Chapter 2 Is Done!

Chapter 2 is done!

Of All The Stories In The Stars, Ours Has Yet To Be Told (13344 words) by StarsWhisper Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Danny Phantom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Dash Baxter/Danny Fenton Characters: Danny Fenton, Dash Baxter, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Paulina Sanchez, Kwan (Danny Phantom), Valerie Gray, Pookie (Danny Phantom) Additional Tags: Aged-Up Character(s), on the way to college, mentions of child abuse, Mentions of homophobia, Redemption Arcs, Bisexual Danny Fenton, everyone becoming good friends, learning how to live, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Second Chances, lots of classical literature references, Canon-Typical Violence, Angst, Lots of Crying, Some hurt/comfort, almost everyone has shitty parents, More tags to come as I think of them Summary: It's the end of senior year and Dash and Danny are having the worst time of their lives. Dash's father finds out he's queer and tries to kill him. That lands him in prison with divorce papers. Dash goes to therapy to cope and learn how to change his behaviors while taking some time off from school. He now needs to learn how to navigate the world and figure himself out. Danny fears he'll never figure out what he wants for his future beyond being the hero of Amity Park forever and he's running out of time to figure it out as he watches everyone he knows move on without him. Plus there are always the people hunting him down that he has to worry about on top of that.

~

“You’re sure your parents aren’t going to mind us reversing their bio-engineered poison in their own lab?” Sam asked, squeezing a few drops of the Fenton Venom onto a microscope slide.

Danny was swirling a vial of solvent and venom over on the next table. “They won’t even know we’ve been down here. They’re visiting Vlad in Wisconsin.” Danny scrunched his face up, wanting to vomit.

“Your mom is visiting Vlad?” Tucker quirked his eyebrow, setting up the monitor to receive images from the microscope Sam was working on.

“My dad wanted to show him the progress they’ve made with the Fenton Venom. I think she just went to make sure Vlad doesn’t kill him. Or maybe she’s just putting up with it. My parents rarely go anywhere without each other.” The liquid in the vial turned blue. Danny sighed, placing the vial in the holding rack with all the other blue ones. This was getting him nowhere.

“So that’s why you’re so insistent on finding an antidote for the Fenton venom, you’re worried Vlad is going to steal some from your parents and use it against you.” Sam secured the slide in place, motioning to Tucker to begin capturing the photos.

Danny switched his gloves, careful not to touch the outside of them even the slightest bit, and grabbed a new vial. He only had one solvent left before he was out of options on his end. “Of course, he’s going to steal some. But mostly, I just wanted to get it done while I have full unsupervised access to the lab. That shit hurts. I’d rather not deal with it again. If Dash hadn’t been there, I probably would have lost my arm.”

Tucker saved the images in a folder labeled ‘slide one’ and motioned for Sam to switch slides. “Danny, we know all about your big, brave jock saving your life. You can stop bringing it up at any time.”

Sam filled the next slide up with the venom, this time also adding a bit of Danny’s blood. She slid it under the microscope. “Oh, Sam, Tucker,” She wistfully sighed- Danny frowned at her-, “he was my hero. He’s the Perseus to my Andromeda and I-”

“Whoa!” Tucker interrupted her. “Guys come look at this.”

Sam locked the microscope knobs into place and walked over.

“Hang on. I have to finish-” the vial turned blue, -“okay.” He set the vial down, threw his gloves in the trash, and leaned against the back of Tucker’s chair.

“Okay, so these are the photos from the first slide.” Tucker opened the ‘slide one’ folder, slowly clicking through them. “This is what the structure of the Fenton Venom looks like by itself. Nothing out of the ordinary, right?”

“Hang on,” Danny pointed at a dim little rod shape on one of the photos, “what’s that?”

“It’s the mitochondria,” Sam snickered.

“Ha-ha,” Danny tapped the screen again, “very funny. Can you not see it?”

Tucker zoomed in on where Danny was pointing. He squinted at the monitor. “There’s nothing there dude. But, funny that you say that because of what’s on the second slide.” He minimized the folder and clicked on one labeled ‘slide two’.

“Wow, that’s freaky,” Sam whispered.

“Those!” Danny wildly tapped the screen again, pointing at the shapes. They were brighter now and congregating around the drop of blood. “What are those?!”

“You’re saying you saw these,” Tucker drew a red circle around a few of the creatures, “on that last slide?”

“Yeah, there weren’t as many and it wasn’t showing up as well, but they were definitely there.”

“Interesting.” Tucker pulled up the first file again, aligning the two images side by side. “Sam, can you see them in the first photo?”

