Danny Phantom Fan Fiction ❯ Photo Opportunities ❯ Boys and Boys ( Chapter 3 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

By: rin_sama1989

When they had finished breakfast, after a slew of arguments ranging everywhere between the paranormal, school, and who was cuter Adam Sessler or Morgan Webb (a topic Danny and Dash had clearly opposing sides on) and Dash announced he was going home Danny had assumed that meant goodbye until Monday. In truth Dash only wished to change, an understandable need since he had slept through the night in his soaked cloths, but Danny didn't understand why he had to tag along.

“You smell like sewer water, sweat, and blueberries.” Danny stated with a curl of his lip, arm wrapped around Dash's shoulders as he was helped up the stairs to Dash's bedroom. “And don't ask what they all smell like together.”

Dash couldn't suppress the laugh that filled his chest at the comment, “yeah, well you're pretty ripe too.”

“I at least changed my clothes.” Danny pointed out. “The least you could have done was take a shower while you were at my house.”

“And put my filthy clothes back on? I'd still smell rank.” They stopped at the head of the stairs to face each other. “And you didn't take a shower either.”

“ Hey, I had an excuse. I'm sure something of my dad's would have fit you.”

“And what makes you think I'd wear anything of your fathers Fenton?” He glanced down at the scowling boy. “And you could too have taken a shower. You were up before me.”

Danny was at a loss there. Actually, he had been planning to take a shower when Dash left. He voiced this.

Dash laughed, suddenly spinning around and walking back in the opposite direction of his room.

“Ack! What are you doing?!” Danny screamed when Dash picked him up all the way and carried him towards a door.

“Taking care of our problem.” Dash laughed.

Dash's bathroom was frilly, like Danny's grandmothers, with all kinds of black and white pictures of people bathing in wooden washtubs. The shock of the bright peach coloring didn't compare to the one he got when Dash set a struggling him down in the shower and turned on the water.

Danny cried out again, backing away from the freezing liquid being shot out of the shower faucet like icy bullets. Didn't he get enough cold water last night?

His shoe caught on the drooping cuffs of his pant leg and he slipped back, latching onto Dash's neck to keep his balance. Caught off guard the blonde let out a yelp and fell into the shower with him, both landing in a tangle of limbs on the tiled floor being sprayed by the slowly heating water.

Dash let out another loud laugh when he saw how ridiculous Danny looked with wet hair, his too long, unevenly cut bangs drooping down in front of his face making him look like some emo shithead Sam hung out with, and the pouting “I hate the world” scowl he now sported completed the mask.

“I hate you.” Danny mumbled, kicking Dash off him and reaching up to turn off the water. “I really hate you.

~*~*~

Danny sat on Dash's bed much like he had sat on his own bed the previous night, stiff and annoyed. Grimalkin, who had managed to get away with resting like a bearskin rug atop Dash's head for the duration of the morning, now purred lazily in Danny's lap.

Nothing was worse, in his book anyway, then being soaking wet, in Dash's spotless room, with an army of colorful teddy bears peeking out of the closet like curious toddlers. Their shiny black eyes like the lenses of dozens of tiny little cameras, all staring at him. Creepy.

Dash stripped a pair of jeans and a shirt from their hangers and closed the closet, shutting in every single one of the demonic stuffed toys. Danny breathed a sigh of relief then turned his cold glare to Dash, who deserved it the most for dragging him all this way with a newly injured shin, and then spraying him with a cold shower.

“I hate you.” Danny said again in a clear, emotionless tone. It certainly was not laced with hate or malice, but held no trace of humor so couldn't be perceived as a joke. Just a simple statement, still when Dash turned to look at Danny the teen had already glanced away, looking with apparent boredom at the dozing black mass of fur in his lap.

“Yeah well, can't say the same. Not with you flying around saving people and whatnot. Makes it kinda difficult.” Dash smirked, hoping to get a positive reaction from Danny at least once that day. Danny just scratched behind Grimalkin's ears, not interested in the least.

“I still don't understand why I had to come here with you; I should be at home with Sam, Jazz, and Tucker. If my parents come home and find out I left before they got back I'm in big trouble. Especially now that I'm beat up worse then I was before.” Danny said neutrally as he rested his arm, bandaged and back in its navy blue sling slowly eroding the skin off the back of his neck, in his other hand, feeling the throbbing ache that continuously plagued him since he adamantly refused to take any medication that would slow his reflexes or blur his thoughts. Ghost fighting, it was a bitch.

“Well I can't just leave you alone now can I?” Dash asked, taking advantage of Danny's preoccupied state to change into clean dry cloths. “And what do you mean worse?”

“Sure you can, where would I be safer? It's my own house, filled with people who have knowledge and experience with ghosts and ghost fighting weapons, and it's protected by anti-ghost security equipment.” Danny answered.

“Right, with parents who are out hunting ghosts more than at home, a sick older sister there only until tomorrow morning, and two best friends who have their own lives and worries to take care of. Not to mention half the gadgets there either don't work properly, or work too well and backfire on you, don't deny it I've seen it happen.” Dash sat on the bed and began retying his shoes.

Dash had a point, though it never bothered him before, in fact he preferred it. He wasn't so selfish as to want Sam and Tucker to focus all their time on ghost hunting like he had to, and his parents spent enough embarrassingly loving time with him when they were home to make up for all the time they were gone. And Jazz? Well she was an adult; it wouldn't be any different if he was normal. As for the weapons, what did Dash expect, he was half ghost. Still…

“So what do you have in mind? Obviously we can't stick together every moment and if a ghost does attack, which usually happens during the most inconvenient times and it doesn't get more inconvenient then this,” Danny indicated to his arm, “what do you plan to do about it?”

“First off, what did you mean by worse?” Dash picked up the previously discarded topic, avoiding the question.

“Nothing, just the new dent in my leg,” Danny still didn't meet Dash's gaze, something he was making a habit out of these days.

“Fenton,” Dash said in his well-accustomed warning tone. “Let me see.”

“You already saw in the kitchen, I'm not letting you grope me again.” Danny stated, trying to ruffle Dash's feathers and throw him off the subject.

“I wasn't groping you.” Dash said sternly and for a moment Danny thought he'd drop it. “And I was referring to what's under your shirt.”

“Oh you're are so lucky I'm a guy or I'd be offended, but then, you might not care. I wonder about Sam's sense of things, but her gaydar's never been wrong before.” He didn't mention that it had also never been used, at least not to his knowledge.

“Fenton, take your shirt of now.” Dash was losing his patience, not a good thing since he had so little of it to begin with, and Danny's constant attempts to throw him off weren't helping.

Glancing up from his cat for the first time since the closet door closed Danny threw a smile Dash's way. “Now you're really sounding pervy.”

Dash smacked his forehead. “Fenton, take it off now!” he ground out beneath his hand.

Danny scrunched up his face for a second, but then finally shrugged and fazed out of his shirt, a handy technique he perfected after dropping his pants more times then he'd care to remember. At first Dash just stood there, staring as Danny leaned back on his one good elbow so he could get a better view of the dark blotches marring his pale flesh.

“Happy now?” Danny asked, even more annoyed then he was five minutes ago.

Dash just continued to stare. The dark splattering of purple and crimson bruises that had decorated his body the previous day had grown substantially, melding together like a colonization annexing every other splotch within the vicinity of it. Hints of green tinting showed within and around the edges of each stain. More so, the pools of dark coloring appeared to have traveled its way up Danny's shoulder towards his fractured arm and down towards his navel, nearly encompassing his entire midsection. He very much resembled a newly hatched bird having fallen and died on the sidewalk, it was quite disturbing.

“How…I don't…it's so…” Dash stuttered, left speechless by the horrific sight. “Fenton you…you need to see a doctor, that's…that's just bad. I don't think that's normal at all for bruising, it could be something really dangerous.”

Danny furrowed his brow in thought. “I know, that's what I've been thinking, but look.” Danny poked at his chest, Dash made a gagging sound, it looked soft, like rotten fruit in a zip lock baggie, but Danny's finger didn't sink into his chest like it appeared it would. “It doesn't hurt at all, not like you think it would.”

“I don't-” Dash swallowed another gag at the sight. “I don't understand.”

