The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Friday morning

[betterthanaplan]

Duke didn’t know it, but all the clothing on the Rouge that wasn’t currently on his body vanished the moment he crossed into Fandom waters.

What he did know was that going from April 2010 to July 2020 was a much more obvious transition than it had been the other way around. It was like sailing into a vat of hot jello. He squinted into the sun, then stripped off his overshirt, letting it fall to the floor of the wheelhouse.

The overshirt vanished, too. That he noticed.

". . . Yeah, I'm definitely back in Fandom."

He sailed into port without managing to lose any more clothes, but the ones he was wearing (an undershirt and a pair of fairly threadbare cotton shorts) were rapidly going damp in the face of the sweltering, cloying air. He was hard-pressed as he dropped anchor and tied the Rouge down at her usual slip not to strip off the rest of his clothes and just dive straight into the water. He sent out a few texts, then flopped onto the deck to splay out like a starfish.

"Swear to god, if this place got invaded by a clothing-eating heat demon while I was away I will turn this boat around and go right back to Maine."

Well, no. He wouldn't. But he'd really want to.

[open! work is going to do its best to break me today, so some SP will be in effect BUT I NEED DISTRACTIONS]

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

Oh yeah. Don’t think didn’t notice that little flash of jealousy there, Steve.

“I definitely have my putzish tendencies. But I’m pretty sure if he really hated me, he wouldn’t have called Maine to check up on me.”

[grenadesandohana]

"He's also a huge mother hen," Steve covered oh-so-smoothly.

[betterthanaplan]

“Ha, I knew it. He keeps being all ‘this is just what friends do, Duke,’ but I knew he was secretly a little old lady.”

[grenadesandohana]

"Definitely a little old lady," Steve agreed. "He's about three years from chasing kids off his yard, if he had a yard."

[betterthanaplan]

“Worse. He has a whole apartment building to kick kids out of, now.”

[grenadesandohana]

"Oh, yeah, I'm crashing there with him," Steve said. "He has a bar in his living room. It's so much nicer than his place in Honolulu."

[betterthanaplan]

“I’m just proud of him for finally moving out of that damn hotel.”

[grenadesandohana]

"Well, Danny probably didn't want to accept he was stuck here," Steve said. "He has a daughter he adores and wants to see."

[betterthanaplan]

“Grace,” Duke said with a nod. “Yeah. He was a wreck in Father’s Day. She knows he didn’t ditch her though, so that’s good.”

[grenadesandohana]

"Gracie's a great kid," Steve said. Because look, he'd met her Duke. He was the better friend!

...not that this was a contest in any way.

"She knows Danno would walk through fire for her, so if he can't get in touch, it's not because he's not trying."

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah, he seems like a great dad." Not that the other dads Duke had met set the bar very high on that front. "She's lucky to have him."

[grenadesandohana]

"She really is," Steve said, grinning proudly. "Danny and I chaperone her Aloha Girl campouts and everything."

As friends do.

[betterthanaplan]

"Uh huh." Yes, that sounded totally normal. Absolutely. "You two, uh. Do a lot of camping?"

[grenadesandohana]

"Not really," Steve said. "Apparently Danny felt that teaching little girls how to throw axes what inappropriate."

[betterthanaplan]

"Doesn't surprise me. He got pissed at me for practicing sword throwing, too."

Well, he'd gotten pissed for Duke throwing swords while drinking, but whatever.

[grenadesandohana]

Details!

"I was being careful," Steve said. "But then some guy shorted out the vehicles and kidnapped me and one of the kids so we never got to it anyway."

TOTALLY NORMAL.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shook his head. "No wonder he was so cranky when we got grabbed by that cult."

Duke was never letting Danny pretend that was all his luck again.

[grenadesandohana]

"What cult?" Steve demanded.

[betterthanaplan]

"Some stupid-ass meditation thing starting up in Baltimore. Never did get the name of it."

[grenadesandohana]

"How did you grabbed by a cult?" Steve asked.

[betterthanaplan]

"Usual way," Duke said with a shrug. "I was in a bad place and they took advantage. Danny was just tagging along for the ride."

[grenadesandohana]

"Hmmm," Steve hummed, not looking pleased about that at all.

[betterthanaplan]

"He arrested them," Duke said. "You can unclench."

They hadn't even managed to get him hospitalized for chemical exposure!

[grenadesandohana]

"I'm not clenched!" Steve lied. "Danny is perfectly capable."

[betterthanaplan]

"He is," Duke agreed. "Mostly of being a pain in the ass."

And of worming himself into a very special place in Duke's heart.