Chapter One

Danny lay on the roof of his house, gazing up at the stars in the evening sky with an intrigued smile plastered on his face. "I'll never stop thinking that stars are a beautiful and mesmerizing sight. For once, I feel like I can just relax and have some time to myself."

"Yeah, until we start school tomorrow," Sam murmured from her position beside him. Her chest rose and fell as she drew in a deep breath, draping her arm over her stomach and swiveling her head towards her boyfriend. "Juniors. Who would have known that time was going to go by in the blink of an eye?"

A soft chuckle trickled from Danny's mouth as the corners of his lips curved upward into a gentle smile. "I'm guessing Clockwork." The response he received from the Goth came in the form of laughter, making his heart melt at how beautiful the sound was. "We've really been growing up. Next year, we'll be seniors."

"And being seniors means that the chances of girls wanting me increases." Tucker rolled onto his stomach and whipped out his PDA from his back pocket, oblivious to the strange looks that his two best friends were now flashing him. "For now, though, there's only one girl for me."

Sam scoffed and crossed her arms behind her head, panning her eyes around the sky. "I hope you mean Valerie. You two have been ducking and dodging each other since the beginning of Sophomore year. Just confess your feelings already."

"You're one to talk. That's the exact same advice I gave you and Danny Freshmen year."

"I know this is the part where I'm supposed to blush, but I've already cancelled my subscription to your horrible teasing about a year ago."

Danny smiled at the pair and closed his eyes briefly. "Guys," he intervened, "let's just enjoy our last night of freedom before we're doomed to five days of homework and teachers again."

"I can't help but wonder who our teachers are going to be this year." Tucker parted his lips and let out a yawn before tucking his PDA back into his pocket. "It kind of sucks that we didn't get to meet them the day we picked up our schedules."

"Yeah." Sam's gaze fell from the sky and onto Tucker with a long sigh. "With the exception of Lancer, of course. I hate that Danny didn't make it into English Honors with us, but I also hate that we both don't have Lancer as our teacher this year."

Danny shifted and leaned upward into a sitting position. "True, but now that he knows my secret, it makes ghost fighting before his class a lot easier. Plus, I get to use it as an excuse for being late so that I can catch a few extra minutes of sleep."

"You wouldn't need a few extra minutes of sleep if you lovebirds didn't keep each other up at night," Tucker quipped. He looked towards the sky again, admiring the stars and smiling once the couple beside him fell into an uncomfortable silence. "I'm just kidding."

Sam's fist roughly contacted his shoulder as she sat up, causing him to yelp from the impact. "That's what you get for insinuating that we would do anything sexual at this age." The corners of her lips rose into a twisted smirk as she watched Tucker rub his sore shoulder and grumble to himself. "I really hope that hurt, by the way."

Danny decided to intervene at that moment to prevent her from throttling the poor boy. He reached over and curled his fingers around her shoulders, restraining her from moving closer to him. "Easy, Sam. Down, girl. Try not to kill him before his birthday."

"But it's not until next month," she protested with a frown. Danny's hands trailed from her shoulders and down her arms before sliding into his lap. She craned her neck in Tucker's direction and lifted an eyebrow at him. "Have you decided what you wanted to do, by the way?"

He hummed thoughtfully and flicked his eyes to the top of their sockets. "No, not really. I mean, I wanted to have a small birthday party with you guys, but I do that every year. I kind of wanted a change, you know?" Sam and Danny nodded simultaneously. "I'll be sixteen. I want it to be special."

"Duly noted, but when you say special, do you mean with more people or a different setting?" Sam asked, crossing her legs and resting her palms on her thighs. "I know spending your birthday with the same two people every year eventually starts to suck."

Tucker scoffed and whisked his hand through the air dismissively. "I don't care about that. I love spending my birthday with you guys. It's just becoming tedious, you know? The exact same routine. Hopefully this school year brings something different."

"Yeah," Danny murmured, "hopefully." The trio lapsed into a comfortable silence for several minutes, each of them losing themselves in their own thoughts. Maddie's voice cut through the silence, however, as she stepped out onto the roof and announced to Sam that her parents wanted her to start heading home.