“So far it looks like plain old discoloration, see.” He lifted his pant leg to show the developing bruise on his leg. “Look, this looks a lot different than the ones on my chest see?”

Dash nodded, sure now that the bruise on his leg, though still forming, looked much different from the strange formations. “So what does this mean?” He asked.

“I think it's something to do with me being ghost.” Danny said, “I'll see if I can get out of dressing out in P.E. I don't know, claim that I feel uncomfortable showing my bruises. You think the nurse will back me? She seemed sweet.” Sickly sweet but still, she might be helpful.

“I think that after what happened on Friday no teacher will say no to you.” Dash ran a finger along one of Danny's marks causing him to shiver, he gave him a quizzical look, but Dash just shrugged, pulling his hand back. “They'll all be hating me though.”

Danny sat up and attempted to get his shirt back on. “I tried to tell them you weren't responsible.” He said defensively.

“I'm not blaming you Fenton, and I know you defended me.” Dash stood, dug his wallet out of the back pocket of his discarded jeans then tossed his soiled cloths into the hamper. “I was just saying they'll be watching for me to do anything even remotely threatening, and our conversations tend to get a little heated.”

Danny rose as well, wincing when he put pressure on his leg, and made his way to the door. “It's my Irish temper, it gets to me sometimes.” Danny exited the room with Dash who stayed notably close incase his leg gave out on him. “I can get a little quarrelsome.”

“Don't place all the blame on a specific bloodline, let's not forget you're also stubborn, prideful, illogical at the worst of times, and you hate accepting help even when you desperately need it.” Dash poked Danny in his shoulder with every statement of his personality faults as they walked down the stairs. “Oh yeah, and your also clumsy.”

“You know, you're a lot of those things too.” Danny muttered.

“Yeah, but I accept them, I don't blame them on a watered down strand of DNA I got from my parents.” Dash said, locking the door to his house, his parents had headed to work, since it was nearly twelve.

“Alright, okay so I'm all that and more and it's entirely my fault, but you try catching ghosts while dodging my parents, Valerie, my many enemies, yourself included, and still get fair enough grades.” Danny felt a foot catch on the other in the final porch step, the world around him shifted and his body moved forward. Instinctively he angled to land on his shoulder in a roll before realizing it was still injured and he didn't have time to reverse. This was going to hurt.

“Hey!” Dash cried when Danny tripped, and with reflexes honed by years of sports he reached out, grabbed Danny by the shoulders and pulled him back against his chest.

Danny's knees were buckled beneath him and his ankles were still crossed, the only thing keeping him upright was Dash's firm hold on his upper arms, which despite the stitches in the long gash and the deep blue sling reminding him of his vulnerability, Dash's tight grip didn't hurt.

“You okay?” Dash asked feeling the dampness of the cloth beneath his hands. Danny snorted.

“Yeah, just trying to remember what celestial deity I pissed off to give me all this crap in under two days.” Danny got his feet back under him and stood to his full height, still a good three inches below Dash but enough to glance over his shoulder at him and smirk. “I think you're a jinx.”

“Woohoo! Yo Baxter, I didn't know you were into that stuff!” A voice sounded across the street and both turned their heads to watch as a group of sophomores on skateboards rolled down the sidewalk whistling.

“Send me some pictures will ya!” A girl called. “My mom found my porn!”

They rolled away laughing their asses off and Danny glared, wishing he could knock them off their skateboards with his powers, but he was too embarrassed to try.

“Jerks.” Dash muttered and let go of Danny's shoulders who quickly stepped away.

“Yeah, well you were no different.” Danny muttered, turning to walk in the direction of his house with as little limping as possible. As a teenager dignity was something often denied to him, but this time he wanted to escape with it intact. “Funny how pissy you are when you're the receiver.

“What? Hey, I thought we already went over this. I'm sorry okay? What more do you want?” Dash said angrily as he followed closely behind Danny.

“Four years Dash.”

“What?” Dash grabbed Danny's forearm to stop him but Danny shook it off.

“Four years. Four. You can't make it up all that quickly, certainly not with a sorry.” He sneered the word ”The pain, the humiliation, the countless days when I woke up still sore and beaten from a fight and dreaded going to school because I knew you'd be there.” Danny stopped and turned to face him, his eyes a mix between green and blue, emotions swirling the colors around like clouds in the center of a hurricane. “You know what the worst part is? From the very beginning, when I first got these powers, I could beat you. Humiliate you in every way possible, trip you in the halls, make you spill things on people, force you to say things you wouldn't, mess you up in games, ruin you socially.”

Danny turned his head away as though ashamed, “I could hurt you physically, too. I could have killed you, from the very beginning, even while I was just learning I could have blasted you, completely destroyed you.” He sighed. “And I was tempted, oh was I tempted. But I couldn't, and not because I felt anything, any compassion or remorse, but because I was supposed to be the good guy. I was the hero, and heroes don't hurt people.”

Dash stood on the sidewalk completely dumbfounded as the teen continued walking in his long, careful strides.

Danny had thought about hurting him?

Sure, after everything he put him through it wasn't that big of a surprise, but Danny just didn't seem the aggressive type. He could be a bit ill tempered and argumentative, but violent?

“Yo! Fenton wait!” Dash ran after Danny, who walked damn fast with a hurt shin, but as he got closer the brunette just disappeared.

Dash was starting to get irritated now. People didn't just pop like a soap bubble in the blink of an eye. Danny used his ghost powers to get away, and now Dash had to walk back to Fenton Works by himself while the little ghost boy went off and pouted.

He fisted his hands on his hips, glaring at the sidewalk that Danny had been standing on, as though expecting little bits of splattered Danny Fenton to me smiling up at him, mocking him. Damn cartoon brain of his, damn stupid metaphor, damn everything.

He turned on his heal and walked briskly back into his house. If Danny was going to pout like a little kid, fine. Dash would just catch up with him back at his house. First though, he needed to pack.

~*~*~

Danny lay back against the thick branches cradling him, stretching his arm out, inspecting the limb for any abnormality. He moved his arm with a slow caution, there was a stiff ache from having it confined in the sling that lay abandoned on the ground at the base of the tree several yards below him, but no real pain. Even the throbbing had receded, though not entirely.

Letting the sore appendage fall he leaned back again, dangling his arms and legs over the large branch he rested on. This was his tree, his special place where he went to think. It was a big tree with thick branches reaching towards the heavens like the hands of the dead striking up through the grave. Leaves covered every inch of the space around him, bumping into each other, wrestling, overlapping, fighting for every ray of sunshine. But in the center, where every branch drove up and out, there was nothing, and he made himself a nest there.

It wasn't the exact center of the tree, just a few large main branches crossing over each other, but the smaller branches were easy to cut off and it provided the perfect shelter from the outside world. And with no way up into the sanctuary, the many other tightly entangled branches blocking all entrance, he was safe from all who couldn't fly and turn intangible.

Brushing a hand over his stomach he worried over the strange markings. He knew that something was wrong, terribly wrong, but he couldn't think of what to do. Obviously these…injuries had something to do with his ghost powers, what would happen if a Doctor, or worse his parents, inspected them and found something odd.

With a sigh he adjusted himself against the tree. Things were getting freaky, and he knew from experience when freaky things started happening, bad things tended to follow.

With a wide yawn he closed his eyes. It was a nice warm day, much different from last night. Maybe he could take a nap.

Just a short nap.

~*~*~

“So, why are you cleaning up around here?” Sam asked, leaning against the bathroom door.

“Because this place is a mess and I figure I'll be spending a bit of time around here waiting for Danny to quit being emo, so why not help out?” Dash answered as he straightened the cat litter box until it was perfectly parallel to the back of the toilet.

“Are you OC or something?” Sam pushed away from the doorframe to glance around at all the straightened things, pictures, rugs, he even arranged Jazz's and Danny's medicine cabinet according to size and color. “Because if not I must say you're getting creepy.”

Dash shrugged, reached out to straighten a toothbrush, and left the bathroom, Sam at his heals. “I don't know, never bothered to check. My parents like a clean house and I picked up the habit. Though I do eat my fruit loops and M&M's in an order according to color and amount.” Dash glanced over his shoulder and grinned.