Sam leaned in. “Point at it, Danny.”

Danny pointed.

“Nope.” She popped the ‘p’.

“Very interesting,” Tucker added to the notes area on the image. “Can you guys check if it’s the same on the actual microscope?”

Sam peered through the microscope at the second slide, making sure to take her time and really look. “Is this the spectral microscope?”

“It should be.”

“Okay, then no. I don’t see them.”

Danny stepped up, looking in. They were there. But, they were flickering; like ghosts. “I see them. They’re phasing in and out of the blood cells.”

“Very interesting,” more notes were taken, “now look at the first slide.”

Sam switched the slides out and took even longer to study this one, making absolutely sure she wasn’t overlooking anything. “No, I don’t see them.”

Danny took her place. “They’re still here, but they look dead. They’re not moving and they’re kind of shriveled up.”

“Extremely interesting.” More typing, “So they come alive when introduced to ghost energy and then they consume and destroy it and so far only ghosts can see them without the help of the spectral camera.” Tucker placed a hand on his chin, studying his notes. He turned to Danny. “You said you couldn’t use your powers at all while the venom was on you, correct?”

“Correct.”

“Would you say it was almost like the time when Vlad used The Plasmius Maximus to lock your powers away? You know, when he basically kidnapped you and your mom?”

Danny thought for a moment, recalling the memory. “Actually, yeah. It was almost exactly like that!”

“Tucker,” Sam intoned, “are you saying Danny’s parents made an ectoenergy-eating bacteria based off one of Vlad’s inventions?”

“It’s a possibility. We don’t know for sure it’s just ectoenergy that it affects though. Did any of it get on Dash and burn him in any way?”

Danny shook his head. “No, he was really careful about it.”

“So, we just gotta test it.” Sam grabbed her syringe full of Fenton Venom and walked over to the sink.

“What are you doing?” Danny screeched.

“I’m testing it.”

“Are you crazy?! It could literally melt your flesh off!”

Sam rolled her eyes at him. “Calm down, drama queen. It’s one drop and I’m right by a sink. The second it stings, I’ll wash it off. Unlike you, I don’t need a Prince Charming to heroically save my entire arm.” She turned on the sink, moving the faucet to the side so it didn’t immediately splash on her arm.

Danny squeezed his eyes shut, turning away from the sink, queasy at the thought.

“What the hell.” Tucker quipped.

Danny peeked one eye open. Sam’s arm was fine, the poison sliding off her arm with no issues. He breathed out, relaxing.

“Where would your parents even get the technology for a poison that only affects ghosts?” Sam washed her arm off, making sure to clean the sink out as well in case Danny accidentally touched anything.

Danny frowned, looking back at the monitor. “I have no idea. But it can’t be good.”

Tucker pushed off from the counter and wheeled his way over to the microscope. “Well, we can’t really make a vaccine for bacteria, so we’ll just have to stick with cleaning and antibiotics.”

“Ugh,” Danny whined, “no! I don’t want to deal with it again.”

“Then don’t get hit.” Sam teased.

“Well, what about the other ghosts.” Danny gestured to the portal.

“What do you mean ‘what about the other ghosts’?” Tucker asked.

“Will antibiotics work for them?”

“Why would we care if they get hit?” Sam crossed her arms and leaned against the counter.

“Because, it’s- they’re not- they don’t deserve that.” Danny dropped his gaze to the floor, frustrated that he couldn’t find the right words to make them understand. “Not all of them mean harm, and even if they did, they don’t deserve to have every inch of their being eaten away. We don’t even know what happens to the ghosts if they disappear.” His heart twisted as he thought about ghosts like Young-blood getting hit.

“You want us to mass produce ghost-antibiotics so you can distribute them to the entire ghost zone?” Tucker questioned in disbelief.

Danny hugged his arms to his chest, hand rubbing the spot on his shoulder where he’d been hit. He spoke in a voice so soft he wasn’t sure Tucker and Sam would hear him. “Could we?”

Sam and Tucker shared a look. It would be hard and they’d have to steal Danny’s parent’s credit card, but it was technically doable. Sam shrugged. Tucker sighed, swinging his chair back to the monitor. “Let’s get started.”

“All right, I’m gonna need more of your blood for testing, ghost savior.” Sam dug under the cupboards for her phlebotomy kit. “And you owe us some Nasty Burger for all the labor.”

Danny smiled, letting the tension drop out of his body. “Thank you.”

“Careful, Danny,” Tucker giggled, “saying that might make her fall in love with you.”

“I am not in love with Dash!” Danny huffed as he plopped down in the chair Sam was by. He lifted his arm so she could tie the medical band around his upper arm.

