Danny Phantom is owned by Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon studios. Enjoy! :)

The minute hand finally reached the half hour mark on Sam's purple bat wristwatch. It was now 3:30 pm, which meant that it was time to start on homework. Sam took out her textbooks from her spider backpack and spread them out against her neat bedspread. Sighing, she sat cross legged on her bed and began her assigned reading. Every now and then she would glance towards her window.

Three thirty was also the time when her and her two best friends would do homework with her, alternating at different houses. Since Tucker was sick this week, however, she and Danny agreed to do the homework at her house. And, like usual, Danny was late.

Again.

She glanced at her watch to see that ten minutes had passed. Her brow furrowed and she shook her head as she continued. As disappointing as it was, she was used to his lateness. Still, she knew that he would never flake out without telling her. Danny was extremely loyal when it came to his friends and family, which is one quality she loved so much about him.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a tapping at her window. She suppressed a smile and rolled her eyes.

"You can come in, Danny."

The room immediately dropped a few degrees as soon as she saw him phase through her window. Danny floated a few inches off the ground, smiling guiltily at her. Sam crossed her arms and raised a brow accusingly. As if on cue, his right hand shot up to rub the back of his neck sheepishly as he looked anywhere but at her.

"Uh, hey, Sam. Sorry I'm late. I—"

"—was off saving the world again?" Sam allowed a small smirk to grace her face.

Danny paused and his emerald green eyes finally sought her amethyst orbs. Then he let out a nervous chuckle, eyes once more dancing around.

"Heh, guess you already know all of my excuses, then." His snow white hair fell into his face as he glanced over at her.

Sam rolled her eyes at this. "Only because you've used it one too many times."

The ghostly teen smiled and two familiar rings appeared around his waist, traveling in opposite directions. His white hair became black and electric green eyes were once more reverted back into icy blue ones. Gone were his one piece black and silver jumpsuit and in its place were his regular school clothes; his red and white shirt paired with faded out jeans and sneakers. As soon as the transformation was complete a few seconds later, Danny Fenton landed with a soft thud onto his feet.

"Okay, okay. I'll try and come up with better excuses for next time," Danny joked, flinging his backpack onto her bed and leaning over to peck her on the cheek.

Sam blushed and playfully swatted his shoulder. "Whatever, Casanova. Let's just start on this homework Lancer all of a sudden decided we needed on the first week of school."

"No kidding," Danny said, sitting across from her on the bed and taking out his own book. "I would have thought that being a superhero would have convinced him to not give me so much homework. Way to prove me wrong, Lancer," he muttered and Sam watched him sigh. "I'm just glad it's the weekend already. This last week has got to have been the weirdest week I've ever lived in my life."

Sam nodded. It really was. After the whole Disasteroid incident, Danny's popularity increased tenfold. The first week of school was bizarre. The trio were always used to being treated as the lower dogs of the caste system, constantly being shunned by the popular crowd or ignored by everyone else. And they were fine with it, as long as they had each other to rely on. Now, however, the entire school shows them extreme recognition, especially Danny.

Danny was immediately swarmed by his peers as soon as the three made it into the building. Tucker and Sam pushed and pulled him along just so he wouldn't be late to his class. Danny had to go intangible just to get through the throng of students trying to get his autograph. This happened throughout the entire week. It was both mentally and physically exhausting for the three of them, which ultimately infected poor Tucker when a rather eager fanatic accidentally sneezed his mucus onto the techno geek. The mayor was now cooped up in his office fighting off the sickness.

Danny and Sam were met with more gossip than they could handle as soon as the news about them being an official couple hit the fan. Students ogled in shock, jealousy, and adoration towards them, and it was beginning to grate on Sam's nerves whenever someone would question their relationship. Often she would reply back sarcastically before dragging Danny away from the attention.