Sam wasn't amused. “So what, you think straightening up and doing some chores will get Danny to forgive what you've done to him these past four years?” Sam bit her words off like a protective dog snapping at the air. “And all because you figured out he's your big hero. He hasn't changed since yesterday you know, he's still the same dorky, thickheaded looser you harass on a daily basis.”

Dash stopped at the top of the stairs, Grimalkin, who had been sitting on Dash's bed playing with his favorite teddy bear when he had reentered the house, walked over and sat on his foot, as though restraining him from continuing.

“You're wrong Manson.” Dash said, picking up the cat and sitting on the top stair. “Fenton has changed since yesterday.” Sam just glared at him, leaning against the railing, drumming her black-nail-polished fingertips on the wood.

“How so, because he's a hero now? He's always been a hero Dash, you just never noticed.”

“No,” Dash replied, “because he's hurt.”

Sam blinked, “What?”

“You know Thursday, when he fell from…wherever he was.” Dash smiled for a moment, but it melted away. “He, he got hurt.”

“Yeah, a fracture, a cut along his right arm that took about five stitches, I don't know the details, and those bruises—”

“That's what I'm talking about!” Dash said loudly. “They aren't real bruises.”

“What?” Sam slumped down next to the quarterback, forgetting her dislike of him for the moment. “What do you mean, of course their bruises.”

“No, I mean, sure the look like bruises, until you compare then to real bruises. A side by side comparison.” Dash was talking quickly, the cat in his lap jumping from one knee to the other, in reaction to his mood. “And they're huge, this big dark splash of color across his stomach and chest, like something out of a horror movie, like something's inside him and taking over. You know that scene in the matrix when Neo touches the silver liquid in the mirror and it starts to crawl all over him. It's like that, only it's a purple and red paintball that hit him right in the chest and it's just inching along, but its moving.” Dash stopped, took a few deep breaths, and watched Sam's reaction.

“Dash,” she said slowly, and Dash straightened, ready for her to call him crazy or something. “I've been working with Danny for years now, me and Tucker both. Tucker's been his friend since infancy and we're both a little edgy about you knowing Danny's secret.” Dash was about to protest, to once again claim he would never throw his hero under the bus, but Sam stopped him. “Dash, we know you wouldn't betray Danny, you idolize him too much, but we need to know some things.”

Dash waited.

“Dash, the things that happened yesterday, the gym, the nurses office, and after school, they're way too out of character for you. I understand Danny was injured, but you're hardly a merciful and caring person. We need to know the story behind this, the whole story. So if you could please, just tell us everything that happened.” Sam stood up to walk down to the kitchen. “Jazz and Tucker are waiting, so far we've gone over what we know, but you play a part in this too Dash, and right now it looks like you know more about this than any of us.”

Dash nodded, unsure of how he could explain the principal and Lancer's punishment of having to take care of Fenton, but he would try. “Alright.”

~*~*~

When Danny finally returned to his house it was dark outside and his parents were in the kitchen laughing at the cat batting at the mouse hole in his kitchen wall.

“Danny, you're home. Good, we were getting a bit worried.” Maddie said, setting a small food bowl with the word “Grim” and a ghostly apparition on the side. Danny wished he had named the cat something that couldn't be abbreviated into the name for the angel of death, because the pint sized black cat skittering across the tile hardly looked “grim”.

“Yeah, I uh, I just needed a little alone time.” Danny said, scratching the back of his head.

“Well, Sam and Tucker went home about an hour ago but that one boy is still here.” Jack said and Danny stopped halfway out of the kitchen. “What's his name, Dan, Don, Dabi, Dabir, Dace…”

“Dash Dad.” Danny said, taking a deep breath. “His name is Dash.”

“Oh yes, that was it.” Jack said and Danny rolled his eyes, continuing into the living room.

Dash was sitting on the couch watching Ghostbusters bring the Statue of Liberty to life. He glanced up at Danny, smiled, then when back to watching. Danny dropped down on the couch beside him, despite having slept the entire day away he felt exhausted.

“You know, you could have gotten attacked by ghosts any time today and none of us could have helped you.” Dash said, not glancing away from the TV.

“Yeah, but I didn't really care at the time. I just needed my space.” He curled up against the armrest and watched the people of New York rally behind the enormous green symbol of freedom.

They watched in silence as the movie played out. When the credits started rolling Dash peeked over at Danny. “I, I have something I need to explain to you.”

“I already figured you'd stay the night again, Dash, when my parents said you were over. Oh, and thanks for bringing Grimalkin back.”

“You're welcome, but that's not what I need to say.” Danny sat up, watching Dash through drooping eyelids. “I…I'm going to be stuck around you for a while, I explained a bit of it to you this morning but you need to know all of it.” He didn't feel any better now than he did when he explained everything to Danny's sister and friends, it wasn't any easier like he thought it would be, but he had to do it.

“Principal Ishiyama really believes that I'm the one that hurt you, and I don't think anything either of us says will change her mind. Mr. Lancer has no choice but to go along with what she's planned out, but it's not only the two of them. Every member of the faculty and staff, and probably a few students, who are in the loop, will be watching us. To make sure I don't hurt you and…and to make sure… you don't…”

Danny sat up. “What? They think I'm like suicidal or something?”

“I don't think it's that Fenton.” Dash said, there was something bugging him about how stern, how serious the normally peppy principal had been. “I think their more concerned about…well...”

“They think I'll snap and blow up something.” Danny finished. He moaned miserably, falling back against the couch and smothering his face with a pillow. “Great. Just great. As if I'm not the freakiest kid in school already, now I'm a homicidal maniac.”

“Well, it's not that hard to picture.” Dash said, and Danny glared at him from beneath his cushioned barrier. “I…It's just that you're quiet, you skip school all the time, you're bullied constantly, and you have access to the most advanced weapons in the world.” Danny groaned again, putting the throw pillow back against the couch and slumped against it, turning away from Dash, the effect was ruined however, when he yawned.

The clock above the TV read eight and he wondered why he was so tired, he had been sleeping most of the day, if anyone should be tired it was Dash.

Glancing over his shoulder he watched the jock turn the TV off. Dash had been up almost all night watching over him… he felt a little guilty. He had acted a bit like an ass earlier.

“Wanna camp out here tonight?” Danny asked, startling Dash who had been staring blankly into the empty TV screen.

“Wha?”

“Sleep. Out here.” Danny answered with a smile. “The couch pulls out.”

“Thanks for the suggestion, but I came over to watch out for you, and I can't do that from down here.” Dash said.

Danny rolled his eyes. “And if I'm down here too?” he asked.

“What?” Was Danny suggesting….

Dash blushed the instant the thought crossed his mind, his previous night's dream coming back to haunt him. Danny didn't see this however, as he was busy pulling the couch cushions off to unroll the bed hidden beneath them.

“Uh…sure I guess.” Dash said. There was absolutely nothing wrong with sharing the hideabed. Nothing. Teenagers shared beds all the time when they slept over, he had done it with several of his friends when they had to stay in hotels after out of town games. Nothing wrong…

“Good, go get changed, it'll be done when you are.” Danny said with a tired smile, glad he didn't have to argue with Dash about him sleeping on his bedroom floor again.

~*~*~

Maddie sat on the edge of the hide-a-bed and brushed a lock of dark hair away from her son's face. She bit the corner of her lip in worry; he looked so tired, so worn. Right now was a very stressful time in his young life and she worried for him often, about his moving away, going to college, growing up, leaving her. He was her baby boy and as much as she wanted him to succeed in life, she didn't want to let him go just yet.

Danny stirred, unconsciously shifting closer to the other body on the bed, to companionship and warmth. This time when his mother bit her lip, it was to stifle a laugh. It was hard not to think of her son as a baby boy when he was wearing starship pajamas and snuggling with his friend, two teddy bears between them. Really, what mother wouldn't find it adorable?

The fact that they were both almost grown men never took place in her mind.

Brushing a soft kiss to Danny's forehead she took her husband by the hand and led him up the stairs to their own bed, wishing the fondest dreams to her son.

How she loved him.

~*~*~

Dash woke to the feeling that something was wrong, very wrong.

Danny wasn't in bed, he knew that already, and the space he had once occupied was cold. No, he hadn't gone to use the restroom or get a snack. He had been gone some time, and Grimalkin was nowhere to be seen as well. Were they together?

He hoped so.