“Uh-huh,” Sam snickered, “says the guy who was staring at him for all of Financial Lit.”

Danny’s face burned. “I was not!”

“Okay, Danny,” Tucker spun around, arms playfully crossed over his chest, “then tell me how the stock market works.”

Danny flinched at the cold wipe Sam moved over his arm. “I wouldn’t know that even if I wasn’t staring at Dash.”

“Ah-ha!” Tucker cheered, throwing his hands in the air and promptly spinning back to his computer.

“You sure walked right into that one.” Sam laughed, pushing the needle into his skin.

“Ow, warn a guy!” Danny slumped in his seat, admitting defeat. “Okay, fine. I was staring. But not because I like him. He just looked so sad and I was trying to figure out a way to invite him to our graduation party without sounding desperate.”

“You are desperate, Danny. You’re acting just like you did with Valerie.” Sam took the needle out, covering the wound with a cotton ball. She walked the blood vial over to the storage fridge and washed her hands. Danny didn’t need bandages since his smaller wounds healed quickly.

“That was different! I’m not trying to date Dash, he just needs some friends right now-”

“Yeah and what happens when he inevitably falls back into his old habits and tries to string you up from a flag pole again?” Sam scolded.

Danny scowled, throwing the cotton ball in the trash. “What’s going on with you? You’re usually extremely pro-change.”

Sam rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah, but come on, Danny, people like him don’t change.”

“And what people can change, Sam? Or do you really think people are defined by the mistakes they’ve made?” Danny halted his lab activities, crossing his arms.

Tucker glanced between the two of them, trying to decide if he wanted to step in and calm them down, or just let them hash it out. He decided on the latter and got up to grab a drink from upstairs.

“I’m not talking about you, Danny. You don’t need to take this so personally. Your scary eyes are showing.” Sam leaned against the sink, gazing directly into Danny’s glowing green eyes.

“He’s my friend now, Sam.” He ignored her comment, too mad to care. “I am going to take it personally. Look at how hard he’s trying. He checked himself into therapy, you know? That was his idea. He wanted to get better.”

Sam scoffed. “Great! Let’s applaud the bare minimum!” She clapped her hands, hard, the sound echoing around the lab.

“You should when it’s a step up from what they were doing before. People can’t change without encouragement.” Danny closed his eyes, counting to ten. He needed to calm down. Or scream. “What happened to trusting me on this?”

“I do trust you! I always trust you!”

“No, you don’t!” Danny lost it, the anger exploding out of him, fingernails digging into his arms. “Unless it’s something you’ve directly asked me to do, you question every decision I make!”

“Name one time I’ve ever told you not to do something you wanted to do.”

“Danny you can’t like Valerie, she’s literally hunting you for sport!”

“Well that was-”

“Danny, you can’t go to the museum tonight, I need you to sneak me into the administrative office so I can cancel the order of frogs to the biology lab! Don’t you care about the lives of these amphibians?!”

“The protest-”

Danny didn’t care that he was cutting Sam off at this point. He’d been bottling this up and going along with it every time because that’s what friends did, but he’s reached his breaking point. “Danny, you can’t pull pranks on Dash, that’s using your powers for evil! Danny, don’t use your powers to make yourself look cooler in front of the cute waiter! Danny, you’re overthinking that fight, just forget about it! Danny, I wish we’d never met! Danny, calm down, this could be the thing that turns you evil! Danny, don’t-”

“Okay!” Sam stomped her foot and threw her hands in front of her. “I fucking get it! What do you want me to do? I can’t go back and change any of that?”

“Start trusting me!” Danny’s lungs were heaving in air by the gallon, trying to reclaim every ounce he’d just spat into the air. “You’re one of my best friends! Why can’t you trust me and just give Dash a chance!”

“Why do you need him to have a chance!? Why is it so important that he change?!” Sam was raving now, unwilling to back down no matter what point Danny made. She was doing all of this- fighting ghosts, making antibiotics, playing sidekick- for him, wasn’t she?! Why couldn’t he be grateful!?

“Because it proves people can! And if he can, then I know I can too and won’t end up evil!”

“With the way you’re acting maybe you can’t!”

Danny froze like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on him. The anger faded, replaced by a chilling numbness as he stared at Sam, her hair falling out of her buns, cheeks flaming red, and venom on her tongue.

“Jesus Christ,” Tucker uttered, stopping on the last stair.

“Glad to know you believe in me, Sam.” Danny changed into his ghost form. “I’m gonna get some air.” He flew up through the ceiling and out into the sky, speeding away from his house. He didn’t really care where he ended up, as long as it was away from there.