"And so it begins," she mumbled. She rose to her feet and stretched out her arms as Danny followed suit, mouthing to his mother that he could handle taking her home. The woman smiled warmly and shuffled back towards the house, leaving the teens alone once again.

Tucker stood as well and twisted his body towards Danny. "I should also get going." He tugged on his sleeve and glanced down at his wristwatch. "It's almost nine-thirty and I just know that my parents are going to force me to go to bed early tonight."

"Same. You'd think getting older means that our curfew gets extended." Sam slung her hair over her shoulder and turned to face Danny. "No need to walk me home, ghost boy. I've got myself tonight."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Yeah right. There's no way I'm letting you walk home by yourself. What if something happens to you?" Tucker narrowed his eyes and folded his arms over his chest, huffing offensively.

"I guess I'm not standing right here." His brows lowered as Sam chuckled and draped her arm across his shoulders, guiding him to the door that led to the inside of Danny's house. Danny followed behind at a distance, observing the two and smiling slightly.

"Okay, Casanova, I know you can get any girl you want, but that one's off limits." He walked forward and was about to snake his arm around Sam's waist until a blue wisp trickled past his lips. Tucker averted his gaze onto the Halfa and shook his head at him.

"And I know you can capture any ghost you want, so that one's all yours." He stood there and watched as Danny started to transform. Sam retracted her arm from around his shoulders and moved her hand to her jutted out hip, smiling once her favorite pair of glowing green eyes drilled into hers.

"Care to assist me, beautiful?" He flattened his hand and extended his palm outward, motioning for her to take his hand. With a bright smile, she accepted his gesture, placing her hand on top of his and lacing her fingers with his.

"I'd be honored." She rolled her head to the right and eyed Tucker as he stood near the exit of the roof. "Tuck?" He hummed once and looked over at her. He seemed distracted, which was odd because he wasn't on his PDA. "Aren't you coming along?"

He puffed out his lower lip and waved her off politely. "Nah." She cocked her head at him questionably, but he merely jabbed his thumb towards the exit and rolled his eyes. "I'm going to have my parents pick me up. Like I said before, they're probably going to force me to sleep earlier than usual. Tonight's actually a school night now."

Though Sam looked dubious, Danny seemed to buy his excuse. As he started to walk away, she called out for him to stop, to which he immediately complied. "Wait for me." She shifted towards Danny, who could only stare at her with a puzzled expression. "Mind if I keep him company while you go handle the ghost?"

His features relaxed and his lips tugged upward into a sincere smile. "Not at all. Keep each other safe and call me if you run into any trouble." He leaned over and pressed his lips against Sam's forehead, leaving a cool feeling there as he drew apart from her. "I love you."

Her eyes enlarged and she visibly tensed, which didn't go unnoticed by either of the boys. "I, uh, really like you, too," she responded tentatively. Danny inhaled and exhaled deeply before bidding the two goodnight. He pivoted and crouched down before leaping up into the sky, leaving Sam to mentally kick herself.

Tucker studied her for a full minute before asking, "What was that? I didn't know you guys already started dropping the 'L' word." However, the strained expression that crossed her face told him that she was the only one in the relationship who wasn't returning the 'L' word.

"I haven't been," she admitted softly. Tucker rose an eyebrow and followed after her once she started to walk forward a bit. "He keeps saying it to me and I never say it back. It's not that I don't feel the same way, you know? It's just..."

"What, are you afraid?" Sam shook her head at him and continued down into Danny's house. "Most people don't say those three words because they're afraid of something. Try letting go of whatever's holding you back from saying it. It's either fear or you don't love him back, and knowing the chemistry between you two, it's the first one."

"I'm not exactly afraid. It's just," she paused and leaned her shoulder against a nearby wall, "those words hold a lot of weight. I'm worried that if I say them, then I'm giving away my power and making myself vulnerable. Plus, I'm not ready to get hurt. Tuck, this is Junior year, and he's even more in the spotlight by being an upperclassman. A Danny Phantom upperclassman at that. Who's to say he isn't going to go gaga over someone else?"

Tucker pursed his lips together and nodded his head slightly. "Ah, insecurities." They remained silent as they passed through the house, both saying goodnight to Maddie and Jack before exiting through the front door. Continuing down the sidewalk that led away from Danny's house, Tucker resumed speaking. "You've never been one to let anything hold you back. Danny would never do that to you. You know he's crazy about you."