Shoving the covers off him he stumbled out of bed, worried and frightened, bumping into furniture in the dark, unfamiliar room. The first place he checked was the kitchen, simply because it was where he staggered into first. The linoleum was hard and cold against his knees when he tripped and fell, the room just as dark as everything else.

Clenching his jaw Dash glared at the hard tile, feeling angry and scared and not knowing why. He just felt like something bad was going to happen, and he needed to find Danny.

Needed to find him now.

Harsh, vengeful laughter trickled into his ears and he found himself brushing it away, but it was not a tangible thing, sound could not be brushed away or blocked by mere fingers.

A green glow, light neon green, deep forest green, swirling sea foam green, various different hues of green swirled around in the doorway straight ahead of him. The stairwell to the basement…

Punching the floor in anger he pushed himself up, feeling a strange foreboding aura circling around him, slowing him down, forcing him back to the ground with a dreadful weight. Not a real, touchable weight; more a depressing self-restraint.

He clenched his fists at his sides in anger, stupid Danny Fenton. Didn't take him seriously, didn't think he needed his help, just because he had ghost superpowers and saved people, because he was the hero. Dash could be a hero if he tried. He was strong, and he cared. He just wasn't a nice person, nice didn't fit with him. Nice didn't get him the respect he needed, that he deserved.

But Fenton, Fenton got everything when he was the hero, when he was nice, maybe not as Fenton, but as Danny Phantom. He wished he could still hurt Danny. That he could still pound him without this disarming fear wrenching his gut. He wanted to hurt Danny badly, like he used to in Freshman year.

The doorway seemed too far, the stairs too long, time too short. If only he had woken up earlier. What was his hurry, why did he care about the time? Was something going to happen? Why didn't he wake up when Danny got up, why hadn't he felt Danny move?

He hated it, hated that Danny hadn't woke him up. He hated Danny Fenton. Hated him so much. He wished he weren't ever around, wished that Danny never existed. He wished he could kill him.

The basement was alive with color, but not blindingly so. Soft lights, like it was illuminated by candles, hundreds of tiny candles. Or perhaps a glowing mist.

A glittering fog.

So many different shades of green, blotches in a pattern, no two looking the same yet none of them seamed separate. They blended together and Dash's eyes burned from trying to separate them. The weight still held him down, clutching at his chest along with the horrible feeling that something really bad was about to happen.

A nauseating stench filled the room. A horrible rotting smell, like bad fruit. The smell of decomposing flesh. The ghosts from before, they were back.

Where was Danny?

“Fenton,” Dash whispered, and spotted him the instant he did as though the name were a link, a focus to draw his concentration to the person.

Danny was pressed up against the wall, looking as misty and translucent as the spectral entities surrounding them. He didn't look scared, not like before. He looked determined, cool and calm. Dangerous. He looked like the superhero, though he remained the human boy.

Dash didn't even think, he rushed into the basement, straight towards Danny in his heavy, haggard tread. He hated this boy. Hated him so much.

Danny didn't look at him when he arrived, just grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the wall. A brush of skin, flesh against flesh. He hated this boy. Hated him so much. He wished he were dead. Wished he could kill him.

Laughter sounded in his ear again. So close, so very close, and cold too. He glared at Danny, but it didn't look like the boy had heard. Maybe he was ignoring it. This laughter. It was annoying, and Danny was just tuning it out instead of kicking ghost butt so they could go back to bed.

He hated him. Wished he were dead…

Dash trembled. He hated Danny so much, always had. Hated him. So. Very. Much.

Danny's jaw tightened and he stared at the shifting glow, because it couldn't even be called a light. So strange, so different, he didn't even know the proper way to describe it. It was like someone had sprayed glow in the dark glitter in the air and it never settled.

“Mist…why mist?” Dash whispered the question to himself, concentrating. He glanced around the room. The laughter, it wouldn't go away. It wouldn't leave.

“They can't take form. If they do, the security system will go off. Every ghost that passes through my house has to be intangible, there's no going around it.” Danny explained in a hushed voice.

“That smell.”

“Yeah. It's them, but they can't do anything. Nothing at all.”

“Then why…why are they here?” Dash whispered back.

The mist reacted to every word they said, knowing full well it couldn't do a thing. It shifted and swirled, dancing around itself, the many different colors, shades, and hues.

“Influence.” Danny said, feeling the fire burning up his arm where he still held Dash's wrist. All the ghosts' fault. “They're here through influence.” If he had stayed in bed, if he had hesitated rather than following his instincts, if he hadn't checked the security…if…

Dash felt the depressing weight against his chest again, his shoulders ached and his eyes were itchy. He remembered the anger he felt towards Danny for getting up, for leaving and not telling him. Horrible irrational hatred, blinding homicidal rage. He shifted his arm, taking Danny's hand in his. The world grew a little more solid at the touch, a haze he hadn't noticed left the corners of his eyes.

He hated him. Hated him so much, but he didn't really.

He didn't hate him. He couldn't…

Danny glanced away from the swirling mist for the first time since it appeared almost an hour ago. Dash stared at their joined hands as a more passionate anger tugged at his chest. The ghosts, the ghosts were doing this. Playing with his emotions, with his body's reactions, with his feelings.

His heart was something he considered sacred, his feeling and emotions, his body, was something he valued. To have something influence it, to have someone use him against his own wishes. It was something he could not tolerate.

His hand tightened again. Danny overshadowed him. Did it often. Used him to make a fool of himself.

He shook his head. Those voices, that laughter. No. It was the ghosts and they were trying to use him.

Use him like Danny did.

Danny didn't use him. He got revenge, he humiliated him, took over his body, but his mind and heart were his own, it was all pranks. Fun and games. Danny was a hero. He could have, he could have hurt him all those times, but he held back…he said so himself. He was the hero.

“They're speaking to you, aren't they?” Danny whispered.

He knew. He knew so much.

“They're…they're…”

“They're using you against me.” Danny said, knowing full well what they were doing. Ghosts always used his friends, his family, against him. It was what he got for being the hero. “It isn't the first time, ghosts seem to like having you beat me up.”

“It's not that…” Dash whispered, his grip on Danny' hand near bone crushing. “Its…Its…my god Fenton they want…they want me to…” Danny saw tears glittering at the edge of Dash's eyes. “I don't want to. I can't, but I can't move away either.”

“Neither can I,” Danny said, sliding down to sit on the floor, bringing Dash with him. “I've been here for almost two hours. They won't let me leave.”

“Paralyzed.” Dash whispered, hypnotized by the swirling colors. They had both of them trapped. Dash didn't trust himself, not down here with these…things. He tried to move, and not to move. He didn't want to do it, not what they wanted. Not now, not ever.

He didn't want that.

“Just stay here. Relax.” Danny said in the same hushed tone they had been using throughout the entire conversation.

“Right…relax,” Dash didn't think he could, not with this ghost dust whispering naughty things in his ear. “This is all kinds of messed up.”

“I expected you'd react a bit, differently” Danny said, trying to distract him, knowing Dash was scared out of his wits right now.

“I…l-like what?”

“Oh, like screaming and running. What everyone always does.”

“I…I um,” Dash thought a moment. He should be hysterical, and inside he was losing his mind wanting to run upstairs and hide beneath the blankets. He felt like crying, he was so scared. So very scared. But Danny…did he really need to know that? “I guess this is something you get used to, right?”

Danny smiled at that. “Yes, I suppose it is.”

Dash breathed out a big sigh, leaning back against the wall, feeling the big, depressing weight crush him down. He brought his knees up to his chest like Danny did, feeling tired and angry and scared. He stared at their joined hands, at the link to sanity, and contemplated letting go.

Would he still be safe without Danny holding him?

Holding him….

Danny was watching him, watching the terrified look on his face. Dash wanted to run, and if given the chance Dash would run. He knew it. Knew that unless he was absolutely forced to Dash would never fight anything he couldn't obviously win against. He wasn't Sam or Tucker, who would risk their lives for him on a daily basis, and he wasn't like Valerie who hunted ghosts for all the same reasons he did. Dash was…Dash. The same Dash he always was, since freshmen year. Scared, brave, strong, weak. He was the normal person.

Without thinking Danny shifted, releasing his hold on Dash's hand and pulling him down. Dash let out a startled squeak, blushing madly as Danny pulled him closer.