Danny was being watched more attentively now by the students of Casper High. Before he was barely a blip on their radar, now he was the center of the dartboard. His ghost sense was never noticed before by anybody other than his sister, Sam, and Tucker. Whenever it went off in class, a student would spot it before he could jump into action and start announcing to everyone that he was about to go ghost. Danny felt highly embarrassed by this every time so he desperately tried to hide it so it was less noticeable. It rarely worked.

Sam sighed. She wasn't sure if or when she was ever going to get over everything that's been happening, but she was glad that she wasn't struggling with it alone. Compared to Danny, she was skipping through meadows. She glanced up at him through her lashes to see his blue eyes dully trailing over the words in his English book. She smiled and went back to her assignments.

It was nearly an hour later and Danny was already bored out of his mind. As much as he loved hanging out with his girlfriend, he wasn't too thrilled that it was under the circumstances of homework.

"Saaaaam," Danny whined out, sprawled out on his stomach and hanging his arms over her bed lazily. He tilted his head until he was looking up at her through puppy dog eyes in a silent plea.

Sam sighed in frustration and lightly glared at the look he was giving her. "Danny, c'mon, we need to finish this…"

"But I'm boooored," he drawled out, rolling onto his back to face the ceiling. His hand rested over his chest while his other was folded behind his head.

With a huff, Sam snapped the literary book shut and laid back against her headrest, eyeing Danny idly. "Well, then, what do you prefer we do, Fenton?"

Danny propped himself up on his elbows and grinned cheekily at her, his eyebrows uncharacteristically waggling up and down at her suggestively. "I could think of a few things."

Sam couldn't help the flush spreading over her like a wild fire. She swiftly kicked his leg and replied, "I'm serious, Danny."

"Who said I wasn't?" he continued teasingly, giving her another one of his award winning smiles.

Sam delivered another sharp kick to his leg, this one harder than the last. Though she kept a smile on her face, hating how smitten she was with him. Only Danny could make her heart turn into a puddle while she deliberately kicked him for his dirty jokes.

"Ow! Alright! We'll do things your way, then," Danny groaned out, rubbing the spot on his leg where her combat boot made contact.

Sam laughed lightly. "Okay, how 'bout this? I'll go ahead and read the last chapter in our English assignment and then we'll go do something else."

Danny sat up, eyes lighting up and an excited grin adorning his face. "Wait, you mean, out loud? As in reading out loud? Sweet!" In one move, Danny flipped his body until it lay perpendicular to Sam, the top of his head barely brushing against her hip, legs dangling off the side of the bed and arms lay folded across his chest.

"You haven't done that since, like, seventh grade," Danny continued happily.

Ever since Sam read If You Give a Dog a Bone out loud towards Tucker and Danny in the third grade, the two were captivated by her story telling voice, making the stories sound far more interesting than they thought they were. They made her read plenty of their book reading assignments out loud to them when they got tired of reading, which was all the time.

At first Sam didn't mind it at all. She liked reading to them, knowing that they were actually paying attention to the story. In a way she also felt like they were bonding closer together as friends, spending more time with one another. By the end of sixth grade, however, the novelty began to wear thin when Danny and Tucker were STILL having her read them novels instead of doing it themselves. Realizing that their dependency was growing ridiculous, Sam resigned the job and pushed them to start reading themselves.

Both boys were not happy about this, but reluctantly understood that childhood books were over and responsibility was among them. Sam kept her word and hadn't read a book to them since.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Maybe because you and Tucker needed to get an education."

Danny shrugged. "At least it made us better listeners."

"Hardly," Sam chortled, reaching her hand down to run her fingers through Danny's ebony locks.

Danny didn't respond as a lazy smile made its way across his face at the feel of her fingers massaging his scalp softly. Sam took that as a sign to start reading. Danny listened intently, eyes closed and body relaxing.

A thought occurred to him that this should be a tradition between the two, her reading to him and playing with his hair as he listened. He knew they both found it to be soothing. Her mellifluous voice carried throughout the room and Danny relished in it, holding onto every syllable and every pitch her voice made.