"I guess." Sam kicked a rock that was in her path, watching as it tumbled down the sidewalk before rolling to a halt. "I always show him that I love him, but for some darned reason, I can't say it. It's so weird."

"Well, think about it like this. You said you can't say those words back to him because it makes you feel vulnerable and like you have no more power, right?" Sam hummed her confirmation. "Well, he already said it, which means that he gave up his power and vulnerability for you. You can do the same."

The Goth frowned and dipped her gaze towards the ground. She knew he had a point, but she wasn't going to admit that to him. "Yeah, well, I don't want to talk about me anymore." She glanced over at him and curled her brows together, forming a wrinkle in the center. "I thought you said your parents were picking you up."

Tucker brought his hand to the nape of his neck and rubbed it sheepishly. "Truth be told, I only said that so you guys could give me some alone time." He let his hand flop back down to his side. "I was going to walk home and think about some stuff, but your company works, too, Sammy."

"For the sake of your shins, my boots and I are going to pretend that we didn't hear you call me that." Sam pulled her gaze from him and flicked her eyes outward, staring at the buildings ahead of them. "What's bothering you? I know you tell Danny everything, but don't forget that I'm your best friend as well."

"I know that, but don't worry about me." Tucker flashed her a reassuring smile and inhaled through his nostrils. "I'm just curious what this school year is going to be like, especially for me and Valerie."

Sam moved her arms behind her back and locked her wrists together. "Hopefully Technus pops up again to push you two together this time." The recollection of Valerie and Danny being together back then still pained her a bit, but she decided that making light jokes about it would help her move past it. "If not, there's always fate."

"True, but I guess we'll just have to see where the school year takes all of us. You know, relationship wise." Tucker's lips formed a small circle as he blew out a long breath of air and crossed the street with Sam in tow. "It'll be one hell of a circus," he continued.

"Please. Our lives have been a circus since we were fourteen, but that's what makes it enjoyable. Besides, how bad could this year possibly be?"

"Psst. Wake up, Sam."

Said girl slowly cracked her eyelids open at the mention of her name. The first thing she noticed, however, was a familiar pair of icy blue eyes that were a little too close to her face. Startled, she jolted upright, tousled hair cascading down her back as she did so.

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." As Danny launched into profuse apologies, she swiftly dragged her eyes towards the alarm clock beside her on the nightstand. The red numbers 'five-four-five' stared back at her, and for several seconds, she could only glare incredulously at the clock.

"You really woke me up fifteen minutes before I actually had to get up?" Danny closed his mouth for a second before tilting his head to the side and nodding at her. She groaned and collapsed back onto her bed, grabbing her pillow and moving it over her head. "I'm sleeping until six."

"Come on, Sammy. If I'm awake, you're awake." Danny tried to take her pillow away from her, but she had a firm grip on it, which made it difficult at first. That's when he phased it out of her grasp and flung it across the room with a triumphant smirk. "You're not going to win."

Sam's lashes swept upward as she slid her eyelids open once again. "How is it that you've been in my room more than anyone else, yet you're oblivious to the amount of pillows I have on my bed?" With that, she grabbed one of her spare pillows from beside her and dropped it over her face. "You're not going to win."

"You're leaving me no choice," Danny warned her playfully, but she disregarded his threat and started to fake snore. He flattened his palm against her blanket and phased it off of her before curling his arms around her waist and lifting her up from the bed. She gasped and protested, but it fell on deaf ears as he carried her over to her bathroom.

"Danny, put me down!" She made sure that her voice wasn't loud enough to disturb her parents, but sounded harsh enough to come off as menacing to Danny. It seemed to work, as he set her down on her feet and stepped back when she tried to smack him a couple of times. "Why are you up so early?"

"Why would I want to be late on the first day of school? First impressions are everything," he responded, raising his forefinger to his temple and tapping it twice. "Besides, aside from all the ghosts that popped up last night, I was too anxious to sleep."

"Because of school?" The last remnants of sleep finally dissipated and was replaced by sarcasm as Sam leaned up on her toes, pressing the back of her hand against his forehead. "You're not running a fever, so why are you excited for school, Danny Fenton?"