He was taller than Danny, bigger too, the embrace was awkward, but the half ghost held him close in a way Dash had never been held. It was protective, comforting. The kind of embrace he should have given Danny the previous night…

He could hear Danny's heartbeat, slow and steady and loud in his ear. Danny brushed his disheveled hair back away from his face in a calming motion. He felt tears prick at the back of his eyes again; this was the boy he had tormented up until two days ago.

His hero, his victim.

He had no right to be comforted, but he wanted to.

He let his legs slide back to the floor as he wrapped his arms around Danny's thin waist. The sound, Danny's heartbeat, so warm and steady and loud, it drowned out the voices, the laughter. He felt his eyes drooping closed as the sound filled his ears, chasing away all else.

Thump.

~*~*~

Dash didn't really know when he left the dream world for reality, even in the darkness of his mind he could hear the steady thrum of a heartbeat, and when he opened his eyes to the soft dim blue light of early morning; perhaps an hour before the sun would rise. The blankets were in tangles around him in a cocoon and he knew he had been sweating in the night, he could smell it, and felt the griminess all over his body. He raised his head slightly from Danny's chest, the sound fading the further his ear got from the pulsating organ.

He hadn't bolted awake in a cold sweat, hadn't sat in his bed shivering over the outlandish nightmare. He just opened his eyes, opened them and stared. Danny stirred beside him and he realized how close he was, how close ”they” were to each other. His pulse would not go down, the dream having scared him more than he cared to admit.

Danny's arms were wrapped limply around him, Dash lifted himself further away and felt bare skin brush against his own and the receding gooseflesh rose up again. Fire spread across his shoulder, his arms, his breath hitched and a rush of sweet adrenaline poured into his bloodstream. With wide eyes he shifted away, all too aware of the body close to him. Arms fell back to the cushions, one lying where he used to be, the other crossing over Danny's torso.

He looked so innocent, so weak and vulnerable. Dash wanted to protect him, but he knew Danny was the strong one, and he Dash Baxter was the vulnerable human. The scared, weak, oh so ordinary human.

The clock on the VCR read 5:30 and Dash contemplated going back to sleep, but decided against it. Danny got up early yesterday morning to make him breakfast, maybe he should do something for him. Pulling back the covers he left the bed, his knees week, almost buckling under his weight when he stood. Quickly steadying himself on the arm of the couch.

For his hero.

Dash smiled at the thought as he walked into the kitchen. Such a strange dream. One would think Danny Phantom would come to his rescue, but no. No this time the hero was Fenton. Danny Fenton.

Fenton was a hero too.

Because they were one in the same.

~*~*~

Breathe, he couldn't breathe. Water surrounded him, dark, cold water. He struggled to swim up but his arms where tied behind his back, and hands….hands where holding him down, strong, rough hands and more than one pair. He resisted, kicked, fought, but they still held him. Held him beneath the water.

Then there was light. Blinding light.

And air.

Oh precious air!

He took greedy gasps of it, filling his lunges to bursting before breathing out and starting again. His knees shifted under him, supporting his body as his head hung heavily, forehead resting against the rim of the wooden trough. He coughed, he cried, he shook, but the hands that held him down had no more room for pity, his hot tears flowed with the icy water draining from his shaggy hair, the biting cold of the air stinging his skin beneath his soaked blouse.

One of the hands fisted in his hair, yanking his head upward to stare into the face of his assailant. The blinding light of the sun pierced his eyes, reflecting off every shiny white patch of ice and frost covering the run down houses surrounding them. The searing light darkened all else, silhouetting the looming figure he was supposed to be looking at.

His dazed, blinded expression, his failure to answer a question that he had not heard, the constant ringing in his ears downing out all else, earned him a sharp blow to the side of his head and once again, without warning, without time for one last breath, he was plunged into the cold, icy water.

He struggled, fought for air though he knew it was useless. The hand remained in his hair, pressing his head down until he felt the graze of the bottom. He couldn't help it, couldn't resist his body's natural reaction. His will to live, to fight.

Once again he was dragged up to the surface, this time he closed his eyes against the light as he gasped, and concentrated on the voices around him. His face wasn't allowed to rest against the wood this time, his hair pulled back, straining his neck to look straight up the moment he was pulled free.

“Where are they boy?” The man asked.

He shook, harsh tremors rolling under his skin, a shuddering earthquake that seemed to stem from his very bones.

It was cold outside. So cold. If he told them, would they let him back inside? A fire? Blanket?

No.

A knife to the throat would be his only reward.

He would never tell.

“Tell me boy! WHERE?!” The man was shouting now, his gruff, weathered voice almost as loud as the high pitched church bells chiming in his ears. Another blow across his face, this time with a hard, heavy stick. A cane perhaps? Yes, the man's wooden walking cane.

He wouldn't tell, never, and he was dunked back beneath the water once more.

“You can't take much more of this boy; you'll die soon, if not from drowning then from the cold.” The man said when he resurfaced. His voice visible in the frosty breath escaping his mouth. He continued to tremble, to shake and shiver, it was so cold, and his head hurt badly, but he would not tell. He wanted to, oh how he wanted to tell, but he would not. He bit his tongue, fearful of its treachery, and a flood of coppery warmth filled his mouth.

He would never tell.

His battered, bloody face hardened in hatred and determination and he spat a stream of blood and saliva straight at the evil man looming over him. It splattered across his thick warm winter coat with a satisfyingly disgusting sound.

The man, the evil murderous man stared down at him with a curling lip and a vengeful, burning gaze.

Then he was struck again.

And again…

And again

Over and over until the icy ground beneath him was splattered with drops of his blood. He knew he would die. He knew it, but he would not talk. He would never talk. Even in death.

Never.

With a final blow, darkness came, but not in a slow creeping motion, or even a fast swarm. It just suddenly became dark.

Like the extinguishing of a guiding lantern.

The end of hope.

~*~*~

Grasping, clutching, falling, floating, pain, fire, sizzling flesh against flesh, teeth tearing, cold metal, hot blood, the smoky tendrils of a dream fading back into the darkness, shying away from the sun. Who was it that said to beware those who dream during the day? Another nightmare, or was it? Danny's eyes fluttered open

Even as he lay there, eyes bleary, small details of the dream slipped away from him. The man's features, the surrounding landscape, the strange engravings on the cane that had struck him. He remembered so much, yet when he tried to recall something, to reflect, he found it slipping away from him, back into his mind, away from his memory's probing tendrils. His heart was beating fast, as if he woke up with a start, but he didn't remember why.

He tried to sit up but found his body wouldn't respond, why was everything so heavy? It was like some vacuum was there beneath him, sucking him in, holding him down. Straps restraining every limb, it even hurt to breath, but then, it had been difficult to breath for a few days now.

He blamed it on Dash's constant smothering, anxiety suffocating him, why couldn't the jock understand that he needed a little space? Why didn't anybody understand his need to be alone for a while? Nobody knew what he was going through every day, the constant battles, school, bullying, teachers, parents, and the ever looming future, ominous and uncertain.

Laughter?!

A strong bout of laughter jolted through his ears, from the kitchen, and startled him back awake and out of the void he'd been drifting into.

Dash was no doubt flirting with his sister. Joy, just what he needed.

Actually it was. If Dash got hung up, at least for an hour, with his sister it would give him plenty of time to go out and…well, breath freely for a while. Like yesterday…

A crash, a curse and Jazz laughing at Dash who sounded angry and flustered, what was going on in there? He should get up and go play referee, or at least see what broke. Yeah, just get up, kick off the covers and whatever shackles of sleep still tied him to the bed, and walk into the kitchen. Then he could leave.

Get up…

All he had to do was get up…

..Just get up and he could leave.

“Hey Danny!” Jazz walked out of the kitchen and over to the folded out couch. “What do you think about donuts at that cool little place down by the bus station?” She still had some laughter in her voice and a little water in her eyes when she leaned over his sprawled form. “hmm?”

“Don't wake him up.” Dash said quietly from the doorway.

“Why not?”

“Because…well,” he cast a nervous glance towards the stairs, “you know.”

