Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!
"Hey, Sam," seventeen-year-old Danny Fenton greeted one of his best friends (and secret crush) at her locker one Tuesday morning.

"Oh, hi Danny. What's up?"

"Nothing, nothing at all…" she gave him a look of disbelief. "Okay, something's up. Something like THESE!" he exclaimed as he held out two tickets. "Not one, but two, count 'em, two tickets to see Saw III this Friday. You in?" He anxiously played with his blue long-sleeved shirt as he waited for her response.

"I…I can't, Danny," Sam replied, her gaze set on the floor.

"Why not?" he asked, crestfallen.

"Because…because I have a date this Friday night." Danny gawked at her.

"A date? With who?"

"I can't tell you…"

"Why not?"

"Because you'll just get really angry and take it out on them." Danny sighed and held her face in one of his hands as he caressed her cheek with his thumb.

"Sammy, you know I'd never do that," he said softly. Sam jerked away from him.

"I'm sorry, Danny." She turned and walked away to her first class. Danny mentally kicked himself for waiting so long to get the courage to finally ask her out. Maybe if he'd done it sooner, this wouldn't have happened…

"I guess I'll ask Tucker," the raven-haired teen said to himself as he walked down the hallway and turned the corner.

"Hey Tuck, what's up?"

"Nothing much, dude. You?"

"Well, I've got a couple of tickets to Saw III this Friday. Do you want to come see it with me?"

"I can't, I've got a date this Friday. Sorry, man."

"Ugh, that's what Sam said! Who're you going out with?"

"Secret." Danny's left eye twitched as he headed to his own locker to get the books he'd need for first period English.

The rest of that school week was awkward, to say the least. Neither Sam nor Tucker would stay with Danny long enough to hold a conversation, and when they did the topic of the conversation would immediately shift to that Friday night. Danny would always ask the two of them who they were going out with, and neither of them would tell him. They both said that he'd just get really angry and take it out on them, which no matter how much Danny denied it, he knew it to be true. There were moments when it took nearly all of his strength to keep his hands from erupting into glowing green ectoplasmic energy and shooting a huge ectoblast into the heavens just to blow off steam. The severe look on his face was enough to scare even Dash away from bothering him.

Note to self: Never take Jazz to see a movie ever again. Ever. These were Danny's thoughts as he flew home from the Multiplex on Friday night. He'd just spent a lovely two and a half hours listening to his sister yammer on about how this and that couldn't really occur, and that the director took way to many liberties when making the movie. He checked his watch and decided that Sam and Tucker would probably be home from their dates by now, so he changed courses and flew to Sam's house in order to talk with her. He reasoned that maybe she'd at least tell him who her date had been, now that it was over.

Danny silently phased into Sam's room and looked around. Despite all of the black everywhere, it was apparent that the lights were out and nobody was there. Danny was about to turn and leave when he heard a slight shuffle. He looked in the direction that the sound had come from and his eyes alighted on the bed. Danny flew over to the bed and saw a lump underneath the covers that had to have been Sam. For the second time in as many minutes, he was crouched down, ready to turn intangible and fly outside when he was stopped. The lump on Sam's bed rolled over, revealing a second lump underneath it. Danny felt as though he was going to cry, but the next thing he saw drove him over the edge. A sleeping Sam poked her head out from under the covers.

She was wearing a red beret.

A single tear landed on Sam's forehead, and she dazedly opened her eyes to see whose it was. But it was too late. The tear's owner was long gone.


It can't be… Danny thought as he zoomed around Amity Park that night. It just can't…my best friend and the girl I love, together…how could Tucker do this? He's my best friend! Or at least, he was. He knew how I felt about Sam, knew how much I love her, and decided to sleep with her anyway. Sam I can forgive. I never told her how I felt, so I can't blame her for seeing someone else. That much is my fault. But I just can't overlook what Tuck did! Ugh, there isn't a single person on the planet who can understand what I'm going through, except maybe Vlad. At this point, Danny stopped in mid-air. Vlad! He was in love with Mom, but then Dad, his best friend, married her instead of him! He'll understand what I'm going through! But first… Danny flew into Tucker's house and entered his room. He saw hundreds of pieces of technology scattered around the room. Gadgets were on his bed, all over the floor, on his desk, and sticking out of drawers.

Target practice, Danny thought as a malicious grin unfurled itself on his face.

Ten minutes and ten thousand ectoblasts later, Danny flew out of Tucker's house and headed towards Wisconsin. Had anyone been watching him at the moment, they would have noticed that his luminescent green eyes flashed red for a second before reverting back to their usual green. Danny continued to fly through the night and didn't stop the exhausting flight until he reached Vlad's castle.

As Vlad's mansion came into sight, Danny slowed down and approached the ground. He reached the main entrance and changed back, then grabbed the football-helmet-shaped knocker and knocked three times on the wooden door.

"Yes, what is it?" Vlad's angry voice could be heard from inside the castle. He opened the door and looked down at Danny, who had tiredly sank to his knees.

"Daniel? What could you possibly want at this hour?" Vlad asked, surprised.

"Best friend…slept with…love of my life…need advice…" Danny murmured before he passed out. Vlad sadly looked down at the broken young man before him and sighed. He picked Danny up and carried him inside.

Danny groggily opened his eyes and saw Skulker's metallic face a foot away from his own. He jumped back and hit his head on the headboard of the king-sized bed that he'd been placed in.

"Good, you're awake," Skulker stated. "I'll go tell Plasmius." He turned intangible and phased up through the ceiling.