Tucker stared at Sam as she heaved in lungfuls of air and pulled at her hair, screaming under her breath. Yeah, he should have intervened. “That was frigid, Sam.”

“Oh, fuck off, Tucker!” She stormed over to her lab station and started throwing everything back into its spot. She was done. Forget making the stupid fucking antibiotic.

“So, you’re not gonna go after, Danny?” Tucker sat back down at the computer, sipping on his juice.

“Why should I?” She slammed a drawer closed, letting the stuff inside rattle around. “He just thinks I’m some smothering, controlling monster.”

“Would he be wrong if he did?”

Sam whirled on him. “You think so too?!”

“I didn’t say that. I’m just saying you should think about it. Using his ghost powers for personal gain is only okay when the gain is yours. Whenever you have some agenda or some point you want to prove, you expect him to drop everything and be at your beck and call. But if he wants to push something, it’s suddenly wrong and evil because it doesn’t align with what you want.” He leaned back in his chair, not surprised when Sam’s anger turned toward him.

“Like you’re the model version of a perfect friend.” She spat.

“I’m not trying to attack you, Sam.” He circled around to the computer, saving all his files. It didn’t look like they were getting any more work done tonight. “And, no, I’m not. I’ve had my fair share of arguments with Danny, where I’ve snapped at him or asked something unfair of him. Nobody’s perfect.”

Sam didn’t respond. She threw herself down into one of the chairs. She glared at the floor like it existed solely to offend her.

Tucker took a deep breath. “You wanna know a secret?”

Sam shook her head.

Tucker continued anyway. “I’m absolutely terrified of the things I’m capable of. Every single time I have a chance at even a fraction of the power Danny has, I become this power-addicted version of myself that I hate. And it’s not just whatever power the ghosts use, it’s these intrusive thoughts I have all the time, and power just makes me act on them without thinking of the consequences. The part of me that wants to take advantage of Danny and his powers is always gnawing at the back of my mind and that scares the shit out of me.”

He paused, taking a deep breath to steady his voice that was on the verge of shaking. He wiped his palms on his pants. “Apologizing doesn’t make you weak, but doing the same shit over and over again and refusing to look at yourself does.”

Sam let the room fall into silence. She sat deep in thought, going over every incident Danny had mentioned, replaying the look of anguish on Danny’s face. He hadn’t been blaming her; he had been pleading with her.

And she’d been too blind with rage to see it. She dropped her head into her hands. “Oh my god, I suck.”

“No, you don’t. You’re learning.”

“He’s never going to forgive me, Tucker.”

Tucker laughed. “We’re talking about the same Danny, right? You know, the same one who forgave Dash just because he put a band-aid on his boo-boo? The same one who just asked us to make ghost medicine for the same guys who have been beating the shit out of him for the last 5 years? That’s the Danny we’re talking about?”

“Well yeah, but I basically just told him I thought he’d grow up to be evil no matter what. That’s so fucked up of me.”

“Do you believe that?” Tucker sighed, stood, and grabbed a broom to busy his hands with.

Sam took a deep breath, wiping away the tears she knew were forming. “No. At least, I don’t think so.” She took a moment and a few breaths before continuing. “I think I just get jealous of the new people in our group because they change the dynamic. I like it when it’s just the three of us.”

“Is that the truth?” Tucker hummed, looking around for the dustpan. “Or is it just an excuse you’re using?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, even if it is an excuse, I can tell you it’s bullshit. After the last time I got possessed, you know the one with the Nordic amulet junior year, I thought Danny was going to boot me to the curb for sure. I mean, how many times can a friend get power and try to force you to do things for them before you get tired of it? But he didn’t. He asked if I was okay and I broke down crying. I told him he should just toss me into the ghost zone for being such a hypocrite and for every other awful thing I’ve done. You know what he did?”

Sam shook her head.

Tucker dumped the dust in the trash can, putting the broom back where it belonged. “He started crying and hugged me. He couldn’t believe he’d missed how upset his friend had been. He reassured me that he wasn’t going anywhere and that people learn from their mistakes, but that he did appreciate the apology. And that was that. As long as you apologize, you’re not losing Danny anytime soon.”

“You’re right.” Sam stood up and gave Tucker a hug. “Thanks Tuck. Sorry, for being a big idiot.”

“It’s chill. Now go find Danny, he’s the one you need to apologize to. I’m gonna take this opportunity to play some games on the high-processing computer.”

“Classic. I’ll be back.” Sam hurried up the stairs and out of the house.

