Title: G is for Glasses
Author: stellaluna_
Rating: PG
Pairing: Mac/Danny
Summary: These are the things we do to survive.
Disclaimer: None of these are mine. Characters are the property of Anthony Zuiker, Jerry Bruckheimer Television, CBS, and Alliance Atlantis.

***

They both have their armor. Mac has thought this more than once, and he doesn't think that he'll ever get used to the sight of Danny without his glasses. It's disconcerting enough to see Danny without them in the early morning, or when he's asleep, or just stepping out of the shower. Mac knows perfectly well it would be stranger to see him in any of these situations with his glasses on, but even so he can never shake the feeling that something is missing, or that he's just gotten a glimpse, however fleeting, at a side of Danny that was never intended for public view, much less for his eyes.

What's much more unsettling for him is seeing Danny without his glasses absent of any of these expected contexts. He finds Danny in the locker room one day, just sitting on the bench with his glasses off and his head in his hands, rocking back and forth a little as he presses his fingers to the bridge of his nose. He might just have a headache, but somehow Mac doesn't think so, and he hesitates at the door, wondering if he should intrude on this, or if he should just back away and go find something else to do, and act like he never noticed anything.

After a moment, he takes a few steps into the locker room. "Danny?" he says.

Danny looks up at him, and his face is raw and open. "Yeah."

Mac sits down across from him. He takes one quick glance at the glasses in Danny's hand, then looks back at his face. "What's going on?" he asks.

Danny takes a deep breath.

***