Even though Sam raking her hand through his hair felt great, Danny felt the need to take her hand in his. Hesitantly, Danny's right hand lifted until it caught hers in a mid-stroke. He grasped her small hand in his gently and laced their fingers together, occasionally playing with the class ring he gave her. Sam's voice rose a bit in her reading and Danny saw her cheeks glowing out of the corner of his eyes. He smiled at this and closed his eyes once more as Sam continued.

As soon as Sam read the last sentence, she closed the book and sighed. Danny's eyes snapped open, as if breaking out of a trance, and he glanced up at her. Sam smiled down at him and squeezed his hand in hers. Danny reciprocated the act.

"So," Sam said, breaking the comfortable silence, "wanna go for a walk somewhere?"

Danny nodded and sat up, unraveling his woven fingers from hers. "Anywhere but back home. I don't even wanna know if half the school is camped out in front of my house right now." Danny shivered at the thought.

"Who knows," Sam said with a shrug before playfully elbowing him, "maybe we'll see your boyfriend out there."

Danny shot his snickering girlfriend a glare. "Not funny, Sam. His changed personality towards me this last week scared me more than any ghost I've fought, and that's a lot of ghosts."

Sam stopped laughing and smiled. "Dash just looks up to you now, Danny. I thought you'd be happy about that."

Danny rolled his icy blue eyes. "I would if he'd stop being so obvious about it. He acts as though I've completely forgotten the fact that he bullied me all through middle school and last year. I mean, he actually called me 'buddy' the other day and tried to get me to play football with him! It's even freakier than when Tucker went Goth as a new image." Danny shivered at the thought.

"Sounds like someone's got Goth envy," Sam teased as she nudged him with her shoulder.

Danny made a face at her before chuckling, "There's no way I'd ever be able to pull it off like you, Sam." He nudged her back with a smile.

Sam responded by poking his chest lightly with her other hand. "Maybe not in here, but I'd bet you wouldn't look bad as…" She trailed off and allowed her eyes to roam his entire figure for a moment in calculative silence. Then a sly, wicked grin grew across her face.

Danny shifted uncomfortably under her gaze before his eyes widened slightly at her devious smile. He drew his hand off of hers and scoot back a bit in slight fear. He eyed her reproachfully and shook his head.

"Oh no, Sam, I know that look. That's the same look you get when you want Tucker and I to help you in some anti-political movement."

Sam shrugged with that same smirk and edged closer to him with lidded eyes. "Well, I wouldn't exactly call it anti-political."

The half ghost swallowed nervously and blushed when he felt her drape an arm around his shoulder and nearly flush herself against him. His fingers twitched and his heart pounded when he looked into those beautifully seductive purple windows. Her fingers reached for his and grabbed it, thumb trailing across his palm slowly. Danny's breath hitched when her forehead lay against his, lips merely inches apart.

"Hey, Danny?" Sam said softly, "You wanna do a very special favor for your girlfriend?"

Danny's eyes lidded at the sound of her voice and his clouded mind registered the words "favor" and "girlfriend" without processing the words together. He felt himself nod mutely.

"Then," Sam continued in the same voice, "You'll let me take you shopping this afternoon?"

Before she had finished her question, he had started to close his eyes, lips parted, and head leaning forward, but by the time the word 'shopping' reached his ears, a switch was activated. He paused and pulled back a bit, big blue eyes opening in confusion.

"Shopping," he murmured in confusion. Then his mind clicked and his brows shot up. He leant back in surprise. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before he became confused once more.

"Wait, why would you wanna take me shopping? You hate shopping. Unless…" His brain wracked for a moment as he took in Sam's sudden guilty grin. The earlier conversation made it to the forefront of his mind and he gaped at her before shaking his head and jumping back.

"Nope! Nope! Uh-uh! No way! There is absolutely no way…!" Danny rambled in protest.