Danny set his feet on solid ground and slid down the nearest wall, hugging his knees to his chest. He was too tired to keep flying around aimlessly. He just wanted to sit here and cry.

The wall behind him and the sidewalk he was sitting on were cold to the touch; it was comforting, easing some of the ache in his muscles. His shoulders shook as the tears fell silently. Maybe Sam was right? Really, who was he to think he could change anything about Fate? It was only by Clockwork's will that he wasn’t destroying everything he knew and loved.

He was starting to think he should have died in that portal. Maybe everyone would have been safer that way.

Manic barking startled him. He looked up just in time to see a little rat dog charging at him. He had just enough time to throw up a ghost shield before the dog could start chewing on his ankles.

“Hey! Go away!” Danny yelped. The dog’s leash was rattling as it scratched away at the shield. It must have run away from whoever was walking it. Lucky for them. “Down!”

“Pookie! Get back here!”

Danny looked over to the voice to see Dash sprinting in their direction.

“Get down!” Dash picked the dog up, struggling to keep it in his arms. “Quiet, Pookie. Sorry about that, I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

Danny dropped his shield. He wiped the tears away from his eyes. “Your dog’s name is Pookie?”

“My mom named him,” Dash lied, still breathing hard. He looked Danny up and down. “Was there a ghost attack around here or something?”

Danny frowned, confused. “Uh, no, I don’t think there was.”

“Oh,” Dash shuffled, adjusting his hold on the dog, “it’s just that no one really sees you around unless you’re fighting off an attacking ghost.”

Right, Danny glanced down at his jumpsuit, he was Phantom right now, not Danny. “Uh, yeah. I was just-” he looked around for an excuse, “patrolling?”

“Right,” Dash drawled. “Are you okay?”

Danny pressed back against the wall, dropping eye contact. Dash’s voice was incredibly genuine, but there was no way he could tell him anything. He pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes. “I’m just trying to get some air is all.”

Dash smirked at him. “Not crying?”

“Not anymore.”

Dash’s smirk fell. “I have some cake inside. I mean, I’m not really sure if ghosts can eat or if you even personally like cake, but maybe it could help cheer you up?” Heat flooded his cheeks as he held his breath and Pookie for dear life.

Danny squashed the urge he had to accept immediately. Cake sounded sick right now. And being alone wasn’t doing him any favors. He shook his head. Bad idea, Fenton. “How far is your house?”

Dash pointed to the building Danny was leaning against.

“Oh.” Danny really should have realized where he was sooner.

“It really wouldn’t be any trouble.” Dash rushed. “You could consider it your official thank you.”

Alarm bells blared in Danny’s head. Getting close to Dash as Phantom was a dangerous game. Especially now that Dash was hanging out with Danny Fenton; it would be easy for him to start to notice the similarities. “I shouldn’t, your parents might not appreciate a ghost in the house. Especially this late at night.”

Dash drew in a breath. “Actually, it’s just me and my mom. And she happens to be at work right now. But, if it makes you feel more comfortable, I have a balcony out back.”

Absolutely not, Fenton. You should go home to your probably empty house and deal with your emotions in a more constructive way, like blowing shit up in the ghost zone. He made eye contact; Dash was bouncing on his toes like a toddler who’d just asked for his favorite chocolate bar. Sam would be so mad at him.

He caved. “Okay.”

“Really?” Dash blurted, coughing to cover his eagerness. “Yeah, okay. Uh, I’ll go grab that and meet you out back.” Dash practically sprinted for the door, taking one last glance at Danny like he didn’t believe he was even there before closing the door behind him and Pookie.

Danny took a deep breath. Okay, he could be so chill about this. He flew around to the back, immediately spotting the balcony Dash was talking about. It must be new, he didn’t remember it being here the last time he’d been to a party here. It was a simple sitting balcony with low rails. He dragged one of the chairs over to the edge so his feet could dangle between the bars while he sat.

He sighed, laying his head over his crossed arms on the railing. Dash had a surprisingly good view of the stars from here; very little light pollution reached this far into the rich kids’ neighborhood. Andromeda glittered overhead, mocking him. He stuck his tongue out at her.

The glass door behind him slid open, Dash slowly stepped outside, two plates of cake in hand. He visibly relaxed when he saw that Danny was in fact sitting there. “I was sure you weren’t actually going to be out here.”

Danny smiled up at him, accepting the plate being handed to him. “How could I not be? You bribed me with cake after all.”

Dash dragged a chair over next to him, chuckling. “If I knew that was all it took to get the town hero to hang out with me, I would have done it sooner.”

Danny let out a sad chuckle, taking a bite of cake. It was delicious. “Wow, is this homemade?”