“Dash.” Jazz said with a sigh. “Didn't I just get finished saying this? Stop obsessing over him, okay? We've all tried it already, it doesn't work. Believe me, I know better than anyone else.” She put her hands on her hips and Danny tried to move his head to see them. Didn't they know he was awake? “If the thought of him as a human is so discomforting to you, get a new fixation and stop acting like such a drooling fanboy.”

Dash choked on his own air, getting out a few gasped objections, but ended up storming away, back into the kitchen to clean up whatever mess he had made.

“Danny!” Jazz turned to him. “Danny wake up, I'm leaving soon and I want to spend the morning with you!” Jazz grabbed his arm and yanked him off the bed. “Get up!”

Magic words, or maybe it was the hitting the floor with his head, either way whatever little spell he was having passed quickly and he groaned, yanking his arm back from his peppy sister and trying to get up from his current upside down position on the floor.

“Now see? Isn't that better?” She asked a little two sweetly, why the hell did smart people use sarcasm?

“Yeah Jazz, my cozy position on the bed was such a hardship; I'm so very grateful you came along to liberate me from my bedtime oppressors.”

“Your very welcome little brother, now go upstairs, I'll distract your stalker long enough for you to get dressed in privacy.”

“Where are you dragging me off to?” Danny stood, swatting imaginary dust off his pajamas and acting as though he hadn't already been awake.

“The donut shop,” she replied in a cheery `I'm a morning person' voice.

“Is there a choice involved in this somewhere?” Jazz was moving towards the doorway to the kitchen so Danny decided now was a good time to head towards the stairs.

“No.” She replied curtly.

“Great.” Should have escaped when he had the chance, stupid teen laziness.

~*~*~

“So where were we before you broke breakfast?” Jazz asked when she reentered the kitchen to see Dash washing out the porcelain bowl he had been beating eggs in; amazingly, it only had a small chip in it.

“We were talking about my totally unimportant nightmare and how you think it's some sub…subconsi— whatever that word was.”

Jazz gave him an exasperated look. “You've said big words before; don't try that `I'm too stupid for audio' act on me.”

Dash actually managed to look embarrassed.

With a stern look Jazz sat back in a kitchen chair. “Now that we're sure Danny won't be listening in, I'll ask you the question again. Are you crushing on my brother?”

Dash expected she'd return to that, but his hand still slipped and he almost dropped the bowl in the sink. “No.” He said firmly, or at least steadier than his flustered denials and furtive glances towards the kitchen door he had managed not two minutes ago.

“Really, because it's totally fine with me, I mean to each his own, genetics and all, but I'm just letting you know Danny's about as straight as they come.”

“Yeah I know so—”

“I mean, ramrod straight, like the kind of straight that when the universe curves he'll just keep going. “

“Listen I—”

“And what with your obsession with Danny Phantom, your hero and idol for the past few years, and finding out that said previously untouchable hero is now before you in a tangible, accessible, slightly more acceptable form it's no real surprise, for me at least, that you would have these urges and—”

“Okay, can you stop now please, before my gag reflex kicks in?” Danny interrupted from the doorway. Jazz's blush almost matched Dash's as they stared at him.

“Why didn't you tell me he'd come back downstairs?!” She hissed.

“I tried, you kept interrupting me.” Dash said with a scowl.

Danny cocked a hip as he glared ice at the people in the room. “Mind telling me why you two are sitting around discussing my sexual preference?”

Dash looked at Jazz a moment before coughing nervously. “You know, I think I'll go get dressed so we can get donuts before your bus runs.” Dash said as he inched his way around the short, very dangerous, dark-haired teen blocking the door.

“Coward!” Jazz yelled after him as he ran up the stairs.

“You know, I think I'd rather not know.” Danny said uncertainly after glaring at Jazz a few more seconds. “I'll be waiting in the car.”

Jazz let her head fall to the table with a thud.

~*~*~

The donut shop, really a café that happened to make the best doughnuts in town, was never that crowded in the early morning, mainly because two of the three owners of the place were most definitely not morning people and the remaining one, a cute slim blonde who was pretty friendly, tended to scare people away with her eccentricities.

This particular morning she looked fairly normal, though she was reading a lesbian porno rather obviously at the counter. Only those used to her, like Jazz was, would know that it was not a porno at all, but rather a comic book cleverly disguised in an attempt to scare off anyone who would disturb her morning. She usually used this time to relax from her long night in the back where the more gothic hung out.

“Hey, can we get a few of your famous donuts and three cups of hot chocolate?” Jazz asked loudly as she sat at a tablecloth covered table near the large, multi paneled window.

“Coffee” Dash interrupted.

“You're drinking chocolate.”

“Hey sexy, sure thing.” The blonde said, swiveling around in her stool to begin to actually work.

“I'll have some coffee too, almond please.” Danny didn't really, but felt like bugging his sister.

“You'll drink what I ordered or you'll wear it.” The red-head snarled

“So does that mean I get to pour it on them?” the girl called from behind the granite slab.

“Sure, that's fine by me!” not knowing if the girl would actually do it the two teens agreed on the cocoa. “So, what do you boys want to talk about?”

“Oh man, we aren't gonna continue from where we left off in the kitchen are we?” Dash groaned, having enjoyed the quiet drive over.

“Jazz, you were the one who brought us here, what do you want to talk about.” Danny plopped down in his seat with a little more of a huff than really necessary.

“I'm just here to flirt with the cutie behind the counter.” She teased loud enough for her friend to hear.

“Sorry, as of last night I'm officially taken.”

“What?” Jazz almost stood up when the owner placed the order down on the table. “You mean you hooked up with someone? Or did you finally grow some and spill it to your crush of infinite years?”

“Actually, amazingly, she spilled it to me. Well not so much spilled as flood, I mean full out issues and tissues in EM back there.”

“But you still haven't done anything yet?”

“You know me and my insecurities.”

“Man, she brought us here to do girl chat.” Danny griped.

“Shush, I'm listening.” Dash growled.

The two girls glanced at them with annoyed looks before moving over to the counter.

“Great, you made them leave, thanks.”

“Don't worry, you can catch the rerun.” Danny said under his breath.

“Shut up.”

Their silence continued with an awkwardness that lasted for the hour, the two of them eating donuts while Jazz chatted with her friend about various sexual inadequacies until she had to catch her bus, finishing with Danny dozing off on the table and Dash poking the stitches in his arm which clearly needed to be taken out, despite having only been in a few days.

“You know, you two would look like a cute couple if not for the thick tension surrounding you.” Jazz's friend said, startling Dash and causing Danny to snort in his sleep, a bit of drool dribbling out of his parted mouth.

“Its sexual tension, I'm telling you.” Jazz said.

Dash was about to start his now rather composed denials but was cut off by the girl again. “No it's more like an `I'm going to rip your head off and feast on your entrails if you so much as breathe near me' kind of tension.”

“Do you know Manson?” Dash asked rather afraid.

“She's been around EM a few times.”

“Joy.”

“My bus is here no doubt, hate to miss it.” Jazz said, rather eager to get the lead out now.

“I'll be walking her there; you two watch the shop for me?”

“You don't even know us.” Dash protested.

“So?” She blinked.

Dash squinted at her. “Are you like, crazy?”

“I've got a few mental issues, yeah.”

Dash slouched down in his chair as if touching her would cause bad things. “Yeah I'll watch the place. You go on ahead.”

“Great.”

The annoying little jingly bell sounded as they left and Dash sighed, looking down at Danny. “Why is it any really meaningful conversations between us would have to occur when you're asleep?” He asked.

Danny chose that moment to let out a very teenager like snore.

“Meaningful, right, what was I thinking?” Propping his head up with one hand he returned to poking the sleeping boy.

A few people chanced a glance inside the door when they didn't see what Dash assumed was the girl to avoid in this place. He shook his head at them and they left. He wondered how they managed to stay in business with a girl like that as one of the owners.

Eventually the poking woke Danny who swatted the finger away and wiped the line of drool from his chin, soon followed by a smack to the back of Dash's head, which sparked a whole new threatening conversation; then the two polished off their now cold meal and chocolate and met the blond girl at the door.

So far it was a very uneventful morning.

~*~*~*

Sam and Tucker were there when they got back, and so were Jack and Maddie, and the cat, and Paulina and Kwan, and for some reason they were all at the table without any threats or snarls being passed.

“Hi sweetie!” Maddie greeted her son. “Did your sister get on the bus alright?”