"That was weird," Danny muttered, then began to take in his surroundings. The bed he was in was much larger than the one he had had at home, and much more comfortable. He felt the red blanket and it was extremely soft to the touch. His room was painted a deep blue, a fact that relieved Danny tremendously. The last thing he wanted was to wake up to green and gold, no thanks to Vlad's odd Packers obsession. Speaking of which, the elder hybrid burst through Danny's door dressed in green pajamas decorated with yellow football helmets.

"Don't you dare laugh at my sleepwear," he warned. "Skulker's taken care of that quite nicely." His tone softened as he sat down on the bed next to Danny. "Now that you're not about to faint, can you tell me why you're here?"

"I…caught the girl of my dreams sleeping with my best friend," Danny whispered. "I thought about how the same thing happened with you and my parents, so I thought that you'd know better than anyone what I should do." Vlad chuckled dryly.

"Daniel, you should know me better than that. You know as well as I do that I've spent twenty years of my life plotting to destroy your father and win over your mother. That's the path that I've chosen in the aftermath of my heartbreak. You didn't have to come all the way here to know that."

"I know, but…I also needed to get away…it still hurts so much…" Vlad sighed and ruffled Danny's hair.

"There, there, little badger. It's going to be alright, I promise." Danny relaxed a bit and settled down in the bed. He gave a huge yawn and leaned back against the pillows.

"Go to sleep now, Daniel. We can talk about this tomorrow if you like."

"Oh, and Vlad?"

"Yes, Daniel."

"Nice PJ's…" Danny's face held a quiet smirk as he drifted off to sleep. Vlad couldn't suppress a small smile as he ruffled Danny's hair again, left the room, and quietly closed the door.


Danny woke up the next morning to find that he was starving. He looked over at the clock on the night table next to his bed and realized with a start that it was ten-thirty in the morning. He got out of bed and noticed that he was still wearing the same clothes as the night before. Danny shuffled over to the closet and opened it. Inside was a vast walk-in closet that seemed to be filled solely with white dress shirts and black slacks. He grimaced, but couldn't find any other pieces of clothing besides socks and underwear. Danny took a hot shower in the bathroom that adjoined his room, and changed into one of the outfits. It fit perfectly. Slightly creeped out by Vlad's knowledge of his clothing size, Danny went down a couple of flights of stairs and found the kitchen after several agonizingly long minutes of searching. He poured himself a bowl of Cheerios and sat down at the kitchen table to eat.

Halfway through his breakfast, Danny heard a mechanical whine. He turned around and yelped when he saw Walker pointing one of the metal rods that shoot green energy that could restrain a ghost that his guards usually wielded at him. Walker held the device up to Danny's chest for a second, but then lowered it and turned it off.

"If Plasmius didn't make us promise not to hurt you while you're here, you'd be in my prison by now," the ghostly jailer asserted.

"Wait a minute, you work for Vlad too?"

"Everyone who's anyone is connected to Plasmius in some way or another."

"Where is he now?"

"That's why I'm here. Plasmius sent me to inform you that he's at his office right now and won't be home for a couple of hours."

"Great…what am I supposed to do until he gets back?" Danny asked angrily.

"YES, I win again!" Walker exclaimed as he collected his chips.

"You don't have to rub it in," Skulker sulked.

"Yeah, dude, nobody wants to play with a braggert.

"Hey, I didn't suggest that we play Texas Hold-'em. That was your idea."

"Yeah, that was before we knew you lived in Texas when you were alive!" Danny countered. Walker simply shrugged.

"What can I say? Don't mess with Texas." Just then, the three of them heard the front door of the castle open and footsteps approach the kitchen. Before they could hide, Vlad entered the room and saw the three of them playing poker. He paused and stared at them for five long, silent seconds.

"You should know better than to play Texas Hold-'em with Walker, Skulker." Skulker grinned sheepishly.

"Yeah, I know, but I thought that today I might get lucky." Vlad pulled a beer out of the fridge and sat down next to Walker.

"Sam Adams? Pussy…" Walker muttered as he eyed the bottle.

"What was that?" Vlad asked as his eyes began glowing a pupilless red.

"I said…I like your taste in beer!"

"That's what I thought you said." Vlad's eyes returned to their normal ice-blue as he surveyed the table.

"So, Daniel, I see you've been enjoying yourself during your first day of heartbreak."

"I was, until you made me relive it…" the boy mumbled.

"So are you ready to talk, or not yet?"

"It depends…you wouldn't happen to have any mind-numbing video games, would you?"

"Yeah, if you like Madden. I shot Packers, though." Danny cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Dude, you seriously need help."

"That's what Spectra said." Danny stared at him, not sure whether or not he was joking.

"So Madden it is, then?" he suddenly said.

"Yeah, that works," Vlad quickly replied. He and Danny went ghost, and the two of them and Walker and Skulker phased down into the game room. Vlad and Skulker played as the Packers, and Danny and Walker played as the Texans.

"Let's liven up this shindig!" Vlad exclaimed as the game began.

"That's forty-one to zip. Nada. Zilch." Vlad crowed as he gave Skulker a high-five and the game ended.

"Wow," Danny thought out loud. "Beaten at video games by Vlad and Skulker. Tucker will never let me live this down." Half a second later, he realized what he'd just said and clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Ready to talk about it?" Vlad asked him as he gave him a knowing gaze.

"Yeah…" Danny replied, and the two of them went into Vlad's private study, leaving the two ghosts by themselves. They sat in an awkward silence for about thirty seconds.

"Well, I'm going to start cooking dinner," Skulker announced as he got up from the couch and flew back into the kitchen. Walker shrugged and flicked on the TV.


Well, what do you think? I decided to center it at Vlad's place so thatI could play around with Walker/Skulker/Vlad humor for a bit, and keep the main plot around the edges, at least until chapter 3. Anyway, I've already written chapter 2, and I'll update as soon as I get enough reviews.