“Yeah, I made it with my mom last night.”

A rueful smile crossed Danny’s face. He used to bake with his mom too. “You talk about your mom a lot. You must really love her.”

Dash shrugged his shoulders, embarrassment creeping up on him. “I mean, yeah. She’s the only good parent I have. She stood up for me against my dad and was my biggest supporter when it came to therapy. She went with me to my first appointment cause I was so nervous. I think I got pretty lucky in the mom department.”

Danny felt a twinge of jealousy creep over him. He squashed it down. “That’s really cool, Dash. I’m happy you have her. And your baking skills cause this is amazing. I might have to get you to make me cake more often.”

Dash’s heart leapt right into his throat. “Thanks,” he wheezed. Real smooth, Baxter.

Phantom took a deep breath, oozing melancholy, and took another bite of cake. His gaze was fixed on the stars, eyes not glowing as much as they usually do. His eyelashes were still wet with the tears he’d been crying before Pookie had found him.

Dash twiddled his thumbs, sweating like crazy. What did one even do in this situation? Should he ask what’s bothering him? Did he not want to talk about it? How long had he been crying there? Dash exhaled, setting his plate on the table behind him. “Can I ask what’s wrong?”

Phantom closed his eyes, letting his shoulders slump forward. His fingers were shaking where they held onto the plate. He didn’t say anything for a long time.

Dash panicked. Had he overstepped? He wasn’t leaving so maybe he was just hoping Dash would get the hint and ask something else.

“I got into a fight with a friend of mine. She said some things and I snapped at her then stormed off.”

“What kind of things?” Dash gripped the edges of his chair, leaning forward to try to catch a glimpse of Phantom’s face.

Phantom was silent again for a moment. He sighed, placing his plate down and dropping his head into his arms again. “She thinks I’m inherently evil and no matter what I do I’m gonna end up destroying everything I love because apparently, people can’t change.”

Okay, so not at all what Dash was expecting. He blinked. “Didn’t you just fly into a burning building to save some kids last week?” Dash asked, stupidly.

Phantom shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe she’s right. I am a ghost after all. It could only be a matter of time before I lose control of myself and make some stupid mistake I can’t fix.”

“I don’t think so,” Dash spoke way too quickly and confidently for someone who by all intents and purposes should not be having this conversation. “I don’t know a whole lot about ghosts and I sure as hell don’t know more about you than your friend does, but I’m pretty sure I’m looking at someone that doesn’t have an evil bone in his body. Seriously, you’ve been protecting this town, mostly on your own, for over five years now. You’ve beaten back ghost kings and ancient plant ghosts bent on devouring the world and you still make time to save people from a literal burning building. And no one had even stopped to thank you! Everyone can make bad decisions, but not everyone can selflessly save the world day after-” Dash yelped as Phantom pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. Holy fuck he was cold!

He hugged the hero back, mourning the loss of his body heat as it was sapped out of him.

Phantom was crying again, this time directly into Dash’s shoulder. “Thanks,” he whimpered.

Dash tightened his hold, determined to not let go until Phantom did; his grip was tight enough that Dash was worried he’d come out of this with bruises and he wondered when the last time Phantom had been comforted was. “No problem,” he whispered.

“Twice actually. I forgot to thank you for patching me up the other day.” Phantom’s voice cracked and shook. He wasn’t even trying to conceal the tears this time.

“It’s no big deal.” Dash’s heart was pounding. He had entirely expected the hero to let go by now. His shoulders were shaking under Dash’s hands and all Dash could focus on was how toned the hero’s back was.

He was the worst.

Danny was honestly scared to let go and see what expression Dash had. Really, what kind of hero just falls apart in front of the first person they see like that? But, Dash was shivering now so Danny pulled back.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to completely break down on you.”

Dash shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Anytime, really.” Dash looked like he wanted to throw himself off the balcony, pink dusting his cheeks as he avoided eye contact.

Danny thought it was a good look for him; it softened the hard edges of worry on his face. Looking closer he discovered that Dash had freckles. It made sense with how much time he spent outside, but it was amazing how he’d never noticed them before.

He let his eyes roam over the guy in front of him. His hair, which Danny had thought was a buzz cut was actually just really short and gelled back. He kind of wanted to mess it up to distract from the fact that he’d been crying. His eyes fell back to Dash’s, who was not looking at his eyes but rather somewhere on his chin.

Oh.

Oh.

Dash had a crush on Phantom. And he certainly was not helping to make that seem like an impossibility.

Danny cleared his throat and backed away entirely, picking up his piece of cake again to keep his hands busy. “Have you ever thought of becoming a baker?”

