He wondered how he must've looked. Banged up, bloody nose, ripped clothes. Crying. Was he crying? Another sniffle. Of course he was. Huh, his wrist wasn't moving right. Shit. A sharp intake of breath and more tears as a crack resounded around the room and his wrist popped back into place. That was gonna bruise. So was...
'Don't go there- Danny - Stop.' A stifled sob into his knees. These clothes were ruined. Danny stumbled to his feet, pain searing through his body as he shuffled across the floor to the half open doorway. How nice. Those boys left him to be found. How...nice. The halfa stopped walking. Shuddered. Leaned over and dry heaved. There was nothing in his stomach to throw up anymore, anyway. All of that was long gone.
He straightened up, caught a flash of his own reflection in the mirror, and really did puke this time. He had thought that his stomach was empty, but apparently not. Danny straightened back up again, didn't look in the full length mirror this time, and shuffled over to the door to peek out. It was after school; nobody was in the gym at the time. Danny heard nothing but his own harsh breathing. So, he changed.
The two blue-white rings encircled his shaking frame, changing him into a hero, a villain, a vigilante. Not a boy, not another statistic, not a rape victim. Danny Phantom shuddered visibly and morphed his ghost legs into a basically intangible tail.
He was okay. Danny Phantom was fine. Danny Fenton, on the other hand, was dying inside.
"C'mon dude, Coach is gonna kill me! Would you please just stop laughing and help?" A familiar quarterback sourly griped at his Asian companion. "Dash, you gotta admit that that was fucking funny, dude. I'm sorry, but it was," Kwan slapped Dash on the back, smirking all the while.
"No, it wasn't. What the hell did you day to her to make her dump my food all over me, anyway?" With a frown, Dash shed his jacket and shook off a couple of fries that had gotten into his pockets. "Nothin'..." Kwan sang out in a childish voice. Dash's frown deepened. "You are so annoying sometimes, Kwan. I swear to god. If you told her I wanted to fuck her or something, I'll punch you. She wasn't even my type..." the blonde trailed off, pulling his now clean jacket closer to tighten his grip on it and wring it in his hands.
"Right..." Kwan whistled low, skipping ahead to walk backwards in front of Dash. "Your type is very specific, huh? One Da-" The dark haired teen was cut off from his teasing when a crash from the alley to their right broke the otherwise silent area around the Nasty Burger. "The fuck was that?" Kwan straightened up and turned to face the alley as Dash jogged past him to go see what it was.
Phantom knew he couldn't continue flying. His energy was pretty much gone, and two miles back, he had almost passed out midair, turning back into his human form for a split second before gaining control again and moving on. He hadn't seen the two jocks coming around the corner. All the halfa had seen was the empty alley and a chance to rest. Or cry; whichever came first.
Danny tried to land quietly, he really did. He just thought he was closer to the ground then what he really was. In reality, he dropped those four feet to the ground in his ghost form and hit the side of the dumpster on his way down. The white haired, injured halfa grit his teeth against the pain, the tears leaking freely down his face as he tried to push himself up and failed.
His right forearm was digging into the gravel, left hand trying to push up and going nowhere. Knees bent, slightly curled towards his chest, his hip flush with the ground. He felt pretty damn terrible. And then he heard, "The fuck was that?" followed by quick footsteps in his direction. He ducked his head down, realizing all too late that it would do no good to hide his face. The shock of white hair would give away his ghost form in a heartbeat.
He didn't even bother looking up to see who was there; he figured that it was too late to go intangible anyway. Turning back to his human form wasn't even an option; just as going ghost hadn't been an option back in the...locker room. Phantom shuddered and choked back a sob at the same moment that whoever it was stopped running.
"Jesus, Kwan! C'mere! It's Phan-" Dash cut himself off when he looked back to his fallen hero, only to see the two rings of light turning Phantom into..."Fenton?!" Dash stared. horrified, as the teen shivered and sobbed quietly, head down and body still bleeding. When his last name was said, Danny glanced up in fear, bloody nose dripping and watery eyes making everything blurry.
Dash, not really registering the movement, stepped forward. Kwan came into view at that moment, and Danny snapped out of whatever trance he had fallen into. With a surge of fear and adrenaline, Danny shoved up off the dirty concrete, stumbled back, and tripped to fall back on his butt.
The halfa went to go scoot back and further the distance between the two jocks and himself, but realized belatedly that he had never rebuttoned his pants. Scooting back only shoved the bloody denim further down his waist, revealing the beginnings of a hand shaped bruise directly on his hip. Both Kwan and Dash stopped in their tracks. Danny's trembling increased as he slowly stood and fixed his pants with shaking fingers.
He couldn't see through his tears, though, and his hands were too unsteady, so he settled for pulling them up higher every few seconds. "Danny..?" The ebony haired teen's head shot up, his neck cracking in protest. Ignoring the whiplash, Danny stuttered out, "I need help." Only, when Kwan stepped forwards and towards Danny, the shaken and battered teen flinched violently and tensed up, curling in on himself.
On instinct, the two white-blue rings appeared around his waist, but Danny didn't have the energy to actually go ghost. He was left breathless and dizzy, Kwan was utterly confused, and Dash was still absorbing the information. All hell broke loose when Danny pitched forward, in the grasp of unconsciousness, Kwan catching him at the last second.
"Jesus, dude! Dash! What do we do?" The quarterback didn't say anything for a few moments, coming back down to earth when Kwan called his name urgently. "We'll take him back to my place. My parents aren't home, so it'll be okay," he mumbled lowly. Kwan shifted Danny awkwardly, not knowing how to hold him. Dash sighed, letting an irritated not come through his tone.
"Give him to me." Without any protest, the unconscious teen was handed over, Dash's jacket placed on his bloodied frame, and the trio made it back to Dash's house without further incident.
Well, almost, that is.