“No mom, a strange blonde axe murderer kidnapped her and dragged her off to the taxidermist after brutally slaughtering her in front of us.” Danny replied humorlessly, ignoring the two people who should most definitely not be drinking coffee in his kitchen. However that very un-Danny-like comment couldn't be said without an awkward pause and everyone facing him.

“Well, as long as she got there safe.” Jack decided to say and Danny, having decided that was enough socialization for the moment, headed up to his room.

“So Dash,” Kwan said, “you want to head over to the park? We're gonna get together and have a game.”

“I…uh. Sure, give me a sec.” Dash said, following Danny.

Up in the room Danny paced, worrying his lower lip between his teeth as he watched his miniature TV for any ghostly outbreaks. He hadn't gone out last night, or pretty much all day yesterday, and weekends were usually busy times for him.

“Your sister said nothing happened last night.” Dash stated from the bed.

“Yeah, as far as they know. This stuff is sometimes more subtle than what you and your friends are used to. Keep an eye out for little strange occurrences,” Danny stopped and crossed his arms while pointing to the screen, quite an interesting pose really, “Like a disappearance of hardware in a few stores or houses, maybe a disturbance down at the docks, unexplained simple ordinary occurrences. Don't forget Ember's plots, you've been in most of them. The always started soft and subtle, remember?”

Dash looked at Danny in a funny way, as if he was looking in a funhouse mirror and couldn't quite figure out what angle to stare at. “Don't you ever take a break from this stuff?” he asked.

“And let the town go to chaos? No thanks, I'd rather be told I couldn't walk at graduation.” Danny plopped down on his back on his bed and glared at his ceiling. “I admit there've been more than enough times I'd wanted someone else to take the job, but the truth is: no one else can. No one else, not Dani, not my parents, not the Guys in White. No one. I've got no one to say `Hey it's your shift' to.”

“What was all that downstairs? You were really morbid and sarcastic. I could swear I saw hearts pop up in Manson's eyes. ”

Danny tensed up at that comment. “I was just surprised by Kwan and Paulina was all. I didn't really want to talk to them; they haven't been the nicest people to me these past years you know. I'm justified in being a little hostile.”

Dash stood up and stretched. “Well, tell you what. I'm going down to the park with Kwan, Paulina's probably heading there too, you wanna join?” He glanced down. “Your hostility just might prove useful at some point”

“You mean I'm actually invited?”

“Fenton,” Dash looked at him, “it's a public park, or did you forget that since Thursday?”

Danny glared at him and said, “You're just trying to keep me shackled to you.”

Dash managed a lighthearted grin. “Sure am, while simultaneously maintaining my social life and improving yours, an accomplished multitasker I be.”

“Wow, you `simultaneously' managed to make yourself sound smart and dumb in a single sentence. I may just have to take you up on that offer.” Danny stood up and walked to his door, tossing a grin back at Dash. “Your idiocy may prove useful at some point.”

Dash smiled and clicked the TV off.

~*~*~*~

Danny had never had any real use for a car, what with flying abilities and whatnot, so he agreed to ride with Dash, Kwan, and Paulina in Kwan's cute little silver-ish blue 6 Series cabriolet. Danny was at first impressed when he walked around his street corner and found the little BMW, however the looks on his friend's faces said they were not happy about having to hitch their own ride, as the topless car only sat four and Kwan's parents had instilled the fear of the insurance company within him.

Sam and Tucker were more than a little irritated by the continued presence of the “in” crowd, but kept a zip-locked mouth during the discussions of rides to the park. Danny noted, with a bit of wonder, that both he and Dash were amazingly in control of both their little groups. And here he thought Paulina was the leader of the three.

He found himself glancing in the backseat where Dash and Paulina were talking about prom and their plans, matching outfits, what corsage Dash had to get her, and a horse drawn carriage, because she was sick of showing up to parties in limos, she wanted an entrance befitting a princess.

Prom was about a month away, it was nice to think about, really, but Danny didn't think he'd go. Sam had decided to go with a group of other girls at school, deciding that sitting around moping about her lack of dates was too streamlined for her personality. Tucker was asked by some chick he wouldn't talk about. Sam said he was going to build a robot girlfriend. Him? No one, not even one girl remotely interested in going to prom with him, so he just decided to take up Sam's discarded pastime and mope.

“So what are you doing for prom Danny?” Paulina asked, out of all of them, she was probably the only one who'd ever called him by his actual name.

“Nothing,” he stated. “I've never been interested in Prom.” A lie, and a big one too. Not too many years ago he'd wanted to take her to the prom, then Valerie, then Sam, now? Now he'd be grateful if Dragon Lady wanted to go with him.

Great now he felt guilty, Dora was rarely anything but nice to him, and he'd made fun of her, in his mind sure, but he still made fun of her. Idiot him, no wonder nobody wanted to date him.

“What? Really?”

“Dude, everybody's interested in prom, it's like the greatest party of your life!” Kwan said, never turning from the road ahead of him. His driving teacher must have loved him.

“What, did the girls you ask turn you down or something?” Dash joked.

Danny bunched his shoulders.

“No way!” Dash sat up in his seat and leaned across to look at Danny. “You're kidding me, every one?”

“I only asked four.” Danny said.

“That's still three too many.” Paulina looked considerably outraged, like Sam when she's found some new injustice to picket against. “Getting rejected once is embarrassing enough, four times; you should at least get a pity date from like, a junior or sophomore. You're a totally cute senior after all.”

Danny turned to stare at her, shocked, beat red, with his mouth hanging open. “What do you mean? I'm a scrawny looser, remember? Freshman outrank me in social status.” Paulina suddenly looked completely bored by this topic.

“You know what an absolute turnoff is?” she began, “People who look at themselves and only see flaws.”

Well, that was unexpected, not. “Say wha?”

Dash stopped listening at that point, relaxing back into his seat and entertaining himself with trying to get Kwan to look at him through the rearview mirror. Kwan occupied himself with ignoring Dash and paying attention to the road.

“How can you sit there, look at yourself, and think scrawny? Sure you're thin, but you're tall thin, slim. You've got the figure of a model, I mean, I don't know girls who've got legs that long, and your eyelashes are far thicker than even boys are allowed.” She looked at the two bulky boys in the car with them and then back to him. “You're a different type.”

“You're kidding me.” Danny groaned and she glared at him. “You know Paulina, I appreciate you being nice and all, but at least make it believable. You're the one who pointed out all my faults last year. Remember? I've got hardly any body hair, I'm deathly pale, I'm not strong at all, and my hair looks like a suicidal mission for brushes. As I recall you described me as `A skeleton in a wetsuit,' right?”

She opened her mouth to protest, then shut it. Dash howled, saying “He's got you there Paulina.”

“You did say that!” Kwan laughed.

“So what? I didn't mean it!” she snapped at them, “I always say things like that.”

Sam and Tucker passed by them, Tucker beeped the horn and Danny waved, sitting straight in his seat again and fluffing his windblown hair. He'd never ridden in a topless before, not in a car anyway. It took some getting used to.

“Kwan, you just let that dinky little wagon pass you. In this car!” Paulina changed the subject and Danny felt a bit of tension between his shoulders slip away as the attention was steered away from his datelessness.

“If my parents found out I was reckless with my new car I'd be dead. We're all going to the same place Paulina, so what's the hurry?”

They all remained silent for the remaining two minutes to the park, or maybe Danny just tuned them out. He got the sudden feeling of alienation that always managed to creep up on him during these periods of normalcy. This was just another day to them, but it was so boring. So very, very unexciting.

His life was so hectic. He really wished he could be content with the uneventful.

He got out of the car slowly when they parked, walking over to his friends and away from the depressing display of lazy teen life. Typical, he couldn't even enjoy a regular day at the park. His friends were visibly tense with his arrival, pissed at him, as usual when he momentarily ditched them. They were so territorial over him.

~*~*~*~

Danny had actually looked like he was enjoying himself in the car for a while, even when they were on the embarrassing topic of Prom and his hotness status. Then suddenly it was like he closed up on himself. Kwan had asked him several questions, but Danny didn't hear any of them. He just slowly shuffled over to his friends.