Dash startled, scooting back in his chair and keeping his gaze firmly fixed anywhere but on Danny. “Uh, no. I’m not nearly good enough for that.”

“I wouldn’t sell yourself short.” Danny shoved the last bit of cake in his mouth and set the plate down on the table. “I should get going. There could be ghosts about. Thanks again.” Danny stood and stretched.

“Yeah, anytime.”

“Careful,” Danny teased, “if you keep saying that, I might take you up on it. Goodnight.” Danny waved and flew off, feeling a lot better and calmer than he had before.

Dash was so screwed. Oh, where was Paulina when he needed her?

Sam was sitting on the stairs in front of his house when he returned. She looked like a mess; her hair was down, makeup smudged, and her shoes were sitting on the stair next to her.

She was crying.

Danny ducked into an alleyway to change back and take a few deep breaths before walking over to her. “Hi.”

“I was looking for you,” she muttered weakly.

“Oh.” There was an awkward pause. Danny opened his mouth, “I’m-”

“Don’t you dare apologize to me, Daniel Fenton.”

Danny snapped his mouth shut. He sat down next to her, pulling one of the hair ties off his wrist and holding it out to her. She took it wordlessly, pulling her hair back into her famous half-up ponytail, exposing the purple half. He could see smudges of purple on her coffin earrings; she must have re-dyed it recently.

Sam took a deep breath, the cold air stinging her lungs. “I’m sorry.” She finally spoke. “You’re right. I’ve been incredibly overbearing, hypocritical, and judgmental. I haven’t been fair to you and I’m sorry for even bringing up the idea of you being evil. I’ve done a lot of thinking while I was out looking for you. I think, deep down, I’ve been trying to live vicariously through you. For so, so long, I have been trying to prove to my parents, to myself, that I am my own, unique individual. I’ve taken control of every little niche thing I can get my hands on just to say ‘look, I can control things too, you’re not special.’ And where has that gotten me?”

She threw her hands in the air, standing up from the stairs and kicking a rock down the road. She took a few deep breaths before continuing.

“When you got your ghost powers, I think some part of me saw it as another way to prove to my parents that I had control over something they didn’t. Well, my fucked up proof has turned me into someone who can’t even give her best friend the most basic respect. I’m sorry.”

If Danny wasn’t dehydrated, he would have started crying again. He tried speaking again.

“I’m not done. As for how I’ve acted with Dash and to an extent Valerie, I think I’ve always just been afraid that you’d stop being my friend if you found someone cooler. People who have it more together than I do. So, I thought, if Dash couldn’t change, you couldn’t leave. And that wasn’t fair of me either. I’m really, really sorry.”

There was a bout of silence.

“I’m done now.”

Danny stood, opening his arms for a hug. Sam didn’t hesitate to fall into it. “I didn’t know all of that stuff with your parents was affecting you that badly. You’ve been carrying that all by yourself?”

Sam cackled into his shoulder. “I didn’t know until today when you called me out on my shit and I had to do some reflecting. I should probably take a page out of Dash’s book and talk to a professional about that huh?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner. You can always talk to me, Sam. I’m not going anywhere and I’m sorry I ever made you feel that way.”

“I said not to apologize to me.” She squeezed him tighter, just because she could.

“I’m so terrified all the time.” He whispered, feeling the tears start to well up in his eyes again despite the lack of water in his system. “Because you were also right. If cheating on a test was all it took in that timeline, what other little mistakes could lead to me destroying everything? Logically, I know I’ll do everything in my power to never, ever end up like that. But, sometimes, I start to think that if it happened once, it can happen twice. I would rather be obliterated than ever end up hurting anyone. That’s why I kind of clung onto the idea of people like Valerie and Dash changing for the better because it proves to me that I don’t always need to be that scared, I just need to trust myself to make the right choices. I’m sorry I blew up at you- and for using the scary eyes on you.”

“God, Danny, I’m so sorry I’ve been contributing to that. I forget just how much you have to carry because you never share it with us.” She pulled away from him, looking him in the eye. “From here on out, I’ll tell you when I’m feeling like shit and you tell me, and we can drag Tucker into it, and that way we don’t all bottle up our emotions and explode on each other. Deal?”

Danny let out a deep, hearty laugh. “Okay, deal.”

“And if you really want to indoctrinate Dash into our group, I’m okay with that. You’re right, he is trying really hard and is almost an entirely different person than he was freshman year. I’ll do my best to stop shoving people into little boxes.”

Danny sighed, relieving tension in his body. “And I’ll do better at talking with you guys before jumping the gun on decisions that affect the group.”

