimes I'mma dinosaur," Matt told him, veering off from his trip to the kitchen to head over to the sofa and take the cushions off.

[grenadesandohana]

"Of course you--hey, what are you doing over there, buddy?" Steve asked, pulling his head out of the fridge where he was grabbing eggs.

[hawaii_5ohana]

"The floor's laaaaaaaaaaava," Matt replied in the most "um, duh" possible tone from where he was bouncing on the couch springs. "Where're my toys?"

[grenadesandohana]

Steve frowned, trying to remember if they had anything from Charlie's visit last year. "I think there's some cars in that drawer under the lamp," he offered. "Maybe they can go on the sofa cushions?"

Quietly? Could they go quietly?

[hawaii_5ohana]

They could not! "CARS!" Matt shrieked happily, dumping out the drawer and finding the cars. (And three coasters, two pens, a receipt, and a deck of cards, but those weren't as fun.) He started revving them up and down the cushion mountains.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve quickly got a pan heating as he threw together pancake batter. He looked at the bananas on the counter and decided against put them into mix just in case it set off a small person meltdown.

Then he felt very smug for thinking of mitigating that problem. He was doing okay with...okay, he didn't actually know the kid's name...but he was parenting without Danny and nothing was on fire! No one was crying!

He put the banana on the side of the plate when he flipped the pancakes out, then went back to the fridge. "Do you like coconut syrup on your pancakes too?"

[hawaii_5ohana]

The loud car noises stopped. "No," Matt said, lower lip coming out. "And I want waffles!"

[grenadesandohana]

"But you said pancakes," Steve said.

[hawaii_5ohana]

"WAFFLES!" Matt yelled.

[grenadesandohana]

"INSIDE VOICE!" Steve yelled back. "Oh, God, I'm Danny."

[hawaii_5ohana]

"No, you're Daddy," Matt corrected. "WAFFLES."

[grenadesandohana]

Steve was thinking several words that were not appropriate for...dammit, he still needed to get this kid's name.

"You said pancakes," Steve insisted.

[hawaii_5ohana]

"WAF.FLES," Matt replied, then started holding his breath until he got his way. This would totally work! No way it could go wrong!

[grenadesandohana]

Steve crossed his arms over his chest. "Has that ever once worked on me?" he asked.

He was hoping the answer was no.

[hawaii_5ohana]

Matt blew his breath out in a giant raspberry of noise and spit. "Yes."

Never. Not once.

[grenadesandohana]

"Uh huh," Steve replied. "Now are you going to sit here and eat these pancakes or not?"

[hawaii_5ohana]

"Waffles," Matt whined, sticking his lower lip out.

[grenadesandohana]

"Eat the pancakes first," Steve said, "while I try to see if we even have a waffle iron."

[hawaii_5ohana]

"We do," Matt assured him, opening the fridge to get the syrup out. Because he was big and could do it!

[grenadesandohana]

Steve had his entire head stuck in a cabinet while he looked for the damn waffle iron and so he missed everything but the sound of shattering glass, a shrieked "SORRY!" and then a crying kid.

"Hey, hey, are you hurt?" he asked, whipping around.

[hawaii_5ohana]

Matt continued crying. It had been so loud! And he was so sticky!

[grenadesandohana]

Steve had made it over and was doing a quick assessment of how hurt the little boy might be. "Oh, you're okay, bud," he said with a smile. "Just messy. Let's see if I can find you something else to wear. Danno's shirts might fit a little better until we get your clothes washed up."

[hawaii_5ohana]

"'kay," Matt sniffled, holding his arms up to be carried.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve paused. "Sure, we'll both get changed," he decided, picking the little boy up and becoming covered in syrup as well. "This is great."

[hawaii_5ohana]

Matt rested his head on Steve's shoulder and let out a noisy little sigh, closing his eyes. "Kay."

[grenadesandohana]

Steve closed his own eyes. He'd seen Charlie do this to Danny and it had seemed like the sweetest, most comforting moment of trust. And he'd been right. This felt amazing. He patted the little boy's back. "Do you need a bath, too, pal?" he asked. "How sticky are you?"

[hawaii_5ohana]

"Not sticky!" Matt proclaimed. "No baths no baths nooooooooo bath!"

Baths were the worst! Unless there were bubbles.

"...bubbles?"

[grenadesandohana]

"I don't think we have bubbles," Steve said. "We could use some of Danno's shampoo, though?"

Steven.

[hawaii_5ohana]

"Yay, bubbles!" Matt cheered, wriggling out of Steve's arms and running towards the bathroom.

[grenadesandohana]

"Wow, you really do know your way around here, huh?"

[hawaii_5ohana]

Matt nodded. "My room's right--WHERE'S MY NAME SIGN?!"

[grenadesandohana]

Shit.

"Your name sign?" Steve repeated.

[hawaii_5ohana]

"It says MATT and it has TRUCKS ON IT."

He was loud because it was important.

[grenadesandohana]

"Let me go look," Steve said, knowing they definitely didn't have anything like that around. "Go take off your sticky stuff and put on one of Danno's shirts, okay?"

[hawaii_5ohana]

Matt snuffled and wiped his sticky hand across his face. "Kay," he mumbled, heading into Steve and Danny's room.

There were going to be shirts everywhere.

[grenadesandohana]

Sticky shirts everywhere. Yikes.

"I'm getting the water started, okay?" Steve called. "Take your time."

[hawaii_5ohana]

"Kay," came a distracted sounding voice from the bedroom, then giggling, then someone definitely jumping on the bed.

Your kid, Steven.