Right…RATING MAY GO UP CAN'T REALLY BE SURE AT THIS POINT! Phew.. got that out of the way…wait no, there are a few more warnings:
1) this my first time writing boy/boy.
2) This is my first Danny Phantom fanfic
3) This - like so many other fanfics out there - will ignore 'Phantom Planet'.
4) I NEED TO KNOW IF I'M KEEPING THE CHARACTERS IN CHARACTER! Seriously, I hate it when I read a Danny Phantom fanfic where the characters are either acting sickly sweet, Dash is acting like some evil-to-the-core bastard, or Danny suddenly seems to forget he's half ghost and is totally defenseless (UNLESS there is a reason he can't use his powers. Seriously, this teen is powerful, I can't see him not using his powers when he needs them most). I especially hate it when it's all three.
5) And lastly….I don't own Danny Phantom, thank goodness. Heaven forbid what would have happened to it if I did!
(*(*)*)
If one thing was to be said Dashiel Baxter, it was that He loved romance movies - adored them, collected them, renting every single new movie and/or remake of his all-time favorites…oh yes, Dash Baxter was a hopeless fan of movie romance.
Which was a major reason why he hated horror shows.
Unfortunately though, every last member of the football team was fan of the horror genre, though in Dash's eyes, the true horror laid with the actual genre itself. Honestly, more often than not, the main character got killed, and in an especially brutal and bloody (not to mention predictable) way. That never struck the young jock as surprising though - him and his team were the brutes of their school, the class bullies. Mindless violence was what they do, so it was no shocker that said bullies liked watching violence in movie form as well. Dash however, never seemed capable of understanding the attraction to it - thriller movies, maybe, as the best always got you seating on the edge of your seat. But honestly, what was the appeal of watching characters you liked getting slaughtered? For the blonde, the only red he liked to see in his films were love hearts as well as the knowledge that when the next scene shifted, it wouldn't be of one of the main characters getting hacked to pieces.
"Yo dude, we're nearly ready with the movie! Is the popcorn ready?"
Looking over his shoulder at his good friend Kwon, Dash could only nod his head reluctantly. Tonight was movie night, just like it had been every Friday night for the past few months. It had been a 'thing' one of his teammates suggested one day when they had trooped back to Dash's house after a long day of school and practice, exhausted and bored out of their skulls. Had Dash known that this 'thing' made exclusively for sports team members would carry on for so long, he would have voted against it, or at least insist they have it at someone else's house every week, instead of only his.
'Too late now,' he mentally groaned, pouring the finished microwave popcorn into a giant bowl. As things stood right then, Dash was stuck with almost every single member of every single sports team in Casper High in his home theatre once a week, raiding his fridge, and depleting him of any and all food supplies.
'Oh well, might as well pretend to enjoy it.' Not like he could have any of his so-called 'friends' guessing that he was into chick flicks in any case. In a way, it provided a good cover-up and helped him keep up appearances, if anything.
Setting the bowl down, Dash quickly moved out of the way before it could accidentally get bitten by grabby hands.. Hey, it's happened before.
Turning to his good - and possibly only true - friend Kwon, Dash tried to will himself to at least look like he wanted be there.
"So have you guys picked something out already?"
Quon nodded, holding up a copy of SAW as if it were one of his football trophies. Plastering a fake grin on his face, Dash gave a half-hearted congratulations on such an 'awesome pick'.
The movie had barely even begun when the familiar sound of the doorbell chimed. Using this as a chance to escape, Dash …uh, dashed out of the room to answer the door, silently hoping he could delay the visitor's departure for as long as possible.
When he saw just who exactly was standing in the middle of his doorway however, he nearly stumbled in surprise. Nearly.
"Techno Geek?! What do you think you're doing here? Scram!"
Tucker's eyes widened a bit. He had looked nervous as hell when Dash had opened the door, and Dash's reaction had opened increased that uneasy feeling.
"B-but your teammates s-said that if I-I don't come h-here at th-this time, they-they would beat me up every day for a month!"
Dash raised an eye brow. Why the hell would his teammates threaten the puny nerd to come here? Judging from the way shorter boy was eyeing his car out of the corner of his eye, he probably wanted to be there even less than Dash wanted to invite him inside.
Sadly, his mother would probably have a canary if she ever found out he had left visitor out in the autumn cold, especially when it looked ready to rain like now.
"Fine!" he snapped, causing Tucker jumped back a little. "Get in! But touch anything and you're dead meat!"
Tucker nodded quickly and step into the house behind Dash. With a growl Dash told him to stay put and not move except to breath. Tucker, slightly more intimidated by the jock than usual (what with being in the bully's own house), took those instructions to heart.
Dash walked back up to his awaiting teammates at a leisurely pace. He may not have liked how the Fenturd's sidekick had unexpectedly showed up on his doorstep, but he still liked horror movies even less.
"What the hell is Fentina's little nerd doing here?" he hissed at large group of teens. He had paused the movie the second he had stepped foot into the room, and now all eyes focused on a very pissed Dash Baxter. Not a good thing.
One boy - a freshman from the basketball team - grinned up at the blonde, oblivious to the frightened faces of his peers who had a great deal more experience with Dash's temper.
"I invited him! I heard the twerp saying that he didn't like horror movies, so I thought if me and some of the guys got him to come, we could watch the loser squirm and have a laugh. Good idea right?"