Sam ruffled his hair and bent to pick up her boots. “Alright, nerd. Let’s go kick Tucker’s ass at some games.”

“Tucker’s still here?”

“Yeah, he’s really capitalizing on free high-speed computer time. Race you and loser has to clean up the lab?”

“You’re on.”

We english speakers need more words for Laugh that have different emotional connotations. I can feel the authors of the past shaming me from the great beyond as I attach adverbs to every he laughed. Cause He laughed shyly, he laughed sadly, and he laughed softly, are all different vibes and there's too many adverbs everywhere but I have no alternatives that work for the situation!

Y'all chronic illness and work is kicking my ass this week. I'm only about halfway through chapter 3's first draft. If I hadn't had to help a coworker break into their car cause they locked their keys in there, I would be further, but duty calls you know.

That feeling when you make the world's best joke but only people in the venn diagram of being in the Fandom and also enjoy classical literature will understand and everyone irl lies not in the middle.

I know that it's okay to be cringe and everything, but I'm kind of regretting my whole "don't delete any of your writing because 1) you'll be able to track your progress as a writer and feel better about your current writing and 2) you don't wanna be the asshole who deletes someone's comfort story" rule because I wanna start posting fanfic again, but I don't wanna be tied to all the cringe I wrote pre 2020.

@any-n-everything Here's why i think Sam and Tucker needed some more thorough development. I mean it's not that they were terrible, and I think the majority of my problems with them suffer from the writing and it being a kids show who's primary goal was to teach kids moral lessons. But Sam had several moments where she disregard what Danny wanted and pushed her own agendas no matter how that affected him and Tucker. Such as the gorilla project (yes it was for Danny's grade but the poor kid got no sleep that night and clearly didn't want to be there), or the one that gets me the most is season 2 episode 1 when she wished Danny and her had never met and then instead of trying to solve the problem in any other way (she already knew at this point that it was the wishing ghost attacking) Like going to get help from any of the other ghost hunter or dealing with the ghost herself which she was shown very capable of doing (and we needed more of because honestly that was a cool aspect of her character) she decided to put her friend, who she supposedly cares about, through the most traumatic experience of his life a second time. She killed him, twice. Because she was the one who egged him on to go in the portal the first time despite him warning her about safety issues, and then she just shoved him in the second time. But then the show wants to convince me she likes him romantically. That's crazy. Not to mention the one time with the trucks that Danny and Tucker liked and she wanted him to use his ghost powers to her advantage despite having in several other episodes berated him for doing the same thing. And (last example I promise) in the show finale when he gave up his ghost powers to protect his family and go back to a normal life because he's been struggling with this for so long, she gets upset! (They all do, I'm not excluding Jazz and Tucker from this, this is just my Sam paragraph). She tells him that she feels she lost a friend and that he's wrong to give up superpowers because now he's not unique or special and she wants friends who are unique and special. Like damn, Sam. Low blow. It's like when a friend only wants to hang out with you to play on your x box and when you don't have the x box they disappear and hate you.

As for Tucker, he's not quite as bad and again I think his character just suffers from the Tv-Y7 rating, but there are a few times where he just straight up disrespects Danny. The only two times we're shown that they get in a fight, Tucker completely does a 180 and makes Danny out to be the bad guy. In the episode where he wishes he has ghost powers he just blames Danny for taking the spotlight and showing off how much better he is, when Danny never did any of that (at that point in the show). Even if Tucker felt that way because of jealousy, he was still really rude with how he spoke to Danny and quite literally put a citizen's life in danger just to upstage Danny. He does it again in the one for where he runs against Dash for class president. (I know that in both of these he was under a ghost influence, but all of the problems started before the ghosts got involved, they just enhanced what he was already feeling.) (And I know Danny and Sam weren't listening to him but that's wildly out of character for Danny and I feel the writers just conformed his personality to the plot to teach the listen to your friends narrative) but he also took that scepter willingly from the mummy ghost. He has like a weird superiority complex that he takes out on people at the most random times. Then in the episode with Nocturne, his best dream is him being all rich and making Danny his janitor! That's not how you think of your best friend! That shows just how much better he thinks he is compared to Danny. Then in the episode where the G.I.W. buys Danny's house and Danny is freaking out, Tucker is like hey man, you have a lot of money now, act like it and enjoy it and calm down. Then gets mad at him when he acts like it and enjoys it! And also he did the same thing as Sam in the finale.

Sorry for the chaotic jumbled mess of thoughts, I have more to say I just can't remember any more specific examples off the top of my head at the moment. But again, he could have worse, I just think they also deserve their own growing and learning moments.