I don't own Danny Phantom.
They Were Kids That I Once Knew
Chapter Two
September 14, 2012
Their first fight happened two weeks after they started dating.
Later, after it was resolved, Tucker teased the couple over their complete lack of a honeymoon phase. Danny chose to ignore him, agreeing wholeheartedly with Sam when she growled that their honeymoon period started back when she placed her design over his heart. Of course, he was eager to agree with anything Sam said at that point. If she said that the Box Ghost was terrifying and a formidable foe, he would have nodded until his neck broke.
The city granted Danny, Sam, and Tucker licenses early, due to the fact that they were all able to drive the Fenton RV and the Specter Speeder. They were all delighted to find that driving cars was not unlike the RV or the Speeder, and none of them had any problems transferring their knowledge of driving the massive vehicles to the small Camries the city allowed them to drive.
Their argument started over car keys. They were just leaving a gala in Yorkshire around midnight. Yorkshire was a two-and-a-half hour drive from Amity Park. All Danny was trying to do was get the keys from Sam, so that he could drive and she could sleep on the trip back.
But no. He would never admit it to her, or to anyone for that matter, but Sam was incredibly unreasonable about the whole thing. What started off as a simple question of where are the keys quickly morphed into an argument of women's rights. Danny stood in stunned silence as Sam lectured on about how women were capable of driving men around, and that he should not care about social conventions regarding men and women and who should drive who.
"You know I don't care about that. I just asked because I thought you would want to sleep." He said stiffly. She tensed, her fingers curling into a fist in her pocket around the car keys.
"Then why do you sound like you're about to hit me?" She quipped, looking at him from the corner of her eye and arching her eyebrow. Danny felt the color drain to his face and pool in the pit of his stomach like ice.
"Don't joke about that." He snapped. They were in the parking lot by then, away from any eavesdroppers. "That's not funny."
"I'm not trying to be funny," Sam said, her voice rising. "You sound like you're about to take a swing at me!"
"Just give me the damn car keys and let me drive!" Danny growled. Sam's eyes widened and she halted there in the parking lot. He turned half-way to her and crossed his arms over his chest.
"You know what...fine." She tore the car keys from her pocket and hurled them at Danny. They hit him square in the chest and landed in his hands as Sam stormed past him, flipping her hair haughtily as she went. He rolled his eyes and trailed after her.
They slid into the car in icy silence. Danny started the engine and flipped the radio on, cranking the volume out in an attempt to drown the fury radiating from Sam's tiny frame. He clenched his jaw when he realized it was not working.
The first hour passed painfully slowly, much to Danny's dismay. The highway dwindled down to a one-lane two-way street, which was almost completely empty. There were no street lamps, which did not immediately register as a problem to Danny. The road was mainly straight, the only turns slow and gradual curves. His eyes were glazed in a mixture of exhaustion and worry when it happened.
The road turned sharply to the right. Danny did not realize the sudden change in direction until he was nearly on top of it. He barely heard Sam crying out his name as he slammed on the brakes and yanked the wheel down as hard as he could, but he already knew it was too late. The world began to quake as the wheels of the Camry left the asphalt. Danny closed his eyes tightly, gripping the wheel as hard as he could as the car made contact with a thick tree trunk.
The radio shut off as smoke began to rise from beneath the hood of the car. He blinked rapidly, the shock of the situation numbing his senses. The car was making a strange hissing noise that Danny did not like at all.
"Sam!" He gasped. She was hunched forward in her seat, completely motionless. He twisted toward her and strained to get his arms around her. Once he thought he had a good grip on her, he phased through the car and stumbled out into the street.
He laid her flat on her back just beside the road. A thin line of blood was trickling from a small cut on her forehead, but other than that, she appeared unharmed. She was already stirring as Danny desperately wiped at the blood on her face.
"Are you okay?" He demanded. "God, I'm so sorry Sam, I didn't even see that turn, I was so distracted by everything I just couldn't see the road until it was too late..."
"I'm fine," She whispered. She allowed him to pull her into a sitting position, keeping an arm around her shoulders. "Just hit my head on the dash. No big deal." She brought her fingers up to the cut and winced upon contact. Danny gently brushed her bangs back and grimaced when he realized it was swelling.
"You could have a concussion," He worried aloud. "I need to call an ambulance..." He glanced back at the still-smoking car, not wanting to leave Sam sprawled there on the ground. Miraculously, at that exact moment, a pair of headlights came slowly around the corner, slowing even further when the landed on Danny and Sam. Danny squinted as the car pulled to the side of the road, moving to hover almost directly over Sam in a protective crouch.
He did not need to, he realized, when the driver climbed out of her car. "Danny?" Jazz asked, a note of panic in her voice.
"Hey," He grunted, glancing back at Sam. She was staring at him, something moving in her eyes that he had never seen before; it was almost as if she was trying to apologize. Which was strange, because Sam never apologizes. It was not part of her vocabulary. "I'm fine, Sam hit her head. Can we get her to a hospital?"
Jazz was already half-way around the car. She lurched a little when she stopped, before nodding and turning back to her car. Danny stood and offered Sam his hand, which she took. He pulled her up a little harder than necessary so that she fell forward into him. He tucked her into his side, wrapping his arms around her protectively and walking with her to the car. He felt her tilting her head onto his shoulder and instantly he knew that all was forgiven. Despite the tension burning in his body, he could not help but to smile a little.
"You know there's gonna be a ton of stories about how you guys were driving drunk or something when this gets out," Jazz murmured from the driver's seat. Danny ignored her, turning his body in the back seat to let Sam use his chest as a pillow. He kept his arms around her, occasionally bring his hand up to wipe the blood off of her face, planting kisses on the crown of her head until she fell asleep against him. For the first time since his ice powers kicked in, he was incredibly grateful for the incredibly high amount of body heat he involuntarily emitted. Sam must have found it soothing, because she was asleep within moments. He caught Jazz sneaking glances at them through her rear-view mirror, and he smiled thankfully at her.
"Thank you for saving us back there," He murmured quietly, desperately trying not to wake Sam.
"No problem, little brother," She smiled, craning her neck to peek at Sam. "Is she asleep?"
"Yeah," He grunted, running his fingers through her hair. He chuckled when she burrowed a little further into his chest, balling her hand into a fist in his button-up shirt. Their fight was completely irrelevant fo him now, sitting in the warm comfort of Jazz's backseat with Sam curled into his side. Suddenly he did not care if he drove or she drove or anything like that. All that mattered was that he was falling deeper and deeper in love with this girl, and he was starting to forget what life before Sam was like. Granted, Sam seemed to always be in his life, from the time he was five years old, but never in such a dominant role. He glanced out the window, squinting at the lights of Amity Park slowly coming into view, and then back down at Sam.
They would formally discuss their fight later. Though, after everything he adamantly believed he caused, he was far more willing to admit defeat. Sam's smile was just a little too cocky for his liking at the end of his long-winded apology, though, so he took it upon himself to pin her down to his bed and kiss her until her eyes could not focus on anything but his.
Sorry it's short. I'm running on fumes here. More to come, probably tomorrow after 4PM sometime. Keep an eye on it.
- Tori