Sam and Tucker were obviously his touchstones. Dash hated that about him more than anything else. Should he find himself faced with a difficult situation he reached behind him and grabbed at his friends, it was pitiful. Some might argue he drew strength from them; really they were his security blanket. And the two were more than happy to play that role, or maybe they weren't aware of his dependence on them. They acted like he was a child they had to hold hands with. He couldn't wander off or make a decision of his own because it might get him into trouble, but when he was off ghost fighting they didn't even cringe.

True he hadn't been around them all that often, but from what he could see they were being more parental than friends.

“Dash, this way! We're over here!” Kwan called, waving the lot of them off towards the open field away from children and trees.

Danny grabbed his friend's arms and drug them over too, despite the fact that they obviously wanted to be elsewhere. They dug their heels in and looked at Danny like he was still a child who needed discipline.

“We could leave,” Tucker said, “You don't really need us hanging around here while you're playing. Neither me or Sam are much interested in this game.” Sam nodded, not speaking because she'd obviously say something nasty.

“What, we can't all share the park? Common guys, let's just hang out a while?” Danny looked torn.

Dash realized Danny didn't want to be here either, but he wanted to make sure Dash didn't blab. The three of them, all of them hated him and his friends, and Danny's fear of exposure was the only thing keeping them around. Something twisted inside him painfully.

“Fenton!” Dash called, ending their quiet conversation. “Come on! You're on my team!” A few of the kids groaned.

Danny gave one last pleading look at his friends before jogging over to the people Dash was standing with.

With dejected faces Sam and Tucker took a seat on the grass.

~*~*~*~

It became apparent only a few minutes into the sport that these park games were just as popular as real ones. Kids from all cliques were allowed to play, even if they weren't that great, and it was actually kind of fun. Danny was good at the game, well not completely awful, and his powers helped him out a couple times. He caught Dash's smile after he used intangibility to escape a tackle. He felt guilty, but when they took their places again Dash reassured him.

“Sports are about doing the best you can right?” Danny nodded “If you've got a bigger body, or maybe you're slightly taller, or you're smarter than everyone else you don't get kicked out do you?” He shook his head. “So if you've got some extra abilities, who's to say you can't use them?”Dash pat his shoulder, “Do your best.”

Danny smiled, but didn't lean too much on his powers in the game. It didn't feel like cheating any more, but he wanted to play with his own strength.

There was no time limit; everyone just declared halftime when enough people got hungry and they all headed out to lunch. A few of the freshman and sophomore kids headed off to the Nasty Burger because it was the only food place they could claim as their own.

It was Kwan, not Dash, who told them most of the others were heading to a buffet place because it was big enough, with good enough food, to feed dozens of upperclassman with bottomless appetites, and it wasn't expensive either. Both Sam and Tucker looked suitably pleased by the decision and Danny didn't have to drag them along this time.

Tucker's girlfriend, who happened to be at the game with her sister, rode with them so Dash figured it was safe to insist Danny ride in the BMW again. Nobody complained the entire ride, and Danny was actually having a good time.

Until about halfway through lunch when the people at the table next to theirs faces started to rot off.

It was an interesting conversation between Danny and Dash, slowly turning into an argument, as was becoming usual for them. Kwan and Paulina, tired of the banter, had gotten up to go get more food. Their table was next to a booth, soon occupied with five people in their late twenties to mid thirties, and they wore clothes that looked dusty and beaten. He paid them no mind, like everybody else, until he saw out of the corner of his eye something moving against the window.

It was an understandable reaction; you see something move you turn to look at it.

Danny stared, causing Dash to stop talking and turn as well. It was a little black kitten, pressed up against the glass and peering in at him with this little gold tag dangling from its neck. It pawed at the window a few times before turning tail and skittering off.

Then the people turned to them, and like that rainy night, their faces started to distort. Dash clutched at the table, his knuckles turning white, neither of them moved. Stiff with fear.

In the light it looked different, blurry, moving, skin slowly decomposing at a rapid pace. Each one was going through a different state, the girl on the right's skin was shrinking, growing tight across her skull, losing its moisture, shriveling up like a mummy, the skin was cracking like dust as she shifted her head in their direction. The man next to her was bloated, like a corpse in water for too long. Parts of his body were going black, his nose was getting too big, too heavy, and the skin was tearing like fabric. It sagged, then dropped into his drink with a `ploonk.' Skin peeled back on the next two, burning, Danny could smell the charred flesh from where he sat. It was growing taunt across their faces, bright white teeth protruding forward as lips cracked and bled into nothing but strips of flesh.

The last one, the one Danny couldn't stop staring at, wasn't really rotting… Dripping wet he stared at the two boys through red-rimmed eyes, skin flushed from cold. Wounds cropped up on his face and neck at random, squirting blood out onto the wall and window, his head jerked up and his nose shot out a stream of blood to splatter across the dusty, mummified corpse across from him. It was as if he was slowly being beaten.

Danny shivered, unable to breathe as he watched them in their grotesque transformations.

“Why isn't…why isn't anybody screaming?” Dash asked in a squeaky whisper.

The conversations in the restaurant were continuing as usual. Paulina came up and put her plate down, sitting right in front of Danny and blocking his view of the creatures. She looked at the two boys in alarm.

“Are you two okay? You look white, well Dash looks white, Danny's always been white, but now it's worse than even his god-awful pale.”

Danny focused on her for a split second before turning his head to view the empty booth behind her.

At first he had paid them no mind, like everybody else in the restaurant...

“I don't think I can eat any more,” Dash said grimly, “and I don't think I'll be finishing the game with you guys.”

Paulina stared at him concerned and Danny suddenly realized that though these two never had a romantic relationship, they really were good friends. He looked over at Sam, and thought about how hard they had worked to make their relationship work out.

No, those memories were buried. As far as everybody was concerned he and Sam had outgrown their romantic feelings without even a single date. Clockwork had made sure of that. He was the only one who remembered anything that happened.

“Yeah,” Danny agreed, not really up to explanations.

The two got up and moved towards the door, leaving Paulina to explain everything to those who noticed their retreat.

~*~*~*~

Grimalkin was waiting in the parking lot and Danny wished at this time that he actually did own a car. Scooping up his little cat he turned to Dash, expecting him to say something. Dash just scratched his head, took a deep calming breath, and put his arm around his shaking companion.

Danny was grateful for the silence, his friends would normally be excited, vibrating with energy and overflowing with questions. They looked at this kind of stuff with glee, terrified, but never overwhelmed. It was a good thing at times. But right now he wanted to work this out in his head, and apparently, so did Dash.

They walked back to Danny's house like that.

Dash looked down at the cat his Danny's arms. It looked back at him with wide yellow eyes.

Yellow eyes.

The rain was pouring down, white lightning illuminating the grey sky…

…he saw a black cat dart out of an alleyway ahead of him and across the street, directly towards him. His eyes widened as he looked into glowing green lights before the tiny beast reared back on its haunches and launched itself right at him…

…a black cat pawed at the window, a little golden tag dangling from its collar, bright green eyes wide and staring in at them…

He stopped, Danny moving a few more feet before the arm around his shoulders fell and he was forced to stop and stare at Dash who looked at Grimalkin with frightened eyes.

“Danny…drop the cat.” He said shakily.

“What?” Danny furrowed his brow at him.

Dash's lips were trembling as he tried to form the words again. “Put the cat down.”

“Why should I do that?”

“I…He's a…It's a…just…just put him down please?”

Danny slowly set the cat down on the sidewalk and turned back to the blonde.

Dash continued to stare at the…thing. Grimalkin was tensing up, a growl forming in the back of his throat.

“Let's…let's go home okay?” Danny said cautiously. Dash nodded and they continued to walk on in the direction of Danny's house, Dash chancing one last nervous glance back at the black cat waiting on the sidewalk.

~*~*~*~

It was ridiculous, really it was. He was a cat, just an average, ordinary cat. Yellow eyes, not green, yellow. He was an idiot for getting so scared over a shoddy memory after a potentially traumatizing incident. Dash picked up a pillow and screamed into it. Everything was going so well, they were having fun! Now where were they?

Danny locked himself in the Ops Center, with the cat, and Dash was stuck down in the living room once again, alone, watching TV.

One step forward to steps back. And to top everything, there was nothing good on! Dash went limp, face in the couch pillow.

Wonder what school would be like tomorrow...