Danny laughed a bit and gently pushed her hand away from him. "Knock it off." She smiled at him and spun on her heels, walking over to her dresser to gather her school clothes. "It's just a different setting with different people. I can't help but feel excited and a little curious. Maybe the freshmen will be just like we were at their age."

"Joy," Sam drawled. She fished out a black shirt from her drawer and stared at it for a few seconds, trying to decide whether or not she liked it enough to wear it that day. "I get to watch a young army of Paulina look-alikes swoon over you. I'm internally throwing up rainbows of excitement."

Danny's face contorted into a grimace and he tightened his fingers around the edge of her bed. "Has anyone ever told you that you can certainly paint a picture with your words?"

"Only once or twice." Sam gathered her clothes and her toiletries before trudging towards her bathroom, but before she could enter, Danny stepped in front of her and stopped her. She took a step back, eyebrow arched expectantly.

"I love you," he told her, "and I totally respect the fact that you're not ready to say it back. I can manage without it, just as long as you know that—"

She cut him off by closing her eyes and touching her lips to his gently. It was an action so simple, yet it was just enough to send her heart into a frenzy. He returned the kiss with the same amount of energy, sliding his hand up from the nape of her neck and tangling it in her hair.

She then pulled away and tipped her head down, pressing her forehead to his and closing her eyes briefly. "I know. I'll be able to say it one day, so try and be patient with me. I just want to be sure, you know? Those aren't words I can give away easily, but it doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the fact that you're saying it to me."

Danny's eyes seemed to caress hers with how much comfort and tenderness they held. The corners of his lips slid upward and he moved his hands to her shoulders. "Don't explain yourself. Whenever you're ready, you'll say it, but that doesn't mean I'll stop. I love you. Take your time."

And then he clasped his arms around her and pulled her into the perfect embrace. It felt tight, warm, and protective, all of which caused her to smile and squeeze her arms around him. "Thanks, Danny. I didn't mean to spoil your mood this morning."

"Oh, I wouldn't say it's spoiled on my side." He leaned away from her and slightly bent his knees, locking his arms around her legs and lifting her up over his shoulder. She almost gasped at the sudden action, but she managed to slap her free hand over her mouth to suppress anything that threatened to slip out.

"Danny Fenton," she ground out quietly, "put me down! I hate when you do this." He simply ignored her and continued parading around the room with her over his shoulder. She hated that he was much taller and much stronger than he used to be because those advantages made it much easier for him to pull such stunts with her when he wasn't in his ghost form.

She writhed around until he finally lost his balance and tumbled onto the bed. As soon as his back dropped against the mattress, she climbed on top of him and straddled him, pinning his arms above his head. "Bet you weren't expecting that."

"Bet you weren't expecting this." And just like that, Danny phased out of her grip, rendering himself invisible as he did so. Surprised and now on edge, Sam leaned upright and darted her eyes around the room. He appeared next to her seconds later, tackling her back down onto the bed with a low growl.

"Okay, okay," she rolled her eyes, "you win. Let me start getting ready for school before my parents burst in here with some cringe, overbearing good morning speech for me."

"Yeah, true." Danny released his hands from her wrists and moved backwards to give her room to sit up. As she did, she spun around and planted her feet on the floor. "I stopped by to wake you up, so now I'm going to go wake up Tucker."

"Why couldn't he be first?" she pouted half-heartedly. She retrieved her forgotten bag of toiletries and her school clothes before motioning him over to her with her forefinger. He immediately got up and walked towards her with a small smirk plastered on his face.

"I'll be back to get you after I stop by my house with Tucker. I would come get you first, but I already know that your parents are going to want to take pictures of you on your first day of eleventh grade," he told her, laughing once she rolled her eyes again and groaned.

"They claim to only take those pictures for memories, but I'm pretty sure they're taking them just in case I go missing. Trust me." She leaned up on her toes and pecked him on the lips, lightly grazing her fingers across his chest. As soon as she stepped back, she turned over her shoulder and walked towards her bathroom, lingering her gaze on him as she did so.

"I've got to be the luckiest guy in the world," Danny murmured to himself once Sam shut the bathroom door and locked it. After twisting around on his heels and leaping into the air, he phased through her ceiling and took off into the sky.