Sam groaned in frustration and buried her face in her hand at his overreacted response. Well, she thought it was an overreaction. At the fifteenth 'no' uttered from his lips, Sam decided to take a more direct approach this time. She marched over to him and grabbed his shoulders to stop him from pacing.

"Danny, calm down. It's not even that big of a deal. We'll have a fun time, c'mon, I promise."

Danny folded his arms in unwavering conviction. "Maybe you'll have fun, but playing dress up isn't exactly what I would call fun."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Danny, c'mon! You don't even realize how great you'd look! Look, I'll pay for everything. I just wanna see how it'll turn out with you dressed as—"

"Sam, I'm sorry, but I'm not gunna do it," Danny interrupted as he moved around her to sit on the edge of her bed with a huff.

The Goth threw her hands up in the air and furrowed her brows in frustration. "But it's only for this one time! Danny, please," Sam nearly begged, sitting down next to him and giving him her best puppy dog pout, hands folded in front of her.

Danny tilted his head to the side so as to avoid her pleading eyes, but it was difficult. Sam always had a way of convincing him with that particular look, but the mental image of what he would have to go through halted him from giving in. He can't let himself always surrender towards her demands; even he had standards.

No, he wouldn't submit to it. It would only be disadvantageous for him if he agreed. Then again… it didn't have to be completely disadvantageous. He didn't have to be the only one to suffer from this. He smirked.

He turned towards her finally with a knowing smile. Sam blinked at his sudden change of demeanor. She wasn't sure if she trusted that smile of his.

"Alright, Sam, I give up. You can take me shopping."

Sam's eyes lit up for a moment and said without hesitation," Really?" Immediately she bit her tongue afterwards and narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her enigmatic boyfriend. "There's a catch in there somewhere. I can practically feel it vibrating off of you."

Danny chuckled despite himself. "I can't pull the wool over your eyes, Sam. I said you can take me shopping, but only on one condition."

"I'm gunna regret this, aren't I?" Sam asked rhetorically.

Danny shrugged. "I guess that depends how much you want this to happen."

She squared her shoulders and stared into his eyes with a challenging smirk. "Try me."

Danny admired her competitive and daring nature, half hoping she'd agree for more reasons than one. "If I do this for you," he said, "then you must allow me to take you shopping in return and I get to choose whichever outfit for you to wear."

Sam blanched at the request. She had to take a moment to process what she was hearing. "I… excuse me?"

"You heard me," the teenager replied smugly, "It's either that or this whole ordeal is off."

Sam bit her lip and turned away to level out the pros and cons of the agreement. The up side would be to see Danny as a Goth and the down side would be that he was most likely going to dress her in something more suited for Paulina. The thought was slightly depressing for her to think about, but she realized that she was doing the exact same thing to him. She just hoped that he wasn't expecting her to keep wearing the outfit considering she wouldn't let him continue with the all black attire.

Still… she didn't think it'd be all that bad. At least she would be spending time with him. She turned her gaze back to see him looking at her patiently and expectedly. The way his dark hair fell in his face adorably as his big blue eyes were set on her fondly made her give a small smile at him. She couldn't resist this opportunity and thought, screw it, it'll be so worth it in the end.

"Deal. But," Sam added, "no pink." She smirked as Danny rolled his eyes.

"Alright. No piercings," the half ghost retorted.

Sam agreed, not really caring about the piercings because she had to admit it would be going too far. Once the arrangements were made, Sam excitedly pulled up her boyfriend and dragged him downstairs to head for the mall. Danny stumbled behind her and let out a laugh at how cute Sam was when she was excited about something.

Confession time: Danny was probably my first cartoon crush ever as a kid. C'mon, you gotta admit he's adorable and the character design for him is pretty freaking great. Love the show. I'm glad that it had a good run.

*Chaos throws bomb at Tucker and Danny in the game*

Tucker: Danny, I just want you to know... I accidentally killed your gerbil in the sixth grade.

Danny: What!?

*Explodes*