Dash resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. He had learnt the hard way that whenever a jock uttered the words 'I thought' or 'I think', things would not end well. And low and behold, he couldn't see a positive outcome for this new situation he had in his hands.
'Best just go with it,' he thought. After all, if no-one planned to beat on the poor loser, what was the worst they could do? Besides, at least he wouldn't have to suffer alone throughout the movie.
The rest of the night went on just as the jock predicted: with him being bored out of his skull from the movie while his friends cringed and pretended not to be even slightly shaken by the film's gory contents. The only twist to the night was Foley's presence. The four-eyed boy had curled himself into a trembling ball not too long after the movie had resumed, trying his hardest to shut out as much of what was on screen as possible. He didn't even notice the others in the room chucking popcorn, a variety of sweets, and an even larger variety of insults his way. Dash almost felt bad for him - almost, that is.
The short boy's lack of response lead to Dash's sporty peers to quickly get tired of trying to bother him. By the time the movie had ended, most of them seemed to have forgotten he was even there as they trooped out of the quarterback's house.
It wasn't until Dash had returned to his home cinema to clean up (yet another reason he hated movie night) did he realized that Foley still hadn't moved from the fetal position he had tucked himself into. Shifting nervously, Dash contemplated his options. He could leave the shorter teen alone, but then how long would he be here? What if he fell asleep and his parents returned from their trip tomorrow to find him and Tucker told them everything, even about being the school bully? They would not be pleased, not in the slightest. Dash shuddered as he thought of his mother's reaction to her son being a bully, and he didn't even want to think of what his father would do to him.
No, letting the kid stay over was definitely not an option.
That left only one solution.
Striding over to where the (still unmoving) be speckled boy was curled up. Shaking him roughly by the shoulder, Foley blinked up at the jock in surprise.
"I-I-Is it o-ov-over?"
Dash gave the boy a pitying look before pulling him out of seat.
"Yeah loser, and everyone else has gone home, so it's safe to leave."
Tucker gave a loud sigh of relief before making a run for the door. Like Dash, he didn't want to spend any more extra time in the blonde's company.
Hands on the front door's handle, he gave one last small, apprehensive smile to the taller teen before flinging the door open to - reveal a rainstorm. Oh what lucky day.
Inhaling, Tucker chanced a look at his fellow classmate, noting the look of surprise and annoyance written clearly across his face. Rubbing his neck nervously, he looked back outside as a new wave of rain poured down, splashing the Baxters' doorstep and slightly soaking Tucker's feet.
"Eh heh….looks like I'll have to run huh? Well then I guess - ACK!"
Tucker found the front door being slammed in his face, and then almost immediately being dragged by his collar into Dash's living room. He could swear his feet never touched the ground.
"Listen loser," he growled, face dangerously close to Tucker's for extra intimidation. "I'm only letting you stay here so that I don't have to worry about word of this reaching my parents. In return, you don't tell anyone at school about this. And you especially don't say anything to my parents about school, got it techno geek?"
Tucker nodded vigorously. It was amazing really - he helped his best friend fight ghost on an almost daily basis without turning tail screaming, yet the same bully he had known for the better part of his life still managed to get him quaking in fear. And now, he was stuck in said bully's house for the night.
Exactly what did he do in a past life to deserve this?
On second thought, he probably didn't want to know. He had enough to deal with as it was.
Dash moved away from the smaller teen, and disappeared around the corner. Not too long after, he had reappeared with several blankets and pillows in hand.
Dumping the great mass of fabric onto him, Dash snorted a laugh as Tucker let out a yelp of surprise.
"This should be enough for sleeping on the couch. The bathroom is at the end of the hall and if you need me, my room is only other door there except for the broom closet. Oh, and you see that door to your right? That's my parents room. Don't go in there - not even I do. Seriously, they're messier than I am. If you wanna eat anything, good luck finding something. Well….see ya'" With that, Dash turned on his heel and marched into the room he had labeled as his.
It took a few moments for what had just happened to sink into Tucker's brain. Once reality finally caught up with him, it took a few more minutes of him debating whether or not he had been hallucinating. The fact that Dash Baxter - number one school bully and (prior to Danny getting his ghost powers) the main cause of their problems - was being nice.
Nice.
'What . The. Hell?' That was the main thought running through his brain. The others consisted mainly of Dash being possessed and/or him being sucked into an alternate reality. In other words, nonsense.
Shaking his head from side to side, he forced himself out of his trance and moved to make a bed on the couch.
'Well-', he thought. '- if this is an alternate reality, I might as well enjoy it. The Dash in my world would probably have locked me into a broom closet for the night.'
Lightening struck somewhere in the distance, illuminating the small living room through the glass double-doors leading out to the garden. Now, Tucker Foley was not afraid of lightening - he had had too many ghost shooting plasma beams at his head for something as silly as lightening to be an issue. However, he was afraid of horror movies, and as the thunder clapped down along with the lightening, it was all that was needed to make the boy jump out of his skin as scenes from 'SAW' flashed before his eyes.
A strangled yelp escaped his throat, and suddenly, the room looked far too dark for his liking. Every object now resembled some sort of deformed demon ready to pounce on him - or worse, one of Danny old ghostly foes coming to seek revenge.
Now this was definitely why he hated horror movies.
